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Gov. Gavin Newsom has called the Legislature into special session to deal with gasoline prices after failing to get members to act in the final week of their session in August.
He’s pushing a bill to force oil refiners to keep a reserve on hand so prices don’t jump when refineries shut down for maintenance, to change the fuel mix or because of an accident. It’s all aimed at the oil companies.
Nowhere in the discussion are the underlying problems starting with Newsom’s and the legislature’s stated intent to end the use of fossil fuels in this state. The mandate against gasoline and diesel fueled car sales in 2035 and the demand that utilities transition to renewable power (regardless of the cost) have driven horrible spikes in electricity rates as well as gasoline prices that often are $1.50 more than the average price in the rest of the country. Electric rates have doubled in the last 10 years.
Suffice it to say that Californians pay dearly for their green ambitions.
The same goes for the grandstanding bill in Sacramento. Rich coastal elites that Newsom is beholden to and one of, control the agenda and the rest of California can pound sand.
Sadly, it’s that way in many areas, but particularly when it comes to anything green.
Miami police grabbing star Dolphins wide receiver Tyrek Hill from his expensive sports car and wrestling him to the ground and hand cuffing him has sparked plenty of comments. The body cam tape released after the fact shows that Hill may have sparked the reaction with his refusal to keep his tinted window rolled down despite the officer’s order to do so.
Police said he was stopped for speeding. The police have placed one officer on administrative leave and released the body cam footage. As you would expect, it’s been a hot topic on sports talk shows. Three black former pro athletes on Fox Sports “The Facility” show tore into the topic. All three explained that their fame and money means nothing when they’re behind the wheel and a police officer is pulling them over.
One said his advice to his son was to immediately call him and put him on speaker and then be quiet and cooperate. It reminded me of comments that Bishop T.D. Jakes, who pastors the megachurch The Potter’s House and is frequently on national TV shows, made after the George Floyd riots. He had the same advice for his adult son and echoed comments made by the former pro athletes.
They truly live in a world that I, as an older white man, do not know.
The Pleasanton Weekly and the 3 Valleys Foundation combined to present the documentary film on the state of journalism, “Stripped for Parts.” It lays out the horrible price that journalists and readers have paid as vulture venture capital funds have bought up newspapers at distressed asset prices and then continued to pull money out by laying off staff—several times.
A primary example was the Denver Post, once the flagship of Media News Group that owns the San Jose Mercury and the East Bay Times, the surviving name plates of what was once six thriving publications. The advertising business model is broken—advertising revenue has plunged every quarter since 2006—the year that Media News took over the Mercury. That followed the collapse in help wanted classified driven by Craig’s List.
The vexing challenge is finding ongoing revenue streams to fund professional newsrooms. No one had a clear answer. State Sen. Steve Glazer was pushing a bill in the Legislature to tax Meta, Google and Facebook with proceeds going to support journalism. It failed in favor of an off-the-books agreement between Google, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks and the state newspaper publishers association. Google will put up less than pocket change to support news.
For me, a panelist, there are no clear answers. Government funding makes me very nervous—consider the outright censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that they caved into government pressure to tailor coverage during the Covid crisis.
An Arizona foundation funded investigative work by the Arizona Republic that did not have the reporting resources to pursue an important story about child abuse. It resulted in new laws and policies, but there’s an element of it that smacks of pay to play.
The question hanging over is what business model will work and the role—if any—for government in it or is it left to foundations and the public paying more to have the information.
Police are doing their job when they ask you to roll down your window. NFL player Hill was complete jerk. Suspending that officer was a complete jerk decision.
Regarding Newspapers and advertising:
Several years ago, the East Bay Times was throwing the Chinese Official Communist Party English print newspaper in Pleasanton driveways. They stopped when I contacted them, informed them that was an official Communist Party publication. The neighbors on all sides of our home picked up that paper and threw it into our driveway.
“The neighbors on all sides of our home picked up that paper and threw it into our driveway.” This makes no sense. Why neighbors throw the CCP publication into you driveway? You should have elaborated.
Our household is Chinese literate. The paper is China Daily.