October, 2011Rural Rebellion BrewingMonday, October 31st, 2011 OCT. 31, 2011 The nearly five-hour drive from the Sacramento area to Yreka, in Siskiyou County by the Oregon border, was a reminder not just of the immense size and beauty of California, but of the vast regional and cultural differences one finds within our 37 million-population state. Sacrame... Jobs Killed by Unendangered SpeciesFriday, October 28th, 2011 OCT. 28, 2011 It’s been 20 years since biologist Jonathan L. Atwood authored a study declaring the California gnatcatcher a distinct subspecies. Based on Atwood’s conclusion, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 1993 listed the small blue-gray songbird as “threatened,” restricting lan... CA Headed For Green MeltdownWednesday, October 26th, 2011 OCT. 26, 2011 If there was any doubt about the economic success of state mandated green programs, it was erased this week after a Senate hearing about the future of alternate fuels. By the end of the four hour hearing, it was clear that climate-change special interests are thriving in California.... AB 32 law choking food processorsMonday, October 24th, 2011OCT. 24, 2011 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.... How to End Comm College WasteThursday, October 20th, 2011OCT. 20, 2011 California spends more than $100 million a year on community college students who drop out before their second academic year, according to a study released Thursday by the nonprofit American Institutes of Research. That wasteful spending surpasses any other state, even accounting fo... CPUC Stuck In Culture of CorruptionMonday, October 17th, 2011 OCT. 17, 2011 It is shameful to punish the puppy when the pack leader is at fault. It is no different in the workplace and the corporate world -- failure and corruption are usually the fault of the top dogs. Two recent examples are Pacific Gas & Electric and the California Public Utility C... Brown Shows His Union LabelMonday, October 17th, 2011 OCT. 17, 2011 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 governme... Brown Does The Right Thing on RaceThursday, October 13th, 2011 OCT. 13, 2011 My niece is a sophomore at UC Berkeley. She was admitted to California’s most highly selective public university not because she happens to be a racial minority, but because she met the same demanding standards as her non-minority classmates -- including her high school grades and... Pension Pots Calling Kettles BlackMonday, October 10th, 2011OCT. 10, 2011 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, yet these systems continue to lecture th... Steve Jobs: Free Market CapitalistFriday, October 7th, 2011 OCT. 7, 2011 The late Steve Jobs is remembered this week as a “visionary and creative genius,” as Apple Inc. eulogized him on its website; and as the Thomas Edison and Henry Ford of our time, as the New York Times described Apple’s co-founder in his obituary. Under Jobs, Apple proved the... |