Public Policy

Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Public Policy, The World January 21, 2018

San Onofre Nuclear Plant ticking time bomb

What to do with the 3.6 million pounds of highly radioactive waste at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station by Camp Pendleton remains an epic problem, pitting concerned citizens against Southern California Edison, the California Coastal Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).  San Onofre’s seaside nuclear reactors were permanently shut down in 2013, following steam generator malfunction. Edison operates San Onofre while the Coastal Commission…

Business, California, Public Policy January 16, 2018

California working, UC Berkeley report says

Between 2011 and 2016, California enacted a set of 51 policy measures addressing workers’ rights, environmental issues, safety net programs, taxation, and infrastructure and housing. Critics predicted that these policies—collectively called “the California Policy Model” (CPM) in this paper—would reduce employment and slow economic growth, while supporters argued that they would raise wages for low-wage workers, increase access to health insurance, lower wage inequality, and…

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Duncan Hunter investigations, Editorial, Featured, Opinion, Politics, Public Policy December 23, 2017

No taxation without representation, Hunter

Spoiler alert. Rep, Duncan Hunter (R-50th Congressional District), like his President idol (for now) Donald Trump should do everyone a favor and resign. Considering Hunter’s multiple transgressions, topped off by breaking the law by spending campaign finance $$$ for his, and his family’s, personal expenses, self-admitted by Hunter: The vape, on-the-take, Hunter managed to outdo himself last week. Hunter VOTED FOR THE GOP TAX PLAN…

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Politics, Public Policy December 11, 2017

End Citizens United begins GOP ditch drive

A major democratic political action organization that’s working to get big money and all of the temptation it offers out of politics recently released a list of 20 Republican Congress members that it intends to target next year. The organization on attack is End Citizens United, and it is calling its targeted Congress members the “Big Money 20.” A Group that Favors Its Special Interest…

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Public Policy, The World December 5, 2017

Plastic ocean pollution and climate change

Although burning fossil fuels is the primary cause of global warming, fossil fuels could also be driving climate change via a completely different mechanism involving ocean plastic debris and tiny, bioluminescent fish living hundreds of meters beneath the ocean’s surface. Lanternfish (aka myctophids) are only a few inches long typically but so ubiquitous that they account for over half the ocean’s total fish-mass. They are…

California, History, Public Policy November 2, 2017

After tax cuts derailed the ‘California dream,’ is the state getting back on track?

In 1978, the year I graduated from college with a degree in economics, most voters in my state chose to turn their backs on the “California dream.” Not unlike the American dream, California’s iteration focused on the limitless possibilities awaiting anyone who moved to the state. It was the state’s basic philosophic footing, a social compact that connected generations, geographies and economic classes in a common destiny….

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Public Policy, The World September 5, 2017

Collective action will solve climate crisis

I fancy myself an environmentalist.  I recycle, backyard compost, have rooftop solar, rarely use AC or heat, drive a hybrid, don’t have a lawn and eat vegetarian. Yet the truth is I am as responsible for climate change as the next guy. Here’s why. Doing those things makes me feel good about myself, but they don’t move the world measurably closer to solving the climate…

Blogs, Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Public Policy, Weather July 19, 2017

Post-Paris Climate Accord: What’s next?

The City of Escondido should do what 46 other local jurisdictions across the country have done, pass a resolution telling Congress to step up and lead the rest of the world in addressing the crisis of global climate change — Sarah Mosko Although President Donald Trump has withdrawn the U.S. from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, this is no time for the 70 percent of…

Columns/Blogs, Opinion, Politics, Public Policy June 22, 2017

Issa: Get off the roof, support free speech

It’s time for Congressman Darrell Issa to come down from the roof and support the First Amendment. Our First Amendment freedoms ensure that anger and political disagreement don’t fester into violence. — Edward Sifuentes On May 30, Rep. Darrell Issa’s San Diego County constituents saw a different side of the nine-term member of Congress. Angry at peaceful protesters outside his district office building in Vista,…

Editorial, Opinion, Public Policy March 24, 2017

Turn Duncan Hunter over, he’s done

Step off Duncan Hunter, time to resign… You know the Monopoly card everybody dreads:  “Go directly to Jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.” Hello, Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-50th District). Looks like you got served. Hunter wasn’t playing with Monopoly money, unfortunately, but with $62,000 — that we know of now, it definitely was more — of campaign donor money illegally used for…