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.
From High-Speed Rail to Higher-Performing Rail
I am pleased to note that the U.S. Department of Transportation seems to have dropped its use of the phrase “high-speed rail” in describing the administration’s rail program in favor of “higher-performing rail.” The new usage first appeared (to our knowledge) in the Federal Railroad Administration’s announcement of the Final State Rail Plan Guidance— “to assist States in their ongoing effort to plan for and invest in a higher-performing rail network.” (US DOT Fast Lane blog
Could this welcome change in the official rhetoric be linked to the departure of former Sec. Ray LaHood, the Administration’s chief “high speed rail” cheerleader?
And will the California high-speed rail project be henceforth renamed the “Higher-performing rail project”, now that the blended approach has made a two-hour 40 minute LA-to-SF trip a physical impossibility?
Do Californians Need a Passport to Democracy?
I recently found myself in front of the Rose Bowl, using my iPhone to take a selfie of me holding a Democracy Passport.
The passport was in Swedish. It was produced in an advance of a Democracy Week declared by the city of Falun, Sweden at the end of this month. My friend and colleague in a global direct democracy forum, Bruno Kaufmann, lives in Falun and is working to organize the week, and he wanted photos of people in recognizable places all over the world holding this passport.
Why a passport to democracy? Because people don’t know all the democratic rights they have. Sweden and Europe have expanded the number of ways that citizens can participate in self-government in recent years; the EU even has its own citizens’ initiative process. But surveys have shown that few people know that their power has increased, and that there are new tools they can use.
Local Initiatives Threatened by Court Decision
In a recent decision by the Fourth District Court of Appeal, Mission Springs Water District v. Verjil, the court gives government a tool to easily defeat any initiative it doesn’t like by simply withholding it from the ballot and suing the proponents. It is no exaggeration to say that, if the case is not overruled, it will be the death of the people’s initiative power at the local level in California.
In Mission Springs, our clients reacted to a 40% utility rate increase by collecting signatures to qualify an initiative that would roll back the increase, but allow annual CPI adjustments. Although required by statute to place the initiative on the next regularly scheduled election ballot, the utility district withheld the initiative from the ballot and instead sued the initiative proponents for declaratory relief. It alleged that, without the 40% increase, it would be unable to pay its bills (a claim that our clients, all former elected officials, say is bogus).
Maldonado Should Go All Out for Governor
Reports that Abel Maldonado fired his campaign team is welcome news. Campaign shakeups are a game of sharp elbows. But tales of Abel’s “reluctance” to raise money sound like the carping of pri-madonnas who expect the principle to keep the coffers full, so they can draw fat salaries even for grossly flawed work. Maldonado’s disastrous anti-AB109 kickoff (which took Brown to task for the court-ordered prisoner release program) was grossly flawed. Now– free of “experts”– Maldonado has an opportunity to reshape his campaign and continue. He should continue. Vigorously.
Is Abel Maldonado’s run a joke as Joe Matthew’s opines? Hardly! Jerry Brown is riding a wave of popularity, good press (here and here) and good polling. But with 13 months to the 2014 election Abel has a chance.
Denham’s Ploy Not Shutting Down Government
Last month, columnist Dan Morain speculated that Rep. Jeff Denham’s, R-Calif., High Speed Rail ploy backfired (“Ploy Backfired on High Speed Rail).”
Allegedly, Denham’s “ploy” was to get an unfavorable decision from a federal agency that would force California’s High Speed Rail Project to obtain environmental clearances under the state’s “project killer” environmental law, rather than from more lenient federal law. As long-time opponent of High Speed Rail, Denham purportedly could then seal the project’s failure by subjecting it to endless lawsuits.
But was that really Denham’s “ploy”?
Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Unionized
If Assemblyman Tom Ammiano has his way, your babysitter soon could join a union and cost you a lot more.
The San Francisco Democrat has authored several domestic-worker unionization bills that have been vetoed by California governors. Now he’s back with Assembly Bill 241, which just passed both houses of the Legislature and is awaiting a signature or veto from Gov. Jerry Brown.
The bill would significantly impact home health care providers’ ability to provide affordable care to elderly clients or clients with disabilities.