Category: Blog Post

What matters to me today is: Cement is Hard (and It Needs to Stay That Way) “Hard,” in the context of cement, has everything to do with context. Building stability and foundations depend upon the fortitude of concrete. But cement—the essential ingredient in concrete—is also among the hardest industries...

What matters to me today is: Ca Home Builders’ Bee Burden Broadens. New guidance from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) only heightens and exacerbates the current—and future—uncertainty surrounding regulatory compliance for Crotch’s bumble bee and likely forthcoming insect candidates. California developers already know...

What matters to me today is: Defining “Best” I’m humbled to share that I have again been recognized as one of the “best” in my profession and area of expertise. Truth be told, the first time I landed on such a list, I was with a prominent national law...

What matters to me today is: Ca Gov on Housing: Past is Prologue When Gavin Newsom took office, he pledged that California would produce 3.5 million new homes by 2025. It was breathtakingly ambitious. But it was not naïve. Newsom knew California’s regulatory, political and economic obstacles—and made the...

What matters to me today is: Your Regulatory Mandate Demonstrably Infeasible? So What? What happens when a regulatory agency can demonstrate—exhaustively—that meeting a statutory or other mandate is infeasible? According to the Ninth Circuit: that may not matter. In Committee for a Better...

What matters to me today is: The Power of a Handwritten Note. Some messages are read. Others are remembered. Early in my career, after working with California's Senate President pro Tempore, an envelope arrived from Sacramento. Inside was an embossed note card with a few handwritten...

What matters to me today is: California on Climate: Ready, FIRE, Aim . . . Again. California has never lacked ambition on climate policy. What it increasingly lacks is regulatory certainty.  The regulated community deserves and must demand better. Today’s workshop by CARB staff, the latest...

What matters to me today is: What's the Harm in Undefining "Harm"? Sometimes the biggest legal battles turn on a single word. The Trump administration is rescinding the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regulatory definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act, eliminating the decades-old interpretation...

What matters to me today is: California's Competing and Often Contradictory Priorities. California's policy debates increasingly reveal a state struggling to reconcile worthy—but often conflicting—priorities. The latest example is the western spadefoot. Under the California Endangered Species Act, once the Fish and Game Commission determines a...

What matters to me today is: Newsom’s California Legacy—or Presidential Launchpad? As Gavin Newsom enters the final stretch of his governorship, California faces an uncomfortable question: will its policy agenda be shaped by the state’s needs or by Newsom’s apparent ambitions for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination?

What matters to me today is: California – So, What Now? California's current primary election season exposes a deeper reality than any single race for governor or mayor: the state stands at a genuine crossroads, confronting major policy challenges without a clear long-term strategy from either side of the...

What matters to me today is: AI, Gen Z, the Pope, and You & Me. This past semester, I completely changed how I grade my undergraduate Business Law course. For years, student papers written outside class heavily influenced final grades. By semester’s end, however, it became unmistakably clear that...