California
Agriculture
California global warming law choking food processors
As California’s unemployment rate hovers above 12 percent, even the state’s Democratic leaders – notorious for regulating, taxing and complaining about California’s business community – are talking about jobs. They are championing the occasional job expansion in Silicon Valley (i.e., a new Dell research and development center) and proposing their ...
California
Unlocking secret records, findings on police officers
A mentally ill homeless man was beaten into a coma that proved fatal by six Fullerton police officers as he screamed, “Help, dad!” Fresno police punched a homeless man in the head while he was face down with his arms behind his back. Three BART officers in Oakland detained an ...
California
All in the “Family”
To outsiders, liberal San Francisco may seem preoccupied with leftist protesters occupying prime real estate in the Financial District or with debating proper restaurant etiquette for the city’s small but flagrant nudist population, or until recently, with arguing whether male circumcision should be outlawed. But the prospect of bankruptcy focuses ...
California
Dems Slash Business-Saving Bills
Long before any of 800 bills passed by the Legislature reached Gov. Jerry Browns desk this legislative session, partisan politics took precedence over repairing the states economy. Apparently restoring confidence and faith in Californias residents and businesses was less important than party politics and flexing muscle. In early 2011, Republicans ...
California
California’s Governor Brown Delivers for Labor Unions
According to Katy Grimes of the Sacramento-based investigative reporting website Cal Watchdog for October 19, “For unions, Governor Jerry Brown is the governor who keeps on giving.” Over the weekend, the California Governor signed into law Senate Bill 922, which will prevent cities from banning union-supported project labor agreements that ...
Business & Economics
Governor should ground tax proposal
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to increase sales and income taxes in a quest to “find another $10 billion” in revenue. He will have to craft a plan soon to get it on the 2012 ballot. To help California’s struggling economy, any tax proposals should be rooted in sound economics, which ...
California
In the end, Jerry Brown is just a union guy
As the legislative session came to an end, some Capitol observers expressed a glimmer of hope that Gov. Jerry Brown would be the independent, reform-minded governor that he swore he would be when he ran for office. After the governor argued that not every problem deserves a government solution when ...
California
For Parents, School Choice Is Easier Than Ballot Initiatives
Theres a grassroots parent revolt surging in California. Parents statewide and at the local level are pushing ballot measures to overturn unpopular government education policies. While the initiative process may be Democracy 101 in action, it would be easier for parents if they were simply given vouchers to choose the ...
Business & Economics
Hypocritical pension funds lecture others
The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Agriculture
Delta Water rules smelt of extremism
If you want to understand the fundamental things wrong with our nation and California, in particular, you ought to peruse the 140-page opinion recently issued by Judge Oliver Wanger in the “Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases.” It describes many of the most frustrating elements in our society – abuses of federal ...
California global warming law choking food processors
As California’s unemployment rate hovers above 12 percent, even the state’s Democratic leaders – notorious for regulating, taxing and complaining about California’s business community – are talking about jobs. They are championing the occasional job expansion in Silicon Valley (i.e., a new Dell research and development center) and proposing their ...
Unlocking secret records, findings on police officers
A mentally ill homeless man was beaten into a coma that proved fatal by six Fullerton police officers as he screamed, “Help, dad!” Fresno police punched a homeless man in the head while he was face down with his arms behind his back. Three BART officers in Oakland detained an ...
All in the “Family”
To outsiders, liberal San Francisco may seem preoccupied with leftist protesters occupying prime real estate in the Financial District or with debating proper restaurant etiquette for the city’s small but flagrant nudist population, or until recently, with arguing whether male circumcision should be outlawed. But the prospect of bankruptcy focuses ...
Dems Slash Business-Saving Bills
Long before any of 800 bills passed by the Legislature reached Gov. Jerry Browns desk this legislative session, partisan politics took precedence over repairing the states economy. Apparently restoring confidence and faith in Californias residents and businesses was less important than party politics and flexing muscle. In early 2011, Republicans ...
California’s Governor Brown Delivers for Labor Unions
According to Katy Grimes of the Sacramento-based investigative reporting website Cal Watchdog for October 19, “For unions, Governor Jerry Brown is the governor who keeps on giving.” Over the weekend, the California Governor signed into law Senate Bill 922, which will prevent cities from banning union-supported project labor agreements that ...
Governor should ground tax proposal
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to increase sales and income taxes in a quest to “find another $10 billion” in revenue. He will have to craft a plan soon to get it on the 2012 ballot. To help California’s struggling economy, any tax proposals should be rooted in sound economics, which ...
In the end, Jerry Brown is just a union guy
As the legislative session came to an end, some Capitol observers expressed a glimmer of hope that Gov. Jerry Brown would be the independent, reform-minded governor that he swore he would be when he ran for office. After the governor argued that not every problem deserves a government solution when ...
For Parents, School Choice Is Easier Than Ballot Initiatives
Theres a grassroots parent revolt surging in California. Parents statewide and at the local level are pushing ballot measures to overturn unpopular government education policies. While the initiative process may be Democracy 101 in action, it would be easier for parents if they were simply given vouchers to choose the ...
Hypocritical pension funds lecture others
The nation’s two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, have been plagued by myriad fiscal problems, and even a corruption scandal in the case of CalPERS, and yet these systems continue to lecture the private sector on ethical corporate governance. ...
Delta Water rules smelt of extremism
If you want to understand the fundamental things wrong with our nation and California, in particular, you ought to peruse the 140-page opinion recently issued by Judge Oliver Wanger in the “Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases.” It describes many of the most frustrating elements in our society – abuses of federal ...
