HOUSE REPUBLICANS GET AN "F" – BUT THERE IS A CHANCE TO IMPROVE This morning, in the wee hours, I read a column from Sacramento Area Congressman Dan Lungren, in which he feels that there should be a new election for all of the GOP leadership, from Speaker on down. But from reading the first paragraph of his column, I’m not sure he wants to do this for the right reasons. You see, the second sentence says it all:

Lungren, who is ‘back’ in Congress, re-elected after being out of the House for over a decade, should have an outsider’s perspective – I guess… Read More

Last December, Rasmussen Reports polling showed that the Governator was down by a few points in one-on-one hypothetical match ups with Phil Angelides and Steve Westly. Now, a few weeks later, the same company is reporting that the race is neck and neck. I’ve reprinted some of their summary findings below, but you can read more, including survey crosstabs right here.

Nine days ago, I posted the Curiously Quiet SD County Board of Ed Vacancy. Why, I asked— with a January 27 deadline for applications looming and a big, beautiful website with all kinds of other news on it (bought with our public dollars) — the vacancy and the appointment process had not been posted for the public to easily see?

I also blasted the post to a pretty significant email list, including politicos, media types and the trustees at the Board of Education. Lots of response. No changes to the site, however.

It would seem that — Republican or Democrat — any board member wanting to look good in the eyes of the public and the media would be calling for complete and easy access to information as part of this process. Perhaps I need a question mark at the end of the last sentence.

At least now I know I’m not the only one doing the questioning. Marsha Sutton, the education writer for Voice… Read More

What do you do when you can’t get what you want from government? Answer: Buy the domains names of the politicians involved. Set up a web site and put pornographic images on it with vulgar comments about them. Now that is redressing our grievances toward government.

That is what David Grant did after he didn’t get satisfaction from Los Angeles Unified School District over an injury he suffered. He reserved the domain name of LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer – royromer.com – and domain names of the workers’ compensation attorney an others he didn’t get satisfaction from.

Now they are settling for $360,000 if the internet issues are resolved as well. See the story here.

LA Unified is on dangerous ground. What if parents did something along this line to get better test scores or teachers to get pay increases?

I know what some of you are thinking and MikeSpence.com is already reserved. Is yours?… Read More

The City of Salinas received national attention last year for its decision to close municipal libraries due to a shortage in city funding and the subsequent “Measure V” campaign which raised the city’s sales tax half a cent. National figures and celebrities such as Hector Elizondo, George Lopez and others donated to the “Rally Salinas” campaign which raised over $500,000 in private funds to keep the libraries open until a public solution could be found. Mayor Anna Caballero received much of the credit for spearheading this effort and for “saving” the City of Salinas libraries.

A few weeks ago Mayor Caballero declared her intention to run for AD 28 setting up an interesting primary showdown with Watsonville Mayor Ana Ventura Phares. Although Caballero is well liked and has incredible name ID within the district, Ventura Phares has picked up some heavy endorsements including the UFW and a ton of Sacramento legislators including Cindy Montanez, Jackie Goldberg and Jenny Oropeza. … Read More

Some of the results of the Survey of San Diego County Voters conducted for the Marijuana Policy Project (January 3-4, 2006 500 likely voters +/- 4.38) conducted by Evans/McDonough. These are numbers for Supervisors in their own districts, not countywide:

Supervisor Cox (R): Strong Fav 13/Somewhat Fav 23/Somewhat Unfav 10/Strong Unfav 2/No Opinion 20/Never Heard 32

Supervisor Jacob (R): Strong Fav 26/Somewhat Fav 32/Somewhat Unfav 7/Strong Unfav 5/No Opinion 15/Never Heard 15

Supervisor Slater (R): Strong Fav 5/Somewhat Fav 22/Somewhat Unfav 10/Strong Unfav 6/No Opinion 24/Never Heard 34

Supervisor Roberts (R): Strong Fav 15/Somewhat Fav 28/Somewhat Unfav 24/Strong Unfav 10/No Opinion 18/Never Heard 4

Supervisor Horn (R): Strong Fav 11/Somewhat Fav 35/Somewhat Unfav 15/Strong Unfav 4/No Opinion 19/Never Heard 16

PLEASE NOTE: the number of voters surveyed in each Supervisorial District was 100, which increases the +/- considerably. The poll as a whole comes close to other polling I’ve seen recently, though. Term limits countywide came in 84% for 13% against, which should make folks in Sacramento who want to fix the term limit… Read More

There is a lot of great stuff to which I want to draw your attention to on the main page today.

COMMENTING SYSTEM LIVE! But first let me start by announcing that the guest-comment feature on the FlashReport is finally up and running! As this site has been custom built, adding complex features takes time, unlike if we had gone with an ‘off the shelf’ blog program for that part of things. Nevertheless, the feature is up and running, so when you are over on the blog, you can now press on the comment link below any post to read comments, or make one of your own!

The only catch is that the first time you try to post, you will have to register with this site and give a username and password. We’ll get you approved quickly, and then you can make the FlashReport an interactive experience!

Great reading today (all stories on the main page): TAX OR FEE? … Read More

First-term San Bernardino County Supervisor Josie Gonzales of Fontana has apparently survived an attempted recall. Recall proponents reportedly are conceding defeat, having failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a recall election. The deadline for signatures is today at 5 p.m. Recall proponents were angered by the Fifth District Supervisor’s efforts to establish redevelopment areas in the unincorporated communities of Bloomington and Muscoy in the Rialto and San Bernardino areas, respectively.

Although she is the sole Democrat on the five-member Board of Supervisors, Gonzales is a business owner and a conservative who votes with the majority of the board much of the time. She defeated former Assemblyman John Longville, D-Rialto, in the November 2004 general election. Gonzales replaced Jerry Eaves, a former Democrat Assemblymember who resigned the seat to avoid further prosecution for gift-reporting violations.… Read More