Ravi Johal has been living and working in Fremont as a traffic and criminal attorney with the firm of Leon J. Mezzetti Jr. After a small surgery and the birth of his son made him do the rounds of Washington Hospital in central Fremont, Ravi became aware of the many ...

I succumbed and watched this one..from start to finish. And was pleasantly surprised. This one, of the 200 or so "debates" so far, actually hewed closer to the ideal format in which the candidates would be free to ask each other questions and argue. Bob Schieffer of CBS moderated the debate. ...

Harmeet Dhillon is one of the up-and-coming members of the California Republican Party, being the Governor’s appointee to the party. She has a background in civil rights legislation. I spoke to her about her candidacy for the State Assembly from the 13th Assembly District of California, which includes many progressive, liberal, ...

I met Lily Mei outside Forest Park Elementary School in Fremont as she handed out fliers proclaiming “Do the right thing!” She was supporting the teachers as they protested the proposed cuts in education in the upcoming California State budget and urged parents to call their representatives. Lily Mei is standing ...

An aide for Senator McCain inadvertently provided fodder for late night comedy when he pointed to his Blackberry and stated that the Senator was responsible for it. It is not an exaggeration to say that a gaffe along similar lines successfully smeared Al Gore 8 years ago( remember who invented ...

By Vidya Pradhan Carly Fiorina just went on record saying that none of the candidates was capable of running a corporation. In her words - I don't think John McCain could run a major corporation. I don't think Barack Obama could run ...

By Vidya Pradhan   Investment in quality education and a vision for increasing the competitiveness of future American workers is a crucial long-term issue that often gets forgotten in the immediacy of political campaigning. (Though one education legislation has been in the news recently for all the wrong reasons. A ridiculous and deceptive ad by the McCain campaign accused Obama of creating legislation to teach sex to kindergarteners. The facts? Obama supported, not sponsored, a bill whose purpose was primarily to make kids aware of the dangers of sexual predators.)   Here are the two candidates’ views on education.

This is the second article on the candidates’ positions on the economy. The first dealt with their taxation policies. (UPDATE October 6th, 2008 : a graphic from the Economist - The link to the entire article can be found here.) It is hard to get a sense of which Presidential candidate is good for the economy from the campaign agendas – so much of it is pure pandering for the political season. However, here is an excerpt from an article in the International Herald Tribune that might surprise you – “Simply put, the United States economy has grown faster, on average, under Democratic presidents than under Republicans.” That said, here are the two candidates’ positions and plans for the economy.

In honor of the upcoming elections, WNI is starting a new category today called “All politics is local.” Given the hype and hoopla over the presidential election, it is easy to forget that there are lots of local elections also going to be determined on November 4th. And unlike the presidential election, your Californian vote will actually count for a lot in these races, which are decided often by margins of a few hundred votes. UPDATE: Vinnie Bacon lost his bid to be on the Fremont City Council. We’ll put out some of our recommendations closer to election day, but today we profile Vinnie Bacon, who is standing for Fremont City Council. Like another Democrat who is making waves on the national stage, Vinnie is banking on grassroots mobilization to make him better known at the local level. A member of the environment friendly Sierra Club and with experience in transportation planning, Vinnie is running on a platform of sensible urban development. WNI spoke to Vinnie Bacon a few days ago.

By Vidya Pradhan Senator McCain’s pick of Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate on Friday did exactly what it was supposed to do – take the attention away from the high of the Democratic convention and create a media buzz that still has the wires humming on Sunday. Frank Rich opines in today’s New York Times, “The main reason McCain knuckled under to the religious right by picking Palin is that he actually believes there’s a large army of embittered Hillary loyalists who will vote for a hard-line conservative simply because she’s a woman.” Only time will show if that belief holds water, but there is no doubt that Senator Clinton’s candidacy empowered millions of women voters and made their voices heard. Women, who have always been more reliable voters (they make up 54 percent of the population, 55 percent of registered voters and 60 percent of the electorate), are only now waking up to the power they have as a voting bloc. Will they exercise their power to put one of their gender in the White House next year? Or will they take a closer look at each of the candidates’ voting records and position on women’s issues? We lay them out –