#GeishaWilliams should not be getting a bonus, she should be on trial for murder

PG&E Corp. CEO Geisha Williams could receive an annual bonus for 2018 worth up to $4.23 million in addition to her $1.085 million salary, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

That’s right, the CEO of the company that blew up San Bruno and burned down Napa is going to cash in.

Williams could also receive over the next three years long-term incentives worth up to $8 million, depending on how the company and its subsidiary, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., perform.

This is disgusting.

PG&E on Monday filed with federal regulators details of the 2018 pay packages for six of its top executives, including Williams. Last week, the company’s board approved both long-term and short-term incentive packages for each of the executives.

Amazingly, PG&E’s short- and long-term incentive programs are based on safety, including the effectiveness of the utility’s tree trimming near power lines and its gas pipeline inspections. Other elements are based on the company’s financial performance and stock-price appreciation.

Apparently burning people alive and blowing them up in their homes aren’t safety issues for regulators in California.

Geisha Williams should not be getting a bonus, she and the rest of the feckless PG&E management team should be on trial for murder.

#Microsoft protects criminal drug dealers by storing their emails outside the U.S.

The story in the Los Angeles Times is amazing.

The Times says “Supreme Court justices sounded skeptical Tuesday about Microsoft’s refusal to turn over emails sought by U.S. law enforcement agents with a criminal search warrant but stored by the software giant in overseas servers.”

No kidding. What kind of company makes such a stupid claim?

In 2013, federal agents investigating criminal drug crimes went to court there and obtained a search warrant based on probable cause for “all emails” for a still-unidentified Microsoft customer.  Feckless Microsoft refused to turn over the contents of the emails, saying they were held in a data center in Dublin, Ireland.

So the drug dealers are off the hook…for now. Great Microsoft, thanks.

The Justice Department appealed to the Supreme Court.

 

Should teen psychos be allowed to buy guns?

Teen psychos may soon find it harder to arm themselves. California lawmakers are considering raising the age to purchase firearms from 18 to 21.

The debate over how young is too young to buy a firearm is gaining momentum among federal lawmakers and President Trump according to the Mercury News.

California already outlaws handgun sales to anyone younger than 21, but a teen psycho here can still walk into a gun store and buy a rifle, shotgun and ammunition.

Only Hawaii and Illinois set a minimum age of 21 to buy or possess a rifle or shotgun.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., are working on a bill to raise the minimum age across the country to buy rifles to 21. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Rep. John Faso, R-N.Y., voiced support for the idea since the Florida shooting.

California lawmakers have introduced nearly a dozen new gun control bills, but nothing yet regarding minimum age restrictions. Expect that to change quickly.

Sex crime scandal rocks #Merced

District Attorney Larry Morse II

Former Merced County prosecutors have dropped a dime on District Attorney Larry Morse II, claiming he committed sex crimes by making lewd comments to female subordinates. He’s also charged with kissing one of his married employees.

Attorneys Ilia and Mike McKinney, who are married, and retired attorney Rita Carlson told the Merced Sun Star they are speaking out now because they no longer are employed by Morse.

Morse, a 60-year-old veteran prosecutor and elected official, has been the Merced County district attorney since 2006. He is up for re-election this year, seeking his fourth term in office.

Morse claimed ignorance.

 

Thanks to Oakland Mayor #LibbySchaaf, nearly one thousand criminal aliens are still at large

“ICE is coming!”

California’s leaders and the elite media continues to freak out over ICE sweeps taking place all over the state.

According to the Los Angeles Times, ICE has arrested nearly 200 people in Northern California alone.

Most of those arrested have criminal convictions. They have been roaming free thanks to the sanctuary state policies of the California Legislature and cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Many hard-core criminals were able to escape capture thanks to being tipped-off by Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf who sent out an official warning about the ICE sweeps from her office.

ICE officials said Schaaf’s actions put their officers at risk, and allowed nearly one thousand criminal aliens to evade capture. They are still at large in California.

#Obamacare insurance premiums are going up 18 percent next year

In another crushing blow to Californians, health insurance premiums are expected to go up 18 percent next year. That’s on top of the increases that have hammered Californians over the past several years.

Insurers are giddy. Poor and sick people are dropping out of the program. Only people with the ability to pay remain.

One million fewer Californians, who expected Obamacare to save them, will be enrolled in health plans in California in 2019.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the Urban Institute analysis, which includes a national and state-by-state breakdown of projected changes to insurance premiums and enrollment, takes into account several major health policy changes enacted or announced since the beginning of 2017.

 

His campaign crumbling, #DougOse drops out of governor’s race

Doug Ose

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Sacramento Rep. Doug Ose has dropped out of the race for governor.

According to the Chronicle, “Ose ended his campaign after less than two months because of problems raising money.”

Who in their right mind would give a Republican in California money to run for governor? The California Republican Party is a pariah.

In one of political history’s greatest epic fails, Ose finished last among the seven major candidates in a recent survey.

Making matters worse, Ose finished behind right-wing extremists Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach and John Cox, a GOP businessman from San Diego.

The California Republican Party continues its death spiral.

#LAPD rapists heading to prison for 25 years

Some good news from the Los Angeles Times for a change.

Two LAPD rapists have pleaded no contest to sexually assaulting multiple women, often preying on victims while one partner served as the lookout as the other carried out an attack in their unmarked police car.

Rapists Luis Valenzuela and James C. Nichols entered their no-contest pleas to two counts each of forcible rape and two counts each of forcible oral copulation.

These two rats told the women they raped that if they didn’t go along they would go to jail. They are no less than hideous animals.

 

Superior Court Judge Ronald S. Coens sent both rapists to prison for 25 years. Coens also ordered the officers to register as sex offenders.

The insurance industry has made our schools a safe zone for killers like #NikolasCruz

Insurance companies are going to try and block attempts to arm classroom teachers according to the Los Angeles Times.

Gun control activists are elated.

Armed teacher, safe classroom.

Never mind that guns are common in Israeli classrooms, where teachers, most who have served in the Israeli Defense Force, routinely carry firearms to protect their students and themselves.

After the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre insurers across the country blocked the idea. Profits ahead of children’s safety.

Increased liability they howled. Many chose to not insure schools that allow teachers to be armed.

Enter Nikolas Cruz. The insurance industry made our schools a safe zone for killers like Cruz. Now 17 more are dead.

According to the Times, “Several school districts that had been toying with the idea dropped it after the warning. In Indiana, workers compensation insurers said they wouldn’t cover personnel who carried guns on to campuses. Oregon’s major liability insurance consortium said it would surcharge districts for every civilian employee they allowed to bring firearms to school, which discouraged the initiative.”

 

It should be obvious that insurance companies, allied with gun control activists, would rather see dead children rather than armed teachers in our schools.

Delta Airlines has become an active partner in America’s gun control movement

According to the Los Angeles Times, it’s getting harder and harder to find neutral territory in America’s raging gun-control debate.

Delta Air Lines didn’t bother trying. The company vectored hard left and has sided squarely with the gun control crowd.

After Nikolas Cruz’s hideous crime, gun-control advocates began pressuring Delta to drop their discount deals for NRA members.

Delta quickly caved it. The company has become a active partner in America’s gun control movement.

Gun-control supporters are elated. Naturally law abiding gun owners are outraged, but they aren’t surprised.

Psycho white kids and their failed communities are the real problem

Adam Lanza

The Los Angeles Times notes the similarities between school shooters Nikolas Cruz and Adam Lanza.

Both were psycho white kids who couldn’t handle normal adolescent life. So they turned to mass murder.

After Adam Lanza burst into Sandy Hook Elementary School and murdered scores of children and their teachers, politicians wrung their hands and screamed for gun control. They have done little to address the other Adam Lanza’s out there.

Nikolas Cruz

Nikolas Cruz proved that to be correct. Both he and Lanza were psycho whack-jobs. It was plain to see. Law enforcement, teachers, parents and family ignored the problem until it was too late.

The Left and the elite media howl for gun control because it is to their political advantage to do so. They’re not interested in helping the Adam Lanza’s and Nikolas Cruz’s of this world, they simply want to further their own political agenda.

We’re not going to have a gun ban in America, and it’s obvious we’re not going to address these whack-job teens that prowl our communities. That means we’re going to have more mass shootings. It’s the new normal in America.

