Our Governor (pictured with Florida Governor Charlie Crist) is off making headlines in the Sunshine State today:

Associated Press: Schwarzenegger, Crist say people not politics should come first Schwarzenegger: States need to push Washington on climate change Florida News Press: Schwarzenegger adds muscle to Crist cause Orlando Sentinal: Schwarzenegger steals show at climate summit… Read More

Here it is, July 13th, and the Legislature still has not approved a state budget. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says he’s cancelled his vacation plans and told his colleagues that they may have a long summer in front of them. But it is not only the members who pay the price of a late budget—legislative staff, governor’s office and agency staff and lobbyists also pay the price for a late budget.

But a late budget is better than a bad budget. Given the fact that the state continues to have an ongoing operating deficit of $2 billion, the annual budget process is an opportunity to, at the least, not continue to add to our fiscal problems.

But that’s not the Democrats’ take on the budget. As usual, they are pushing for more and more spending. The governor proposed total spending of $103.8 billion in spending, while the Democrats are promoting a budget of $104.4 billion. This week, the Assembly GOP proposed $2.2 billion in cuts to… Read More

Here it is, July 13th, and the Legislature still has not approved a state budget. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez says he’s cancelled his vacation plans and told his colleagues that they may have a long summer in front of them. But it is not only the members who pay the price of a late budget—legislative staff, governor’s office and agency staff and lobbyists also pay the price for a late budget.

But a late budget is better than a bad budget. Given the fact that the state continues to have an ongoing operating deficit of $2 billion, the annual budget process is an opportunity to, at the least, not continue to add to our fiscal problems.

But that’s not the Democrats’ take on the budget. As usual, they are pushing for more and more spending. The governor proposed total spending of $103.8 billion in spending, while the Democrats are promoting a budget of $104.4 billion. This week, the Assembly GOP proposed $2.2 billion in cuts to… Read More

Rich Hasen of Loyola Law School reports that yesterday, Wisconsin Right to Life ("WRTL"), the recent winner of a U.S. Supreme Court victory gutting the "soft money" prohibitions of the McCain-Feingold law regulating late campaign issue ads, asked the district court in the same case (still alive because of outstanding issues to be cleared up after the Supreme Court’s ruling), to reconsider its earlier decision to allow Sen. McCain and fellow campaign finance "reform" activists to formally intervene in the case. As background, when the Supreme Court ruled,it also set down some strict guidelines on the conduct of such cases in the future to assure that they are not burdensome to First Amendment rights. WRTL now argues it not only wants those rules applied to some other ads that they did in 2006, but also that it wants the district court to apply the new Supreme Court guidelines to kick McCain out of the rest of the case. – and all future such cases.

According to Hasen, Jim Bopp, lead counsel for WRTL, stated: "The Supreme Court has said there can be no more of the burdensome, complex, intrusive, litigation that WRTL… Read More

This story is developing, but I want to give FR readers a preliminary heads up…

Since I am not a Capitol denizen and neither are the vast majority of our readers, I will try to keep this post as non-technical as possible.

Yesterday, it would appear that Orange County’s lone Democrat Senator, Lou Correa, was the only one present at a “check in” session of the Senate (check in sessions are another long story but suffice it to say that the Senate chambers were empty, with Senators only signing an attendence sheet for the day). Correa announces that “without objection” a waiver of Senate Rules are granted to allow a very bad bill, one that had been effectively killed for the legislative year, to be granted a new lease on life. Of course, since Correa was the ONLY Senator present, his “announcement” went unchallenged.

The bill was part of the “Trojan Horse” package being put forth as a companion to ACA 8, the effort by California’s Redevelopment Industry to stave off the end of all abusive takings of private property by local governments through eminent domain.

Thanks to… Read More

I received two emails today. One forwarded from the RNC legal department, the other from the person who created the website. They say they are taking down the logo and didn’t realize it wasn’y allowed. See previous post here. I may get to speak to "S.L. Reeves" soon.… Read More

Most California school districts are controlled by the teachers unions. .Those unions regularly spend the big dollars to elect board members who give them any benefit, pay increase or pension imaginable. The paymaster is ruled by who it pays.

This process has lead to deteriorating schools, funny curriculum’s, bloated budgets and a dramatic decrease in quality education in the last 50 years.We saw literally millions spent over a few seats in the recent LA LAUSD elections.

Once is a while a non union person gets elected to a local board. And what does he or she do when they get there? First they encounter unfriendly union stooges who already occupy board seats. Then deal with a hostile administration long used to union control over budget and policy. But, the newly elected member will get a great parking space and a big chair with their name imprinted on the Dias.

The Pacific Research Institute is hosting a remarkable "training session" on August 3 at the Westin Hotel in South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa.

Our very own Mike Spence, a heavyweight in local school board politics [ successfully elected several times to the… Read More

Earlier today I received a press release from Senator Abel Maldonado’s office. Normally, I take only a perfunctory look at these releases, and generally ignore them. But this one caught my eye.

According to the release, all sorts of disgusting and dangerous food products are making their way into our food supply from China, not exactly a country with the most exemplary record of keeping its people in good health.

I never thought I’d be one to be posting about what a Senator from the Central Coast is saying about international food shipments, but take a look at the letter Abel sent to the California Congressional Delegation and his press release on the topic.

If nothing else, it certainly gives some food for thought.… Read More