California lawmakers want to give parents at smaller companies more free money

California lawmakers are once again seeking to expand the state’s paid family leave program to smaller businesses after Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar measure last year.

SB 63, authored by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), on Tuesday moved out of the state Senate with a 25-13 vote. It now heads to the Assembly for consideration.

The legislation, a priority bill for the California Legislative Women’s Caucus, would allow parents at companies with 20 to 49 employees to take 12 weeks of leave to care for a newborn or newly adopted child — without fear of losing their jobs. Under the current state law, only workers at businesses with 50 or more workers can take advantage of program.

Source: LA Times

Problems with California’s Initiative Process

By Chris Micheli

The initiative has been a form of direct democracy for more than a hundred years in the State of California. The initiative is a method of lawmaking that requires a vote of the people instead of a vote of the Legislature in order for a measure to become law. To qualify for a statewide ballot, statutory initiatives must receive signatures of voters equal to 5% of the votes cast for all candidates for Governor at the last gubernatorial election. Constitutional amendment initiatives must receive signatures equal to 8% of the same number of votes.

The Secretary of State has done an analysis of the success rate for initiatives in California. During the past 101 years (1912 through July 2013):

1,767 initiatives were titled and summarized for circulation

Of these, 1,311 (74.1%) failed to qualify, and another 92 were withdrawn from circulation

360 initiatives (20%) qualified for the ballot

Of the 360 that qualified, only 122 were approved by the people.

Historically, therefore, only one in five proposed initiatives has qualified for the ballot, and only one in three of those that qualified have been approved.

Unfortunately, California’s initiative process suffers from a number of problems and consideration should be given to alternatives that would address these problems. Some of the problems that have been identified with the initiative process include:

Language of Initiatives — Some initiatives have drafting problems with ambiguous or contradictory language. Unfortunately, as opposed to legislation, ballot measures are not review by the Legislative Counsel. There is no formal drafting process and no legal review by experts in drafting laws.

Short Time Period — There is a small window of time to obtain the required number of signatures. This results in very high costs of signature gathering as initiative campaigns are forced to hire professional signature-gathering firms that substantially increases the costs.

Lack of Understanding — Very few voters actually read the summaries and ballot arguments, let alone the language of proposed laws appearing on the ballot, As a result, many voters do not know or understand the initiatives and what they are voting for or against. For example, the November 2012 statewide ballot pamphlet was about 150 pages in length.

Majority Vote — Ballot measures that make major law changes, or that commit significant state spending, only require a majority vote of the people.

Cost Prohibitive — The costs of promoting an initiative are prohibitive for most citizens or groups. Whether it involves the costs of qualifying and advertising are so great that only major interest groups have the resources necessary to sponsor and/or effectively oppose initiatives.

The initiative process has largely been taken over by interest groups and the “initiative industrial complex.” As a result, some view the original purpose of the Initiative has been frustrated.

Some of the alternatives for changes that could be considered include:

Legislative Review — Require legislators to consider a proposed ballot measure for one year of a legislative session before the measure can be placed on the statewide ballot.

Voter Review — Require that enacted measures be returned to voters periodically, such as every eight to ten years, for another vote to determine whether the measure should remain in effect.

Higher Vote Threshold — Initiatives that involve new spending must either specify a revenue source or be approved by a supermajority vote of the electorate.

Increased Fees — It costs $2,000 to submit a ballot measure to the Attorney General for title and summary, which permits signatures to be gathered. This amount should be substantially increased.

Legislative Counsel Drafting — Initiatives would be required to be drafted by the Office of the Legislative Counsel before being submitted to the Attorney General for title and summary so that drafting issues are properly addressed.

Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.

California looking to #Trump to pay for most of Oroville spillway repairs

Work is underway right now at the Oroville Dam spillway, but many questions remain. How much will it cost? Will repairs be complete in time for the rainy season? Will life under the shadow of the dam return to normal?

The best answer is that it’s a work in progress.

So far, an estimate for repairs has reached $500 million, said Erin Mellon, communications and outreach adviser for the state Natural Resources Agency. The hope is that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will help pay for 75 percent of eligible emergency response and repairs, Mellon said.

Seventy-five percent eh? Hummm, in that case it might be a good idea to stop trashing President Trump.

Source: Mercury News

#White #racist psychopath machete attacks African-American man in #Clearlake

A white racist psychopath is being held for a racially motivated machete attack at a Clearlake apartment complex where officers subsequently uncovered an unrelated cache of weapons.

Anthony Hammond, 34, of Clearlake remained jailed Tuesday in connection with the assault, which caused serious injury to the victim, who is black.

He is being held on charges that include aggravated mayhem, battery with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, resisting an officer, hate crime, battery on a person and two felony arrest warrants.

While being transported to jail, the psychopath Hammon threatened to kill a police officer and his family.

Source: The Press Democrat

Legislature may ban smoking and e-cigarettes in government housing

Californians would no longer be able to use tobacco products, including electronic cigarettes, in public housing and within 25 of those buildings under a measure approved Tuesday by the state Assembly.

Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg) said the measure builds on a smoking ban approved last year for federal public housing projects by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

In addition to applying the smoking ban to state housing, expansion to include e-cigarettes makes sure the law cover new technology in tobacco use. The bill takes effect by July 30, 2018. Wood said tobacco-related diseases cost taxpayers significant funds each year.

Source: LA Times

#Democrats couldn’t care less about rural Californians

California’s long-struggling rural communities are looking for less talk and more action from a state Legislature dominated by big-city Democrats with few connections to the very different problems of those living outside the state’s coastal megalopolises.

“Rural California is still fighting for the basics, and that’s unacceptable,” said state Sen. Mike McGuire of Healdsburg, whose district stretches up the coast from the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon border and includes Lake and Trinity counties. Those areas “have a different way to live, and we haven’t always been able to make that clear.”

But politics is a numbers game, and that’s a battle the lightly populated counties of the state’s far north, as well as the Sierra and much of the Central Valley, are never going to win.

The Rural County Representatives of California, an advocacy group, says includes 35 of the state’s 58 counties, half the land and less than 9 percent of the state’s 39.1 million residents.

That lack of rural clout is nothing new. Since Eureka Rep. James Gillette was elected in 1906, California hasn’t had a governor who didn’t hail from either the Bay Area or the metropolitan areas of Southern California.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

#Islamics continue their deadly rampage: giant bomb kills 80, injures 350 in Kabul

One witness said the explosion was caused by a bomb planted in a large tanker truck that left a crater in the road more than 30 feet deep.

Afghan interior ministry spokesman Najib Danesh said the blast occurred in Zanbaq Square, which is close to the German Embassy and the headquarters of Roshan, the country’s leading telecommunications company. Danesh said officials had not determined the target of the attack.

