This is Part ll of my series on California’s dubious drought and water policies

National media coverage has largely confused reasons for the current drought. We are now being told that global warming has caused the drought.

Perhaps a more realistic cause for the drought can be found in natural climate change, agricultural inefficiency, poor water storage planning, and urban development in arid regions.

Most of the media and public officials paint California farmers and ranchers as the biggest water wasters in the state. Yet they have made huge strides in improving efficient water management over the years — it’s in their best interest to do so, not only economically, but to save and conserve natural resources. Farmers and ranchers are some of the best, most efficient and effective conservationists California has.

North Korean-style water… Read More

When one must ask “what is the definition of ‘false and misleading’? in a political campaign,” it is is evident Assembly District 73’s Anna Brysonis twisting and contorting a legal ruling against her into something that it just is not.

As many voters have grown cynical about the veracity of political candidates and politicians, sometimes “false and misleading” statements go too far. Legal mincing and parsing of words brings back former President Bill Clinton’s notorious 1998 statement to a grand jury about the Monica Lewinski affair, “It depends on what the meaning ‘is’ is.”

It’s deja vu all over again withAssembly District 73’s Anna Bryson Campaign.

The heart of the matter

At the heart of a recent issue of this nature is an official… Read More

Part l of two stories about the reality of California’s water supply

Whether or not California’s drought conditions are brought on by alleged “global warming,” most agree the state is lacking rainfall. What many in the state refuse to acknowledge is that this is actually typical; drought occurs 40 percent of the time in California. It’s not unusual.

However, government and public officials with an agenda of opportunistic control are fueling the melodramatic media coverage of the state’s rainfall shortage. And many of these same officials have been mum about the state’s historical lack of adequate water storage, despite an increasing population.

Rationing shortfalls

… Read More

SACRAMENTO — It is very discouraging that something so clear-cut like the High-Speed Rail Authority’s misspending practices are embraced by state Democrats.

Assembly Bill 1501, by Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, California High Speed Rail Funding Accountability Act, was killed in the Assembly Transportation Committee Monday, with the majority of Democrats voting in opposition.… Read More

California’s High-Speed Rail Authority continues to forge ahead with the project to build the $68 billion train system, despite a court decision saying the HSRA cannot use Proposition 1A funds that were approved by the legislature.

To address this and many other controiversial decisions by the HSRA, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, has introduced AB 1501 to protect California taxpayers from a risky financial obligation by the HSRA.

“By continuing to spend federal money, the HSRA is leaving taxpayers holding a bag full of matching state bond funds that a judge has said can’t be spent,” Patterson said in an interview. “We are essentially overdrawing our bank account by spending these federal funds. We simply don’t have the matching funds required by the… Read More

Next month, the Sacramento Metropolitan FireDistrict is expected tomake a pitch that 220,000 Sacramento County property owners approve a large property tax assessment on their properties.

Annual assessments on single-family homes will range up to $50 per year if the proposal is approved by property owners, according to Craig Powell, president of Eye on Sacramento, a public policy watchdog. Commercial properties and apartment complexes will be significantly higher.

The Sacramento Beepublished a story Wednesday reporting about the State Controller’s most recent report on the 1,000 highest paid publicemployees in the Sacramento region, reporting payfrom 2012.

Six different California fire districts top the list of highest paid public employees:

The Administrative Office of the Courts is in the news once again, and again, it’s not good news.Known as the central bureaucracy for California’s courts, the AOC has a rich history of statewide controversy.

Following a promotion of the state judiciary’s top lobbyist to a specially created executive position at the Administrative Office of the Courts, Curtis Child, theAdministrative Office of the Courts Chief Operating Officer,has been billing taxpayers for travel from his home in Sacramento to the San Francisco AOC office where he works, according to Courthouse News Service and the Alliance of California Judges.

Curtis Child, the former AOC lobbyist, has been billing taxpayers for lodging, tolls, parking, and travel costs of working from Sacramento, where he lives, when the AOC office and 223 employees he manages are in San Francisco, the Alliance of California Judges and Courthouse News… Read More

There is a disturbing trend of state and federal environmental agencies, which do end runs around state legislatures and Congress, and regulate carbon emissions themselves.

The Environmental Protection Agency has been doing this for years, as has California’s Air Resources Board. And they’ve gotten away with this thanks to activist scientists.

But when another scientist blows the whistle, look out. Hell hath no fury like a bureaucrat scorned.

UCLA lawsuit, Dr. James Enstrom

Dr. James E. Enstrom, Ph.D. a University of California at Los Angeles research professor who was terminated after he blew the whistle on junk environmental science and scientific misconduct at the University of California, filed… Read More