“It ain’t over ‘til it’s over,” Lenny Kravitz crooned in the 1990’s. And so goes Sacramento’s publicly subsidized arena deal.

The group of 12 citizens who sued the city under the California Environmental Quality Act, were handed another disappointment last week. Judge Timothy Frawley Friday rejected a pair of environmental lawsuits filed by the citizens over the Sacramento Kings’ new downtown arena.

However, an appeal may keep the environmental issues alive.

The group, led by retired Caltrans director Adriana GianturcoSaltonstall, had filed a notice of appeal seeking to overturn a judge’s refusal to grant an injunction halting construction of the planned Kings arena.

Gianturco wasthen-new-Gov. Jerry Brown’s1976 pick for director of the California Department of Transportation, often referred to as “Our Lady of the Diamond… Read More

Despite all of the happytalk coming from Sacramento, Californians today are facing serious challenges. The highest poverty rate in the nation. Sky high unemployment. Many schools failing, particularly those serving our African-American and immigrant communities.

In the midst of all of this, our Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom has found a new parade to run to the front of: drug legalization.

It’s difficult to see how legalizing pot, and in the course of doing so throwing open the doors to addiction and dependency in the largest state in the union, helps to solve our problems. Rather, it’s easier to see how it will make them worse. And that’s an observation made by none other than Newsom’s fellow Democrat, Jerry Brown, on Meet the Press earlier this year.

“All of a sudden if there’s advertising and legitimacy, how many people can get stoned and still have a great state or a great nation? The world’s pretty dangerous. Very competitive…”

Yesterday our campaign released an ad challenging Newsom on his stance on drug legalization, in particular as a women’s issue… Read More

It’s late October and that means there are a lot of people out there wearing masks. But this isn’t about Halloween. This is about all the fake taxpayer interests – organizations and candidates – who are trying to gain an advantage in the upcoming election by portraying themselves as defenders of homeowners and Proposition 13.

At some level, we at Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association ought to be pleased that others are attempting to use our name and the Prop 13 label. This fakery, if… Read More

It isn’t often a political journalist gets the chance to interview a great Hollywood actor, much less one with a distinctive sense of right and wrong, good and evil.

Long time actor and conservative activist, Tony Lo Bianco, best known for “The French Connection,” is currently touring with his former Broadway and Emmy-award winning one-man show, “The Little Flower.” The show is set in the 1945 City Hall office of Fiorello H.La Guardia, during his final day as three-term mayor of New York City. La Guardia is famous for fighting… Read More

Apparently the $7.1 billion Proposition 1 water bond is going to win easily on November 4. Politicians already feel comfortable about using the money as leverage to help their political allies.

One California state legislator is already telling local elected officials in his district that they must favor unions in bidding for contracts on a water project. If they don’t follow the directive, Governor Brown won’t give them the $12.5 million (or even $15 million) allegedly reserved for them in Prop 1.

On October 14, Assemblymember Luis Alejo (D-Watsonville) was scheduled on the meeting agenda of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors to make a presentation about his legislative accomplishments in 2014. Alejo and his staff had prepared a 25-minute presentation with handouts and PowerPoint slides. (Watch video of the presentation – Item #8 on October 14, 2014.)

Assemblyman Alejo received glowing praise from the Board of Supervisors for his work in the legislature. He told them that Governor Brown had signed 22 of his 23 bills that passed in the 2013-2014 legislative… Read More

NOTE: Watching the video below is secondary to my comments here:

Liberals like Jon Stewart confuse “wealth privilege” with white privilege. If you have more money, life is better. It doesn’t matter what race you are. And it’s not unjust.

Think I’m wrong? Go tell blue collar and low income whites that they benefit from “white privilege.” And be ready to beat a hasty retreat for your own safety.

Such lower income whites find that not only do they possess no such privilege — they are actively discriminated AGAINST by their own governments!! Affirmative action and subtly designed racist quotas work to “keep them in their place.”

Conversely, if you are a well-to-do black, you are better off than a white person with the same income. For no matter how wealthy you are, government will still discriminate in favor of your black kids — in employment, school admissions and government contracting.

But you won’t hear about THAT in a Jon Stewart tirade. That working class white group is not his pampered demographic — liberal elitists plagued with “white guilt.”… Read More

The general counsel of theAgriculture Labor Relations Boardwent to court in April to impose a union contract on Gerawan Farming employees, without proper input from the farm workers, and without counting the ballots of a United Farm Workers union decertification election, held in November 2013.

And now, an attorney with the ALRB has filed a discrimination and harassment lawsuit against ALRB General Counsel Sylvia Torres-Guillen, and ALRB attorney Alegria de la Cruz.

The Plaintiff is… Read More

In California, the root cause of government waste, failed programs, high taxes, debt and deficits, regulatory abuse, civil rights abuse, and even corporate cronyism is public sector unions. Their agenda is intrinsically in conflict with the public at large because any government program, any government regulation, any tax and any new debt, benefits them regardless of the cost or benefit to society.

In California, public sector unions collect and spend over $1.0 billion per year in dues. Their combined political spending and lobbying easily exceeds a half-billion per two-year election cycle. They are by far the most powerful special interest in California. Businesses embrace cronyism because they have no choice. The unions rule. Businesses either make a deal with the unions who run the state and local agencies, so they can get a subsidy or favorable regulation, or they can fight an irresistible machine.

If you accept this premise, powerful allies are hard to find.

When searching for help in the cause of public sector union reform, one staunch and rising group are those individuals and organizations who characterize themselves as “free market.” Nearly all… Read More