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Jon Fleischman

In Rush To Obamacare CA Dems Want To Redefine Who Is A Doctor

Did you know that the California legislature is looking to erode the quality of everyone’s access to healthcare, in their rush to implement Obamacare? Read on…

Earlier this month, President Barack Obama’s health reform legislation, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act – better known as “Obamacare,” celebrated its third birthday.

For some people, realizing that it’s already been three years since President Obama went before the American people to announce that health care reform in the United States was no longer “an unmet promise” but rather had become the “law of the land,” may cause them to wonder where the time has gone.

For others, like those who have truly been paying attention, however, a better question might be whether the Obama’s promise was one we ever really wanted to see fulfilled in the first place.

The reason for such a question has to do with the fact that, three years after the bill was signed into law, the American public is only now beginning to understand the wide array of unintended consequences that this misguided reform effort will have on our nation’s health care… Read More

Katy Grimes

Legislature uses anti-gun laws as diversion

How convenient. Instead of focusing on criminals released the last two years under AB 109 and now committing new crimes, the California Legislature is diverting citizens’ attention by taking up gun control. AB 109 was the prison “diversion” law that dumped thousands of criminals from state prisons onto local jails, many subsequently being released into the general public.

A hearing in the Assembly Public Safety committee Tuesday advanced the diversion while making the majority Democrats seem “tough on crime.”

The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence was one group that testified at Tuesday’s hearing. It advocates more gun control, while saying, “We all deserve to live in communities free from the fear and threat of gun violence.”

For a group to make such a definitive statement about public safety, there is oddly nothing on its website… Read More

Katy Grimes

Caltrans director about to be quietly reconfirmed

Caltrans is an agency in trouble. The most recent buffoonery involves putting California motorists at risk, with the 30 broken bolts discovered on the newly renovated San Francisco Bay Bridge. And apparently Caltrans knew about this.

A recently released report from the California League of Cities , California State Association of Counties and other transportation organizations found only 56 percent of California’s local streets and roads were deemed to be in “good” condition, and 49 of the state’s 58 counties were rated “At Risk” or in “Poor’ condition.

“By ‘streets and roads,’ the report is also referring to bridges and essential components like sidewalks, storm drains, curbs and traffic signs,” the AllGov… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Kevin James’ Endorsement Of Eric Garcetti A Huge Let Down

I grew up in Los Angeles. My parents still live in the same home in which I was raised on the Westside. I have an affinity for the city that was my home for nearly half of my life. After watching with gross fascination for eight years as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has diminished the City of the Angels, both with his embrace of liberal public policies as well his fair share of scandals, I was ready for a new mayor, one that could lead the city back from the brink.

I endorsed Republican Kevin James in his bid for Mayor, penning a full-throated column in support of him on this website. On issue after issue that matters to the fiscal well being of the second largest city in our nation, James took the strong stands for fiscal restraint, budget reform, pension reform and more. I don’t live in Los Angeles anymore, but my folks do and they voted for James. Alas, he fell far short of what he needed to make the runoff, and the candidacy of Kevin James was no more, and the hope for sanity in city government faded with his departure from the… Read More

Edward Ring

The Prosperity Agenda

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

Contrary to a common misconception, it was not Charles Duell, the Commissioner of the US patent office, who said this back in 1899. According toPatentlyO.com, and a host of other debunking sources online, this line was actually part of a parody that appeared in an 1899 edition of Punch Magazine. But it was a common sentiment of that era.

Over a century later, with innovations in recent years that were entirely unimaginable back in the great era of steel and steam, we might be hesitant to think everything that can be invented has been invented. But reputable economists are on hand to diminish the potential of information technology to continue to yield advances in productivity –Robert Gordonof Northwestern University, for example, “downplays the role of computer technology in the economic growth of the latter 20th century and questions the actual productivity of such technological… Read More

Jon Fleischman

Register OpEd: Orange County doesn’t need an appointed CEO

[The following column, penned my yours truly, appears on the Opinion Page of the Orange County Register today. I’m reprinting it below because, as luck would have it, the column appears the first day that the Register is imposing it’s firewall for readers. Who can fault me for reprinting my own piece? Here is the link to where it resides behind the paywall – Flash]

Jon Fleischman: Orange County doesn’t need an appointed CEO O.C. actually run by 5 elected supervisors, who need more of a chief of staff.

By JON FLEISCHMAN / For the Register

The county of Orange for more than eight months has been without a county executive officer. But our county government has not been without leadership. Unlike the private sector, where a corporate CEO will often answer to a part-time board of directors, providing perhaps only the broadest of oversight, the Orange County CEO answers to a Board of … Read More

Barry Jantz

In yet another surprise move, Fletcher returning to Republican Party

Although the official announcement won’t take place until later this week, San Diego blogSD Rostraconfirmed today that former Assemblyman and 2012 San Diego mayoral candidate Nathan Fletcher is returning to the Republican Party.

Fletcher caused a stir by leaving the GOP and registering non-partisan during last year’s mayoral contest, after failing to win the party’s endorsement in the race. Many political watchers believed the move was a strategic gamble to breathe life into his campaign effort. Athough Fletcher received a flurry of notoriety as a result, it ultimately wasn’t enough as he finished third behind Bob Filner and Carl DeMaioin the June primary election.

Yet, the resulting bad blood between Fletcher and local Republican leaders makes the news of his return somewhat of a surprise, if not a complete shock.

Discussions between Fletcher and the GOP have taken place for several weeks,Rostraconfirmed. Although neither Fletcher nor San Diego Republican Party Chairman Tony Krvaric confirmed the information directly, they both refused to deny… Read More

Scott Mann

Ammiano’s AB 5 Is No Solution For The Homeless

[Publisher’s Note – We are pleased to offer this original commentary from longtime FR friend the Honorable Scott Mann. Mann is currently serving as Mayor of Menifee, which is located in the Inland Empire of Southern California — Flash]

The City of Menifee is on the record unanimously opposing AB 5, often called the Homeless Bill of Rights and Fairness Act. I appreciate that homelessness is a genuine community problem across the State of California which, in public discussion, excites strong feelings on all sides.

However, even the Los Angeles Times says “While we sympathize with its (AB 5’s) spirit, we don’t support it. The solution is not to sanction the culture of homelessness or to offer blanket approval for a way of life that society generally agrees should be ended.” (1/11/13)

This bill, which even its author, Assembly Member Ammiano, concedes is “aspirational,” would impose unfunded mandates upon cities while adding homelessness to a listing of protected classes. Under the bill, “life-sustaining activities that must be carried out in… Read More

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