Inside GovernmentPart-Time Leg Could Save CAThursday, September 15th, 2011 SEPT. 15, 2011 As the most regulated, taxed and governed state in the country, California is quickly disintegrating into an unrecognizable oligarchy -- a power structure controlled by a small number of people. In typical oligarchies, rulers are usually royalty or the wealthy, or there is military... 9/11 Memorials in PerspectiveMonday, September 12th, 2011 SEPT. 11, 2011 In my years writing for newspapers, I've always hated the commemoration ritual. What new insight can we offer about Thanksgiving? What words can still capture the essence of D-Day? And this weekend, what can we really say that ameliorates the horror of 9/11? Mainly, I hate how c... Schools Chief’s Sacrifice Not So HeroicTuesday, September 6th, 2011 SEPT. 6, 2001 Fresno School Superintendent Larry Powell has been getting the hero treatment in the national media for his reportedly selfless decision to give up his annual salary and benefits of $290,000 a year and, instead, take only $31,000 in salary. He's doing it for the kids, he said, to sa... Sacramento Council FolliesFriday, August 19th, 2011 AUG 19, 2011 Sacramento’s City Council has not had a great few months -- or a great year. Even the past couple of years have been really disastrous. The eight council members and mayor have lost four city managers in only 18 months, bamboozled citizens with their redistricting plan, hired an un... Fury Over Police Beating-DeathMonday, August 15th, 2011 AUG. 15, 2011 A new cable TV police series, "Against The Wall," is about a woman from a family of Chicago police officers who becomes a detective in the department's Internal Affairs unit. This causes outrage among her police brothers and father, who view such internal oversight as treasonous. I ... Could a Gas Explosion Strike Again?Friday, August 12th, 2011AUG. 12, 2011 A culture of complacency still exists after the Sept. 9, 2010 natural-gas explosion in San Bruno, in which eight people were killed and a neighbored leveled. Seventy homes sustained damage and 18 homes adjacent to the destroyed dwellings were left uninhabitable. In October, t... Initiative Dictates Pension InvestmentsThursday, August 4th, 2011 AUGUST 5, 2011 Michael Lee Madsen Sr. has decided to become California’s self-appointed pension investment czar. He is the author of an initiative for which he expects to start gathering signatures later this month. It would require the state’s public pension systems to invest and maintain ... Sacramento Crashes Taxi OwnersWednesday, August 3rd, 2011 AUGUST 3, 2011 Sacramento is competing with San Francisco for the award for the most abusive, nuttiest city in California. Demonstrating a total disregard for private enterprise, the Sacramento City Council is considering adopting an ordinance to impose a two-year hold on taxicab permits. Th... Jerry Brown Picks His Kind of JudgeMonday, August 1st, 2011 August 1, 2011 Gov. Jerry Brown's decision to nominate UC Berkeley law professor Goodwin Liu to the California Supreme Court is a highly partisan poke in the eye at Republicans, given that GOP congressional criticisms led Liu, in May, to withdraw his name from contention for a slot on the 9th U.S... How to Save $$ Executing KillersWednesday, June 22nd, 2011 JUNE 22, 2011 State Sen. Lori Hancock, D-Berkeley, said this week that she plans to introduce legislation that would shutter California’s death row. She argues that capital punishment has proven “an expensive failure” and proposes that the sentences of inmates currently facing a date with t... |