California is known in the world for a lot of amazing things. One of them is that we are home to the incubator of amazing technological advances, centered in the Bay Area’s Silicon Valley. With all of the financial challenges facing the Golden State, one would assume that, at a minimum, our state’s politicians would adopt a “do no harm” strategy when it comes to wanting to foster and encourage the entrepreneurialism and job creation coming out of California’s technology sector. How does that saying go, “Methinks you presume too much…”

Bay Area State Senator Ellen Corbett has introduced Senate Bill 242 which threatens to disrupt the growing momentum behind social networks in here in California. Technology writer Adam Theirer’s recent column for Forbes suggested that her bill may pit the State of California versus the Internet. In so doing, she has also created a huge opportunity for the opponents of her bill. California’s technology industry is depending on members of the Senate to help them defeat Senator Corbett’s bill. Legislators can… Read More

[We are very pleased to offer this column from two longtime FR friends, Kevin Dayton and Kevin Korenthal, both affiliated with the Associated Builders and Contractors of California – Flash]

Unions 1 – Los Angeles County Taxpayers 0 Los Angeles County Wastes $795,000 with More Waste to Come on Hospital Project

By Kevin Dayton and Kevin D. Korenthal

Seven months of debate at the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors over requiring construction contractors to sign the county’s first Project Labor Agreement (renamed on the May 24 agenda as a “Community Workforce Agreement”) came to a regrettable end on Tuesday for county taxpayers, as well as businesses and their employees not affiliated with a labor union.

After a long series of public comments for and against the Project Labor Agreement, including many questionable… Read More

Local Fresno Assemblyman Henry Perea (D), Fresno, recently wrote an oped piece in the Fresno Bee. The quotes he’s most proud of are here.

Below is my rebuttal – please note that in my research, I only found 1 of 52 Democrats with any private sector business ownership. Only 1.

Assemblyman Henry Perea’s May 12th column “Public Safety Key To Economic Recovery” is full of errors and naïve assertions that need to be corrected so that Bee readers have a proper understanding of what drives an economic recovery. Now, having recently researched the biographies of all of the Democrats serving in the State legislature, I found that of the 52 members of their caucus, 1 has experience as a small business owner. There is a huge representation of academia, legislative staffers, local elected officials and union leaders in the Democrat majority, but no one with any meaningful business experience. I find it audacious that any of their members would even have an opinion about what makes the economy… Read More

Years of overtaxation and overregulation have given California the second highest unemployment rate in the nation. Even so some of our state lawmakers still believe that punishing success is a recipe for job growth.

Efforts by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and other Democrat legislators to increase taxes on high income earners will actually punish California job creators and worsen volatile state revenues.

According to the Tax Foundation, California already has the third highest income tax rate and one of the most progressive tax structures in the nation. The top one percent of California’s income earners have incomes of $500,000 or more per year and pay up to 50% of all income tax revenues received by the state each year, according to a report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

The battle cry to ‘tax the rich’ is really code for taxing California’s job creators, including many small businesses that are struggling to survive. Rather than help California’s budget, higher taxes will reduce revenues and drive even more job creators out of our state or out of business.

The Tax Foundation also… Read More

I have been in Congress nearly 6 years now. During that time, I have heard a number of speeches from the podium on the House floor. I have heard 2 U.S. presidents and any number of prime ministers and presidents and chancellors of other nations. But, last week’s speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the best speech I have yet heard in those chambers.

First, from a clinical perspective, he is a great speaker. He used notes, but no teleprompter. Those little glass stands that you always see when Obama speaks were not there. Not using a teleprompter allowed him to ad-lib, as he did when a protestor started yelling in the gallery, without worrying that he would get out of synch with whoever was operating the prompter and thereby either miss or repeat a paragraph. Without that machine in between him and the audience, he made a connection that others fail to make. I could feel his courage. I could feel his strength. And, most importantly, I was overwhelmed by the sincerity of his remarks. I felt he was being completely honest and authentic. Many American politicians could learn something from him.

And, from the standpoint of the message,… Read More

Across the state, California community college officials and student activists have been holding coordinated protests. With the usual claimed victim status, they demand higher taxes to subsidize their academic fantasyland.

But these bureaucrats fail to tell the full story. It’s the CA community college STUDENTS (who benefit the most from the education) who should be paying more for their education — they’ve been over-subsidized long enough.

According to a March 2010 national tuition survey sponsored by Washington state, California has the lowest community college tuition and fees in the country. Even with the increase in per credit tuition from $26 to $36, CA community colleges STILL charge students the lowest tuition — students are paying about a third of the national community college tuition average.

Based on a 15 credit (five course) semester, 2009-10 CA community college tuition and fees equaled $780. Next lowest was New Mexico at $1,125. Third lowest was North Carolina at $1,684. National average was $3,029. The highest state is New Hampshire which charges $6,262.

Adjusting for the new increased $36 per credit CA… Read More

It was once said that, “Four things support the world: the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the good, and the valor of the brave.” During the Memorial holiday, we unite to honor our brave and memorialize for eternity those who sacrificed all for our country. We reflect upon those heroes that served America and pursued democracy with fearless determination. We ponder all that brought our country to this moment in history and dream of what is still to come.

The work I do while away from home in Washington, D.C. on the House Armed Services Committee is intermittently laced with stinging reminders of the prices paid by families, communities, and as a country toward the cost of freedom, liberty, and security.

Our own community – the 25th Congressional District – has lost thirty-seven sons on the battlefield since September the eleventh, most recently Specialist Rudy Acosta, who died in Afghanistan earlier this spring. The courage and heroism, exemplified by all these men, is the very foundation on which this great Republic thrives.

Memorial Day is our time to applaud, remember, and honor those who walked the hero’s… Read More

Bloomberg… Read More