Congress must temper Trump’s California vendetta
This has all the symptoms of a classical political vendetta: At every opportunity, President Trump does whatever he thinks might harm California, which does more...
Thomas D. Elias
Don’t bet on single-payer arriving anytime soon
There is loud talk in the Legislature and anywhere California Democrats meet in large numbers about passing a single-payer health care plan something like the...
State Republicans starting to wise up; will Dems follow?
California’s top two primary system is living up to its “jungle primary” nickname more than this spring than ever, with dozens of candidates vying in...
Gas tax boost key to getting Trump infrastructure cash
Strong ironies are playing out today as California’s 14 Republican members of Congress support President Trump’s announced $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan at the same time...
Zoning nullification: The end of local control?
Gov. Jerry Brown, a former mayor of Oakland who often griped about state government’s interference with local issues, ran in 2010 on a platform of...
Gender gap the key to Democrats’ aims in Congress
The most dramatic news in the year’s first big round of political polling, out a few days ago, was that Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, once...
Rebuke for PUC as state consumers get half a win
The bottom line on the 2012 shutdown of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station was that by all sensible logic, consumers should never have had...
Single-payer emerging as key election issue
After the contentious, sometimes raucous first debate of this year’s primary election season, it became clear that issues like offshore oil drilling, affordable housing, President...
Obscure agency is state’s best defense against offshore drilling
Florida escaped from President Trump’s plan to sell new offshore oil drilling leases because it has a Republican governor who called in a favor. There...
GOP retirements might just complicate life for Democrats
Democrats were gloating in mid-January, almost assuming victories in two once-solidly Republican California congressional districts and figuring that could help assure their retaking control of...
Climate change and the coming fire insurance crisis
Climate change, if you ask most state experts, has already created a wildfire crisis in California. In the process, it’s causing a fire insurance predicament....
Will electric freedom suffer a major delay?
The California Public Utilities Commission giveth, but the same benighted agency much more often taketh away. At least from consumers. In December, this five-member commission...
Fire ruling has immediate effect on state’s utilities
Under intense political pressure at the same time bone-dry Santa Ana and Sundowner winds propelled unchecked wildfires across Southern California in early December, the California...
Now we’ll see what transparency can do
California will be exploring new ground as the impending election year builds to its climax in early November. For the first time ever, big donors...
Tax ‘reforms’ could hit housing, wider economy
It’s already well established that the tax “reforms” now being hashed out in secret by a joint committee of Republicans from the Senate and the...