“This was the heaviest blast I have ever witnessed in Kabul,” said Daud, a 36-year-old shopkeeper in the Shahr-e-Naw district about a mile away.

The German Embassy was heavily damaged in the attack, with several staff members injured and an Afghan security guard killed, according to a statement from German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel. All embassy staff members were safe, Gabriel said.

The BBC said that one of its staff members, a driver named Mohammed Nazir who was ferrying colleagues to the news organization’s office, was killed and that four journalists were injured. BBC World Service Director Francesca Unsworth called it “a devastating loss.”

Source: LA Times

#Democrats and #Republicans blame President #Trump for their failures

Six months after President Trump breached long-standing political boundaries to win the White House, the nation’s major political parties still muddle in his wake.

On the sun-swept lawn of the Hotel del Coronado two weeks ago, national Republican leaders sipped cocktails and listened to San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, one of the party’s brightest lights in the most populous state, praise a brand of moderate Republicanism that looks nothing like the versions coming out of Washington — either the populism of the president or the more orthodox conservatism of congressional leaders.

A week later, Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez talked in a Sacramento interview of the “remarkably constructive” debate under way in his party, characterizing its divisions as largely in the past. Within hours, he and other party leaders were booed as they welcomed delegates to a state convention that would be filled with persistent internal warfare on healthcare and other issues.

No political party is immune to disagreement; indeed the path to power often relies on combustible ideological diversity. But Democrats and Republicans alike seem particularly adrift and quarrelsome these days.

Part of the reason is the magnetic power of Trump, who has attracted Republicans and repelled Democrats with such force that the parties often seem to be defined solely in relation to him, for or against. That has left both parties’ images blurry rather than sharp.

Source: LA Times

#PoliceState whack-job targets #marijuana

A zealous prosecutor who was crucial in writing the Justice Department’s new policy encouraging harsher punishments for criminals is now turning his attention to hate crimes, marijuana and the ways law enforcement seizes suspects’ cash and property.

Steve Cook’s hardline views on criminal justice were fortified as a cop on the streets of Knoxville, Tennessee, in the late 1970s and early ’80s. The unabashed drug warrior is now armed with a broad mandate to review departmental policies, and observers already worried about Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ agenda are wringing their hands at Cook’s ascension.

After some 30 years of prosecuting mostly violent crimes, Cook sums up his philosophy in simple terms that crystalized one night on patrol when he came upon a family whose station wagon had been hit head-on by a “pilled-up drug user.” Two daughters were dead in the backseat. In Cook’s eyes, everyone had to be punished, including the courier who shuttled the drugs into town and the dealer who sold them to the man behind the wheel.

“This theory that we have embraced since the beginning of civilization is, when you put criminals in prison, crime goes down,” he told The Associated Press during a recent interview. “It really is that simple.”

It is actually a widely challenged view, seen by many as far from simple. But it is one that governs Cook as he helps oversee a new Justice Department task force developing policies to fight violent crime in cities. Already he is pushing ideas that even some Republicans have dismissed as outdated and fiscally irresponsible.

Source: The Emerald Report

California labor unions are moving a huge agenda

At last count, 16.9 million Californians were wage and salary workers, and, according to the federal government, just 15.9 percent of them – about one in six – were members of labor unions.

However, their unions wield huge, disproportionate influence in the building, thanks to their intimate relationship, both financial and ideological, with its dominant Democrats.

That’s especially true of federal, state and local government workers, who are barely 15 percent of California’s wage and salary employees but are well over half of the state’s union members, according to state and federal data.

While every legislative session includes a raft of union-sponsored bills, the 2017 session is seeing a particularly strong push by union leaders. They evidently hope that Democratic gains in the 2016 election, coupled with what appears to be a more benevolent attitude by Gov. Jerry Brown in the last two years of his governorship, will bear fruit.

Dozens, if not hundreds, of union-backed bills are moving, and employers are sounding the alarm.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

#JohnMcCain continues to help #ISIS

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is the biggest threat to global security, even greater than Isis, John McCain has declared on his tour of Australia.

In an interview on ABC’s 7:30 on Monday the Republican senator said president Donald Trump made him “nervous” and expressed concern at reports that White House adviser Jared Kushner allegedly discussed creating a secret communication channel with Russia.

Asked to evaluate the threat to global security posed by Putin, McCain said: “I think he is the premier and most important threat, more so than ISIS.”

McCain said that while Isis “can do terrible things and I worry a lot about what is happening with the Muslim faith … but it’s the Russians who tried to destroy the fundamental of democracy and that is to change the outcome of an American election”.

Seriously? WTF kind of moron would say something so stupid?

No doubt ISIS and the rest of the killer Islamics around the planet appreciate the moron Senator’s help.

CalNews.com readers know that the Islamics, not the Russians, are the greatest threat to democracy.

Source: The Guardian

City Council clamps down on dissenters

A former Grover Beach mayor is being accused of hate speech after he asked the City Council “Are you whores?” during a recent public debate.

Councilwoman Mariam Shah believes it is an example of hate speech and derogatory language.

Hate speech is commonly defined as speech that attacks a person or group for attributes such as race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability or gender.

The city’s rules for meeting behavior don’t specifically prohibit the use of taboo or offensive language in public comment.

Councilwoman Debbie Peterson had a different opinion: She said she didn’t find the comment offensive and was concerned that a council member admonishing a member of the public for their choice of words was inappropriate and could stifle public debate.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: Fresno Bee

#California ramps-up hate crime laws to focus on #Trump supporters

According to Leftists, violent clashes and arrests as a result of political intolerance increased in 2016 on California college campuses and at political rallies.

That according to researchers in a report presented last week to Los Angeles County officials.

Frayed race relations, demographic changes and political divisions along with distrust in institutions and the democratic process all contributed to the rise of hate crimes and extremism, said Brian Levin, a terrorism expert and professor at Cal State San Bernardino the report’s author.

He presented it last week during a quarterly meeting of Los Angeles County’s Network Against Hate Crime.

In California, a hate crime is “a criminal act of intimidation, harassment, physical force or threat toward a person or property because of someone’s actual or perceived race, ethnicity, national origin, ancestry, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age or disability.”

“We saw a definite spike,” Levin said.

Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram

While #California #Republicans sink into irrelevancy, #Democrats clash over schools

Wealthy donors have put big money into shaking up public education by backing school board candidates willing to challenge union orthodoxy.

The impact they had this month on a school board race in Los Angeles — ousting a union-backed incumbent and electing a new majority that favors charter schools — is expected to reverberate across California.

“It’s not just an L.A. situation,” a California Teachers Association consultant, told the crowd this month. “This is going to happen everywhere.”

There’s no way forward for Republicans. They’ve remained oblivious to the real issues in California and have become irrelevant to the education debate.

