In 1994, a comprehesive study from top to bottom of Cal Trans was performed. There is no proof that it was commissionedin response to jokes like the one below, prevalent in the 80’s and 90’s, but it might have been:

Question: What’s orange, has wheels and sleeps 5? Answer: A CalTrans truck on the side of the freeway. Among the findings were issues with project delivery, meaning, projects were languishing within the bureaucratic process of the agency. Go visit your local Cal Trans office some day if you want to see and feel the maze and labyrinthic smothering atmosphere of a government institution that has outgrown its ability to function. Will Kempton, the current Director, had hisname surface for a brief moment as acandidate for CA’s Secretary of Business, Transportation & Housing, but was immediately pulled back downbecause he is the first of recent Cal Trans directors who has been able tomove the behemouth agency off of its posterior.

Did the study lead to meaningful reforms? Sure. Grab Toto, click your red heels together and come with me.

There is currently a… Read More

You like Redwood decking, hot tubs, etc? You’ll be pleased that soon virtually all redwood for such products will be imported if the regulators have their way. You may have seen articles here on the FR concerning the bankruptcy filing by Pacific Lumber Co. [PALCO] of Scotia on the North Coast, near Eureka. They’ve beenjammed into that position by the ever-changing regulatory positions of it’s partner, the State of California

Several years ago, PALCO, in an arrangement negotiated with the state, sold to California thousands of acres of old growth forest redwoods, The Headwaters Forest, for us taxpayers to sit on into perpetuity. [Only 3% of all old growth in CA is in private hands, the rest State or Fed owned and I suppose, "protected"] In return, PALCO would have some predictability, they thought, for some years to come to operate on their 200,000 acres of lands they still own. In doing so, they implement a Habitat Conservation Plan for endangered critters, as well as complying with Timber Harvest Plan regs.These THP’s are developed as you go and last about 3 years until they must be updated for a given harvest zone.… Read More

The Senate Republican Caucus is blessed to have some very talented and committed professionals working with us as staffers. They regularly write very compelling and dead-on policy commentary.

Here is an example of their great work.

I’d love to claim credit for the words below, but it’s only right to give credit where it is deserved. WelfareNeeds ToBeA Safety Net, Not A Hammock

A little more than 10 years ago, California and the nation embarked on an ambitious effort to enact real welfare reform, turning away from an entitlement culture that promoted irresponsibility and indolence to a system designed to transition welfare recipients into the workforce.

The undertaking was roundly criticized by liberals, often with apocalyptic scenarios about children by the millions being pushed into poverty. What actually resulted was extraordinary. Since 1996, welfare caseloads have dropped 56 percent. As recipients left the bread line to become breadwinners, the child poverty rate decreased as well – from 20.8 percent in 1995 to 17.8 percent in 2004. Within six… Read More

Well, he may no longer be chair of the House Committee on Rules (due to the GOP’s majority defeat) but Congressman David Dreier can take great comfort in the fact that he is one of the few Republican members of the House of Representatives to see his winning margin and his net percentage actually increase over his Democratic opponent in 2006 over the result of 2004. While this may seem like political trivia (Hey, maybe you can impress your friends), it’s hardly trivia info, given the fierce fight that seemed to loom on the horizon for Congressman Dreier just one year ago today.

In campaign 2004, Congressman Dreier was on the receiving end of a significant negative attack campaign waged against him from the political left and right. In a bizarre marriage of political convenience, Dreier’s 2004 Democrat opponent joined forces with conservative talk radio icons Ken and John of Los Angeles-based station KFI. The John and Ken show is among the most popular… Read More

Well, he may no longer be chair of the House Committee on Rules (due to the GOP’s majority defeat) but Congressman David Dreier can take great comfort in the fact that he is one of the few Republican members of the House of Representatives to see his winning margin and his net percentage actually increase over his Democratic opponent in 2006 over the result of 2004. While this may seem like political trivia (Hey, maybe you can impress your friends), it’s hardly trivia info, given the fierce fight that seemed to loom on the horizon for Congressman Dreier just one year ago today.

In campaign 2004, Congressman Dreier was on the receiving end of a significant negative attack campaign waged against him from the political left and right. In a bizarre marriage of political convenience, Dreier’s 2004 Democrat opponent joined forces with conservative talk radio icons Ken and John of Los Angeles-based station KFI. The John and Ken show is among the most popular… Read More

In Los Angeles there are hundreds of active prospering Korean churches, with tens of thousands of members. Many of the Korean churches have taken over from declining white congregations, revitalizing churches with packed houses. I’ve watch this phenomena for a generation.There is emerginga "real world" political awareness growing within the Korean Christian community.

My wife and I are members of the 5000 member Faith Korean Presbyterian in Torrance. When the Defense of Marriage Act [DOMA] was debated in 2000, I was completely surprised by spontaneous actions taking place at my church’s parking lot with an intense petition drive. ManyKorean churches actively supported DOMA. This was a breakthrough for conservatives by proposing something tangible for fellow citizens and a striking breakout for the ordinarily insular Korean community. It marked promiseto strengthenthe conservative movement with the energy and resources of theexpanding Korean population in California.

If conservatives could attract conservative Asians, we could help turn California to the right. All the elements are there. Values for education,… Read More

Dana Reed tipped me to Bill Bradley’s recent post on New West Notes that “the law firm” that represented Plaintiffs in the case to disqualify Jerry Brown as Attorney General has apparently resigned. I am on vacation in San Francisco and will check this out with the court in Sacramento on Monday. Readers will recall that the case, originally brought just before the November general election by a group of GOP volunteers led by Contra Costa GOP Chair Tom Del Becarro, sought to disqualify Brown as a candidate for Attorney General on the grounds that he did not meet the “black letter” statutory requirements to serve as Attorney General because he shifted his bar dues status to “inactive” for a period of time while he served as Mayor of Oakland, and was therefore technically not praticing law for a continuous period before his election as Attorney General. Brown, however, has been a lawyer for over 40 years. As a former Secretary of State and Governor, there really isn’t any question about his ability to serve as Attorney General, regardless of what one thinks about his politics.

I think the original lawsuit, in which the… Read More

One of the arguments that is used by advocates of getting rid of, or substantially relaxing California’s term-limits law is that we lose experienced lawmakers from policy committees just as they are developing extensive subject-matter expertise. This was the thought in my mind when I first started to hear the ‘buzz’ — that Speaker Fabian Nunez, a term-limits foe, had removed Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (pictured to the right) from the Public Safety Committee. Spitzer, who is entering his third and final term in the legislature is regarded as the GOP’s top ‘subject-matter expert’ on criminal safety issues. Spitzer, a former police officer and prosecutor and county supervisor, has made public safety the number one priority of his legislative career. Why would the Speaker remove Spitzer — especially when he was due to become the Vice Chairman? We have heard from more than one source that Assembly… Read More