While reading OC Blog‘s indispensable daily news digest yesterday, I noticed a Daily Pilot item detailing how the City of Newport Beach had launched a blog to seek public input and reaction on a proposal to build resort on a city-owned parcel called Marinapark. According to the story, the blog was a flop because, at press time, it hadn’t generated a single comment nearly three weeks after launching:

[Assistant City Manager Dave] Kiff said the idea of the blog is to make sure people have plenty of opportunity for input on Marinapark ideas before the City Council discusses the suggestions early next year.

"Some of the criticism for the Sutherland proposal was that the public … didn’t get as many chances as they would have liked to see the other concepts that had come forward up to… Read More

ITS ALL ABOUT THE LAWYERS… Well, the new candidate on the block for State Attorney General on the GOP side, Pierre Prosper, is finding out that making his case to the GOP faithful will be a tough one. The front-runner for the Republican nomination, Chuck Poochigian, starts with a seemingly insurmountable advantage, whether you look at endorsements (Poochigian enjoys unanimous endorsements from all of the GOP legislators, and a host of others), he had a tremendous amount of grassroots support acquired from years of toiling in the vineyards for causes dear to the GOP faithful, he has raised over $3 million with around $2.5 million cash-on-hand, and has ace political guru Ken Khachigan to make sure those funds are spend wisely. All of that said, it is certainly the case that Poochigian’s substantial support was garnered in the vacuum of an unopposed… Read More

From the Californian Riverside County Sales Tax Revenues Rise

By: CHRIS BAGLEY – Staff Writer Retail sales have continued to grow in most local communities, but a number of new shopping centers have helped unincorporated areas such as Wildomar grow much faster than their city counterparts, according to a consultant’s report. Unincorporated areas of Riverside County generated $10.2 million in sales-tax revenue in the second quarter, a 34 percent gain from the second quarter of 2004, according to MBIA, a firm that does financial consulting for governments.

Yes the sound of hammers and nail guns are heard every day in Southwest Riverside County. Private capital comes in, business is created, consumers consume and wow, government has more money. Capitalism, more places should try it.

Now local government with more money is not always a good thing. The good news is that most of the local elected types here are of the conservative sort. They understand… Read More

Alternative ending to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: It’s the climactic laser-sword fight between fledgling Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and the sinister Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Young Luke is down to one arm, no weapon, and cowering precariously at the end of acatwalk when Vader lays the bad news on him: "I am your father."

Now at this point, instead of bugging out and throwing himself into the abyss, what if Luke had thought it through?

Alternative Scene One, Take One:

Vader: "I am your father."

Skywalker: "Get out. Dad wasn’t black."

Vader: "This is a mask, stupid. Join me."

Skywalker: "Well, o.k., but you’ll need to give me a hand, since you chopped off my other one."

The point is, maybe they could have worked together, as Vader suggested, whacked the Emperor, and Luke could have helped dad with some of his totalitarian and planet-destroying… Read More

I got a lot of comments on my OC Power Broker Series published yesterday. So I am continuing with it today. I want to make a few things clear. 1) These people are listed in no particular order. 2) You can be important, elected and or rich but that does not make you an OC Power Broker. To be one, you have to possess extra-ordinary ability to navigate the political and more specifically the government scene.

So below is the list continued without numbers…

Brett Barbre. Elected member of the Municipal Water District of Orange County and chief-deputy to OC Treasurer John Moorlach. Barbre is a leader in the effort to build a tunnel between Orange and Riverside counties. With Moorlach running up-opposed for OC Board of Supervisor, watch for soon to be COS Barbre to gain influence.

Gary… Read More

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is finding out that running statewide has its bumps.

First the story about his favors for "slumlords". Now the LA Weekly is exposing his firing of a tough deputy attorney that may have helped let a child molester go. Read it here.

And there is still 7 months before the primary!… Read More

OC Blog reports that 35th Senate District candidate Diane Harkey has picked up the endorsement of OC Supervisor Chris Norby, the most conservative member of the OC Board of Supervisors. While there’s no overlap between the 35th SD and Norby’s supervisor district, Norby’s endorsement is a sterling bona fide for Harkey to present to conservative activists and GOP regulars to whome she is still largely unknown. Plus, Chris Norby is also a recognizable name with positive resonance for anit-airport voters in the southern reaches of the 35th.

Coming on the heels of her endorsement by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and OC Supervisor Jim Silva, the Norby endorsement emphasizes Assemblyman Tom Harman’s isolation from the GOP establishment in Orange County, despite nearly five years of being an Orange County legislator. Usually, your fellow Orange… Read More

NEW VERSION OF PAYCHECK PROTECTION? Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, and the ‘father’ of current Paycheck Protection movement is looking towards a new ballot measure for November of next year. This one would have a different twist to it. Here is a pull-quote from an interview that Uhler has in today’s George Skelton column (featured on the FR main page):