Yesterday in Los Angeles at an event with famed philanthropist and felon Michael Milken, Governor Jerry Brown said that he would soon be releasing details of his own pension reform plan, adding that his proposal will include a constitutional amendment and by necessity be put in front of the voters for approval. This comes on the same day that legislative leaders announce the formation of a special committee to review the issue of reforms to the public employee pension system. It is worth noting that the six-member legislative committee that has now been magically formed is stacked with four pro-union votes, thus guaranteeing that no policy recommendations will come from the committee that are not signed off on by the bosses at California Teachers Association, the Service Employees International Union, et.al.

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Our sources have confirmed that this week the California Republican Party has received over a million dollars in donations that will be used to super-charge the signature gathering process to refer to the voters the State Senate lines drawn by the California Redistricting Commission. This is not “committed” funding — we have confirmed that these donations have already been put into the party’s bank account. With this significant amount of recent funding, along with funds already raised and commitments forthcoming, I would guess that the referendum effort is probably just a few hundred thousand dollars away from securing all of the… Read More

Pundits have written that one intra-party show-down due to redistricting is a face-off between Republican Congressmen Gary Miller and Ed Royce. Apparently, however, Gary Miller still hasn’t gotten the memo. We’ve been nosing around and no one can tell whether Miller is actually going to challenge Royce or not. While Royce has been his usual Energizer-Bunny self, racking up endorsements and holding high profile events, Miller’s side of things has been dead silent, causing many to question whether Miller is actually going to run at all. Miller’s website still touts his endorsements from his 2010 run. Federal Election Commission reports have come out and in the latest reporting period, Miller pulled in $54,789, leaving him with $1,007,753 in the bank. During that same period of time Royce raised $352,878, and has $3,048,573 in the bank. In reviewing Royce’s report, it is impressive that nearly $200,000 of the funds he’s recently raised came from individual donors (with about two-thirds of that coming from the OC, but also a third coming from Los Angeles County). This is significant because local donations are a strong measure of … Read More

Just when we thought we had seen the worst of the recent economic downturn, the local economy is likely to get yet another jolt from a little-talked-about merger that is winding its way through the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

The merger is in the area of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) companies, and involves two of the largest companies in the business: Express Scripts, Inc., and Medco. If this goes through, the emerging company will be the elephant in the room when it comes to PBMs.

Fears are that this kind of consolidation of power will have ramifications beyond driving up the prices of medicine for patients. It might also trigger the closure of pharmacies, both locals and chains, which will be hard pressed to compete with this mail order giant.

What does that mean for our little corner of the earth? If the merger happens, you might be getting your prescriptions by mail order. For those who like their local pharmacist or rely on their pharmacy to have their blood pressure taken or to receive their vaccinations, you’ll have to come up with another plan – or maybe your postman can help. And I hope you like mail order… Read More

Last month we published our annual Top 20 Bill To Veto column. Senators Doug LaMalfa and Mimi Walters culled through every bill that was sent to the Governor at the end of the session, and the worst of the worst made our list. You can read the original column here. Below we have pulled the actual 20 bills and and indicated the Governor’s action. The Governor signed 15 of the bills and vetoed the other 5.

Assault on the Family

SIGNED! AB 433 (B. Lowenthal) – Requires the state to issue a new birth certificate to California-born, but now out of state residents that have undergone sex-change surgery. Also allows them to petition the court to have their new gender recognized as such.

SIGNED! AB 499… Read More

As a media figure, you know you’re having an impact when your opponents try to boycott you. Just ask Lou Dobbs or Glenn Beck. It seems LA’s talk radio kings, John Kobylt and Ken Chiampou, of KFI AM 640, have now attained such influence.

They’ve grown accustomed to Governor Brown taking jabs at them and their politically active audience. Now, several “Latino rights groups” are trying to get the duo off the air. For SoCal locals, John and Ken have become the go-to radio hosts discussing the out-of-control progressive policies bankrupting California and killing citizens’ freedom. In recent years, their loyal audience has become increasingly vocal, calling politicians and other politicos when directed by the radio hosts.

One of the topics of their ire is AB 131, the California Dream Act, by Senator Gill Cedillo. In their daily radio program, John and Ken have been expounding on the lunacy of offering college scholarships to students whose parents aren’t legal citizens, taking money from… Read More

619 years ago today, the three Spanish ships — the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria — weighed anchor off the of coast of what would eventually be called the Bahamas and Italian explorer Christopher Columbus and his expedition became the first westerners to discover the Americas — the new world. This day is celebrated through all of the Americas with a holidays. Well, with a few exceptions. In South Dakota it is Native American Day. In Hawaii, they use this day to celebrate their discovery by Polynesian explorers. And, of course, in the People’s Republic of Berkeley, today is indigenous people’s day.

100 years ago today, Californians changed their State Constitution to include several reforms, including the ability for the people to exercise direct democracy in the form of ballot initiatives and the referendum (the ability to take any new law and take it to a vote of the people). A century ago, these reforms were enacted in response to the domination of state government by a small group of wealthy business interests (most notably the railroad tycoons).

Today, the initiative and referendum continue to be a tool available… Read More

The ink is hardly dry on Governor Brown’s signature on SB 202, the measure that violates last year’s budget agreement (which included the placement of a “rainy day fund” measure on the June 2012 ballot) and fulfills the wishes of the state’s massive public employee unions who want all future qualified initiatives on the November ballot in order to avoid the Stop Special Interests Now ballot measure from being placed on a more hospitable June ballot.

That said, the FlashReport has confirmed through solid sources that the paperwork filing a referendum on SB 202 has already been filed with the Secretary of State’s office. Opponents of SB 202 will have three months to gather around 504,000 valid signatures. If they do so, then SB 202 will be suspended until the public can vote on it — and it would have the effect of letting the Stop Special Interests Now! (which had over 800,000 signatures turned in on petitions today) appear in June.

Here is the letter that was filed before 5 p.m. with the Secretary of State’s… Read More