On Local Government: Regarding Fracking
While it sounds like something you used to get slapped in the face for uttering, this word has become the cry of outrage from environmentalists regarding natural gas drilling.
Recent
-
Street side attack prompts citizen aid in Hermosa Beach -
Body Glove co-founder, waterman legend Bob Meistrell dies on Catalina Island -
Hermosa Beach 2020 and Beyond forum July 13 -
Hermosa Beach woman searches for missing ginger tabby cat -
About Town in Manhattan Beach: Week of June 13
-
The blissful investigation: the state of happy hour in the South Bay -
Beach Magazine: Destinations issue (June 2013) -
Destination Bliss: Carmel by the Sea
On Local Government
On Local Government: A Tale of Two Cities (Redondo Beach, north and south)
Every election tells a tale. Last week’s in Redondo Beach was no different.
On Local Government: “Big Data” enters politics, and your life
In the post-mortems from the Presidential election, the biggest news was how President Obama’s team used technology to win and how Nate Silver used technology to analyze.
On Local Government: “First…, kill all the lawyers”
“First…, kill all the lawyers.”
Shakespeare had it right in “Henry VI.”
No matter which way you turn, some lawyer is bilking a City by either charging too much for the simplest of opinions, providing overwrought advice or, particularly in the case of those cities dumb enough to elect these people, relying on people who are better at soliciting votes than performing the legal tasks they were allegedly hired to do.
On Local Government: Two very different kinds of bankruptcy
These past few weeks have given us many opportunities to shake our heads in bemusement at the activities of others.
Our new ballot
In February, 2009, then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (you remember him?) was looking for one more vote in the California State Senate to get a compromise budget approved.
On Local Government: another conundrum
Six years ago, the Legal Establishment in Los Angeles County was horrified to find that someone had upset their well-planned apple cart.
On Local Government
A different Jobs plan
Much ink and many electrons have been spilled following the untimely death of Steve Jobs.
On Local Government
The political war over whether or not sales promulgated on the Internet should be taxed the same as those from “brick and mortar” stores has been around for a while.
On Local Government: I liked Les Guthrie
I liked Les Guthrie.
That is not a phrase you would necessarily find emanating from the lips of elected or appointed officials in Redondo Beach.
On Local Government: the state of the States has become abundantly clear. It is all about service implosion.
Over the last few weeks, I have spent much of the time on the East Coast.
On Local Government: The unrecognized immigration story
A story in the Los Angeles Times caught my eye as I was reviewing the spate of anti-immigrant bills making their way through state legislatures across the country.
On local government: ten years later
It was ten years ago this week that I attended my last meeting as a Redondo Beach City Councilman and filed my first “On Local Government” column for this newspaper.
On Local Government: The post-Egypt chest thumping has begun
The post-Egypt chest thumping has begun. Some pundits claim that the rise of the seeking of democracy in totalitarian states (which we, by the way, have long supported) is the long term result of the foreign policies initiated by the newly beatified St. Ronald of Reagan. Others say it is a vindication of the George W. Bush Iraq policy. Still others laud President Obama for a skillful navigation of a very precarious situation.
On Local Government
Cities are becoming more and more creative about ways to provide revenue for their coffers. In the light of end run after end run by the state to disrupt their structural revenue base, such as the latest hit, redevelopment money, cities need to find ways to obtain more direct fees for services.