A just-passed bill, AB 1776, offers more than lip service in state's fight against inflation, I argue in @mercnews oped.
But only if @GavinNewsom signs the bill into law.
Here's how updating the state's century old antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, would promote affordability:
Californians can’t afford to let the state’s largest corporations write the rules as they suffocate in markets strangled by consolidation, collusion and monopolization. mercurynews.com/2026/09/09/t…
California's Legislature, led by @AssemblyDems, just armed the state to fight monopolies, I argue @mercnews.
Now, it's up to @GavinNewsom to sign The COMPETE Act (AB 1776) and bring the state's century-old antitrust law into the 21st century.
Read why:
mercurynews.com/2026/09/09/t…
"But amid these changes, California’s century-old antitrust law, the Cartwright Act, has stayed woefully stagnant and inadequate.
"That is changing. Finally.
"Over the last few sessions, the state’s Democratic-controlled Legislature has introduced several bills all attempting to arrest the corporate subversion of the free market and bring the Cartwright Act into the 21st century.
Read how the California Legislature has armed state to fight monopolization in this @mercnews oped:
mercurynews.com/2026/09/09/t…
"Exacerbating it all, new technologies, like AI, have allowed ostensibly competitive industries — think ones with 1,000s of owners like agriculture or the multifamily property sector — to share non-public, near real-time prices with each other & allegedly collude via algorithm."
... over the last four decades. In housing, mega-mergers in the apartment sector are surging, putting swaths of the costliest coastal markets in the hands of a few landlords and management companies.
"Rising costs of health care, groceries, gas & housing have eroded whatever nominal income growth Californians have eked out. Not coincidentally, these sectors have seen ownership consolidate, undermining competition for consumers & workers but rewarding shareholders handsomely."
California could pass a massive new law to take on corporate monopolies.
The biggest state in country, full of huge businesses like Apple and Meta, currently has weaker anti-monopoly laws than most states.
But the Compete Act would change that — if politicians pass it and don’t give in to oligarchs who want to shut it down.
Bay Area News Group's Editorial Board encourages Alameda County voters to elect @aishabbwahab today for Swalwell's empty seat in Congress.
The East Bay needs a proven, accomplished lawmaker in D.C.
That is Aisha.
Read our endorsement below then vote.
mercurynews.com/2026/05/07/e…
Pot, meet kettle.
My oped 👇for @mercnews and @EastBayTimes:
The president, who has pardoned hundreds of executives convicted of health care fraud, recently withheld $870 million for Medi-Cal over fraud allegations. Evidence? None provided. mercurynews.com/2026/08/14/t…
“Trump’s promises are the needle in America’s collective vein.”
— JD Vance via The Atlantic on July 4, 2016
Ten years ago today, J. D. Vance called Trump “cultural heroin” in The Atlantic: “To every complex problem, he promises a simple solution … He never offers details for how these plans will work, because he can’t," Vance wrote of Trump.
Read the piece: theatlantic.com/politics/arc…
July 4 promised freedoms; September 17 delivered them — ironically by limiting some.
America has two birthdays. If it seeks to survive to see its 500th anniversary, it needs to celebrate its other one, too.
My op-ed for @mercnews:
Independence Day taught Americans how to reject illegitimate authority. Sept. 17 can teach us how to create legitimate authority and use it for the common good. mercurynews.com/2026/07/03/t…
"If Abraham Lincoln had a team of rivals, the president has a hall of mirrors."
-- @Scaramucci
.@mercnews & @EastBayTimes Editorial Boards:
"There is only one candidate who grasps the complexity of the home insurance crisis & has the legislative experience to address it.
"That's @BenAllenCA."
Read our full endorsement in this critical race ⬇️:
mercurynews.com/2026/05/15/e…
The @EastBayTimes interviewed all the main candidates running to represent ex-Rep. Eric Swalwell's Alameda County Congressional District:
We endorsed @aishabbwahab.
Here's why ⬇️:
eastbaytimes.com/2026/05/07/…
Still undecided on California's next lieutenant governor?
Read the @mercnews and @EastBayTimes Editorial Boards' interviews w/ candidates Fiona Ma, Michael Tubbs, Josh Fryday and Gloria Romero.
Then decide for yourself:
mercurynews.com/2026/05/10/i…
