Editorials
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Payday loan concerns
The state Legislature risks worsening the difficult financial circumstances of many low-income Californians with AB 377, a payday lending bill that maintains the high-interest status quo of a dubious industry.
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Trying to grasp this disaster
We now have incontrovertible proof that political polarization, which, until recently, has largely manifested itself as annoying theater, is about to send California over the cliff. On a near straight-party vote, the Legislature has allowed the engines of state government to freeze up. The few who in the past have showed a willingness to compromise have been ostracized. The camps have turned away from each other, and voters, who somehow still fail to see the disaster for what it is, only cheer on their partisan favorites and villify the other side.
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Feeling patriotic? Take our history quiz
INDEPENDENCE DAY EXAM
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Ashburn doesn't get it
Roy Ashburn, you've got to be kidding us. The state of California is in a state of fiscal chaos, poised to issue IOU's to taxpayers, vendors and local agencies as early as today because of the Legislature's continuing inability to balance the budget. But you're not willing to share the pain.
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An IOU scam
By the time you read this, the state of California may already have started issuing IOU's in lieu of negotiable checks. The promise-of-payment certificates won't come due until Oct. 1, assuming the state has the money then -- certainly no sure thing.
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Ballots need more than one name
Barring a new challenger (and there's certainly time for one to emerge) Bob Barton's decision not to run for District Attorney could well deprive Kern County of a choice in one of the most high-profile offices in the region. Kern County voters haven't had any competitive options in the DA's race since 1982, an astounding six elections featuring a single, familiar name.
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Spray parks prove wise investments
OK, we were wrong. Mostly. Spray parks are indeed appealing replacements for swimming pools at Bakersfield city parks, for a few reasons.
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DUELING POLLS EDITION
A recent NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows President Obama's favorability ratings slipping a little. Another poll shows Republican self-loathing at remarkably high levels. If those aren't contradictory results, they at least present an interesting contrast. What else are opinion polls telling us about ourselves? Plenty. More than we can pack into this little space. We polled the polls for a glimpse.
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Initiative process put us in this jam
The budget-deficit ball is back in the Legislature's court. California voters, having rejected an extension of the emergency taxes proferred in Proposition 1A, passed it back to legislators with the none-too-specific demand, "Here, you fix it." Which, of course, is what the Legislature was supposed to have done in the first place. But California lawmakers failed to do so, and we are not optimistic about their ability to rise to the occasion now.
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Voters knew what they were doing
Three weeks after Californians resoundingly defeated five budget-bridging propositions, forcing leaders across the state to realistically ponder brutal cuts in every public service and program imaginable, the state's largest union is trying to convince us that the voters didn't really mean it. Oh, the union acknowledges, they meant to cast all of those "no" votes all right -- but voters weren't necessarily implying that they would refuse to accept additional taxes. Well, we've got news for the SEIU: Yes they were.
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Voters knew what they were doing
Three weeks after Californians resoundingly defeated five budget-bridging propositions, forcing leaders across the state to realistically ponder brutal cuts in every public service and program imaginable, the state's largest union is trying to convince us that the voters didn't really mean it. Oh, the union acknowledges, they meant to cast all of those "no" votes all right -- but voters weren't necessarily implying that they would refuse to accept additional taxes. Well, we've got news for the SEIU: Yes they were.
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Special First Amendment Edition
Honk if You Love the First Amendment Award: Helen Immelt believes her car has free-speech rights. Fortunately, a Seattle-area judge does not agree. The prolonged honking of one's car horn in front of a neighbor's home in the small hours of the morning is not protected by the First Amendment.
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U.S. can't allow California to fail
The voters have spoken, and now it's the Legislature's duty to do their bidding: Balance the state budget by any means necessary, as long as it does not involve any of the strategies described in those five defeated propositions.
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B.H.O. Overseas Edition
B.H.O. OVERSEAS EDITION
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Empathy's role in decisions is undeniable
The American legal system is based on a useful falsehood. It's based on the falsehood that this is a nation of laws, not men; that in rendering decisions, disembodied, objective judges are able to put aside emotion and unruly passion and issue opinions on the basis of pure reason.
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Finally, a study of lawmakers' perks
Just when we thought there could be no bright spots coming from California state government's fiscal meltdown, along comes the California Citizens Compensation Commission.
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BBLL: Special judicial activism edition
SPECIAL JUDICIAL ACTIVISM EDITION
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Biggest, Best, Latest, Loudest: (Almost) All-Comedy Edition
(ALMOST) ALL-COMEDY EDITION
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Biggest Best Latest Loudest: SPECIAL GRADUATION EDITION
Most dubious absence award: California's Central Valley congressional delegation, which somehow managed to find other things to do Saturday, as UC Merced's first graduating class accepted the sheepskin.
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Get out and vote: A lot is at stake today
The outcome of today's election might not affect Californians' lives quite to the extent of last November's presidential election, but it'll be closer in importance than many might imagine.