Columns/Blogs

San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station remains public scandal despite shutdown

Two recent scandals confirm that public safety is not top priority of either the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) or SoCal Edison as they lurch forward with a faulty engineering design for removing spent nuclear waste from cooling pools and loading into dry storage at the now shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. In August 2018, a conscience-driven whistle blower exposed how, because of a system…


Getting good mental health care for your kid

The long and winding road to mental health care for your kid For several months last spring and summer, my teen daughter, Caroline, experienced near-daily bouts of depression and debilitating panic attacks. During those episodes, she became extremely agitated, sobbing uncontrollably and aggressively rebuffing my attempts to comfort or reason with her. My daughter was in a dark place, and I was worried. But I…


Kids are the grownups in climate crisis room

The next U.S. presidential election is being transformed because children everywhere, watching in disbelief as grownups fail to address the climate crisis, are launching their own climate movements. In contrast to the 2016 election – where exactly zero questions about global warming were posed during the general election debates – the lineup of presidential candidates are already being pressured to do something about the climate…


Finally, a bill in Congress to fix climate crisis

But it needs your support. It’s hope-inspiring that a bipartisan bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in January which could save our children and grandchildren from what scientists tell us is an ongoing and growing climate disaster. The evidence is incontrovertible that the climate is in crisis and that burning fossil fuels is the primary cause. A recognized global authority on climate change has warned…


Communities lose when local news dies

It is a story of corruption that will stay secret, politicians who will need fewer votes to win, even dangerous communicable diseases that will spread faster as our best scientists struggle to fight them. The story is the slow and painful demise of local newspapers, a story whose ending is not yet written but which — without bold intervention and strong reader support — could…


Microplastics everywhere; in our bodies, too

What do beer, oysters, table salt, air & tap water have in common? They’re all ways humans are ingesting microplastics, tiny bits of plastic waste ubiquitous in oceans, lakes and rivers and even soil and air. Wildlife as diverse as whales, seabirds, fish and zooplankton are polluted by ingesting plastic debris. It’s naïve to assume that humans, sharing the same global environment and eating at…


Taking down the Hunter political crime family

Last week, a woman approached me at lunch. “You inspired me to vote for the first time,” she said, pulling out her phone for a selfie. “So what happened, did you win?” I replied, “Not this time.” The final count — 48.3 percent versus 51.7 percent. After running for two long years in a district President Donald Trump won by 15 points, my first election…


Don’t kick climate change down the road

Mankind has only 12 years left to make unprecedented cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions if we want to stave off unimaginably catastrophic effects of runaway global warming. This is the warning detailed in October’s report from the United Nation’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the recognized global climate authority which represents the investigations of hundreds of climate scientists and 195 participating nations. A…


Grifter Duncan Hunter’s pyrrhic victory

Criminal grifter Duncan Duane Hunter Jr. stole his latest election metaphorically speaking since it was, at best, the epitome of a pyrrhic victory, defined as a victory “won at too great a cost to have been worthwhile for the victor.” Fact is, Hunter’s 9 percentage point victory over Ammar Campa-Najjar means only that the 50th Congressional District will NOT be represented during the initial part…


Duncan Hunter is a man on the brink

(Editor’s Note: This article is taken directly from https//duncanhunter.com. Also a reminder that Hunter was one of 265 mainly Republicans  who voted to reverse a landmark FCC privacy rule in March 2017 opening the door for ISPs to sell customer data. Lawmakers provided no credible reason for this being in the interest of Americans.  The only people who wanted this were the people who were going…