Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register, is launching a new daily newspaper in Los Angeles. The new daily’s publisher, Aaron Kushner, tells the OC Register, “We are going to bring our fabulous brand of local journalism and political
Jim Costa is running for his sixth term as a U.S. Congressman representing parts of California’s Central Valley. This year, four Republicans and one Democrat have stepped forward to challenge him. Costa currently represents California’s 16th district, which includes the
The White House has been concurrently running two campaigns dealing with wages. The first is an effort to raise the minimum wage. There’s a dedicated page on the White House site for that effort headlined “Raise the Wage.” The White
Snider’s grocery store is a family owned store in Maryland. Over the weekend WBFF Baltimore reported that the Snider’s owners are avoiding future Obamacare taxes by keeping their total number of full-time employees to forty-nine. As the story points out,
Dr. Minh Nguyen is an oncologist working in Newport Beach, California, a wealthy area of Orange County. This week Dr. Nguyen began getting calls from reporters after CMS released a list of Medicare payments showing he was paid $11 million
Covered California issued a reminder Wednesday that next week is the final deadline for enrollment. Initially the deadline for enrollment was March 31, but because of a “crush of consumer interest” in the final weeks, California extended the deadline to
Covered California issued a reminder Wednesday that next week is the final deadline for enrollment. Initially the deadline for enrollment was March 31, but because of a “crush of consumer interest” in the final weeks, California extended the deadline to
On March 17, 2012, Occupy Wall Street activists celebrated the six month anniversary of their protest movement by attempting to re-occupy Zuccotti Park. A scuffle with police took place that night which eventually led to a trial about to take
Kathleen Sebelius is resigning as Secretary of Health and Human Services, bringing to an end six contentious months during which the President’s biggest policy achievement, the Affordable Care Act, became a political albatross for Democrats. The New York Times reports
A bill designed to place a moratorium on all fracking activity in California was approved by a State Senate Committee Tuesday. Sen. Holly Mitchell of Los Angeles, who introduced SB1132, was quoted by the Los Angeles Times: “Many believe it is
The House Oversight Committee voted 21-12 to find Lois Lerner in contempt of Congress. A vote must now be taken up by the full House. Before the vote there was strong disagreement over what it would accomplish. Republicans have maintained
The heat in the IRS investigation just went up. Rep. Darrell Issa, head of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a letter today to ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings in which he accuses Cummings of working to
Last month, a collection of Asian-Americans groups, which one University of California professor compares to the Tea Party, helped defeat a bill designed to revive affirmative action in California’s college admissions. Now the Republican Party is hoping to capitalize on
Paul Krugman published a blog post yesterday titled “Asymmetric Stupidity” which argues that it’s primarily conservatives who suffer from epistemic closure. Here’s the core of Krugman’s thin argument: Here’s the thing: the lived experience is that this effect is not,
The founders of OKCupid, a free online dating site, made a splash last week when they joinedthe campaign against Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich. But before they wereoutspoken critics of Eich, the same four individuals founded a sitewhich promoted a “Dis”
Parts of California’s central valley are sinking, the Sacramento Bee reports, as farmers faced with drought and water sources cut off to protect the Delta smelt are pumping out deep groundwater to save their crops. The situation is serious enough that even
News anchor Reimy Chavez quit his job at Venezuela’s Globovision TV on air last week. In an interview published today, Chavez says he quit because he feared he was becoming an “accomplice to censorship.” Globovision was an independent, opposition friendly
Is the First Amendment a protection of the individual’s right to free speech or merely a recognition of the social utility of free speech? That’s the question which underlies the divide between the Supreme Courts conservative and liberal wings. Justice
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee announced yesterday that it will hold a vote to decide whether former I.R.S. employee Lois Lerner is in contempt of Congress on Thursday, April 10th. Lerner has twice been called before Congress to
Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro has introduced two new schemes designed to prevent chronic shortages of homes and basic goods including food. On Monday President Maduro issued a decree ordering landlords to sell apartments to any tenant who has rented for
Don’t feed the trolls! It’s good advice that may apply even when the troll in question is the Majority Leader in the U.S. Senate. One of the lessons you learn early when writing on the internet is that sometimes you
The Obama administration has issued dozens of delays to various Obamacare deadlines. University of Michigan law professor Nicholas Bagley says the President appears to be overstepping his constitutional authority. Bagley teaches at the University of Michigan, specializing in “administrative law,
From jobs created-or-saved to Obamacare sign-ups, one of the constants in the Obama administration has been its touting of inflated or otherwise misleading numbers to make it’s case for a particular policy. It was a pattern that got started early.
