Foundation Journalism and Caesar’s wife
As a career newspaper man, it has been with unspeakable pain over the last decade or so that I have watched the demise of the institutions that made it possible for people to know their communities, indeed to exist as communities. Local newspapers, large and small, have either disappeared or become shells of what they […]
Why Newsom Should be Rooting for Faulconer to Run
After last year, you may not want to hear this, but in California another election year has already arrived. The reason is that under the top two primary in a one-party-dominant state, ultimate outcomes in 2018 will be largely determined by the makeup of the candidate field in the primary. And for potential candidates, the […]
Why California’s EPA waivers matter: The air we breathe
Here are four reasons why Californians – and everyone else in America who breathes oxygen – should be alarmed that Scott Pruitt, the Trump Administration’s nominee to become EPA secretary, testified last week he may not grant waivers for California to exercise its authority under the federal Clean Act to enact air quality regulations that […]
Uncertainty Over Federal Health Care Policy Creates Major Heartburn for California Budget-Makers
When C. Duane Dauner, the crackerjack CEO who has headed the California Hospital Association for 31 years, announced last month his intent to retire at the end of 2018, the timing must surely have been bittersweet. On the one hand, he had just completed one of his most productive years in the big leagues of […]
This Time the Democrats’ Supermajority Exists in Fact, Not Just Theory
Attempting to divine the significance of the Democrats capturing a two-thirds majority in the California Legislature, many analysts are pointing to the fact that the same thing happened in 2012, and concluding that it showed the supermajority didn’t really mean much. They note the ideological diversity within the Democratic caucus made it nearly impossible to […]