The future of public education in California has become a tug-of-war between camps within the Democratic Party. Democrats aligned with organized labor — who dominated local and legislative races for many years — are now facing formidable challenges from Democrats who see overhauling some union rules as a key to improving education.

The Democrat vs. Democrat split that played out in the Los Angeles school board election also emerged in several legislative races last year. Now, as California looks toward the election of a new governor and a new school superintendent next year, the fight over public education is bound to get hotter.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Ignoring real problems, California’s top judge focuses instead on #Trump

Tani Cantil-Sakauye was an obscure judge on a Sacramento appeals court when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger selected her to become California’s 28th chief justice.

Seven years later, Cantil-Sakauye has found her calling. Not dispensing justice, real justice, to California’s poor, homeless, mentally ill, and people of color.

Settled in as California’s top judge, she is speaking her mind, and yammering incessantly about the Trump administration.

It helps no one in any meaningful way. Except maybe the Islamics.

Source: LA Times

Every citizen the enemy: #PoliceState considers banning laptops on all flights

Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly said he’s considering banning laptop computers from the passenger cabins of all international flights to and from the United States.

That would dramatically expand a ban announced in March that affects about 50 flights a day from 10 cities, mostly in the Middle East. The current ban was put in place because of concerns about terrorist attacks.

The ban forbids travelers from bringing laptops, tablets and certain other devices on board with them as carry-on items. All electronics bigger than a smartphone must be in checked luggage.

Every citizen the enemy. Enjoy your Police State.

Source: LA Times

Examining California Legislative Records

By Chris Micheli

Members of the public can examine California legislative records based upon the provisions of the Legislative Open Records Act (LORA), which is found in the California Government Code. LORA was enacted in 1975 to allow public access to legislative records. LORA also limits the public’s right to access, inspect and copy these records.

Pursuant to LORA, requests by members of the public must be made in writing and be submitted to either the Senate Committee on Rules or the Assembly Rules Committee, depending upon the location of the documents being requested. The Joint Committee on Rules is charged with the custody of records in the joint custody of the Assembly and Senate.

LORA provides the laws for review, reproduction and access to legislative records, with specified restrictions. Generally the Rules Committees respond within 3 to 10 days upon receiving written requests for legislative records. If a request is denied, the individual requesting the information is entitled to a written explanation.

Generally the records may not be removed from the office that is designated for records inspection and must be inspected in the presence of a designated staff member from the Legislature. The public can request copies of records and are charged a nominal amount for the photocopying.

The following categories of legislative records are exempt from mandatory public inspection under Government Code Sections 9072 and 9075:

1. Records prepared before December 2, 1974.

2. Records pertaining to certain claims against the Legislature until they are finally adjudicated or settled, and records pertaining to litigation to which the Legislature is a party until such litigation has been finally adjudicated or settled.

3. Personnel files, medical files, and similar files pertaining to the privacy of individuals.

4. Preliminary drafts, notes, or memoranda among Members and staff, other than committee staff analyses directed to all committee members.

5. Records of individual names and phone numbers of senders and receivers of telephone and telegraph communications.

6. Records of individual transactions for fuel or lubricants for committee leased cars.

7. Communications from private citizens to the Legislature.

8. Records of complaints to the Legislature, its investigations, and its security procedures.

9. Correspondence of Members and their staffs.

10. Correspondence to Members and their staffs on matters other than legislation.

11. Written commentary submitted to the committee on legislation and the commentary (a) was not utilized by the staff of a fiscal committee in the presentation of the analysis of legislation or (b) is otherwise determined by the committee or its staff to be confidential.

12. Records where, based on the facts of the particular case, the Joint Rules Committee

believes the public interest served by their nondisclosure clearly outweighs the public interest served by their disclosure.

Members of the public are also allowed to gain access to legislation documents. Government Code Section 9080 guarantees public access to legislative committee records concerning legislation. Moreover, legislative committees have adopted written procedures concerning the public inspection of these records.

Generally, interested parties must complete a form stating specifically what legislation records that want to inspect. If those records are not subject to inspection, then they are not released. Otherwise, the committee will arrange for inspection. The records are not removed from the office and are inspected in the presence of committee staff. Copies can be requested and the public are charged a nominal amount for the photocopying.

Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.

California Legislation and the Single Subject Rule

By Chris Micheli

Many Capitol observers are aware of the single subject rule. Some know that the California Constitution, in Article II, Section 8(d), provides that “an initiative measure embracing more than one subject may not be submitted to the electors or have any effect.” But does a similar rule exist for bills considered by the California Legislature?

The single subject rule is found in several state constitutions in this country that provides some or all legislation may only deal with one main issue. The general idea is to ensure that measures are not overly complex or that they may possibly confuse or “hide” provisions in a multi-faceted measure. Some have argued the single subject rule also precludes combining popular and unpopular unrelated provisions in one omnibus measure.

In California, there is a single subject rule for legislation that is considered by the Legislature. Article IV, Section 9, of the state Constitution provides “A statute shall embrace but one subject, which shall be expressed in its title. If a statute embraces a subject not expressed in its title, only the part not expressed is void. A statute may not be amended by reference to its title. A section of a statute may not be amended unless the section is re-enacted as amended.”

Section 9’s language is similar to that which is applicable to initiatives placed on the ballot before the statewide electorate. In both instances, the rule essentially provides that neither an initiative nor a bill may embrace more than one subject.

While the section of the state Constitution dealing with initiatives speaks only to the single subject rule, the section of the state Constitution dealing with legislation encompasses several provisions. Its first clause provides the single subject rule. In addition, it requires the bill’s title to accurately reflect the subject of the bill and makes void any subject contained in the bill that is not expressed in the bill’s title.

It was in 1948 that the California Constitution was amended to add the single subject rule for initiatives. The following year, the California Supreme Court ruled that the single subject rule applicable to initiatives was to be construed in the same manner as Article IV, Section 9. The provision applicable to legislation had long been in effect by that time. The single subject rule is generally “to be construed liberally to uphold proper legislation, all parts of which are reasonably germane.”

There are a number of cases that have interpreted and applied the single subject rule as it applies to legislation. The main case is Harbor v. Deukmejian (1987) 43 Cal.3d 1078, which was decided by the California Supreme Court. The Court explained that “the single subject clause has as its ‘primary and universally recognized purpose’ the prevention of log-rolling by the Legislature, i.e., combining several proposals in a single bill so that legislators, by combining their votes, obtain a majority for a measure which would not have been approved if divided into separate bills.”

The Court further explained that, “as of 1982, the constitutions of 41 states included a single subject requirement. The purpose of the requirement that the single subject of a bill shall be expressed in its title is to prevent misleading or inaccurate titles so that legislators and the public are afforded reasonable notice of the contents of a statute.” The Court also stated that the cases interpreting Article IV, Section 9 “hold that a measure complies with the rule if its provisions are either functionally related to one another or are reasonably germane to one another or the objects of the enactment.”

