Child killers. Rape-torture-murderers. Cop killers and serial murderers. These are the worst of the worst.

It takes an evil person to kill another innocent human being, but it takes an especially depraved mind to commit acts so utterly heinous that you earn a spot on California’s death row. Depraved minds like that of Charles Ng, who over the course of 1983 to 1985, committed as many as 25 murders in Calaveras County. Ng kidnapped families, tortured then murdered fathers and infants while forcing the mothers to watch. He then repeatedly tortured and raped the… Read More

Remember Bell, California? Back in 2010 the Los Angeles Times reported thatBell city officials were receiving unusually large salaries, perhaps the highest in the United States. For example,Robert Rizzo, the City manager, had received $787,637.By September of that year,as reported on CNN, the California Attorney General filed charges againsteight former and current city officials. The public was outraged.

Not generally known however was the process whereby the City of Bell employees managed to pay themselves so much money. Earlier that summer theLos Angeles Times covered this part of the story, reporting “The highly paid members of the Bell City Council were able to exempt themselves from state salary limits by placing a city charter on the ballot in a little-noticed special election that attracted fewer than 400 voters.”

This use of barely legalmaneuvers to extract ridiculously generous salaries and benefits from taxpayers is not restricted to Bell, however. The Bell Syndrome… Read More

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Both conservative and liberal presidential candidates have universally condemned Donald Trump’s assertion that “eminent domain is wonderful,” and yes, even democratic socialist U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders has rejected this notion.

This condemnation was evident when a Ted Cruz for president campaign ad reminded voters of Trump’s failed attempt to seize a little old lady’s home by eminent domain, in order to make way for a limousine parking lot for his Atlantic City casino.

These kinds of takings were all too common in California, as well. To add insult to injury, California took it a step further by using taxpayer dollars to help developers finance their luxury hotels and golf courses, and shopping centers. That was until the State Legislature and Governor Brown abolished this practice, otherwise referred to as “redevelopment.” They did so because redevelopment was costing taxpayers… Read More

Every year in California’s state capital, 120 full-time lawmakers, 2,000 full-time staff, and 130 legislative committees, introduce an average of 5,000 bills each legislative session, thus creating a booming industry for California’s 1,100 registered lobbyists. They do this with a $150 billion annual budget. And they do this while simultaneously managing to keep out most of the public.

In… Read More

Those who value liberty, good government and a reasonable level of taxation have a lot to complain about if they are citizens of California. Not only do we have one of the highest tax burdens in America, we rate very poorly in term of efficient and effective governance as well as transparency. Those of us who point out the state’s shortcomings are labeled as contrarian, “declinists” or pessimists by state politicians, including our governor.

And let’s not forget about corruption. Just a couple of years ago, the California Senate actually had a higher arrest rate than the general population of California. Because of all the negative press, it is no wonder that that the public believes that most of what the California Legislature does is self-serving.

Although there is more than sufficient justification to criticize California’s political system (and especially its legislature), for the sake of fairness, we should take special notice when our politicians do the right thing. For example, every so often bills are introduced that cut against the stereotype by providing genuine benefit to average folks.

To read the entire column click here… Read More

On the heels of the Sacramento Taxpayer Association awarding the bankrupt Sacramento Regional Transit its annual GOLDEN FLEECE AWARD, the Sacramento Bee published a story claiming Regional Transit “may be better than you think.” Rather than acting like a watchdog on government, the Bee appears to be the Public Relations firm of RT.

GOLDEN FLEECE AWARDs are bestowed upon public officials, governmental agencies and organizations for their “wasteful, ridiculous, or ironic use of taxpayers’ money.”The SacTax FLEECE AWARD went to the… Read More

Rather than waiting for the new California $15 state minimum wage law to be phased in over five years, UC Berkeley decided to accelerate its own minimum wage to $15, starting this coming September (2016).

Naturally the Progressives celebrated. Shortly after making that decision, the administration announced the layoff of 500 workers, as the school now has a $150 million deficit to contend with.

Can someone explain to me how a organization bleeding a $150 million annual deficit planned to pay for a 50% minimum wage increase? Do they teach Economics 101 at Berkeley?

Sadly, the answer is that like all colleges, Berkeley has an Economic Department. They have very expensive and self-important Econ professors. But they don’t teach common sense economics. Far from it.

“Common sense” may… Read More

The worst, or maybe the best thing about being Pete Kanelos’ friend was his dedication to the Raiders. Sure, I’ve had other friends who like that team, but in Pete’s case it was a personal badge of pride and honor. Almost as if being able to shove it in his friends’ faces was the real motivation, not so much a love for the team itself.

Pete was relentless about it. If the Chargers lost, the text would arrive about how lousy they were. If a San Diego player was arrested for assault, or drugs, or a shooting or something — not unlike any other team in the NFL, including the Raiders — he’d make sure to point it out.

It never mattered how lousy the Raiders were at the time (they were, often), or if any of their players were in jail for the night, Pete always had the last word, which simply couldn’t be answered: “Yeah,… Read More