CA Dems back tax cut

Will wonders never cease? Three years ago, Democrats in the Legislature were upset when Republicans denied them the two-thirds votes needed in the Assembly and Senate to put a tax increase on the ballot. Led by Gov. Jerry Brown, they

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Need to create middle-class CA jobs matters more than minimum wage

Economic conservatives seem wary over the attempts by Democrats at just about every level of government to focus on the minimum wage. But should they be? It provides an easy way to broaden the debate from how the poor are

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Analysis: Kashkari unveils economic plan

Neel Kashkari is running for governor under the slogan, “Jobs. Education. That’s it.” The Republican businessman today released his detailed, 26-page plan for the first part of that promise: Jobs. The title is, “Neel Kashkari’s Jobs Plan: Rebuilding the Middle

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Covered California to register voters

Covered California, the state’s implementation of Obamacare, now will be mailing voter registration cards to enrollees. Given that most of these folks are poor, and poor people tend to vote Democratic, this is a big boon for the Democratic Party

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Legislature worries more about animal misery than human misery

California has the highest adjusted poverty rate in the nation — and by a significant margin. Nearly 1 in 4 state residents struggles to make ends meet. Unemployment was about the same in the nation as a whole in 2006.

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Sen. Boxer: Conservation would solve drought

  Can California’s zero-sum water wars only be resolved by a system of stern water conservation?  That’s what California U.S. Senator at large Barbara Boxer left as an unanswered question at a March 20 Palm Springs water symposium on the

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UC prof charged with assaulting student

What’s going on in California’s public universities? Fox News reported: “A feminist studies professor at a California state university is facing criminal charges after a videotaped run-in with a teenage pro-life demonstrator in which she snatched an anti-abortion sign and appeared

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SD26: Coastal Los Angeles state Senate race tests non-partisan brand

Political analysts say it’s too soon to evaluate the impacts of California’s top-two election system. But this year a coastal Los Angeles state Senate seat will provide a vital case study on the effects of the new system. In the 26th Senate district,

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CA suffers 2nd highest taxes; 2X liberal Wash State

A new study by WalletHub.com found California suffers the second highest state and local taxes of any state, after only New York. And California taxes, averaging $9,509 per family, are 2.4 times as high as even liberal Washington State; and

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Did governor file bid for quick appeal to block bullet-train revolt?

Why did Gov. Jerry Brown abruptly abandon his “stay-the-course” path on the $68 billion bullet-train project in late January? I’ve been poking around a bit and have come up with a theory and some evidence as to why the governor

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