Rights and Liberties

Santa Monica police a case study in excessive pay driven from top down

Santa Monica is one of the great places to be in the world, not just California. It has incredible weather, often in the mid-70s in August when the San Fernando Valley is baking, lots of great restaurants and a surprising

Mega spy satellite launched from CA

John Seiler December 6, 2013

If you live in Southern California, the rocket launches from Vandenberg Air Force Base north of Los Angeles can be breathtaking. Even if you live way down in Orange County. Also breathtaking is what was the payload of the latest

Morro Bay Power Plant shutdown saves fish, kills birds

Wayne Lusvardi December 5, 2013

Power plants keep closing in California. Earlier this year, Southern California Edison announced it permanently would shut down its San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. Then Dynergy Energy announced last month it would decommission the Morro Bay Power Plant whose three tall smokestacks

Sacto media in-the-bag for arena deal debt?

Katy Grimes December 4, 2013

Examples of local media bias in favor of the Sacramento Kings arena subsidy, as well as their vehemence against the people’s right to vote on the subsidy, can be found everywhere — the Sacramento Bee, ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox News

Fair share politics and universal preschool

Katy Grimes December 4, 2013

A national non-profit organization which promotes “progressive values” plans to deliver 1,000 petition signatures today to U.S. Rep. Ami Bera’s district office today in Rancho Cordova, calling for Congress to pass the “Start Strong for America’s Children Act.” California Fair Share

Grim LAT: Bullet train $25B short. Dim Sac Bee: What $25B? All soon to be well!

Chris Reed November 29, 2013

On Monday, a Sacramento judge dealt a devastating setback to the California bullet train. The most serious of several obstacles in two decisions released by Judge Michael Kenny was his ruling that the $68 billion project didn’t have a legal

Rialto police: Inspiration for the nation. Really.

Chris Reed November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! The city of Rialto is an odd mix of nice new subdivisions, industrial grayness and rundown neighborhoods. When I covered the city as an Inland Empire news columnist in the late 1990s, it had a distinct inferiority

Bullet train dead in water — yet state to proceed with eminent domain

Chris Reed November 27, 2013

Eminent domain is one of the greatest government assaults on individual rights that one sees on a regular basis in the United States. Even in its purer form, in which land is seized for projects with broad general public benefit,

Would-be San Diego mayor plans to nullify reform approved by city voters

Chris Reed November 24, 2013

In 2006, San Diego voters took a bold and unprecedented step: They lopsidedly approved a “managed competition” process under which groups of city employees would bid against private companies for the right to provide certain city services. This modified form

Referendum advances to repeal bathroom bill

Katy Grimes November 18, 2013

Organized and run by Privacy for All Students, a potential referendum, if approved by California voters, would repeal AB 1266, commonly known as the transgender school bathroom bill. By Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, AB 1266’s language says “that a pupil