THE BUDGET NEEDS AN $8 BILLION HAIRCUT Today, according to the California Constitution, is the technical deadline for passing a balanced state budget. The lack of a budget agreement is actual a good thing for California taxpayers, because it means that fiscally responsible Republican legislators are resolved to see some reigning in of California’s out-of-control ballooning state budget. We here at the FlashReport support the efforts of State Senate Republican Leader Dick Ackerman and Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines to impose curbs in discretionary state spending. If anything, our biggest challenge is that state government spending is so out-of-whack that none of the proposals for cuts come even close to addressing the massive over-spending. If you read our featured column today from John Seiler, you would conclude that the starting point in budget negotiations should be finding an immediate $8 billion in spending cuts. ___________________________… Read More

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More

With my kids out of school this week and my son turning five yesterday, I have to admit to being just a little bit behind on the news (up on it enough, however, to know that my Dodgers are 7 1/2 games in front of the Giants!). As I was playing catch up today, I was interested to read the glowing story on the new Mandarin immersion program as San Francisco Unified’s Star King Elementary.

The new program, which will expand to first grade next year, immersed 26 kindergarteners in the new language, while teaching them standard kindergarten curriculum at the same time.

School Principal Chris Rosenberg told the SF Chronicle, "It was a fantastic year. Did the kids learn Mandarin while mastering the grade-level standards? Yes. It was a big success, a great success."

I can’t help to wonder why educators are still dragging their feet on… Read More

A mom in Sacramento who once again caught her son high on weed decided to make his punishment public this week. Christine Drye got her 16 year old son, Dominiq, out of bed and drove him to the corner of Howe and Hurley, gave him a sign that read, “I’m stupid. I smoke ‘weed’ marijuana” and made him stand there from 7:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. You can read the full story here. Of course, there are people who think Dominiq’s mom was too harsh on the boy, but he doesn’t think so. Neither does his coach, who stopped to shake his mom’s hand.

My kids are small enough now that the biggest problems I have are my daughters leaving their bedroom light on 24/7 and my son never picking up his Legos.… Read More

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of attending one of the Pacific Research Institute’s reliably superb events: a seminar on the Middle East given by Dr. Daniel Pipes. I can honestly say that I’ve never seen such a brilliant man carry his expertise as effortlessly and devoid of pretense as Dr. Pipes did at the PRI luncheon. My feeble attempt to summarize his presentation for FR readers is like trying to squeeze a basketball into a Coke bottle, and there is no way I can possibly replicate the experience of seeing Dr. Pipes in person, but I’ll do my best to give you all a snapshot.

His presentation was entitled, “The Five I’s – Iraq, Iran, Israel, Islamism, and Islam in Europe.”

On Iraq: He advocates “staying the course, but changing the course.” Dr. Pipes is not in favor of a date-specific timeline for withdrawal, but he recommends turning over more responsibility to the Iraqi government faster. He said our troops need to be pulled out of the tactical… Read More

The US Supreme Court issued a major ruling today dealing a blow to unions’ use of nonmember fees for political purposes. In Davenport v. Washington Education Association, the Court ruled that states could enact “paycheck protection” laws which require unions made up of state employees to seek the affirmative consent before using nonmember fees for political purposes. This decision will have major implications nation-wide. Indeed, here in California a paycheck protection initiative was narrowly defeated in both 1998 and 2005. This ruling is likely to cause the issue to be revisited here in California, and is likely to clear away legal arguments made by unions in opposition to these types of measures.… Read More

Read about it here.… Read More

Koeberer, Albiani and Guilbault. All three are nominees by Governor Schwarzenegger to the California Community College Board of of Governors. If FR sources are right, all three of these nominees will soon be former Board of Governors members. In order to be confirmed to these positions, you need a 2/3 vote of the State Senate. Perhaps all three should have thought about that before the took radical pro-criminal alien policy positions on the Board of Governors (once appointed by the Governor, they can serve up to a year without confirmation).

State Senator Bob Dutton, one of two GOPers on the Senate Rules Committee, found out about the radical views of these nominees and prepared an extensive briefing for his GOP colleagues. We obtained a copy of his written briefing, which is reprinted below.

From other reliable sources (not Senator Dutton, I might add), we learned that Senate Republicans are resolute about not confirming these nominees.

**There is more – click the link**… Read More