The Obama administration played a role in GM’s insulation from product liability lawsuits. As it stands, GM is not liable for any injury or death which happened before the government bailout in 2009. General Motors has recalled 1.6 million cars
The President held a celebration today at the White House to announce that 7.1 million people had signed up for insurance under Obamacare. As Jonathan Strong points out, it was a deeply partisan speech in which the President decried the
60 Minutes ran a segment on Elon Musk Sunday night which, after a brief intro, opened with some sweeping shots of the Tesla Model S cruising down the highway. But someone at 60 Minutes spiced up the audio with what
In what could be a leaked plot for a future Avengers movie, Senate Majority Leader wants us to know that the Koch brothers are in league with Paul Ryan to create a “modern Kochtopia.” (This is not to be confused
In the wake of mounting flight cancellations and international criticism, Venezuela has agreed to pay airlines the $3.8 billion dollars it currently owes. The Venezuelan Airline Association announced the change last Friday after several weeks of tough talk by the
The 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle, says that 80 percent of results are often the result of just 20 percent of actions. That seems to be the case with Obamacare. New data suggests that 80 percent of
CNN Money published a piece Monday titled “3 measures of Obamacare’s success.” Not surprisingly the author overlooks a lot of contradictory information in order to praise the law. The first piece of good news, according to CNN Money, is that
A ranking of 24 news personalities found CBS’ Scott Pelley the most likable anchor while MSNBC’s Chris Matthews ran dead last just behind fellow MSNBC host Alex Wagner. The ranking is based on Q scores, a numerical value based on
A new poll published Friday by the Associated Press finds that support for Obamacare continues to drop even as most Americans seem resigned to the fact that repeal is unlikely. Just 26 percent of respondents in the latest poll said
Ezekiel Emanuel believes that ten years from now employer-based insurance will be a thing of the past. By 2025 he believes less than 20 percent of Americans will get their coverage from an employer. Emanuel is one of the architects
Last week former NY Times poll aggregator Nate Silver announced that Republicans were favored to win the Senate this year. That did not sit well with Democrats who rallied around Silver in 2012 when he predicted Obama’s reelection. Today, the
An internal investigation into “Bridgegate” and other allegations of abuse of power has found no evidence of wrongdoing by Gov. Chris Christie. The 344 page report, assembled by law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher at the request of Gov. Christie,
African Americans are not signing up for insurance under Covered California at anywhere near their percentage of the population. With this year’s enrollment deadline just around the corner, time to fix the problem is short. African Americans make up about
In early 2004, MoveOn.org held a video competition called “Bush in 30 Seconds.” People submitted ads critical of the President and a group of celebrity judges including Jack Black and Eddie Vedder chose winners. The winning ad–it won both the
Politico’s Media Reporter, Dylan Byers, highlights a new Pew Research report which shows that MSNBC is circling the drain. But Byers’ own summary of what is driving MSNBC’s ratings and earnings down is, perhaps, even tougher than the Pew findings
Leopoldo Lopez is a Venezuelan opposition leader who turned himself in to authorities last month after he was charged with committing murder and terrorism. Lopez has spent more than a month in a military prison as President Maduro worked to
Insurance industry expert Bob Laszewski says this is a do or die moment for Obamacare. He believes there is a way to save the policy but only if the President acts before insurers announce their rate increases in May. Laszewski,