Legislative Floor Procedures

By Chris Micheli

In both house of the California Legislature, there are specific procedures for considering legislation on the Floors of the Assembly and Senate. There are rules in place pursuant to the Joint Rules, as well as the respective Assembly and Senate Rules, for ensuring an orderly management of bills on the respective floors.

In both houses, the leadership teams generally prefer to know when legislators plan to take-up bills on the floors, particularly if they are controversial measures. For example, in the Assembly, legislators are asked to inform the Speaker’s Floor Unit staff whether the legislator intends to take-up any bill that is eligible for floor action, generally at least a day in advance of the schedule floor session. In this way, the Speaker’s staff know whether the bill’s author plans to take up the bill for debate and a vote, or offer amendments, etc.

It is also important for the bill analyses to be available to the legislators so that they can be properly informed prior to considering a bill that is pending on the floor. In both houses, the Democratic and Republican staff prepare floor analyses. For example, in the Assembly, the floor analyses are prepared by the Speaker’s Office of Research and Floor Analysis and the Assembly Republican Caucus’ Office of Policy and Budget.

What type of information is usually provided by legislative offices when their bills are being analyzed for floor action? Among other things, they may be asked for background on the bill, including a fact sheet, staff contact information, summary of support and opposition, including a list of individuals and organization that have sent letters for or against the bill. Sometimes these letters are sent directly to the committee that considered the bill, rather than directly to the author. In these instances, it is important for the legislator’s staff to get copies of those letters.

They also generally ask for an author’s statement in support of his or her bill. In both the Assembly and the Senate, the floor analyses are usually written by the first committee of reference. The Senate Secretary’s Office of Floor Analysis and the Chief Clerk’s Floor Analysis are non-partisan and official analyses of the bill. The positions stated are taken from committee records of support and opposition for the bill.

When bills are pending in the other house (i.e., after they have passed their house of origin), floor managers are required to be used. In other words, ABs on the Senate Floor and SBs on the Assembly Floor need a legislator of that house to take-up the bill on the respective Floor. This is a necessary hurdle and should be done prior to the bill reaching the floor of the other house. Once the Floor Manager has been designated, then the bill author’s staff needs to notify the appropriate Desk so that the Floor Manager’s name will be listed in the Daily File.

It is important to remember that, during the weeks preceding a deadline, bills on the Third Reading File that are passed on file two or more times may be sent to the Inactive File. The Assembly Chief Clerk and the Senate Secretary provide valuable information at key times during the legislative

 

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

The #SupremeCourt may be about to deliver a crushing blow to California unions

The Los Angeles Times is trying to put a happy face on this story, but in the end, it looks bad for California labor.

Justices are close to ruling on a 5-4 count, that public employees cannot be compelled to pay union dues.

Union leaders know that most people will stop paying union dues given the choice. This will be a disaster for Democrats who rely heavily on compulsory union dues.

In the end, the plaintiffs can thank President Trump as newly appointed justice Neil M. Gorsuch will likely cast the tie-breaking vote. It’s hard to believe he would side with unions.

Lee Saunders, President of AFSCME sent an urgent message to his members today: Today in the United States Supreme Court, our freedom to negotiate better pay, benefits and job security as union members was under attack.

Saunders went on to say union members will hit the streets across the country this Saturday to demonstrate in what he called a Working People’s Day of Action.

The case of Janus v. AFSCME is about to be settled. Labor leaders, and their Democrat allies aren’t getting much sleep these days.

Threats against schools engulf Southern California law enforcement

Frightening reports about schools being targeted by students.

The Daily News reports that little Jimmy and Suzie have been on a tear. Not being content to devour Tide pods any longer, they’ve turned to making threats against schools. So far law enforcement has arrested 12 students and 2 adults.

This is scary.

The good news, law enforcement is taking action. The bad news, some of these threats aren’t new.

Nikolas Cruz

You may recall that authorities in Florida pretty much ignored all the evidence piling up against Nikolas Cruz, before he went on a killing spree that left 17 students and teachers dead.

Schools that have been targeted are in the communities of Los Angeles, Rancho Cucamonga, Long Beach,  Norco, Riverside, Long Beach, Yucca Valley, La Palma:, Whittier, Chino Hills, Cerritos, and Norwalk.

Despite clear obstruction of justice, #BayArea immigration busts move forward

Federal agents, according to the San Francisco Examiner, detained at least four people in Northern California on Sunday after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf tipped-off street gang members about an impending Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation.

An ICE spokesperson did not respond to requests from the Examiner for comment to confirm the operation or the detentions.

Why would they after Schaaf clearly intended to obstruct justice.

State Sen. Bob Hertzberg is still in office…why?

Why aren’t this man’s sex crimes being punished?

Linda Halderman filed a sex crime complaint against State Sen. Bob Hertzberg. The complaint seems to be going nowhere.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that unlike other sex criminal legislators who have been given the boot by their colleagues, no one is pushing for Hertzberg’s removal.

More outrageous is the fact that “on Thursday, Hertzberg was in the Senate chambers with his colleagues preparing to vote on whether to expel Mendoza after investigation findings that Mendoza “more likely than not” engaged in unwanted sexual advances toward six women, including interns in his office.”

According to Halderman, “Hertzberg was making her uncomfortable with his incessant bear hugs. One day as he approached her in a Capitol hallway, she said, she told him not to touch her. She said he then pinned her arms at her side and thrust his groin into her.”

That’s creepy.

Hertzberg’s antics are well known by just about every capitol insider. Others have complained as well. Halderman has been the only one brave enough to take him on.

“He pinned my arms and thrust his groin into me,” she told the media, “You can’t call that hugging. That’s assault.”

Yup, pretty much.

The Senate investigation into Hertzberg’s behavior is completed. No one has seen the results. It remains unclear whether they will be made public.

Unlike Tony Mendoza and the others, the elites in California really like Hertzberg. So the move is on to protect him.

That’s a shame for his victims.

California Democrats turn to jails for votes

The Los Angeles Times reports that “in one of the largest efforts aimed at registering eligible incarcerated individuals in Southern California, dozens of volunteers this month are going inside jails in Los Angeles and Orange counties as part of the American Civil Liberties Union’s “Unlock the Vote” campaign to educate inmates about their rights.”

The law is pretty clear, if you’re incarcerated for something less than a felony in California, you can still vote. State law does not apply to federal prisoners.

So the Democrats have wised up and are working to register thousands of inmates before the June 5 primary.

It should work well for them, especially since their allies in the police unions go out of their way to lock people up in the nation’s largest police state.

 

The people are coming for #DianeFeinstein

Even the Los Angeles Times was forced to admit in print that “California Democrats overwhelmingly decided not to endorse Sen. Dianne Feinstein this weekend, an embarrassing rebuke of a party icon who has represented California in the Senate for a quarter-century.”

In huge numbers, the party convention delegates vote to NOT endorse her campaign.

The elites, in the media and out, are in a panic. Saving Feinstein has become their number one goal.

Just as disgruntled Republicans rallied behind Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, rank-and-file Democrats here are sick and tired of Feinstein and her elite cronies in California, and Washington D.C.

Feinstein’s trajectory at this point is heading to the Hall of Losers, joining the likes of Jeb Bush and John Kasich.

Just how bad was it for Feinstein at the convention? Her opponent Kevin de León of Los Angeles, came with in a few percentage points of winning the endorsement outright. It was an amazing feat that sent shock waves through the ranks of the party elites.

Bill Carrick, Feinstein’s political handler downplayed de León’s victory publicly. Behind the scenes however, Carrick and the rest of the Democratic Party elites are realizing that their gravy train in Washington is running off the rails.

The people are coming for Feinstein.

Putting a few employers in jail for violating U.S. immigration law would send the right message to California

According to the Los Angeles Times, visits by federal immigration authorities are spooking California businesses and workers.

The observation begs the question, if they are doing nothing wrong, why are they spooked?

When agents visited convenience stores and trucking companies near the ports in recent weeks, the Times reports “it sent a chill through those businesses and others in the region.”

The employees who were in this country illegally stopped coming to work. Workers at neighboring companies wised up and bugged out too.

In the end, the Times goes on, ICE “agents served 122 notices to L.A.-area companies that they would be conducting an audit of their I-9 forms. Several weeks earlier, the same notices were given to 77 companies in Northern California.

