“The six-year bull market is admittedly long in the tooth.” CalSTRS Chief Investment Officer Chris Ailman,Sacramento Bee, July 17, 2015

If what Mr. Ailman really means is equity investments may not be turning in double digit returns any more, that makes the recent performance of CalSTRS and CalPERS all the more troubling. Because according to their most recent financial statements,CalSTRS only earned 4.8% last year, andCalPERS only earned 2.4%. That leaves CalSTRS 68.5% funded, and CalPERS 77% funded.

Are we at the top of a bull market? Take a look at this chart:

S&P 500, Last Twenty Years Through June 21, 2015

… Read More

This week, the animal rights activists of “Mercy for Animals” are staging protests, decrying the tortured chickens at Foster Farms in Modesto, CA, while Planned Parenthood is selling aborted baby organs and tissue to the highest bio-tech bidder.

The misleading name ‘Planned Parenthood’ may make abortion-seekers feel better about their “choice,” but it’s time to start accepting what this organization was founded on, and what it really does.

The revelation of last week’s video catching a senior director for medical services atPlanned Parenthood’s explaining how the abortion clinics sell aborted baby’s fetal organs and tissue to biotech firms, while munching on salad and sipping red wine, should have elicited nationwide outrage and disgust at such moral depravity.

It was not only shocking to realize that licensed “health care professionals” are illegally selling aborted babies, known as “fetal harvesting,” the hypocrisy of the pro-abortion movement is astounding and now on full display. Pro-abortion advocates have… Read More

Two weeks ago, a Democrat on the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee defiled the legislative committee process again by forcing another job-killing bill through without full debate.

Senate Bill 3 by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, calls for repeated automatic increases in the state’s minimum wage, and is just one of his many attempts to force costs on employers that their businesses cannot bear.

Committee Chairman Assemblyman Roger Hernández, a Democrat from Los Angeles, abruptly cut off a witness midsentence. Before taking another breath, Hernándezquickly called for a vote on the bill, even though members of the public had not testified, and other lawmakers on the committee wished to speak.

When Committee Vice Chairman, Assemblyman Matthew Harper, R-Huntington Beach, tried to speak, Hernandez shut off Harper’s microphone. When Harper objected, Hernándezreached across the desk of an Assembly staff member, and physically tried to shut off Harper’s microphone. Then Hernándezordered Assembly Sergeants to remove Harper’s microphone. Hernándezimmediately forced the vote on the bill, ending along party lines.

Assemblyman Jim… Read More

PART ll in ALRB Series:The Sordid Story of the Radicals at the CA Ag Labor Board.Click here for Part l

The ALRB’s Regional Director in the Central Valley, Silas Shawver, has a history as a union organizer, as do other ALRB employees. Shawver describes himself as a “union organizer turned lawyer.” (see graphic at right), and on his Linkedin page, Shawver lists “Organizer” as one of his jobs with UNITE HERE (graphic below).

“The California Agricultural Labor Relations Board was created in 1975 to ensure peace in the fields of… Read More

The shocking murder of Kathryn Steinle on San Francisco’s Pier 14 has been attributed to Juan Sanchez, a felon who has been deported from the United States five times. Sanchez, however, could not have committed this crime by himself. Many public officials served as accessories by enacting the policies which led to his release. San Francisco is a sanctuary city which provides refuge for foreign nationals who may otherwise face deportation. Under the policy, San Francisco has developed into a safe haven for convicted felons. In their zeal to frustrate U.S. immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE), city leaders willfully released known felons who are facing… Read More

“End of discussion!” is what those on the political left yell in your face when they know they are losing an argument. It is also the name of a compelling new book by Mary Katharine Ham and Guy Benson with the revealing subtitle of “How the Left’s Outrage Industry Shuts Down Debate, Manipulates Voters, and Makes America Less Free (and Fun).”

While it is true that attempts to marginalize political opponents isn’t the exclusive domain of progressives, in the last couple of decades it is the political left which has perfected these tactics to an art form. Perhaps it is because these latest efforts reflect a full manifestation of Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. An important strategy from this famous anarchist is to avoid at all costs an honest debate over whether socialist policies actually work.

And it’s not just conservatives who are sounding the alarm. Bill Maher, the left of center host of his own show on HBO has said that liberals are too easily offended and that an overly politically correct society actually breeds more hostility between the parties. Jerry Seinfeld, lifelong Democratic and famous comic, has said that he doesn’t… Read More

Imagine a way to extract water from humidity in the air, and turn it into a glass of pure drinking water. I just saw a machine do this.

Pacific AirWell provided a water-making demonstration this week on the dead lawn at the Capitol.

With many communities around the state running out of water, and some chronically challenged with very little or contaminated water, these water making machines could be a portable, cost-effective answer for communities, businesses and homes.

“Today’s Capitol demonstration is the hands-on part of ongoing discussions with State officials toexplore innovative ways to reduce the demands upon surface and ground water, and effectivelymitigate California’s drought by improving the State’s drought resiliency,” said Matt Gray, Pacific AirWell CEO. “We are grateful for the support of lawmakers and look forward to bringing reliefto the people of California.”

One of the Pacific AirWell techs filled me in on the operational processes of the machines. Atmospheric water generation is a technology-based process used to condense water… Read More

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[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 Arnold Steinberg.]

The Republican National Committee and networks want to limit debates to the top ten presidential candidates, based on averaging polling results from five different national surveys. In a prior column, I explained how this approach is unfair because debate performance drives polls, not the other way around. Also, early national surveys are especially volatile and hardly predictive of finalists. Finally, equally averaging the apples and oranges of surveys with different size (and limited) samples, and quite varied and even dubious methodologies. produces strange vegetables indeed.

And in another column, I dissected one much publicized and deeply flawed specific national survey – the Wall Street Journal/NBC poll and showed how its results were unreliable, if not… Read More