The President Thursday visited the western Shasta County area to view the fire damage and ongoing threat to people and infrastructure that the fire poses. It started with a briefing with CalFire, US Forest Service, National Guard, Rural School officials, many local firefighters, as well as some of us local electeds. The Marine helicopters were posed waiting for the arrival of Air Force One, the sound of whichthe airport didn’t seem big enough to accomodate.

Soon, The President joined us in the hanger for the briefing, shaking hands with all of us gathered [yeah!]before viewing the maps of the fire and damaged areas with the fire personnel before the helicopter flight, which would include Shasta Dam, a federal Central Valley Project structure, whose electricity generation andtransmission infrastructure had been threatened from shutdown by fire. Accompanying the President on the flight out from D.C.and then the copter ride was our local Congressman Wally Herger, along with… Read More

We are pleased to offer commentary this morning from longtime FR friend Lanci Izumi. Lance is Senior Director in Education Studies for the Pacific Research Institute. The piece was inspired by the recent headlines about the alarmingly high drop-out rates in California’s public schools…

THE DROPOUT DISASTER: WE TOLD YOU SO By Lance Izumi

In 1997, the Pacific Research Institute released the first of its ongoing California Index of Leading Education Indicators, which included a chapter on California’s dropout rate. The Index warned that the state Department of Education missed legions of dropouts… Read More

I have had the good pleasure of knowing both George and Sharon Runner going back to long before either was in the State Legislature. As a matter of fact, both were among my supporters back in the mid-90’s in my successful campaign for State President of the California Republican Assembly. At the time, George was President of the Antelope Valley Republican Assembly.

Anyways, I make no bones about the fact that the purpose of the FlashReport is both to promote the conservative cause, and to help my friends.

So when I got a phone call from Senator Runner, asking if I would be interested in having him join the FR blog pen as a legislative correspondent — well, I said yes quicker than you could imagine.

George is a good conservative, and a smart guy. I guess now we will all be able to judge whether, with those qualities as ammunition, he will make a good blogger!

His first post (of many to come) will be on the blog soon. Please welcome to the FR blog Senate Republican Caucus… Read More

We are pleased to offer commentary this morning from longtime FR friend Lanci Izumi. Lance is Senior Director in Education Studies for the Pacific Research Institute. The piece was inspired by the recent headlines about the alarmingly high drop-out rates in California’s public schools…

THE DROPOUT DISASTER: WE TOLD YOU SO By Lance Izumi In 1997, the Pacific Research Institute released the first of its ongoing California Index of Leading Education Indicators, which included a chapter on… Read More

The Field Poll is at it again.

We have talked on this site before about how the way that the Field Poll determines the folks that they survey is skewed to produce a more left-of-center response than other surveys…

Today, Field released numbers showing that Proposition 8 – the initiative to protect marriage – is gaining among likely voters. The Poll also shows that advocates of same-sex marriage are losing ground, down from 54% according to the Field Poll on May 28.

But while the Field Poll shows gains for Proposition 8, it continues to understate the support to uphold the definition of marriage.

“The Field Poll is an outlier among all of the publicly published polling on this initiative,” said Frank Schubert, Campaign Manager for Proposition 8. “The figures appear to be understated by a minimum of 10 percent.”

This isn’t the first time the Field Poll has underestimated support for the issue.

During Proposition 22 in the year 2000, the Field Poll consistently reported support to uphold marriage at around 50%, when in fact the measure won with a substantial 61% of votes at the ballot box on Election Day.

FR… Read More

Oh boy. This the second time in just a couple of weeks that I have agreed with something said by lame-duck Senate President Pro-Tem Don Perata. The first time we agreed was when he said that we need to resolve the state budget issue before we turn our sights to the water crisis and a massive bond measure proposed by Governor Schwarzenegger and Senator Feinstein.

It’s being reported over on the SacBee’s Capitol Alert website (registration required) that Perata says the he is opposed to borrowing more money in order to deal with the budget crisis. I couldn’t agree more with that particular sentiment. Now we have a huge chasm of disagreement from there. Perata doesn’t want borrowing, he wants a massive increase in taxes on Californians to allow for a permanently bigger and fatter state government. I, on the other hand, want to see real and deep cuts to government agencies and programs, rolling back the unprecidented growth in California government over the past few years.

If I end up agreeing with Perata any more, we may have to invite him to blog for… Read More

I’ve been meaning to add a word here on the decision by the California Supreme Court rejecting, by a narrow, 4-3 vote,a pre-election challenge to the Marriage Amendment on this November’s ballot. Readers will recall that I predicted on June 23 that the Courts would allow the measure to go to the ballot. I said "(w)hile some readers may be disappointed in the Court’s decision earlier over-ruling the ban on same-sex marriages in California, this lawyer predicts the Court will not take the marriage amendment initiative off the November ballot before a vote — at least not yet."

My prediction was based on the strong deference California courts must give to the validity of ballot measures to qualify for the ballot.The right to initiative is a fundamental constitutional right in California.

Now, supporters of the Marriage Amendment need to kick into gear and show the Los Angeles Times and their other liberal opponents thatthe double-digit lead for this measure in the polls is not the "smallmajority" the Times would like it to be.… Read More

I couldn’t believe it. Pete Wilson and Gray Davis are worried about the impartiality of our court system. They testified recently in front of the Steering Committee of the Statewide Commission for Impartial Courts.

The Committee Chair Supreme Court Justice Ming Chin is concerned that ‘unfair political attacks” on the courts are undermining our democracy.

All three need to look in the mirror before worrying about the courts. Pete Wilson was clear that he would appoint law and order type judges.

Nothing wrong with that?

Gray Davis took it a little further. He actually told a bunch of Governor’s that this:

"They are not there to be independent agents…They are there to reflect the sentiments that I expressed during the campaign.”

If they arrive at a conclusion that differs from the governor, he said, "They shouldn’t be a judge. They should resign."

Then his administration had a pro-abortion, pro-death penalty litmus test for judicial nominees.

Nothing wrong with that?

Judge Chin when first appointed to the bench immediately… Read More