Incoming Assembly Speaker Seeks Vast New Power For Coastal Commission

If you had to come up with one state agency that has done the most damage to California’s economy with its regulatory sweep and overreach, you’ll never come close to topping the state Air Resources Board. But it you wanted to pick the one state agency that most consistently advocates a radical view of government […]

More Evidence Top Dems Want Bullet Train Gone

The California establishment fights dirty when it comes to direct challenges to its priorities and the people it wants to protect the most. The CTA blocking efforts to make it easier to remove classroom sexual predators and instead passing legislation that gave such predators new protections is one example. Another is the state Public Employment […]

Faulconer Election Won’t Stop ‘Los Angelization’ of San Diego Politics

On Tuesday, San Diego voters will decide between two City Council members in a special election to fill the remaining 33 months of the mayoral term of disgraced, resigned Bob Filner. The early conventional wisdom was that the clear favorite was Republican Kevin Faulconer, 47, the longest-serving council member and a community figure since his […]

Stunning Verdict In Fullerton Case: Rodney King, The Sequel

I was as stunned by a verdict Monday afternoon as I have been my whole life. An Orange County jury cleared police officers of all charges in the beating death of homeless Fullerton resident Kelly Thomas. It’s impossible not to see the parallels with the Rodney King beating case, but this jury’s decision was far worse. […]

Gov. Brown’s Ambitious School Reform Morphs into Teacher Payoff

In 2013, maybe more than ever, the key to figuring out how California works is understanding that by far the most powerful forces in state politics are the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers and the 500,000 people they represent and collect dues from. So when a Los Angeles Unified teacher feeds […]

Good News, Bad News for San Diego Mayoral Candidate Nathan Fletcher in Latest Poll

A new poll released Sunday has both good news and bad news for San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher, the 21st-century Sammy Glick who went from union-scorning Republican to above-it-all noble independent to union-embracing Democrat from March 2012 to May 2013. The bad news for Fletcher: He is no longer ahead. “Councilman Kevin Faulconer has surged […]

Pivotal Days for Bullet-Train

A crucial development is coming in the five-year fight over implementation of Proposition 1A, the 2008 ballot measure that provided $9.95 billion in bond seed money for a statewide bullet-train project while establishing a state law to ensure the funds are properly sent. Friday is the deadline for the California High-Speed Rail Authority to respond […]

No Nixon-Goes-to-China for Obama on CA School-Testing Retreat

U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week that testing students was vital to measuring their progress and to improving student and teacher performance. Duncan warned California not to proceed with a reckless move away from standardized testing. That didn’t sway the Legislature, which passed AB 484 — the legislation Duncan ripped — or Gov. […]

Why CA Carbon Auction and Overall AB 32 Approach are Doomed

This month marks the seventh anniversary of Arnold Schwarzenegger signing AB 32 amid an orgy of self-congratulation over this alleged environmental landmark. Ever since then, I’ve written regularly about the basic flaw of AB 32: reducing the emissions believed to cause global warming with a cap-and-trade market of pollution credits only works if most of […]

Bullet Train: Judge Shows Taxpayers Might be Saved by Prop 1A

The Friday ruling by a Sacramento judge that the California High-Speed Rail Authority was violating the 2008 state law providing funds for the bullet-train project was the first good news that the many foes of the project have had in years. But what’s not yet appreciated is that the good news was generated by that […]