January 17, 2026
Breaking News, Latest News, and Videos
Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

Public Utilities Commission Descends Into Comic Opera:

For many years, California’s powerful Public Utilities Commission has conducted Kabuki-style dances with the multi-billion-dollar corporations it regulates. But the latest significant commission decision amounts to a descent into comic opera. When the PUC deals […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

Major Highway Repairs Unlikely In 2016:

It will be no surprise if Californians don’t see many needed highway repairs getting underway in the next year. For the Jerry Brown administration says it will take $59 billion to repair state roads and […]

Steve Stajich, Columnist

Ten Good Things About 2015:

It will be too easy for writers and columnists to formulate their Worst Moments of 2015 lists this year because, once again, gun events—terrorist and otherwise—will dominate those lists. Reflection on the darkness enveloping our […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

Flailing California GOP Knows How Bad Off It Is:

Rarely has a political party flailed in as many futile ways as California’s branch of the Republican Party. In a state where Latinos are plainly on their way to becoming the largest voting bloc, the […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

Syria Refugee Vote A Roadmap To 2016 Election:

Anyone looking for a roadmap showing which of California’s 53 congressional district elections will be tight next year need look no farther than how the state’s House Democrats voted last month on a bill that […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

UC Heeds Its Critics; Will Take More Californians:

After more than three years of steadfastly denying the increased enrollment of foreign and out-of-state students could endanger the very California identity of the University of California, it’s stunning and encouraging to see the 10-campus […]