It is crunch time again. The time when things turn ugly in Sacramento and the Capitol sausage factory cranks into gear.

With only three weeks left in the 2014 legislative session and hundreds of bills yet to review, we can’t expect state legislators and staff fully vet, evaluate, and get a clear understanding of every bill that comes up for a vote. This is the time of the year, when deceptive and special interest language gets inserted into bills that inevitably come to bite the consumer for years to come.

One such example is Senate Bill 270, by State Senators Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), Ricardo Lara (D-Huntington Park/Long Beach) and… Read More

SACRAMENTO — Saddling consumers into paying extra for plastic bags at the grocery store is becoming an wildly unpopular idea. Facing formidable opposition because of the thousands of jobs which will be lost, Senate Bill 270 by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Pacioma, isnot just about the extra cost to shoppers anymore.

SB 270 would ban the 100 percent recyclable, multi-use plastic retail bags while allowing grocers to charge and keep fees for paper, and new thicker plastic bags. Padilla and supporters call the current plastic grocery bags “single use.”

Plastic bag representatives,… Read More

Turns out the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension system return rate was 17.3 percent for 2013-2014, and other public pension funds reported similar double-digit returns and five-year returns exceeding their assumed rates. –LAPPL Board of Directors on 08/07/2014, in their post “Misuse of statistics behind erroneous LA police officer salary claims.”

The above quote was made in response to last week’s article “How Much Do Los Angeles Police Officers Make?” that analyzed total compensation for LAPD officers. The substance of their overall response was to challenge two assumptions made in that editorial, (1) that the annual rate-of-return projection of 7.75% used by the LAFPP (Los Angeles Fire & Police Pensions system) is too optimistic, and (2) that the employer’s “unfunded contribution” – that annual sum paid to LAFPP by the City of Los Angeles towards reducing the plan’s unfunded liability – mustbe considered part of an… Read More

The world is an unstable place. If this seemed at doubt even a few years ago, it certainly is no longer. Some instability is a result of violence fueled by radical religious views or by aggression born of extremist ideology. Some of it is caused by long-standing ethnic conflicts or, as we are seeing in Ukraine, by the centuries-old desire of some to conquer neighboring countries simply because they are more powerful and want to expand their territorial footprint for any number of reasons.

In Washington, it seems as though there are only two reactions to all of this. One choice is to intervene everywhere. The other is to intervene nowhere. I think both of these strategic frameworks are equally flawed. To intervene everywhere will overwhelm both our military and financial resources, not to mention potentially lead to unrest at home as a result of the inabilty to accomplish our desired goals. To intervene nowhere assumes that the conflict and violence across the globe will never reach a point where it directly threatens us, which the lessons of history belie.

The great question, of course, is when do we intervene and when don’t we? And, how far should we go… Read More

Late yesterday, the California Supreme Court acted quickly on a legal action filed by Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to remove Proposition 49 from the ballot. As most political insiders are aware, this proposal was a craven, transparent effort to boost voter turnout in a manner that even Governor Brown acknowledged was inappropriate.

Why is the removal of an illicit “advisory measure” from the statewide ballot important? Because the ballot is sacrosanct and is not a political play… Read More

A Governor’s appointee with upwards of 40 violations of the Fair Political Practices Act works right in Jerry Brown’s office, and somehow has managed to retain her job while demonstrating an uncanny talent for avoiding major media’s spotlights.

While Deputy Legislative Secretary Martha Guzman-Aceves has served as a public official in the Brown Administration managing legislation and regulatory matters for the governor,her non-profit organization lobbied the Legislature and governor’s office on various issues, including AB1081, federal immigration policy enforcement,” I reported in October 2013.

“California Deputy Legislative Secretary Martha Guzman-Aceves intentionally filed false documents with the Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC) to conceal hundreds of thousands of dollars, filed false tax returns, failed to report receipt of payment from a political committee, and omitted third-party relationships that directly conflict with her position and duties as Deputy Legislative Secretary in the Office of Governor Jerry Brown,” the… Read More

When discussing increased minimum wage, mandatory sick days, higher taxes and other government mandated business costs, what is too seldom mentioned is that the Left assumes the increase will come out of (bloated) profits. But reality dictates that most of the windfall wages are passed though to the customers in the form of higher prices. Yes, that’s obvious to those of us we even a modest understanding of business, but you’d be amazed how few people are aware of this.

Try this experiment. Next time you discuss (evil) business with a Progressive, ask this simple question — How much of a dollar of sales do you think is business after-tax profit? Allow them time to answer — PRESS for an answer.

Few will guess less than 20%. 40% is not uncommon. The reality is that it’s maybe 8% — eight cents of every dollar of sales. 92 cents goes for costs.

It’s usually significantly less in labor intensive small businesses such as fast food and restaurants.Here’s a good summation of average profit margins in various types of restaurants:

Throughout a lengthy interview with Secretary of State candidate Pete Peterson, I was repeatedly struck with how normal he was. And in politics, “normal” is not the word that usually first comes to mind.

Peterson, a Republican, is running for California Secretary of State on a logical, smart, creative and very reasonable platform:

1. “Get what you pay for” government.

2. Quit driving jobs out of California by making life… Read More