As the Wisconsin protests have continued and spread to Indiana and Ohio, with solidarity rallies held in Sacramento and elsewhere, the strategy of Republican Governors becomes clear: cripple public unions. If there was ever any doubt about this goal, it was dispelled by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s conversation with a newspaper editor (impersonating billionaire conservative campaign contributor David Koch) in which Walker discusses their anti-union strategy.  This conservative effort has important implications for the Sacramento area.  Not coincidentally, the effort follows a long decline of unions. In 1945, according to the Department of Labor, unions represented 34% of private empl

Sacramentan Phil Angelides was in town yesterday signing reports at a local bookstore (thankfully there are still some). Noteworthy? Apparently not, there was hardly a mention in the local media. There was, of course, some buzz in January when Mr. A released the report of his federal commission, “The Financial Crisis Inquiry Report,” after an exhaustive 18-month investigation of the worst U.S., perhaps worldwide, financial crisis since the great depression, nearly a century ago. The commission’s work is the definitive piece (apologies to Michael Lewis and other contributors) on this debacle, which is so aptly described in Mr. A’s report as an avoidable result of “human action and inactio

Too bad there’s not an instant replay for political endorsements since the Sacramento Bee recently made a highly questionable call by choosing Dan Lungren over Dr. Ami Bera in the 3rd District Congressional race. “By a slim margin,” the Bee argued, stating that Bera’s grasp of the nation’s and district’s “vast challenges” isn’t “as wide as it should be.” What are these “vast challenges” and what are the two candidates' positions about them? Lungren’s record on the economy and jobs is dismal: voting against the 2009 Recovery Act stimulus and unemployment extensions – job creators/savers – and recently voting against a $30 billion small business lending and tax breaks bill (more jobs help)

As a local small business owner who, like many others, has seen his activity decline during the past two years, I wrestle with changing my business plan, modifying my products and services, and generally reinventing my work, possibly for a different market niche. And I wonder what sort of outside help I’ll get, if any, from the public sector. With fears of a double-dip recession, continuing high unemployment in California (and locally), and evidence that small business employment is lagging, I wonder about the positions of local 3rd District Congressional candidates on whom we’ll be voting in November: incumbent Dan Lungren and challenger Ami Bera. Where do they stand on credit availabili

 Recently, 3rd District Congressman Dan Lungren sent a mailer to his constituents in which he rails against federal stimulus funding and, unethically, promotes his re-election campaign against challenger Ami Bera in the upcoming November election, a contest on which we reported here last January: Lungren, the career politician who defends the Washington D.C. status quo grid-lock, versus Dr. Bera, a newcomer to politics whose fresh, long-term views represent hoped-for solutions to the 3rd District’s most pressing problems. Why is this recent incident important? Aside from being about one of the major local and regional races on the November ballot, what Lungren is doing with his mailer, “p