California legislation is bound by a single subject rule and there is guidance from the state Supreme Court regarding how that rule is to be applied when bills are considered by the Legislature.

 

Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.

UC Berkeley fires sex perv professor

Finally! UC Berkeley has fired an assistant professor for sexually harassing four students.

Blake Wentworth, who taught in the Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies, was found to have violated the school’s faculty code of conduct and its sexual harassment policy, the school said.

The firing, effective immediately, apparently ends a controversy that lasted more than two years.

Students and faculty say it took too long for the school to fire Wentworth, and it’s not the only time UC Berkeley has been criticized for its handling of sexual harassment claims.

Source: San Francisco Examiner

#PoliceState freaks-out over #2ndAmendment

Californians have a lot on the line in the next congressional debate about America’s gun laws. Two bills stacked with legislative sponsors — HB 38 in the House, SB 446 in the Senate — would override our state’s longstanding rules governing who is allowed to carry a concealed, loaded firearm in public.

These bills, both called the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act, would dictate that if a person can carry a concealed weapon in any state, that person could carry it everywhere in America.

This has the Police State in California freaking out.

Source: LA Times

GOP candidate beats up reporter; wins House seat

The GOP might be on to something with this new tactic.

Republican multimillionaire Greg Gianforte won Montana’s only U.S. House seat Thursday despite being charged a day earlier with assault after witnesses said he grabbed a reporter by the neck and threw him to the ground.

Gianforte, a technology entrepreneur, defeated Democrat Rob Quist to continue the GOP’s two-decade stronghold on the congressional seat.

Democrats had hoped Quist, a musician and first-time candidate, could have capitalized on a wave of activism following President Donald Trump’s election.

Instead, the win reaffirmed Montana’s voters support for Trump’s young presidency in a conservative-leaning state that voted overwhelmingly for him in November.

Gianforte was a strong favorite throughout the campaign, and that continued even after authorities charged him with misdemeanor assault on Wednesday.

Witnesses said he grabbed Ben Jacobs, a reporter for the Guardian newspaper, and slammed him to the ground after being asked about the Republican health care bill.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Colleges’ speech ‘zones’ are proof the #PoliceState is winning

A Fresno State professor was recorded this month erasing a student’s sidewalk-chalk antiabortion messages while declaring, “College campuses are not free-speech areas.”

Cal Poly Pomona agreed to revise its policies and pay damages to a student prevented from handing out leaflets advocating veganism outside its “free-speech zone.”

In two particularly ironic cases, community college students in Modesto and Los Angeles were told not to distribute copies of the document granting that right, the U.S. Constitution.

The Police State should be thrilled that college students are behind them 100 percent.

The rest of us should be worried.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

#Islamics slaughter a busload of #Christians in Egypt

A bus carrying Christians to a monastery south of Cairo was targeted in a bloody attack Friday,.

Egyptian state television reported that 23 were killed and 25 wounded in the attack in Minya, a Christian enclave 138 miles south of the capital.

Human rights groups were reporting an even higher death toll.

Christians make up about a tenth of Egypt’s population of 92 million. As Islamic State’s influence has expanded in Egypt, Minya, home to the country’s largest Coptic Christian community, has been a flashpoint in recent months for attacks by Muslim extremists against Coptic Christians.

It’s how the Islamics roll.

Source: LA Times

#ICE arrests nearly 190 criminal immigrants in Southern California, #Leftists freak-out

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested nearly 190 people across Southern California in a five-day operation that targeted “public safety threats,” including criminal foreign nationals, illegal re-entrants and immigration fugitives, authorities announced Thursday.

About 90 percent — 169 of the 188 people — arrested in the six-county sweep that ended Wednesday had prior criminal convictions, the agency said. Among them were 15 people convicted of sex crimes, including a convicted rapist, a previously deported cocaine trafficker and two people convicted of cruelty to a child.

Source: Daily News

#SacramentoPD execute drug addict burglar; District Attorney says no problem

Sacramento County sheriff’s deputies were justified in shooting an unarmed, drug addict burglar, a Sacramento County District Attorney review of the shooting said.

Jesse Attaway, 41, was fatally shot by two sheriff’s deputies Sept. 23rd.

The officers fired multiple rounds at Attaway, and fired on him a second time. A third series of shots were fired after Attaway “stumbled to the ground and raised his hand,” the memo said.

Attaway was pronounced dead at the scene by medics. No gun was found. The review said Mai fired seven rounds in the shooting while Cater fired either 11 or 12.

Attaway’s father, Jim, said he did not agree with the outcome of the review. He said despite the circumstances, he did not believe deputies had the right to shoot his son.

“He wasn’t close enough to hurt them. He didn’t have a weapon,” Jim Attaway said.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: Sacramento Bee

#California #Democrats frustrated because #Feinstein just won’t go away

She just won’t go away.

Feinstein’s office continues to say she hasn’t made a decision yet. Politically, it would be foolish to pull the rip cord before the last possible minute, as she would be dismissed as a lame duck.

She continues to hold fundraisers and had a modest $3.1 million cash on hand through March in her campaign account, according to federal records.

Funding a campaign shouldn’t be a problem, as Feinstein is one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth of at least $49 million, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

While her absence at last weekend’s California Democratic Party convention wasn’t surprising — like campaign debates and town halls, Feinstein rarely attends — it allowed 3,000 of the party’s delegates, officeholders and grassroots activists to size up her possible successors.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Legislature moves to take control of #UC, Napolitano

California lawmakers are proposing a change to the state Constitution and a new budget measure that would help them wrest control of spending by University of California President Janet Napolitano’s office.

The moves come after state Auditor Elaine Howle advised the Legislature to establish oversight of the UC president’s office in light of her discovery of problems there, including hidden funds and misleading accounting practices.

State Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Azusa (Los Angeles County), introduced a constitutional amendment Tuesday that would, if passed by the Legislature, ask voters whether Napolitano’s office should keep its full budget autonomy.

The Assembly, meanwhile, is pushing a budget measure that adopts Howle’s oversight recommendation — by requiring the Legislature to directly fund the UC president’s office. The funding would give lawmakers oversight and control over how the UC president’s office spends those funds. The office would no longer collect campus fees, which give it exclusive control over how to spend that money.

Hernandez’s constitutional amendment would need a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and state Senate before it could go to voters.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

L.A. Police Commission threatens to arrest public meeting attendees who disagree with them

The L.A. Police Commission meeting came to an abrupt end during public comments. Matthew Johnson, the commission’s president, had been sparring with several activists who had been interrupting other speakers. His frustration boiled over.

