Opinion: Dishonesty abounds in Prop. 27 campaign
The dishonesty in the campaign for the current Proposition 27 begins with the title of the initiative itself, which aims to legalize almost unfettered online sports betting in California. Start with this: The measure’s very title does not even hint at its purpose. The official name of this putative law is the “California Solutions to […]
Opinion: Excess school lands for teacher housing?
Do voters want more teachers living in their communities, even if it means a little more traffic and perhaps a few less parking spaces for others? That’s a major question soon to face California school districts, cities and voters as the state deals with a big teacher shortage, seeing 72 percent of school districts unable […]
Opinion: Secession fever hits biggest county
In land area, San Bernardino County is California’s largest, stretching from the Nevada state line to just north of Riverside and from near Los Angeles to the Colorado River and the Arizona state line. It is physically larger than nine states, including Connecticut, Delaware, Rhode Island and New Jersey combined. Even though Californians by the […]
Opinion: Will state demos benefit from bigger November vote?
Democrats have long known one of the major realities of California politics: Far more voters turn out for November general elections every two years than in primary elections. The main reason: November ballots always feature either a race for president or governor. This realization was the big reason most ballot propositions disappeared from primary election […]
Opinion: Bet on passage for big time sports gambling
If you’re a gambling man or woman (and two of this fall’s seven California ballot propositions are about gaming), don’t bet the house against either November’s Prop. 26 or Prop. 27. Both these competing initiatives aim to legalize what once was criminal in this state. Legalizing onetime vices seems to have become a ballot-box favorite. […]
Opinion: Refiners win latest round; accountability could be coming
The cheating, price-gouging refiners who produce most California gasoline have won another round. Average prices per gallon have fallen below $5.50 and there’s less anger at the pumps now than a few months ago, when the tab leaped almost $2 per gallon overnight. Now if you hear any talk while parked at the pump, it’s […]
Opinion: The coming economic dip – nothing like the last one
California’s economic Jeremiahs regularly predict an imminent major economic downturn, some saying it has already begun. The reality, though, is that while a dip is likely, it will not do a fraction of the damage inflicted by the last similar hit to this state. That one came in the late spring of 2020 and saw […]
Opinion: Oil and gas costing us even more than we thought
The idea that oil companies and gasoline refiners could gouge Californians — and other Americans to a lesser degree — by as much as 100 percent of the previous price of gasoline seemed utterly preposterous until February. That’s when President Biden slapped an embargo on Russian oil, depriving California refineries of between 2 percent and […]
Opinion: Freeway toll lane bait-and-switch expands
Opinion: ‘Declinists’ rise again, forecasting demise
They’re at it again, the many folks ex-Gov. Jerry Brown derisively called “declinists.” They have some ammunition. It’s been more than a decade since California lost its status as America’s fastest growing state. One new consequence of that is that the state this fall will lose a little of its congressional representation for the first […]