Thanks to Flash for pointing out the piece from yesterday’s San Bernardino County Sun about the latest development in the misadventures ofRep. Joe Baca and Sons,aka the "Dismal Dynasty". I postedPart I of this year’s sagaon October 9th. The latest Baca blunder came in the form of their inability to get endorsements from the Democratic Party convention last weekend.

(Pictured, left to right) Joe, Joe Jr., and Jeremy — or as he is now known, "J. Baca", are either running for reelection to Congress (Joe the Father), for a promotion from the State Assembly to the State Senate in the overlapping district (Joe the Son, who likes to call himself "Genuine Joe"), or for promotion to the State Assembly from "education consultant" (the other son, "J. Baca", akaJeremy).

Since almost the dawn of… Read More

After a long city council meeting 4 of the 5members of the West Covina City Council and the City Manager were looking to relax and get something to eat. They innocently traveled 20 minutes away to the Dal Rae in Pico Riveria.

I should note that Iknow the W.C. council pretty well and would never disparage them.

Now they are being accused of violating the Brown Act. See article here.

No need to worry. They took the City Attorney along. Councilwomen Shelley Sandersonexplains;

"Sanderson said Alvarez-Glasman was at the dinner to make sure the members did not discuss city business."

Hats off tothe City Attoney for spending his free time (unless hisservices end up in the bill) as chaperone. If more Council’s would do the same thing these problems just wouldn’t come up.

Memo to West Covina Chamber: You really need to work onthe Shop West Covina campaign.… Read More

A federal judge has prohibted Redondo Beach from enforcingits ordinanceto stop day laborers fromsoliciting work. Now you are free to solict work or contribution on steets or highways. Maybe we should do that in front of the judges house. We’ll see what happens. See the article here.… Read More

One of the great Republicans of San Diego County has been appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to serve on the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission. 49 Mark? I never would have guessed. The release:

Mark McMillin, 49, of El Cajon, has been appointed to the Off-Highway Motor Vehicle Commission. He has served as co-chairman and chief executive officer of The Corky McMillin Companies, a home building and real estate development business, since 1979. McMillin is past president of the Building Industry Association of San Diego County and has served on the Board of Directors for the National Association on Homebuilders. This position does not require Senate confirmation and the compensation is $50 per diem. McMillin is a Republican.… Read More

It is certainly exciting news to have two elected officials on the blog team, but let me be the first to warn Congressman Campbell and Assemblyman LaMalfa – any spin will be met with an avalanche of pain.

You see, the GOP base out here has about had it. We are tired of the spending, seeing airhead Democrats win policy debates, the failure to secure our borders, and the lack of willingness to fight our political adversaries. So…….. this may be not much of a welcome, but to the extent you can demonstrate to your readers exactly what you are doing to change the culture in Washington and Sacramento, respectively, you have a great opportunity here to pick up a lot of support.

As a grumpy old veteran of California politics the first thing I do is check rhetoric against actions, like the actual introduction of legislation or votes on key issues.

Give us the unvarnished truth – good or bad, and you will soon be loved more than you already are.

I look forward to the dialog.… Read More

A hearty welcome to U. S. Representative John Campbell to the role of Flashreport contributor.

I am particularly proud to have him aboard for two reasons, first, he is my Member of Congress. And second, it really gives me some peace of mind knowing that my Congressman knows how to use a computer and email and even the back-end system that controls the Flashreport.

If you think about it, there are probably a huge percentage of the 535 Members of Congress who haven’t a clue how to check the weather in NYC let alone add their two cents (in the case of John Campbell his two silver dollars) by posting their thoughts on the web.… Read More

I was struggling about what to discuss in my first blog to the FlashReport. And then Jon Fleischman ran the as the “golden pen” a column by Arnold’s former budget Director Tom Campbell (no relation). Jon, you handed me an issue on a golden platter.

Tom Campbell wrote about how we should let the state taxing authority (the franchise tax board (FTB)) fill out our tax returns on line. I could not disagree more.

I fought this issue while in the state legislature and am now fighting it in Washington with the IRS. As a taxpayer, you want to pay the lowest possible amount of tax that is legal. That is not the IRS’s goal. There are many gray areas in the tax law. The IRS will not interpret them to your advantage. It’s a conflict of interest. It’s like letting another player play your poker hand.

There are various commercial services (like Turbo tax) that have free online tax preparation programs if you want to save a buck on preparation. They have a motivation to help you find the lowest legal tax. But… Read More

It is being reported in the San Francisco Chronicle that negotiations among the legislative leaders and Governor Schwarzenegger on an infrastructure bond measure for the November ballot are coming close to a compromise agreement. The article says that there is a goal of trying to get something placed on the ballot before the heavy negotiations begin on the state’s budget. This approaching self-imposed deadline seems to really be turning up the heat to ‘make a deal’ — and so I would caution negotiators that the only reason that there is any steam coming out of the hot kettle is because you have all created a convenient, but… Read More