Johnson said the meeting would not continue until people who disagreed with the Commission left. When they refused police declared the meeting an “unlawful assembly,” and threatened the dozen or so activists in the room with arrest. The group eventually dispersed, and no arrests were made.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: LA Times

States move fast to protect pot industry

After an initial period of post-election anxiety, pot businesses are increasingly confident that states where they are setting up shop have their backs, despite Justice Department warnings meant to rattle marijuana enthusiasts.

State leaders are proving themselves nimble at responding to the threat, moving to inoculate local marijuana industries that are fast becoming too important to state economies to leave vulnerable to the whims of Washington.

And they are moving not just in the places where it is politically easy, like California.

Source: LA Times

Drafting Bills and Amendments

By Chris Micheli

An important role for the capital lawyer in state government is drafting bills and amendments. There is an art to drafting bills that comes easily for some, but is difficult for others. The critical factor is whether the bill’s language is clear enough to accomplish the intent of the bill’s author and sponsor and also whether the bill language can be understood by third parties that were not privy to all of the legislative discussions involving the bill language.

California legislative rules require all bills and amendments to be “in Legislative Counsel form” prior to the bill or amendment being processed by either the Senate Desk or the Assembly Desk. As such, regardless of whether another party does the initial drafting of a bill or amendment, attorneys with the Office of the Legislative Counsel ultimately will do the formal drafting and may tweak some language that has previously been written in order to keep the proposed statutory language consistent with other code sections. The Legislative Counsel attorneys also suggest where to place a new law in the code books.

There are numerous California Government Code Sections that are relevant to bill and amendment drafting, including those provisions related to the Legislative Counsel, Enactment of Statutes and Operation of Statutes. The Office of the Legislative Counsel is keenly aware of the types of measures, bills, “chaptering out” amendments, effective dates, etc., as well as the general rules of statutory interpretation to assist them in their drafting duties.

On occasion, however, a legislator may direct the Legislative Counsel Deputy to not make any changes to the bill language because it was carefully crafted to address the desires of interested parties, such as when a compromise on bill language was achieved. As a result, legislators and their staff often work closely with a Deputy on their desired bill language throughout the legislative process. On some drafting requests, the legislator or sponsor knows exactly the bill or amendment language they desire.

In other instances, the drafting request to the Legislative Counsel Deputy may be very broad, such as to “draft a bill that does ___.” Thereafter, the Deputy drafts a bill from scratch. In either instance, with a general request or a specific one, the attorneys in the Office of the Legislative Counsel utilize rules of statutory construction and other guidelines for drafting bills and amendments to those bills.

The initial question in drafting a new bill is whether this bill is proposing a new statute or is amending or repealing an existing statute. For a bill creating a new statute, an initial issue is what code will the bill be in? There are 29 codes comprising California statutes. The next question is what section of the code should this bill be in? There are about 150,000 statutes and Legislative Counsel has to determine what section of the law to create or amend.

Although the Legislative Counsel ultimately drafts the bill language (on average, over 8,000 requests per session) and amendments to those bills (on average, over 10,000 requests per session), skilled lawyers should be able to craft bill and amendment language themselves. It is a very valuable skill to possess. Moreover, it provides keen insight into interpreting statutes after an attorney has experience writing statutory language. Most start with “plain English,” although there certainly are key words and phrases that Legislative Counsel prefers to utilize.

In regards to amendments, the questions to ask as a bill drafter include: What should be changed from the existing bill language? What is the intent of the amendment? How could that intent best be accomplished by modifying the bill language?

The following are examples of the bills and amendments that are drafted by the Legislative Counsel’s Office:

Amending a section of code
Adding a section of code
Repealing a section of code
Adding a chapter of code
Adding multiple sections of code
Uncodified statutes
Intent language
Urgency clauses
Initiative statute
Special legislation
Bill making an appropriation
Bill imposing a local mandate
Concurrent resolution
Joint resolution
Constitutional amendment
Amending a bill

There are many options for drafting a bill as shown above. Those persons working on legislation are assisted by the Legislative Counsel attorneys who are well educated in drafting bills and amendments.

Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.

Chronicle story exposes #California’s brutal child gulag

The state attorney general’s office is looking into hundreds of dubious arrests at California’s shelters for abused and neglected children that were detailed last week in a San Francisco Chronicle investigative report.

The attorney general’s response comes amid calls from judges, state lawmakers and youth lawyers to consider shutting down shelters where children as young as 8 have been funneled into the criminal justice system for minor incidents.

Meanwhile, the director of Mary Graham Children’s Shelter in San Joaquin County, which had the highest number of arrests among California’s 10 shelters last year, has taken an abrupt leave. County officials have called for immediate reviews of the newspaper’s findings that shelter staff contacted the sheriff an average of nine times a day last year, with children booked at juvenile hall nearly 200 times in 2015 and 2016.

The county shelters are the first stop for children removed from their homes by social workers, and for those in between placements in the nation’s largest foster care system. Yet instead of serving as refuges for children, The Chronicle found the shelters often call law enforcement to quell their emotional outbursts — an extreme reaction that can have lasting impacts on youngsters handcuffed and booked at juvenile halls.

Foster children have faced criminal charges for shelter incidents as minor as flooding a carpet and poking a staff member with a candy cane.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Even #California #Democrats are sick of hearing from #MaxineWaters

The head of the California Democratic Party African American Caucus said Monday he was working with state party officials to determine who was responsible for cutting off the sound to U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters’ microphone as she spoke to the group at the party’s convention on Saturday.

“This is a very unusual situation, and we are collectively trying to figure out a path forward to address what happened and make sure these things do not happen in the future,” Caucus Chairman Darren Parker said.

Yeah, right.

Waters, a Los Angeles Democrat whose acerbic comments on President Trump have brought her national attention in her 14th term, was in the middle of a rousing speech against Trump on Saturday night when she was approached by a man who appeared to work for the convention center.

“Hey, leave her alone,” audience members shouted as he interrupted to speak to her privately, prompting Parker to show the man away.”That’s all right, that’s OK — they try to shut me up all the time,” Waters quipped to loud cheers as she continued to speak.

Source: LA Times

The #LAPD doesn’t care about you, or the law

No other city agency has a greater impact on lives and communities in Los Angeles than the LAPD. For this reason, access to no other agency’s public records is as important.

California’s Public Records Act guarantees public access — within 10 days for valid requests — to the written and electronic files of all public agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department. And yet, the LAPD flouts this requirement.

The department has disregarded citizen requests for public records concerning a fatal shooting, racial disparities in traffic stops and incarceration, and facial recognition software. In some cases, requests were ignored for years.

This pattern appears to be the result of open institutional bias.

