Ending Homelessness: New Survey Reveals Grim Statistics, Calling For Permanent Solutions
“If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” — Booker T. Washington When it comes to eradicating homelessness, a whole lot of lifting is needed. Fortunately, both the City and County of Los Angeles have been practicing bench-pressing, resulting in the adoption of comprehensive strategies to end homelessness along with making some funding […]
Prop. 58 Wins Most Mendacious Initiative Prize
The Proposition 58 campaign wins this year’s coveted Most Mendacious Initiative Prize. The Title and Summary were written by Attorney General Kamala Harris. She’s backed by the California Teachers Association, whose CTA/Issues PAC has contributed $1.1 million to Prop. 58. Her words: “ENGLISH PROFICIENCY. MULTILINGUAL EDUCATION. Preserves requirement that public schools ensure students obtain English […]
Notes on the Milken Institute’s California Summit
The Milken Institute staged its regular California Summit earlier in the week and amid some dazzling lunchtime presentations on the automated future of driverless cars, hyperloop, and JPL wonders was a series of discussions on important issues to the state. Some thoughts shared at the Summit: Small Business and Trade California slipped behind Texas in […]
Heading Toward a One-Party System is a Bad Idea
I normally try to keep my commentary partisan-free and focus on policy arguments and facts. But the 2016 election is right around the corner and some partisan tough talk and reality checking is needed. First, California Democrats are looking increasingly likely they’ll win back legislative super-majorities. Regardless of your ideology or political affiliation, absolute one-party rule is […]
The 7 Ugliest Propositions On The California Ballot
There are 17 propositions on the California ballot next month. They range from good, to bad, to downright ugly. Below is a quick summary of the seven ugliest of the bunch – those easily deserving your “no” vote. Prop. 55 & Prop. 56 – Because we need taxes in California to be the highest in the nation, […]
Election Integrity and the Power of Unions
During the 2004 Presidential election there were allegations of voter fraud; the 2000 Presidential election was alleged to have been “stolen” by the Republicans. If you go further back in history, you can point to evidence the Democratic machine in Chicago manipulated election results to throw the 1960 Presidential election victory to Kennedy. A close […]
Promoting Civic Learning and Engagement Initiatives at the State Level
Recently I participated on a panel as part of the Center for California Studies’ annual “Envisioning California” conference with Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and Secretary of State Alex Padilla. It was a lively forum, where advocates, educators, state officials, and the public had the opportunity to speak collectively on the question of how California can support a more civically engaged citizenry. As […]
The Politics of Tax Reform
Most analyst agree that California’s tax system is out of whack and needs major repairs but one thing that stands in the way is politics. Many interests are comfortable with what they’ve got with the current system and don’t want to change. Voters tend not to like tinkering with the tax system they know, fearing […]
California Ag Biz Loses Equivalent to Ebay Being Wiped Out, and it Could Get Worse
What if I told you California’s economy lost $9.6 billion in revenue last year? What if I told you the governor and the legislature didn’t care and didn’t think you would mind? That’s exactly what happened. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) announced in October, “In 2015 California’s farms and ranches received approximately […]
The Cannabis Cartel California Needs
If California is going to transition successfully to full legalization of cannabis, our state is going to need its own cartel. For the record (and to reassure my friends in federal law enforcement), I am not smoking anything. And I am not suggesting that California encourage a criminal syndicate like the Zetas or the Sinaloa […]