Opinion

Last week we returned to the Capitol where I joined Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon to welcome our colleagues for a brief and mostly ceremonial session to begin the 2019-2020 legislative session. We have now adjourned for the holidays, but will return January 7 when the new session really begins. The previous day, Governor Brown held a reception at the old […]

Nothing exemplifies the slippery slope of privatization of public commons like charter schools, especially where public funds are taken from public schools. A series of court decisions and ballot initiatives have limited the ability of local school districts to raise taxes to pay for public education. That has left the funding of schools largely up to the state, but the […]

Be prepared to be alarmed by a new term of art of elections: “ballot harvesting.” It could lead to the worst cases of voter fraud since they stopped voting corpses in Clark County, Illinois.  The most astounding thing about the 2018 election from the standpoint of a California resident is the “long vote,” the interminable time that has taken to […]

Last week the Assembly Select committee on Wine and also the Governmental Organization Committee, met in San Diego to discuss issues facing California’s wine industry. The bi-partisan committees heard from local vintners, the San Diego County Vintners Association, the Wine Institute, the Association of African-American Vintners and the California Department of Alcohol Beverage Control. Discussions ranged from complex interstate commerce […]

 Many of our leaders are graduates of our ‘esteemed’ college indoctrination centers, and much of their revisionism is accepted as fact. As a result, it is near impossible to outwardly display pride of being an American. We all have been in situations where it is simply easier to remain quiet than to raise your hand and try to defend your […]

It’s ironic and instructive that, when we had such a huge turnout in last week’s election, we still have several close contests to resolve. Could it be that the electorate has become somewhat bipolar?  Obviously, the contest of the most interest in Escondido is the dead heat between incumbent Mayor Sam Abed, trying for a third term, and his challenger, […]

As I have related this innocent and yet sardonic story many times, I am sometimes ashamed of myself. It was a Friday, a parent/teacher conference day at my school. I was thirteen, and since students were excused from classes, my friend and I decided to play golf. I can’t for the life of me remember how we got onto one […]

Over the past year I have been honored to recognize dozens of organizations and individuals that protect and serve the public, assist those in need, educate our youth and help keep our local economy humming. Here are just a few examples that make this such a special place.  Charity for Charity in Temecula, my “Nonprofit of the Year,” reaches out […]

This week, November 11, to be precise, marks the 100th anniversary of the end of the war that created our modern world. The war that was known first as The Great War, also as the War to End All Wars (we see how that went) and the War to Make the World Safe for Democracy—and finally, World War I.  The […]

As a member of the bi-partisan Assembly Select Committee on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, chaired by Assemblyman Jim Frazier (D – Fairfield), I invite you to complete a brief survey about the services offered by the state’s 21 Regional Centers. We are currently undertaking this survey for clients and parents/caregivers about California’s Regional Centers to help ensure that members of […]