A WATERSHED PRIMARY COMING FOR CALIFORNIA
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS No, the Republican presidential primary to be held in California June 5 will not have particular importance, with Mitt Romney all but crowned the Republican nominee against Democratic President Barack Obama. But that takes nothing away from the watershed nature of the upcoming vote, one of those events that marks the [...]
LESSON FOR FUTURE AS STATE GOP PRIMARY ONCE AGAIN MEANS LITTLE
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOCUS BY THOMAS D. ELIAS Never again. That should be the determined motto of California legislators who will set dates for this state’s future primary elections, now that it’s perfectly clear the June 5 California Republican presidential primary election will mean little or nothing, just like all other June primaries contested here since [...]
PUC CHIEF: A CLASSIC FOX WATCHING THE HENHOUSE
It was a landmark event when the California Public Utilities Commission fined Pacific Gas & Electric Co. $16.8 million in late winter for its documented failure to conduct required surveys of possible gas leaks on about 14 miles of pipelines in Contra Costa County. That figure ought to be multiplied exponentially when the PUC finally [...]
ADVICE FOR GOP ON CONGRESS: DEVELOP WIDE APPEAL
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS With the March 12 candidate filing deadline for California’s June primary election fast approaching, it’s time to offer the state’s Republican Party some unsolicited, but still very sound advice: Find candidates for Congress who are willing to abandon a few of the GOP’s longtime staples in order to become appealing and [...]
“LATE GOP PRIMARY HURTING CALIFORNIA
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA FOCUS BY THOMAS D. ELIAS Consider for a moment what this winter season of Republican presidential candidates lambasting each other while they traversed the countryside of early primary states might have been had California been involved. Instead of watching the likes of Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Rick Santorum and the rest (plus [...]
BIG SAVINGS IN RETURN TO ORIGINAL THREE STRIKES INTENT – BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
When California voters begin thinking seriously next fall about the propositions they’ll vote up or down, one that’s currently circulating might stand out as eminently sensible: Return the state’s three-strikes-and-you’re-out law to its original intent. This not only makes sense, but it would save at least $100 million yearly that could then be spent on [...]
UTILITY COMMISSION’S ODIFEROUS SOLAR SECRECY – BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
Imagine the public outcry if a legislative committee suddenly raised future taxes on almost every Californian and then said no one would know the amount until the tax bill arrived. Fury would be a mild description of what might follow. Yet there is no outcry at all when the state Public Utilities Commission does exactly [...]
FALL VOTES THE SPUR FOR SUDDEN SPATE OF TAX HIKE PUSHES – BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
One startling statistic from last fall’s municipal elections around California has not been lost on the state’s policymakers and would-be reformers: Fully 40 out of the 53 local tax or bond measures up for a vote in November passed, usually with supermajorities of 55 percent or more. Of those needing a two-thirds majority, 69 percent [...]
STATE’S BIG WATER DEALS LOOKING SHAKY
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS “In California, whiskey is for drinking, water is for fighting over.” Often attributed to Mark Twain, circa 1870. Regardless of whether America’s greatest author and wit of the 19th Century actually made that pithy comment, and some Mark Twain scholars question whether he did, the remark is at least as true [...]
INCOME DIFFERENCES: AT LEAST ONE ‘OCCUPY’ GRIPE IS REAL
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS It’s easy to dismiss the “Occupy” movement that quickly spread from Wall Street in New York to California points like Los Angeles, Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco as mainly an activity for the homeless and a bunch of anarchists. The movement prides itself on having no formal leadership, no structure and [...]
CALIFORNIA, NATIONAL LESSONS FROM ALABAMA LAW
by Thomas Elias Back in the early 2000s, with the debate already heating up over how much of the unemployment problem in California and the nation was caused by illegal immigrant workers and their willingness to be exploited by skinflint employers, Dianne Feinstein tried an experiment. The veteran Democratic U.S. senator arranged for every [...]
BARKING UP THE WRONG TECHNOLOGY TREES?
by Thomas D. Elisa While many of its roads and bridges and hospitals remain potholed or potential hazards whenever the next major earthquake strikes, California and its enablers in the federal government nevertheless remain determined to pour billions of dollars into two types of large infrastructure projects: high speed rail and large-scale solar thermal farms. [...]
FEINSTEIN EXTREMELY VULNERABLE? GUESS AGAIN
For a misleading moment early this fall, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein – for 20 years one of California’s most formidable political figures – looked extremely vulnerable in next year’s election. First, the usually reliable Field Poll showed the three-term Democrat with only a 43 percent approval rating, the lowest she’s ever had heading into an [...]
