Part of coastal Norway is on fire. I thought 97 degrees before spring in L.A. was weird, but I have no words for this.

Could our long, national nightmare finally be ending? A bill in the California Legislature uses a novel legal theory that could nullify the 2010 Citizens United decision.

The billionaire-backed "Transparency Act" tries to pull a fast one on voters. Golden State is here to help Californians handle this and other deceptive campaign ploys. www.golden-state.org/welcome-to-e...

When @marielgarza.bsky.social's BS detector activates, voters benefit. Read her piece on the so-called Transparency Act, a billionaire-backed poison-pill ploy to kill the proposed California wealth tax.

So it’s “we have never been at war with…”

I didn’t often talk with Congressman Issa but each time I did, he was gratuitously rude. … Veteran Rep. Darrell Issa decides not to seek reelection in new Democratic-leaning district, sources say

California's bullet train isn't a fantasy -- it's actually getting built in the Central Valley. I think it's worth the wait and the cost.

Julie Marquis, as she always does, brings the 🔥🔥🔥

Californians don't have to take political marginalization lying down. Here's how they can use their collective influence to push for transformational reforms, some once unthinkable, before another would-be king crowns himself.

We’re in the no-pic, high-number innings of spring training.

This is a powerful and infuriating piec by David Freed. open.substack.com/pub/goldenst... h/t @marielgarza.bsky.social @paulthornton.bsky.social @goldenstateorg.bsky.social

Gut-wrenching. He has a family in the U.S. A thriving business too. But more than a month locked away in Adelanto melted his resolve to fight deportation.

For @goldenstateorg.bsky.social, I relied on a lifetime to pickups and dropoffs at LAX to suggest a personal hack for conquering the horseshoe of hell: Walk, if you are able.

Evidence of human civilization, the indispensable species, is everywhere.

The president just called out a minority group by name for scorn.

“We’re gonna do a good job in Los Angeles.” Is that a threat?

My colleague @marielgarza.bsky.social's convincing pitch to the former VP.

U2’s “The Tears of Things” is a soulful, aching tune. I am genuinely grateful for this song.

Is it indoctrination to teach my granddaughter to have empathy? Maybe a little of both, but so what? open.substack.com/pub/goldenst...

Norway leads the Olympic medal count, and by a lot. Even more impressive: You have to go all the way down to No. 15 in the rankings to find a country with a smaller population. The old country is a land of overachievers.

Only in today's America are the lessons once universally embraced in kindergarten classrooms deemed by some to be left-wing indoctrination. This is a really touching piece on grandparenting by a great writer.

I gotta admit: When I gave this submission a first read, I thought advocating for thoughtful legislation after US citizens were killed in the street kids seemed naive. But in this piece, a local business owner makes a compelling case why this is exactly the right moment to pass immigration reform.

Still kinda blows my mind that the old family farm is a tourist attraction.

Can the dreaded LAX horseshoe be improved with tolls? As a regular uses of SoCal's FasTrak flex lanes, I'd try it out for sure. www.golden-state.org/congestion-p...

With a direct light rail connection coming soon and an expensive road-building project underway, traffic through LAX's "horseshoe" will ... still be awful. I make the case for trying congestion pricing.

When @marielgarza.bsky.social writes a piece about trash, you *have* to read it.

This is a moving piece. Thanks to Dan Morain and Mary Lynne Vellinga for telling this story.

Me today. To me, this is a no-brainer: The U.S. has become a place where unaccountable brute squads kill dissidents in the street, where children are abducted on the way home from school.

Anyone in LA (northeast of DTLA or thereabouts) know what those explosions were? I'm in Alhambra and my dogs are *furious*.

Think being a billionaire buys you an election in California? Meg Whitman and Rick Caruso would like a word.

We're doin it. And as Mariel said, no billionaire with conflicting interests is telling us what to do.

Don't get me wrong: L.A.'s mountains are *gorgeous*. (But yeah, they've long had a trash problem, and it's a damn shame.)

Word of the day for Tony Romo: “conditions.”

Displaced Altadena renters are getting screwed. Please read this deeply reported, moving piece by Elizabeth Aguilera, herself a renter forced out of her family home by the Eaton fire.

Left: the billboard on York/Figueroa in Highland Park at 11:37 a.m. today. No, it doesn’t say “PUCK ICE.” Right: the same billboard at 3:54 p.m. today. I bet the DIYers drew more any eyeballs than any paying advertiser ever.

Another edition of “I’m old enough to remember when…” - ICE apologists would say “if you don’t like what agents did to you, you can always sue.”

Dear world (esp my family in Norway): "We" are not unravelling. A mad king is trying to make us do so.

“But the 90s and 00s” is officially a dead argument for not hating Dodger fans. (And I’m a Dodger fan — welcome home Kyle Tucker.)

Reposting on the off chance that someone listens and turns into a cheerful warrior.

Much respect to Jim Rainey at the LA Times who wrote about the local news renaissance in L.A. and plugged @goldenstateorg.bsky.social, LAreported.org, LAmaterial.com and other news outlets that will likely compete with the LAT for attention and readership. www.latimes.com/california/n...

Crime is down. Police shootings are up. Way up. xtown.la/2026/01/14/m...

I was able to register after waiting from 7:55 to 9. I picked Norway as my team, because why not.

I wonder what “agreement” or deal there is to make. There’s no real dispute — just a bully nation that wants to blow up NATO because its leader is crazy. Denmark and Greenland should concede nothing. www.nytimes.com/live/2026/01...

Remember that San Diego sheriff's deputy said to have OD'd after merely touching fentanyl for a few moments? Jonathan Ross' supposed internal bleeding kinda feels like that.

Smart analysis in the Golden State Report, @goldenstateorg.bsky.social, showing why Trump’s demand to drill offshore from California’s coast won’t happen. open.substack.com/pub/goldenst... An aside: Assemblyman Pete Wilson drove the drilling ban in 1969. Ronald Reagan was governor.

I'm old enough to remember the warnings of a uniquely American tilt into authoritarianism: It would be subtle and insidious, with daily life feeling normal as institutions folded. Nope. There are actual brown-shirted thugs beating people up on the streets. We're on the Nazi path.

I'm a fan of the LA Pod, so I almost asked my colleague Mariel for her autograph after she spent an hour talking to @awalkerinla.bsky.social and @mikebonin.bsky.social

good to know. www.golden-state.org/no-trump-won...

Notwithstanding the belligerent stupidity of taking over Greenland, the Danish realm has something like 60,000 residents. If statehood really is on the table, DC and Puerto Rico would like a word.

The owner of my former employer of 20 years is leading a biotech alliance with Saudi Arabia, which butchered a journalist in 2018. Everything Patrick Soon-Shiong said praising journalism after buying the LAT was a lie. I believed that when he made his opinion staff eat shit; this just confirms it.