UPDATE:

This just in from ProtectMarriage.com – a statement from Ron Prentice:

Original Post (1130am): Just a few minutes ago, the folks over at Equality California, the umbrella group… Read More

Californians should be skeptical when their legislators ask them to make great sacrifices for dubious reasons. Sure, there are times when citizens need to be mobilized to make do with less for the greater good – World War II era rationing comes to mind. But the type of collective sacrifice now fashionable among liberal politicians based on scientifically “proven” global warming research certainly deserves our skepticism, and not just because the world has been experiencing record cool temperatures.

The liberal-dominated Legislature has fully accepted the apocalyptic calls from radical environmental special interest groups and forced California to unilaterally reduce so-called greenhouse gases when it passed Assembly Bill 32 (the Global Warming act) back in 2006. Unfortunately, Californians are now stuck footing the bill. The effects of this policy monstrosity, once it is fully implemented, will be felt by every resident.

A recent study from Sacramento State University estimates that California small business will pay nearly $50,000 more in costs due to AB 32. Naturally, these costs will be passed on to the consumers. Indeed, after full implementation, AB… Read More

Last night, Congressman Dennis Cardoza was scheduled to address a meeting of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. After a local radio show mentioned this fact, Cardoza cancelled his appearance which led to a cancellation of the meeting. While Democrats in safe districts host town halls, it’s obvious the folks representing vulnerable districts are under strict orders from their handlers to hide.

Cardoza likes to tout that he is a bluedog. I propose that Cardoza resign from the bluedogs and start his own group of Congressmen who are currently in hiding. He could call it the "bluechickens." His first member could be fellow Democrat Congressman Jerry McNerney, who has completely disappeared from the district after he cast a YES vote for the government takeover of our healthcare system.

Under pressure, his spokewoman said he is conducting a "tele-townhall" this evening when pressed by the Tracy Press as to why he wasn’t having townhalls. She even called it part of his listening tour…AFTER HE HAS VOTED FOR THE BILL! I’m sure that will be a tough one. We all know that tele-townhalls have a screening mechanism… Read More

Jon’s commentary today featured the new coalition of small businesses that have formed to combat the ridiculous and dangerous energy policies being imposed upon Californians by the California Energy Commission. The coalition, Californians for Smart Energy, held a press conference in Sacramento today to discuss how the CEC’s latest limits on our energy consumption are further hurting our economy. The press conference mostly covered a lot of the details Jon mentioned in his commentary: the new limits on TV electricity usage would essentially ban big screen TVs in our state. Looks like Super Bowl Sunday will become a major travel day in California as citizens visit friends or family in other states who are allowed to have their big screen.

During… Read More

Those who have any question about why Texas is becoming an attractive place to which Californians are moving, check out this study by the American Legislative Exchange Council (this isn’t new, it’s a few months old).

Just to see if U-Haul is still having to pay its employees to drive empty trucks back to California, I checked to see if it is still vastly more expensive to rent a truck going FROM California to Texas than visa versa.

To rent a 26′ truck from West Los Angeles to Austin – $2,151. To rent that same truck from Austin to West LA – $678.

That should be very telling…… Read More

FlashReport readers will recall that I recently bestowed the “honor” of our Golden Trashcan Award to policy being put forward by the California Energy Commission (CEC) to ban big screen televisions in the name of Orwellian efforts to reduce energy consumption by – you!

Since I wrote that commentary, I noted that a new coalition has formed to fight this lame-brained idea, and others like it – Californians for Smart Energy. Today members of this coalition held a news conference outside of the CEC’s offices to oppose the big screen ban, and it arbitrary energy limits on televisions.

That’s right, a bunch of unaccountable, unelected bureaucrats now want to control what TVs we can or cannot buy here in the “Golden State.”

Californians for Smart Energy is a… 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