The Republican Party may be dying a slow and painful death in California, but that shouldn’t necessarily be welcome news for its Democratic counterpart. While recent news coverage highlights the Republican demise, the consequent pressure on state Democrats to produce actual results is an important aspect of the story not being explored.

Pardon my cynicism, but California has been here before. Balancing the budget seems insoluble. Then, seemingly out of nowhere, money drops from the heavens. Entire new sources of revenue are discovered! Sacramento rejoices. The budget will be balanced after all and there is much festivity. But then the Grinch sneaks in. The expected revenue vanishes or is way under expectations. Lamentations are heard among the land. The budget crisis yet again seems insoluble.

The California Air Resources Board has proposed major changes in regulating vehicle emissions in hopes of improving California's air quality, which is the worst in the nation. The plan combines four sets of standards into the Advanced Clean Cars program. The changes would be sweeping and all-inclusive.

The Occupy movements on the UC campuses at Berkeley and Davis are being met by breathtakingly different responses by the two administrations.  Last week, Berkeley announced plans to make its campus more affordable for middle class families.  One of the major grievances of the Occupy student movement has been the rising cost of attending state universities – particularly California’s premier UC system.

Last week, I noted in this column a long-standing paradox of American public opinion.  Even in times of record high anti-incumbent sentiment, when a vast majority of Americans state that most members of Congress do not deserve re-election, a majority of Americans nonetheless claim that their own representatives should be re-elected.  A

Based on the latest RealClearPolitics poll, which measures an average of multiple polls, Dr.

56% of California small business owners say they lack the resources to expand their operations. This according to a report released Wednesday by the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University, which surveyed almost 2,000 California small business owners.

As the California Academy of the Sciences hosted a prominent climate change conference this week, organizer and Governor Jerry Brown criticized his political opponents at the event, an event that could ultimately hinder his case for moving forward on the issue.

It’s easy to be sympathetic with calls to “get the bums out” of our federal and state legislative bodies; or to seek out a third party solution; or even to call for the end of the two-party system.  But I don’t happen to believe any of these actions will – over the long haul – have the intended affect.