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Jonathan Kraut | Part II of MyTop 10 New Year’s Wishes

15 0
28.01.2026

Just before New Year’s, our Mighty Signal posted my first five Top Ten legislative wishes for 2026.

These include mandating manufacturers to develop products that enable comprehensive recycling, changing residency definitions to eliminate the taking advantage by squatters and non-rent-paying tenants, legislating minimum corporate taxes for mega-businesses, removing the tax loopholes for the ultra-rich when they borrow from their own trust accounts as loans to avoid paying income tax, and removing the classification of “homelessness” as an entitlement so we can more appropriately address the actual challenges created by drug addiction and mental illness.

Here are my other five.

Consecutive sentencing. It has become customary that Superior Court judges sentence convicted criminals to only one serious charge proven, and ignore all other crimes committed at sentencing.

For example, in 2023 the “snake burglar,” Christopher Michael Jackson, despite pleading guilty to 54 separate felony burglaries, was sentenced to only seven months in jail. Second-degree burglary (Penal Code 459) should earn up to a three-year sentence per count. The snake burglar, however, was sentenced to one count, less time served, and the other 53 burglaries were ignored and unpunished.

One criminal conviction seems to grant forgiveness for the other crimes committed.

Each criminal act should........

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