Today’s Wall Street Journal includes a front-page story that features San Bernardino political activist and school board candidate Joseph Turner (pictured right). Read the WSJ articlehere. The piece details Turner’s effort last summer to place an anti-illegal-immigration measure on the ballot in the City of San Bernardino, and asserts that while the effort fell short (due to a judge’s interference – read about that here), itinspired successfulsimilar efforts in at least 10 cities in other parts of the country.

Turner’s initiative,entitled the "City of San Bernardino Illegal Immigrant Relief Act," would have revoked the license of any business deemed to aid or abet illegal immigrants, banned landlords from renting to illegals, and prohibited the city from conducting business in any language other than English. A field representative for… Read More

Ask any Orange County political insider or elected official what reporter they talk to at the LA Times and they will shrug and say no one. It is painfully clear that the LA Times has abandoned any hope of having a viable Orange County operation. They canceled their Orange County section years ago and rarely print oped submissions regarding OC public policy.

I did a poll in the city of Garden Grove a couple years back that showed the LA Times was the fourth most popular local news source among resident after the OC Register, the local Garden Grove Journal, and even the local Channel 3. The rest of Orange County would probably show similar results.

The Times’ last respected OC-based journalist left several months ago. Jean Pasco was the dean of the OC press corps when she packed it in to join the staff of the Orange County Clerk-Recorder.

**There is more – click the link**

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Yesterday, Oakland’s KTVU interviewed me about who is the real Arnold Schwarzenegger (not just me, SF Mayor Gavin Newsom too). The gist of their story was, given the left-leaning bills the governor has been signing lately, Republicans and Democrats alike are wondering what to expect from the Schwarzenegger Administration in its second term. When KTVU’s Randy Shandobil asked me if I was a Schwarzenegger supporter early on, I replied that I was because, although I knew that he’d be middle-of-the-road on social issues, I liked his focus on dealing with the state budget’s structural… Read More

In light of Adam’s post below on the L.A. Times, here is some news that casts into doubt the objectivity of another major California newspaper, the San Jose Mercury News…

When I got an e-mail yesterday from the San Jose Mercury News entitled, "Governor, It’s Time To Set A Date" — I opened it right up. That is and of itself if notable because I get over a thousand e-mails on any given day, and many, many mass-emails go unopened. But it is unusual to get e-mail from the Merc, and even more intriguing because it sounded to me like this large, reputable newspaper was laying out a challenge to Arnold Schwarzenegger! Right under the large, reassuring logo of the Mercury News (I lived in the San Jose Area for a couple of years so logo adorned by front doorstep on a daily basis) was this HUGE logo of the Phil Angelides for the Governor campaign, and then a sarcastic letter that basically attacks the Governor for only… Read More

With the deadline for the signing bills approaching, 40 leaders in Los Angeles’ Antelope Valley held a press conference telling the Governor to veto AB 606 and AB 1056. Both these bills are sponsored by Equality California. Hats off to teacher Scot Sutherland in organizing the event, which featured Assemblywoman Sharon Runner. See the article here.… Read More

I guess the Governor is listening to the Antelope Valley. See here. He vetoed these two high profile bills sponsored by the Gay Lobby for California’s schools. See complete list here.… Read More

The Governor also vetoed SB 1162 Licenses for illegals. See the veto message in Spanish here.The Governor has still not vetoed college grants for illegals SB 160. See alert here.… Read More

Ask any Orange County political insider or elected official what reporter they talk to at the LA Times and they will shrug and say no one. It is painfully clear that the LA Times has abandoned any hope of having a viable Orange County operation. They canceled their Orange County section years ago and rarely print oped submissions regarding OC public policy.

I did a poll in the city of Garden Grove a couple years back that showed the LA Times was the fourth most popular local news source among resident after the OC Register, the local Garden Grove Journal, and even the local Channel 3. The rest of Orange County would probably show similar results.

The Times’ last respected OC-based journalist left several months ago. Jean Pasco was the dean of the OC press corps when she packed it in to join the staff of the Orange County Clerk-Recorder.

The LA Times is so out of touch with Orange County that controversy surrounding the paper itself is about the only thing that gets them any attention.

Both the OC Sheriff and District Attorney’s offices and have had black-out policies on and off with the Times and specific reporters for years. I… Read More