About Susan Shelley
Susan Shelley is a columnist and editorial writer for the Southern California News Group, eleven daily newspapers including the Orange County Register and the Los Angeles Daily News. She’s also Vice President of Communications for the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the most influential taxpayer advocacy group in California. Susan is a frequent guest on Southern California radio and TV news and interview shows to talk about politics and policy, speaks often to groups and organizations, and is the host of the Howard Jarvis Podcast for KABC. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter: @Susan_Shelley.
- California ends single-family zoning, Californians fight back – July 10, 2022Exactly one day after he survived a recall election, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed two bills that ended single-family zoning throughout California. Senate Bill 9 allows single-family lots anywhere in the state to be split in two, so that there can be two houses and two accessory dwelling units on a lot that formerly was zoned for just one house.
- L.A. City Council votes to give unions somebody else’s money – July 6, 2022Los Angeles city government is the subject of an ongoing FBI investigation into public corruption, but as writer Michael Kinsley once observed, the scandal is what’s legal. Powerful special interests are now writing their own self-serving initiatives and getting them adopted as law without even the bother of putting them on the ballot.
- A guide to what the Supreme Court is doing – July 3, 2022With its recent rulings on gun rights, abortion rights and climate change, the Supreme Court is sending a clear message to all government officials that the Constitution means what it says. This has unnerved a lot of people who have grown accustomed to the idea of a “living Constitution” that evolves through landmark Supreme Court
- George Gascón insists murder is unpredictable – June 29, 2022No one could have known, Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón insisted, that the murderer of two El Monte police officers was suddenly going to become violent. “We all wish that we could predict violence,” he said, “but the reality is that we can’t.” The alleged gunman, Justin Flores, reportedly a known gang member with
- California’s abortion amendment “enshrines” a right to late-term abortion – June 26, 2022At the urging of Governor Gavin Newsom, the California legislature is rushing a constitutional amendment to the November ballot that would create a fundamental right to choose an abortion at any stage of pregnancy.Senate Constitutional Amendment 10 has already passed in the Senate. On Thursday it was passed in the
- Cash in a tequila box: Courtroom highlights from Los Angeles City Hall corruption trial – June 22, 2022The U.S. Department of Justice released a photograph of a Don Julio 1942 tequila box with the lid open, its gold lining shimmering above the contents of the box – ten thick stacks of bundled $100 bills. The first trial resulting from the FBI’s investigation into public corruption at Los Angeles City Hall is underway. According to prosecutors
- Democrats are terrified, and this is why – June 18, 2022Donald J. Trump will be the Republican nominee for president in 2024, according to the New York Times. After interviewing “nearly 50 Democratic officials, from county leaders to members of Congress,” as well as “disappointed voters” who backed Joe Biden in 2020, the Times reported last weekend that Democrats “from coast to coast are
- New loophole to raise taxes doesn’t work every time – June 15, 2022The Manhattan Beach Education Foundation describes itself on its website as a “community driven fundraising organization, which supplements state funding” for the public schools of Manhattan Beach. On June 9, the foundation posted an article announcing that it raised $1.3 million with its Annual Manhattan Wine
- California regulators plan total ban on gas stoves, furnaces, water heaters – June 13, 2022Last month, state energy officials warned that California likely will have a shortage of electricity this summer equivalent to what is needed to power about 1.3 million homes. So why are local and state regulators increasingly trying to force Californians to rely on increasingly unreliable electricity? In Sacramento, the California Air Resources
- L.A. campaign rules make free speech illegal in elections – June 12, 2022Welcome to another exciting episode of everyone’s favorite California government game show, “Why is This Even Legal?!” Today’s show comes to you live from Los Angeles, where the city motto seems to be, “Crime is a business, but business is a crime.” Headed for the November ballot is an exciting new initiative sponsored by the
- Let’s Go Brandon: Joe Biden’s presidency is a disaster – June 5, 2022It began in early September, less than eight months after Joe Biden was sworn in as president of the United States. “Explicit chants against President Joe Biden have broken out at some college football games for the second weekend in a row,” Newsweek reported. It happened when the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers played the
- Here’s why Porter Ranch homes were built next to Aliso Canyon gas storage facility – June 1, 2022A bill that would have required the closure of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility by 2027 was gutted and killed in the state Senate, with the author complaining on the Senate floor, “I get it. The gas industry is very powerful.” Yes, but that’s just a sliver of the story of Aliso Canyon, where a gas storage well blowout in October 2015 caused
- California’s war on driving and parking – May 29, 2022Back in the 1970s, as an energy crisis held the nation hostage to the whims of OPEC, politicians and planners thought it would be a great idea for Americans to carpool. The idea never caught on, possibly because the politicians and planners had seen too many episodes of “The Flintstones” and were under the mistaken impression that
- Lawsuit over homelessness in Los Angeles city and county settles nothing – May 25, 2022Hurry up and wait. That’s the latest on the lawsuit by the L.A. Alliance for Human Rights against the city and county of Los Angeles. After spending years hectoring city and county officials to pick up the pace of their efforts to house the homeless in the Skid Row area, U.S. District Judge David Carter has delayed approval of a
- Miss him yet? Presidential library will need plenty of space for the “Trump was Right” exhibit – May 22, 2022If you think Donald Trump colluded with Russia, you have been played. The nation is still in the grip of a deadly news blackout, so you probably haven’t heard that Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation has uncovered the now uncontested fact that the Hillary Clinton campaign invented the entire story of Russian collusion.
- Blue ribbon commission on homelessness calls for more bureaucrats – May 18, 2022If you’re a politician trying to get past your next election, few things are more useful than a blue ribbon commission. It has the appearance of thoughtfulness, gravitas, wisdom, collaboration and action, exactly the way a comedian in a gorilla suit has the appearance of being a gorilla. There are two main differences between
- The politics of overturning Roe v. Wade may surprise politicians – May 15, 2022Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the case of Roe v. Wade in 1973, politicians on all sides have had a free ride on the issue of abortion. They could comfortably take positions that would never attract majority support, knowing they would never have to vote on actual legislation embodying those views.
- L.A. shakedown awaits Super Bowl champion Rams – May 11, 2022The casually arrogant legalized corruption in Los Angeles City Hall staggers the imagination. Take City Councilmember Bob Blumenfield. Please. For the record, this newspaper’s editorial board has endorsed businessman Scott Silverstein, who is challenging Blumenfield as he runs for a third term.
- Major parties have major advantages against independent candidates like Michael Shellenberger – May 7, 2022All of California’s problems are man-made, and they can all be fixed. Before that can happen, however, California’s political problems have to be fixed. That is what stands in the way of fixing everything else. It’s not as if the voters haven’t tried. In 1911, voters adopted the initiative process to go around the political