K. Lloyd Billingsley
Business & Economics
Why the Silver State Mines the Golden State for Business
Nevada is running a rather edgy advertising campaign to lure businesses from the Golden State to the Silver State. This could serve as a wakeup call for California, but the response so far is not encouraging. The $1 million campaign from the Nevada Development Authority puts a porcine spin on ...
Commentary
‘Housed’ Teacher System Needs to be Overhauled
THE Los Angeles Unified School District has been given permission to fire Matthew Kim, a disabled special education teacher who has not worked for seven years while drawing his full salary and benefits. Kim’s case shows the need for district reform, but it’s hardly alone in that regard. Kim was ...
Business & Economics
“The Spending-Industrial Complex” and the Future of California
SACRAMENTO – California’s current crisis, worst since the 1930s, has spurred talk of revising the state constitution. Legislators so inclined might first consider recommendations from the 1996 California Constitution Revision Committee, subject of a July 10 lecture by Fred Silva at the University of California’s Sacramento Center. Mr. Silva was ...
Business & Economics
California’s Blueberry Hill: Quest for Spending Continues as Golden State Runs Out of Money
California’s wallet is empty, as Governor Schwarzenegger says, and the Golden State is staring down the barrel of a $26.3 billion deficit. That has not stopped legislative efforts to expand government, spending, and regulation. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat, wants California to have a Blueberry Commission, with an ...
Business & Economics
Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute
SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
Business & Economics
Make California an Enterprise Zone
Jack Kemp, who passed away last month at 73, is associated with football, New York state, and Washington DC. He was actually a native Californian and right now the Golden State could use some of his ideas. The former AFL quarterback proved that the Washington establishment makes a poor teammate ...
Commentary
Celebrate the Cuyahoga’s Comeback
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River fire, an event that has come to symbolize environmental degradation. The current condition of the river symbolizes something else worth recalling in the wake of Earth Day — environmental improvement, from abysmal conditions. On June 22, 1969, an oil slick ...
Business & Economics
Is the CIRM Good Medicine for California?
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) turns five in 2009, a good occasion for a report card, beginning with the “medicine” part. Here we have a problem. “The California program has yet to produce cures,” explains John M. Simpson, stem cell director of Consumer Watchdog, in a recent Sacramento ...
Commentary
Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment.
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889. SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county. Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. One ...
Business & Economics
That Voodoo That You Do So Well
Before the Motion Picture Academy handed out its latest awards, and before the legislature passed the alleged budget fix, the reviews were already coming in on California. They are less than stellar but well worth attention. “California makes Washington, DC, look like a model of fiscal probity,” ran the sub-head ...
Why the Silver State Mines the Golden State for Business
Nevada is running a rather edgy advertising campaign to lure businesses from the Golden State to the Silver State. This could serve as a wakeup call for California, but the response so far is not encouraging. The $1 million campaign from the Nevada Development Authority puts a porcine spin on ...
‘Housed’ Teacher System Needs to be Overhauled
THE Los Angeles Unified School District has been given permission to fire Matthew Kim, a disabled special education teacher who has not worked for seven years while drawing his full salary and benefits. Kim’s case shows the need for district reform, but it’s hardly alone in that regard. Kim was ...
“The Spending-Industrial Complex” and the Future of California
SACRAMENTO – California’s current crisis, worst since the 1930s, has spurred talk of revising the state constitution. Legislators so inclined might first consider recommendations from the 1996 California Constitution Revision Committee, subject of a July 10 lecture by Fred Silva at the University of California’s Sacramento Center. Mr. Silva was ...
California’s Blueberry Hill: Quest for Spending Continues as Golden State Runs Out of Money
California’s wallet is empty, as Governor Schwarzenegger says, and the Golden State is staring down the barrel of a $26.3 billion deficit. That has not stopped legislative efforts to expand government, spending, and regulation. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat, wants California to have a Blueberry Commission, with an ...
Time to Sunset California’s “Relic” Stem Cell Institute
SACRAMENTO – The governance of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the state stem cell institute, is inadequate to protect the interests of taxpayers and CIRM’s own goals, according to Stem Cell Research: Strengthening Governance to Further the Voters’ Mandate, a June 25 report from the Little Hoover Commission, ...
Make California an Enterprise Zone
Jack Kemp, who passed away last month at 73, is associated with football, New York state, and Washington DC. He was actually a native Californian and right now the Golden State could use some of his ideas. The former AFL quarterback proved that the Washington establishment makes a poor teammate ...
Celebrate the Cuyahoga’s Comeback
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Cuyahoga River fire, an event that has come to symbolize environmental degradation. The current condition of the river symbolizes something else worth recalling in the wake of Earth Day — environmental improvement, from abysmal conditions. On June 22, 1969, an oil slick ...
Is the CIRM Good Medicine for California?
The California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) turns five in 2009, a good occasion for a report card, beginning with the “medicine” part. Here we have a problem. “The California program has yet to produce cures,” explains John M. Simpson, stem cell director of Consumer Watchdog, in a recent Sacramento ...
Why Anti-Growth Activism Does Not Help the Environment.
Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI) is closing down an El Dorado county sawmill that has been around since 1889. SPI will also close another sawmill and electric power plant in Tuolome county. Two more SPI mills in Plumas and Humbolt counties will also close, leaving hundreds of workers without jobs. One ...
That Voodoo That You Do So Well
Before the Motion Picture Academy handed out its latest awards, and before the legislature passed the alleged budget fix, the reviews were already coming in on California. They are less than stellar but well worth attention. “California makes Washington, DC, look like a model of fiscal probity,” ran the sub-head ...
