Tag archives: opinion

Cannabis Tax Debacle: Our $1.6B County Minimally Deserves Competence
By Jeff Giordano   |   April 16, 2024

After nearly a year of working on cannabis tax alternatives, our Deputy CEO finally presented her findings to the Board of Supervisors who are considering a November election Cannabis tax ballot Referendum. More disappointing than the presentation’s lack of depth, analysis or erudition was its shockingly obvious cannabis-bias. Allow me to explain: There are only […]

State Street Revisited
By Jeff Harding   |   March 26, 2024

We all want a thriving, vibrant State Street, but we don’t have one. I first wrote about the decline of State Street in 2017. As I look back to those articles not much has changed.  State Street isn’t actually dead, but it has been dying for years. I know that some folks deny this, but […]

The $50 Minimum Wage
By Jeff Harding   |   February 27, 2024

I always find it curious that proponents of higher minimum wages don’t aim high enough. The Federal minimum wage is $7.25. As of January 1, California’s minimum wage went to $16 per hour; fast-food workers get $20 per hour. If they believe this is the way to lift low-wage workers out of poverty, why is […]

Santa Barbara: Tilting Toward Tyranny
By Jeff Giordano   |   November 22, 2022

At a time when, nationally, we’re discussing (i.e. screaming at one another) democracy, I thought it appropriate to bring the issue a bit closer to home. You see, part of any great democracy is the idea of Checks and Balances – it’s what separates us from authoritarianism. Unfortunately, in Santa Barbara we tend toward tyranny […]

California Scheming: Fast Food Folly Unfrocked
By Bob Hazard   |   October 4, 2022

California, which already ranks dead last in Chief Executive’s “Best and Worst States for Business,” just took another giant leap backward. On Labor Day, September 9, 2022, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law, a new,deceptively named “Fast Food Recovery Act.” This legislation has nothing to do with fast-food recovery. Instead, once again, the government […]

Shays’ Rebellion: Washington’s Personal Example
By Rinaldo Brutoco   |   August 30, 2022

Shays’ Rebellion, which doesn’t get much attention in History class, was the first test of the young nation of the United States of America. And yet, understanding the uprising and its immediate after effects is extremely important today. On August 29, 1786, just three years after the formally securing independence through the 1783 Paris Peace […]

What is Truth?
By Robert Bernstein   |   February 27, 2020

“The moon is made of green cheese.” Fact or Opinion? This was a question we were given in a high school English unit on telling the difference between facts and opinions. This was a required part of the Montgomery County, Maryland curriculum. It took me many years to learn that it was not part of […]