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.

If Only the State Were More Like LA

Dan Walters is worried about LA.

In a recent column, Walters identified L.A. County as a problem for the state:

Los Angeles County’s bewildering mélange of overlapping, and sometimes competitive, local government entities has existed for many years, but in the last couple of decades another element has been introduced: its evolution into the nation’s most ethnically diverse metropolitan area, thanks to an immense wave of migration from other countries.

When coupled with the decline of the county’s once-powerful aerospace industry, one effect has been its sharp bifurcation into enclaves of self-indulgent wealth, surrounded by vast tracts of poverty — especially in the immigrant-heavy smaller cities in the county’s southeastern quadrant. (more…)

Lawyers Would Benefit from Proposed Initiative

It’s been 11 years since Bob Pack lost his children, Troy, 10, and Alana, 7, to a hit-and-run driver under the influence of alcohol and prescription drugs. This week, the Danville dad filed a proposed ballot measure in their memory: The Troy and Alana Pack Patient Safety Act of 2014.

Among other provisions, the Pack initiative would require random drug and alcohol testing for doctors. It also would require doctors who witness medical negligence or substance abuse by fellow doctors to report it.

Physicians that test positive for alcohol or drugs (while on duty), or who refuse to submit to testing, would be suspended from practicing medicine. And hospitals would be required to report any verified positive results of drug and alcohol testing to the California Medical Board. (more…)

The Pain of Detroit and the Importance of Prop 13

Detroit’s bankruptcy and California’s Proposition 13 have been linked in an odd sort of way. Detroit’s bankruptcy has brought out the possibility of other municipal bankruptcies around the country as well as an examination of California communities in trouble, Stockton and San Bernardino.

As Californians are all too familiar, if there is a financial trouble in California government someone will say, “It’s Proposition 13’s fault.” That has happened with the California cities threatened by bankruptcy. Most recently on the MSNBC Morning Joe program, the show’s economic analyst, Steven Rattner, in commenting about bankruptcies around the country, dismissed the California bankruptcies as a product of Proposition 13. (more…)

Can’t Anyone Free San Diego?

People in San Diego are treating the Bob Filner story as a Bob Filner problem. But the longer it goes on, the more it looks like a San Diego problem.

Essentially, this is a hostage situation. The mayor has taken the city hostage. Nothing can get done. Major jobs around the city government sit vacant. Major deals aren’t making progress. He obviously needs to go.

What’s amazing – and incredibly disappointing if you care about San Diego and California – is that no one seems able to end the hostage crisis. (more…)

Read My Lips……”You Will Keep Your Doctor”

Lost in all of the political back and forth over the President’s Health Care Law is a critically important fact – 85% of Americans were basically happy with their doctors and their health care plans. They had other concerns for sure, but they did not want to lose their doctors or their plans in the process.

So whether politically astute or intentionally misleading, the President consistently and forcefully promised Americans that they would keep their doctors under his plan simultaneously accusing his opponents of fraudulently scaring voters. On one occasion he addressed the American Medical Association no less: “If you like your doctor, you WILL be able to keep your doctor, PERIOD….if you like your health care plan, you WILL be able keep your plan, PERIOD”. (more…)

Would a New CA Tobacco Tax Decrease State Revenues?

I received two calls from the Board of Equalization late this week claiming information in a story I wrote about the latest tobacco tax bill was wrong. The calls were from Venus Stromberg, spokeswoman, and Brian Miller, tax counsel.

SB 768, by state Sen. Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, would increase the state’s cigarette tax another $2 a pack from the current 87 cents. That would be a 230 percent hike, to $2.87.

I wrote, “The State Board of Equalization has found that California will actually lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue if SB 768 passes. Even legislators have become weary of funding programs using tobacco tax revenue because of its instability.” (more…)