Today over lunch, in a conversation over the Middle East and the powder keg that is the world we live into today, my young brother Chuck (pictured to the right) uttered yet another reason to open up ANWR for oil and gas exploration – National Defense and Homeland Security.

The world is one nuclear strike away from all out chaos and despair and the rogue regimes in the Middle East that control the world’s oil production have too much control over our economy and over our defense capabilities. Our defense machinery runs on oil and gas, from tank fuel to jet fuel and our reliability for supply is tenuous at best.

So, again, we call upon the President to exercise his constitutional authority and SIGN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER authorizing the exploration and development of our own oil and gas resources in the ANWR region of Alaska – for the express purpose of ensuring adequate supplies for our national security needs first and economic… Read More

This week it was announced that Assembly Republicans are mobilizing on the issue of illegal immigration by forming an Illegal Immigration Task Force, which will hold a series of hearings up and down the Golden State. In the words of Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (pictured to the left), who was tapped by the Assembly Republican Caucus to head up this taskforce, “[It] will quantify the impact that illegal immigration has on California and propose real solutions to this devastating problem.”

Assemblywoman Audra Strickland also be heading up these hearings with DeVore. We’ll anxiously await to see which other Assembly GOPers sign up for this taskforce. Forming this task force was a brilliant idea. In the latest statewide poll of such things, it was… Read More

The Governor of California has a lot of awesome powers — directing vast agencies, holding sway over important (and no so important) pieces of legislation, and even, at times, literally holding power over life and death when death-row inmates approach their execution date. Still, with all of these important powers and responsibilities, it is sometimes the less influential appointments of a Governor that can create the most intrigue and drama. Yeah, I guess these days you could assume I am talking about the appointment of Judges — but I am actually talking about appointees to County Fair Boards (or in state-government-speak, "Agricultural Associations"). I don’t know how it is in other counties, but in Orange County where I live, an appointment to the Fair Board is something to be coveted and is a prized political possession. The OC Fair is a big event — this year’s event which just finished up brought in nearly a million visitors! The entertainment is first-notch, with many big name artists coming through, incentivized with big bucks that the Fair Board can shell out from selling all of those admission tickets!… Read More

The Daily Press, to be exact.

This isn’t really an ideological post. It’s just really apleasure for me to commend and thank two members of our local newspaper industry whodistinguished themselves this past Monday by capturing a known rapist and suspected serial killer in the High Desert City of Victorville.

John W. Thomson, a fugitive from the state of Washington, was apprehended by two Victor Valley Daily Press employees after the accused killer failed to carjack one woman and then made a second carjacking attempt in a parking lot next to the newspaper’s office. That crime was foiled by pressmen Joe Iskandar, 27 (above, left), and Rey Bantug, 24 (above, right), who overheard the commotion while on a break. Without hesitation they intervened, overpowering and detaining Thomson until Sheriff’s deputies arrived. The two men used plastic zip ties from the pressroom to handcuff Thomson. Read about it… Read More

Welcome to the last month of the legislative session. You know what this means, right? You got it – this is where a lot of great legislative proposals that are geared towards empowering individuals die in committee, and legislation that centralizes power in Sacramento (at the expense of individual freedom and liberty) passes out of the Democrat-dominated legislature. Thank goodness we have a Republican Governor who has pledged to oppose any tax or fee increases. That said, the Governor and his team should be prepared for an onslaught of horrible bills. In the newspapers today, several ‘bad idea bills’ are profiled including a Hillary-care style government-run healthcare system takeover, further regulations on firearms manufacturers that will raise the price for law-abiding citizens to purchase a gun, and the legislature wants to tell pet owners how to treat their animals – seriously. I’m penning a column due out shortly on a real choice piece of legislation. As we all focus on eminent domain reform, and the… Read More

SCA 10,a vehicle to move into a conference committeetheresumption ofthe legislative discussion of reforming the corrupt present system of redistricting, passed off the Assembly floor today.Any redistricting proposal would likely be geared for the post-2010 census and the 2012 election. It also contained the term limit extension/restructure discussion thathas beentossed about for some time and more so lately, and which may or may not be joined together with the redistricting proposal. The conference committee would be the last minuteshot at doing something on thisNovember ballot on these issues. Of course, any product of the committee would still have to come back to both houses for a 2/3 approval and the Governor’s signature tobe placed before the voters. Havinga discussion on these issues is fine, more specifically on the corrupt way districts are now drawn. I’m much less excited about the idea of legislators initiating talks on fiddling with their own term limits. It seems that if there was a lot of clamoring for longer or different term limits from the public, who will have to be asked to vote on it, that maybe the… Read More

Welcome to the last month of the legislative session. You know what this means, right? You got it – this is where a lot of great legislative proposals that are geared towards empowering individuals die in committee, and legislation that centralizes power in Sacramento (at the expense of individual freedom and liberty) passes out of the Democrat-dominated legislature. Thank goodness we have a Republican Governor who has pledged to oppose any tax or fee increases. That said, the Governor and his team should be prepared for an onslaught of horrible bills. In the newspapers today, several ‘bad idea bills’ are profiled including a Hillary-care style government-run healthcare system takeover, further regulations on firearms manufacturers that will raise the price for law-abiding citizens to purchase a gun, and the legislature wants to tell pet owners how to treat their animals – seriously. I’m penning a column due out shortly on a real choice piece of legislation. As we all focus on eminent domain reform, and the… Read More

Metnews is reporting that George Runner is giving up his bid to force district elections for judges in LA County.

When voters conslidated Municipal and Superior courts they did harm to large counties like LA. It made sense not to duplicate services in small counties with two sets of judges. The net effect in large counties is to ignore regional representation in judges. Pomona, Palmdale, West Hollywood and Compton are all different and are no longer represented.

Look at the reasons for opposition below. If judges are to sit in one place services would have to be provided there. Oh my!

The article portions relevant to this are pasted below.

By KENNETH OFGANG, Staff Writer

A proposed constitutional amendment that would have required that Los Angeles Superior Court judges be elected by district, with each district to elect no more than 36 judges, was withdrawn yesterday by its sponsors.

A statement distributed by the office of Sen. George Runner,… Read More