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PD Editorial: Report card

PD Editorial  Report card

California has high standards for public education. Too frequently, however, student achievement is subpar. That’s one reason why the state should adopt new national guidelines for English and math. READ MORE

PREVIOUS COLUMNS

Blog: Inside Opinon

  • Most of us don't buy yachts, so you may have been surprised to learn that Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry could duck a $473,000 sales tax bill by docking his sleek new toy in Rhode Island. If so, you might also be surprised to learn that California will cut you essentially the same deal.If [...] A yacht, hold the taxes
  • Rep. Lynn Woolsey says in a guest opinion we just posted that the WikiLeaks revelations “left me no other choice than to vote this week against the supplemental appropriations bill to spend billions more on military operations in Afghanistan.”She went on to ask, “How could I in good conscience endorse continued financial support for an unwinnable [...] Woolsey, WikiLeaks and war spending
  • The City Hall pay scandal in Bell adds another count to the growing indictment against California's extravagant public employee pension benefits.Robert Rizzo may be out as city manager, but he qualifies for an annual pension of $600,000 for the rest of his life. With cost-of-living increases factored in, that could easily add up to $20 [...] For whom the Bell tolls
  • Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman slip and slide around issues like NASCAR drivers weaving through traffic. Whitman promises change with no details, mixed in with tired attacks on Brown, and the Zen master tells us that process is the program.It looks like they may duck another issue courtesy of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.Schwarzenegger, according to the [...] Another issue avoided in governor's race
  • We just posted an interesting guest opinion piece from the runner-up in the competition to remodel the AT&T building on 3rd Street in downtown Santa Rosa.It's rare we hear from the losing bidders in these kinds of design competitions. But in this case Eric Anderson, one of the partners of “The Exchange” proposal for the AT&T site, [...] Fair grievance or sour grapes?
  • In our Tuesday editorial, we strongly supported a bill by local Assemblyman Jared Huffman that would have required anyone receiving three DUIs to have their driver's license taken away " permanently.We felt such non-nonsense rules were needed after growing weary of the repeated stories of people with multiple DUIs having their licenses taken away only [...] Huffman reacts to defeat of DUI bill
  • Is your gas gauge sinking toward empty?  A letter in today's paper urges you to avoid ARCO gas stations because the parent company is BP.  Some people are still boycotting Exxon, 21 years after the big spill in Alaska.The temptation to make a statement, to vote with our dollars is strong. The trouble is those [...] Defining 'local'
  • A few numbers to ponder from Sonoma County's final election returns Turnout was 51.3 percent, down from four years ago, but still pretty good for an off-year primary in which the statewide figure is likely to be less than 40 percent.More than two-thirds of the votes cast were absentee ballots.A precise numbers isn't included in [...] Who voted in the June election?
  • Golis Being Golis
    PD columnist, Pete Golis, isn't just in the Sunday paper. He's blogging too.
  • Tim Speaks Out
    Former Rohnert Park Mayor, Tim Smith, blogs on SoCo politics
  • Inside Opinion
    PD editorial writers Paul Gullixson and Jim Sweeney weigh in on the news
  • Chris Smith
    PD columnist goes inside the story in his daily blog

COLUMNS: PAUL GULLIXSON

Blog: Pete Golis

  • Since he leaves office in January, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't have to worry about being recalled.Lucky for him. The Sacramento Bee today reports that Schwarzenegger now has the same approval rating as former Democratic Gov. Gray Davis.You member Davis. He's the guy who was recalled when Schwarzenegger, the action movie star, was swept into [...] Low marks for The Terminator
  • For a time last year, political optimists held out hope that a proposed constitutional convention could put state government back together again.It didn't happen because reformers couldn't raise the money necessary to press the campaign for a ballot measure. For obvious reasons, the special interests that bankroll most political initiatives in California like the system [...] The constitutional convention that didn't happen
  • If you followed supervisorial candidate Mike McGuire's regular reports on Twitter and Facebook, you know this much: The guy is tireless. For the last several months, he has been everywhere in the Fourth District. The returns tonight show that hard work paid off.Political people like to come up with fancy explanations for the outcomes of [...] For McGuire, hard work pays off
  • I'm one of those people who loves the ritual of voting. Casting a ballot at the neighborhood schoolhouse never fails to provide a few moments to celebrate tradition, say hello to friends and think about what it means to live in a democracy.I recognize this is a minority opinion. More than half the ballots counted [...] Voting the old-fashioned way

COLUMNIST: GAYE LEBARON

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