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Solar panel manufacturer Solyndra received upwards of $527 million in federal loan guarantees and was singled out by Obama as an example of American know-how and entrepreneurship. However, it filed for bankruptcy unexpectedly last week. It was so sudden that employees going to work that morning had no idea and were stunned when they were told to go HR and collect their final check. The reverberations from the collapse of Solyndra are increasing. There are a number of intertwined issues.  First

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced several biofuel projects for Pacific states that he says will eventually create thousands of jobs and break the nation's dependence on foreign oil. Farmers in 17 California counties and 18 in Washington state will be given the chance to grow camelina – an oilseed usually planted as a rotation crop for wheat – for conversion into a jet fuel substitute. Oregon farmers in 5 counties and Washington's Whitman County will be able to grow camelina

The confluence of three cultural events this week has raised my awareness of the precious value of freedom.  Two were just completed novels, and one was the repetition of an annual holiday.  The books were Barbara Kingsolver's "Poisonwood Bible" -- a searing account of the life of an American missionary family in the Congo as that nation won its independence from Belgium, and Eric Flint's historical novel "1824: the Arkansas War," which posits an independent Arkansas territory in what is today t

A California federal judge will hear the case against Jared Loughner, who faces multiple charges related to the shooting rampage in Tuscon, Arizona which left an Arizona federal judge dead and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded. Judge Larry A. Burns of San Diego was appointed to the case after all federal judges in Arizona recused themselves because the case involves the death of their colleague, U.S. District Judge John Roll, the chief federal judge for Arizona. Judge Burns wa

One of the most common criticisms of the two-party system is that the Democratic and Republican parties have become so polarized that they can no longer work together to solve the problems facing the nation.  Ironically, however, when they are able to achieve some form of bipartisan consensus on a given issue, the results often seem to exacerbate the problem. Or alternatively, they create a whole host of related problems in accordance with the law of unintended consequences. Consider the bipart

On Wednesday, third party gubernatorial candidates came together to discuss Proposition 19 and the need for all-inclusive debates as part of a press conference convened by an organization that speaks out against exclusion in California's electoral process. Fittingly, both Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown declined to participate, indicating once again that Democrats and Republicans have more in common than is popularly believed. Members of the two-party system are rarely willing to talk about non-par

One winter storm that hit the east coast this past winter had the anti-global warming advocates claiming victory over Al Gore and environmental groups pursuing legislative solutions to anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. The fact that – at the same time as snowfall records were set in Washington and New York – warm temperatures had enveloped western ski areas was largely ignored by the knee-jerk, anti-global warming crowd.  But, not the businesses affected by climate change. A recent Sla

The most heated debate in Sacramento during the past two years hasn’t been budget cuts depriving poor children of health care or awarding billion-dollar tax breaks to corporations.  It hasn’t even been California’s massive multi-billion dollar budget shortfalls. Generating far more public outcry is the mandatory spaying and neutering of cats and dogs. In 2008, unsuccessful spay/neuter legislation logged some 32,000 letters and e-mails either in support or opposition -- many thousands more th