I-9s are the forms on which employees attest to their work status and present documents to support that they are who they say they are and have the authorization to work.”

Sounds reasonable.

“If ICE determines that the documents show an employee is unauthorized to work, the employer is notified they could face civil and criminal penalties if they continue to employ that person.”

Also sounds reasonable. After all, it is illegal for employers to knowingly hire workers in the country illegally, and they are required by law to take some steps to verify heir employees are here legally.

If not, those employers must face the consequences.

In the end, the media spin is all of this “enforcement” is creating a drag on California’s economy. Not likely. The real oppressors here are not President Trump and ICE. The employers who exploit farm workers and construction workers who are here illegally are the ones being exploited.

Sending a few employers to jail for violating U.S. immigration law would send the right message to California. Stop exploiting immigrants so the elites can get richer.

#Oakland Mayor #LibbySchaaf tips-off street gangs about #ICE raid

“ICE is coming! ICE is coming!”

The Mercury News reports that Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf has alerted criminals who are in this country illegally that an ICE raid will be commencing in the Bay Area as early as today.

This is great news if you’re MS-13, but bad news for the people being terrorized by these kinds of horrible street gangs.

“I know that Oakland is a city of law-abiding immigrants and families who deserve to live free from the constant threat of arrest and deportation,” Schaaf wrote. “I believe it is my duty and moral obligation as Mayor to give those families fair warning when that
threat appears imminent,” the mayor said.

Oakland also has horrible street crime and one of the highest murder rates in America.

Thanks mayor!

Schaaf hates President Donald Trump and she’s willing to put Oakland in danger in order to prove it.

You may recall that the City Council previously passed a measure prohibiting local officials from cooperating with ICE.

Bad news for the men and women of ICE.

Outraged ICE officers say privately that they don’t appreciate the mayor putting their lives in danger.

Convention delegates reject #DianeFeinstein

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that “the California Democratic Party decided not to endorse in the U.S. Senate contest on Saturday, an embarrassing rebuke of veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”

No kidding. Despite the California press corp’s love fest in print, Feinstein got her walking papers from the convention’s delegates.

Feinstein has ignored California for years while at the same time enriching herself and her husband as a U.S. Senator.

Kevin de León, who, unlike Feinstein, embraces the party’s activists. His campaign team did a masterful job of blocking Feinstein’s endorsement. This gives his campaign a major boost.

#DianeFeinstein being humiliated at the California Democratic Party convention

The elite media can’t save her.

Diane Feinstein’s lethargic career in Washington may be coming to an abrupt end if events at this year’s California Democratic Party convention are any indication.

She’s being consistently snubbed by party activists. In short, this is probably the most humiliating experience she’s had in decades.

Other than members of her entourage, we’ve found no evidence that she has any substantive supporters here.

“Ke-vin! Ke-vin!”

On the other hand, her primary challenger and the Democrat’s new hero, Kevin de León meets adroing, wildly cheering crowds wherever he goes.

The white, elite California media is in a panic. There’s not much they can do the help Feinstein, who they adore. The looks on their faces here at the convention are telling.

One stunned and angry reporter was overheard saying, “these f*cking Latinos are going to kill us in November.”

Making the rounds here, Feinstein remains a broken record, yammering “gun control, gun control”.

Convention activists don’t disagree, but the fact is it’s de León who has a better record on gun issues than Feinstein they say. He’s also done more for farm workers, immigrants, teachers, and union members.

Reporters here are scrambling to find a narrative that makes Feinstein look good. Meanwhile the place is rocking around them with wild screams of, “Ke-vin! Ke-vin!”

An act of desperation.

#FakeNews…the “welcome” was tepid at best.

 

New rape allegation hits an already tarnished California Senate

Just how bad are things in Sacramento? Apparently pretty bad.

According to the Sacramento Bee, a former legislative aide filed a complaint with the state claiming that the California Senate failed to accommodate her emotional disabilities after an alleged rape by an Assembly employee and fired her last year for “minor work performance issues.”

Catalina Sanchez’s complaint to the Department of Fair Employment and Housing says she reported the alleged rape to both houses of the Legislature.

A subsequent investigation by the Assembly did not substantiate the allegation. After Sanchez received medical treatment following the alleged rape in 2016, law enforcement was contacted.

The man, who is not named in Sanchez’s complaint, was not prosecuted.

The complaint, filed against the Senate, Secretary of the Senate Daniel Alvarez and the Senate’s Deputy Secretary of Human Resources Jeannie Oropeza on Friday, is a required step before filing a lawsuit against the Legislature.

It asserts that Sanchez’s supervisors and the Senate human resources officials were told of her post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and a sleep disorder she suffered after her alleged rape and were responsible for accommodating her needs.

Naturally, Senate officials declined to comment on the claim.

More evidence shows that #vaping is as bad as #smoking

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that inhaling chemicals is not a good idea…despite what the kooks in the vaping industry tell you.

The Sacramento Bee reports that despite that logic, sales of vaping devices and e-cigarettes, which heat up nicotine-filled liquid into an aerosol that is then inhaled, have grown into a more than $8 billion per year worldwide behemoth, Bloomberg reported.

E-liquid is relatively cheap, and the vapor generally doesn’t linger like smoke and bother others. The vapor is less irritating to the lungs and throat, and there is a seemingly endless buffet of flavors and nicotine strengths to choose from.

Those draws have made smoking e-cigarettes and other vaping devices attractive for young people who are turned off by tobacco, as well as for existing smokers looking for a way to keep the habit but ditch the health issues.

A growing body of evidence however is beginning to chip away at the idea that vaping is a safe alternative to smoking. Now a new study from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore finds e-cigarettes are leaking toxic heavy metals into the vapor users are inhaling.

The vaping industry claims they are helping people stop smoking. That’s just great. Thanks for caring so much about everyone’s health vaping industry. Thanks for depositing dangerous metals like lead, chromium, and nickel and manganese into our kid’s lungs. Tanks for the lung, brain and heart damage, as well as cancer.

Maybe they should make a move…they could call it “Thank you for vaping”.

Backlash against #EliteMedia attacks on gun owners

The backlash at the elite media’s vitriol against gun owners is increasing. Social media savvy activists recently nailed the Miami Herald using a new tactic. It isn’t just the elite media who peddles fake news any more.

The Sacramento Bee reports the incidents came in the wake of the shooting in Parkland, Florida.

In one incident, a perpetrator used a software tool to create two fake tweets that looked like they came from the account of Alex Harris, a Herald reporter preparing tributes to the slain students. One fake tweet asked for photos of dead bodies at the school and another asked if the shooter was white.

The reporter almost immediately began getting angry messages.

“It seems to be consistent with a pattern of people trying to disparage or discredit the news media,” said Edward Wasserman, dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley. Wasserman is a former executive business editor at The Herald and columnist on the media for McClatchy.

Ya think? Brilliant analysis Ed…brilliant. Quite a commentary on your profession.

 

The satisfaction of stigmatizing guns rather than addressing mental illness

The mentally ill, not guns, are the biggest threat to America’s schools.

The efforts by Leftists to downplay the role of mental illness in mass shootings are simply misleading. There is a clear relationship between mental illness and mass public shootings. However that observation does nothing to advance the gun control narrative.

According to two authors writing in the Los Angeles Times, at the broadest level, peer-reviewed research has shown that individuals with major mental disorders (those that substantially interfere with life activities) are more likely to commit violent acts, especially if they abuse drugs. When we focus more narrowly on mass public shootings — an extreme and, fortunately, rare form of violence — we see a relatively high rate of mental illness.

So indeed, the science back up what we have been saying for some time…thes shooters are psycho whack-jobs. Sorry Leftists, it’s the shooter, not the gun that needs to be banned.

These authors’ research indicates that at least 59% of the 185 public mass shootings that took place in the United States from 1900 through 2017 were carried out by people who had either been diagnosed with a mental disorder or demonstrated signs of serious mental illness prior to the attack.

Mother Jones found a similarly high rate of potential mental health problems among perpetrators of mass shootings — 61% — when the magazine examined 62 cases in 2012.

That’s right, one of the Left’s flagship publications agrees. It’s the shooter, not the gun.

Both rates are considerably higher than those found in the general population — more than three times higher than the rate of mental illness found among American adults, and about 15 times higher than the rate of serious mental illness found among American adults.

