Newsom issues evening curfew ahead of Thanksgiving week
Gov. Gavin Newsom today announced a month-long curfew covering nearly all Californians to start Saturday, the latest in a series of tough new restrictions aimed at stopping the state’s alarming spike in COVID-19 cases. The curfew starting right before Thanksgiving week will shut down non-essential work and gatherings from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. and […]
American Diversity–Impacting Elections from Georgia to Orange County
We look at Korean American congressional victories in Orange County and at the Georgia Senate election where the Democrats are represented by a prominent African American minister and a Jewish documentarian. Produced and directed by Nancy Boyarsky Inside Golden State Politics podcast.
Forgive, But Don’t Forget, L’Affaire French Laundry
The pandemic has made us so crazy that the governor of California is now apologizing for patronizing a California business. Of course, there is more to le scandalette involving Gov. Newsom’s decision to attend a 50th birthday party (Jason Kinney, you’re old!) at the French Laundry, a famous restaurant in Yountville, in Napa County. But […]
LAO Budget Projection Good News But Problems Persist
The Legislative Analyst reports that the state budget is currently projected to have a $26 billion surplus, with the potential to grow as large as $40 billion by the end of the fiscal year. While the strength of the budget is welcome news, the LAO’s projections do not expect employment to fully recover until 2025 […]
The Grand New Party
Given the likely defeat of President Donald Trump, a functionally headless Republican Party is destined for a period of reflection. Trump himself, for all his rudeness and often unnecessary, divisive rhetoric, has transformed the Republican Party from being a bastion of the establishment to a voice for America’s working and middle class. In the aftermath […]
Two Costly New Laws to Open the New Year for Small Businesses; A Podcast
I wish we could tell small businesses that fewer regulations and lower taxes were coming their way starting January 1 but not even a pandemic could throw our State Legislature off course from their mad drive to create more burdens. Three current and soon-to-take effect laws are discussed in detail in a half-hour podcast featuring […]
California’s COVID-Resistant Tax Revenues
October General Fund tax revenues came in 37 percent above the 2020-21 Budget Act forecast, according to the latest Finance Bulletin from the California Department of Finance. Revenues through the first four months of the current fiscal year now exceed forecast revenues by $11 billion: Revenue collections from March, when the state’s COVID-19 state of […]
The Threat of Critical Race Theory
Like many of my fellow Fox and Hounds enthusiasts, I am ashamed of the history of racism and racial discrimination in California, indeed the country. I believe in what our founding fathers saw and declared as the American ideal – that “all men (and women) are created equal.” I, as do millions of U.S. citizens, […]
We Are All Unincorporated Now
We are all unincorporated now. Unincorporated communities—which don’t have their own municipal governments—live at the mercies of their counties, who may or may not provide vital services. The pandemic is giving all Californians a taste of unincorporated life, since our county governments determine whether we can shop, play in a park, or send our kids […]
What will tax increase advocates do now?
Proposition 15, which would have boosted property taxes on commercial real estate by billions of dollars a year, finally bit the dust last week. It wasn’t a surprise. Although its advocates — unions, mostly — may cite the COVID-19 pandemic and recession as causes for failure, the measure never polled strongly even before the twin […]