ERIE, Pa. — It was the last morning of the workweek, and Scott Bremner, a popular talk-radio host here, found himself — again — in the role of accidental referee on the issue of race. And again, the discussion was inspired by racial provocations from President Donald Trump. For one caller, critics...
4 Sue to Block California Tax Return Law Aimed at Trump
SACRAMENTO — Four California voters have sued to block a new state law aimed at forcing Republican President Donald Trump to release his income tax returns. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a law last week that requires presidential candidates to file five years of their income tax returns with the California secretary...
Walters: It's Time to Derail the Bullet Train
A decade ago, shortly after California voters narrowly approved a $9.95 billion bond issue to finance a statewide high-speed rail train system, an official involved in early planning for the project confided a dirty little secret. While a 200-mph bullet train was the sizzle sold to voters, he told me,...
Walters: California Tax Revenue Is Soaring
It’s the good news that California’s political establishment — Democratic politicians and their allies in public-employee labor unions — prefer not to acknowledge. The official line from the establishment is that California’s schools, local governments, and state programs are being financially starved. The drumbeat of impoverishment is clearly aimed at...
Walters: Trump and California at It Again
President Donald Trump and the Democrats who dominate California politics are locked into a rather bizarre, symbiotic relationship. Almost daily, they fire political and legal bullets at each other across 2,728 miles – by highway – of American soil, each knowing that no matter how strange the missives may appear...
'Game of Thrones' Reigns With Record 32 Emmy Nominations
LOS ANGELES — HBO's "Game of Thrones" slashed its way to a record-setting 32 Emmy nominations Tuesday for its eighth and final season, leading HBO back to dominance over Netflix, the streaming service that bumped it last year from atop the increasingly crowded television heap. The bloodthirsty saga's total eclipsed...
Walters: Conflict Over Votes for Local Taxes Heats Up
For decades, it’s been an article of political faith – as well as law – that local government taxes designated for particular purposes require two-thirds approval by voters. The supermajority vote provision was created by Proposition 13, California’s famous – or infamous – property tax limit measure, passed by voters...
Breakouts, Burns, Zingers: What to Watch in Democrats' Debates
WASHINGTON — Sixty seconds for answers, a television audience of millions and, for some candidates, a first chance to introduce themselves to voters. The back-to-back Democratic presidential debates beginning Wednesday are exercises in competitive sound bites featuring 20 candidates hoping to oust President Donald Trump in 2020. The hopefuls range widely in age, sex...
Walters: Democratic Voters More Centrist Than Their Party
When the state Democratic Party staged a convention in San Francisco a few weeks ago, it drew many of the seemingly countless would-be presidential candidates – particularly those positioning themselves on the party’s left-most wing. Delegates roared their approval as hopeful after hopeful denounced President Donald Trump and promised a...
Walters: Bill Reduces Ballot Measure Transparency
Given their druthers, many government officials would prefer to do their business – our business, actually – behind closed doors and provide sanitized, self-serving versions of their actions after the fact. Journalists and governmental watchdogs struggle constantly to overcome the tendency toward secrecy and obfuscation, sometimes winning and often losing....