It turns out that understanding the federal government’s late-December decision on where to site the testing of unmanned aircraft in U.S. skies is as simple as ABC: Anywhere but California. Other rationales will be offered […]

Nat Trives was first elected to the Santa Monica City Council in 1971 and was re-elected in 1975. He served as Mayor from 1975-1979. He has been a Santa Monica Police Officer, and is a […]

Gov. Jerry Brown hasn’t yet said whether he’ll run for a new term as governor, his fourth overall. Aides like to chortle that, “Well, he has until the March 7 filing deadline to decide.” But […]

Early January is usually a downtime in the co-dependent businesses of government and news, replete with vacation breaks for many. This can often net flaky ideas and words far more coverage than they deserve. So […]

During the Ming Dynasty in China the Mongols were removed from the throne, literature became more important, schools were created, the justice system was reformed, and the Great Wall and the Grand Canal were also […]

Every once in awhile, California gets a major public official who thrives on telling the unvarnished truth. In recent history, these have usually held the office of state treasurer, a low-visibility post that can give […]

In any normal election year, most public attention, newspaper headlines and television reportage centers on top-of-the-ticket jobs like president, governor and U.S. senator. Not in 2014. There is no race for either president or U.S. […]

Give the Republican Party credit: After drawing fewer than 23 percent of Latino votes in the last presidential election, the GOP will now spend $10 million nationally trying to build permanent ground organizations and “a […]

If there’s one main reason behind the distrust many Californians feel for government and elected officials at all levels, it may be the way special interests regularly pour millions of dollars into election campaigns while […]

Gwynne Pugh, former Santa Monica Planning Commissioner, soccer coach, architect, engineer, and urbanist is the third Santa Monica public leader in this series of interviews with Santa Monica political thinkers. This series is an opportunity […]