Rick Stevenson – California Globe

California Billionaire Tax – the Real Winners

May 25, 2026 6:00 amMay 25, 2026 6:01 am

The pending California billionaire tax is poorly designed for the claimed intent of financing health care and education in many ways. One of those ways has yet to be mentioned by those seeking to put it on the ballot or...

California Voter ID Has a Solid and Interesting History

May 24, 2026 8:00 amMay 24, 2026 8:04 am

Several decades ago, when I became registered as a California voter, balloting was at a neighborhood polling place and everyone had to show government issued identification (Voter ID), even when the polling workers personally knew you. That process continued for...

California’s Senators Have Their Own Ethical Problems Without Opposition to US Attorney Appointments

August 12, 2025 3:30 amAugust 12, 2025 11:52 am

California has four United States Attorneys, three of which have been appointed this year, as is normal for a new Presidential Administration. They are Craig Missakian for the Northern District, Bill Essayli for the Central District, and Adam Gordon for...

OPINION: California Slavery Reparations Fallacies

August 14, 2024 7:30 amAugust 14, 2024 7:31 am

In June, CalMatters published an item by Democrat Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer, member of the California (slavery) Reparations Task Force that, for over three million California taxpayer dollars, rendered a Report of over a thousand pages, much of which had absolutely...

Sacramento: Hapless on Homeless

March 2, 2024 7:34 amMarch 2, 2024 7:37 am

The present day Sacramento homeless situation came to national attention in early 2009 when television journalist, and Sacramento native, Lisa Ling broadcast footage of what now would be considered a relatively small encampment along the American River on the then...

California Slavery Reparations Technology Boondoggle

September 19, 2023 8:00 amSeptember 19, 2023 8:08 am

First it must be understood, slavery was never legal in what is now the state of California, under Spanish, Mexican, U.S. military occupation, or as a state. Prior to European contact, there were Native American slaves held by at least...

California Reparations for Slavery Defies Fact, Logic, Fairness, and Law

June 5, 2023 2:45 amJune 6, 2023 7:57 am

If one seeks a state that should pay reparations for slavery, California is not that state. In fact, California gold paid the most of any state to finance the Civil War to a successful conclusion that ended slavery in the...