My kids get a kick driving by the Pixar Studios when we’re running errands in Emeryville. They love knowing that there are big kids (masquerading as grown-ups) inside who spend their days creating family-friendly movies like "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo." Yesterday my 10-year-old daughter had the same reaction to the big Disney-Pixar deal as many of us grownups when she asked doubtfully, "Um, does that mean that Disney is going to make the Pixar movies now?" You don’t have to be over 5′ tall to know that Pixar is the king of animation and Disney runs a slow second. For Disney maniacs like me, it was painful to watch Michael Eisner at the helm of Walt’s company. I never felt that he cared about Walt’s vision. Iin the end, Roy Disney didn’t care for Eisner’s leadership either and resigned the board in 2003… Read More

On Tuesday I took an eight hour drive from San Diego back to Sacramento. I made myself one promise the Monday before – that I would NOT be stuck going over the hill on the 405 looking at the Getty Center at 5pm. That I would plan to avoid one of the worst bottlenecks in the state by leaving on time from San Diego at 1:30 or 2:00. Instead I left at 3:00 and found myself, you guessed it, looking right up at the Getty Center at 5pm.

I’ve now made the drive back and forth probably 100 times in the last ten years, and based on this experience I am going to state some rules of thumb for statewide campaigns on the road, since my experience is everyone’s estimates are different. Assuming light or no traffic and averaging 75 miles per hour on the parts of the road that are not totally urban, it is three hours from downtown San Diego to downtown Bakersfield. It is an hour and a half from Bakersfield to Fresno. And generally two and one half hours from Fresno to Sacramento. I’m driving down again in a month and a half and will relay the time from Sacramento to Stockton to Modesto to Fresno to Bakersfield to downtown LA to Irvine to Carlsbad to downtown… Read More

My wife handed me a press release this morning from the Ray Haynes for Board of Equalization campaign, in which she is the finance coordinator, stating that he had picked up the endorsements of two big names in the Inland Empire; Senator Bob Dutton and Assemblyman John Benoit. These are good pick ups for Haynes.

My take on the race for this seat, in which what 95% of Californian’s have no clue what is it, has the advantage going to Haynes. His opponent, wealthy Los Angeles businesswomen Michelle Steel, does however havetwo bigadvantages over Haynes . She can self fund where Haynes can’t. Evidence of this is the fact that she has chosen to pay the high advertising rates on the FlashReport and other BLOGs such as Rough & Tumble an OC Blog. If she can afford the FlashReport, television ads can not be far behind. Steel is also currently working as an assistant to Claude Parrish the termed out member of the BOE in which she and Haynes currently want to replace.

Many would say that the money advantage and near incumbent status that Steel enjoys in this lesser known office should give her the advantage, and it… Read More

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS’ PAY-AS-YOU-GO PLAN GOOD NEWS There is much written today about the new proposal introduced by Assembly Republicans for a "Pay-As-You-Go" plan for infrastructure investment in the state. In essence, this plan says that the fiscally prudent course for California to set when looking at building and improving our state’s highways and roads, state universities , water storage, and flood control is to use money in the bank now – rather than maxing out the state’s ‘credit card’. We should be putting aside money every year from the general fund targeted towards these essential projects. You see, over the past decades, there has been a total failure on the part of legislatures and Governors to address infrastructure needs in the state. The Democrats in charge of the legislature are intent on using tax dollars for their social engineering projects, and have preferred to let infrastructure needs be handled in a piecemeal fashion through assorted bond measures. Any responsible strategic growth plan must… Read More

ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS’ PAY-AS-YOU-GO PLAN GOOD NEWS There is much written today about the new proposal introduced by Assembly Republicans for a "Pay-As-You-Go" plan for infrastructure investment in the state. In essence, this plan says that the fiscally prudent course for California to set when looking at building and improving our state’s highways and roads, state universities , water storage, and flood control is to use money in the bank now – rather than maxing out the state’s ‘credit card’. We should be putting aside money every year from the general fund targeted towards these essential projects. You see, over the past decades, there has been a total failure on the part of legislatures and Governors to address infrastructure needs in the state. The Democrats in charge of the legislature are intent on using tax dollars for their social engineering projects, and have preferred to let infrastructure needs be handled in a piecemeal fashion through assorted bond measures. Any responsible strategic growth plan must… Read More

Forty-two days after Ernie Dronenburg announced he would be resigning from the board of education, two weeks after the board adopted the timeline and process for filling the vacancy, 10 days after I started railing about the lack of info (with Voice of San Diego following the lead), and a mere TWO DAYS before applications are due, someone finally did something.

The County Office of Education has posted to its website the fact that there is a vacancy on the board and applications are due this Friday, giving anyone who sees it plenty of time to jump through the hoops.

This, apparently, is how you define successinabureaucratic world.

Most telling of the County Office’s posted info: The headline, "Hartley is New President of County Board of Education; Applications Now Available to Fill Dronenburg Seat," still takes second fiddle to the now-long-posted main… Read More

The ACLU announced Tuesday that a New Jersey boy has been granted the right to wear skirts to school in protest of his high school’s "no-shorts" policy.

This wasin no small part thanks to intervention by the ACLU. The 17-year-old had been sent home for wearing shorts on the first day of school in October. The reason he was wearing shorts because one of his legs had been injured and in a brace during the summer. One articlepoints out that the student, Michael Coviello, "(has) been on the school’s mock trial team for four years," (hint: ‘future lawyer’), "…sings in the choir, plays the drums in the school band and is a member of the golf team." As if those activities somehow prove the kid to be macho. Actually, the article was trying to make the point that Coviello isnot normally rebellious. Yeah, right.

Anyway, the brouhaha apparently could have been avoided if the school had just used the… Read More

More shake outs in the 59th Assembly District race as former Sierra Madre City Councilman drops his bid for the GOP nomination. Doyle cites a couple of business reasons for his decision.

Doyle also endorsed former Covina City Councilman Chris Lancaster for the seat. This leaves Lancaster as the only announced candidate from the San Gabriel Valley side of this oddly shaped District that contains Hesperia and other parts of San Bernardino County. This also frees LA County Supervisor Mike Antonovich to endorse another candidate.

The race could end up as a test of geography between Anthony Adams and Chris Lancaster. Adams has worked hard and I suspect that he will have the most dollars when Jan. 31 numbers are revealed. Lancasterin now consolidating LA County, but can he reach the desert?

Awild card is the candidacy of San Bernardino businessman Barry Hartz. WhileHartz hails from the desert, he is formerly from the San Gabriel Valley part of the district and has support from the Mountjoy political operation.

You can see… Read More