News Media

Wretched teacher discipline law: CTA shows it’s still in charge

More than three years after appalling evidence emerged that a teacher at a school in an impoverished neighborhood in south Los Angeles had been feeding semen-laced food to his students, California finally has a law on the books that makes

Fellow Latino Dem puts De Leon on spot over Vergara

Chris Reed June 25, 2014

The most powerful Latino politician in California is being called out over how he will respond to the Vergara decision, which held that teacher tenure laws punish minority students in Golden State public schools. Kevin De Leon, who will soon

Vergara’s grim implications for CA Dems ignored

Chris Reed June 24, 2014

When Asian-American lawmakers objected to efforts by black and Latino lawmakers to gut Proposition 209 and bring racial quotas back to college admissions and other state government programs, the California media thought that was news. Nexis shows 85 stories about

This won’t end well: Coastal Commission gets more power

Chris Reed June 22, 2014

Budget trailer bills continue to be a great vehicle for legslative mischief in Sacramento. Here we go again, reports the Merc-News: “The California Coastal Commission can now fine property owners who illegally block public access to beaches, putting new teeth

Green hypocrisy: ‘The problem is it’s going to be visible’

Chris Reed June 21, 2014

For years, the hypocrisy of environmentalists has been on display with the Cape Wind project in Nantucket Sound, near Cape Cod, Mass. The project has finally begun construction but only after a 13-year campaign by rich liberals to block the

What CA can learn from North Dakota’s stunning boom

Chris Reed June 19, 2014

The boom that North Dakota’s enjoyed because of fracking is usually depicted in newspaper stories and network reports as being about housing shortages and a flood of in-migration driven by job hunters. Rarely do accounts offer stark statistics that illustrate

Dem strategist (albeit a paid one) rips Nanny State push

Chris Reed June 18, 2014

A classic Nanny State bill failed in committee Tuesday within hours after a leading Democratic strategist warned California lawmakers that they shouldn’t count on flattering headlines if it kept advancing. Details on the bill’s demise from the LAT: “A proposal

Only in CA: Costly edicts depicted as jobs programs

Chris Reed June 17, 2014

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed AB 32 into law in 2006, he did so after first demanding that the measure include a provision that would allow a governor to suspend it if there was evidence the law was hurting the

Three powerful liberal papers hail Vergara ruling

Chris Reed June 16, 2014

That the Vergara vs. California ruling last week is a landmark that will affect U.S. public education going forward — even if it is appealed and thrown out — is a general consensus among the pundits and education experts I’ve read.

$6 stories out of 317: LAT, Bee, Chronicle hide Obama fracking views$

6 stories out of 317: LAT, Bee, Chronicle hide Obama fracking views

Chris Reed June 15, 2014

I have been whining about how the media cover big issues for decades, but there is something uniquely strange about the decision of the California media — in the midst of a sharp state debate over fracking — to not