One of the primary reasons some are reluctant to establish the link between mass shootings and mental illness is a fear that it will lead to the stigmatization of such disorders. This concern is valid. The vast majority of people with mental disorders are not violent, after all. Plus it’s way easier, and politically satisfying to stigmatize guns.

Waves of threats overwhelm L.A. schools since Florida shooting

Hey Los Angeles…your kids are psychos.

Threats against schools have become a fact of life since the Valentine’s Day shooting that left 17 students and teachers dead in a Florida high school. The Los Angeles Times reports that almost every day this week brought a new report that sent law enforcement scrambling to decipher the meaning and intent of teenagers’ social media posts and comments to friends. School district officials said they were taking even the vaguest of threats seriously, too afraid to do otherwise.

Some law enforcement officials said teenagers’ ability to hide their identities and locations online had made it increasingly difficult to gauge the seriousness of threats, particularly when they’re made over social media.

Some of the threats appear to be hoaxes while others have involved students with easy access to guns. But given the climate — and a humiliated FBI’s acknowledgment that it ignored warnings about an accused Florida shooter — police say they are not taking any chances.

Since Feb. 14, the Sheriff’s Department’s criminal investigations bureau has received 19 tips about possible threats against Los Angeles County schools.

The Los Angeles Unified School District’s police force has received 160 calls related to a “possible criminal threat” since the Parkland shooting, ranging from threats against an individual student to those directed at an entire school. Nine people younger than age 18 have been arrested, officials said, though how many are L.A. Unified students is unclear.

Panoche Water District employees charged with crimes against the environment

California’s attorney general has charged five former and current employees of the Panoche Water District in central California with felonies, including using public funds for personal items and illegally burying barrels of hazardous waste.

According to a report by NPR, the Department of Toxic Substances Control at California’s Environmental Protection Agency says it found 86 drums, each holding between 35 and 55 gallons of “chlorine, caustic soda, iron chloride and a mixture of used antifreeze, used solvents, and used oil.”

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra accused former Panoche Water District General Manager Dennis Falaschi and former employees Jack Hurley and Dubby West of disposing of the chemicals at an unauthorized site, specifically burying them “in a pit or in the soil at the Panoche Water District yard” near Firebaugh, Calif.

West and another former employee, Julie Cascia, were also charged with transporting hazardous waste including a drum from the Panoche Water District Auto Shop to an unpermitted site.

 

Hideous San Diego County sheriff’s deputy arrested for 14 sex crimes

Sex criminal.

A veteran sheriff’s deputy was charged Thursday with eight felonies and six misdemeanors after a months-long investigation into sexual misconduct allegations by women he encountered on patrol according to the San Diego Union-Tribune.

The criminal charges come after 14 women filed claims accusing Fischer of groping and other misconduct.

The sex criminal, Deputy Richard Fischer, 31, pleaded not guilty to eight felonies and a half dozen misdemeanors related to allegations that first surfaced last fall.

In all, Fischer was charged with one count of sexual battery and 12 counts of assault and battery by an officer and one count of false imprisonment. The charges could put him in prison for up to 14 years. Judge David J. Danielsen also issued protective orders for the 12 victims cited by prosecutors.

Some of the charges accuse Fischer of committing crimes while the victims were detained or in custody; others allege he returned to victims’ homes after responding to calls for help and assaulted them.

Accusations against Fischer began piling up within days of the first news stories. The deputy was placed on desk duty, then administrative leave. That’s means he’s still on the loose and getting paid by the taxpayers.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy arrested for multiple sex crimes

The Police State continues its brutal domination in California.

The Los Angeles Daily News reports that prosecutors have filed charges against a pathetic Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy. The deputy is  accused of unlawful sex with six female inmates at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood last year.

Giancarlo Scotti, a 31-year graduate of San Pedro High School and a 10-year sheriff’s department veteran, faces six felony counts of sexual activity with a detainee in a detention facility, as well as two misdemeanor counts of the same, according to District Attorney’s Office spokesman Greg Risling.

“Scotti is accused of engaging in unlawful sex acts with female inmates at the Century Regional Detention Facility in Lynwood between March and September 2017,” district attorney’s office spokesman Greg Risling said in a written statement.

“In one instance, Scotti allegedly ordered two cellmates to perform oral sex on him,” Risling said. “He later took the women to a shower area where he is accused of having unlawful sexual intercourse with both of them.”

Some hero.

Unfortunate taxpayers are still paying this sex criminal. He was placed on paid administrative leave pending the criminal case.

If convicted as charged, Scotti faces up to seven years and four months in state prison.

President #Trump slams California for being soft on street gangs

Sanctuary laws mean LAPD can ignore much of the city’s violence.

President Trump accused California enforcement of being soft on street gangs and suggested he might pull immigration agents out of the state.

It’s hard to find fault with the President’s comments in light of the fact that California law enforcement nothing more than window dressing for our sanctuary state.

The Trump has rightly called out California for being a “sanctuary” for those here illegally, and federal officials have vowed immigration crackdowns in the state.

The Los Angeles Times reports that President Trump stepped up the war, predicting that gang members would wreak havoc if federal authorities withdrew from Los Angeles and other parts of the state.

Hapless Los Angeles officials expressed puzzlement and concern over the President’s comments, claiming local police have made significant strides against gang violence in recent years.

The fact is, street gangs still rule Los Angeles. More than 60% of the city’s homicides classified as gang-related last year.

Clueless Feinstein thinks our streets are safe.

California Democrats freaked out immediately according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

They rushed to Twitter and other social media to defend the state and its immigration sanctuary policies. In their fantasy world, California has relatively low crime rates and that there is little evidence associating illegal immigration with increased violent crime.

Amazingly, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement released less than an hour after Trump’s remarks “The president’s obsession with our state is growing more outrageous by the day… The president’s attacks are not only mean-spirited, they’re patently false.”

Need more proof Feinstein is out of touch and ready for retirement?

The fact is, across the state, local law enforcement agencies have refused to cooperate with ICE agents in these raids, citing city and state sanctuary policies that limit their role in immigration enforcement. California became a sanctuary state in October under a law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown that pushed back against Trump administration attempts to bolster illegal immigration policies.

 

Sex criminal Tony Mendoza resigns

Sex criminal Sen. Tony Mendoza has thankfully resigned.

The Sacramento Bee reports that Senate investigators delivered a confidential 47-page report detailing Mendoza’s sexcrimes to senators.

Amazingly, Mendoza still thinks he did nothing wrong.

Mendoza claimed he couldn’t get a fair hearing in the Senate, offered a non-apology apology to “any person who felt uncomfortable by my interactions with any of them,” and concluded, ominously, by saying he he is considering running again for the Senate seat he had just quit.

This guy is a flawed human being. Even by Sacramento’s shallow standards he’s a loser. Let’s hope his threat to run again never materializes.

See also coverage of Mendoza’s resignation in the Los Angeles Times, the Daily News, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

California Democrats still haven’t figured out to boot feckless #TomMcClintock

The Sacramento Bee is lamenting the fact that California Democrats still haven’t figured out to boot feckless Tom McClintock from his cherry-picked 4th Congressional District.

The traditionally Republican district, which includes El Dorado County, parts of Placer County and eight others that stretch into the Sierra Nevada mountains, has seen a surge of energy and excitement on the Democratic side since President Trump’s election.

Despite the long political odds, activists believe whichever Democrat gets out of the top-two primary could give McClintock a run for his money.

 

Fat chance. It would be nice if the Democrats got their act together though. Tom McClintock represents everything that is wrong with the California Republican Party.

More scandals at Cal Fire academy

For the second time in three years, Cal Fire is cracking down on alcohol consumption at its training academy in Amador County according to the Sacramento Bee.

This time, it’s disciplining 14 firefighters who were supposed to stay sober during their six weeks of training at the Cal Fire Academy in Ione.

Cal Fire Deputy Director Michael Mohler announced the discipline on Thursday. It stemmed from a report the academy received in September about several firefighters allegedly drinking alcohol outside of the campus.

Nine of them so far have been terminated.

 

Promotion candidates attend daytime training events but can leave the facility for meals or errands. They’re considered on-call and are being paid when they’re not training, and are expected to avoid alcohol.

 

Sex crimes cost the UC System millions

Sex criminal Sujit Choudhry.

