Posts Tagged: technology
Opinion
OPINION: At the height of the recent drought, the legislature passed and Gov. Brown signed legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), that for the first time required California water agencies to account for groundwater pumping and held them accountable for the development of sustainable plans for the future. Groundwater accounts for approximately 30% of the state’s water supply.
News
What’s in a name? When it comes to social media, maybe a lot more than you think. There is a move in the Capitol to force social media companies such as Twitter and Facebook to identify “bots,” those robot-like, automated accounts that move through the internet and interact with real people — and each other.
Podcast
Veteran political consultant Wayne Johnson, who has handled well over 200 campaigns in California, the U.S. and across the world, joins the Podcast this week to chat about politics and technology with Capitol Weekly’s John Howard and Tim Foster. Johnson, who handles mostly GOP candidates, is busy this year: He is working on Republican businessman John Cox’s gubernatorial campaign, which got a boost moments before we recorded the show when former Congressman Doug Ose abruptly exited the race.
Opinion
The bad news: there are simply not enough skilled workers to meet the needs of California’s businesses. The good news: there are 2.5 million Californians who can be part of the solution with some college level training. They just need a more flexible educational opportunity. The “opportunity” for this population of working adults comes in the form of Gov. Brown’s proposed online community college.
Opinion
OPINION: It is fascinating, in a very frustrating sort of way, to watch certain special interests come up with excuses for why legislation should not be passed when the facts clearly are not on their side. I witnessed it first hand as the author of California’s first state-wide plastic bag legislation 10 years ago. Then and now, it often takes serious mental gymnastics to follow the rhetorical and “illogical” leaps of their arguments. The current iteration is the beverage industry’s, massive and misleading lobbying campaign to defeat Assembly Bill 319.
Opinion
OPINION: Intense pressure will be applied by some legislators, regulators, and stakeholders who favor a heavy-handed command and control approach instead of market-based measures to clean the air and reduce GHGs. Look no further than the March 3 South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD) governing board meeting for a real-life example.
Opinion
This is Suicide Prevention Week – a reminder that by learning the warning signs of suicide and how to intervene, every Californian has the opportunity to be a lifesaver.
Opinion
OPINION: The conventional wisdom, promoted by some advocacy groups when it suits their purposes, is that seniors are sad, helpless creatures who prefer to sit on the couch clutching their turntables and rotary phones, in front of black and white television sets, searching for reruns of Lawrence Welk. These demeaning attitudes are far from true.
Opinion
OPINION: Just as the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard requires electric utilities to phase in a specific amount of clean energy in our electricity mix, the LCFS mandates that the oil industry phase in cleaner fuels to tackle the state’s biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions: the fuel that runs our cars, trucks, and buses.
Opinion
Information technology has been a key driver of productivity growth in the private sector, as evidenced by the fact that companies that have invested the most in computers, software, and communications grew their employees’ output per hour three times faster than other companies. Unfortunately, it appears that most state governments, including California, lag behind and are more like those companies that have invested less in IT.
Marina Beach north of Monterey, near the site of a planned desalination plant. (Photo: Marina Coast Water District)
