This morning’s San Diego Union-Tribune calls Rob Reiner unethical and charges him with abuse of power. Check these blurbs:

Reiner and his allies have abandoned any claim to the moral high ground. Their role in the misuse of taxpayer dollars for what is little more than promotion of Reiner’s latest crusade – a 2006 initiative to provide free preschool to all the state’s 4-year-olds – is far more sleazy than noble … The next time you read a gushy article about Reiner, the rich show-biz mogul who so cares about kids, feel free to groan. He may care about kids, but he doesn’t give a rip about ethics.

Read the complete editorial here. And, have a great New Year!… Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger wants to raise the minimum wage in California and Bill Dombrowski a sorry excuse for a retail industry rep supports the idea.

I feel like we have entered a parallel universe. The lone sane voice on the issue is Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman who gets the big picture: Forced higher wages mean fewer jobs.

For those who think this is the latest in a string of job-killing proposals being spearheaded by new COS Susan Kennedy, you may be right.

I have suggested before that the governor’s role is in many ways reduced to the opportunistic veto. He could surely veto any attempt to raise the minimum wage. Why he is looking to compromise on this is unclear. Even more bizarre is the retail industry’s acquiescence.… Read More

This yearhas been a year of turmoil, infighting, budget problems, controversial staff changes and changing focus. And I’m not talking about the Governor’s office! I’m talking about a church, but not any church. This is oneof the most famous churches in Los Angeles.

First Hollywood Presbyterian is no ordinary church. It has a storied history that includes the start of the Billy Graham Ministries andserved as the pulpitfor current U.S. Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie.Although considered a "liberal" denomination. There was always a soft spot among more conservative Christians for Hollywood Presbyterian because of its history and location. To have a high profile church in a place like Hollywood was a always a good thing.

The LA Weekly has a decent, if little liberal view of the problems facing this Los Angeleslandmark. See it here.… Read More

This morning the anonymous (but great) San Diego Politics Blog picked up on the just-published San DiegoCityBeat review of 2005 in politics. I don’t typically go out of my way to find a copy of City Beat, avery left-leaning (heck, socialist) tabloid, but when I run across it I pick it up, at least to see which Republicans they’re bashing that week … and which GOP moderates are labeled as right-wing fascists.

This week’s CityBeat piece by David Rolland, "HEY NINETEEN: Recalling the newsmakers of 2005—oh, how they entertained us," does make for fun reading … as long as you take some of it with a grain of salt.

To be sure, San Diego area politics has most assuredly provided some newsmakers this past year … stripper-gate and Duke Cunningham alone were enough for a mouthful, but then throw in a few other ongoing scandals, crises and mayoral elections…… Read More

I was having this very debate with a couple reporters at a Christmas party the other day. Who produces better journalism?: A reporter that is close to the people she covers–has relationships and knows the landscape and has institutional knowledge OR a reporter that is green, has no ties to the community and just purely reports the news?

As someone who values relationships, not because it allows manipulation (after all the green reporter is just as likely to get played) but because it breeds civility and more importantly accuracy I prefer the former.

Jean Pasco of the LA Times is one of the old school reporters who has been around since I got involved more than a dozen years ago. And she knows everyone and remembers everything. There are disadvantages to this but I still would prefer Jean cover a story that involved me or a friend rather than some easy to manipulate but ignorant runt of a reporter.

In true Probolsky style Pasco gives a cool run down of Orange County races in 06 in today’s LA Times. Only a… Read More

While I am off on vacation, I am still trying to find fun things to post to the blog — and I couldn’t resist this article by Sarah Kershaw in today’s New York Times.. Not only because it cites the FlashReport in the opening paragraphs, but because it highlights the fact that there is still a lot of unrest and unhappiness with Gray Davis’ former Deputy Chief of Staff, Susan Kennedy, (she is also a former Executive Director of the State Democrat Party) becoming Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Chief of Staff. The Governor has stated repeatedly (and told me directly) that Kennedy has been hired to implement his vision, not the other way around. But as conservative guru Morton Blackwell says, personnel IS policy. Well, I have spoken plenty about my unhappiness and discomfort with the Kennedy hire, but check out this article. You can read the post cited in the first paragraph here.

I recently was queried by the anonymous "Pete St. John," proprietor of the California Campaigns blog, asking me for six political predictions for 2006. I had some fun with it, but my answers are below. Click through to St. John’s site to see others.

I invite the FR Blog Team, as time permits, to make some predictions for 2006 on this site!

FLASH’S 2006 PREDICTIONS 1) Major political donors, outraged by the amount of their money going into the pockets of consultants, will tie their donations to assurance that the money will go to voter contact, not to the vacation homes of well-connected insiders. 2) The California State Supreme Court will throw out Proposition 22, making gay-marriage a huge issue going into the November elections. 3) Proposals for massive… Read More

With each of Orange County’s seven countywide elected officials up for re-election in the June Primary I thought it would be helpful to take a look at each of the elected officials, their plans and any potential challengers.

NOTE: There are no term limits on countywide offices in Orange County.

ASSESSOR Webster Guillory has been in office since ’98. He generally avoids politics and the media. He is one of only a couple Black elected officials in Orange County. He is registered as a Decline to State. There is no hard evidence that he will see anyone challenge him in ’06. Although I was at a Christmas party last week and met a guy who works for the LA County Assessor who express interest in Webster’s job.

AUDITOR-CONTROLLER David Sundstrom was also first elected in 1998. He too stays out of the limelight. Not a peep from anyone about challenging him. He is a registered Republican.

CLERK-RECORDER Tom Daly was elected in 2002, the year he was termed out of his… Read More