Sex criminals at the University of California have cost taxpayers millions. The Sacramento Bee reports that sexual harassment payouts at the University of California spiked in 2016-17 at more than $3.4 million, with students and university employees filing claims ranging from inappropriate hugging and kissing to sexual assault, according to new documents released by UC to The Bee.

The UC system, whose president has pressed for changes in the institutional culture, was hit especially hard last year by two settlements that exceeded $1 million each.

Last month, UC was the only one of the 38 largest state entities unable to release its 2016-17 sexual harassment settlement data, saying it was “not finalized” yet.

The university’s total sexual harassment payouts exceeded $3.7 million over the last three years, with the bulk of those costs concentrated in 2016-17.

The largest single UC settlement last year was the case of Tyann Sorrell, a former executive assistant in the UC Berkeley School of Law, who accused the then dean, Sujit Choudhry, of inappropriately hugging, touching and kissing her. She settled her case for $1.7 million, and Choudhry is now set to resign in May “in good standing” from the university.

 

California Senators could decide sex-crazed colleague’s fate soon

The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that an outside investigation into sexual harassment allegations against state Sen. Tony Mendoza found he “more likely than not” engaged in “sexually suggestive behavior” with six women in the Capitol over more than a decade, including legislative staffers, fellows, an intern and a lobbyist.

A three-page summary of the findings indicates that outside investigators interviewed 47 witnesses, many of whom were former and current staffers of the L.A. Democrat. Investigators interviewed Mendoza twice.

Senators are still deciding what to do with Mendoza.

Expelling him or suspending him without pay would require a two-thirds vote, while a censure motion would need a majority vote for approval. The Senate is expected to vote on the matter on Thursday.

The summary made it pretty clear that Mendoza is a threat to women in the workplace.

Mendoza meanwhile maintains his innocence, and has filed a lawsuit against the state Senate, saying it and his former roommate Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, violated his constitutional rights to due process and equal protection by suspending him during the investigation.

We’re not expecting great things from Mendoza’s colleagues. It’s a shame for his victims.

Incompetent #AdamSchiff continues to flail away at #Russia memo

One of California’s dimmest bulbs continues to make a fool of himself (and the rest of us from California) on the national stage.

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said Tuesday that he expects to release a memo this week about surveillance and the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Yawn! Not again.

Schiff, D-Burbank, crafted the document as a response to one written by Intelligence Committee Chair Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Tulare, that alleged that federal agents improperly obtained a warrant to monitor former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as part of its Russian investigation. While President Trump ordered the release of the Nunes memo over the objections of some in law enforcement and intelligence, he blocked the release of the Schiff response because he said it contained classified material.

Schiff told the San Francisco Chronicle that “there are certain things that could be publicly released, should be publicly released,” that won’t appear in the memo. “But there will be more than enough that will be released to the public that will show that the FBI was acting in good faith, that it had a good case to make, and probable cause to make.”

Seriously? No one believes this guy. He needs to hang it up. If he really cares about Russian meddling in our elections he’d be all over Facebook, Twitter, the FBI, and the NSA for allowing it to happen in the first place.

 

Pathetic #WhiteSupremacists still dominate the #LAFD

We know about how Los Angeles’s firefighters feel about women in the firehouse. Apparently the predominantly white firefighters aren’t too happy with people of color around either.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Fire Department has experienced a series of “divisive” workplace incidents in recent months.

In a two-page letter posted Friday, Fire Chief Ralph M. Terrazas said his agency has experienced “on-duty heated discussions regarding the perception of a lack of patriotism by NFL players” who have kneeled during the national anthem.

Is there a “secret society” within the Los Angeles Fire Department?

In a separate incident, firefighters from different ethnic backgrounds had a “near physical altercation” after someone showed up late to work, Terrazas wrote.

In yet another, the department received complaints about “a perceived lack of sensitivity” toward non-white firefighters during an investigation.

“These types of issues and incidents are divisive and can erode our ability to accomplish our collective mission to protect the lives and property of the people of Los Angeles,” the chief said in his letter.

As of last week, the Fire Department’s workforce was 47% white, 11% black, 32% Hispanic and 9% Asian, according to numbers provided to The Times.

Peter Sanders, a spokesman for the department, declined to discuss details on the near physical altercation and the department investigation mentioned by Terrazas in his letter with the Times. Both situations are being investigated by the department’s Professional Standards Division, Sanders said.

It’s past the time for the city to address the racism in the LAFD. Discipline must be restored immediately. The white supremacists in the LAFD need to understand they are not above the law.

 

#LA’s #homeless bring drugs, filth, and #hepatitisA to local neighborhoods

 

According to the Los Angeles Times, Southern California’s homeless population has exploded.

The South Bay and Harbor areas have seen a surge of an estimated 6,145 people calling outdoor camps home — a 4% increase from 2016.

The situation has alarmed Los Angeles County health officials, who fear the growing encampments are ripe for public health outbreaks, notably hepatitis A, which caused numerous deaths in San Diego’s homeless community.

So the county is placing toilets, sinks and other supplies in the camps. Nearby residents fear the county’s action have made the temporary camps permanent.

Los Angeles’ homeless camps are rapidly moving into into suburbs, bringing crime, drugs, and disease with them.  Local residents are freaking out.

 

#SupremeCourt to the hapless California gun lobby…get lost!

Supreme Court leaves in place California’s 10-day wait for gun buyers, rejects 2nd Amendment challenge

It’s become obvious that if you’re a gun owner in California and you’re giving up some of your hard-earned cash to pay for advocacy in Sacramento, you might as well flush that cash down the toilet.

A giddy Los Angeles Times reports that the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday said it would not hear an appeal challenging California’s mandatory waiting period to purchase firearms.

It is another blow to California’s hapless gun lobby…the gang that can’t shoot straight.

The Supreme Court made clear that the government has broad power to restrict and regulate firearms, dismissing a 2nd Amendment challenge to California’s 10-day waiting period for new gun purchases.

While the court has ruled that the 2nd Amendment protects the right of law-abiding citizens to own guns, the justices have repeatedly refused to go further by blocking strict gun regulations, including state bans on the sale of semi-automatic weapons or limits on who can carry a weapon in public.

Dissenting alone, Justice Clarence Thomas said “the 2nd Amendment is a disfavored right in this court.”

The court let stand a ruling of the 9th Circuit Court that called California’s 10-day waiting period for gun purchases a “reasonable safety precaution” and one that does not violate the constitutional right to own a gun.

California’s 10-day period is longer than all but Hawaii’s. And California’s waiting period applies to new gun purchases even if the owner already possesses another legal weapon.

CalGuns Foundation…losers.

 

Legislative Oversight

By Chris Micheli

A critical role for the legislative branch of government is oversight regarding executive branch activities. Fundamentally, oversight is intended to ensure government accountability and make certain that tax dollars are spent properly and efficiently by the executive branch of state government.

In 2017, Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Ken Cooley released the “2017 Oversight Handbook” for his legislative colleagues. The Legislative Oversight Handbook provides a toolkit and offers useful advice to support legislative committees as they prepare and conduct oversight activities.

According to the Handbook, “Oversight is broadly defined as reviewing, monitoring, and supervising the implementation of public policy.” It is intended that these oversight hearings be used to create a “check and balance” to the executive branch and its over two hundred agencies, departments, boards, and commissions that carry out policy. It also allows the legislative branch to ensure that these state agencies are implementing the laws as intended by the Legislature.

In addition, with oversight, the Legislature will be able to review the personnel and budgetary needs of all of the executive branch agencies to determine whether they are utilizing taxpayer dollars properly and efficiently. As might be expected, legislative oversight can take several forms, including private communications, public hearings, the budget process, and legislation. The Legislature also has the Bureau of State Audits to conduct audits and investigations into the executive branch of state government.

As Assemblyman Cooley opined to his colleagues, “it is quite striking that done well and systematically, oversight can be more impactful than merely passing new laws.” There appears to be a renewed sense by the Legislature to exercise its responsibility as a co-equal branch of state government to utilize this oversight function. As an elected branch of government, oversight allows the Legislature to try and have the executive branch reflect the state’s priorities with legislative input.

These are essentially two types of oversight hearings that the Legislature can conduct, one that is informational in nature, while the other is investigatory in approach. Informational hearings allow legislators to learn about a particular topic and state agency. These types of hearings also educate other legislators, staff and members of the public who listen to the hearing on television. These usually occur when the Legislature wants to learn more about the subject matter of the hearing.

