The Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice just ‘settled’ an historic lawsuit with Hyundai, Kia, et.al. over alleged Clean Air Act violations, based on the carmakers’ sale of vehicles that are anticipated to emit more greenhouse gas emissions than certified to the EPA.

The EPA and DOJ are hitting the automakers with collective penalties valued at around $300 million for Clean Air Act violations including $100-million in civil penalties, the largest such fines in EPA history.

The $100 million… Read More

One of the biggest scandals to ever rock Sacramento is currently taking place.

The monumental scandal was exposed last week by the local weekly newspaper,Sacramento News and Review. So far,The Sacramento Beeis silent on the scandal.

Despite civil-engineering experts who say most of the city’s water pipes are in perfectly good shape, the city of Sacramento is spending at minimum, $474 million to install Sacramento’s new water meters in several downtown neighborhoods, SN&Rreported.

While not unique to California, fraud, corruption and scandal is apparently how Sacramento city government rolls.

While Sacramento’s Mayor Kevin Johnson has dubiously distracted city taxpayers with his delusions of NBA arena grandeur, he and Sacramento City Council members have been orchestrating one of the biggest hustles the city has ever seen, behind closed doors.

This is the very same Mayor Johnson who… Read More

Nearly 21,000 Northern California Kaiser nurses are walking off the job for a two-day strike. Tuesday was day one of the California Nurses Association Kaiser strike.

Kaiser was forced to hire and train nearly 3,000 temporary nurses because of the strike, with estimate costs of $20 million per day, Kaiser reports.

Labor meetings last summer focused on upcoming changes and growth anticipated by the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). And if there is growth, the nurses union wants its cut, according to a NPR story from July.

Nurses claim there are more than 30 operational proposals still unresolved after only three months of bargaining. They want 2,000 vacated positions filled, better protections for use of sick leave, more time with patients, more flexibility over breaks, and more training and education, NPR reported.

And the nurses union is throwing in the Ebola scare as an issue “to try to win PR points with the… Read More

Democrats lost big in the November 2014 midterm elections. And their money folks lost even bigger. The country’s largest teachers unions spent nearly $60 million of their members’ money on the failed 2014 midterms elections.

What the 2014 results suggest is the significance of electing the first black president no longer applies. And it will not apply again in 2016.

The hysterical racial appeals to cultivate black voters failed. The “War on Women” failed. And that’s all they have. There are no back-benchers for the Democrats right now; they have been spending their capital without reinvesting.

Dems’ Aging… Read More

On the campaign trail recently, First Lady Michelle Obama and News One Host television Roland Martinsaid if Democrats were successful at getting “souls to the polls,” that they could celebrate with some “soul food.”

“I give everyone full permission to eat some fried chicken after they vote,” Michelle Obama said during an interview with News One Host Roland Martin on TV One, a network that plays largely to black adults.

“Only after, if you haven’t voted… You make a good point. Because I am, I do talk about health. But I think that a good victory for Democrats on Tuesday, you know, should be rewarded with some fried chicken.”

Michelle Obama… Read More

Wow, what an election night. Hope makes a comeback… but not entirely in California.

As exciting as the nationwide races were, my favorite race was local: Mayor Kevin Johnson’s Strong Mayor initiative, Measure L, went down in defeat, 57-43 percent. Slam Dunk.

Despite the Sacramento media running months of constant free advertising for the measure, Measure L, which would have concentrated power in the Mayor, Chicago-style, and dramatically reduce the other council members’ powers, Sacramento voters voted “no.”

By midnight when I finally gave up and went to bed, the measure appeared to be defeated 57.31 percent to 42.69 percent. Unless more ballots magically appear, the fourth Strong Mayor initiative should be cooked… until Mayor Johnson resurrects it again for a fifth time.

GOP Takes US Senate

But… Read More

Are you better off today than you were two, four or six years ago when progressive Democrats took over and expanded more of government? Of course not: As government grows, liberty decreases.

It was Thomas Jefferson who warned, “The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases. The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield, and government to gain ground.”

But elections are changing. Voters are changing. America is changing. California has been leading much of that change, and not in a good way. This election is a potential… Read More

The contest for Secretary of State between Republican Pete Peterson and Democrat Alex Padilla appears to be a classic race between a citizen politician and a career bureaucrat. Padilla, 41, is a termed out State Legislator, and a former Los Angeles city councilman. Peterson, 47, leads the Davenport Institute for Public Engagement and Civic Leadership at Pepperdine University, is a business owner, and was the first Executive Director of Common Sense California, a bipartisan, nonprofit “think-and-do tank” devoted to improving civic participation in California.

Their “top two” primary race in June was very close though only 25 percent of registered… Read More