"The insight of conservatism is the lasting power of America’s founding principles. The Claremont Institute articulates these principles with brilliant clarity, and challenges each and every Lincoln Fellow to live up to them. There is no better training ground for a lifelong campaign in the trenches of political warfare."

This week, I have the honor and privilege to have been selected to be one of twelve participants in the Claremont Institute’s Lincoln Fellowship Program. I am very excited about it – frankly, it’s a really big deal for me.

First and foremost for those FlashReport readers who are not familiar with the Claremont Institute, the mission of the Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their… Read More

"The insight of conservatism is the lasting power of America’s founding principles. The Claremont Institute articulates these principles with brilliant clarity, and challenges each and every Lincoln Fellow to live up to them. There is no better training ground for a lifelong campaign in the trenches of political warfare."

This week, I have the honor and privilege to have been selected to be one of twelve participants in the Claremont Institute’s Lincoln Fellowship Program. I am very excited about it – frankly, it’s a really big deal for me.

First and foremost for those FlashReport readers who are not familiar with the Claremont Institute, the mission of the Institute is to restore the principles of the American Founding to their… Read More

There seems to be something particularly egregious about something I read about in today’s Los Angeles Times, DWP proposes hiring former Assembly speaker Nuñez to help lobbyists.

Apparently the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, a public agency, is looking to spend big bucks to hire former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez to provide "strategic advice" on how the agency should be navigating through the regulatory maze that has come about with the passage of AB 32, the legislation that requires state government to enact rules limiting people-caused actions that produce carbon emissions.

The irony hear, which should make FR readers cringe, is that Nunez himself was an absolutely critical player, while Assembly Speaker, in the passage of AB 32 in the first place.

Or to put it another way — are we creating a new "industry" in California — which is where… Read More

Confirming the breaking news presented here on the FlashReport by San Diego County Correspondent Barry Jantz, the following release just came over the transom…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: John Wainio John@TheSanDiegoGroup.com

David Bejarano to be next Chula Vista Chief of Police

Campaign for Sheriff Ends

Chula Vista, CA. August 11, 2009 – David Bejarano today announced that he has accepted the opportunity to serve as Chief of Police for the City of Chula Vista. "The decision was based on the ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to return to my passion of being a local municipal Police Chief for the community that my family and I have ‘called home’ for almost thirty years," said Bejarano.

Bejarano is excited about making a public safety contribution for the Chula Vista Police Department and the community where he is active through various non-profit organizations, a community bank, and as a Trustee for the Chula Vista Elementary School District.

Today’s announcement also means… Read More

***Exclusive to the FlashReport***

The item on today’s Chula Vista City Council meeting agenda is simple:

22. PUBLIC EMPLOYEE APPOINTMENT PURSUANT TO GOVERNMENT CODE SECTION 54957 Title: Police Chief

That could mean a lot of things. However I have it from an impeccable source that David Bejarano, the leading fundraiser in next year’s San Diego County Sheriff’s election, will be appointed as chief of police in Chula Vista, to be followed by his announcement that he will drop his bid for sheriff.

The obvious impact on the sheriff’s campaign may be more significant news for some than the police chief announcement itself. For Bejarano, I’m guessing not!

The source is "vaunted" enough, that I am calling the news now.

More to follow.

9:10 am Update: The news is confirmed. See follow-up post.

2:00 am Update: The Union-Trib has … Read More

Former Democrat turned Decline-To-State Assemblyman Juan Arambula of the Central Valley queried the Legislative Analyst, Mac Taylor, as to the sum total of California state governments aggregated liabilities (all of our long term debt). The response that Arambula received from Taylor is attached below, and is a "must read" for all FlashReport leaders. The amount of liability is nothing short of staggering, and Taylor organizes the types and specifics of the liabilities in a way that is easy to digest — even for non policy-wonks (like me).… Read More

This weekend the excellent "OC Watchdog" series of the Orange County Register focused on a recent report on nonprofit pay released by an organization called "Charity Navigator" which revealed, among other things, that more than a few Orange County and California based nonprofits are paying pretty hefty compensation to corporate insiders, some have questionable management practices favoring corporate "insiders," and that Attorney General Jerry Brown iskeeping an eye on the situation.

For example, Costa Mesa’s Trinity Broadcasting Network is reportedly paying television preacher Paul Crouch as much as $419,500 annually, and it has a lot of relatives working for the nonprofit in various capacities, as does the Irvine-based Ayn Rand Institute, which is raising questions. A Santa Ana outfit named "Association for Firefighters and Paramedics" is spending 97% of its annual $3 million of funds raisedon fundraising and overhead, and $125,375 on its CEO, and has drawn the ire of the Attorney General, who is suing it for deceptive fundraising.

Persons who can exercise… Read More

It’s no secret that California prison costs are out of control.

What is lesser known is that prison costs have escalated sharply due to personnel costs, not because of an increase in prisoners (prisoner population growth has stayed well below the rate of inflation and general state population growth in the past 20 years).

California Youth Authority (CYA) is a good example of employment growth gone wild. Look at this chart and you’ll see that in the past 10 years the youth prisoner population has decreased dramatically while personnel have decreased only modestly, which has led to a flip flop in the prisoner to employee ratio.

Another way to look at it: California’s youth prison-to-employee ratio was 2 to 1 in 1999 and now that stat has flipped to 1 to 2.

Before federal judges look at releasing 44,000 prisoners into our neighborhoods they ought to look at the far less dangerous move of trimming costs at CYA.… Read More