I attended California public schools, kindergarten through college, starting in the late 1960s through the mid 1980s. While I don’t claim to have received a brilliant education, I did receive a solid liberal arts education. This is especially true when my public education is compared with today’s public education. School decorum was more formal and […]
Immediately after the horrific and tragic school shooting in Connecticut Friday, opportunistic politicians all across the country jumped on the anti-gun bandwagon. My CalWatchdog colleague John Seiler, thankfully also jumped on the politicians yesterday. “…it didn’t take long for gun-control advocates to take a bead on our Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms,” […]
In the wee hours of the night, at the end of the last legislative session, language was added into a bill to push forward reforms to California’s 40-year old environmental policy, the California Environmental Quality Act. The reforms were sponsored by the CEQA Working Group, a business-labor-government coalition. Intended to reduce frivolous environmental litigation and […]
With the 2012 election in full swing, everyone’s focus seems to be on the candidates and ballot initiatives. We are inundated with ludicrous, often irrelevant political advertising. But what happens after the election? What happens if President Obama gets reelected and California passes all of the tax increase ballot measures, along with the 35 local […]
Crossposted on CalWatchDog Long ago it became evident that a passion for teaching in California schools was overshadowed by union membership. Far too many teachers became flag-waving union members, choosing union activism over student achievement. Proposition 32, the “Paycheck Protection” ballot initiative, would not only be a positive change for union employees,but ?schools would also […]
Crossposted on CalWatchdog It is no secret that small businesses are losing ground in California. Every neighborhood throughout the state has stores with shuttered windows and doors. Every neighborhood can point to lost jobs and disappearing small businesses. California’s attractions appear to be running thin, as its residents can’t live on mild weather and beautiful […]
Crossposted CalWatchDog Two editorials in the Sacramento Bee caught my eye on Sunday. One column identified how news media outlets have knowingly become cheerleaders for the Democratic Party; the other proved that. Columnist Kathleen Parker observed that major news media heads “correctly imagined themselves as co-players at the Democratic convention. No one pretends anymore that MSNBC is an […]
Cross Posted at CalWatchDog The recent blockbuster news that the California Department of Parks and Recreation has squirreled away $54 million in special funds over the last 12 years has caused the California Legislature to jump on board the bandwagon and take a bigger roll in oversight. The state has more than 500 “special” funds, […]
Crossposted on CalWatchDog Sen. Pres pro Tem Darrell Steinberg offered a weak apology Monday for cutting off access to the Capitol cable television program last week, which was recording an important Senate hearing about four of the November ballot initiatives. The California Channel, the Capitol’s cable access television, recently cut off access to their video archive prior […]
Crossposted on CalWatchDog First there was the bullet train to nowhere. Now there are the tunnels to nowhere. Gov. Jerry Brown is hell-bent on creating a legacy. Unfortunately, it also appears that most of California’s legislators make decisions based on legacy as well. But lawmaking by legacy rarely bodes well. Water wars Brown announced Wednesday that […]
