A California Masquerade
Agoston Haraszthy didn’t hesitate to wear masks. A Hungarian immigrant, he became San Diego’s first sheriff by portraying himself as a military colonel. Then, he sold himself as a metallurgist to win a top job at the San Francisco’s first U.S. Mint office. He billed himself as royalty—Count Haraszthy—when he established the Buena Vista Winery […]
Keep John Wayne
The Democratic Party of Orange County passed a resolution calling John Wayne a “racist symbol,” which is preposterous. John Wayne is a symbol of many things, but racism isn’t one of them. That’s not to deny that the actor held views or made comments that today are rightly regarded as racist. It’s only to point […]
New Shutdown Points to a Dimming CA Economy
If there were a stock exchange dedicated exclusively to California’s fiscal health it would take a drubbing with the double announcement from Gov. Gavin Newsom closing down many work establishments that were opened just a month ago and large school districts in the state announcing they would remain closed and go to online learning instead […]
State Move Toward All-Electric Buildings Would Be Another Hit to California’s Working Class
At roughly the same time the state Air Resources Board issued a rule forcing trucks and vans to transition from diesel to electric motors, the state moved closer to a policy framework in which new buildings must be all-electric. The smiling environmental lobby feels no mercy toward the poor, who will have to carry the […]
The Next Big Challenge: Opening Schools
California—a nation state by itself—has been wrestling the coronavirus pandemic to the ground with reasonable success. That is until now. The physical toll alone is devastating. A related casualty with comparable implications is the setback to millions of school age children who are being deprived of a normal education. With cases on a troubling rise […]
Say Goodbye to Your Neighborhood…
California’s state legislature is now attacking established single-family neighborhoods with a flurry of harmful housing legislation that threatens their very livability. Our state government has essentially declared war against the neighborhoods of every city, county, and community in California. In the process, the state legislature has revealed its fixation on snuffing out the self-determination of […]
Racial Soul-Searching and White Comfort
During this time of national reflection on racial issues, the terms white privilege, white supremacy, and white power have been bandied about plentifully. A different term has been offered up by eminent Los Angeles civil rights attorney, Connie Rice, in assessing the potential outcomes from current protests: white comfort. I asked Rice where this latest […]
Rebuilding California’s Job Base
How can we rebuild California’s job base? The latest employment numbers released last week should provide the sense of urgency. An additional 267,123 new unemployment claims were filed just for the one week ending July 4, bringing the total to over 7.4 million claims filed in California since mid-March, and $41.5 billion paid out in […]
The Garcetti Economy Was Not Ready For The Coronavirus Pandemic
Since hitting the U.S. earlier this year, the coronavirus epidemic has wracked the nation, tragically taking the lives of over 100,000 Americans. It has also put significant stress on our country’s economy, causing millions of people to lose their jobs while straining cities and states nationwide in the process. While the latest U.S. job numbers […]
California Must Do Better in Delivering Services
Dear Legislators, We are increasingly concerned about poor performance of critical state services. According to the US Department of Labor, in June only 52 percent of First-Time Claims for unemployment in California were addressed within 14 days and according to the San Francisco Chronicle, teachers at San Francisco Unified School District have been given no […]