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.
Democrat Vacancies Present GOP Legislators with A Significant Opportunity
The impressive victory of conservative rancher Andy Vidak in the recent State Senate special election in the Central Valley’s 16th District gives the State Capitol’s other 36 Republican legislators a reason to be unified, focused and determined as they return to Sacramento for the five week or so final sprint to the end of the 2013 session. Come the next session in January, Democrats should go into the year with full super-majority complements of 28 State Senators and 55 Assemblymembers. But for the rest of this session, Democrats will barely have a two-thirds majority in the Senate, and will not have it at all in the Assembly. (more…)
Scalia’s Gift to Brown
Gov Jerry Brown lost his latest appeal of federal court order requiring him to reduce the prison population by the end of the year. But Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia handed him a victory in defeat.
The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to uphold the federal order last week. One of the dissenters was Scalia, who in a three-page dissent gave Brown all the cover he’ll need if one or more of the people released end up committing more crimes. (more…)
California Employment: “Mr. Ed”
Popular culture can teach us much about jobs and employment. Novels, movies and even television shows yield insights into how people approach employment at a certain time, their hopes and worries, conscious and subconscious.
Which brings us to Mr. Ed, the television show centered on a talking horse that aired between January 1961 through February 1966—143 episodes. (more…)
Can San Jose Cut Pensions of Current Workers?
After a five-day trial last month, a judge is looking at 13 issues in suits filed by unions and retirees against a San Jose pension reform. The big one is whether pensions earned by current workers can be cut.
Measure B, approved by 70 percent of San Jose voters last year, challenges the widely held view that a series of court rulings mean pensions promised state and local government workers on the date of hire become a “vested right” that cannot be cut. (more…)
Mass Transit Must Meet People’s Self-Interest
If you want to know why so much legislation, both in California and in Washington, has an “eat your vegetables” feel to it, you only have to look at the Public Policy Institute of California poll released this week.
The poll found that 85 percent of California adults are convinced that global warming has either begun to happen or will happen in the future. Seventy-seven percent feel it’s at least a somewhat serious threat to the future quality of life in California and 75 percent believe that steps need to be taken immediately to counter the effects of global warming.
But later on in the poll, two-thirds of employed Californians say they usually drive to work alone.
Friday Musings
The Sacramento Bee’s report on lobby spending shows the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association spent more in lobbying than the California Teachers Association. Next thing you know, they’ll tell us the sun is coming up in the west. Perhaps CTA doesn’t feel the need to spend since they helped put many of the legislators into office.
* * *
The recent PPIC poll on the environment indicated that a majority of Californians was against the expansion of nuclear energy, oil drilling off the coast and fracking to pull oil from shale in the state. However, they supported the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which will bring oil extracted in Canada to Texas. Would the results be the same if that pipeline ran through California? Or is the poll showing NIMBYism (not in my back yard) at work? (more…)