How a flat income tax can help California

Californians may have paid their federal and state taxes last month, but the Golden State remains in a fiscal crisis, with a projected 2008-2009 fiscal year budget deficit as high as $20.2 billion, according to the governor’s estimate on April 29. Such budget crunches hit California because of its highly punitive tax code. A flat income tax would free California from this revenue roller coaster and spur both economic growth and job creation.

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Celebrating original compositions

In April, I was invited to read one of the poems I had submitted to the 2008 Poets & Writers Celebration scheduled for May 2. This celebration is held each year on the Eureka campus of College of the Redwoods.

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Challenging the ‘system’

When George Washington won his first election to the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1758, 18 years before the Declaration of Independence was signed, he plied the 397 voters of the district with 28 gallons of rum, 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of wine, 46 gallons of beer and 2 gallons of hard cider for a total of 160 gallons of booze. His rival also bought refreshments for the occasion, but Washington totally outspent him; he was a rich plantation owner and a well-known guy. He didn’t even need to show up for the party.

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Carter’s kowtowing to terrorists places a roadblock on path to peace

Appearing recently on Al-Jazeera TV, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal made clear why he is pursuing a truce with Israel, and why anyone interested in a permanent Arab-Israeli peace should not be encouraged.

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Bottle water backlash

Bottled water is out, and tap water is in, Call it reverse snob appeal. These days, it’s the tap water enthusiasts, concerned about the environment, who get to act self-righteous. Just as it has become cool to bring your own cloth bags to the grocery store and your own mug to the coffee shop, the reusable water bottle is the hip, new eco-accessory.

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Election poll workers needed

In each election, Californians see “snapshots” of what makes our democracy tick. Candidates. Initiative measures. Campaign commercials. Voter registration drives. Ballots and the machines that count them.

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EarthTalk: From the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine

Dear EarthTalk: What is the “clean tech” business sector and why have I been hearing that term so much lately? — Andrea Newell, Denver, Colo.

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The food crisis, farm subsidies

Hunger and its cousin malnutrition are working together to bring the globe into an untenable situation. Food riots in Bangladesh, Egypt and Haiti have occurred, cost of food in the United States is skyrocketing and the situation grows worse daily. At a news conference on April 14, World Bank President Robert Zoelick came out with this assessment: “We have to put our money where our mouths are so that we can put food into hungry mouths.”

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Health care’s tipping point

Malcom Gladwell, the author of the best-seller “Blink,” also wrote a book called “The Tipping Point.” In it, the prominent economist talks about the phenomenon where events snowball and accumulate to such an extent that a major shift takes place. I think we are entering such a tipping point in medicine, and there are multiple factors contributing to this.

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Should Congress ban floating liquid natural gas terminals off U.S. shores?

NO:

Greens lavish praise on clean natural gas, block imports of it in liquid form

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