California lawmakers are trying to reconnect with crony capitalism
SACRAMENTO – There’s yet another attempt to revive the state’s shuttered redevelopment agencies – those crony-capitalist abominations that abused eminent domain, ran up debt without a public vote and...
View ArticleWhat’s wrong with protesting about something you’re mistaken about?
In the 1960s, while the United States was in the midst of the war in Vietnam, massive protests broke out against the draft and our involvement in the war. Students across the country marched and...
View ArticleLarry Wilson: The fight to keep a free press free
When we were in our early 20s — that period when you’ve graduated from college, and are figuring out what to do — Susan Seager and I were copy messengers in the grand old Los Angeles Times building...
View ArticleNewsom finally aligns with Legislature’s gloomier budget outlook, blaming...
When Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a 2024-25 state budget in January, he declared that the state faced a $38 billion deficit and chided journalists for citing wider projections in the gap between income...
View ArticleSusan Shelley: Did anyone in the Biden administration ever pass an economics...
Watching President Joe Biden sit for an interview always reminds me of “University Days,” a chapter in the great American humorist James Thurber’s 1933 autobiography, “My Life and Hard Times.” Thurber...
View ArticleCalifornia Supreme Court hearing reveals politicians’ disdain for voters
Last Wednesday, the California Supreme Court heard the case of Legislature v. Weber, a legal action brought by Governor Newsom and Democrats in the legislature to remove from the ballot a duly...
View ArticleNewsom’s proposed spending cuts spur backlash from affected California groups
Just minutes after Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a revised state budget with billions of dollars in spending reductions on Friday, advocates for affected programs began showering reporters with statements...
View ArticleI don’t agree with what most of the demonstrators say. But I’ll defend their...
“Palestine will be free!” chant the protesters. “From the river to the sea. Some says that’s a call for genocide — another holocaust — elimination of Israel and all Jews. So, should the chant be...
View ArticleHow California’s new fixed utility charge got its sneaky start in the...
I received and paid my monthly electric bill from the Sacramento Municipal Utility District the other day. In addition to $75.76 in metered power consumption and $1.58 in taxes, SMUD’s bill included a...
View ArticlePoliticians can’t ‘fix’ prices, and that’s OK
Prices are threads stitching together the fabric of our economy. They guide countless producers, here and abroad, to meet the most urgent demands of countless consumers. Prices enable the economic...
View ArticleCalifornia houses: Only millionaires need apply
Turning 69 next month, I try not to look back. Can’t change the past. But one thing I wish I had done was buy a house when I came to Orange County in 1987. Even if it meant taking a second job flipping...
View ArticleCalifornia’s weather was made for demagogues
California’s weather was made for demagogues. For as long as records have been kept, the state has typically experienced a series of dry years followed by a series of wet years. The weather lines up...
View ArticleAnother big lie: Liberals are more ‘caring’ than conservatives
People often ask, “How do you handle mean, vicious people when out in public?” The truth is I rarely encounter nastiness. It does happen, but thankfully, it is pretty rare. In general, when people...
View ArticleMisinformed anti-vaxxers risk a return of once-beaten diseases
There is no major crisis yet, but California and the rest of America are currently under unquestionable threat of a variety of epidemics, some of which could be crippling or fatal. Make no mistake:...
View ArticleStop pretending self-checkout ban is about retail theft
SACRAMENTO – In describing a high-profile state bill that would largely ban self-checkout lanes at grocery and drug stores, the radio station KSBY reported, “It’s all in an effort to combat theft.” A...
View ArticleCalifornia’s lagging economy hinders efforts to close state budget deficit
As Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators spend the next few weeks fashioning a state budget that’s plagued by a multibillion-dollar deficit, they can’t count on a booming economy to make their task...
View ArticleDouglas Schoen: What Biden and Trump must do to ‘win’ the first debate
After months of back and forth between the Biden and Trump camps, the two sides finally agreed on terms for a presidential debate, due to take place this summer, hosted by CNN. That voters would see...
View ArticleLarry Wilson: Where are GOP candidates like Pete McCloskey?
Everyone’s always saying, and they are not wrong, that the California Republican Party is dead in the water, sinking like a boulder would. You know what would make the California Republican Party...
View ArticleThe persecution of Donald Trump
The prosecution has wrapped up its case against Donald Trump in his New York trial on 34 felony counts of nobody is sure exactly what. The 34 counts pertain to allegedly falsifying business records,...
View ArticleCapital punishment might satisfy retributivist instincts. But it’s still...
Civil rights groups such as LatinoJustice and Witness to Innocence have filed a petition for the Supreme Court of California to issue a writ of mandate ruling that the death penalty is...
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