In 2003, Oakland Unified School District went into state receivership. In other words, it went bankrupt, and the state had to bail it out. Today, the school district is still under state control and, incredibly, continues to experience financial problems. Given Oakland Unified School District’s history of scandals and fiscal mismanagement, it comes as no surprise it is still in financial chaos. Unfortunately, taxpayers have been footing the bill for the district’s incompetence and ill-advised financial moves. According to the Oakland Tribune (July 7, 2008), “Five years after the state assumed control of the nearly bankrupt Oakland school system, the district’s finances remain on shaky ground, an investigation by the Alameda County Civil Grand Jury has concluded.” The article continues, “The brief report…… Read More

Few blacks get elected outside of African-American neighborhoods. The last and only black Republican assemblyman was Frederick Roberts (pictured below, left), in the AD 62, Los Angeles, [1918 to 1934]. Roberts was the first black to serve in any California state office.

Abram Wilson is the Republican nominee in AD 15. Wilson was elected as San Ramon’s first Mayor in 2003. He competedfor the Guy Houston seat against several other well financed challengers.Three candidates… Read More

The buzz on cable news and national talk shows this week is the tragic murder of San Franciscan Tony Bologna and his two young sons at the hands of an illegal alien. The brutal and senseless slaying occurred June 22 when El Salvadoran Edwin Ramos (allegedly) shot the three men after their car accidentally blocked his car’s path at an intersection. Such a crime would normally be chalked up as another big-city-violence statistic except that the perpetrator is an illegal alien with a long criminal record.

It’s probably no coincidence that Ramos was hiding in the Bay Area; San Francisco is a sanctuary city, refusing to cooperate in deporting those who have broken the law to enter our nation. That means San Francisco’s government publicly and proudly defies its very purpose for existence: to protect its citizens from criminals. Outside of this fundamental purpose, government should play a very limited role in citizens’ lives. But instead of protecting its residents from savages like Edwin Ramos, the city has actually… Read More

Sometimes they’re easy. A bill comes to the floor and you just instinctively know how you will vote. Either it’s something you’ve always supported or always opposed or the bill is just clear-cut.

Such was not the case this week with the Housing Bill (H.R. 3221). This bill has been cooking all year and there were lots of moving pieces. In the end, it was over 700 pages long and was a grab bag of housing, regulatory and tax provisions. Some of these provisions I supported. Others I opposed viscerally. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. So, I broke out the major provisions of the bill into the categories of things I hated, things I was okay with and things that could go either way. Here is how I saw those things:

Provisions I can’t stand:

The bill requires that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac contribute 4.2 basis points of each new mortgage they make to an "affordable housing trust fund." This is a nearly $1 billion per year "slush fund" that would go primarily to organizations and community development agencies to promote low-income housing. This is just a huge handout to a small number of … Read More

Few blacks get elected outside of African-American neighborhoods. The last and only black Republican assemblyman was Frederick Roberts (pictured below, left), in the AD 62, Los Angeles, [1918 to 1934]. Roberts was the first black to serve in any California state office.

Abram Wilson is the Republican nominee in AD 15. Wilson was elected as San Ramon’s first Mayor in 2003. He competedfor the Guy Houston seat against several other well financed challengers.Three candidates… Read More

I’m on vacation, but this one jumped out at me….

Copley Press explores sale… Read More

Readers know I am not a big fan of most campaign finance laws, but the decision of Federal prosecutors to insist on a felony charge for alleged money-laundering by Los Angeles trial lawyer and Democrat activist Pierce O’Donnell is the right thing to do.

The Times reports today that O’Donnell faces money-laundering charges for reimbursing people for making contributions to John Edwards 2004 Presidential campaign. In my personal view, that in itself does not support a felony case against a first-timer, but there are least three other factors that I believe justify the federal grand jury indictment and a felony case against O’Donnell if he is found guilty:

1. This is not O’Donnell’s first brush with money-laundering charges. As the Times article indicates, O’Donnell took a misdemeanor plea for money-laundering in connection with former Los Angeles Mayor James Hahn’s first successful race for Mayor in 2001. That was a protracted procedure that started almost three years before the money-laundering activities alleged on behalf of Edwards. That is a "first… Read More

Jon asked me to comment on the debate over the "water" bond currently being proposed in the Legislature. Since there really is no water bond being proposed, the debate is a false one. We are already in a water crisis it is true. Democrats have done nothing to alleviate that crisis since sometime in Jerry Brown administration in the 70’s, that is true as well. About 6 bonds have passed since 1996 claiming to be water bonds, and they got Republican votes to get on the ballot because somewhere in the language of the bond, someone wrote the word water. Not one ounce of new water was created by any of those bonds, and not ounce of water will be created by the currently proposed bond. Simply calling a bond a "water" bond does not make it so. California needs new water, California needs it now, and nothing is being done about it, not by the administration, not by the Democrats, and not by those Republicans who insist that we have a "water" bond that doesn’t create an ounce of water.

Let’s start with a critical premise. A water bond that has above ground storage can be a revenue bond (which does not require a vote… Read More