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.
The America’s Cup Victory and the Immigration Debate
The Oracle USA America’s Cup winner could stand as a model for business leaders advocating relaxing some of the country’s immigration laws, especially in California’s Silicon Valley.
Many Americans who don’t know a catamaran from a Boston whaler are aware that the USA made a stunning comeback trailing 8-1 in a best of 17 sailing competition to capture the America’s Cup, a true world series of sailing dating back 162 years. But how many know that of the 11-member crew making up the winning USA yacht, only one was actually an American?
There was no nationality rule enforced in the most recent rendition of the sailing race, although organizers could do so. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison, who funded the Cup defense, chose the best sailors he could find from around the world. The ship’s captain is Australian; the tactician is British. The one American, Rome Kirby out of Newport, Rhode Island, a trimmer on the yacht, helped adjust the sails during the race.
Time to Settle the Prison Overcrowding Dispute
Gov. Jerry Brown is still batting .000 against the federal judges dealing with the state’s prison overcrowding suit and it doesn’t look like his slump is going to end anytime soon.
Despite the governor’s angry words and continuing court battles, it’s past time to sit down with all parties and try and work out the best of the bad deals available for the state.
It was a tough week for Brown, who is trying to meet the demand of a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that some 8,000 inmates be removed from the state prison system without actually letting any of those prisoners go free.
Baby Steps to Prop. 65 Reform
On September 11th, the state Senate sent AB 227 by Assemblyman Mike Gatto with a vote of 78-0, and the bill is now on its way to Governor Brown for a veto or signature. Gov. Brown likely will sign it because it has received bipartisan support from a broad coalition of trial lawyers, environmentalists and business.
AB 227 focuses on reducing Prop. 65 lawsuits alleging that a business failed to provide adequate Prop. 65 warnings regarding alcoholic beverages, environmental tobacco smoke, chemicals used in food preparation, and engine exhaust. The bill allows a business 14 days to correct the violation, provide proof that the violation was fixed, and pay a small civil fine, before a lawsuit can move forward.
Disarming the Wrong People
‘Poor choices should have consequences,” state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson said about her support of SB 755, a bill that inextricably ties DUI convictions and gun control. I agree with the quote in general. When voters make a poor decision in electing representatives like Ms. Jackson, rueful consequences do abound.
There is no doubt that driving under the influence is dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible. But, by definition, there are very few people in this world that get behind the wheel with the intention of harming others. By definition, their judgement and ability to drive is impaired, and they should be punished accordingly. But, SB 755 applies gun control to individuals convicted of a DUI without regard to evidence that they possess any propensity or proclivity to use a gun recklessly or in the commission of a crime. There is absolutely no connection between a DUI and the propensity for gun violence that would justify connecting these two disparate crimes together in a bill, and I dare Ms. Jackson to prove me wrong on this point.
As the Water Debate Continues, Remembering JFK in Whiskeytown
It’s a little-known event in a little-known part of California’s far north. But at dawn this Saturday, people from Redding and nearby places will gather at Whiskeytown Lake and stand where the president of the United States stood 50 years ago.
I wish the rest of California were up there with them.
As we approach the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in Dallas, our country is doomed to endure an orgy of hoary remembrances, conspiracy theories, and sleazy sex tales. But Californians have an alternative commemoration if they want it: On September 28, 1963, Kennedy traveled to Whiskeytown, just outside Redding, to dedicate a dam and the lake it created. It was the last time Kennedy appeared in California, and the occasion and the speech he gave remain deeply relevant to the state today.
Hoover’s Golden State Poll: What California Comeback?
Between Aug. 27 and Sept. 27, the Hoover Institution’s Golden State Poll – a partnership between Hoover and the online polling firm YouGov – surveyed 1,000 Californians on economic and energy/environmental issues. Three similar polls will be conducted over next year, checking the Golden State’s pulse on leading economic, policy and political topics.
This is the first half of a Hoover Institution Defining Ideas journal article. Visit Defining Ideas to read the full text, which includes a section on the poll’s energy and environmental results.
Since November’s election and, with it, a referendum in the Golden State on higher taxes—Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30—reporters have a new pet story: the so-called “California Comeback” and the tale of a state that’s rediscovered its economic footing.