Posts From James Poulos
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Obama poised to accelerate CA’s rolling amnesty
Many Americans across the country have expressed uncertainty or alarm about president Obama’s executive action on immigration, which he will announce tomorrow. However, in California, where millions of illegal immigrants live, a semi-formal version of state-level amnesty has been gathering steam
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Public pension struggles roil CA
The public pensions crisis has not subsided in California — nor has the conflict that surrounds it. A waves of political, legal and policy developments have kept the issue at the center of the state’s attention. In addition to a key election and
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CA GOP looks ahead to broaden base
Analysts expected it, but it hurt all the same. The gains in the California Legislature were welcome. But in state-level races, California Republicans did not enjoy the same tidal-wave election results as their fellow party faithful across the country. For
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Vallejo’s struggles capture CA city perils
After three years spent in bankruptcy, 2008-11, running the city of Vallejo is still a struggle. Facing a weakened police force and a failed experiment in citizen-driven budgeting, Vallejo’s structural challenges have persisted. In the wake of the pension crisis that helped
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CA Dems’ congressional delegation on borrowed time
Statewide, California Democrats enjoyed another dominant Election Day. But at the national level, a much different reality has set in for the party’s Golden State representatives. Generational turnover, retirements and a slow but steady erosion of public support have all undermined California
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Suddenly, buzz is back for Brown 2016
In just a handful of weeks, speculation has returned, and hype has built, around the idea of a Jerry Brown candidacy for president. From one perspective, he has succeeded so much in California politics that he has disqualified himself. As the soon-to-be
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Voters affirm CA fracking
After a lot of spending and acrimony, little has changed from California’s high-profile ballot measures to ban hydraulic fracturing, which injects a mix of substances into shale rock to free up oil for extraction. In two counties with little to no
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L.A. city spat pits Wall Street against unions
The latest twist in Los Angeles city politics has shed light on an important new trend in fiscal politics. With new urgency, a coalition of public workers unions has demanded Mayor Eric Garcetti and other city leaders scuttle longstanding financial
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Uber shows CA cool still beats regulators
This has been a big year for Uber. The ride-for-hire app became a mainstream phenomenon, but attracted more than its fair share of criticism and legal scrutiny. And the Uber saga is just getting started. A fresh wave of initiatives —
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Few donors, big support for Prop. 47
With California’s Proposition 47, advocates of criminal justice reform have created a potent test case for national policy. But financial support for the measure has depended on a tiny handful of influential donors, creating unexpected and uncomfortable questions for both sides about
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