Eight months ago, at 5 a.m. on Dec. 15, the 83-year-old superintendent of America’s second largest school district was awakened with the news that Los Angeles public schools were threatened with an attack by as 33 terrorists. They would hit schools at random. They would secrete bomb-laden backpacks in a variety of places, the threat said. With many parents preparing … Read More

For more than a generation, opportunistic California politicians have barraged voters with woeful tales about how the most productive, inventive, wealthy and enterprising Californians are leaving this state in droves to avoid high taxes and excessive government regulation. These stories, used successfully by the likes of Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger while running for governor, and unsuccessfully by failed candidates … Read More

Go back in time six years to 2010, when the Top Two primary election system awaited a decision from California voters. Until then, Republicans could only cast ballots for fellow Republicans in primary elections, while Democrats allowed votes from people who declined to choose a party. In fall general elections, the many lopsided races in congressional or legislative districts where … Read More

The fanfare was loud when Gov. Brown and state legislators announced agreement on a package of Public Utilities Commission reforms the other day. You could almost hear Mr. Brown saying “This will clear up any clouds in my legacy.” Sorry, Governor, it won’t. For while the proposed PUC changes do make improvements, they leave the powerful commission’s main problem unsolved: … Read More

No political endorsement ever seemed more innocuous and expected than Gov. Brown’s backing of state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris for the U.S. Senate seat now held by the retiring Barbara Boxer. Like Sen. Boxer, both are Democrats. Ms. Harris was Mr. Brown’s successor as head of the state’s Justice Dept. Each is part of the Northern California Democratic group that … Read More

Once California’s primary election season ends in early June, most candidates go into a sort of statis for three months, until just before the traditional Labor Day start of the fall political season. If Loretta Sanchez is smart – and no one ever suggested she’s not – she will not wait months before resuming an aggressive campaign for the U.S. … Read More

There is a good chance state lawmakers this year will pass a ban on ex parte communications involving members of the Coastal Commission. Nice idea, but inadequate. Ex parte communications – the legalistic name for private meetings, phone calls and email exchanges between key state officials and the people or companies they regulate – emerged two years ago as one … Read More

Give light and the people will find their own way. – Longtime motto of the former Scripps Howard newspapers.  The essence of that slogan – that voters will act in their own interest if they know enough about an issue or a politician – is at the heart of two measures that may become California laws in less than a … Read More

One clear precedent emerged Tuesday night from California’s primary election results: There will be no Republican contending this fall for the U.S. Senate seat about to be vacated by the retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. This is the first time the race for a statewide office ever has devolved into a one-party affair. The reason: Not only did the GOP … Read More