Monthly Archive for Opinion
Opinion Stories Posted in November 2007
Opinion: Zygote rights? 'Personhood' measure on the fringe
Category: Abortion · State: Colorado · Source: Daily Camera
So, you've decided, in consultation with your doctors, to use the benefits of modern technology to have a child. You're in-vitro-fertilized eggs now "live" at a lab facility, and soon, via implantation, you hope pregnancy will result.
Opinion: Coalition Seeks to End Abusive Property Seizure
Category: Taxes · State: California · Source: Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association
Last week, a coalition led by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association announced that more than one million signatures have been collected to qualify the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act (CPOFPA) for the June 2008 ballot. This eminent domain reform measure will stop government from taking homes, family farms, small business and places of worship and giving the land to other private interests.
Opinion: Ballot measure seeks to rein in cities' land grabs
Category: Property Rights · State: California · Source: Orange County Register
California is one of the few states that has yet to pass serious property-rights reforms following the U.S. Supreme Court's otherworldly 2005 decision affirming the "right" of cities and other government agencies to use eminent domain to take property from private owners and give it to big developers, who promise cities higher tax returns and "economic development" on the targeted property. Cities have long abused property rights this way, but the court's affirmation shocked Americans and propelled most states to pass additional protections.
Opinion: MOUNTAIN VIEWS: BIG APPLE PARTIES AT OUR EXPENSE
Category: Taxes · State: New York · Source: Niagara Falls Reporter
Every once in a while, since I reached the age of reason, I've heard residents of upstate New York, particularly Western New York, talk about "seceding" from New York City. The thought-to-word process usually took the form of mumbling and grumbling about some new fiscal atrocity dreamed up by Big Apple legislators and visited upon the upstate regions, which benighted Manhattan residents seem to think is generally centered somewhere around Peekskill. More often than not, I was amused. Now, I am paying attention.
Opinion: Real reform: States could agree to pick president by popular vote
Category: Election Reform · State: California · Source: The Reporter
It's ba-aaaaack! Like the hockey-masked assailant in the "Friday the 13th" movies that refuses to die, the GOP ballot measure designed to ensure that their presidential candidate wins nearly half of California's electoral votes has been revived. And it's got Democratic leaders nervous.
Opinion: Virginia Johnson: Two extreme camps control transportation debate
Category: Transportation · State: California · Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
I would like the public to know that I have been personally involved with the effort to craft a transportation ballot measure since 2003, the year prior to the demise of Measure J. I have heard all sides of the issues by participating in the 26-month Transportation Funding Task Force process and in 20 smaller caucus meetings attended by key stakeholders holding various opinions.
Opinion: Measure 49: A con after all
Category: Property Rights · State: Oregon · Source: Albany Democrat Herald
There were enough conditional clauses in Measure 49 that some of us thought the whole thing was a con. Now a memo from the state Department of Land Conservation and development seems to prove it.
Opinion: As We See It: TRANSPORTATION measure: End gridlock of special interests
Category: Transportation · State: California · Source: Santa Cruz Sentinel
Hopefully, this will be enough time for advocates of a $600 million transportation measure to rally public support.
Opinion: A break for schools
Category: Education · State: Washington · Source: Seattle Times
The simple-majority ballot measure for school levies is ahead by a comfortable enough margin to break open the champagne. This ballot measure had a simple request: Allow school levy requests to pass by a 50 percent-plus-one voting majority rather than a 60 percent supermajority.
Opinion: Voters were hoodwinked into passing city's sweeping new tax
Category: Taxes · State: California · Source: Gilroy Dispatch
We're both surprised and saddened that Measure A, the vague, voluminous and misleading communication user's tax, was approved by Gilroy voters last week.
Opinion: State's land-use law needs revision
Category: Property Rights · State: Oregon · Source: Silverton Appeal
No matter what you thought about Ballot Measure 49, the land-use measure approved in last week’s election, it got people talking. Now this state needs to keep the conversation going. The best way to do that is for Oregon to revive the comatose Big Look task force. The task force is a long-overdue rewrite of Oregon’s land-use policies. It covers transportation, the economy and housing, among other topics. It’s much broader than Measure 49.
Opinion: Ballot measures kick off 2008 election year in Oregon
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Oregon · Source: Statesman Journal
It's often hard to pick one event or issue to write about when there are so many from which to choose. So here are some observations on a few events of last week that mark the official start of the 2008 election year.
Opinion: The people didn't really speak, given the low turnout
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Washington · Source: Crosscut
Here's a bracing corrective from reader Patrick Higgins, arguing that "the people" didn't really speak, as we pundits like to say, since the large majority of voters stayed silent. Mr. Higgins, you have the microphone:
Opinion: State should focus on educating voters about propositions
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: New York · Source: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle
If your radar screen is full today with politically identified flying objects — candidates running for local offices — be aware that there's something election-related that's coming in pretty low, obscured by inattention.
Opinion: State Republican chairman Tom Wilson answers our questions
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: New Jersey · Source: Courier Post
An interview with New Jersey Republican chairman Tom Wilson
Opinion: Texas propositions
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Texas · Source: Houston Chronicle
Voters should approve state propositions 1-16 on the Nov. 6 ballot
Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Measure 37 threatened land
Category: Property Rights · State: Oregon · Source: Statesman Journal
In his reference to Oregon's initiative and referendum system, Mr. Vasend seems not to understand that the Legislature, being our elected representatives, also has the constitutional right to refer an issue to "we the people" for a vote.
Opinion: Letter to the Editor: Alabama needs I&R
Category: Initiative and Referendum · State: Alabama · Source: The Birmingham News
Regarding the editorial "To do (or not to do)" (The News, Oct. 27): The history of our Legislature makes it obvious that even if there were no squabble over rules in the Senate, much of the to-do list of needed legislation falls into the never-do category. A majority of legislators and their special-interest bosses prefer the status quo.
Opinion: A big lie and laundered money
Category: Government Spending · State: Oregon · Source: The Daily Astorian
Measure 4-123 offers a solution to district attorney pay statewide In a local contest that has been thoroughly ugly, the dirtiest detail has been the expensive post card that carried the Big Lie. The lie was that Clatsop County Measure 4-123 could make our district attorney the highest paid in Oregon.
Opinion: Vote 'yes' on Measure A
Category: City Government · State: California · Source: Inland Valley Daily Bulletin
Passage would clear the way for a new police station in an old Home Depot building. Chino voters would do well to pass that city's Measure A on Tuesday.
Opinion: Measure 49 wipes out property rights
Category: Property Rights · State: Oregon · Source: Silverton Appeal
Measure 49 wipes out property rights for Oregonians. It allows the government to take away value and use of your property without compensation.
Opinion: A reconciling way to talk about abortion
Category: Abortion · State: Minnesota South Dakota · Source: The Minneapolis Star Tribune
South Dakota's 2006 campaign could be a harbinger.
Other Monthly Archives for Opinion
- November 2007 (22)