How to Save California’s Forests
How to Save California’s Forests
For about twenty million years, California’s forests endured countless droughts, some lasting over a century. Natural fires, started by lightning and very frequent in the Sierras, were essential to keep forest ecosystems healthy. In Yosemite, for example, meadows used to cover most of the valley floor, because while forests constantly encroached, fires would periodically wipe...
By Edward Ring
The Battle for California is the Battle for America
The Battle for California is the Battle for America
By now, this is a familiar story. California is a failed state. Thanks to years of progressive mismanagement and neglect, the cities are lawless and the forests are burning. Residents pay the highest prices in America for unreliable electricity. Water is rationed. Homes are unaffordable. The public schools are a joke. Freeways are congested and...
By Edward Ring
Time to Restructure Failing BART System
Time to Restructure Failing BART System
Of all the public agencies facing financial challenges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, public transit has taken the biggest initial hit. The reasons for this are obvious: when there’s a lockdown and businesses are closed, commuters stay home. And of those still fortunate enough to have places to go, few want to board...
By Edward Ring
Why is the Prison Guards Union Targeting Senator Moorlach?
Why is the Prison Guards Union Targeting Senator Moorlach?
In a tight race, incumbent Republican state senator John Moorlach has been targeted by the prison guards union. In a report filed on October 1, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association Independent Expenditure Committee disclosed spending $910,705 on cable television ads and mailers opposing Moorlach. Running to unseat Senator Moorlach is Democrat Dave Min, whose campaign...
By Edward Ring
How to Realign California Politics
How to Realign California Politics
The working class, which still constitutes a supermajority of California’s voters, is being destroyed by the policies enacted by California’s government. This is why political realignment in California can happen fast. In three fundamental areas, public education, land use, and energy infrastructure, California’s current policies are destroying lives, livelihoods, and land. And in all three...
By Edward Ring
Why Can’t Sacramento’s Financial Reporting Match Private Sector Standards?
Why Can’t Sacramento’s Financial Reporting Match Private Sector Standards?
If you want current financial information on California’s state government, you won’t find it. The most recent consolidated annual financial report for California’s state agencies is for the fiscal year ended 6/30/2018. That’s over two years, or nine quarters ago. To put this in perspective, America’s publicly traded multinational corporations, with operations spread all over the globe, are...
By Edward Ring
Firefighting Unions Can Help Fix Forestry Mismanagement
Firefighting Unions Can Help Fix Forestry Mismanagement
What we quaintly refer to as “super fires” have incinerated nearly 5,000 square miles of California’s forests so far this year. In response, Governor Newsom has declared he has “no more patience for climate deniers.” But it isn’t climate change that caused these superfires. It was negligent forestry. When it comes to facts that matter on...
By Edward Ring
Edward Ring’s Radio Appearances Discussing California’s Wildfires
Edward Ring’s Radio Appearances Discussing California’s Wildfires
In response to his recent contribution, “Environmentalists Destroyed California’s Forests,” CPC contributor Edward Ring appeared on John and Ken on KFI in Los Angeles and the Rod Arquette Show on KNRS in Salt Lake City. Listen HERE and HERE.
By Edward Ring
Environmentalists Destroyed California’s Forests
Environmentalists Destroyed California’s Forests
Millions of acres of California forest have been blackened by wildfires this summer, leading to the usual angry denunciations from the usual quarters about climate change. But in 1999, the Associated Press reported that forestry experts had long agreed that “clearing undergrowth would save trees,” and that “years of aggressive firefighting have allowed brush to flourish that would have...
By Edward Ring
Union Backed Prop. 15 Will Destroy Small Businesses
Union Backed Prop. 15 Will Destroy Small Businesses
California’s state and local governments, and the public sector unions that exercise nearly absolute control over the politicians who supposedly oversee them, have always had an insatiable desire for higher taxes. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has added even more urgency to their insatiable quest for more money from taxpayers, but through the...
By Edward Ring
Union Power is Behind Fullerton’s Push for Higher Taxes
Union Power is Behind Fullerton’s Push for Higher Taxes
Did you know your taxes are being used to advocate for more taxes? Well, not exactly. It’s against the law for public agencies to engage in “advocacy.” The people running these agencies who want to raise your taxes may only spend public funds in order to “communicate” with you about their proposals. And so they...
By Edward Ring
Prop. 16 is Real Racism to Combat Perceived Racism
Prop. 16 is Real Racism to Combat Perceived Racism
Lest anyone be tempted to suggest this analysis is written under a pretense of journalistic indifference, let’s make its ideological position clear: Affirmative action, preferential hiring or admissions, or legislatively enforced quotas of any kind – based on race, gender, religion, income, or anything else relating to an identifiable “group” – is counterproductive, if not...
By Edward Ring
Will a Wealth Tax Make California’s Wealthy Flee?
Will a Wealth Tax Make California’s Wealthy Flee?
If you’re rich, there aren’t too many places on earth better than California to live. Sure, there are the perennial earthquakes and wildfires, but those are more than made up for by the Mediterranean climate and the scenic splendor; the Pacific Shore, the High Sierra. And apart from these natural disasters, nothing is wrong with...
By Edward Ring
When Approving a $7 Billion Bond Proposal, Did the LAUSD Board Violate the Brown Act?
When Approving a $7 Billion Bond Proposal, Did the LAUSD Board Violate the Brown Act?
As reported in the Beverly Press and elsewhere, the “the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to place a $7 billion school construction bond issue on the November ballot which would allow the LAUSD to continue its multi-year effort to upgrade school facilities.” Writing for CityWatch on August 6, Jack Humphreville had this to say about this big new...
By Edward Ring