In the midst of struggling economy, California should not miss the devastating lesson the agriculture industry in Georgia is experiencing as a result of the E-Verify program.

Earlier this year, Georgia passed E-Verify legislation without considering a solution for agriculture. Since the law went into effect, farm labor workers have been fleeing the state, leaving crops literally rotting on the vine.

A report released earlier this month by the University of Georgia Center for Agribusiness and Economic Development showed the state experienced a $75 million loss directly attributable to harvest or packing labor shortages.

California should take note: agricultural accounts for $1.2 trillion a year in exports, the potential effect of a federally mandated E-Verify program without a solution for agriculture could cripple our economy. Productivity will plummet and food prices will skyrocket – something California needs to avoid.

The argument that any vacated labor positions would alleviate the unemployment burden California suffers has been tested and the results were disappointing:

In conversations with local voters over the last few weeks, I’ve discussed several abusive practices the Democrats used recently to ram bad policy ideas through the legislature. These practices draw virtually uniform condemnation, regardless of whether the voters are registered as Republicans or Democrats. That’s no surprise. They threaten representative democracy, something every citizen of any party has an interest in, and are so manifestly unfair that they cannot be defended even along party lines.

What is a surprise, however, is that these abuses are so bad that even the usual Democratic cheerleaders in the mainstream press are beginning to complain.

One of these abuses practices – cooking the books to hide the amount of public money spent by the Legislature – exploded in the press when Democratic Assemblyman Anthony Portantino complained that his own party’s leadership cut his office budget in retaliation for his vote against the state budget. The mainstream press, represented by the Los Angeles Times and a few other papers, actually filed suit against the Democrat controlled Legislature to get timely, honest accountings.

The Republicans have… Read More

The following outstanding editorial appears in the print edition of the Wednesday Wall Street Journal…

California’s Governor Does Labor’s Bidding On Voter Initiatives This month marks the centennial of California’s voter initiative process, and Governor Jerry Brown has commemorated the occasion by signing a law that makes it easier for unions to defeat ballot measures they don’t like. Consider it more evidence of Mr. Brown’s disappointing return to Sacramento.

The California constitution stipulates that ballot measures be placed on a general election ballot unless lawmakers call a special election. What constitutes a “general election” was hotly debated during the 1960s and early 1970s. However, when the legislature wanted to put several bond measures on a primary ballot in 1971, Mr. Brown, then the secretary of state, obliged. Initiatives have since appeared on either primary (typically in June) or November ballots.

This has benefited voters since initiatives receive more scrutiny and debate when there are fewer measures on the ballot. The November… Read More

What started as a dispute on Twitter has now escalated into a full-on political battle between one of the legislature’s most liberal members and one of its most conservative. In her inaugural tweet, newcomer to Twitter Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen of Modesto, a Republican, tweeted that she was proud was the only one in the 80-member Assembly to score a perfect zero from the Sierra Club (an achievement of which any rational personal can be proud, as the Sierra Club is an extremely liberal group). It didn’t take long for the Adam Keigwin, Chief of Staff to one of the legislature’s most liberal members, Senator Leland Yee of San Francisco, to harass Olsen on Twitter because of her tweet. Yee recently was the recipient of the California Sierra Club’s coveted Phil Burton Treehugger Award.

Apparently Assemblywoman Olsen then attempted to get a hold of Senator Yee directly, by calling his cell phone, to discuss things. Alas, Yee must have been too busy speaking to the #OCCUPYSF rally to return her call. She is still waiting for a… Read More

Yesterday in Los Angeles at an event with famed philanthropist and felon Michael Milken, Governor Jerry Brown said that he would soon be releasing details of his own pension reform plan, adding that his proposal will include a constitutional amendment and by necessity be put in front of the voters for approval. This comes on the same day that legislative leaders announce the formation of a special committee to review the issue of reforms to the public employee pension system. It is worth noting that the six-member legislative committee that has now been magically formed is stacked with four pro-union votes, thus guaranteeing that no policy recommendations will come from the committee that are not signed off on by the bosses at California Teachers Association, the Service Employees International Union, et.al.

… Read More

Our sources have confirmed that this week the California Republican Party has received over a million dollars in donations that will be used to super-charge the signature gathering process to refer to the voters the State Senate lines drawn by the California Redistricting Commission. This is not “committed” funding — we have confirmed that these donations have already been put into the party’s bank account. With this significant amount of recent funding, along with funds already raised and commitments forthcoming, I would guess that the referendum effort is probably just a few hundred thousand dollars away from securing all of the… Read More

Pundits have written that one intra-party show-down due to redistricting is a face-off between Republican Congressmen Gary Miller and Ed Royce. Apparently, however, Gary Miller still hasn’t gotten the memo. We’ve been nosing around and no one can tell whether Miller is actually going to challenge Royce or not. While Royce has been his usual Energizer-Bunny self, racking up endorsements and holding high profile events, Miller’s side of things has been dead silent, causing many to question whether Miller is actually going to run at all. Miller’s website still touts his endorsements from his 2010 run. Federal Election Commission reports have come out and in the latest reporting period, Miller pulled in $54,789, leaving him with $1,007,753 in the bank. During that same period of time Royce raised $352,878, and has $3,048,573 in the bank. In reviewing Royce’s report, it is impressive that nearly $200,000 of the funds he’s recently raised came from individual donors (with about two-thirds of that coming from the OC, but also a third coming from Los Angeles County). This is significant because local donations are a strong measure of … Read More

Just when we thought we had seen the worst of the recent economic downturn, the local economy is likely to get yet another jolt from a little-talked-about merger that is winding its way through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The merger is in the area of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) companies, and involves two of the largest companies in the business: Express Scripts, Inc., and Medco. If this goes through, the emerging company will be the elephant in the room when it comes to PBMs.

Fears are that this kind of consolidation of power will have ramifications beyond driving up the prices of medicine for patients. It might also trigger the closure of pharmacies, both locals and chains, which will be hard pressed to compete with this mail order giant.

What does that mean for our little corner of the earth? If the merger happens, you might be getting your prescriptions by mail order. For those who like their local pharmacist or rely on their pharmacy to have their blood pressure taken or to receive their vaccinations, you’ll have to come up with another plan – or maybe your postman can help. And I hope you like mail order… Read More