It’s worth a shot
The midweek news provided a colorful cornucopia of information about America and the matrix of our democracy, offering numerous front-page civics lessons.
I never had much use for the queen.
According to Time magazine, the following are the most dangerous jobs in America:
No apology
A few years ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released two reports detailing enforcement and litigation abuses by the Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, or OFCCP. Instead of holding firms accountable when they engage in real discrimination against their emp…
It happens almost every winter: Pundits from Eastern news outlets make week-long pilgrimages to California, interview top officials here and generally report back that there’s something rotten in the state of the Golden State, as Shakespeare might have put it.
Iran was justified
Many newspaper editorials serve as starting blocks that can reveal readers’ strong opinions on both sides of an issue.
The new year of 2020 seems to be a time for counting people.
Don’t be surprised
There are 99 better, or at least less abject, senators. However, Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) is inadvertently useful by incessantly demonstrating the depths to which senators sink when they jettison institutional responsibilities to facilitate subservience to presidents of their party. Consid…
On Dec. 21, it was announced that President Donald Trump was rolling back 95 environmental rules.
Everything’s free in America
Retired Marine Corps Gen. Jim Mattis, the former secretary of defense and an exceptionally well-read warrior, has said, “Throughout history, we see nations with allies thrive, and nations without allies wither.”
Most politicians will tell you that their primary focus is to listen to constituents’ concerns and try and improve the things that affect them most. However, whether they actually mean that is up for debate.
Money well spent?
A voter may dislike a black, homosexual or female candidate, but it’s not likely that he would openly admit it. However, diversity-crazed leftist/progressive Democrats have openly condemned the physical characteristics of some of their 2020 presidential candidates. Joe Biden and Bernie Sande…
There are few things most of the minority groups who together make up the majority in today’s California want more than simple inclusivity.
Congressional hearings were created to educate lawmakers so they have knowledge before they pass bills or impeach a president.
WASHINGTON — As leaders on both sides of the latest Middle East crisis strut and fret during their hour upon the stage, one wonders when humankind will recognize that the dominant-male model has run its course.
In a follow-up, 8-minute prepared speech, President Donald Trump, Wednesday morning, made a televised presentation to the world, with this lead pronouncement: “As long as I am president of the United States, Iran will never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.”
In a rational world, the burning of Australia would be a historic turning point. After all, it’s exactly the kind of catastrophe climate scientists long warned us to expect if we didn’t take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions. In fact, a 2008 report commissioned by the Australian gover…
Rounding out his first year in the state’s top post, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s friends and foes are now grading him.
No wonder
WASHINGTON — When people ask me about my work or comment on it, there is one word that always makes me bristle.
In June 2018, President Donald Trump attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a Foxconn factory in Wisconsin. Ever exuberant in his comments, he called the project the “eighth wonder of the world” and “one of the great deals, ever.” Always a bragger, his praise was directed at himself for or…
Who’s bringing coffee?
With the dawning of a new year and decade, freelance writers and independent journalists find themselves in a precarious situation because of Assembly Bill 5, which took effect on Jan. 1.
Snow turns adults back into happy children.
Fascinating
It might have been Gov. Gavin Newsom’s best move yet, both politically and on its merits: Disapproving the ballyhooed $13.5 billion settlement Pacific Gas & Electric Co. reached in mid-December with lawyers for tens of thousands of homeowners and businesses burned out in fires at least p…
It used to be that when a reporter obtained court documents, they could pretty much guarantee they’d find a decent amount of information on a particular case, however, times seem to be changing.
By Colin Kaepernick’s logic, the operation to kill the Japanese commander was racist and illegitimate.
WASHINGTON — Ahead of the House reconvening next week, Speaker Nancy Pelosi still is refusing to send articles of impeachment to the Senate. Instead, she is demanding that Republicans agree to allow new witnesses and new evidence during a Senate trial.
Now check this out: Slow wage growth has been braking bad, but the math shows that salaries at all levels and, particularly for workers at the bottom, are now rising nationwide.
Is anyone here old enough to remember the urgent warning issued in a speech to the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars in August 2002 by an American vice president who had artfully avoided the military draft during wartime? Dick Cheney, after acknowledging he was convinced th…
Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang is on to something: Americans could use a big “freedom dividend” — that is, a guaranteed source of income on which they can rely month after month, free from the uncertainties of the job market and employment.
After a year of massive fires and floods, electricity blackouts, utility rate increases and gasoline price gouging, California at last has a good news story to enjoy: The state’s teenage birth rate has reached a new modern-era low.
You may have already noticed a few changes to your Valley Press this morning, particularly in the way it looks.
About 40 years ago, a right-wing codger named Eddie Chiles became a momentary political celebrity in my state by buying airtime on hundreds of radio stations to broadcast his daily political rants. Having made a fortune in the Texas oil fields, he pitched himself as a rags-to-riches, self-ma…
Let’s compare
I learned three new things this year that made my life better!
Colleges have been around for centuries. College students have also been around for centuries. Yet, college administrators assume that today’s students have needs that were unknown to their predecessors. Those needs include diversity and equity personnel, with massive budgets to accommodate.
The past week’s images from Australia have been nightmarish: Walls of flame, blood-red skies, residents huddled on beaches as they try to escape the inferno. The bush fires have been so intense that they have generated “fire tornadoes” powerful enough to flip over heavy trucks.
The highly publicized Trump wall has fallen short — with only 93 miles completed — but the president is still pressing to build 500 miles of a new barrier in 2020.
Seventy-one years ago this month — in January 1948 — a black, 17-year-old high school dropout left home. The last grade he had completed was the 9th grade. He had no skills, little experience, and not a lot of maturity. Yet he was able to find jobs to support himself, to a far greater extent…
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