Note: Thanks to a phone call from Senator Bob Dutton, I stand corrected on my initial posting of this item which claimed the entire San Bernardino County legislative delegation supported raiding local gas tax (road maintenance and repair) dollars.Actually, it was the entire ASSEMBLY delegation from San Bernardino County that voted that way.Only one Senator, Gloria Negrete-McLeod (D-San Bernardino), voted for it. My apologies to Senators Dutton, Runner, Ashburn and Huff.

As of Friday, the state’s attempt to raid the local gasoline tax money cities and counties use for street and road maintenance and repairswas continuing.That’s $288 million in Prop. 42 "deferments", withan outrighttaking of $1.7 billion in HUTA local-share gas tax still on the table.

Let’s review what this would mean if it gains final approval:We would give up our local streets and roads maintenance so they can pay off some state bond debt, prop-up the state’s cash flow and credit ratings, and… Read More

As a follow-up to my earlier post below, it looks like Shari Barman had a prior run-in with law enforcement…

May 24,1977 AP Story Rosie Beats Foe to Punch

Tennis star Rosie Casals was arrested on an assualt charge after a minor automobile accident at San Francisco International Airport. San Mateo sherriff Richard Platt said that Casals, 28, and companion Sheri Barman, also 28, were taken into custody after Friday’s incident. Miss Casals was released on her own recognicance. Miss Barman was released after posting $1,000 bail. According to Platt, the two women had parked at the airport parking lot in front of a car driven by Glen Wolff, 30, of San Francisco. Wolff’s car alledgedly brushed the fender of Miss Casals’ car, according to Platt. Miss Casals jumped out of her car, pulled Mr. Wolff out of his car, and began punching him and scratching his face, Platt said. An airport security officer, Bernard Sullivan, tried to break up the altercation and Miss… Read More

Today I exchanged a few emails with State Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth. He made it clear he isn’t thinking of challenging Congresswoman Mary-Bono-Mack for Congress. Too bad. Sen. Hollingsworth would have been a great Republican alternative to cap and taxer and job costing Obama enabler Congresswoman Mary Bono-Mack.

No word from Ray Haynes, Jim Battin or others. Somebody do it!

Cross posted on RedCounty.… Read More

This is a FlashReport blog exclusive. The word is that 10News will run a story at 6 pm. If so, I’ll add it to the post, but — thanks to great sources…

Francine Busby 2.0: Loud Music, Resisting Arrest, Pepper Spray, and Battery on a Police Officer Erstwhile and announced future candidate for Congress Francine Busby sure knows how to toss a party.The supposedly "centrist " Democrat and her followers don’t seem to respect authority too much either. Last night’s event to raise funds for a challenge to Rep. Brian Bilbray would have only been more complete with a good old fashioned flag burning.

— BEGIN POLICE REPORT — On 6/27/09, at about 2112 hours, Deputy ***** and *****, Clinician ***** responded to 1366 Rubenstein Avenue, Cardiff, Calif, regarding a Loud Democratic Rally with Loud Speakers. The reporting party’s residence is located on Summit Avenue just west of 1366 Rubenstein Avenue. The reporting party told dispatchers he was willing to sign and wanted deputy contact. It was… Read More

We’ve intercepted an e-mail sent from the Blackberry of Senate President Darrell Steinberg to the Blackberry of Speaker Karen Bass… From reading it, it’s clear that lack of unity among Republicans in the capitol is helping his cause of ultimately raising taxes…. DATE: 6/27/09 13:57 TO: superbass@unionforever.com FROM: icutmypayhaveyou@healthcareforeverykid.com RE: Our Unlikely Ally in Sam Blakeslee Karen — Divided Republicans mean "opportunity knocks" for us. I know that the union chiefs keep calling us — but there is hope that… Read More

The inimitable Mike Spence blogged on RedCounty.com that Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth and former Sen. Ray Haynes as strong primary challengers to Rep.Mary Bon-Mack:

Fellow Red County Contributor has clearly articulated the need for a GOP Primary challenge to Mary Bono-Mack.

His suggestions of former legislators Bonnie Garcia and Jim Battin make sense. Battin definitely would be a great candidate. I submit that Senator Dennis Hollingsworth and former legislator Ray Haynes be approached as well.

This Congressional District 45 is not just a Palm Springs district. It stretches down to Murrieta and Temecula through wonderful place like Hemet and Moreno Valley. Both Hollingsworth and Haynes do live in the Congressional District.

You can read the rest of Mike’s post here.… Read More

Congressman Jim Costa (D), Fresno voted against the Democrats cap and trade bill on the House floor last night but don’t be fooled – he’s no moderate. Although personally likeable and knowledgable about many issues, he’s been AWOL on the water debate here in the Central Valley. I had a journalist from the Fresno Bee tell me a couple of months ago that "Costa had no clout with Pelosi" because he’s a "Blue Dog" moderate without a voice in the capitol, so he couldn’t "get anything done" on the water issue.

I did some research on this and here is what I found. According to the Washington Post, Jim Costa voted with his Party leadership 94% of the time in 2008, and 97.9% in 2009 year to date.

It’s not hard to see the writing on the wall here. I blasted an email out about this to the Westside farmers in Costa’s District last week, and many of them wrote me back stunned and angry that we have another Pelosi Democrat masquerading as a moderate here in the Valley.

Sources in the capitol tell me that once it became apparent that cap and trade was going to pass, Costa got a… Read More

The liberal Democrats in Sacramento desperately want to do something, anything to push out and delay having to confront the state’s $24 billion budget shortfall in one package. They will give anything to get Republicans to approve any stop-gap measures — three billion, five billion, seven billion — they will put up the cuts with "no strings attached" — to tantalize the member of the minority party, who have rightfully complained about the engorged spending of the California welfare state, to support these cuts.

The key here is that there are "strings" attached — as they say, no one ever gives up something for nothing in this business.

The end game for Sacramento Democrats is fairly simple and straightforward — they want to increase taxes as much as possible to close the budget hole — but they know that there is no political appetite for such increases right now in the State Capitol. With legislative Republicans blocking the 2/3 vote on taxes and the Governor vowing to veto any so-called "majority vote tax increases" — all the Democrats can do is try to buy time.

That is the… Read More