A case now before the United States Supreme Court, Evenwel v. Abbott, is causing considerable upset among Sacramento Democrats. That is because a victory for the plaintiffs will have a significant positive long term effect on California politics, by potentially ending one party rule.

What is Evenwel about? Nothing short of fundamental fairness in elections. It asks whether states should draw their legislative districts primarily to protect the rights of citizens to an equal vote or to protect the “interests” of the undocumented and felons to “access” to state politicians.

In Evenwel, Texas voters challenged the drawing of Texas legislative districts apportioned according to total population rather than according to the number of citizens of voting age, i.e., each district has roughly the same number of people in it, though the districts can have wildly unequal numbers of voters in them. The plaintiffs contend that this inequality means that the votes of some voters are worth less than the votes of other voters, thus violating the principle of “one-person, one-vote.” For example, if there are 100 citizens eligible to vote in District 1 and 50 citizens… Read More

Back in November 2014, in a 54% to 46% decision, less than 20% of Stanton’s registered voters approved “Measure GG,” whichincreased their sales tax rate from 8.0% to 9.0%. Needless to say, this measure will not encourage retail businesses to relocate to Stanton, nor will it encourage residents to shop there. But likelocal tax proposals that passed in 116 other cities in California last November, this measure was represented to the public as necessary to adequately fund public safety.

Back in October we published an analysis, “City of Stanton Proposes Higher Taxes Instead of Cutting Pay and Benefits,” which documented the city’s official estimatethat the new sales tax would add $3.1 million to their projected annual sales tax revenues, in order to alleviate a $1.8… Read More

A bill in the California Legislature is blazing through to mandate the reduction of 50 percent in the use of petroleum-based fuels, 50 percent reduction in energy use by existing buildings and increases the Renewable Portfolio Standard from 33 percent renewables to 50 percent — notably as California is well ontrack to meet the 2020 goal.

SB 350 is authored by Sen. President pro Tem Kevin de Leon. “Do we have the courage to press forward,” asked De Leon, to legislative committee members at Monday’s Assembly Natural Resources Committee hearing on SB 350.

De Leon was long on drama about the “threat of climate change,” but short on verifiable data, and never broached what California can do alone if indeed climate change is the scourge of the entire world.

Radical activists have wormed their way into positions of government authority to implement carbon… Read More

The Nation Shrugs As Though Nothing Happened [Publisher’s Note: As part of an ongoing effort to bring original, thoughtful commentary to you here at the FlashReport, we are pleased to present this column from Hector Barajas.]

The tragic shootings at a predominately black Charleston AME Church in South Carolina sparked a national debate over race relations, the Confederate flag and its symbolism as a potential motivation behind the crime. The response to the tragedy in Charleston stands in stark contrast to violence that took place in Chicago over the Independence… Read More

Californians know them well. They are the Proposition 13 “blamers.” They blame Proposition 13 for everything they see or even imagine as negative in the state of California.

Some years ago, a newspaper editorial asked if Proposition 13 was responsible for a measles epidemic saying it may have limited the availability of vaccine. A national publication suggested that O.J. Simpson’s acquittal of murder charges was due to the tax limiting measure because prosecuting attorneys may not have been paid enough.

Most recently, a column by a West Coast writer published in the New York Times claimed that one of the reasons that Los Angeles is becoming a “third world” city is reduced funding for education caused by the tax revolt that passed Proposition 13. As is typical, the writer ignores the fact that California now spends 30 percent more per pupil, in inflation adjusted dollars, than the amount spent just prior to the passage of Proposition 13 – a time when both liberals and conservatives agree that California schools were among the best in the nation.

Most Californians know they are overtaxed and that’s bad news for the blamers. And the latest news… Read More

The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board may have just celebrated its 40th anniversary, but this board also has a long history of abusive behavior – toward California farm workers, and farmers and ranchers.

Many are aware of the fight that thousands of workers at Gerawan Farming have been waging since 2012 to oust the United Farm Workers union from Gerawan. The ALRB has clearly been “in cahoots” with the UFW, according to a Superior Court Judge, to force the workers into the union.

But there are many more cases of farm and ranch owners abused by the ALRB, which raise serious doubts about the fairness and objectivity of this California state agency created to defend the rights of farmworkers. And top ALRB attorneys are involved up to their eyeballs, misleading farm workers, as well as the courts.

Some of the obscure cases resurfaced after the surprise gubernatorial appointment last week of Sylvia Torres-Guillen, the controversial general counsel of the state Agricultural Labor Relations Board, to Gov. Jerry Brown’s office as special counsel. Many say Brown did this to avoid any more public scrutiny over his appointment of… Read More

One of the many liberal talking points against Prop 13 is that it “gutted” public education. Supposedly Prop 13, which passed in 1978, is the main reason our CA schools are so underfunded today — ruining whatprogressivesnowclaim was once the best K-12 public school system in the nation. But were the CA public schools really that great before they were “gutted”? Indeed, was school funding gutted at ALL?

Short answer to the second question:“Au contraire.”

Below is a chart showing the history of CA public school spending since 1968. It’s PER STUDENT, and it’s adjusted for inflation. As the chart demonstrates, since 1968 the resulting spending has essentially DOUBLED. And I say again, this growth in spending is adjusted for both the number of students and inflation.

I should add that this chart is outdated (pre Prop 30). In the last two years CA public education spending hassoared. Yet the Democrats want to raise several taxes to further increase funding “for the children,” — not to mention “reform” Prop 13. Well, actually these tax increase are… Read More

A Sacramento Superior Court judge has put a halt to the City of Sacramento’s plan for a mass-deletion of millions of e-mails deemed “non-public record,” following two California Public Records Act requests — one of which was mine.

The California Public Records Actrequires judges to balance the publics’ right to access records with the public interests in not accessing records.City officials said that the email being deleted does not qualify as public record and is mostly “transitory in nature.”

I filed my PRA request June 25, 2015 specifically in response to the recent public statements by City Officials, including City Attorney James Sanchez, that the City will be destroying all emails in its possession, two years or older on July 1, 2015. My requests are, among other things, to obtain copies of those electronic messages prior to their deletion by the City.

Richard Stevenson, a grass roots community… Read More