Jerry Brown closed a cosmic circle this month when he inducted actor Robert Redford into the California Hall of Fame. Forty-six years earlier, Redford had played a fictional version of Brown in the widely acclaimed political film “The Candidate,” centering on the complicated relationship between a young, idealistic candidate for...
My Turn: ‘Motor Voter’ Was a Disaster Waiting to Happen. And It Did.
In his re-election statement posted on the secretary of state’s website, Secretary of State Alex Padilla boasts: “In my first term, I’ve worked to expand access to the ballot box.” Perhaps he can take credit for some gains, but his “motor voter” program is a disaster and ought to be shut until...
AMOR and its Partners Deliver Holiday Help to Mendota Families
A team of volunteers brought smiles to the faces of five "adopted" Mendota families in the midst of a challenging holiday season. Fresno-based AMOR joined with partners United Way of Fresno and Madera Counties, Cargill, FedEx, and Industry Standard Inc., to deliver toys, household products, clothes, and Christmas trees to five...
Grandma's Home Is Now a Refugee's Slice of Paradise in Anaheim
My maternal grandmother Edith LeFrancois’s former house sits in a cul-de-sac just off the State College Boulevard corridor, which connects Angel Stadium with Cal State Fullerton. 310 N. Olympia Place — a three-bedroom, beige-stucco split-level built in 1957 — was a very hard-earned piece of the California dream when she...
Jerry Brown: Cal Democrats Likely Will Overspend
SACRAMENTO — Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown helped make his party even more powerful in California during the last eight years and now, less than a month before leaving office, he predicts that dominance will make it difficult for his successor to control Democrats' hunger for spending and regulations. The leader...
Walters: Brown's Symbiotic Relationship With the Media
During his half-century-long career in California politics, Jerry Brown has had a complex relationship with journalists, particularly those who covered him on a day-to-day basis. He once referred to “the journalistic weather” – sometimes sunny and helpful to his career, sometimes dark and critical. That said, he was fairly open...
Costa Says Dem Takeover of Congress Good for High-Speed Rail
As Rep. Jim Costa prepares for the 116th Congress, he remains bullish on the future of high-speed rail in California. The Fresno Democrat has always supported the bullet train and publicly taken on its critics. The estimated $77 billion dollar project is in the midst of construction in and around...
Gov. Brown Talks Health Care, 4 Terms in Office
SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Jerry Brown predicted Tuesday that Republicans would face disastrous electoral consequences if a federal judge's ruling to strike down the Affordable Care Act holds. "It will build such a backlash that the Democrats will not only overtake the Senate, they'll win the presidency and they'll win...
Grocery Delivery, With No Human Drivers, Is Underway
The nation's largest grocery chain stepped into the driverless delivery market Tuesday, bringing milk, eggs and other items to a customer's home in a vehicle with nobody at the wheel. Although limited to delivering within about a mile of one Arizona supermarket owned by Kroger Co., it represents the latest...
Walters: Should California Make It Easier to Practice Law?
Does California have too many lawyers, or too few? That’s the unspoken question underlying a complicated debate within California’s legal community over whether the examination that would-be attorneys must pass to be licensed is too difficult. The passage rate on the State Bar’s July test, released in November, plummeted to...