by jpitney | Jan 3, 2026 | Civility, Local Government
From the Transcript of Zohran Mamdani’s Inauguration Speech: The majority will not use the language that we often expect from those who wield influence. I welcome the change. For too long, those fluent in the good grammar of civility have deployed decorum to mask...
by jpitney | Jan 2, 2026 | Crime, Police
Michael Fortner at The Washington Monthly: Peter Moskos’s Back from the Brink is both oral history and urban epic—a ground-level account of New York’s astonishing, world-historical crime decline, narrated by the cops, commissioners, city officials, and civic leaders...
by jpitney | Jan 1, 2026 | Budget, California Politics
Yue Stella Yu at CalMatters: The deficit is projected to reach nearly $18 billion next year, mostly because the state is expected to spend so much money that it would offset, if not eclipse, the strong tax revenues driven by an AI boom, said the nonpartisan...
by jpitney | Dec 31, 2025 | California Politics, Journalism, Journalists, Los Angeles, Newspapers
Peter Weinberger at The Claremont Courier: Local newspapers continued disappearing at a pace similar to — or worse than — 2024. More than 130 local news outlets closed this year, averaging over two per week. This trend has expanded news deserts with little to no local...
by jpitney | Dec 30, 2025 | California Politics, Economic Policy, Education, Environment, Homelessness, Poverty, State Government, Taxes, Transportation
Jim Geraghty at NRO: As I wrote earlier this year, U.S. News and World Report ranks each state on a wide variety of categories. In the most recent assessment, California ranked dead last in opportunity, dead last in affordability, 47th in employment, 47th in energy...
