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

With all of the focus on the donnybrook between Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and Meg Whitman and the anemically funded Tom Campbell) for the GOP nomination for Governor, little attention it seems is being paid to the Republican primary for Lieutenant Governor. Maybe that’s because, at least as of today, there isn’t one. State Senator Jeff Denham, who achieved celebrity status within Republican ranks when he successfully fended off an attempted recall election orchestrated by former Senate President Don Perata, continues to have the Republican field all to himself.

Denham has recently racked up two new endorsements – one being the Ventura County Republican Party (which inexplicably has decided to weigh in on the primary elections – unusual for a GOP County Committee) and the other being the California Small Business Owners Association (who also endorsed Poizner).

Denham has been working hard at fundraising, and has nearly $1.1 million cash on hand – which is only a fraction of what he… Read More

This is a really funny video focusing on John Garamendi’s residency (or lack thereof) in Congressional District 10… or is that 3? (h/t to Lisa V. at the CC Times Politics Blog, who in turn gives a h/t to Halfway to Concord)… … Read More

It’s been a while since we’ve checked in on the status of Bay Area Assemblywoman Fiona Ma’s legislation to create the California Blueberry Commission (at a time when California legislators should be striving to drastically reduce the number of state boards and commissions).

We only caught on to this outrageous piece of legislation, AB 606, after it had already passed out of the State Assembly. Last month (National Blueberry Appreciation Month, I might add), the State Senate Food and Agriculture Committee narrowly passed the bill. However, not without bipartisan opposition. That committee has only five members — three Democrats and two Republicans. With Democrat Loni Hancock opposing the bill, Republicans could have ended the quixotic quest for a State Blueberry Commission right then and there. But while Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth voted with Hancock against AB 606, Republican Abel Maldonado voted with Democrats Dean Florez and Fran Pavley to pass it!

The bill will next be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 17th.

It is our hope that the the Blueberry Commission bill will be "pressed… Read More

For some time now, Tustin Councilman Jerry Amante has been the prohibitive frontrunner in the race to succeed Chuck DeVore in the State Assembly in the 70th District in the heart of Orange County. Actually, to be more accurate, Amante came out of the gate early with an impressive array of endorsements, and really had created a “presumptive Assemblyman” status for himself. We were certainly prepared here at the FlashReport to call it that way. But it would appear that Amante’s “lock” on the GOP nomination in AD 70 is not as certain as I would have predicted.

The latest campaign filing reports show that Amante, who has been impressive in his ability to garner endorsements, has had a rather lackluster go of raising funds – according to filings Amante raised around $43,000 in the last period and had less than $12,000 cash on hand as of June 30th. That is a very poor showing. Especially for someone running in a district that includes many of Orange County’s wealthiest enclaves. And as we like to say, in districts like these, there are literally thousands of potential candidates one mortgage away from… Read More

There’s nothing new about the State of Nevada wooing California business. Who can blame the Silver State? California business, after all, is ripe for the picking with its status of being one of the worst states to conduct business and its excessive taxation and stifling regulations.

Now Nevada is using the fodder of California’s issuance of IOUs rather than cash as another excuse to ramp up efforts to pursue Golden State businesses. And by ramping up efforts I mean spending $1 million in TV ads in Southern California markets – beginning this weekend.

Read more here.… Read More

Who are these three? An order to release 25% of felons from state prisons is one of the most mind boggling judicial orders ever issued in US history. The idea is so bizarre, strange and breathtaking we need to have a look into the background of each of the judges. Are they mere cranks or serious social policy reformers?

Here’s the first clue. All were appointed by Jimmy Carter. What are the odds? If you were forced to choose who among the three is the most exotic you would have endless shouting matches. Let’s begin with Stephen Reinhardt. … Read More

There have been some news links posted on the Flash main page over the last few days about the legislature "expunging" (or never posting, I believe is the reality) from its websites the official Assembly July 24 vote tallies for Chuck DeVore’s AB 23, which would have allowed offshore oil drilling (it failed 28-43, with eight not voting): LAT: California Assembly expunges votes on oil drilling bill

SF Chron: Erase the cowardice

The articles are comical, when you read some of the stated reasons for hiding the votes of our representatives.

The 30,000 foot implication in the articles, of course, is that such a bill is too controversial for the public to fully understand the complex and personal reasons for each members’ respective vote on the matter. I like that one.

More specifically implied is that any Democrat demanding the U.S. rid itself of the necessity of foreign oil sources, would need to "splain" how they could be opposed to… Read More