It seems like Steve Maviglio, the Communications Guru of choice for left-wing Assembly Speakers, is the also the messenger of death when it comes to the end of Capitol reporters, and their jobs! Just a few weeks ago Steve blogged on the decision by the Stockton Record to vanquish veteran Capitol reporter Hank Shaw. Today Steve shares more bad news with the decision by the Oakland Tribune to let go of its veteran Capitol Reporter — Steve Geissinger. As Maviglio points out, Geissinger is the head of the Capitol Correspondents Association — or he was until now. The Tribune will still have access to other MediaNews correspondents from the Contra Costa Times and San Jose Mercury News.

It’s too bad about Steve. Like with Shaw, Steve has a knack for great reporting, and his contributions to the mix will be sorely missed.

So I guess there will be two types of people avoiding Maviglio now… The first being taxpayers, for whom Steve only delivers bad news. The other — anxious Capitol reporters who perhaps don’t want to… Read More

That’s not my headline, it’s courtesy of Bloomberg.com.… Read More

A bill, SB 37, to end run the electoral college and goinstead to a count ofthe popular votes ofa cartel of large states for electing President, passed today with a vote of 42-28, with only Republicans voting "NO."

As few as 12 states can band together, regardless of how their own voters voteand cast electoral votes for the national popular vote leader, and determine thewinner, small rural [red] states need not show up.A similar bill, AB 2948 of 2006 received nearly all Republicans "NO" votes then as well,30, and was veteod by the Governor. This is good veto bait again.… Read More

As smoke chokes most of Northern California and the Central Coast it is an appropriate time to evaluate the causes and effects of some of the fires that are risking the lives of hundreds.

For those of you that don’t believe in global warming and carbon footprint at all, this post provides nothing more than an opportunity to use the methodologies of those that do to argue for sound forest management practices.

For years forest managers have asked for the ability to clear and thin the… Read More

With the ongoing battle against the many lightning-caused fires still underway, Governor Schwarzenegger visited the fire operations centers in NorCal this week, including Monterey and Chico Wednesday, and with US Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne in Shasta County near Whiskeytown Lake on Friday. The Guv visted with firefighters and their chiefs to assess the progress being made and declared emergency status for the 7 counties hardest hit. These include Butte, Shasta, and Trinity up this way as well as Mendocino, Santa Cruz, Santa Clara and Monterey Counties. He also sought, and received, a federal declaration from President Bush for those same areas.

CalFire and many local and out of town departments have been effectively limiting these fires to non-residential burns and few buildings have burned given the great number of fires last weekend’s lightning strikes caused, charring over 60,000 acres.That numberis a lot but much smaller than it could be. This as everyone holds their breath over current threat of new lightning… Read More

Hollingsworth Alone in Weighing in On Heller Decision… Senator Hollingsworth appears to be the only San Diego area legislator to have issued a statement on last week’s Supreme Court decision. Sure, some might say it’s a Federal issue, but the most significant Court statement on the 2nd Amendment in several decades has pretty significant ramifications. I do want to know what my local reps have to say on the matter.

When I say Dennis appears to be the only one, well … that is to say he’s the only one that sent me a release on the matter. I’ve noted it before — and I’ll repeat it — if you have something to say, TELL US. You legislators and staffers that still haven’t added a few bloggers to your media distribution list, let me welcome you to the 1990s. I’m sure you’re still working your campaigns from 3×5 cards as well. Again, you may email me here. Oh … and thanks to the several SD leg.… Read More

It was actually a pretty busy week back here in DC. Here is a quick rundown (of course with my short editorial comments) on some of the things we did and/or learned this week.

A bill HR 6346 came to the floor that would have started new proceedings regarding alleged price gouging in the price of gas. This in spite of the fact that all previous investigations have turned up nothing and that the increase in the price of gas is because of the increase in the price of oil. The bill failed to pass. We cannot sue our way into lower gas prices. One other bill (HR 6052) was brought to the floor supposedly to deal with high gas prices. This bill would create subsidies for only federal employees to take public transportation to work. Are you kidding me? While everyone is struggling with high energy prices and a tough economy we are going to give more subsidies to government bureaucrats and only government bureaucrats? The bill passed 322-98. That’s it on the energy front. To see the wide array of actions I think we should be doing, go to my new Energy Page. … Read More

The Secretary of State has just released the number assignents for the 11 Propositions that are currently certified for the November ballot. Secretary Bowen has started em out with number one instead of picking up after Prop 99. I won’t list all of them here, check em out on the Sec of State website. Most notable will be:

Proposition 8-California Protection of Marriage Act, titled as Limit On Marriage-to continue as being between one man and one woman

Proposition 1-High Cost Rail, titled as, get this, The Safe Reliable High Speed Passenger Train Bond Act for the 21st Century…no mention of what happens in the 22nd Century, or that maybe only 80 years will be left of the 21st by the time it got built

Proposition 4-Sarah’s Law, titled as Waiting Period and Parental Notification Before Termination Of Minor’s Pregnancy

Proposition 11-Redistricting-Constitutional Amendment and Statute-14 member commission to draw district lines which includes Assembly, State Senate and Board of Equalization Districts, not Congress.… Read More