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.
Down with Lemonade Stands? Never!
There’s this thing online called “trolling.” It’s when you post something really outrageous just to get a reaction out of people. That’s what I think the online magazine Slate was doing recently when it posted an opinion piece critical of lemonade stands.
I’m not making this up. In a piece headlined, “Down with Lemonade Stands,” a Michal Lemberger said the idea of a lemonade stand as a commercial enterprise was “nonsense.”
“My kids had a lemonade stand, and it didn’t look like any version of capitalism I’ve ever seen,” Lemberger wrote. No one asked for change, and some customers gave the children a dollar and refused to take any lemonade. (more…)
Launch of Searchable CalPERS Pension Database Blocked by Retirees’ Concerns
Last week, the planned launch of a CalPERS website that would reveal an abundance of information on pensioners, including names and monthly retirement allowances, was blockaded by several groups representing retirees.
These groups, which include the Retired Public Employees’ Association of California, plan to introduce legislation that would alter the decades-old California Public Records Act to exclude retirees’ names, according to to the Sacramento Bee. The reason, as listed by the Bee, is “that a searchable pension website would expose vulnerable elderly retirees to scammers and identity thieves.” (more…)
Will Detroit’s Bankruptcy Lead to Stockton Deal?
Bond insurers who walked away from mediation last year before Stockton filed for bankruptcy are at the table this summer. A deal could avoid a precedent-setting legal showdown on whether public pensions can be cut in bankruptcy.
Attorneys for the city and bond insurers told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Christopher Klein last week that mediation, presided over by Judge Elizabeth Perris, is an “uphill battle.”
But the brief update hearing was held on the day that Stockton, which had been the largest city to file for bankruptcy, was bigfooted by the bankruptcy filing of a much larger city known around the world, Detroit. (more…)
McClintock Is Right to Fight Yosemite Plan
You won’t often hear anyone with the slightest tinge of environmental green say this about Rep. Tom McClintock:
He’s right. At least when it comes to his take on Yosemite’s future.
Yeah, that’s the same Tom McClintock who has as a state legislator and now congressman, never met a dam he didn’t like or an endangered critter he wasn’t willing to steamroll in the name of progress. His 2012 voting scorecard from League of Conservation Voters was 11 percent, up from his lifetime mark of 6 percent. (more…)
The Travails of Scandal-laden San Diego Mayor Bob Filner
Former San Diego Councilwoman Donna Frye, at a press conference last week, described what sounds like sexual battery by Mayor Bob Filner saying that the Mayor grabbed a woman and, “rammed his tongue down her throat.” It’s pretty sickening that Mayor Filner has just decided to give a keynote address at a benefit for victims of sexual assault.
So the “Filner Dance” and the “Filner Headlock” are becoming common phrases. Whoops.
At a time when local government budgets are being squeezed under the weight of massive, unfunded employee pension liabilities, San Diego taxpayers will be thrilled to know that they may be out millions of dollars as the bad behavior (which is an understatement) of their Mayor shifts to formal complaints, litigation, and resulting court verdicts or settlements. Even if Filner resigned tomorrow, taxpayers would still be on the hook. Nothing says “file a lawsuit” than a Mayor who releases a video statement admitting that he has engaged in inappropriate behavior. (more…)
Stop the State from Releasing Violent Mentally Ill Serial Rapist to L.A. County
A Superior County judge has announced that Christopher Evans Hubbart, a violent sex predator believed to have raped as many as 50 women over 20 years, will be released to Los Angeles County.
Based on his criminal history, the state’s planned release of this predator into our communities will create a very serious public safety threat. Obviously, the prison sentence for this criminal failed to match his crimes – a predator of this nature deserves life without parole.
In 1982, Hubbard was sentenced to 16 years in prison after being convicted of rape with force, oral copulation and five counts of burglary in Santa Clara County. In 1983, he was convicted of a 1972 rape in Los Angeles County and sentenced to nine years, which he served concurrently. In 1973, was served seven years in a state mental hospital. (more…)