To Capitol insiders, the term “tort wars” is shorthand for decades of political wrangling over the rules governing lawsuits for personal injuries — who can sue and collect damages for which actions. The rules are a mix of legislation and appellate court interpretations, and with untold billions of dollars at...
Walters : Newsom Puts Rosy Spin on Job Report
California, which has been mired in a pandemic recession for the last year, enjoyed some modest economic gains in March as the state’s unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%. Gov. Gavin Newsom, not surprisingly, immediately trumpeted the job report as showing “the steady progress that we need to bring California back.”...
Walters : California Reverses, Now Shutting Prisons
It was 1981 and then-Gov. Jerry Brown had a problem. California’s 12 prisons were bulging at the seams with more than 28,000 inmates, thanks largely to tougher sentencing laws he signed, and he was told to expect another 20,000 more inmates within a few years. Brown to Launch Major Prison...
Walters : A Reminder About Supplies and Demands
We Americans are blessed with abundant —even overabundant —consumer goods and services and often take that fact for granted. We assume that when we pull into a service station its pumps will dispense fuel, that when we go to a grocery store, we will find full shelves, or that when...
Walters : Bills Would Hamstring Future California Recalls
As signatures on petitions to force Gov. Gavin Newsom into a recall election are being tallied, the Legislature is considering bills that would, if enacted, make future recalls of California’s elected officials less likely. Two Democratic state senators, Ben Allen of Redondo Beach and Josh Newman of Fullerton, are carrying...
Walters : Drought Hits California — and Newsom
By any standard, California is experiencing one of its periodic droughts after two successive years of below-normal precipitation. “We are now facing the reality that it will be a second dry year for California and that is having a significant impact on our water supply,” state water resources director Karla...
Walters : California ‘Job Killer’ List Reignites Old Conflict
Annually, the California Chamber of Commerce chooses a relative handful of the hundreds of bills pending in the Legislature and labels them “job killers” that would impose new regulatory or taxation burdens. The publication of the chamber’s list of measures it considers most onerous has become an important ritual because...
Walters : Pandemic has Damaged California’s School Children
A comprehensive history of the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on California would surely conclude that the state’s school children have been treated shamefully. The incessant political squabbling over closing and reopening schools, and the sporadic efforts at in-home learning, have once again demonstrated that the supposed adults who manage and operate...
Walters : Would Fed Change Make Higher State Taxes More Likely?
California has long held the dubious honor of having the nation’s highest income tax rates — 13.3% for those at the very top of the income ladder. However, New York is coming closer to California. Its governor, Andrew Cuomo, and legislative leaders have agreed to boost state income tax rates...
Walters : James Mills Personified a Long-Past Era
In this era of ideological polarization and perpetual partisan warfare, it’s difficult to grasp the collegial, bipartisan ambience that once prevailed in California’s Senate. Democrats usually occupied most of the Senate’s 40 seats, but Republicans were accorded virtually equal opportunities to carry significant legislation and even chaired major committees. Leaders...