In 2007, California produced 2.1% of its total electricity from biomass power plants. While this is just a small percentage of total power, it is unique in that the power generated is from what often would be dumped in landfills. In a very real sense, this power is created from our own garbage and leftovers. So, it’s a double win. New energy is created locally and what was an expense - trucking refuse to landfills and paying for the permits - now becomes an income stream, as the garbage gets turned into energy. 

It appears that recent government-proposed solutions to staggering financial circumstances are not working.  At the federal level, the Obama administration must deal with a pessimistic report that TARP funds aren’t lifting the struggling institutions it promised to help (TARP funds intended to assist in relieving the inflated housing bubble and in stimulating small businesses among other designated purposes).

I always thought I was an Evan Bayh Democrat. Today I became certain. In his surprise retirement announcement, Bayh was careful to make it clear that he had wearied of the partisanship on both sides of the aisle.

He identified specific irrational partisan acts by both Republicans and by Democrats.

But, the timing of his departure spoke loudly about his dissatisfaction with the entire Washington establishment.

The old animosity between the governor and state representatives was on full display again over the nomination and confirmation of Santa Maria Republican State Senate representative Abel Maldonado to the post of Lieutenant Governor. The aforementioned post is a plum job for whoever can get it, as the Lieutenant Governor is the number two in command in the state of California.  After the State Senate agreed to accept his nominee, the Assembly rejected Maldonado in what Schwarzenegger characterized as petty politics.

Governor Schwarzenegger’s independent streak, celebrated by some as a sign of his nonpartisan and judicious political philosophy, and lamented by others as an inability to deal harshly with people outside his own party, has once more begun to reappear. In his most recent budget plan, the Governor warns that, if federal bailouts are not forthcoming, he will intentionally delay the implementation of several tax breaks/credits which California has otherwise promised to extend, to the dismay of all voters for whom tax hikes are seen as correlating with economic downturn.

In a perfect world, we’d all be covered by health insurance plans that cost little or nothing, provide excellent coverage with low or no co-pays and are guaranteed for life.  In California, that world isn’t a fantasy.  It’s the normal life of retirees who worked under the CalPERS pension and benefits system that protects most state workers.  It’s a great system that – to some – represents the ideal way to meet the healthcare needs of an aging population.

Except for one problem:  the cost.

Our current healthcare system costs about twice per capita compared to other industrialized countries, with drug prices two to three times as high.  Prices have risen exponentially, much faster than the rate of inflation.  Not to mention that 40 – 50 million Americans have no healthcare insurance coverage whatsoever, many of whom are children.  For decades, this issue has been a major concern for many American citizens. 

In response to overwhelming public opposition to its livestock tracing policies, the USDA announced last week that it is revising the standards for its National Animal Identification System. In a surprising yet welcome move, a federal agency is abandoning a blanket policy approach on a heavily lobbied issue and all because of grassroots action. Yet this may not be the lasting victory the majority of farmers and ranchers were hoping for.

Given the oft-bemoaned existence of partisanship in California politics, it is no surprise that imaginative remedies are frequently proposed. The standard anti-partisan argument goes that, because political parties are naturally polarized and ill-disposed to play well with each other, some sort of check must be placed on their fanatical opposition so as to permit the occasional bit of government action to pass muster.

At Sarah Palin's Tea Party Convention speech in Nashville, she was careful to say that the Tea Party movement has no leader and should remain that way- a leaderless, spontaneous, grassroots movement of the people. But without an official organization, platform, or leader, the Tea Party movement finds itself struggling to find an identity, a definition, and a common purpose. What is the Tea Party?