Almost everyone has heard and commented about Assemblywoman Sally Lieber’s bill to ban spanking – but as a new father I couldn’t resist weighing in. First disclosure: my mother spanked me a few times as a child – and for those who have heard stories of my childhood, it’s good thing she did. Second disclosure: I am a new father of twin girls and I cannot imagine spanking either one of my daughters. But I surely do not need a Legislator to tell me how to raise my children. Let’s be clear: there is no excuse for and no punishment strong enough for abusing a child – but there is a bright line between abuse and a swat on the behind. (Another disclosure: for years I volunteered for FamiliesFirst – a non-profit foster care agency that dealt with severely abused children.) Lieber’s bill does nothing to address the problems of child abuse or child exploitation – it’s more pomp and fluff to make a do-nothing legislature feel like it’s doing something. Perhaps Leiber can explain why she supported legislation that allows landlords to rent apartments… Read More

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber is proposing legislation that would prohibit schools from admitting female students into the 6th grade unless the girl has received the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. Remember, Lieber is the same legislator who is grabbing headlines these days with her spanking legislation.

This HPV vaccine push is coming from the Planned Parenthood types who believe that most children become sexually active around 11 or 12. Certainly, there are those children who do starting having sex that young–but they are not the mainstream. Moreover, even if they are, we do not need the schools to be requiring this vaccine. This should be between the student, her parent(s) and her physician.

I’m sure that Lieber and others will argue that it is the norm to have schools require students be vaccinated, but these vaccines are generally for highly communicable diseases that have posed major threats to the public health in the past.… Read More

He is an unlikely hero, just a councilman in the sleepy seaside city of Seal Beach. But today he is the best friend to property rights advocates everywhere.

In late 2006 the city of Seal Beach voted to ban third-story additions in one part of town. They did not do so based on health or safety or traffic or parking concerns, just based on aesthetics and because a small but powerful minority wanted them to. Freshman Councilman Ray Ybaben voted with the majority. It was a personal blow because I had been helpful to Ray very early in his campaign and thought he would make good pro-property rights decisions.

Interestingly the council passed this anti-home improvement ordinance on the eve of the 2006 General Election. They even went so far as to hold a special weekend council meeting to do the second reading of the ordinance prior to the election. Why? Because they feared that if they waited and Proposition 90 passed, they would be… Read More

Prop 90 didn’t survive at the polls last November, but it did pass in San Diego County.Former SD City Councilman Fred Schnaubelt and the folks at Citizens for Private Property Rights are leveraging that local success into a San Diego area ballot measure:

Citizens for Private Property Rights

I was condemned in 1963 by the government. If you have ever had your property taken by the government you will never view government the same. It’s a life altering experience. I managed a family owned business in the path of the on-ramp to I-5 from Balboa in Pacific Beach. After 26 years in business, the government put our family business out of business. This is why I’m now in real estate, why I was elected to the San Diego City Council, and why I joined Citizens For Private Property Rights.

Some of you are concerned about the government’s efforts to outlaw the spanking of children, prohibit smoking not only in public buildings but in private, fine you for not wearing seatbelts or not using low-flow toilets, limit tasty foods with trans fats and prohibit coffee, eliminate free speech 90… Read More

When the California Medical Association hired Trial Lawyer and former Senator Joe Dunn, it looked like another "friendly" special interest buying into the "alligator theory." Please democrat legislators don’t eat me, but eat the others first.

But it was nice when Joe Dunn, now the newly minted Executive Vice President for the CMA briefed the Directors of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. Dunn declared Arnold’s Health Plan is presently DOA last week.

First, contrary to what we heard about Speaker Nunez, Dunn says there are few legislators willing to "sponsor" the bill. And, Arnold has re-discovered how to get a whole lot a people across the spectrum mad at him at once. Arnold needlessly took on the public safety [cops] community which gave him hell over pension reform [ an idea he quickly abandoned…but the damage as done in the 2005 Initiatives].

Secondly, Arnold’s biggest prior booster the state Chamber is a rare display of fortitude loudly screamed against the employer mandate. The Hospital Association is ready to fight the 4% tax, the leftist California Nurses Assn are opposed. Blue… Read More

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore sent me his thoughts on the CRP Vice-Chairman’s race, asking that I share it with FR readers. I thought about it a bit, as the FR is not supporting a specific candidate between the three contenders – Tom Del Beccaro, Tom Bordonaro and Jalene Forbis. But I decided to go ahead and print DeVore’s piece, and I have invited the other candidates, if they have a similar ‘third party supporter’ who wants to e-mail something to get posted, they could do so as well. So, here is DeVore’s take: Why I support Tom Bordonaro for CRP Vice Chairman I have been attending California Republican Party… Read More

One of the most frequent questions that I get from folks it how to go back and look at a previous day’s "issue" of the FlashReport. Specifically, how to toggle to the news from yesterday, or last Thursday, or even a day last year. The answer is actually quite simple. The graphic in this e-mail is a capture of the upper right hand corner of the FlashReport. If you look next to the date, there is a small toggle button. You can use this toggle to go to any day’s FR main news page that you would like. You will also pull up the Daily Commentary for that day in the side window as well. Try it out!

Now when you go on vacation, or if you don’t go online over the weekend, you can easily go back and make sure you are caught up on all of the relevant news stories!… Read More

Back on October 30 of last year, Duncan Hunter announced his intent to explore a presidential bid. Even before his morning press conference that day, the FlashReport was up with a first-in-the-nation analysis of the prospects for Duncan’s successor in CD 52. By the time Roll Call picked up the FR story three days later, another name was in the mix — Duncan’s son Duncan, a First Lieutenant in the Marines who was deployed to Iraq in 2003 and since honorably discharged. And, Duncan D. Hunter seemed solidly in the mix since the Congressman himself told FR that his son was a name that shouldn’t be left out of any analysis.

For the record here, despite other blog sites saying over a month later"You heard it here first" about Duncan’s son possibly running, in actuality, Roll Call was the first to have it, after FR provided RC reporter… Read More