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Opinion, Santa Monica, Steve Stajich
Giant Mouse Attacks Holiday, Then Retreats
Posted May. 18, 2013, 9:18 am
When we were kids my father fabricated a Christmas decoration for our front yard out of an old poster and some plywood. The poster had been advertising for Coca Cola that featured the cherry-cheeked Santa Claus often seen pausing to refresh with a Coke during the Christmases of that era.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Tom Elias
How Much Should Non-Doctors Do?
Posted May. 18, 2013, 9:11 am
One thing is certain as California heads for a new health insurance era under the Affordable Health Care Act, better known as Obamacare: Almost all parts of the state will need more medical professionals to serve the additional 2 million to 4 million newly insured Californians.
City Council, Development, Opinion, Letters To The Editor, Santa Monica
An Open Letter To The Santa Monica City Council Regarding Walkability
Posted May. 13, 2013, 11:56 am
Dear Council, Tomorrow night, you are being asked to approve a Development Agreement which in a negligible way addresses the planning staff’s emphasis on “WALKABILITY” or LUCE’s buzzword phrases “GREEN CONNECTIONS” and “GROUND LEVEL OPEN SPACE” reached with over three years of public participation.
Opinion, Transportation, Santa Monica, Tom Elias
Toll Roads, Lanes Sound Warning Note For HSR
Posted May. 11, 2013, 9:00 am
Gov. Jerry Brown, construction labor unions and some others are determined to proceed with California’s nascent bullet train, with the first tracks scheduled to be laid later this year between Madera and the south end of Fresno in the San Joaquin Valley.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Susan Cloke, Palisades Park
Parks and the Santa Monica City Council
Posted May. 11, 2013, 8:56 am
Santa Monica is having an identity crisis. This city of 80,000 plus residents is internationally known for its ethos, life style, commitment to principles of sustainability and love of art, as much as its beaches and weather.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist
Marsy’s Law: A Proposition That's Working Well
Posted May. 11, 2013, 8:51 am
On a sunny California day in 1983, a woman loading bags into her car trunk in a supermarket parking lot was suddenly confronted by a gunman who forced her into the car, tied her up and drove her away.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Tom Elias
LNG Exports Could Hurt California Recovery
Posted May. 4, 2013, 9:02 am
California’s recovery has led the nation for months in producing new jobs, even though it hasn’t yet come close to replacing all those lost in the Great Recession of 2008-2011. Low natural gas prices have been one key element helping California along.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Steve Stajich
Public Spaces Are Exactly That
Posted May. 4, 2013, 8:56 am
The City has heard the uplifted voices of exercise instructors and, for now, agreed to try and find harmony between what public spaces should be and a desire on the part of fitness trainers to use Santa Monica parks to – I’m sorry everybody – conduct business.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Schools, Tom Elias
Don’t Let Preconceptions Decide School Funding
Posted May. 4, 2013, 8:51 am
When it comes to setting education funding policies for California, preconceived notions have long held at least as much sway as actual reality.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Government
Immigration Change Vital For GOP, But Not Enough
Posted Apr. 27, 2013, 8:56 am
Last fall’s overwhelming, more than 3-1 Latino vote for President Obama has at last gotten leading Republican politicians to realize they can’t permanently treat all 11 million undocumented immigrants like criminals.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Education, New Roads School
Hometown Hero: David Bryan – Educator and Adventurer
Posted Apr. 27, 2013, 8:53 am
David Bryan, the Head of School at New Roads School in Santa Monica, has spent most of his life in the classroom.
Opinion, California, Santa Monica, Courts, Government
Court's Hit At Governor Jerry Brown Actually Helps Him
Posted Apr. 27, 2013, 8:47 am
Normally, it's uncomfortable at best to hear a federal judge -- let alone a panel of three such jurists -- thunder criticism atone from the bench.
City Council, Opinion, Fitness, Santa Monica
The Time Has Come To Address Palisades Park Fitness Classes: Letter To The Editor
Posted Apr. 21, 2013, 8:33 am
When I first started offering outdoor fitness training classes in Palisades Park more than 10 years ago, the park was full of people using drugs, drinking alcohol, smoking, littering, and making other park users feel uncomfortable.
