Joseph Perkins, Author at CalWatchdog.com

Posts From Joseph Perkins

Joseph Perkins

Joseph Perkins, now assistant editor of the Orange County Register Opinion Pages, started his career as an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal. After serving on the White House Staff of former Vice President Dan Quayle he wrote for the San Diego Union-Tribune where he authored a nationally-syndicated column. Before writing for CalWatchdog.com, Mr. Perkins was also Business Editor for San Diego Magazine.

Lawmakers seek probe of CA refineries

Nov. 30, 2012 By Joseph Perkins Taking time out from negotiations over the fiscal cliff, a half-dozen U.S. senators asked the Justice Department this week to investigate whether “market manipulation” by California oil refineries led to the run up in

Reality show hides California reality

Joseph Perkins November 23, 2012

Nov. 23, 2012 By Joseph Perkins My wife turned me on to a new reality show, “Start-Ups: Silicon Valley.” It airs on Bravo, between installments of the cable network’s “Real Housewives” franchise, which chronicles the lives of too-well-to-do ladies in places

California election stirs up a tempest

Joseph Perkins November 12, 2012

Nov. 12, 2012 By Joseph Perkins As I watched the election returns this past Tuesday night (and into the wee hours of Wednesday morning), I was reminded of a line from “The Tempest,” one of the Bard’s greatest hits: “Hell

China bashing doesn’t help California

Joseph Perkins October 26, 2012

Oct. 26, 2012 By Joseph Perkins I imagine that Jeremy Potash, executive director of the California-Asia Business Council, winced this week while watching the foreign policy debate between President Obama and Gov. Mitt Romney. Her group is trying to increase

Climate alarmists hate good news

Joseph Perkins October 19, 2012

Oct. 19, 2012 By Joseph Perkins Two new pieces of climate change data caught my attention this week. One, from the U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (nope, I’d never heard of it before either), indicates that Antarctica is

Calif. throws subsidy at Tesla Motors

Joseph Perkins October 12, 2012

Oct. 12, 2012 By Joseph Perkins Memo to Occupy San Jose: I’ve got a ripe target for you on Santana Row, playpen for the Silicon Valley wealthy. Not Gucci, Burberry, Ferragamo or the other upscale stores along the Row. But

Politics driving CA pension investments

Joseph Perkins October 5, 2012

Oct. 5, 2012 By Joseph Perkins The California State Teachers’ Retirement System announced this week that it is sinking $42.8 million into four infrastructure projects, including a solar power plant near Sacramento. That follows CalSTRS’ previous “investment” in another solar-power

Yes to Desalination

Joseph Perkins September 28, 2012

Sept. 28, 2012 By Joseph Perkins The Western Hemisphere’s largest seawater desalination plant moved a huge step closer to actually being built with the tentative agreement Thursday by the San Diego County Water Authority to buy all the water produced

Prop. 35 and the war on sex trafficking

Joseph Perkins September 21, 2012

Sept. 21, 2012 By Joseph Perkins Chris Kelly deserves a lot of credit. He’s the former Facebook executive who co-authored Proposition 35, the Californians Against Sexual Exploitation Act, which proposes to ramp up punishment of sex traffickers. Kelly told the

Still no competitive elections

Joseph Perkins September 14, 2012

Sept. 14, 2012 By Joseph Perkins For much of the baseball season, I’ve been following Sports Illustrated’s weekly rankings of all 30 major league baseball clubs. But I stopped following back in July when it ranked the Boston Red Sox,