More than a few years have passed since Clinton scandals littered the daily headlines. Whitewater, Juanita Broddrick, Gennifer Flowers, Vince Foster, impeachment, Marc Rich, the pardons, the White House Travel Office, Commercegate – by the time Bill Clinton left office in January 2001, many Americans were ready to leave the (long list of) sordid affairs behind them.

Hillary Clinton succeeded in distancing herself from most of the ethical cloud that surrounded her husband’s presidency. And for a while, it looked like she would be judged on her own record as her White House bid gets under way.

That is, right until this email scandal reminded everyone that when it comes to “the… Read More

The latest poll from USC Dornsife and the Los Angeles Times would have you believe California voters give Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature their highest approval ratings in year — despite “soaring taxes, high unemployment, costly illegal immigration, escalating crime rates, substandard roads, record power and gas prices, underwater home values, and dismal schools.”

This is what happens when smart people like to be right and defend bad ideas.

Amedia conference call withUSC Dornsife discussed the poll results.

The… Read More

“The enemy of my enemy is my enemy,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday in a speech to the U.S. Congress.

I talked with Congressman Tom McClintock prior to Netanyahu’s speech.“This administration and many on the Left seem to view the two sides in the Middle East debate as moral equivalents,” McClintock said. “All that stands between a peaceful and free world and a fanatical fascist caliphate stretching from the Bosphorus to North Africa is the state of Israel and the… Read More

“Our demands, they’re not radical. When did it become radical to have class sizes that you could actually teach in? When did it become radical to have staffing and to pay people back after eight years of nothing?” – Alex Caputo Pearl,President, UTLA, February 26, 2015, Los Angeles Times

If the 35,000 members of the United Teachers Los Angeles, the union that represents employees of Los Angeles Unified School District, actually go on strike, in large part it will be because they want an 8.5% salary increase and the district is only offering them 5%. They also want smaller class sizes – tough to do when you’re passing out salary increases. But how much do these teachers actually make?

If you review the most authoritative source of public information on LAUSD salaries, the California state controller’s public pay website you will get the impression they aren’t making much. Thesummary page for LAUSDshows “average wages” of… Read More

If high taxes guaranteed results, then California should have some of the best roads in the nation. For years we’ve had one of the highest gas taxes, yet our freeways consistently receive failing grades.

It makes no sense unless you admit that high taxes don’t guarantee good roads. That’s one of many reasons I had no trouble voting with my State Board of Equalization colleagues to approve a 6 cent cut to the state’s gas tax. Under a confusing and complicated law commonly known as the “gas tax swap,” the state has been over collecting tax dollars as gas prices have fallen. The new rate helps solve this problem.

Any tax cut is a rare bit of good news for overtaxed Californians. This gas tax cut also has the added benefit of partially offsetting the cost of a new hidden gas tax that took effect January 1 to help fund high speed rail and other so-called anti-global warming efforts.

California will still have one of the highest gas tax rates in the nation, but even so not everyone is pleased to see the tax go down. In fact, some government officials are devising new schemes—like mileage taxes and road user fees—aimed at getting even more of your… Read More

As Wisconsin is set to become the 25th Right-to-Work state, California Gov. Jerry Brown is ignoring thousands of farm workers who don’t want to be unionized.

In one of the most significant labor relations fights in the country proceedings have turned ugly, with many questioning the legal tactics and scruples of the Agricultural Labor Relations Board.

The workers at Gerawan Farming have been trying since October 2012 to decertify the United Farm Workers labor union. The workers are not only being fought by the UFW union, Brown’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board has thwarted them at every turn. And pleas to the Democratic Governor and Legislature have fallen on deaf ears, despite their claims to care for farm workers.

The only help the Gerawan workers have received is from state Assembly members Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, and Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield.

Patterson has introduced AB… Read More

This is Part ll ofBrown Administration Tied To Scandal That Took Down Oregon Governor.

Recent revelations resulted in the Feb. 13, 2015 resignation of Democratic Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber over collusion between the California and Washington State governors’ offices, Kitzhaber’s office, and environmental groups, to force climate policy coordination and collaboration across the U.S., I reported in my story last week.”… Read More

Voters overwhelmingly approved Jessica’s Law on the November 2006 ballot. Today, the California Supreme Court substituted the opinion of the court over the will of the people.

The court’s decision strikes down mandatory residency restrictions on San Diego County sex offenders under Jessica’s Law and would allow a child molester to live across the street from a school or park where children gather. It puts San Diego families at risk and sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of the state.

My wife, former Senator Sharon Runner, and I are the authors of Proposition 83, otherwise known as Jessica’s Law. In addition to mandatory residency restrictions for sex offenders, the law includes many important public safety reforms such as strengthened sexually violent predator laws and increased parole terms. The California Supreme Court’s decision only relates to the residency requirements in Jessica’s Law.

Knowing sex offenders might challenge Jessica’s Law, we introduced… Read More