On the other hand, an investigatory hearing is more of a “fact finding” effort conducted by the Legislature to find out about a particular matter that has previously occurred. This type of hearing is the traditional oversight hearing wherein the Legislature needs to understand what transpired, such as when the Legislature has investigated information technology procurements that went well over budget and the timeline in an effort to appreciate why the procurement was not successful and whether any law changes are required to ensure such a situation does not occur again.

Assemblyman Cooley states that, “to conduct a successful oversight hearing in either case requires a commitment to research.” As such, the Handbook that he and his staff developed set forth ways in which the Legislature can successfully carry out these types of oversight hearings. The Handbook contains the following contents that are invaluable to legislators, their staff, and their committees:

Introduction

Defining Legislative Oversight

The Nuts and Bolts of Oversight

Participants

Growing Institutional Capacity

Legislative Rules Governing Oversight Hearings

Oversight Coordination and Processes

Office of Legislative Counsel Collaboration for Hearing Preparation

Oversight Quotes

Legal Issues Pertinent to Investigative Hearings

Quick Reference on California Statutory and Other Law

FAQ Sheet: Rules, Statutes, and Case Law Governing Oversight Hearings

Rules Governing Legislative Oversight

Committee Rules Containing Oversight or Investigations Provisions

Preparation of Briefing Books

Subpoena Policy

Whether the Legislature is conducting an informational hearing or an investigatory hearing, there must be proper preparation by the legislative branch in which research is thoroughly conducted and the hearing is scripted to ensure that witnesses and documents provide the information that the legislative committee wishes to have released. This requires working with interested parties, interviewing potential witnesses, and conducting thorough research into the topic(s) of the hearing.

Investigatory hearings also require extensive research and preparation. They require fact-finding to be done and that means knowing which questions to ask of witnesses who will appear before the oversight hearing. This will ensure that the executive branch conducts itself properly and in compliance with the law and the policy that is enumerated by the Legislature. Because of the possibility an investigatory hearing can be adversarial, it is important that the legislative committee act in the highest ethical manner when it acts as the “check” on the executive branch.

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.

Mexico’s “nearshoring” software development effort is coming of age

Need a mobile app, original software, software maintenance? Need geographic or time-zone convenience, or fluent English-speaking contractors?

By Raoul Lowery Contreras

Babies born today will be 32-years-old in 2050, when the United States will not be the No. 1 economy in the world (it will be No. 3) and next-door Mexico will be right behind the U.S. in economic size (No. 5 or No. 7, depending on the study). That is projected by experts. But what of today?

From Business Insider:

“Mexico is the 11th-largest economy in the world with free access to the largest economy in the world … not to mention, vast amounts of American investment pouring in … Mexico is seen as a land of drug dealers. But this perception is like viewing the United States as if it were Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s and the typical American as Al Capone.”

While most Americans think of Mexico as a Third World country, those who live on the border, those who see Mexicans every day, those who do business in Mexico, know that it is not.

Guadalajara is the hi-tech capital of Mexico. It is a higher-education center with quality public and private universities producing thousands of Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) graduates annually. The Mexican state of Jalisco (Guadalajara is its capital) has 12 universities, including the prestigious Tecnológico de Monterrey, creating 85,000 graduates in IT a year. In the past four years an estimated $120 million has been invested in more than 300 hi-tech start-ups.

“Itexico” is one of those start-ups that is maturing in Guadalajara with offices in Austin, Chicago and Mountain Valley, Calif.

Mexico, surprisingly, ranks well in the world with engineering graduates — about half the number of U.S. engineering graduates with only one-third the population.

Guadalajara has a security-tight hi-tech complex, Guadalajara Ciudad Creativa Digital, headquartered in a former shopping mall. It was founded by a public/private partnership led by the Jalisco state government. The state leased more than 100,000 square feet and built it up into individually wired turn-key work spaces and charged hi-tech start-ups minimal rent. In they came, one- and two-person operations, small cohorts of educated men and women, young and old, who knew what ones and zeroes do when properly put together. An industry was born.That effort continues. However, the days of one- and two-person firms has passed, replaced by firms with dozens and even hundreds of people churning out more than $21 billion (with a “B”) worth of tech products that are exported all over the world — in particular, to the United States.

“Itexico” is one of those start-ups that is maturing in Guadalajara with offices in Austin, Chicago and Mountain Valley, Calif.  It was founded by Guillermo Ortega, a Mexican engineer, and Anurag Kumar, also and engineer and an Indian immigrant to America. Kumar is the COO of the company. It has grown from a staff of a half-dozen to 170.

Convenience is the key word, and language is next, with time-zone relativity closing the deal.

Need a mobile app, original software, software maintenance? Need geographic or time-zone convenience, or fluent English-speaking contractors? Ortega and Kumar explained to this writer (in better English than I speak) why their American/Mexican facilities are better to deal with than firms in Europe or Asia.

Convenience is the key word, and language is next, with time-zone relativity closing the deal. Well-educated people working with ones and zeros from top universities, including MIT and California State University, who speak the same language make working with Guadalajara totally more desirable than working with Singapore, Hong Kong or Moscow.

The beginning: Mexican manufacturing grew exponentially when giant American manufacturers flooded into Mexico in the 1980s and 1990s to take advantage of wages, the peso, geography and transportation to the world’s largest market, the U.S.A. Then, China entered the global industrial scene and, in 2001, Mexico found itself with empty manufacturing facilities left behind when plants moved to China for lower wages. The nascent Mexican auto industry took up some of the unemployed but other efforts were needed.

The brightest Mexican minds gathered and commissioned the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and consulting firm Accenture to conduct a study of how to fill the employment gap left behind by Chinese-bound companies.

The public/private partnership to help hi-tech start-ups was suggested; it was organized. The 14-year-long leader is retired Hewlett-Packard executive and engineer Julio Acevedo Garcia, who revels in the non-paid job. He works unpaid at it full-time.

Itexico founders and partners Ortega and Kumar told us about their first days in business and how they grew and continue to grow. Their pitch made sense to customers, and referrals provide 70 percent of their business. Today, Itexico has 170 employees; in five years, it projects 1,000. Today, Mexico’s hi-tech industry accounts for $21 billion in exports; in five years, maybe $100 billion?

Mexico could be the 5th largest economy in the world in 2050. Will it be led by hi-tech in Guadalajara? Maybe.

Raoul Lowery Contreras is the author of “The Armenian Lobby & American Foreign Policy” and “The Mexican Border: Immigration, War and a Trillion Dollars in Trade.” His work has appeared in the New American News Service of the New York Times Syndicate.

 

 

#Black children slave and die so California’s #white #elites can drive an #electric car

An essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries that power millions of smartphones as well as plug-in electric cars, cobalt is in heavy demand. The silverish-gray metal has established itself as a critical element in the growth of the market in electric vehicles white elites love to drive around in and brag about.

The majority of the world’s cobalt production is concentrated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where  children work in hazardous conditions mining the metal.

The work is highly dangerous. Workers use picks and shovels to dig up cobalt and child labor is common.

A 2016 report from Amnesty International cited estimates from UNICEF that about 40,000 boys and girls work in mines across the Congo, many of them at cobalt sites.

As with adult miners, the children are exposed to high levels of cobalt and work without gloves or masks, the report said.

White elites park their electric cars in front of San Francisco City Hall.

Electric vehicles supporters are basically OK with all the problems associated with the mining of cobalt. They really don’t give these children a second thought. After all they’re black, and far away in Africa. Furthermore, they say the market will sort all these “supply-chain” issues.

However, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports that as electric vehicles move from niche-market status to mainstream acceptance, cobalt demand is surging. California policymakers have pushed zero-emissions vehicles as essential to meet the state’s mandates to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has set a target of 1.5 million clean-energy vehicles on California’s roads by 2025. In his final State of the State address last month, Brown ratcheted the number even higher — to 5 million zero-emission vehicles by 2030.

That’s bad news for children in the Congo.

 

#Drinking while posting on #Facebook lands #OrangeCounty man in jail

The Orange County Register reports that a Garden Grove man has been arrested for making disturbing posts on Facebook.

