In June 2019 the City of Placentia, in a 3-1 council vote, decided to leave the Orange County Fire Authority and build their own fire department. The reasons for this decision, and the means to accomplish it, will be explored in greater detail in a follow-up article. But the decision came down to this: a majority...
Even during a national crisis, the nearsighted (and, very possibly, soon to be blindsided) NEA and AFT are happy to see private schools wither and die. When government-run schools next open, social distancing, masks, obsessive cleaning, etc. will be mandated throughout much of the country. The education establishment is claiming it will need a...
With rare exceptions, most cities in California are run by public-sector unions. There is the appearance of democracy, with public employees accountable to elected officials, who in turn are accountable to voters, but appearances can be deceiving. Because political campaigns to attract voters require money, and public-sector unions have money. Lots of money. In California...
There aren’t enough epithets in the English language to adequately describe “journalists” such as ABC Nightly News anchorman David Muir, the dashing forty-something actor who pretends to share important national news with America. Five days a week, Muir recites agenda-driven propaganda as if it were truth, while his allies who run the social media monopolies...
Next day returns on the special election for California’s 25th congressional district indicate that a Republican, Mike Garcia, is holding a 56 percent to 44 percent lead over Democrat Christy Smith. That looks awfully good for Garcia. And while in this case Garcia’s lead does look insurmountable, in California, early returns don’t always equal final results. According...
In an interview posted last month by the Hoover Institution, the estimable Victor Davis Hanson, speaking in character, made a typically provocative comment, saying “for what we are paying for every provost of diversity and inclusion we could probably hire three professors of electrical engineering.” That can be fact checked. And the results are illuminating. On the...
Image: San Gabriel (Creative Commons) If you’re looking for dark entertainment, you could do worse than the reality show unfolding throughout California. First, state and local officials supported the nearly total shutdown of the state’s economy as a necessary response to Covid-19. That killed the sales and other tax revenues that are the life’s blood...
Due to Covid-19 related economic realities, the unions demand the Feds pour billions more into education. There is no way to sugarcoat it. The economic impact of Covid-19 will take its toll on education funding. The National Education Association is in full freak-out mode, “calling for an additional $175 billion to stabilize education funding—the $30.7...
Across California on May 1, tens of thousands protested in defiance of the lockdown orders. In Sacramento, the west lawn of the state capitol building was filled with protesters, with thousands more marching along the sidewalk surrounding the capitol grounds. Additional thousands driving their cars and honking their horns created three hours of total gridlock on...
With the introduction of the latest housing density mandate, AB 725 in the California state legislature, the battle between state control and local control in California intensifies. At the same time, the pandemic crisis and its economic consequences add additional complexity to an already complex issue. The debate over California’s housing policies offers an unusual combination: vehement...
Housing is unaffordable in California, and, increasingly, housing is becoming unaffordable in every other part of the United States where bad policies preside. The shame of these policies is not only the misery they impose on growing proportions of Americans, but the pessimism they represent. Read beyond the initial recitation of mundane obstacles to share...
With great crisis comes great opportunity… On April 18 LA City Councilmember Mike Bonin held a telephone town hall to discuss public health issues. His district includes Venice Beach, which has a high number of homeless still living on the streets and it was brought up that this is a major health concern. Towards the...
“Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.” – Leonard Nimoy’s character Spock, Wrath of Khan, 1982 For anyone who has questioned whether or not the COVID-19 pandemic constitutes a severe enough threat to justify a soft version of martial law and a possible economic depression, Spock’s classic claim...
“I intend on putting in another proposal in the next week or two that asks the city to look at the federal bailout or stimulus funds we’ll be getting as a result of this crisis…and using some of that to either buy hotels that go belly up or to buy the distressed properties that are...