The Press-Enterprise

... or have programs to refurbish computers, but “the combination is not common and that's really a major strength” of what Riverside is doing, said Joshua Breitbart with the New America Foundation, a Washington, DC-based public policy institute. ...

Journalist Joe Mathews, who analyzed the initiative process in his book “California Crackup,” said Johnson would be pleased with his handiwork. Mathews, though, said the initiative system also has complicated California government, in part because it ...

Joe Mathews and Mark Paul lay all it out in their book, "California Crack Up." They came to Riverside last week, speaking to UCR students, the World Affairs ...

"The survey simply points out how much taxpayers, businesses, cities and counties would gain if everyone claimed their refunds," said Maria Sotero, a program associate with the New America Foundation in Sacramento, in a phone interview. "It's estimated to be more effective as a stimulus when the economy is hurting."...

Is it time to place the two major political parties on California's endangered species list? If current trends persist, the number of independent voters may outnumber Democrats and Republicans by 2025.

Distrust of elected leaders and faltering confidence in the political establishment have increasingly driven Californians to the no-party label. New voters appear to be moving to the independent status so fast that we need to rethink the red and blue political map in the 2006 California election.

A year ago in January, Gov. Schwarzenegger declared 2005 "The Year of Reform," kicking off a contentious special election that ended with voters rejecting all of his proposed measures.

California's representative democracy is broken, and serious electoral reforms are needed. The best solution is reforming our electoral process to improve our chances of electing leaders who understand our problems and are committed to solving them.

Last month's report of the Commission on Federal Election Reform headed by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker deserves serious attention. The commission makes recommendations that would greatly improve our elections. The commission's boldest call is for universal voter registration, a practice used by many democracies around the world in which all eligible voters are automatically registered to vote.

The U.S. Senate will soon begin confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. With partisan groups on both sides gearing up for a fight, the process promises to be as contentious as past confirmations.

One can't help but wonder if we couldn't avoid much of the partisan mud wrestling about Supreme Court nominees if there were term limits on the high court. Perhaps more than any single factor, the "until death do we part" constitutional requirement has been responsible for bruising confirmation battles.