Opinion, Letters To The Editor, Santa Monica
Readers Respond To U.S. Postal Service Column
Posted Apr. 21, 2013, 8:11 am
Readers responded to Steve Stajich’s Mirror column regarding the U.S. Postal Service, and were united in their support of sustaining it.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist
San Onofre, Hanford Help Fuel Anti-Nuke Initiative
Posted Apr. 20, 2013, 10:22 am
The operators of both the San Onofre Nuclear Power Station and the nuclear waste reservation at Hanford, Wash., could not be doing better if they actually wanted to promote a new prospective ballot initiative aimed at keeping San Onofre offline and also shutting down Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s Diablo Canyon power plant.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist
Digital Sign Blackout: Amen!
Posted Apr. 20, 2013, 10:20 am
We were driving back home to Santa Monica after sunset from a weekend in the desert. We don’t usually make that journey after dark, so maybe we were due for a few new experiences. At a certain point outside Ontario, the 10 Freeway dipped under a bridge and became an array of orange cones and various signage; the configuration that one encounters during “road work.”
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Government
Governor Jerry Brown Now Looking At A 2014 Cakewalk
Posted Apr. 20, 2013, 10:16 am
Like flowers blooming in the spring, Republican candidates for governor have begun to pop up during the last few weeks.
Opinion, Letters To The Editor, Santa Monica
Food Trucks Only Welcome Under Certain Circumstances: Letter To The Editor
Posted Apr. 16, 2013, 9:24 am
Food trucks, both daytime and late night, are a welcome service only within certain unique venues /circumstances such as when there are few if any conventional food and beverage operations available to service the public in a particular area.
City Council, Development, Opinion, Letters To The Editor, Santa Monica
Santa Monica Development Trade Off Process A Sick Joke: Letter To The Editor
Posted Apr. 13, 2013, 8:50 am
Regarding yet another development agreement (the Village Trailer Park), the city’s planning director states “we are asking developers to provide roads and connections we’re seeking, and it doesn’t make sense to also penalize them for ceding their property” and adding “that the calculation was a common one used in previous development agreements.”
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Government
Will Farm Labor Shortage Drive Immigration Changes?
Posted Apr. 13, 2013, 8:19 am
There has been some dispute over whether the labor shortages California farmers reported over the last few years are real. It turns out they are very real, but that doesn’t quiet the skeptics.
Health, Opinion, Santa Monica, Courts
What Say You? Dignity, Autonomy, And The Advance Directive
Posted Apr. 13, 2013, 8:03 am
Dr. Jonathan Weaver, a member of the medical staff at Saint John’s Health Center, believes “communicating ones wishes for treatment at the end of life is one of the most important discussions you can have. This can be a conversation with your physician or with your spouse or any person you designate to be your advocate.
Opinion, California, Santa Monica, Government
Beware Of Easy California Municipal Bankruptcies
Posted Apr. 13, 2013, 7:58 am
No one is seriously suggesting that California will soon become another Cyprus, the Greek-speaking Mediterranean island nation whose economic bailout plan includes dunning holders of “large” bank accounts as much as half their holdings and freezing the rest.
Environment, Opinion, Letters To The Editor, Santa Monica
Fracking Fantasy: Letter To The Editor
Posted Apr. 9, 2013, 9:10 am
I read with both interest and some consternation the April 6 article by Thomas Elias touting the potential miracle cure of fracking to what ails the California economy. I think a little more homework and research is required. For eight years I served as a senior advisor to Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, a period where with the Governor’s encouragement fracking literally exploded onto the bucolic scene that is rural Pennsylvania.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Government
GOP Revival Will Take Big Orange County Change
Posted Apr. 6, 2013, 9:05 am
For more than half a century, the Election Night fate of California Republican candidates could be foretold early in the vote count: If a Republican emerged from Orange County with a lead of 250,000 or more votes, he or she would almost always win statewide office.
Opinion, Santa Monica, Columnist, Government
Enjoy Your Local Post Office… NOW!
Posted Apr. 6, 2013, 9:02 am
I think Americans are unfairly and even wrongly apathetic about whether or not the U.S. Postal Service survives into the 21st century. Waiting in line at any of the three Santa Monica branches I frequent (5th and Arizona, 1217 Wilshire, 2720 Neilson Way) one is tempted to point at trends and conclude that the day of the mailed letter, the brown paper-wrapped box from Grandma for your birthday, the card with $5 in it for your high school graduation… all of that is vanishing Americana.
