Opinion
Steinberg embraces legalization; let’s all prepare to bow down
Good morning. On behalf of The Sacramento Bee’s editorial board, welcome to The Take, your opinion-politics newsletter. Please sign up for it here.
Erika D. Smith finds detritus from the opioid crisis in a park named for The Bee’s founding family. We offer our recommendation on Proposition 55 and take note of Darrell Steinberg’s embrace of Proposition 64 on marijuana legalization. Donald Trump supporter Peter Thiel likes it, too. On his excellent Golden State podcast, journalist Randy Shandobil asks California political reporters what we’d ask in Monday’s presidential debate. Our weekly roundup of opinion from swing states includes Ohio where, for almost a century, The Cincinnati Enquirer has endorsed Republicans for president. Not this year. Then there’s Omarosa Manigault.
Take a hit
Darrell Steinberg, mayor in-waiting and mental health advocate, added his name to promoters of Proposition 64, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s initiative to legalize marijuana.
The press release quotes hizzoner-elect as saying 64 “prioritizes strict regulation and prevention over criminalization, protects local decision-making authority and brings oversight and enforcement, and a common-sense tax structure, to what is already a billion-dollar industry.”
Market research by Arcview Group and New Frontier Data predicts California’s market would hit $6.5 billion by 2020. The report notes capital is flowing into the cannabis space. Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund joined “a $75 million Series B funding round of Privateer Holdings, a company that focuses on investments in the cannabis space.” Thiel is the libertarian Silicon Valley billionaire and Donald Trump delegate who sued the bejesus out of Gawker; he disliked how he was characterized.
Clearly, Proposition 64 is all about justice, regulation, prevention and oversight. And money. Lots and lots of money.
Our take
Endorsement: Because we side with public schools, we recommend a “yes” vote on Proposition 55, the initiative to extend the Proposition 30 income tax increase. Our endorsement is hardly full-throated.
Erika D. Smith: City employees pick up dozens of used needles a day from a number of Sacramento parks. McClatchy is one of them. On a typical day, they will pull 50 or 60 syringes, just from the bushes.
Joyce Terhaar: The story behind the story of the release of the video of Joseph Mann’s death. Reporter Anita Chabria will continue to press for information that holds our public officials accountable for their promised reform.
Dan Walters: U.S. Senate candidates Kamala Harris and Loretta Sanchez are putting voters to sleep.
Marcos Breton: Hitting Kevin Johnson with a pie won’t help the homeless.
Andrew Malcolm: Here’s a news flash: Debate winners are not necessarily election winners.
Jeremy Thomas: As a Marine who witnessed and endured the unspeakable horrors of war, I felt abandoned by the Legislature.
Joe Rodota and Jeff Dorso: At the end of this Farm-to-Fork Festival, let’s not succumb to a food coma. Instead, let’s deliver the next great civic amenity for the Sacramento region: a public market.
Rachel Morello-Frosch and Manuel Pastor: Environmental justice concerns, now proven to have merit, should be taken into account as we seek to achieve environmental equity and sustainability goals.
Bill Julian: Today, 20 years after Assembly Bill 1890, there are rumblings about undoing some of the energy crisis fixes, particularly California’s control over the governance of the California Independent System Operator.
Michael Vitiello’s Soapbox: Proposition 64 would be an improvement upon the current system. I probably will vote “yes.” But I won’t inhale.
Matt Haney: School names are not disconnected from the broader movement to make public schools reflective of the diverse histories and experiences of their students.
Kevin McCarty: California must insist on independent outside investigations of officer-involved shootings.
Take a number: 53 percent
Foon Rhee explains the implications in the Numbers Crunch of the fact that only 53 percent of millennials are registered to vote, compared with 76 percent of baby boomers and 58 percent of Gen Xers.
Their take
Modesto Bee: When marijuana is decriminalized, criminals will eventually go out of business. Polling shows Proposition 64 is entirely likely to pass. It should. (This Bee disagrees.)
Mercury News: Early release for some offenders is a reasonable idea, but the strategy has to be clear. Proposition 57 is not good enough. Vote “no.”
Las Vegas Sun: Nevada needs to close its gun loophole.
Charlotte Observer: Dashcam and body cam videos neither prove that the shooting of Keith Lamont Scott was justified nor that it was unjustified. They are one batch of evidence that tells us certain things but not others.
Takes from swing states
Miami Herald. Florida-29 electoral votes: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are ignoring Hispanic voters.
Cincinnati Enquirer, Ohio-18: Hillary Clinton has spent a lifetime working to improve the lives of Americans both inside and outside of Washington. It’s time to elect the first female U.S. president – not because she’s a woman, but because she’s hands-down the most qualified choice.
Detroit News, Michigan-16: Nanny Donald Trump proposes to expand the child care credit and extend it to the upper middle class. Any conservative worth his or her copy of “Road to Serfdom” can see through the holes in the Republican candidate’s proposal.
Raleigh News & Observer, North Carolina-15: Hillary Clinton would do better not to say anything about a candidate who will say anything. She should instead run for office by asserting her reasons for wanting it.
Wisconsin State Journal, Wisconsin-10: With Speaker Paul Ryan joining the bipartisan chorus calling for transparency, Donald Trump should finally release his tax returns and let the American people judge his returns as they see fit.
Des Moines Register, Iowa-6: The next time Donald Trump raises the specter of his political opponents being assassinated, it may be from the Oval Office where the president has the full command of America’s military arsenal and intelligence agencies. That should deeply concern every American, regardless of party.
Syndicates’ take
Debra J. Saunders, The Chronicle: Proposition 227, sí; Proposition 58, no.
Leonard Pitts Jr.: How did Tulsa officer know man was a “bad dude?”
Dana Milbank: More bigotry from the Donald Trump brigade.
Trudy Rubin: Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy positions indicate she would be a more forward-leaning leader on the world stage than Barack Obama, while displaying none of the recklessness of Donald Trump.
Kathleen Parker: Eyes wide open on debate night.
Paul Krugman: Will the moderators step in when Donald Trump delivers one of his well-known, often reiterated falsehoods?
David Brooks: Hillary Clinton has run against in-touch-with-the-times men who were more charismatic and generated more passion than she did. She’s always been the duller, unfashionable foil.
Gail Collins: Donald Trump doesn’t have pets, and animal anecdotes about him seem to be unsettling. Hillary Clinton has had dogs and cats, but their stories are generally kind of boring.
And finally,
“I know this is heresy, apostasy, and maybe even treasonous, but I still don’t care for (the Jeffrey Koons sculpture). Nor do I care for the design of the Golden 1 arena. They don’t go with the downtown design concept.” -- Jack Ohman, @Jack Ohman
One more thing,
“Every critic, every detractor will have to bow down to President Trump. It’s everyone who’s ever doubted Donald, whoever disagreed, whoever challenged him – it is the ultimate revenge to become the most powerful man in the universe.” – former “Apprentice” contestant Omarosa Manigault, who is, ironically, Trump’s director of African American outreach, on a “Frontline” episode to air on KVIE on Tuesday.
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