Gov. Brown excuses Toyota move with Schumpeter

It was free-market economist Joseph Schumpeter who coined the phrase, “creative destruction.” He meant that a dynamic economy doesn’t stand still. That cars replace buggies; trucks replace conestoga wagons; computers replace typewriters; smartphones replace line phones. A dynamic society is different

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CA lawmakers look to pull plug on NSA snooping

Big Brother might have to close his eyes. A new bipartisan bill would prohibit California’s cooperation with warrantless snooping by the National Security Agency. Senate Bill 828 is by state Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Redondo Beach. Invoking the Bill of Rights’ Fourth

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Sen. Lieu is Shocked! — Shocked! — Toyota is leaving Torrance

Democratic State Sen. Ted Lieu is Shocked!  — Shocked! — that Toyota’s U.S. headquarters is splitting Torrance, which he represents, for Texas. He wrote on his website: “I am really angry. Nothing prepared any of us for this surprise announcement

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‘Job-Killer’ bill would allow split-roll parcel tax

Just days after Toyota announced plans to move its corporate headquarters to Texas, the California Senate is poised to adopt a bill that would create a split-roll parcel tax system. Senate Bill 1021, introduced by state Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, would allow

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Dallas editorial chortles over Toyota departing CA for Texas

Monday’s announcement that Toyota is moving its North American headquarters from Torrance to the suburbs of Dallas prompted the usual schizophrenic approach in California:  Some editorial writers and pundits lamented the loss of 3,000 middle-class jobs, but Gov. Jerry Brown

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Fade to red ink: LAO questions tax cuts for films

It’s always been as funny as a Coen Bros. movie that the Hollywood Left Elite, which backs massive tax increases on the rest of us, favors tax cuts for itself. The excuse is that the cuts create valuable movie-industry jobs. Which

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Support for boosting school taxes drops

  Proposition 13 still garners broad support across California 36 years after the tax-limitation measure was passed. According to the latest opinion poll conducted by the Public Policy Institute of California,  support for loosening Prop. 13’s two-thirds vote requirement for approving local

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Honors belie years of gloom-and-doom talk about UC system

For at least seven years, we’ve heard University of California officials and Democratic lawmakers describe budget “cuts” at UC as being so devastating they threatened the system’s elite reputation. I recall hearing surrogates for Jerry Brown say in 2010 that

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Legislative committee OKs $2 billion oil tax

  The Senate Education Committee last week approved a $2 billion tax hike on California’s oil industry that critics say would drive up energy costs and push businesses out of state. Proponents of Senate Bill 1017 tout the additional revenue it

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