Today’s Orange County Register has another story about the flap created by the Bruin Club that is paying students to expose liberal professors. Among other reasons I am writing about this is that I was interviewed for the story. (Read it here.) Aside from being a full-time practicing lawyer, I am also an adjunct professor at Chapman University. So, I guess my perspective is somewhat unique.

As an update to the UCLA Bruin situation, I heard today on the radio that the president of the Bruin Club has voluntarily stopped paying students to tape or take notes of professor’s lectures.… Read More

HOUSE REPUBLICANS GET AN "F" – BUT THERE IS A CHANCE TO IMPROVE This morning, in the wee hours, I read a column from Sacramento Area Congressman Dan Lungren, in which he feels that there should be a new election for all of the GOP leadership, from Speaker on down. But from reading the first paragraph of his column, I’m not sure he wants to do this for the right reasons. You see, the second sentence says it all:

Lungren, who is ‘back’ in Congress, re-elected after being out of the House for over a decade, should have an outsider’s perspective – I guess… Read More

HOUSE REPUBLICANS GET AN "F" – BUT THERE IS A CHANCE TO IMPROVE This morning, in the wee hours, I read a column from Sacramento Area Congressman Dan Lungren, in which he feels that there should be a new election for all of the GOP leadership, from Speaker on down. But from reading the first paragraph of his column, I’m not sure he wants to do this for the right reasons. You see, the second sentence says it all:

Lungren, who is ‘back’ in Congress, re-elected after being out of the House for over a decade, should have an outsider’s perspective – I guess… Read More

Nine days ago, I posted the Curiously Quiet SD County Board of Ed Vacancy. Why, I asked— with a January 27 deadline for applications looming and a big, beautiful website with all kinds of other news on it (bought with our public dollars) — the vacancy and the appointment process had not been posted for the public to easily see?

I also blasted the post to a pretty significant email list, including politicos, media types and the trustees at the Board of Education. Lots of response. No changes to the site, however.

It would seem that — Republican or Democrat — any board member wanting to look good in the eyes of the public and the media would be calling for complete and easy access to information as part of this process. Perhaps I need a question mark at the end of the last sentence.

At least now I know I’m not the only one doing the questioning. Marsha Sutton, the education writer for Voice… Read More

Now that we have the comment feature active, I will be posting an intro to all of our featured columns on the blog so that readers can comment…

FEES v. TAXES: MORE THAN AN ACADEMIC DEBATE by Jon Coupal, President of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assocation Among tax experts and policy wonks, there has always been a debate about what constitutes a “fee” as opposed to a “tax.” The general public might have some vague notion of a difference between the two but, more times than not, they just don’t care. If a citizen pays a $10 “fee” for something, that $10 has left his or her wallet just as surely as if they had paid a $10 tax. … Read More

Governor Schwarzenegger was in Orange County last week meeting with what the Los Angeles Times described as "40 donors in this wealthy Republican enclave" (that phrase makes OC sound like an enormous gated development). The OC Register also ran a story about it — and our ubiquitous publisher was quoted in both.

For the moment, I’ll leave aside the irony that at almost the exact moment Governor Schwarzenegger was in Orange County seeking GOP support for his agenda — which I presume includes the "I Say Let’s Build It!" infrastructure program – his administration was putting the brakes to completing Orange County’s much-needed 241 toll way.

This fence-mending meeting reminds me of a very similar meeting I was invited to in 1994, with another Republican Governor of California who was also confronting great discontent among the GOP rank-and-file.

As you may have guessed, I’m talking about Pete… Read More

How would you like to sign up to be wined and dined by host committees across the country, anxious to have a shot at attracting the 2008 Republican National Convention to their city? Fluffy pillows, champagne, rare vintage wines, sumptuous meals (like the one pictured) are sure to be had by the nine lucky members of the RNC’s 2008 Site Selection Committee.

Wining, dining, and resorting on behalf of Republicans from the Western States will be none other than California’s National Committeewoman, Barbara Alby. Formerly a member of the State Assembly, Alby is now Chief of Staff to Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard.

Actually, for this upcoming convention, this committee will actually have more of a role to play than four years ago. For the 2004 convention in New York, the selection was more or less made by the incumbent… Read More

"Feasible non-toll-road alternatives exist," said Michael Fitts, an attorney for the Endangered Habitats League. "Our results shatter the TCA’s numbers." — Los Angeles Times, January 13, 2006

What is this shattering study of which enviro-ttorney Fitts speaks? It is a study "commissioned by the coalition made up of the California State Parks Foundation, Endangered Habitats League, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation" to analyze "the option of widening Interstate-5 and arterials as an alternative to the Orange County Transportation Corridor Agency’s proposed toll road."

This fabled study… Read More