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A report Tuesday in the San Jose Mercury News suggests that California has become a "pay to play" state under the direction of its fundraiser-in-chief Gray Davis. State officials allowed one of California's largest polluters to increase toxic discharges into San Francisco Bay shortly after the company donated $70,500 to Gov. Gray Davis, a Mercury […]

In Wednesday's OpinionJournal.com, Claudia Rosett recounts the tale of Chinese dissident Zhang Shengli. Zhang (the Chinese have their surnames first) isn't famous -- or at least he wasn't until Ms. Rosett's piece -- but he's certainly someone who deserves a place in the United States. Zhang has a history. But 20 years ago he did […]

If you haven't been reading The Washington Post's series on the fall of Enron, you're missing out. The latest installment is here. I know you've heard it before, but I'd like to point out the following paragraph: That same day, Robert E. Rubin, the former Treasury secretary now with Citigroup Inc., called Peter R. Fisher, […]

A good friend of mine pointed out another case of disgusting corporate greed. Flood victims whose cable converters were destroyed during this month's heavy rains are being charged $300 for the damaged boxes by the company, officials said Tuesday. Karen Hartley, vice president for marketing and communications at Time Warner, said it is the company's […]

Roll Call is reporting that House GOP member have been dissuaded from filing an ethics complaint against a Democratic House member after Minority Leader Dick Gephardt threatened to retaliate against Republicans. Roll Call outlines the case against Rep. Paul Kanjorski: GOP strategists and party officials had been contemplating for months filing ethics charges against Kanjorski, […]

In his latest column he takes on the silly lawsuits against fast food joints for selling tasty food. In the course of his column he offers a look forward at some upcoming lawsuits. I like this one: Inexplicably Single Men vs. the Stuck-up Women Who Think They're too Good. A class-action suit against the female […]

I wanted to point readers to this Sacramento Bee column by Marjie Lundstrom before it dropped off the Bee's Web site. The article is something of an ode to what good laws can do. Last week a mother dropped her newborn child off at a hospital -- instead of into a trash can. The "Safe […]

I came across this 1999 budget update from the Concord Coalition. Short-term budget surpluses are not the long-term solution to the problems of Medicare and Social Security. Regardless of its size, a projected surplus is no substitute for the tough choices policy makers must make to address demographic realities. Simply using presumed general revenue surpluses […]

Yes, it's another Paul Krugman column. I'll let some bloggers from New Jersey, Tennesee and Alabama address some of the claims of mismanagement that Krugman alleges took place in those states. It must be his training in business and economics, but Krugman repeatedly assumes in his attacks against President (and then-Governor) Bush and the governors […]

Today's San Diego Union-Tribune reports on a stem cell success story at La Jolla's Scripps Research Institute. (The story on the Web site is missing the lede -- I've typed it in from the paper itself.) Growth of abnormal blood vessels deep inside the eye slowly degrades the retina, impairing vision for nearly 6 million […]