Assembly Speaker John Perez fired the first shot of the 2014-15 budget wars this week when he released his “Blueprint for a Responsible Budget,” a document that sets the Assembly’s priorities for dealing with the unusual situation that finds the state looking at black ink instead of red. “By following this Budget Blueprint, we can […]
The young people of today are going to be the leaders of tomorrow and that should raise a collective “Uh oh” across the nation, a Stanford professor believes. In a recent report on civic education – think high school civics classes and the like – William Damon and his associates are convinced that young people […]
It isn’t that Gov. Jerry Brown isn’t happy to hear Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor say such nice things about California’s financial future, but he would like it better if the state’s top bean counter wasn’t so darned enthusiastic about the good news. A remarkably upbeat report issued Wednesday projected a state awash in black ink, […]
With the ugly news coming from the FBI’s investigation into state Sen. Ron Calderon, you’ve got to feel sorry for California politicians. Not for Calderon, mind you. Remembering Joel Fox’s words in this space Thursday that the Montebello legislator is innocent until proven guilty, Calderon’s well-known penchant for testing the ethical edge had left plenty […]
It’s one thing to tell people they should eat their vegetables, but it’s quite another to ban everything but carrots and broccoli from the dinner table. But for many of state’s lawmakers, making rules about what Californians can and can’t eat is just part of their job description, convinced as they are that politicians know […]
Here’s the first rule all new council members learn: The sewer plant has to go somewhere. And the neighbors are never going to be happy about it. Substitute “high-speed rail line” for “sewer plant” and you see one of the main problems the $68 billion construction project is facing. A lot of folks who should […]
Well, the backers of a new effort to legalize marijuana in California learned at least one thing from the unsuccessful 2010 effort to make the state safe for dope smokers: It’s better not to have a pot dealer as the face of your initiative. When the ACLU of California announced last week that they would […]
For those folks still saying California’s primary election changes aren’t doing a thing, take a look at the House vote to end the government shutdown. Seven of California’s 15 GOP congressmen (and yes, they are all men), went against the majority of their Republican brethren and supported the Senate plan to end the House GOP-led […]
Campaign finance is in the news again as the U.S. Supreme Court took another look last week at who should be allowed to get how much from whom. Regardless of whether the justices decide in McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission to overturn the current federal limits on combined contributions to individual candidates over a two-year […]
If at first you don’t succeed, be glad Jerry Brown is governor. In at least five cases this year, Brown has given legislators a mulligan, signing versions of bills he either vetoed or dissed in the past. In four cases, it was government working the way it’s supposed to, with legislators getting together with the […]
