This week the San Diego media is focused on ONE story — the dozen or more brush fires that have popped up around the county, thanks to EXTREMELY dry conditions, high winds (Santa Anna) and likely arson.

If this fire story were not happening, perhaps we’d all know more about ANOTHER tragedy that hit San Diego this week: Defense contractor Pratt & Whitney is abandoning its San Diego operation — fleeing for other states. This closure will cost our city 530 high paying jobs.

While the company had the option to go to the state of California for economic subsidies, it didn’t bother. FAR better “subsidies” are available in other states — the “subsidy” of a better business climate, including lower taxes.

At least it’s not the Great (hated) State of Texas that the company is fleeing for. Well, not for sure.

They are also considering relocating the San Diego operations to Florida and/or Georgia — the company has existing facilities in all three of these more business-friendly states. Indeed, they are also planning to move part of the San Diego operation toCanada!

Governor… Read More

Today, the Assembly and the Senate will consider a Rainy Day Fund proposal (Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1xx) for inclusion on the November 2014 ballot.

We believe Californians will support it because they want to end our chronic budget crises and pay down debt. But just as important, fiscal conservatives should be especially pleased that it includes key reforms Republicans have talked about for years that, frankly, no one expected us to achieve.

ACA 1xx guarantees that 1.5 percent of total general fund revenue every year will be transferred into the rainy day account before funding any other programs. In economically robust… Read More

As a confirmed dog lover, I admit I have dined with my dogs at outdoor restaurants. I’ve eaten many outdoor meals in beautiful Carmel, CA, which is very dog friendly, as are many California cities and restaurants. Apparently, I’ve been doing this illegally.

For many years, many California restaurants have provided outdoor space for dog lovers, complete with bowls of fresh water and complimentary dog biscuits. However, because in California, restaurants are actually breaking the law by allowing canines to join their humans at the dining table, comes a bill to address this problem.

There arf to be a law

Under current California law, the only live animals… Read More

In exclusive “first release” to the FlashReport, former California Governor Pete Wilson has issued a pretty strongly worded warning to Republican voters about nominating Assemblyman Tim Donnelly for Governor.

Here is the Governor’s statement, in his own words (you can see an official version here):

“I respect and share the concern of Tea Party and other California voters who are determined to reverse the growth in the size and cost of our state government. I strongly urge them to vote… Read More

Last week, we discussed the “Second War Between the States”. Without question, this is a war of laws and policies. However, it is much more than that. It is a war over culture.

I am a big culture guy. I think it is the most important factor in predicting the success or failure or any association of human beings. Understanding the culture of a family will tell you much more about that family than will their address, income or the cars they drive. The culture in a company or a non-profit is tremendously influential on how they operate and whether you would want to associate with them or not. We have all probably worked somewhere or at least interviewed somewhere where the company culture was not a fit and we knew it was not a good place for us.

Countries and states have cultures, too. We certainly have long had a very strong and recognizable American culture. The American culture is not English culture or French culture or Mexican culture or Japanese culture. It is uniquely American. And, within our culture, many different “dialects” can be found across the country. But, just like English spoken in Alabama is still closer to English spoken in the… Read More

Last night, the Heritage Foundation and Franklin Center recognized Jon Fleischman with the 2014 Andrew Breitbart Blogger Award.

On behalf of our entire Flash Report team, I hope you’ll join me in congratulating our esteemed publisher. It’s been 13 years since Jon first “spammed” a few thousand friends with the first issue of the Flash Report. Since that first email, he’s broken several major stories and been the go-to source for conservative… Read More

I worked in law enforcement for 33 years, 31 of those with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. During that time, advances in technology, techniques and tactics have helped us reduce crime in LA and around the state by dramatic numbers. But public safety policy is too often determined strictly by political or budgetary pressures, rather than what is best to help protect citizens.

The most recent example of this is so-called ‘Realignment’, created by the Legislature and Governor Brown through AB109 to shift much of the burden for prisoners off the state and back to the counties. In purely literal terms, AB109 has done what it promised – it has moved inmates, and their associated costs, out of state prisons and into county jails.

The Los Angeles County jail system is the most complex and dangerous jail system in the country and realignment has only exacerbated the issues we see today. First, county jails are only meant to house inmates for 365 days, one year, for a variety of reasons from petty crimes, those awaiting trial, or those waiting for transfer to a state institution.

But now, rather than housing prisoners for a year, we have… Read More

Another anti-plastic bag bill is making its way through the Legislature – but this one holds far more garbage than its 13 predecessors — all of which I have been writing about since 2007.

SB 270 would ban recyclable plastic retail shopping bags and allow supermarkets and grocers to charge a minimum of 10 cents each for paper and thicker plastic bags.

The… Read More