Officers were contacted by a family member of 46-year-old Mark William Flicker. The relative expressed concern about erratic Facebook posts from Flicker, adding he had ongoing family issues and had been drinking heavily.

The police reviewed the posts, and the police determined that Flicker could potentially pose a danger to the public. Flicker did not specifically threaten any specific person, business, or place.

Among his posts was one indicating he had ordered a firearm online. Another family member told police Flicker had gone to his mother’s residence to retrieve a firearm from a gun safe.

Police determined Flicker had unsuccessfully attempted to open the gun safe without his mother’s permission. He was arrested on suspicion of burglary and attempted grand theft of firearms and booked into the Orange County Jail. Bail was set at $2 million.

Police along with the Orange County District Attorney’s Office served Flicker with a firearms emergency protective order preventing him from legally possessing any guns pending further investigation. Officers served a search warrant at Flicker’s residence and recovered several electronic devices, but did not find any firearms.

On the surface we have a drunken racist white guy trying to get his hands on a gun. His family saved him, and possibly countless others.

Unable to bring down the President, the #EliteMedia turns its wrath on the #FirstLady

Since the fake news isn’t sticking to President Trump, journalists are turning their wrath on the First Lady.

How much more humiliation can Melania Trump take? That’s the blaring headline in the Los Angeles Times.

The Times gets no good vibes from the Trump marriage. They’ve concluded that President Trump, who they say demands adoration, would no doubt love for Melania to gaze upon him the way Nancy Reagan gazed upon her Ronnie. But Ronnie didn’t cheat on Nancy with porn stars and Playmates.

That’s right, we’re supposed to believe all of their tabloid journalism and fake news attacking the President. (As a reminder, we’re not supposed to believe any of the salacious tales attacking President’s Clinton or Obama though.)

To the Times,  the First Lady is just a prop in her husband’s reality show. So she can be kicked around and humiliated too.

So the elite media cranks out non-stop slander about the President, then they opine that our first lady does not seem to be having a good time.

Go figure.

Porn star Stormy Daniels said she was paid to stay quiet about an affair she alleges she had with Trump. She’s the elite media’s new superstar. We’re supposed to believe it without question.

Another salacious piece of gossip printed by the New Yorker reported that former Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal kept a diary of the nine-month affair she began with Trump in 2006.

We’re supposed to believe this without question as well just like the Los Angeles Times does.

In the end, American still support The President. That has the elite media outraged, so they’re turning their wrath on the First Lady.

#SiliconValley elites outraged that they have to comply with US immigration laws

The Trump administration is bringing a new level of scrutiny to a temporary work visa popular among technology firms, costing employers more time and money as they seek to bring foreign workers to the United States.

The days of the free lunch for tech companies are over, and they are now being told they have to follow U.S. immigration law like everyone else. That has Silicon Valley elites outraged.

The Mercury News report that from January to August 2017, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services sent 85,265 requests for evidence in response to H-1B visa applications, a 45 percent increase compared to the same period a year earlier, agency data show.

Immigration lawyers say these requests — made when an application is missing required documents or the agency determines it needs more proof to decide if a worker is eligible for the visa — could even discourage companies and individuals from seeking an H-1B visa in the first place.

Administration officials say the scrutiny is needed to ensure the integrity of the controversial visa program, which critics say has cost American jobs.

Overall, about 27 percent of all H-1B visa applications USCIS received in the first eight months of 2017 got a request for evidence.

For the same eight-month period of the prior year, under the Obama administration, about 19 percent of all H-1B visa applications USCIS received got a request for evidence. Some applications received in both years may have received more than one request for evidence.

Answering requests for evidence increases the time employers spend on H-1B applications and legal costs for attorneys’ guidance in obtaining and submitting the additional information. This is the kind of thing that was either ignored or swept under the rug in the past.

Some lawyers said they felt like a different standard was being applied, compared to previous years. Applications they expected would get approval before President Trump took office are either being challenged or denied.

Yes, there is a different standard. It’s called following the law.

#EliteMedia struggles to make #ShaunWhite’s sex crimes go away

It was expected to be a coronation: snowboarder Shaun White, shredding the halfpipe in an epic performance that won him Olympic gold.

As he basked in the story of the Winter Games, allegations of sexual misconduct resurfaced, first on social media, then at White’s victory news conference. Eager to focus on his win, White waved away the accusations with a choice of words that made things worse, not better.

“I’m here to talk about the Olympics,” he said, “not gossip and stuff.”

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that like some other high-profile men, sex criminal White found his triumphal moment usurped by an abruptly resurfacing past. And a story that had received scant attention between Olympic cycles was suddenly one of the biggest in the world.

Hours later, he was on NBC’s “Today” show apologizing for his comment. But in the era of #metoo, what should have been a triumphal and defining moment in White’s life collided with one of his lowest.

The elite media is crying alligator tears. Apparently White has made the cut and has become one of the sex criminals the elite media has decided to shelter.

As his legacy is written and rewritten, White will be remembered more for his accusations of sexual misconduct. That’s how it should be. Winning a gold medal in the Olympics doesn’t make everything all better. No matter how hard the elite media struggles to make it so.

#PUC schemes with #PG&E to raise fire victim’s rates

Michael Picker, president of the PUC, a tool of the energy industry and an enemy of ratepayers.

The California Public Utilities Commission, a tool of the energy industries, is scheming with PG&E so stick it to rural ratepayers who have been victimized by the recent fires in Northern California.

Michael Picker, president of the PUC, floated the idea during a Jan. 31 meeting on fire safety for utility companies. With more Californians moving into rural areas prone to fires, he questioned the fairness of forcing all utility customers to pay the costs of preventing rural wildfires sparked by utility lines.

“Should we actually start to charge differentially for the use of the distribution system for those sections that are in the high-fire-hazard zone and people who choose to live there?” Picker said.

So your house burns down due to PG&E negligence and the PUC raises your electric rates.

While it wasn’t a formal proposal, Picker said in a follow-up interview that it’s an idea worth discussing. As last fall’s deadly, wind-driven blazes in both Northern and Southern California showed, the state now faces the threat of wildfires even at times of year once considered safe. And Californians are increasingly moving into harm’s way.

“As we spend more to harden the grid and protect people in those high-risk areas, how do we pay for it?” Picker said in the interview. “If you’re in Richmond, do you want to be paying to protect vacation homes in Napa?”

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that state investigators have yet to pinpoint the causes of last year’s fires. However, power lines tossed about by harsh winds are considered a likely culprit. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. even admitted finding damaged equipment near the suspected ignition points of the four biggest North Bay fires. The night the fires began, Sonoma County emergency dispatchers received reports of downed or sparking power lines, blown transformers or other concerns with PG&E’s equipment from more than 50 locations.

The idea of basing rates on the risks associated with a particular location is common among insurance companies.

Electricity rates don’t work that way. A spokeswoman for a national association of utility regulators said her group didn’t know of any utility with different rates for urban versus rural customers. Someone building a home in the hinterlands will typically pay more to start service than will a new home owner in a town or city, particularly if the rural home sits at a distance from existing power lines. But the monthly rates will be the same.

#Racisim explodes in #Sacramento schools

Sacramento might as well be in Mississippi.

For whites only.

Exclusive magnet academies in the Sacramento region are meant to draw the best students from across their districts, but they are in fact enclaves of white students from middle- and upper-income homes – schools within schools catering to limited demographics.

A review of Sacramento County schools by the Sacramento Bee revealed that the number of African American and Hispanic students in accelerated high school programs is often much lower than the percentages in the general student population at the same school.

Little wonder. Sacramento is one of California’s most racist communities.

McClatchy High School faced controversy last week when a student in its accelerated program did a science fair project questioning if there were low numbers of certain races in the program because they had lower intelligence levels. After the project came to light, Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jorge Aguilar announced a review of equity and diversity in elite programs district-wide. He also said the district would investigate how the student’s project was allowed to go on display.

Mira Loma High School in the San Juan Unified School District is under investigation by the U.S. Department of Education after the National Center for Youth Law filed a civil rights complaint saying school officials did nothing when African American students dropped out of the IB program after being harassed and belittled because of their race last year.

The lack of diversity is an open secret and indicative of ongoing discrimination that Sacramento schools and districts have perpetuated for years.

