There is a controversy in Mill Valley over a physics teacher who annually fires a gun into a piece of wood as a hands-on way to teach his students how to calculate the speed of a bullet. For more than 10 years, teacher David Lapp has brought his M-1 Carbine rifle (leftover from Lapp’s days as a military police officer in the Korean War) to school to conduct one of his many unusual physics experiments. Lapp has had the approval of his principal, but apparently the district was not aware of it. Critics say that he is violating state law by bringing a gun to school.

I’m a big supporter of gun rights, but I honestly don’t know if I’d want my kids’ teacher bringing his gun to school. It’s not that I wouldn’t trust the… Read More

Reps. Ken Calvert and Gary Miller both Republicans representing parts of Orange County are fed up with OC 5th Dist. Supervisorial candidate Cassie DeYoung’s antics.

DeYoung, is a councilwoman in Laguna Niguel running for the south county seat against former Assemblywoman Pat Bates (a client of my firm). Bates is well liked and has virtually all the local elected and partisan endorsements.

DeYoung has been sending mail knocking Calvert and Miller for supporting transportation solutions that she says would be bad for Orange County.

Its a bold move on the part of her consultants. And it backfired. First the chairman of the Orange County Transportation Authority Art Brown release a letter pulling his endorsement (one of the few DeYoung had) because, and I am paraphrasing, it’s pretty stupid to attack two sitting Members of Congress that represent big chunks of Orange County and who have huge say over federal dollars coming to OC. I think Congressmen Calvert and Miller who have both been Probolsky Research clients would have let the first mail piece slide. But the … Read More

I have been told by a reputable source that the City of Hercules had a large booth and a big delegation at the International Council of Shopping Center (ICSC) Spring Convention in Las Vegas this week. So, at the same time the City Council was abusing their power by invoking eminent domain authority to force Wal-Mart (a ICSC member) out of their community, they were spending big money to recruit other retailers to their town. Residents and city leaders have said that a Whole Foods or other trendy, high-end store would be acceptable, but that Wal-Mart, which attracts a lower-income, more diverse crowd, is not. The elitist attitude of Hercules residents and city officials is just amazing, especially given that the city resides in the open-minded, diversity-loving, liberal Bay Area.… Read More

Looks like the dukes have come off in the regular primary election in the 50th Congressional District as conservative businessman Bill Hauf turns on the ‘contrast campaign’ — with this instructive mail piece to Republican voters, reminding them that Bilbray does not support 2nd Amendment rights.

You can be sure that the next couple of weeks will see a slew of this kind of mail, and conservatives are reminded that there IS someone about whom they can get excited about who is actively campaigning for the two-year seat.

I’m sure this kind of mail will be challenging for Bilbray, who would probably prefer to spend this time campaigning to Democrats about how he is as good on many of their issues as his Democratic opponent, Francine Busby. But instead, Bilbray will have to try and defend his not-so-conservative record to Republicans – good… Read More

The race between incumbent San Diego Supervisor Bill Horn and the local media elite has really heated up again over the last week. In the last couple days local TV stations ‘broke’ the news that Bill Horn, an avocado rancher, had some of his employees living on the property in what sounded like a rather comfortable trailer. Well, I can honestly write now that every rumor I’ve ever heard from Horn detractors who’ve whispered for years ‘the story is going to break’ or ‘the paper is investigating’ has now been given more than its share of public light. When and if Horn pulls this off at least we’ll all be spared the endless rumors and speculation from the downtown types about when ‘the big story is gonna break.”

That being said, I haven’t seen much from the Thompson campaign, and I don’t think a string of what appear to be petty scandals is going to take down a conservative Republican San Diego Supervisor in a conservative Republican district. On the other hand, I have seen recent, well done Horn mailers. One issue in particular from those mailings is going to sting Thompson pretty hard: his… Read More

After I blogged a little about the Dal Rae steak house in LA as a place to me (see it here), I received a couple offers for lunch at the Dal Reae of course. Today I had lunch there with a political operative. Very nice. FR readers should know I am always for available. If there are other nominees for politico restaurants, please feel free to let me know. If you are cheap, Tommy is celebrating 60 years of tasty burgers with lotsa chili(see it here)… Read More

A big thing happening up here in Butte County is the long delayed and much needed expansion of Hwy 149 [or to those from south of Visalia, THE 149] It is a two lane connecting road that runs east-west between the north-south highways 70 and 99. In 1979 or so, while I was attending Butte College nearby, 149 was greatly improved, safety and traffic flow-wise. It went from a narrow windy rolling road to one that is now wide, straight and flat. In just a few years it became very clear that with a growing population, 2 more lanes were needed. Just add ’em next to the existing ones, right?

Not so fast.

The ‘endangered’ meadowfoam plant was discovered in Butte, in the path of the needed roadway expansion. And the ‘stop or I’ll sue’ enviro crowd was determined that this wasn’t going to be a project done timely or fiscally reasonable. So afterit was studied,workshopped and hearing’d to death over 15 years, the couple of dozen government agencies that quake… Read More

Here is a column I wrote for the Orange County Register about the need for more protections against eminent domain.It ran in today’s paper. Enjoy! An excerpt is below along with the link to the full content:

The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution says, in part: "[N]or shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation." Federalist Paper No. 10 says, in part: "The diversity in the faculties of men from which the rights of property originate, is not less an insuperable obstacle to a uniformity of interests. The protection of these faculties is the first object of government."