State Education Funding Driven by Politics Not Children’s Needs
When it comes to education funding this year you need to know that it’s not about the children. It’s about politics. Nothing proves that more than the recent proposal by Governor Newsom’s Department of Finance (DOF) that would deny students who want to attend personalized learning public charter schools the same funding that students attending […]
Dairies forced to subsidize their competitors, wait, what?!
Through a quirk in California agriculture policy, some dairy owners, like the three of us, are forced to subsidize other dairies for no reason other than that is the way it has always been. Each month, some of us are required to give approximately $16 million collectively to our competitors, who are known as “quota” […]
Yes, it’s Difficult to Run a Business
Most of us know the routine as an employee. You wake up, clock in for work, take your required rest and meal breaks, go back to work, clock out for the day, and then go home just to get ready to do it all over again. Some band even wrote a song about it. For […]
AB 323 as Amended Will Help Save Local Journalism
Assemblymember Blanca Rubio’s AB 323 to help local newspapers by favoring them with government advertising and delaying the AB 5 requirements of worker classification for newspaper delivery drivers seemed incomplete, that is until late amendments were made to the bill last week that joined it to AB 2257. The idea behind AB 323, pushed fervently by […]
CPUC Set to Take a Step Backwards on Water Conservation Policy
The fact that the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) launched a proceeding to explore ways to improve assistance programs for low-income water customers and instead ended up with a proposal that would eliminate decoupling, a best-practice water conservation tool, is dumbfounding to me. It should also be of significant concern to the millions of water […]
The Democrats Have Given Their Opening Statement Now the GOP Must Make its Case
The Democrats held the spotlight for the past week featuring a first-ever “virtual” convention. Now it’s the GOP’s turn. There was much moaning and groaning that the absence of all the usual hoopla, banners, well-liquified party-goers and delegates wearing crazy hats would put the country to sleep. Not only did that not happen but the […]
Michelle, Kamala, Nancy and Donald
We assess the importance of women to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, as exemplified by Michelle Obama’s speech to the Democratic national convention and Kamala Harris’ nomination for vice president. Will the campaigning by strong women drive President Donald Trump nuts? And we tackle voting by mail. Will President Trump’s loud and persistent attacks on it […]
Smart Growth isn’t so Smart Anymore
It wouldn’t be unreasonable to conclude that because of the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus or urban unrest dense housing would be less in vogue than it used to be. After all, wasn’t there a high rate of contamination of the virus in residentially compact New York City? And didn’t the city council there […]
Grappling with the Statewide “Wildfire Siege”
California is in the midst of a wildfire siege: multiple fires burning simultaneously over large geographic areas that are severely challenging fire suppression resources. There are currently dozens of major wildfires across the state—several of which are large complexes made up of many smaller blazes. Fires are burning in the outskirts of the Los Angeles […]
Corruption at City Hall
With FBI Investigations into L.A. City Hall corruption involving elected and appointed officials and developers, and the recent arrests of two veteran Council Members, one might believe there are additional investigations brewing at City Hall. With an annual salary of nearly $214,000 along with many perks, one might think that only people with the core […]