 

Police complain #SanctuaryCities are opioid distribution centers

According to the Sacramento Bee, the hearing by the House Judiciary Committee’s immigration subcommittee was triggered by complaints from Nick Rodgers, president of the Denver police union, that Denver’s sanctuary city ordinance — which discourages officers from communicating with federal immigration authorities — is impeding efforts to combat the opioid crisis.

Jackson County Sheriff A.J. Louderback of Texas argued that sanctuary city policies make the process of detaining drug dealers who are illegal immigrants less efficient, and a lack of efficiency in law enforcement increases the likelihood that criminals wind up back on the streets.

The opioid consumers in America and their supporters on Capitol Hill and in the elite media have immediately gone into spin mode to downplay the correlation between the crime ridden sanctuary cities and drug use. After all, Americans love drugs, and they will do or say anything to get stoned.

 

A decision on sex criminal Mendoza could come any day now

The Sacramento Bee  is reporting that the Senate Rules Committee is putting the finishing touches on its recommendation to the rest of the Senate on what to do about their sex criminal colleague Tony Mendoza.

Last week the five-member panel of lawmakers reviewed a report on the now-completed investigation. All senators are to receive the facts tomorrow.

Mendoza is on paid leave pending the outcome of the probe.

A panel of lawmakers also previously stripped him of his committee posts, including his chairmanship of the Insurance, Banking and Financial Institutions Committee.  A major juice committee. So this is costing him a lot of money.

On Thursday, a day before Democrats gather in San Diego for their annual convention, the Senate could take action on Mendoza if the punishment is serious enough to require a floor vote. Possible repercussions for him include censure, suspension, expulsion, or no discipline at all. (We’re banking on the latter….hey, it’s Sacramento.)

Officials say Mendoza would be given the opportunity to tell his side of the story, a scenario that would draw considerable attention given the heightened tensions between the disgraced official and his colleagues, some of whom have grown impatient with him.

In the lawsuit Mendoza brought last week, Mendoza asserted that the Senate has treated him unfairly and violated his constitutional rights when the panel of lawmakers extended his voluntary leave of absence late last month. Hubris knows no boundaries.

 

A humiliated Bonnie Dumanis is nailed for trying to double-dip

After being caught red-handed, former District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis held a meeting with reporters to say she will not accept a salary if elected to the Board of Supervisors.

Her pledge came after the San Diego Union-Tribune reported that she hired lawyers to lobby pension officials to keep receiving her $268,800 annual pension should she be elected to the board in June.

Dumanis, 66, who retired as San Diego County district attorney in July collects an annual pension of $268,800.

The report relied on 80-plus pages of exchanges between pension officials and Dumanis’ lawyers throughout last year. None of the records stated that the candidate was seeking to avoid collecting a county salary and pension at the same time — a practice long criticized as “double-dipping.”

In fact, the county records repeatedly refer to the salary that Dumanis would be expected to receive.

Records show Dumanis first contacted pension officials early last year, asking how she could preserve her retirement benefits if she won a seat on the Board of Supervisors.

Pension lawyers responded that the practice was not legal, and if she were elected she would have to be reinstated into the county pension system and her monthly retirement checks would stop for as long as she served.

After Gov. Jerry Brown in September signed legislation that permitted Dumanis and others to collect a salary and pension concurrently, Dumanis’ lawyers contacted pension officials to alert them to the change in law. The retirement system wrote back agreeing that Dumanis could now receive both payments.

“That is good news for our client,” Dumanis attorney Marissa Morimoto replied in an October email. “Thank you for letting us know.”

Dumanis tried to pull a fast one, and she got caught. It’s all we need to know about her honesty….or rather lack of it.

 

The AP’s manipulation of grieving young people is an disgusting affront to journalism

The Associated Press has crafted a story, running nationally and carried in California bo the Los Angeles Daily News and other newspapers that in essence, lays the blame for the Florida school shooting squarely on the shoulders of President Trump.

That’s right. To the AP, President Trump may just as well have burst into that school armed to the teeth, and committed all that carnage.

The story gleefully focuses on students who escaped the deadly school shooting. They say President Trump’s response to the attack was “needlessly divisive.”

“You’re the president. You’re supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us,” said David Hogg, a 17-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in South Florida, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“How dare you,” he added.

Hogg was responding to Trump’s tweet Saturday that Democrats hadn’t passed any gun control measures during the brief time they controlled Congress with a supermajority in the Senate. Trump also alluded to the FBI’s failure to act on tips that the suspect was dangerous, while bemoaning the bureau’s focus on Russia’s role in the 2016 election.

The President is right on both counts.  The AP’s manipulation of grieving young people is a disgusting affront to journalism.

 

More sex crime allegations roil the Capitol

The Sacramento Bee is reporting that a former employee of Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia filed a complaint with the state seeking to sue the Bell Gardens Democrat for allegedly firing him after he refused to play “spin the bottle” with her.

That’s creepy.

In the complaint to the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, J. David Kernick of San Diego wrote that during his time as a field representative in 2014, Garcia was “very disparaging to the staff and others, used vulgar language, discussed topics inappropriate for the workplace and showed herself to be very vindictive in nature.”

OK…she’s a typical legislator.

It is the second accusation of sexual misconduct against Garcia, who is currently on a voluntary, unpaid leave of absence while the Assembly investigates claims that she drunkenly groped a former legislative staff member. In addition, a lawyer has released a list of other allegations from four former employees in Garcia’s office who said they wished to remain anonymous.

In his complaint, Kernick wrote that Garcia was “seemingly not critical” of his work until “after he questioned the appropriateness of her suggestion that after a fundraiser at a whiskey bar” they “sit on the floor of her hotel room and play spin the bottle.”

Earlier this week, four anonymous former Garcia staffers submitted a complaint to the Assembly through the same attorney as Kernick, describing a “toxic environment” of heavy drinking and graphic sexual discussions in her office.

It also included at least one allegation of illegal activity: that Garcia sometimes directed her staff to perform campaign work, such as fundraising and donation request calls, on Assembly time.

Daniel Fierro, who now operates a political communications firm in Cerritos, said Garcia cornered him at a legislative softball game in 2014, squeezed his butt and attempted to grab his crotch. He said it was hypocritical of Garcia to put herself at the forefront of the Capitol’s anti-sexual harassment movement, and he came forward because he heard that others may have had similar experiences with her.

Eeeeeewwwwww!

In Sacramento, sex criminals always come out ahead — their victims, not so much

Somehow it always seems like sex criminals come out ahead in Sacramento. No such luck for their victims.

When the state Senate investigated sexual harassment allegations against a high-ranking legislative staffer three years ago, the house’s handling appeared to be done quickly and decidedly. The staffer, Steve Davey, was placed on paid leave and ultimately resigned as chief of staff at the request of his boss, Republican Sen. Ted Gaines.

But Davey wasn’t without a job. Gaines’ campaign hired him immediately, even as the investigation continued, then kept him on after the allegations were substantiated. In fact, a San Francisco Chronicle review of documents released this month by the Legislature and other public records show that legislative employees who were disciplined for sexual harassment, even those who were fired or forced to resign, often faced no long-term effects on their careers.

Some even came out ahead.

One staffer was disciplined and went on to become an assemblyman. Another was fired, and appointed by Gov. Jerry Brown to a higher-paying job just three months later.

On the other hand, many workers who complained of sexual harassment have had no such luck. Out-of-court settlement records show that the employees who complained were often dismissed, required to sign nondisclosure agreements and barred from applying for other jobs in the Senate or Assembly.

In one case, a former legislative staffer, Kristina Zahn, said she was fired in 2013 after she complained that then-Assemblyman Steve Fox, D-Palmdale (Los Angeles County), made inappropriate sexual comments and forced her to do unpaid campaign work. She sued, then reached a settlement with Fox and the Assembly in 2015. In the settlement, the Assembly paid $110,000 to Zahn to cover her attorney fees and back pay. But she had to agree never to apply for a job in the Assembly again.

Some women who have spoken out as part of the #MeToo movement have reported that male lawmakers and lobbyists are hesitant to meet with them, saying they are too afraid of false accusations.

One Sacramento lobbyist, Alicia Lewis, said she was fired a week after signing the October letter titled “We Said Enough” that prompted the #MeToo movement in the Capitol. Lewis filed a lawsuit last month against the Wilke, Fleury, Hoffelt, Gould and Barney law firm, claiming wrongful termination and retaliation.

Some things never change.