Syndicated Columnists

There will be 61 names of would-be governors on the June 2 primary election ballot, but the top two finishers will — as certainly as anything can be in politics

How does the supposedly most fearsome regime in the violent Middle East now find itself on the verge of an utter economic and military collapse?  Iran’s half-century-long deadly terrorist reputation

Ten days ago, Rep. Eric Swalwell was getting very close to becoming the Democratic candidate for governor of California. But then he imploded amidst sensational accusations of sexual harassment and

If anyone knows that President Donald Trump, for all his bluster, can mean what he says, it is the Iranians. Trump is the president who took out the powerful Qasem

The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration oversees the collection of sales taxes by more than a half-million retail sellers, ranging from giants such as Amazon and Walmart to

Vice President JD Vance faced an impossible task trying to negotiate an end to the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. That Vance failed is no surprise, given Iran’s so-far implacable resistance

Sunday afternoon, during the television broadcast of a San Francisco Giants-Baltimore Orioles baseball game, an ad popped up, accusing Rep. Eric Swalwell of ducking tough votes in Congress. The ad

When California voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, they forced a massive change in how government services are financed that continues to reverberate nearly a half-century later. Prop. 13’s limits

Watt Avenue is one of several Sacramento County streets named for famous inventors, in this case James Watt, father of the steam engine. It is also one of the county’s

President Donald Trump says he finds it insulting to hear critics say he does not have a plan to win the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.  “People say, ‘He doesn’t have

For weeks, leaders of California’s Democratic Party have worried aloud about having so many Democrats running for governor that two Republicans could finish first and second in the state’s June

Political media habitually use “race” to describe contests for public office. However the word implies movement and therefore would be inaccurate if applied to this year’s election of a new

Jimmy Kimmel is a fool. Last week, Kimmel mocked Department of Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin for beginning his career as a plumber, rather than being, say, a lawyer, like

It seems weird to say, but Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., appears to believe Democrats have honored the memory of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by withholding the pay

A few days ago, Santa Monica’s city and civic figures ceremonially opened a 13-unit apartment complex called Berkeley Station for low-income families and young adults – exactly the sort of

California hasn’t had a truly balanced state budget for four or maybe five years, and the current one continues to overspend its revenues. Nevertheless, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to spend

Nine months into the 2025-26 fiscal year, state tax revenues are running several billion dollars ahead of projections in the budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed last June. That’s a

How many times has President Donald Trump said that the war in Iran, now entering its fourth week, will be brief? Many. I asked Grok for 20 examples of Trump

Another myth has crumbled, decades after death extinguished the person, but not the legend. Cesar Chavez, he of United Farmworker fame, he of the marches and the documentaries and the

Gavin Newsom loves to brag about his accomplishments as governor — a syndrome that sometimes backfires when reality raises its ugly head. So it was in January 2022 when he