Is California “back,” as the liberal press and our governor so proudly proclaim? No. Not hardly. Especially if you’re looking for work — or for a better job.

In November, California was tied for the 2nd highest/worst state unemployment rate. In December, we’ve got 2nd place all to ourselves at 7.0%. The December national unemployment rate was 5.6%. Only “Deliverance” Mississippi was worse. The national unemployment rate not including CA is 5.4%, making the CA unemployment rate 29.4% higher than the average of the other 49 states. http://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm — We were at 4.8% in Nov, 2006 – vs. national 4.6% Using the 2014 U-6 measure of unemployment (includes involuntary part-time workers), CA is just behind Nevada at 15.2% vs. national 12.0%. National U-6 not including CA is 11.6%, making CA’s U-6 31.4% higher than the average of the other 49 states. http://www.bls.gov/lau/stalt.htm

Remember that in December,… Read More

“Hand ups, don’t shoot” is a meme used by professional protestors, celebrities, even NFL players during pre-game warm-up.

The problem is, it never happened.

Michael Brown didn’t put his hands up – he put his fists out. Brown attacked a police officer and then tried to take his gun.

“Justice for Michael” is equally inaccurate sloganeering. Michael Brown is no Medgar Evers. He’s not James Earl Chaney, Jimmy Lee Jackson, or even James Reeb. Brown wasn’t struck down struggling for civil rights or equality. He started a street fight with a cop.

Agitators chanting “No Justice, No Peace” have taken to mobbing restaurants, bullying diners with angry diatribes. Their stated goal – for participants who actually understand it – is to make the general public so fearful and uncomfortable they’ll support nebulous anti-law enforcement policies activists are demanding. There’s another name for this tactic.

No one is saying Brown deserved to die. But even Eric Holder’s… Read More

There is a clamor in Sacramento for “tax reform.” But for every political pundit, politician and bureaucrat in the room, there is a different definition of “tax reform.”

For fiscal conservatives, tax reform means tax cuts. The State of California takes too much of our money now and this heavy tax burden unquestionably hurts working families and hinders economic growth

But for self-styled “progressives,” tax reform means even more tax hikes to feed an ever growing government and the demands of tax hungry special interests.

Because these two visions of “tax reform” are polar opposites, is it even possible to agree on anything related to changing California’s tax system? Surprisingly, the answer is yes.

Both conservatives and liberals have at least acknowledged that California government is too reliant on revenue that fluctuates wildly. In other words, there is some agreement that the mix of things that are taxed might be altered so that tax revenue is more predictable

To read the rest of this column please click here… Read More

Here’s an interesting exercise in NFL economics. Some “sports economist” referenced in the otherwise excellent U-T article below (Gee, I wonder who funds his academic chair?) has projected that a new San Diego stadium will mean $50 million more annually for the Chargers.

Put aside for the moment the biased nature of this “study.” Suppose it’s true.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jan/31/no-stadium-business-case-chargers-public-help/ RIDER QUESTIONS: Where does the $50 million come from?

A. From increased stadium revenues that go to the Chargers.

Is the $50 million a “net to the Charger (and visiting NFL teams)” figure?

A. Apparently so.

Who ponies up the extra revenues?

A. Corporations renting sky boxes and fans buying tickets.

How many games a year?

A. 8 regular season games. It’s doubtful the new stadium… Read More

Environmentalists claim global warming can be mitigated, but only by if humans are forced to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This pseudo-science is what the California Air Resources Board has adopted to control human activity.

If this sounds a little woo-woo, remember the CARB is the state agency which, under Assembly Bill 32, the California Global Warming Solution Act of 2006, expanded its mandatein order to link up in a cap and trade scheme with Quebec, and Canada’s international Ecosystem Marketplace offset… Read More

On Sunday, January 18, 2015, two interesting things happened in the history of Republican outreach to the black community in Los Angeles. The first is that, at 3:00 in the afternoon, the libertarian leaning Republican Liberty Caucus held its first meeting in South Los Angeles, (featuring addresses from inner-city figures such as host of Compton Politics Lorenzo Murphy). Then at 6:00, officers were elected to fill seats for the first chapter of the conservative California Republican Assembly ever established to represent Inglewood and South Los Angeles.

Neither of these events are earth shattering in their significance in and of themselves. Yet they represent a trend… Read More

A Defense of Proposition 13 Property Tax Revenues by Richard Rider, Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighters ***Updated 28 January, 2015*** Phone: 858-530-3027 Email: RRider92131@GMail.com Blog:www.RiderRants.BlogSpot.com When it comes to gathering sufficient property taxes, Prop 13 is no problem at all–except for profligate spenders. Look at the history of my San Diego County–a history which pretty much reflects the history of property taxes in theurban/suburbancounties that hold over 85% of California’s population. According to San Diego County, in 1977–the year BEFORE Prop 13 took effect (when everything was working great, … Read More

In January 2010 the California’s legislature passed into law, perhaps uncharacteristically, an excellent new law. Entitled “Public schools: Race to the Top,”SB 54created two mechanisms for parents to exert greater control over the education of their children.

There are two components:

(1) The Open Enrollment Actmandates that the California Department of Education to annually create a list of 1,000 schools ranked by their Academic Performance Index. Parents whose children are enrolled in these schools have the right to transfer them to a better performing school.

(2)The “Parent Trigger” Law, which allows parents to transform their own schools if 50% of parents sign a petition to seek a change at their chronically underperforming school.

Open enrollment has had an immediate benefit to California’s parents in poor schools, both because individually parents have been able to get their children out of poor schools, and also because the mere ability of parents to remove their students from poor schools provides a powerful… Read More