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In a little-noticed move in late August, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation that would award all of California's electoral votes in presidential elections to whichever candidate wins the national popular vote, a solution that proponents say would make presidential elections more rational and fair. The bill is possible because the U.S. Constitution leaves the power of selecting electors for presidential elections to the individual states. Article II, Section 1 says: "The executive P

You just can't make this stuff up, folks. Our tree-hugging, let's-work-things-out governor has morphed into the Terminator when it comes to those who would dare to oppose renewable energy projects. "When local communities try to block installation of solar like they did in San Luis Obispo, we act to overcome the opposition, In Oakland I learned that some kind of opposition you have to crush. You can talk, but you have to move forward," says Governor Voldemort. The particular ire of his wrath a

Governor Jerry Brown is expected to provide a huge boost to the progressive anti-Electoral College movement with his signature on AB 459, the National Popular Vote law. The highly controversial bill, passed by both the Assembly and the state Senate last Thursday would enroll California in an interstate agreement that obliges member states in presidential elections to give their electoral votes to the candidate with the most votes nationwide, regardless of the true tally of each state's electoral

The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has published an update and a revision of a 2007 study entitled “Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom”. The report analyzed three primary “freedom variables” for each state, determining the overall burden that local and state policies place on individual residents. So how did California stack up? Frankly, not so good. In fact, California was only underperformed by New Jersey and New York. The authors, William Ruger a

It's doubtful that "birthers" are wallowing in embarassment today over the president's release of his long-form birth certificate.  They never really cared about the piece of paper.  It was the man they were after.  And the man, to their dismay, remains our president, our first black president. This controversy reminds me of the naked racism that I grew up with.  In my home state of Virginia, non-whites were regularly asked to prove themselves more competent than whites in order to gain the vot

California's antiquated electrical grid was never designed to handle large amounts of decentralized power. But that's precisely what it's getting now from tens of thousands of small-scale solar installations on homes and businesses. The power flows both ways, and unpredictably.  This puts stress on the grid, which was never built to handle sudden and unexpected inflows and outflows of power. As more people install solar at home and at small businesses, the challenges of handling it will only in

Over the past decade, the Golden State has experienced significant growth in the number of its minority residents.  Led by Hispanics, minorities now comprise about three out of every five Californians. "The state's Hispanic population grew by more than a quarter in the last decade, and Latinos now make up 38% of the state, which nearly passes non-Hispanic whites, who make up 40% of the population. More than half of Californians younger than 18 are Latino. The political and policy ramifications

The ever-saltier Salton Sea could be saved by a simple one word solution -- algae.  At least that's what a trio of scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego believe. Their idea -- to have farmers in the Imperial Valley grow algae, which uses less water than traditional feed crops like alfalfa -- would allow more water to flow into the Sea, hopefully stabilizing its salinity.   As part of a 2003 water transfer between the Imperial Irrigation District and San Diego Coun

On July 1, the federal government and dozens of states set up temporary “high-risk” health insurance pools for people denied health insurance due to so-called pre-existing conditions. These pools were one of the major provisions included in federal health care reform signed into law early this year. However, this is only a temporary fix intended to provide health insurance to individuals without coverage until the law goes fully into effect in 2014, when insurance companies will no longer be ab

Possibly indicating what direction the president might lean on comprehensive immigration reform, the Washington Examiner reports that President Obama has proposed cutting U.S. border security as part of his 2011 budget.  This includes two specific provisions: 1. Reducing the amount of Border Patrol agents. 2. Cutting funding for a “virtual fence” along the U.S.-Mexico border, which is the technologically-advanced fence armed by several surveillance devices. Overwhelmingly, Republicans do