Will Bail Bondsmen Go the Way of the Blacksmith?
The bail bond business is trying to avoid demise by overturning a state law to eliminate money bail with a referendum, Proposition 25. Voters will have to decide if what replaces the money bail system is effective and keeps communities safe from crime. First, a little background. In 2018, the California Legislature passed SB 10 […]
Dianne Feinstein and Court Packing
These are not good times for California’s senior senator Dianne Feinstein. Prominent Democrats want her replaced as ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. They blame her for interjecting religion into the 2017 confirmation of Supreme Court pick Amy Comey Barrett, and they do not want her leading the confirmation battle against Barrett this time. […]
California Finally Makes an Appearance at the Presidential Debate
California should have had a more prominent role in the presidential debate. President Donald Trump has been using California as an example of all the things that would go work for the country if Joe Biden is elected. Biden’s argument is that following California policies is the way to improve what is wrong under Trump. […]
Climate Change, Forest Management and Wildfires
Gov. Gavin Newsom likes to beat Californians over the head that every ill under his administration is due to climate change, including wildfires. But what you will not find him saying is that, while he is spending billions of dollars to have California singlehandedly eliminate global greenhouse gases, he and fellow Democrats have spent relative […]
No New Gas-Powered Cars? Hello Vehicle Mileage Tax
California officials have been toying with the idea of a Vehicle Mileage Traveled Tax (VMT) for some time but due to Governor Newsom’s executive order that only zero-emission cars must be sold starting in 2035 you can bet that the VMT will become a reality. If Californians switch to electric vehicles under the executive order, […]
Can One Individual Tell Us What We Can Drive?
An immediate reaction to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order that all new cars sold in California by 2035 must be zero-emission is how can one individual in a state of 40 million tell us what we all can drive? Isn’t this a republican form of government in which the people speak through their representatives or […]
Time to Get Back to a Better “California Adventure”
Imagine a California theme park like Disney’s California Adventure based on the state’s current predicaments. Unlike the adventure park in Anaheim themed after the history and culture of the Golden State, a California adventure park for today would be a dystopian place of fires, Covid disease and deaths, closed schools, overwhelming homelessness and near economic […]
California’s “Progressive Fiscal Values”
In endorsing Proposition 15 that would raise property taxes on commercial property, Governor Gavin Newsom used an unusual turn of phrase when he said the measure was “consistent with California’s progressive fiscal values.” Exactly what are California’s “progressive fiscal values?” Well, let’s see using statistics compiled by the Tax Foundation. The top income tax rate […]
Burying EDD Problems on a Saturday Night
The Covid emergency and subsequent business shutdowns brought its own crisis to California’s Employment Development Department (EDD). Faced with overwhelming unemployment claims which have resulted in long waits for people out of work to get their payments and clear indications of fraud in the claims process, the EDD has not handled the circumstances well. Now […]