A recent email from Friends of the Earth caught my eye because of its involvement with interenational trade in Southern California and proposed regulations form So Cal’s air quality regulatory agency.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) recently held public workshop sessions to explore the concept of a vessel speed limit as a means to address air quality and emissions from ships transiting Southern California waters to and from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. You’d join me in being surprised to learn that the "Air Resources Board" might implement its mission through vessel speed limits in offshore and near shore waters.

And, you may also have heard that reducing vessel speed limits could help "save the whales."

Not long ago, a cruise ship impaled a fin whale in Pacific Northwest waters en route to the Port of Vancouver. The ship’s bulbous bow struck the whale in the soft underbelly and carried the animal on its hull into port, where the incident was discovered. It’s not… Read More

Congratulations to David Harmer, who as one of the Republicans running in the special election in Congressional District 10 in the East Bay Area, is now the officially endorsed candidate of the California Republican Party. In special elections, the State GOP's bylaws permit a pre-primary endorsement.

Harmer is an impressive candidate, a successful attorney with a strong resume of conservative involvement. His dad is former California Lt. Governor John Harmer, a great guy.

It's very likely that if I lived in CD 10, I would vote for Harmer in the September primary. That primary, on both sides of the aisle, is loaded up with a vast number of candidates. While technically anyone getting more than half of the vote in that primary, under the rules governing special elections, would win the election outright, there is more chance of President Obama passing an income tax cut for wealth Americans than anyone winning this race in September.

It's because of the fact that this race will be decided well after the primary that I voted against a pre-primary endorsement for Harmer as an elected party officer I believe the bar must be set… Read More

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a panel of three federal judges ruled today that California must release 44,000 prison inmates in the next two years. According to the Bee’s Kevin Yamamura, 44,000 inmates amount to more than 1/4 of the state’s entire prison population.

Apparently California’s crowded prisons are violating the "rights" of the incarcerated. In their opinion the judges ruled, "…(T)he rights of California’s prisoners have repeatedly been ignored. Where the political process has utterly failed to protect the constitutional rights of a minority, the courts can, and must, vindicate those rights." These three judges have placed the “rights” of the imprisoned above the rights of law-abiding citizens. How long before one of these prisoners commits another crime? Can we expect lawsuits from future victims of these early-release prisoners?

Obviously, with the state in such a dire financial condition, building new prisons won’t be a priority for the legislature—especially when “vital services” like welfare can’t be cut. This should… Read More

California pork highlighted in this WSJ Political Diary Post from Steve Moore…

What Are They Shoveling?

The Obama administration is defending its slow pay out of stimulus money by insisting that the agencies are making sure the money is going for useful and efficient projects. Only about 8% of the money has been spent so far, even as unemployment has climbed every month. Auditing these stimulus projects to root out waste and pork is a worthy objective, since no one wants $800 billion in earmark projects for bridges to nowhere.

But the administration has recently started posting the projects that are funded on its website… Read More

Former Southern California journalist and long-time Capitol Hill correspondent for ABC News Linda Douglass is like many who have moved through the revolving doors of politics and the communications world. Linda, with whom I worked many times during my years on the Hill, is serving as the chief White House communicator on all things health reform related.

Today, she’s making news in Politico, the inside-the-beltway multi-media outlet, with an interesting direct-response to the Drudge Report regarding "coverage" of the health care reform debate.

The back story offers valuable insight into the evolving relationship between politics, the media, and the manner in which we communicate with the public. Earlier this week, Drudge/Breitbart posted headlines and links to stories with which the White House took exception. The White House returned the salvo with it’s own packaged "news" piece, hosted by Douglass. The line between news and… Read More

I just read a funny line from a Jack Sieglock news release touting his fund raising prowess and name ID. With just seven donors to his 2010 bid for the Assembly District 10 seat, Sieglock has topped the $100,000 mark ($100,000 came from himself).

But my favorite line in the release reads:

"Moreover, since the June 30th deadline, Sieglock has brought in an additional $50,000 in contributions and commitments."

Perhaps I have cause to be angry at my friend Dana Reed, one of the top political lawyers in the state who usually keeps me posted on important new developments in campaign finance law even though he rarely gets to send me a bill. Dana, has the FPPC ruled that candidates must track "commitments" to their campaigns? I doubt it. What a nightmare that would be.

I am a donor to Sieglock opponent Paul Hegyi so I doubt the Sieglock campaign will take advice from me. But this is a good lesson for other campaigns. Promoting commitments in a news release does not pass the smell test.… Read More

The shocking daylight carjacking murder of Los Angeles teenager Lily Burk has appalled millions of Californians and frightened parents in communities throughout the state. Inevitably, as the profile of the alleged murderer, Charlie Samuel, is revealed, California’s state and local law enforcement will be asked, “Could more have been done to prevent this crime?” or “Can more be done in the future to protect the public from individuals like the fifty-year-old Samuel?” Not if the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation and legislative Democrats have their way.

Charlie Samuel is a habitual criminal. According to the Los Angeles Times, Samuel was convicted of 10 crimes between 1978 and 2009.

A preliminary examination of Samuel’s criminal history reveals that he has been convicted of home invasion robbery, two burglaries, a vehicle theft, and assorted theft and drug offenses. For many, this history would identify Samuel as the type of criminal for whom “Three Strikes” and other habitual offender laws were enacted.

Unfortunately, prison bureaucrats and many Democratic legislators read Charlie Samuel’s long criminal history and observe that… Read More

The legislature took a break after congratulating each other on passing the budget; the finance people immediately announced that next year’s deficit is already somewhere between $8 billion and $20 billion (That is before we know the outcome of the various lawsuits about the shenanigans they included in this "balanced" budget.); and the Governor called a special session for the fall to take up the findings of the Commission on the 21st Century Economy, which is capitol-speak for "tax code change commission." The Commission has been tasked with identifying revisions to the tax code that would stimulate the state’s economy while remaining revenue neutral, and the Governor now, without knowing what recommendations will be made, is asking the legislature to consider the proposed changes.

Coverage of the Commission’s debates has focused on the "volatility" of state tax revenue, which is just silly. Taxes may indeed be volatile, depending on what is going on in the world’s economy at any one time. Ask any businessperson in the state about the volatility of their revenue; it is simply a fact of doing business. What… Read More