I Know Who Can Save San Diego

Californians Love Outside Rescuers. This One’s a Mayor, and He’s In the Neighborhood.

Stay classy? That may be too much to ask of San Diego these days.

“America’s Finest City” is in the middle of another one of its routine, self-destructive crises of local government. This one is an ugly fight over the fate of Mayor Bob Filner. He either has a nasty habit of intimidating women and needs help (that’s what the mayor and his supporters say, so you know things are bad) or he is a sexual harasser with a predatory move called the Filner Headlock (don’t ask) and should resign.

Either way, …

Ditch the Coast and Move Inland

Forget L.A. or San Francisco. Visalia's the Place To Find Tomorrow's California Dream.

Are you a young person in an expensive coastal city who fears the California dream ended a few generations back? Do you see no end to your struggles with high …

Who Got Hurt By This NSA Scandal? California.

The Golden State Depends On Business With Foreigners For Its Prosperity. Now Trust Has Been Dangerously Undermined.

California and its businesses have a problem. It’s called the National Security Agency.

That may sound provincial. The debate over the massive NSA surveillance programs disclosed by Edward Snowden is a …

How American Is the One-Man Band?

Arthur Nakane, Street Musician of Southern California, Might Have Some Answers

For better and for worse, today’s America leaves its citizens to fend for themselves. So does that mean that each of us has to be a One-Man Band?

Fortunately, there’s a …

Conductor, Please Drop Me Off a Mile From the Airport

In California, We Wouldn’t Dream of Connecting Our Trains and Planes. That’d Be Too Far-Sighted.

A riddle. If you land at a big-city airport and there’s no train there, where are you?

Answer: California.

Yes, San Francisco, I know you’re the exception, with a BART train stop …

The Bad Dad Who Cursed California

We’re Still Paying the Price For Hiram Johnson’s Toxic Relationship With His Father

Why is California so hard to govern? One reason is that we’re suffering from daddy issues, and this Father’s Day is as good a time as any to confront them.

The …