Oakland teaches and the district reached a contract agreement last night after two years of negotiations. The district has been asking the teachers to pay for 50 percent of any future health care premiums increases, a demand to which the union refused to agree. Neither side would reveal the details of the final agreement. I’m sure the final agreement will protect teachers from the rising health care premiums the rest of us pay, but what I found particularly annoying about the deal was that the district and the union announced that parents should keep their kids home today. The teachers had planned to strike today and district administrators said it would be to confusing to hold classes. (Administrators had originally planned to hire strike teachers, but backed down on that plan when the union complained.) If parents sent their kids to school today, the district said that they would be supervised, but not taught.… Read More

I am running out the door this morning as the Orange County Republican Party is hosting a small breakfast reception with none other than northern California Congressman John Doolittle. I’ve known John for many, many years (working for him for a short spell) and he is a fine Congressman. He’s a strong, conservative voice in the House Leadership serving as House Republican Conference Secretary. It will be good to see him, let alone a couple miles from my front door!

Look for some great work the next three days from guest editor Nicholas Romero, who will be filling in for me. Also, look for some FR ‘regular faces’ to be filling in for me on this Daily Commentary page! Today the FR features a column from Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia. Plescia has just assumed the reigns of leadership from… Read More

Where’s the beef? Well according the son-in-law of Robert Redford—author Eric Schlosser it’s in the hamburger but that hamburger is made from about 1000 different cows.

It’s factoids like this that Schlosser, author of “Fast Food Nation” and a new book aimed at kids “Chew on this” that make you question whether McDonalds is such a good idea the next time you are on the road with the kids. But read a little deeper and you’ll find the demented mind of an author who wants a federal bureaucracy to oversee the frying station and a guy who probably has at least a little racism in him.

“The same demographic groups widely employed at fast food restaurants—the young and the poor—are also… Read More

This year marks the 10th Anniversary of Curt Pringle’s reign as Speaker of the Assembly. This was the first GOP Speaker in some time. (I don’t count the moderates kept in power by Democrats). They have a blog set up that you can see by clicking here.

There has been a lot ofconcern and anguish about the Governor’s appointment of Kennedy, now Nunez, and the lack of firing of Reiner etc… The Governor Appointments Secretary to the CRP executive Committee there were over a 1000 vacancies that needed to be filled.

Speaker Pringle did thing differently. I know because today marks the 10th Anniversary of my appointment by him to the California Library Services Board, now know as the Library of California Board.Please feel free to email me questions about how the transaction reimbursement rate on inter library loans is determined.

Upon taking the Speakership, Pringle and his staff immediately started recruiting people to fill slots that were open. I worked with John Nelson. Now the Library Board wasn’t the most powerful. But I got… Read More

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in California politics today: * The latest Field Poll numbers show that the public is wising up to the poor public policy behind actor/producer/director Rob Reiner’s "universal pre-school" measure. The measure, which would create a new tax burdon on Californians, creates a centralized, statewide bureaucracy to provide pre-school. Conservatives oppose the measure both for the new taxes and another government-run program (a massive one, at that) — but also Democrats are starting to oppose the measure (such as former Senate President John Burton) because they feel that a lot of wealthy folks who already send their kids to pre-school will be the primary beneficiaries. * FR friend Bill Bradley, a columnist for the LA Weekly and blogger extraordinairre at New West Notes (you though I wrote a lot, this guy types circles around me) reveals that there is a new independent expenditure firing up on behalf of Phil Angelides. * Negotiations are underway again to negotiate an infrastructure funding package for the November ballot. This is your opportunity to contact your… Read More

There is a lot of interesting stuff going on in California politics today: * The latest Field Poll numbers show that the public is wising up to the poor public policy behind actor/producer/director Rob Reiner’s "universal pre-school" measure. The measure, which would create a new tax burdon on Californians, creates a centralized, statewide bureaucracy to provide pre-school. Conservatives oppose the measure both for the new taxes and another government-run program (a massive one, at that) — but also Democrats are starting to oppose the measure (such as former Senate President John Burton) because they feel that a lot of wealthy folks who already send their kids to pre-school will be the primary beneficiaries. * FR friend Bill Bradley, a columnist for the LA Weekly and blogger extraordinairre at New West Notes (you though I wrote a lot, this guy types circles around me) reveals that there is a new independent expenditure firing up on behalf of Phil Angelides. * Negotiations are underway again to negotiate an infrastructure funding package for the November ballot. This is your opportunity to contact your… Read More

As of late, there has been quite a bit of speculation on the race between incumbent Bill Horn (disclosure – former employer and former client) and Bruce Thompson for San Diego County’s 5th Supervisorial District. Obviously, Horn has been under some fire from the local media in regards to various disclosure errors he, and maybe his Chief of Staff, made in regard to a particular rental property. Certainly the Union-Tribune, never a fan of Horn in particular and North County politics in general, has taken the much awaited opportunity to land some blows. But to a certain degree, unless there is more, I think North County voters are accustomed to Supervisor Horn under fire from the establishment and their media organs. Without a well funded comparison campaign, its hard to believe these issues are going to have a major impact on the results.

Which leads us to the importance of the next week or so. Thompson (pictured to the left) supporters… Read More

According to the Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal, legislative leaders have said they are in agreement on the "main points" of a $30 – $35 BILLION (yes, with a B) borrowing plan for infrastructure investment. We hope that Senate and Assembly Republicans will hold firm for pay-as-you-go and other needed reforms. Without these "must include" reforms, a massive borrowing plan would, in fact, be the financial equivalant of sailing the S.S. Titanic right into an iceberg!

Here is an excerpt from the Business Journal:

A multi-billion dollar infrastructure bond will be on the ballot this fall, the leaders of the California Legislature told a San Jose audience Tuesday.

… Read More