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.
Yellen or Secession?
What does a Californian have to do to get the most important job in the world?
It’s a relevant question since Janet Yellen, a longtime UC Berkeley economist who served as president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco and now is #2 at the Federal Reserve, is a contender to be Fed chairman.
Yellen has a record that would seem to make her a shoo-in. Born in Brooklyn, she came to California for her academic career and produced vital, groundbreaking scholarship. She did distinguished service as a top economist in the Clinton administration. She had a solid tenure at the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco And she’s demonstrated judgment during difficult recent times, both on the housing bubble and in response to Great Recession. (more…)
Governor Brown Fighting Obama Administration to Defend Pension Reform
Remember AB 340, the pension reform successfully pushed by Democratic Governor Brown, that even Governor Brown acknowledges is only a first step towards making public employee pensions financially sustainable?
Well even AB 340 goes too far according to Obama’s new Secretary of Labor, Thomas Perez. As Dan Borenstein of the Contra Costa Times reports on August 16th, “unless California lawmakers exempt transit workers from the pension changes, the feds could cut off up to $4.3 billion of transportation funding, according to an estimate by the California Transit Association. That includes $174 million for BART, $225 million for Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority and $12 million for AC Transit.” (more…)
Elon Musk’s Hyperloop, Part 1, Backgrounder
In a series on CA high speed rail published earlier this year (here, here and here), I ended with a whisper echoing the whisper to Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate. Plastics… plastics! I said that ETT (evacuated tube transport) was the plastics of a coming revolution in transportation. Apparently, Elon Musk agrees. Now the whisper is… Hyperloop. And Musk’s Hyperloop makes ETT a very big deal indeed.
A coordinated, well-resourced and well thought out political plan to bring California’s out-of-control HSR system to a screeching halt in 2014 is now possible… because Musk’s Hyperloop is sexy and because Musk has the entrepreneurial clout as a self made tech billionaire to sound the clarion. The recent anti-HSR ruling by Judge Kenny jams the pedal to the floor. (more…)
California Homes Require Real Reach
In the 1950s and 1960s, Southern California was ground zero for the “American Dream” of owning a house. From tony Newport Beach and Bel-Air to the more middle-class suburbs of the San Fernando Valley and Garden Grove to working-class Lakewood, our region created a vast geography of opportunity for prospective homeowners.
Today, with house prices again skyrocketing, Southern California is morphing into something that more resembles a geography of inequality. Now, even the middle class is forced into either being “house poor” or completely shut out of homeownership, or may simply be obliged to leave the area. Even more troubling is that the working class and the poor suffer from the kind of crowded, overpriced housing conditions sadly reminiscent of those experienced during the Depression and the Second World War. (more…)
An Illogical Hunger Strike
Let me see if I understand your logic correctly, striking inmates of the California state prison system.
You are refusing to eat – and thus risking death, right?
And you are doing this to convince Gov. Jerry Brown to end indefinite solitary confinement and improve other conditions that you can claim are humane? Correct?
And this is the same Jerry Brown who is under federal court order – all the way up to the U.S. Supremes – to reduce the state prison population, right?
And you and your supporters are surprised and angry that Brown and his administration are balking? (more…)
Bullet Train: Judge Shows Taxpayers Might be Saved by Prop 1A
The Friday ruling by a Sacramento judge that the California High-Speed Rail Authority was violating the 2008 state law providing funds for the bullet-train project was the first good news that the many foes of the project have had in years.
But what’s not yet appreciated is that the good news was generated by that rarest of Golden State phenomena: a well-crafted state initiative. Proposition 1A — the 2008 measure providing $9.95 billion in state bond funding for initial work on a much-costlier statewide bullet-train system — included several powerful protections for California taxpayers.
Two of those protections were cited by Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny in his decision. One held that construction could not begin on any segment until the state had reliably identified financing for the entire 300-mile initial operating segment, which is to link Merced and northern Los Angeles County. (more…)