The San Diego Union Tribune has just announced that ex-Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham has been sentenced to a term of 8 years and 4 months in prison. He is taken into custody, and ordered to pay $1.8,000,000.00 in restitution.

Read more about it here: SD U-T article.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the appointment of John Laettner to a judgeship in the Contra Costa County Superior Court.

Laettner, 50, of Walnut Creek, has served as assistant United States attorney in the United States Attorney’s Office since 1989. He was previously deputy district attorney in the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office from 1985 to 1989. Laettner also served as an associate with Stammer, McKnight, Barnum and Bailey law firm in 1983. He earned a Juris Doctorate degree from Hastings Law School and Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, San Diego. He fills the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge Merle Russell Eaton. Laettner is a Republican.

____________________________________________________________________________

Since the GOP Convention, when a resolution was overwhelmingly passed by delegates asking the Governor to appoint Republican judges,… Read More

In recent days, Medical Marijuana supporters and former Assemblyman Bruce Thompson have come out in support of term limits for the SD County Board of Supervisors. Although this may seemingly put the conservative Thompson in strange company,it’s pretty clearthere appears to be no connection between the two … other than a shared dislike for incumbent Sups, or perhaps one incumbent Sup … in Thompson’s case.

Thompson’s campaign against Supervisor Bill Horn (pictured here with a mic, not a bong), rich with endorsements but apparently strapped for cash against the Horn war-chest, is simply tossing a needed issue into the public fray that Horn will either have to ignore or be hard pressed to ‘splain his position on.Here’s most of the Thompson release:

Fallbrook – 5th District Supervisor candidate Bruce Thompson formally announced today that as a County Supervisor he would immediately introduce a motion to adopt term limits for the… Read More

Eons ago I asked if Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca could be beat and promised to revisit the issue. See it here.

Since that time Baca’s run jail system has seen a week worth of riots and now they have spread to the youth facilities. See a sample here.

Baca has never been popular among most Republicans. While he nominally a registered Republican, he supports Democrats all the time, likes grabbing guns and sponsored a tax increase that failed last year.

His administration has bungled more than just the jail riots, there have been escapes and killings of witnesses while in Sheriff custody. There are whispers of corruption and clearly mismanagement is a big issue. Deputies are leaving. The early release progarms is a tragedy. Some LA papers may want Baca gone as well.

Usually, that is bad news for an… Read More

[Editor’s note: Probolsky, a regular contributor to this page, is the president of Probolsky Research, a prominent and respected political polling firm. – Flash] The Governor makes me proud every once in a while. Like a father that cries while spanking his son, it pains me to criticize the Governor when he all to often does something that upsets my conservative, limited government, pro-border security sensibilities.

But today’s Field Poll demonstrates a phenomenon that I have always claimed existed. That is that this governor will always, in the final stretch, win re-election. You can never count him out. He will raise the money he needs and his ability to develop a personal connection with the voters means he will win enough of them over to put him over the top.

Today’s Field Poll release shows the Governor about even with his Dem rivals Angelides… Read More

Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wants to be California’s next top cop. Yet, after two terms in office, Brown has not done much to fundamentally change Oakland’s crime problems. Today, he finally announced that he was putting 115 more cops on the streets after a rash of violent crime, which City Council President and mayoral candidate Ignacio de la Fuente calls a “crisis.” (We have already ha… Read More

Since his forced-retirement from Congress in the ’90s, Brian Bilbray has been a federal lobbyist representing at least seven different clients since 1998 – including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, the County of Los Angeles, San Diego Gas & Electric and more. According to the Center for Public Integrity, who publish information on registered lobbyists on the internet, Bilbray took in just over $700,000 in fees from his clients from 1998 to 2004 — last year’s numbers aren’t posted yet. Of these fees, a little over one-third has come from his immigration reform client, which becomes signficant as you read on. Answers.com defines a lobbyist as a person who solicits members of a legislature for the purpose of influencing legislation. Of course, the… Read More

Since his forced-retirement from Congress in the ’90s, Brian Bilbray has been a federal lobbyist representing at least seven different clients since 1998 – including the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Viejas Band of Kumeyaay Indians, the County of Los Angeles, San Diego Gas & Electric and more. According to the Center for Public Integrity, who publish information on registered lobbyists on the internet, Bilbray took in just over $700,000 in fees from his clients from 1998 to 2004 — last year’s numbers aren’t posted yet. Of these fees, a little over one-third has come from his immigration reform client, which becomes signficant as you read on. Answers.com defines a lobbyist as a person who solicits members of a legislature for the purpose of influencing legislation. Of course, the… Read More