Thomas D. Elias
As GOP Backs Off, Illegal Aliens Gain a Sheen of Respectability
Elections matter, one reason for the immigration reform proposals coming from President Obama and a bipartisan panel of U.S. senators in recent days. Here are a few facts behind those moves: Republican Mitt Romney won among white voters, rich and poor, male and female, by an overall 59-39 percent last November. Because Obama had far larger margins among Latinos, blacks and Asian-Americans, Romney’s strong showing among whites didn’t win him the Presidency.
Speaking of Billionaires Who Should Be Paying Their Fair Share
The old saw tells us that billionaires didn’t get rich by giving away money. What about paying their fair share?
Huge (but Incremental?) Changes May Be in Store for Prop. 13...
From the moment it became clear last fall that Democrats had won supermajorities of slightly more than two-thirds in both houses of the California Legislature, Prop. 13 has been in the political crosshairs. That’s a sea change for the landmark 1978 initiative that limits property taxes to 1 percent of the 1975 assessed value or 1 percent of the latest sales price, allowing yearly increases of no more than 2 percent to adjust for inflation.
Our Supposedly Model Mental Health Program Isn’t a Very Good Model
One of the first bits of advice Vice President Joe Biden received after becoming the point person for shaping new federal gun control and mental health proposals in the wake of December’s mass shootings in Newtown, was to follow the California example.
How Much Does the Environment Really Mean to Gov. Brown?
It seemed a bit odd when Jerry Brown, elected to his second go-’round as governor on a strong environmental program, almost immediately abandoned the state’s least expensive, most productive clean-air and environmental preservation law.
Of Intimidation by the Rich and Why the Top Two Scheme...
No one spent more money trying to influence California politics during last year’s election season than the billionaire Munger siblings, Molly and Charles Jr., the children of Charles Munger Sr., who has provided them piles of money he made as the business partner of famed investor Warren Buffett.
Hand-Wringing Because Republicans Refuse to Change Their Principles
Calls for change by the Republican Party – especially its California branch – came from all sides in the days immediately following President Obama’s re-election.
The Bitter Unfairness of Parcel Taxes
No sooner had the new Democratic supermajorities in the state Legislature been sworn in than some members began pushing to make the least fair of all taxes easier to impose.