Source: LA Times

Crooked cop gets 5 years in prison for immigrant smuggling

A former Customs and Border Protection officer who took bribes of money and sex to allow immigrants into the U.S. illegally through the San Ysidro Port of Entry was sentenced Monday to five years in prison.

Jose Luis Cota pleaded guilty in January to three charges of smuggling immigrants for financial gain and another charge of bribery. He admitted he was part of a small group of smugglers who brought in at least 10 people at a cost as high as $15,000 each, according to court records.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller also ordered Cota to forfeit two cars and $63,837 in cash — proceeds he got from the smuggling operation.

Cota was a 15-year veteran of Customs and Border Protection. From November 2015 to September 2016, court documents said, Cota worked with the husband-and-wife team of Miriam Juarez Herrera and Gilberto Aguilar Martinez to smuggle people through his inspection lane in San Ysidro.

He is the latest border officer to be ensnared in corruption allegations. Since 2004, when the federal government embarked on a hiring spree that doubled the size of CBP and the Border Patrol, some 200 officers and agents have been arrested on misconduct and corruption charges

Source: LA Times

Price tag blows up California’s #singlepayer scheme

Advocates for a California-only single-payer program must have swallowed hard Monday when they read a legislative staff report that placed the annual cost at $400 billion, given that the entire $184 billion state budget wouldn’t cover even half of that.

Roughly $200 billion of that price tag would come from a new tax, which would be the equivalent of 15 percent of earned income, says the staff report issued in advance of the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing. Some costs to employers and employees would fall, but new spending would be, oh, $50 billion to $100 billion a year.

Besides the matter of how to pay for it, no one knows how the state, which would be entrusted with managing the brave new health care system, would curb health care costs.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

#Slavery remains popular in #California

Well into the 21st century, human slavery is still rampant. There are thousands of slaves in the United States, and that includes the self-proclaimed bastion of human rights we call California.

“Forced labor and sex trafficking are not just brutal relics of history or crimes that take places in faraway places,” says a 2012 report by the California Department of Justice.

“They comprise the world’s fastest growing criminal enterprise and they are flourishing right here in California.”In fact, California is a hotbed of human trafficking because of its complex economy and large immigrant population.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

#Abortion industry panics over reversal therapy’s popularity

Dr. Daniel Grossman, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of California, San Francisco, said he doubts many women are seeking abortion reversal. In a 2015 study, he found that less than 0.004 percent of women taking mifepristone in the U.S. later chose to continue the pregnancy.

“It’s very, very rare that women are in this situation where they need the therapy,” Grossman said. “If Delgado and other colleagues want to study this in a rigorous way, it could be useful, and then we would know if it’s better to actually treat with the progesterone or just do watchful waiting.”

Several states, including Arkansas and South Dakota, require physicians to tell abortion-seeking patients that reversal is an option. California Assembly member Marie Waldron, R-Escondido, proposed similar legislation in 2016, but it didn’t make it out of the Assembly Health Committee.

Amy Everitt, state director of advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice California, said the unproven procedure is just another anti-abortion play from crisis pregnancy centers, or faith-based organizations that provide pregnancy counseling, as well as ultrasounds, sexually transmitted disease counseling and other services.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Concurrence in Bill Amendments

By Chris Micheli

As the California Legislature is a bicameral body, after a bill has been passed by its house of origin, it is transmitted to the other house for further consideration. If the second house makes amendments to the bill, then the bill must return to its house of origin for a final vote, prior to being submitted to the governor for signature or veto.

When the Senate amends and passes an Assembly bill, or the Assembly amends and passes a Senate bill, the Senate (if it is a Senate bill) or the Assembly (if it is an Assembly bill) must either “concur” or “non-concur” in the amendments made by the other house. If the Senate concurs (if it is a Senate bill), or the Assembly concurs (if it is an Assembly bill), the Secretary of the Senate or the Chief Clerk of the Assembly notifies the house making the amendments that the house of origin concurred in the amendments and the bill is ordered to enrollment before being sent to the Governor’s Desk.

Both the Assembly and Senate use their “unfinished business” sections of the Daily File for consideration of bills on concurrence. If the amendments are more technical in nature, then the bill can be considered on the Floor without re-referral to a committee in the house of origin. In such a case, the bill must be on file at least one day, although this rule is waived during the final days of the Legislative Session.

However, if substantive changes were made to the bill in the other house, then a policy committee in the house of origin will need to consider the bill as amended. The house of origin must concur in the other house’s amendments in order for the bill to be sent to the Governor for final action.

Under the Joint Rules, when a bill that has been passed in one house is amended in the other house by the addition of a section providing that the act shall take effect immediately as an urgency statute, and is returned to the house in which it originated for concurrence in the amendments, the procedure and vote is as follows:

• The presiding officer shall first direct that the urgency section be read and put to a vote. If two-thirds of the membership of the house vote in the affirmative, the presiding officer shall then direct that the question of whether the house shall concur in the amendment or amendments shall be put to a vote. If two-thirds of the membership of the house vote in the affirmative, concurrence in the amendments shall be effective.
• If the affirmative vote on either of the questions is less than two-thirds of the membership of the house, the effect is a refusal to concur in the amendment or amendments, and the procedure thereupon shall be as provided in Rule 28.

In most instances, a concurrence vote is relatively straightforward because the bill already passed its house of origin once and so it is anticipated that the measure will pass again after the other house has also passed the bill. On occasion, however, a bill has been amended in a manner that is objectionable and so there is a lack of support for the bill when it returns for the concurrence vote.

Chris Micheli is a Principal with the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He also serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.

Now that plastic bags have been trashed, environmentalists target plastic bottles

Last year, after being beaten into submission by the extreme Left, California voters made the state the first in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags by approving Proposition 67. Exhausted voters succumbed to the argument that the durable bags were a long-term threat to land and sea.

Now the politicians who worried so much about plastic bags are demanding similar action to ban plastic bottles.

No one should be surprised.

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

#Usefulidiots join #BarbaraLee at #Berkeley town hall meeting

John Dean, useful idiot, still making a living by sucking up to liberals.

Hundreds of Rep. Barbara Lee’s constituents flocked to a town hall meeting Sunday afternoon — not to confront her about health care, pepper her with questions or otherwise put her on the spot.

They came instead to listen to a former Nixon attorney and a former spy warn about President Trump and how to best ensure his demise.

About 750 people filled the auditorium at King Middle School in Berkeley, an area that Lee, D-Oakland, proclaimed to be “the heart and soul of the resistance movement.”

That was evident from the signs on the wall featuring Lee’s name and the hashtag #Resist, the vendors selling anti-Trump buttons outside the meeting, the loud cheers, the “Barbara Lee speaks for me” signs and the standing ovations inside.

Lee said she brought President Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel, John Dean, and Malcolm Nance, a retired Navy senior chief petty officer and spy, to Berkeley to help educate her constituents and encourage them to keep fighting.

