January 17, 2026
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Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

Exit Exam Demise Cheapens High School Graduation:

The single easiest bill for California legislators to pass this year probably was Senate Bill 725, giving about 5,000 high school students the ability to graduate without taking the state’s high school exit exam, which […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

PUC Reform Vetos Send Wrong Message:

There’s something crazy when the most powerful agency in California government spends an entire year mired in scandal caused in large part by inadequate controls over the activities of its key people – and not […]

Steve Stajich, Columnist

Santa Monica Says “Hello Kitty”:

Regardless of the Internet’s ability to exalt something of no real seeming importance to national prominence in a short period of time, there are a still a lot of things that don’t occur to us […]

Thomas B. Elias, Columnist

‘Trump Effect’ On Latinos Already Showing Up:

Shades of 1994 and the “Pete Wilson effect” that very quickly turned California from a swing state that could go either way in any particular election to a solidly Democratic one where only a mega-movie […]