US Weekly

Check out the latest celeb sighting, courtesy of the Orange County Register paparazzi.

Trouble in the Golden State: End of the California Dream?

A good article in The Guardian's Observer section about the possibility of California becoming America's first failed state - and reasons to hope that this won't happen.

Ventura County fire northwest of LA: evacuations ordered

A Ventura County fire burned up some 200 acres earlier today. The brush fire is northwest of Los Angeles, California. Mandatory evacuations were ordered . . . more

Fixing a Broken State

There's an excellent article in the latest Economist about the possibility of California holding a constitutional convention sometime in the next few years to rewrite their current mammoth guiding document (it's longer than the U.S. Constitution). Strict rules for tax and budget legislation; gerrymandering; posturing extremists in the legislature on both sides; overreaching direct diplomacy with numerous wacky referenda in recent decades; all coming to a head in the current financial crisis with California's finances shot - huge budget deficits looming amidst plummeting tax receipts and a bond rating that counts for dead last of the 50 states.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. I like the idea of selecting convention members from the jury pool - how much more democratic can you get? (Although I wonder if there will be as many excuses to get out of convention duty...)