ArcaMax

SAN DIEGO -- California Gov. Gavin Newsom is bringing a whoopee cushion to a constitutional crisis.

By mocking President Donald Trump on social media, Newsom thinks he is making voters laugh. What he is really doing is making a big mistake.

These are dark days for our democracy. And like the saying goes: When the going gets tough, the tough....Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Think of the valuable lessons we learned as children.

Be kind. Think of others. Share your toys. Treat others as you want to be treated. Show hospitality to those who visit your home.

Perhaps we're taught to behave properly by parents or grandparents, or by teachers and coaches, or by friends and society. Wherever the ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- After weeks and months of digesting stressful stories about Ukraine, Gaza, redistricting games in Texas and California and the Trump administration's takeover of Democratic-run cities in service of a right-wing agenda, I needed a break.

So I took one. It lasted just long enough for me to consume a different sort of media. And, as...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- What happens in Los Angeles doesn't stay in Los Angeles. Not when you have a president who believes that fearmongering is a terrible thing to waste.

First, Trump ravaged L.A. by unleashing a battalion of goons -- made up of agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Marines, ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Immigrants do so much for Americans. They care for our children, look after our elderly, cook our food, make our beds, trim our lawns and perform other tasks in our homes and businesses.

Must they now entertain us? Do we expect them to make us laugh to help pass all the free time we have because they're doing our chores?

Many ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Americans get all fired up over politics even though not many of us seem to understand the subject matter.

For example, on both the right and the left, you will find true believers who share a common view that the two parties are vastly different and present a stark contrast to voters.

That's adorable. There are actually ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- As a journalist, there are at least three things that really annoy me.

One is when elected officials or public servants who bristle whenever folks in my tribe tell them how to do their jobs then turn around and tell us how to do ours.

Another is when government officials gaslight members of the press, trying to convince us to ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Confused and rudderless, the Democratic Party has been derailed. Only Cory Booker seems to be on the right track.

The Democratic senator from New Jersey is demanding that fellow Democrats battle Republicans, stand their ground and fight GOP efforts to make America the 1950s again.

An autopsy is in order. Democrats wound up in a ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Crafting a column can be an unpredictable endeavor. That is especially true when you're writing about politics.

Like most human beings, elected officials can be awfully complicated.

Take California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is as complicated as they come. His personal story is filled with paradoxes.

On the one hand, as the son of ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- I'm the product of a mixed marriage. My parents are both Mexican American, but they were born on what sometimes seem like different planets.

I'm a lifelong Californian, who has spent all but a dozen of my 58 years living in the Golden State. I share those roots with my father, who was born in Central California in 1941.

But I'm ...Read more

SAN DIEGO -- Good mentors can teach us a lot, except how to say goodbye.

One of mine -- who entered my life a quarter century ago as one of my graduate school professors and who I was later fortunate to call "friend" -- schooled me both in and out of the classroom.

Even now, I hear his gravelly voice in my head offering a gentle scolding: "...Read more