Here’s an inspiring story about an elementary school teacher who almost single-handedly turned a school’s math scores from dismal to great. Denise Maimone applied logic when she stealthily went into Georgetown Elementary School, located in a remote region of El Dorado County, and rejected the notion that every single 8th grader is somehow magically prepared for algebra, when in fact most aren’t. Instead, she parsed out those kids who were ill-prepared for the rigors of higher math and those who had the skills and brought the school’s math test scores up by 88 percentage points – the highest, by far, in the state. As a founder of a private Christian school, I have always supported and protected funding for education. It’s really a no-brainer to support the education of our future generation of kids. That being said, I don’t think California leaders achieveacademic greatness simply… Read More

Update:Apparently the OCBC did communicate their support for this bill to its proponents. We’re still waiting for the full story, but if there is an issue here, it would be internal to the OCBC, and not the fault of the social-engineers who want to ban plastic bags. As Drudge would say… developing…

630am – Original Post I penned a commentary on the defeat of AB 1998, the ban on plastic grocery bags, which you can see below this post. In my original draft, I hammered the Orange County Business Council pretty hard for supporting the bill. I made an assumption that because Senator Cedillo… Read More

The entire membership of the Assembly Republican Caucus in the California State Assembly yesterday signed a letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urging him and state Attorney General Jerry Brown to file a federal appeal of the Proposition 8 case, Perry v. Schwarzenegger, according to John C. Eastman, Director of the Claremont Institute’s Center for Constitutional Jurisprudence and former Dean of Chapman University School of Law, who helped draft up a very articulate letter.

“This is a significant statement of principle coming from the entirety of the Assembly Republican Caucus,” Eastman said. “It reflects respect for the established rule of law that no matter one’s personal opinion, a validly enacted state initiative must be defended in the courts by the elected officials charged with this responsibility. The Governor and Attorney General have a constitutional duty to appeal the Prop 8 ruling, and it is high time for them to fulfill their oath of office in this regard.”

Proposition 8 was passed by over seven million voters in 2008, gaining 52% of the vote. Its constitutionality was upheld the California Supreme Court in… Read More

Yesterday one of the leading conservatives in America, United States Congressman Tom Price of Georgia, stopped into the International Headquarters of the FlashReport (located in the heart of Orange County). Price is the Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee — which to the uninitiated — is the conservative caucus within the House Republican Conference.

We whipped out the handy Flash FlipCam and conducted an on-the-spot interview with Representative Price… It runs just under five minutes. Hope you enjoy it as much as he and I enjoyed taping it!

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Embattled Democrat Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez continues to duck debates with her GOP challenger, popular Assemblyman Van Tran. One can presume, I suppose, that the important responsibilities of an important Member of Congress like Sanchez have her too busy for such "luxuries" as debating an opponent before a competitive election.

So what exactly is keeping Representative Sanchez busy?

You need look no farther than the Twitter feed of none other than Playboy Magazine founder and owner Hugh Hefner. Yesterday afternoon Hef tweeted, "Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez is having lunch at the Mansion. I’m a long time supporter."

One has to wonder if the choices that Loretta Sanchez makes in who she hangs with and where … Read More

Tonight’s debate between Carly Fiorina and Barbara Boxer was probably the worst debate I’ve ever seen in all my years of watching political debates. Not on Fiorina’s part—she did a great job for her first general election, televised debate. But Randy Shandobil, KTVU Channel 2 and the panel of journalists should collectively be ashamed of themselves. Now, because this is a right-of-center blog, I’m sure that they may easily dismiss my observations as simply partisan, but they would be wrong. Like most people, I want to see a fair, balanced exchange between the two major candidates running for one of the state’s most powerful jobs. But what I saw was not a fair and balanced debate. It was Shandobil, the SF Chronicle’s Carla Marinucci, KQED’s Scott Shafer & La Opinion’s Pilar Marrero piling on Fiorina while throwing generalized, softball questions to Boxer. And not once, not twice, but over and over… Read More

While I have some general concerns about becoming nauseous in the mere presence of ultra-shrill, ultra-left wing, and ultra-annoying Senator Barbara Boxer, I am going to take some Pepto and suck it up — because tonight I am going to be at the United States Senate debate between Boxer and Carly Fiorina taking place at St. Mary’s College in Moraga in the East Bay Area.

This should be an excellent show — and frankly my expectations for this debate are high, at least in terms of drama, and presentation. Both Boxer and Fiorina are articulate, forceful people and that should make for good show — important for bloggers covering the event!

As always, our coverage will be fair — and biased. As a matter of fact, we’re calling the debate for Fiorina now. Details to come later…

The debate will apparently be carried live on C-SPAN — which means you can tune into C-SPAN via your cable or satellite provider — or you can go to C-SPAN’s website and catch their live feed there. The action starts at 7pm and goes for one… Read More

Check out my live-tweeting from the U.S. Senate debate…… Read More