CalWatchdog Morning Read – April 29

• CA Republican Party convention kicks off
• Donald Trump holds contentious rally in Costa Mesa
• President Obama disappoints Armenian-Americans

TGIF! Today is the first day of the California Republican convention. While political conventions are usually a snoozefest — unless you like a dearth of news and partisans in funny outfits — this should be different. 

All three remaining GOP presidential candidates are scheduled to speak, including business tycoon Donald Trump. Opponents have promised to protest, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Times also highlights some ballot initiatives that California Republicans may consider, including pot, the death penalty, the plastic bag ban, cigarette taxes and guns. 

Assembly Republicans — who, along with their Senate colleagues, are locked in a life or death battle between relevancy and being a super minority — are not expecting to make waves at the convention. Recognizing that the presidential contest will surely overshadow their messaging efforts, Assembly Republicans have resigned to holding seats in 2016, while building caucus unity as well as relationships on the other side of the aisle, in an effort to push an agenda after the election. CalWatchdog has more.

And speaking of Trump, he held a rally in Costa Mesa on Thursday, doubling down on immigration, according to The Sacramento Bee. “No state in America has suffered worse from open borders than the state of California,” Trump said. 

In non-Trump or CAGOP convention news, President Barack Obama, like his predecessors, failed to label as genocide the century-old mass slaughter of Armenians at the hands of the Turks, disappointing both Armenian-American leaders and the New York Times. CalWatchdog has more.