Category Archives: Politics

Hero: A Sheriff’s Volunteer

Posted on by

Armed robbers shot my friend’s brother-in-law, a volunteer with a sheriff’s dept., as he rushed to the aid of a fellow cop.  Sixty-three year old Philip Grigg a father and grandfather, now clings to life in a Phoenix hospital.

On December 31, a gray and cold day, Grigg, a tractor-trailer driver, hopped into his truck — probably on his way to a local market, according to his wife.

But on the way, a car driven by armed robbers fleeing a patrol car crashed into Grigg’s pickup. Grigg watched as Officer Scott Sefranka pulled up to arrest the men. But when Sefranka struggled, Grigg jumped out to help. In a flash, one of the alleged suspects, Roger Sharp, grabbed Sefranka’s gun and fired. He hit both men—at close range.

Continue reading →

Artists Face a Faustian Choice

Posted on by

An artist’s life is difficult, nigh impossible.

Creative art alone can rarely support a budding painter, dancer, or singer. Artists are often forced to choose between raising a family or the possessive zeal to create.

Wealthy patrons spend multiple millions of dollars at lavish art markets such as the Venice Biennale and Art Basel on a few “superstar” artists. But the vast majority of artists struggle to make a living. Just read this RAND study.

Continue reading →

Philippines Typhoon Link to Climate Change

Posted on by

The destruction in the Philippines from Typhoon Haiyan is unfathomable. Walls of water, winds of fury, mudslides. Desolation. Death count is in the thousands and still rising.

It was the worst storm on record to hit the islands. The cause? Scientists argue that greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming are partly to blame, a by-product of a highly civilized, fossil-fueled world.The worst offenders: the U.S. and China.

Continue reading →

Gambling’s False Promise

Posted on by

The lure of gambling as a way to fill city piggy banks mystifies me. Cities and states open their doors to casinos expecting to rake in billions in tax dollars. But they don’t add in the cost of soaring crime rates, traffic gridlock, bankruptcies and addictions. They turn their backs as local shops and restaurants go out of business, abandoned by customers glued to the casino tables.

I first wrote a column about gambling’s false promise in 2004. Even though the underside of gambling is getting more exposure, politicians still don’t get it.

Here’s an excerpt from my column in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Earl Grinols, author of “Gambling in America: Costs and Benefits,” studied the rates of crime, bankruptcies, lost workdays, domestic violence, illness, divorces and more in counties with—and without—casinos. Even using conservative estimates, the economist found that social costs of gambling outweigh benefits 3 to 1. A net loss.

Grinols estimates the annual cost of gambling to the U.S. economy at between $40 billion and $50 billion, nearly half the cost of drug abuse. The bottom line: Gambling takes far more than it gives.

Why encourage a pastime that can destroy people’s lives? “Patrons of Disney World don’t lose their life’s savings in a visit. But casino high-rollers do,” says Grinols. “Moviegoers don’t typically consider suicide on the drive home. But desperate gamblers take swan dives off casino roofs.”

Read more here.

In Honor of Military Veterans

Posted on by

The scars of war are hard to hide and hard to heal. For many U.S. combat veterans, the emotional toll combined with debilitating physical injuries can make it tougher to survive on home soil than on the battlefield.

Nationwide, hundreds of thousands of vets are suffering from a healthcare benefits backlog. Compounding the problem, more than 62,000 veterans are homeless on any given night; many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse. Another 140,000 are in prison.

Policy makers and the VA need to honor and care for those who sacrificed their lives and livelihoods for our country—and not abandon them when they need us most.

Law students are stepping in to help with a free legal clinic at the VA Medical Center in San Francisco.  Read more here.

Government Shutdown

Posted on by

Political columnist Charles P. Pierce aptly blames the government shutdown on a single House of Congress, which he describes as “a more lethal combination of political ambition, political stupidity, and political vainglory” than any other in the history of the U.S.

The Esquire pundit slams the House for shutting down the federal government “because it disapproves of a law passed by a previous Congress, signed by the president, and upheld by the Supreme Court, a law that does nothing more than extend the possibility of health insurance to the millions of Americans who do not presently have it.”

He calls Congress an “ungovernable collection of snake-handlers.” I think he nailed it.