You may well have seen TV news statewide of a structure collapse on a highway construction project up here in Butte County on Hwy 149, between Oroville and Chico. The early Wednesday morning accident was a result of a collapsing heavy-steel structure that would support the forms to pourconcrete upon for a new overcrossing where 70 meets 149. It was not a collapse of an actual overcrossing as first reported [or even hyped], nor justa scaffolding forpersonnel to work from.

A Fed Ex truck was struck by the falling steel girders, 3000 lbs each or more, as the driver was proceeding north. He was trapped for 3 hours as safety personnel worked to extract him, pinned under wreckage held down by the steel I-beams. The happy ending for him was only an ankle sprain, some cuts and bruises and a harrowing experience. He is already at home tonight with his family.

A construction worker atop the collapsing structure, rode it 50 feet down and he suffered several broken bones and is still hospitalized in serious condition.

A third injurya few minutes later, was to a woman who drove upon the scene and rearended a parked CalTrans vehicle and broke… Read More

Legitimate, real and important policy differences separate Senate Republicans and Democrats in the budget debate.

After it was clear that no forward momentum on a budget would take place (Senator Dennis Hollingsworth attempted to bring up GOP programmic changes and belt-tightening trailer bills to no avail), Senator Jeff Denham tried to bring up a motion to fund vital government services during this impasse. The Democrats voted as a block against this reasonable accomodation.

So to all of you TV, radio and newspaper reporters, you should report that it is the Democrats who want to use those in need of services as “pawns” to try and put on pressure for a bad budget resolution.

The Senate is in recess.… Read More

It’s that time of year again: the semi-annual campaign reports — the documents politicos pour over to see which candidates are raising how much from whom, grist for the candidate-positioning mill.

Over at Red County/OC Blog I’ve posted about the reports in Orange County’s 33rd Senate District and the 71st and 60th Assembly District reports. or more specifically, the candidates in the GOP primaries, which is the only election that really matters in those districts. Red County/San Bernardino also has an update on AD34, AD60 and SD29.… Read More

The latest release from the Giuliani campaign explains that they have hired on eight California Field Representatives to carry the banner of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to the far reaches of the Golden State.

TheGiulianiField Representatives are as follows:

Cathy Hayes Hayes was Regional Field Director for California GOP Victory 2006, handling the Central Coast . She has also served as the Executive Director of the Santa Barbara County Republican Central Committee, Regional Finance Coordinator for the National Republican Congressional Committee in Washington , DC , Deputy Director of the Majority Leader’s Fund and Joint Fundraising Manager of the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Ashley Ingram Ingram served as head intern with the California GOP Victory 2006. She worked specifically on youth issues for Governor Schwarzenegger. She coordinated precinct walks and phone banks, while recruiting high school and… Read More

As you spend today mulling over their options, weighing the importance of demanding much needed reforms in state government spending in return for providing needed votes for a big fat state budget, I know that there is concern about the perception of their efforts to the public. Our "friends" in the main stream media have yet to publish one legitimate story from the perspective of principled fiscally prudent legislators who are refusing to approve a massive budget unless it comes with some significant reforms to reduce deficit spending in future budgets, and important reforms to mitigate the potentially devastating effects of the implementation of costly regulations in the name of the ‘global warming’ battle. There is the potential to eliminate thousands of vacant positions in the state bureaucracy, and more. But we don’t read that story in the newspapers, either. We are only treated to a daily dose of "who isn’t being paid today" in an effort to create feeling that delaying the budget simply is not worth the reforms sought by responsible Senate Republicans. Guess what? At some point, there will be a state… Read More

Yesterday afternoon, I was invited to a small private reception with former United States Senator Fred Thompson at the beautiful home of the Davis family, nestled on the coastal hillside overlooking Crystal Cove State Park and the pacific ocean in Newport Beach. It truly was an intimate affair, with about twenty folks in attendance, including the Presidential aspirant, his beautiful wife, and two of Thompson’s political point people in California, longtime political strategist Ken Khachigian and local consultant Dave Ellis. All told had nearly an hour with Senator Thompson, and it was spent the way you would like it to be… We all gathered up chairs in the back patio of this gorgeous home and had an intimate chat with the man who aspires to the top elective office in our nation. Having never spent any real quality time with Thompson before, I have to say I was very impressed by him. It was very clear in hearing him talk about issues (and this was an environment where he was free… Read More

This from Christine Hanley of today’s L.A. Times

"Gore is the youngest of Tipper and Al Gore’s four children. He was arrested in 2003 on suspicion of marijuana possession while a student at Harvard University. He completed substance-abuse counseling as part of a program to settle the charge and was not convicted of a crime.

He now lives in Los Angeles, where he is an associate publisher of Good, philanthropy magazine aimed at young people."… Read More

This weekend Larry Dick’s campaign for the 60th Assembly District came to part of the LA County. Walnut Valley Water Board member Ling-Ling Chang and Pomona School Board Member Andrew Wong sponsored Larry’s Luau in Diamond Bar. In the audience were quite a few “Water people”. As water board member Larry is working that angle. Water is big business in CA and there is more money there than some might think. There were also a lot of GOP activists from the SGV Valley, many that were also at the last Curt Hagman events I was at. They must be checking out the field. See here. Assemblyman Huff was there saying very nice things about … Read More