The self-loathing Dean described himself as a social liberal and fiscal moderate. He’s written columns and books opposing neoconservatism, but he said he hasn’t really moderated his views since the Nixon era.

“The Republican Party has moved so far to the right,” he said, “that I’m on the left.”

Everybody knew that about Dean in the 1970s, but hey, useful idiots need to make a living too.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

Women need not apply

San Francisco has 230 parks, playgrounds and open spaces that cover 3,400 acres spread across the city. To keep those areas safe, the park department employs 53 rangers — in essence, its own armed police force.

Why not? San Francisco is one of the crown jewels of the Police State. So having police officers watching your every move while you’re walking your dog or catching some rays shouldn’t come as a surprise.

And while those armed rangers are the public face of the city’s parks, there’s one thing they aren’t: female.

While the city’s police and fire departments have increased or held steady the number of women in their ranks, female rangers have dropped from 18 percent of the force in 1997 to 11 percent today.

San Francisco park officials say they cannot legally set a gender preference. So they use the city’s minimum qualification requirements disqualify women from the career.

How convenient.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

#AmericansLoveDrugs: Drug loving Americans flock to public toilets

Public restrooms are among the few places left where drug loving Americans can find privacy to inject heroin.

Many businesses who offer restrooms to their customers don’t know what to do. Some have installed low lighting — blue light, in particular — to make it difficult for people who use injectable drugs to find a vein.

Seriously.

Business owners often find needles or people’s drugs, or people whacked-out on the floor. Overdoses have become commonplace.

Many businesses obviously don’t want to talk about overdoses within their buildings. Junkies sprawled out on the floor of their restrooms is bad for business. So they tolerate it.

More public libraries, town halls and businesses are closing their bathrooms to the public. That means more drug use, injuries and discarded needles in parks and on city streets.

It’s how we roll in America, because as everybody knows, Americans love drugs.

Source: San Francisco Examiner

#Uber screwed drivers and passengers

If you live in San Francisco, the city and the businesses who thrive there simply look at you as if you were a sheep all set to be sheered.

Uber is just the latest example.

Since last year, Uber drivers suspected that riders were being charged one price, while drivers themselves were seeing another, often lesser price when the trip was done.

Turns out, drivers were right.

Uber recently admitted they were indeed charging riders a different amount than drivers saw as the charge for a trip.

That’s significant, Christian Perea, a San Francisco-based Uber driver said, because riders may be charged a higher amount upfront — say, $25 to go downtown — but drivers will only earn a percentage off a smaller charge, like $20, when a trip is complete.

Uber pockets the difference, Perea said.

“More often than not, the driver would end up earning less on that ride then what Uber charged you, the passenger,” Perea said, because the driver would take a more efficient route than Uber’s upfront pricing system “guessed” the driver would take.

“It was in Uber’s interest to charge a little higher,” he added.

CalNews.com really supports the ride-sharing industry. However we really loath bad actors who steal from the public. Next time you’re in an Uber, ask yourself “how was your haircut?”

Source: San Francisco Examiner

#BayArea cities are starting to realize just how much their generous employee pension plans really cost

In Libtopia, all things are wonderful and all things are free. In the liberal Bay Area, it’s another story.

Cities across the region are making financial cuts now, and planning to fend them off in the future. Simply put, more money cities, school districts and agencies would spend on other things must now be channeled to CalPERS and employee and retiree pensions. This is happening because of shortfalls in CalPERS’ other main income source, its financial investments. Those lower returns, a recent trend, loom as a larger problem in coming years.

Eva Spiegel, spokeswoman for the League of California Cities, said CalPERS is lowering the average expected investment return on its investment portfolio — called the “discount rate” — from 7.5 to 7 percent over the next three years. It’s happening over three years, she said, to help blunt the pain and to allow for more budget planning.

A League survey in 2016 showed that, among the 240 California cities and towns that responded, 26 percent said the impact of these added CalPERS pension payments will be “extremely high,” while another 42 percent rated the impact on their budgets as “high.”

Source: East Bay Times

 

 

Feds admit there are probably more #OrovilleDam disasters waiting to happen

Federal dam regulators are reevaluating how they conduct dam inspections in the wake of the Oroville Dam spillway crisis, and they’ve ordered the nation’s dam operators to thoroughly inspect their facilities to see “if they have a potential Oroville waiting to happen,” a federal dam inspector said Sunday.

“Can we make things different? Can we improve things?” said Frank Blackett, a regional engineer at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Division of Dam Safety and Inspections.

Speaking Sunday on a panel at an engineering conference at the Sacramento Convention Center, Blackett listed the array of state and federal inspectors who visited Oroville Dam over the years. All of them, he said, missed signs that could have foreshadowed the gaping crater forming in the dam’s concrete spillway in early February, eventually leading to the frantic mass evacuations of 188,000 people downstream of the dam.

“One thing we (the inspectors) all have in common is that we didn’t predict this happening,” Blackett said.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

State budget devolved into duplicitous gimmickry

Over the last few decades, the once-straightforward process of fashioning a state budget devolved into duplicitous gimmickry.

Governors and legislators would paper over gaps with off-the-books loans, creative bookkeeping and deliberate falsehoods.

When Jerry Brown resumed the governorship in 2011, he pledged to end fiscal hijinks and align the budget with reality, as harsh as it may be.

He identified a $30 billion “wall of debt” that had been accumulated to cover deficits, promised to pay it off, called for a “rainy day fund” as a hedge against economic dips and, finally, persuaded voters to raise taxes.

However, given the history and Brown’s linear leanings, one should look askance at a new proposal in his 2017-18 budget to borrow $6 billion from an obscure state fund and give it to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System to whittle down rapidly increasing state pension obligations.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

#AmericansLoveDrugs: California’s drug rehab racket exploits addicts for big money

As broke and hapless as they may be, drug addicts are worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Chronic drug users are commodities, exploited by a growing world of drug and alcohol rehab operators who put profit ahead of patient care.

Everything from the opioid epidemic and Obamacare to prison realignment and legal loopholes has created conditions in which unethical operators can flourish, using addicts to bilk insurance companies and the public out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

Critics and long-time insiders say a dark version of the industry is emerging, built around an illicit world of patient recruiters, fraud-driven clinics and drug-testing mills.

Southern California, where the implementation of Obamacare makes it easy for recent arrivals to sign on for insurance, is on the front line of the conflict.

White elite Malibu has 47 licensed rehab centers and a population of fewer than 13,000 people, making it the city with the highest per-capita concentration of rehab centers in California.

No. 2 is Costa Mesa, with 102 centers and a population of about 110,000.

And those cities aren’t distant outliers; Pasadena, Murrieta, San Bernardino, Woodland Hills, Long Beach – all are among the dozens of communities in Southern California where 10 or more rehab centers have opened shop.

