Check out the Contra Costa Time’s interesting article on the California Teacher Association’s efforts to get the courts to allow the union to use teacher mailboxes at school for campaign literature. The CTA argues that the school administrators are violating their right to free speech in limiting the material the union can distribute through the school mailboxes. CTA’s lawyer tells the CoCo Times, “It’s our soapbox and we maintain that we can say anything on that soapbox."

In the past, districts have argued that the union is not allowed to circulate election material through the mailboxes, only union-related information. However, the union cleverly points out that the schools have used the mailboxes to campaign for local school bond measures. In the past the courts have sided with school district officials, but it appears that the tide may be turning. While I agree with district officials that the mailboxes… Read More

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." – Douglas Adams.

I think you could safely substitute the word "Legislature" for "Universe" in the preceding quote and have an equally articulate description of most citizens’ sentiment. However one feels about the Legislature though, it is a reality; and I, for one, am thrilled to be a part of it.

When Jon asked me to join the FR team, I was a little hesitant because, as many of you will soon discover, I have a tendency to put my foot in my mouth. THIS has been widely regarded asa reason to say as little as possible. But Jon assured me that my role, at least in the beginning, would be to simply relay my experiences asa member of the Freshmen class of the Legislature. Hopefully I will be able to do this while holding true to Burt Southard’s sagest of sage advice "Do No Harm".

I have much to say on the subject of the experiences of a new member. Even in the short amount of time that has occurred between the General Election and today, much of interest has… Read More

This being my first post as San Bernardino County correspondent for the FlashReport, I would like to thank our Publisher, Jon Fleishman, for the opportunity to report on matters pertaining to this growing Republican region. I would also like to acknowledge my predecessor, Brad Mitzelfelt, whose outstanding writing, thoughtful insight and well-researched analysis served this readership well for over a year.

Now to the point, which is that in San Bernardino County the local GOP is making significant inroads into traditional Democrat Party bastions. Consider the statewide results: San Bernardino County (which voted for Bill Clinton twice in the 1990s and was carried by Gray Davis in 1998) delivered 203,000 votes (61 %) for Arnold, while Tom McClintock, Tony Strickland, Steve Poizner and Bruce McPherson all won here.

Compared to a reliably Republican county like Orange, the new San Bernardino County clearly is demonstrating its conservative leanings with numbers like these. Much credit goes to my boss, San Bernardino County Republican Party Chairman Bill Postmus, along with his fantastic Headquarters staff, including Diane Fedele, who was regional director for… Read More

NEW LEGISLATIVE BLOGGER Next week, there will be about a dozen new Republicans sworn into terms in the California State Assembly. We are very pleased to announce that one of these incoming GOP freshmen, Anthony Adams (pictured to the right), has agreed to come onboard as a new State Capitol Correspondent for the FlashReport Blog! Anthony was elected as the new legislator representing the 59th Assembly District, which has been represented the past six years by Dennis Mountjoy. The 59th District is a large on that is split roughly in half — with one part being the far east end of Los Angeles County, and the other part going into San Bernardino County, shooting up into the high desert. I’ve known Anthony for some time, and he has just the right mix to be a great addition to our team — he is conservative, he is smart, and he is technologically savvy — thus… Read More

NEW LEGISLATIVE BLOGGER Next week, there will be about a dozen new Republicans sworn into terms in the California State Assembly. We are very pleased to announce that one of these incoming GOP freshmen, Anthony Adams (pictured to the right), has agreed to come onboard as a new State Capitol Correspondent for the FlashReport Blog! Anthony was elected as the new legislator representing the 59th Assembly District, which has been represented the past six years by Dennis Mountjoy. The 59th District is a large on that is split roughly in half — with one part being the far east end of Los Angeles County, and the other part going into San Bernardino County, shooting up into the high desert. I’ve known Anthony for some time, and he has just the right mix to be a great addition to our team — he is conservative, he is smart, and he is technologically savvy — thus… Read More

Good news, it seems, sometimes lasts only…well, one short paragraph.

Last Monday, the SDUT reported the following:

Consumer advocate Michael Shames is close to a legal settlement with the city of San Diego that would give small refunds to about 225,000 single-family sewer customers for subsidizing the bills of business customers for a decade. It was the next paragraph that was the "bad news," in this version ofwhich-do-you-want-to-hear-first:

The credit likely would be consumed by a larger rate increase.

The next day, Tuesday, as if on cue, Mayor Jerry Sanders proposed huge increases in water and sewer rates, 29% and 35% respectively, while vowing certain safeguards.

On Wednesday, the SDUT editorialized on the… Read More

Tomorrow we will see more changes taking place in the Blog Roll here at the FlashReport. One of FR’s original blogging team will be retiring, to be replaced by another outstanding local correspondent…and we will be introducing another member of the California State Legislature who will join Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa in bringing us insights from under the Capitol Dome. NO PAY RAISE FOR ME — OK, MAYBE A PAY RAISE FOR ME Unlike the last few days, where reading on California politics has been quite anemic, there is a lot of interesting reading to take in on FR’s main page. "Above the fold" we have an expose from the Sacramento Bee where they reveal that of the large group of State Legislators that publicly declined a $12,000 pay raise, seven of them later decided to go ahead and take the salary bump. It’s my opinion that if you are going to define the job of a State Legislator as full-time, the raise was probably appropriate. The newsworthyness comes from the fact that in many instances, these… Read More

Tomorrow we will see more changes taking place in the Blog Roll here at the FlashReport. One of FR’s original blogging team will be retiring, to be replaced by another outstanding local correspondent…and we will be introducing another member of the California State Legislature who will join Assemblyman Doug LaMalfa in bringing us insights from under the Capitol Dome. NO PAY RAISE FOR ME — OK, MAYBE A PAY RAISE FOR ME Unlike the last few days, where reading on California politics has been quite anemic, there is a lot of interesting reading to take in on FR’s main page. "Above the fold" we have an expose from the Sacramento Bee where they reveal that of the large group of State Legislators that publicly declined a $12,000 pay raise, seven of them later decided to go ahead and take the salary bump. It’s my opinion that if you are going to define the job of a State Legislator as full-time, the raise was probably appropriate. The newsworthyness comes from the fact that in many instances, these… Read More