What would you say if I told you that in the state’s current fiscal climate Assemblyman Albert Torrico (D-Newark) is carrying a bill, AB 1967 (see link to .pdf below) that if passed, would cost our state retirement funds (both Cal-STRS and Cal-PERS) billions of dollars?

AB 1967, in essence, puts some pretty huge prohibitions on where the billions of dollars in these retirement funds can be invested. Of course, right now, these funds are invested (presumably) to maximize rate of return. But under Torrico’s bill, these public funds who have to immediately and forever divest from any investments with what are called Sovereign Wealth Funds, which to put it simply are those funds that are affiliated with foreign countries. Torrico’s bill does exempt any SWF’s affiliated with a country (or countries) that have signed onto a bevy of various international human rights accords. Oh yeah, the United States, were it considered a foreign country under Torrico’s bill, would not meet the criteria as we have not… Read More

I don’t know if I should be excited or disappointed that our main page April Fool’s joke has been so popular. It’s only been up three hours and I literally have OVER 200 emails from FR readers telling me "you got me" or "boy did I fall for that one" or some other variation on the theme.

I’m excited because it’s always fun to successfully execute an April Fools Day "Gotcha" — I’m disappointed because in order to pull that off, you need to throw out a scenario that is so plausable that people want to believe it.

It’s too bad that a joke about the Governor leaving the GOP is so believable to so many. Sigh.… Read More

Last month, I took Asm. Kevin Jeffries to task (in this Capitol Weekly column) for a bill to address California’s maze of sign ordinances. ACR 93 asks the League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, and FPPC to develop a model campaign sign ordinance to be used by all of California’s local governments. As I explained in the piece, I never doubted the Assemblyman’s intentions. A California-wide guideline for sign ordinances might be helpful. Too often campaigns for State Assembly or Congress must deal with a dozen different city and county sign ordinances. However, I was deeply concerned that ACR 93 was asking the inmates to run the asylum. After all, local governments routinely pass the most restrictive and blatantly unconstitutional sign ordinances. Take a … Read More

Claremont is in Eastern Los Angeles County . It is a mix of college town and senior centers. It’s nice place, but it’s going to get uglier. The town fathers have found a scourge that needs to be removed from the city. Too many adult bookstores? I don’t think they have any? Too many liquor stores? Nope.

The answer: Too many day spas and nail salons. And yes tanning salons.

You wouldn’t know it but, there are Republicans on this City Council that are going along to limiting these kinds of establishments to second floors of commercial buildings and yes alleys.

Everybody wants to enter an alley on the… Read More

I will be making presentations on 527s, Independent Expenditures, Issue Advocacy, and Tax-Exempt Organizations and Politicial Activity, at an Election Law Seminar to be held onApril 16 in Santa Monica at the DoubleTree at 1707 4th St. in Santa Monica.

The day-long event will include presentations on California and Federal election law, voting systems and voting procedures, initiatives and referenda, and a practicum on regulation of political advertising and voter persuasion.

Confirmed speakers include Chuck Bell, senior partner of Bell, Hiltachk, LLP and general counsel of the California Republican Party; Daniel Lowenstein, a tenured Professor of Election law at UCLA Law School, one of the co-authors of the California Political Reform Act, and the first Chairman of the Fair Political Practices Commission; Robert Stern, another co-author of the California Political Reform Act, principal drafter of the City of Los Angeles’ ethics and public campaign finance laws and President of the Center for Government Studies; and political consultant Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book. The moderator of and another presenter at the event is Janice… Read More

I will tell you that it is really awesome to have Ray Haynes as a contributor to the FlashReport. His columns are thoughtful, and usually “nail it” when it comes to politics and policy here in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Ray had a column that ran in the D.C. Examiner, Big Companies Use Earth Day Camoflage To Greenwash Profits, which fascinated me — enough to share it with FR readers.

The piece (fully reprinted below) talks about the hypocrisy of big companies that “greenwash”, which is defined over on Wikopediaas, "…the act of misleading… Read More

I will tell you that it is really awesome to have Ray Haynes as a contributor to the FlashReport. His columns are thoughtful, and usually “nail it” when it comes to politics and policy here in the Golden State.

On Tuesday, Ray had a column that ran in the D.C. Examiner, Big Companies Use Earth Day Camoflage To Greenwash Profits, which fascinated me — enough to share it with FR readers.

The piece (fully reprinted below) talks about the hypocrisy of big companies that “greenwash”, which is defined over on Wikopediaas, "…the act of misleading… Read More

DeMaio Council Bid Has the Unions a Tad Scared… Never repeat the negative, they say. But, I can’t pass up the efforts to which some will go in attempts to kill the San Diego City Council candidacy of government watchdog Carl DeMaio. To many, he would be the Tom McClintock of the San Diego City Council. To some, that is good, to others, well…they just can’t stomach someone on the council that is willing to stand up so honestly and strongly to the back-scratching foolishness, complete failure of fiduciary duty and outrageous lack of concern for our tax monies that caused the city’s fiscal mess in the first place.

An anti-Carl website was launched last week, which I would ignore if it weren’t so amusingly inept. Perhaps the best way to cover the "effort" is to repeat San Diego Tax Fighters Chairman Richard Rider’s reaction:

If you want to see just how much Carl DeMaio scares the crap out of the labor unions (both public and private labor unions), go to this amazing, LITERALLY slimy… Read More