Seven years ago, when I was Deputy Commissioner of Corporations for the State of California, I can’t say that I anticipated a worldwide financial crisis as a result of sub-prime mortgage lending. But I did know that vulnerable populations were going to get sucked into dangerous financial transactions. Poor and middle-class […]

Answer: You get The Sweet Melissa!
It’s not saying much, but Los Angeles is way ahead of San Francisco when it comes to a functional municipal legislative body. In the blogging department, however, as much as I appreciate the watchful eye our own bloggers keep on City Hall, only San Francisco has Melissa Griffin. A practicing […]

The City by the Bay has a reputation for being a bastion of progressive politics, but you wouldn’t know it from the fight my dear friend Michela Alioto-Pier is having trying to make the board chamber wheelchair-accessible. John M. Glionna of the LA Times has the story:
What message, Alioto-Pier asked, does it send the disabled […]

Colombian superstar Juanes heard about the recent saber-rattling in Ecuador, Venezuela and his own native country. So he decided to make a statement: a concert called “Paz sin Fronteras” (”Peace Without Borders”) on the border between Colombia and Venezuela.
As can be seen in the photo above, many Latin Americans joined him in making this statement. […]

Among the many reasons I’m not excited about either of the Democratic candidates for president is that they have caved on free trade. Governor Richardson was prepared to take the political risk of standing strong on trade in a Democratic way — the only way to create a win-win for American workers, developing countries, the […]

I get asked all the time who I like, Hillary or Obama. I always answer Richardson. So whether Obama pulls Texas out of his hat today doesn’t matter much to me. But I’m happy to highlight Joe Cutbirth’s examination of Obama’s Texas strategy in today’s Huffington Post because of the light it shines on my […]