Fox and Hounds Daily Says Goodbye
With this article, we end publication of Fox and Hounds Daily. It has been a satisfying 12½ year run. When we opened in May 2008, our site was designed to offer an opportunity to those who wished to engage in public debate on many issues, especially in politics and business, but found it difficult to get placed in newspaper op-ed pages.
Co-publishers Tom Ross, Bryan Merica and I have kept F&H going over this time investing our own time, funding, and staff help. Last year at this time we considered closing the site, however with an election on the horizon we decided to keep F&H going through the election year. With the election come and gone, and with no sense of additional resources, we have decided to close the site down.
Fox and Hounds will live on, at least, with my articles collected in the California State Library.
On a personal note, I have spent over 40 years in California policy and politics. There have been some incredible high moments and some difficult low points. It pains me that politics too often is a blood sport, frequently demonizing the motives of opponents and using the legal system as a weapon in public discourse. At Fox & Hounds, we tried to adhere to the practice of giving all a voice in the debate, yet keep the commentaries civil and avoided personal attacks.
F&H offered the opportunity to publish different perspectives (even ones that criticized my writings!). We had success as indicated by the Washington Post twice citing Fox and Hounds Daily one of the best California political websites and many other positive affirmations and comments received over the years.
Tom, Bryan and I want to thank our many readers and writers for being part of our journey. The publishers of Fox and Hounds Daily believe that we added value to California and its people. We hope you agree.
LAAW Ends, But the Fight Against Lawsuit Abuse Continues
Over the past week, CALA celebrated Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week. During this week, we featured various supporters on our blog and YouTube page, all with the intention of educating consumers, elected officials and community leaders about the toll lawsuit abuse takes on our businesses and communities.
For 20 years, CALA has been working hand in hand with small business owners to stop lawsuit abuse. As our economy has struggled to emerge from the recession, our elected leaders have made numerous pledges to do whatever they can to help bring jobs and economic growth back to the Golden State. In general, their actions have stopped short, however, of tackling one of the biggest issues holding back job creation and economic growth in California – lawsuit abuse.
The SONGS is Over
The sudden shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) exposed the vulnerability of California’s electrical grid, and highlighted the need for a state energy policy that’s responsibly diverse and grounded in reality, not wishful thinking.
Sized at 2000 megawatts, SONGS provided about 20 percent of Southern California’s electricity, enough to light some 1.4 million homes and businesses. That power is gone. Another 19,000 megawatts are in jeopardy because of a state law requiring older coastal power plants that use seawater for cooling to be modernized, replaced or shut down by 2020.
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 to a landmark ruling by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny, who is hearing a series of related challenges to the rail authority’s project. On Aug. 16, Kenny released a decision related to a lawsuit filed by Kings County, Hanford farmer John Tos and homeowner Aaron Fukuda that agreed with their arguments that the rail authority would be breaking state law in two ways if it began construction of the project, as is now planned for 2014.
A “First” Not Worth Striving For
There’s usually very little argument that striving to be “the first” is something worth aspiring to. The United States took tremendous pride in being the first to walk on the moon. And California routinely trumpets being the first in many things, from banning smoking in restaurants to enacting environmental protections. However, California is running down a path to be the “first” to set a standard in water quality that could easily place it last among the other 49 states.
In its quest to be the first to set a standard for hexavalent chromium, also known as Chromium 6, California, unlike the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA), is using outdated science. This approach has serious consequences that could easily spread beyond California’s boarders, posing new hazards and trade-offs never seen before in the advancement of safe drinking water.
Scoring the Legislature and Governor on Business Related Bills
A mixed record for business in this year’s legislative session got a bit of a boost when the governor signed a slew of bills intended to help business. While the latest flurry of bill signings is good news, big issues still concern the business community.
The ballyhooed effort at the beginning of the legislative session to improve the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) ended in a whimper. What CEQA reform was achieved came about because politicians in Sacramento wanted to make it easier to build a basketball arena in downtown Sacramento. Broader CEQA reforms were benched.
Minimum wage was increased against business opposition as businesses, especially small businesses, struggle to recover from the recession. Business is still battling the burdens of heavy taxes and regulations, which has prompted some businesses to consider relocating outside the state.
The Initiative Doesn’t Need Reform, It IS Reform
The people’s initiative power has commenced its second century amidst strong public support and reformers’ continuing itch to tweak it.
The latest entry in the initiative improvement sweepstakes is from the Public Policy Institute of California, whose president, Mark Baldassare, has proposed several recommendations – in the name of voters – “to mend, not end, their direct democracy system.” Baldassare suggests:
- Integrating the Legislature into the initiative process by reviving the indirect initiative.
- Increasing disclosure of initiative funders.
- Re-engaging voters in the initiative process by re-upping initiatives for a vote after several years, and empowering citizens commissions to make ballot recommendations.