In all, the region is home to 1,117 licensed rehab centers, a number that doesn’t include thousands of unlicensed sober living homes where addicts live as families.

Like we’ve always said, America loves drugs.

Source: Orange County Register

#Villaraigosa rightly chastises #white #elitist #Democrats

Former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told California Democrats at their convention Saturday that too many people in the state have been left behind in the economic recovery, saying the party needs to “look in the mirror” and bring a renewed effort to creating jobs and improving public schools.

“We’re here today to fight for the soul of our party and our most cherished values,” Villaraigosa told party delegates gathered inside the cavernous Sacramento Convention Center.

Villaraigosa, who launched his campaign in November, hewed toward the central themes of his campaign, economic opportunity and education, saying both are pivotal if California hopes to help those parts of the state still in financial despair.

He chided party members, saying it needed to focus less on people who drive Teslas and more on Californians who take the bus.

Well done Antonio. California Democrats would be smart to listen. Unfortunately, we doubt they will.

Source: LA Times

Trump’s message for #Islamics – Deal with it

It’s time to stop killing people and blowing stuff up.

President Trump on Sunday will call on the Islamics leaders to honestly confront the crisis of extremism, refining the harsh anti-terror rhetoric of his campaign in a speech in the nation that hosts Islam’s holiest sites.

In remarks to a summit of regional leaders in Saudi Arabia’s capital, Trump will declare the solidarity of the United States in pursuing peace and security, while calling on leaders to do their “fair share” in what he called a battle “between good and evil.”

Source: LA Times

Smear campaign targeting the leader of the #SFPD watchdog has the stench of the #SFPOA

What a coincidence. The newly appointed head of San Francisco’s police watchdog agency, who just happens to be African-American, is suddenly accused of sexually harassing a woman in 2014.

The alleged victim, a senior investigator of harassment and discrimination cases for the Department of Human Resources, would not comment on the letter other than saying it “speaks for itself.”

Department of Police Accountability Interim Director Manuel Fortes, an attorney for the DPA since 2009, on May 12 was named interim director — effective July 1 — following the resignation of longtime Director Joyce Hicks.

Fortes, 58, would not comment Friday on the allegation, nor would any of the supervisors who received the email or Police Commission President Julius Turman.

It smells of the San Francisco Police Officers Association to us. It’s certainly their style. It wouldn’t take much for them to float this kind of despicable story. Time will tell.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: The San Francisco Examiner

#Leftist’s frightening new #PoliceState strategy: Diagnose #Trump voters as mentally ill

Radical journalist Barbara Ehrenreich, Hochshild’s friend, warned the Berkeley sociologist not to overly empathize with her subjects. “Barbara said, ‘Enough already, get over it — don’t forget these people did vote for Trump.’”

As Hochschild notes in her book, writers on the left like Thomas Frank (“What’s the Matter with Kansas?”) have long struggled to understand why conservatives like those she interviewed embrace political candidates and views that contradict their own economic self-interest. After all, Trump’s proposed tax cuts and health care plan will only do further harm to oil workers and their families in the Louisiana bayou. But Hochschild’s central insight is that, like all of us, Trump voters are motivated by “a deep story” — an unconscious force that defies political logic. Our deep story “removes judgment. It removes fact. It tells us how things feel.”

In short, people who support President Trump are mentally ill.

Enjoy your Police State.

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

They break the law, they take your water, they give taxpayers the finger

The vast majority of California’s water goes to agriculture. You’d think farmers would be happy. However most large irrigation districts are breaking a state law intended to show how much farms are actually using.

A Sacramento Bee investigation reveals that during California’s epic five-year drought, most of the state’s irrigation districts didn’t comply with a 2007 law that requires them to provide an accounting of how much water they’re delivering directly to farmers.

State regulators are largely powerless to stop them, but they don’t seem too bothered by it.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

Citizens stop #SacramentoPD from executing mentally ill black man

It’s a neighborhood where residents have come to fear the worst during police incidents, especially involving mentally ill people and African Americans.

Since Mother’s Day, Kristopher Rene Jones has not been well.

Jones, a 60-year-old black man, takes medication for bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, said his fiancée Lynn Lawrence. But he’d stopped taking the pills and devolved into another “episode” this week.

On Friday morning, a bystander reported to police that Jones was assaulting someone inside an SUV in a Del Paso Heights parking lot. Jones was alone in the Chrysler Pacifica, but the officer called for backup believing Jones might have explosives. At one point, officers drew their guns, according to witnesses.

The explosives naturally didn’t exist, it was nothing more than Police State spin. The thugs in the Sacramento Police Department were getting ready to execute Jones when decent citizens from the community intervened.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

American drug users are causing even more innocent Mexicans to die

With homicides in the city on the rise, Tijuana business and civic leaders are calling for Mexico’s military to once again head up Baja California’s efforts against organized crime.

Once again, America’s insatiable lust for illegal drugs has caused immeasurable pain to this once glittering city.

Members of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial in Tijuana, an influential business umbrella group, and the city’s Citizens Council for Pubic Safety are urging the passage of a new federal “law of internal security” that would allow Mexican soldiers to carry out civilian public safety duties.

“We don’t want to go back to the past, to the situation of 2007 and 2008,” said Juan Manuel Hernández, who heads the public safety council, describing a period of high-impact violence, including gruesome beheadings, public shootouts, and kidnappings.

The call for an expanded military role has come as more than 530 homicides have been registered in Tijuana so far this year, according figures from the Baja California Attorney General’s Office. If the killings continue at the current pace, this year’s total will exceed last year’s record 916 homicides.

Some cast doubt on the notion that coordination among civilian and military authorities is key to driving down crime and violence. David Shirk, a University of San Diego professor who has studied homicide trends across Mexico, said dynamics among drug trafficking organizations are the main factor driving the violence levels.

“We will see a drop in violence when somebody has monopoly control,” Shirk said.

As we’ve always said, Americans love drugs.

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

#FBI checking out #Rohrabacher’s ties with #Putin

The FBI says that Russian spies have been trying to recruit Congressman Dana Rohrabacher of Costa Mesa.

Rohrabacher has been known for years as one of Moscow’s biggest defenders in Washington and as a vocal opponent of U.S. economic sanctions against Russia.

As a newly appointed special counsel investigates connections between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives, the warning to Rohrabacher shows that the FBI has for years viewed Russian spies, and their allies on Capitol Hill, as a threat to U.S. security.

Rohrabacher was drawn into the maelstrom this week when the news media reported on an audio recording of Rep. Kevin McCarthy of California, the House majority leader, saying last year, “There’s two people I think Putin pays: Rohrabacher and Trump.”

Source: Orange County Register