Opinion
When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.
Published: Friday, Nov. 20, 2009
We were ready to go ape when we heard that someone wanted to monkey with the time-honored name of the Charles Paddock Zoo. When we learned the rationale behind the proposal, though, we decided to hold our horses — along with our brickbats.
When California's political consultants share war stories, 1988's immensely expensive, multifront battle between insurance companies and lawyer-backed consumer groups takes center stage.
Published: Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2009
While it may seem premature, the resignation of Cuesta College President David Pelham is best for all concerned — the students, the staff, the community and Pelham himself.
Jerry Brown's first governorship was marked by what one might term – charitably – a high degree of flexibility.
When the state assumed full financial responsibility for the court system a decade ago, it was billed as a way of relieving pressure on county finances.
As America's trade with the Far East – principally China – expanded massively during the 1980s and 1990s, California reaped the benefits as the gateway for both exports and imports.
Published: Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009
‘The students are back, and the beer and booze are flowing. At least that’s how it seems to many of us in San Luis Obispo.”
Advocates of overhauling California's troubled pension system for public employees couldn't have chosen a more providential moment to launch their reform campaign.
Published: Friday, Nov. 13, 2009
Who needs “The Hills”? We already have our own grown-up version of the teen reality show right here in the halls of county government — at least we did when the former regime of David Edge and Gail Wilcox was in charge.
Published: Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009
How’s this for a switch? The county of San Luis Obispo is proposing to modify hundreds of user fees next year for everything from playing golf to losing library books. Yet in many cases, it will be charging less for its services.
When the Legislature was drafting its massive water plan, it included a number of specific appropriations as political lubricants.
A sampling from the Web: "Why are these Muslim invaders allowed to carry on freely in this country ... protected by outreach, Obama, and PC mental illness?" "Simply put, most Muslims in non-Islamic countries have an evil axe to grind and a scurrilous hidden agenda." "Muslims should be deported from this country! They offer nothing to Americans!"
Maywood is one of California's tiniest and most troubled cities, a plot of scarcely 750 acres southeast of downtown Los Angeles.
Published: Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2009
Opponents and proponents of a government-run health system share many values, including dislike of insurance companies. On this basis, most physicians want some change with respect to healthcare.
A weekend celebration in Cambria was one for the books — and for CDs, DVDs, books on tape and computer stations. All those resources will find a home at Cambria’s new public library — a project that’s under way thanks to a public-private partnership between SLO County and the nonprofit Friends of the Cambria Library.
Last June, the Public Policy Institute of California released a highly critical report on California's "enterprise zone" program that provides big tax breaks to businesses for supposedly hiring workers in areas of high unemployment.
Mike Genest, who announced recently that he's resigning as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget director, deserves a respite after four years of dealing with the state's chronic fiscal crisis.
Published: Sunday, Nov. 08, 2009
If you believe the buzz, state Sen. Abel Maldonado is almost certain to be the governor’s pick for California’s second-in-command.
A batch of amendments to a massive water bond bill was submitted to the state Senate's clerical desk Monday, and one, as it turned out, had nothing to do with water.
