As this year’s election year legislative session comes to a close yet another good government bill has been left stranded in Sacramento. The Senate Appropriations Committee currently holds AB 1634, authored by Assemblyman Kevin McCarthy with strong support from Secretary of State Bruce McPherson (pictured below), in suspense.

AB 1634 would fully reimburse county governments for the costs they incurred during last year’s Special Election with no impact on current or future budgets – as the money has already been set aside. When the Special Election was called, Secretary McPherson recommended that the proclamation include language to reimburse the counties for their costs. California has held a large number of elections in the last 5 years and county governments are feeling the squeeze.

If this bill does not pass, some counties are going to have to make cuts to important services such as law enforcement, health services and infrastructure… Read More

Senate passes greenhouse gas global warming bill, 23-14, all Republicans present voting NO…coming our way.… Read More

Since awarding the Golden Trash Can Award to the KOCE bill that allows the de facto public subsidy of millions to the Foundation that wants to buy the TV station, we’ve been following the bill.

Today is the third day that this bill has been languishing on the Senate Floor. Early reports were that Senator Tom Harman had agreed to be the floor jockey for the bill, but then dropped it like a hot potato, leaving its author, Assemblywoman Carol Liu of Los Angeles, without anyone to bring it up for a vote. Then we heard that another Los Angeles County Democrat, State Senator Alan Lowenthal agreed to “jockey” the bill. But the ‘stink’ associated with this bad bill was too much even for him, and he dropped out as jockey. Now the latest is that the bill supporters had to go all the way to the Bay Area to find a new ‘jockey’ – State Senator Tom Torlackson. We’ll see if he holds on to the stinky hot potato, or not.

Perhaps they should keep looking for support even further to the north – perhaps just bilking Oregon taxpayers instead of ones here in the Golden State..… Read More

The Trip III. Route: Sacramento to LA via the 99 then the 5 to downtown San Diego. Me, Valerie, and Ella.

9:30 Left Sacramento after a having to trot back home for something we forgot.

10:00 Stockton

10:10 – 10:45. Freeway gridlock south of Stockton for road repair. When we reached the location of the ‘repair’ (no joke) we found 14 CalTrans workers literally leaning on their shovels while one fellow shoveled in a hole. Much to my chagrin, my camera was in the trunk.

11:00 Modesto

11:30 Merced

12:30 Fresno. Here we went through the Jack in the Box drive through. My second hamburger was most unwholesome (It felt like it had a four day growth of beard) and I had to put it down. I’m still a little nauseous from thinking about it and don’t think I’m game for fast food for a while.

1:45 Bakersfield. The worse part of this drive, without a doubt, either direction, is the drive between Fresno and Bakersfield. It may only be an hour and fifteen minutes but it seems like 3 hours.

2:45 Magic Mountain. I was going about 85 mph here and a Hell’s Angels fellow sped past me like I was… Read More

Hubris is defined as "Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance."

That is what came to my mind as I saw this press release come over the transom from the Governor’s office:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement after the Assembly approved AB 2911 by Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez and Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata: "This plan is just what the doctor ordered for millions of low-income Californians who pay the most for their prescription drugs but can least afford them. With prescription drug costs contributing to more than 8 percent of health care inflation, this is … Read More

Yesterday, the FlashReport awarded its 2006 Golden Trash Can Award to Assembly Bill 523 which represents an outrageous effort by the Coast Community College District in Orange County to make a de facto gift of nearly $20 million in public funds to finance a bid by KOCE television’s Foundation to buy the public broadcast station, which is being sold by the college district to generate funds. I won’t go over all of the details again, but I will encourage FR readers to read the piece. Since writing iy, I have not been provided with the actual Appellate Court rulings which are very clear when you read them. Presiding Justice Sills, who penned the opinion for the court, voids the sale of KOCE to the KOCE Foundation — the bit provided by the Foundation was for much less money than the other bidder, televangelism provider Daystar.… Read More

Yesterday, the FlashReport awarded its 2006 Golden Trash Can Award to Assembly Bill 523 which represents an outrageous effort by the Coastline Community College District in Orange County to make a de facto gift of nearly $20 million in public funds to finance a bid by KOCE television’s Foundation to buy the public broadcast station, which is being sold by the college district to generate funds. I won’t go over all of the details again, but I will encourage FR readers to read the piece. Since writing iy, I have not been provided with the actual Appellate Court rulings which are very clear when you read them. Presiding Justice Sills, who penned the opinion for the court, voids the sale of KOCE to the KOCE Foundation — the bit provided by the Foundation was for much less money than the other bidder, televangelism provider Daystar.… Read More

The President of the KOCE Foundation, Dr. Jo Ellen Allen, has taken the time to pen a rebuttal to my commentary from yesterday. She takes umbrage at what she feels was a factually misleading piece penned by me.

I will let you read Jo Allen’s piece (click the attachment below) for yourself, but apparenlty we are going to be doing a he-said, she-said on some of the most basic facts in this case.

I will restate that despite what Allen says:

Daystar was and is willing to pay considerably more for KOCE than the Foundation is prepared to pay – to the tune of millions and millions of dollars; and, Daystar’s offer was in CASH, not a complex web of financing with a few million down, the rest to follow after five years, and, oh yes, a sweetheart deal with a zero percent interest rate!

I will make my point succinctly — government, whether at the federal, state or local level, should not be in the business of televison. Government shouldn’t be producing television programming, nor should tax dollars be taken from one person to provide entertainment for… Read More