Rail Bill Passes
AB 3034 passed off our floor this afternoon, 58-15, with 11 Republican ‘aye’ votes and 15 Rep "no" votes.… Read More
FlashReport Weblog on California Politics
- Or -
Search blog archive
Republican Motion To Vote On Budget Bill Denied
The file item that contained the state budget bill, AB 1781, was passed over this morning. Republicans made a motion to at least have a vote on the current bill, as reported out of the budget Conference Committee. That motion was defeated, so we still don’t know what the ‘temperature’ of both caucuses is on the current document or how far away the Assembly is from achieving 54 votes to pass any form of budget.There are47 Democrat members in regular attendence in our floor sessions. It is widely assumed, if a vote was taken today,that there are less than 47 likely ‘aye’ votes as of right now for this budget document…but who really knows? … Read More
Create a responsible state budget: By reforming the process
The following op-ed ran in my local paper today – The Desert Sun —
Create a responsible state budget: By reforming the process By Senator Jim Battin (R-La Quinta) Another year, another missed budget deadline. But the deadline date itself is not the problem. The problems that have led us to this point are the effects of a partisan redistricting process and term limits. Redistricting ensured that almost all legislative seats are considered “safe.” Therefore, the real races are won within the primaries for those seats, which ensures that the most conservative or most liberal members of each party always get elected. Couple this with a term limits scheme that forces members to play musical chairs and compete amongst themselves for … Read More
SEIU: Corruption Runs Deep
Union bossTyrone Freeman has stolen a lot of money from low wage union members. According to the the Los Angeles Times (link) in a Pulitzer-worth piece, reporter Paul Pringle will not be invited to the next SEIU Christmas Party. This SEIU local, 6424 United Long-Term Care Workers, is controlled by its organizer Freeman. It has some 190,000 workers paying each month into his local. Local 6424 sees itself as the "poor helping the poor" union. Like many such unexamined unions, this one became Freeman’s personal bank. … Read More
Today’s Commentary: SEIU: Corruption Runs Deep
Union bossTyrone Freeman has stolen a lot of money from low wage union members. According to the the Los Angeles Times (link) in a Pulitzer-worth piece, reporter Paul Pringle will not be invited to the next SEIU Christmas Party. This SEIU local, 6424 United Long-Term Care Workers, is controlled by its organizer Freeman. It has some 190,000 workers paying each month into his local. Local 6424 sees itself as the "poor helping the poor" union. Like many such unexamined unions, this one became Freeman’s personal bank. … Read More
Statement from Assemblywoman Sharon Runner
I got off of the phone a little while ago. The termed-out Assemblymember assured me that she is “No! No! No!” in any tax increases, “temporary” or not.… Read More
Senators Ackerman and Hollingsworth
In our quest to get termed-out legislators on the record against any tax increases, whether so-called temporary or not, we got this statement from Senator Dick Ackerman:
“Temporary or not, I do not support the use of taxes to balance the state’s budget. This includes an exchange of higher taxes today for a promise of lower taxes and fiscal responsibility in the future. This latest proposal misleads California taxpayers and does not deserve support.”
Oh, and I got a shout-out from Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, who agrees completely.… Read More
Thank You!
My family just returned from an amazing two week trip to Italy, where we traveled to Rome, Venice and Florence. It was an amazing trip, the memories of which I will cherish forever.
I wanted to extend my sincere appreciation to the awesome team that we have here at the FlashReport. While I was away, the site continued to provide our daily news roundup, insiteful columns, and great commentaries and blogs from our contributors (I did manage a few blog posts from abroad myself!).
Thanks again to the team!… Read More