Hemp pilot bill passes Senate

Ali Meyer: On June 29, the Senate passed Sen. Mark Leno’s bill SB 676, which authorizes a pilot project for growing industrial hemp, a marjuana-related plant that provides useful products without the psychoactive properties of marijuana.  The bill defines “industrial

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Rex Hime paves way for split rolls

Steven Greenhut: Rex Hime is president of the California Business Properties Association, a trade group representing commercial property owners, and someone who is adamantly opposed to the split-rolls tax, which would remove Prop. 13 protections from commercial property owners. Yet

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Union backs union candidate!

Steven Greenhut: Here’s a dog-bites-man story from Orange County, where liberal Republican Todd Spitzer, a staunch union ally who foisted unsustainable pension benefits on the county as supervisor, just was endorsed by a law-enforcement association (union) for his new run

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Skelton: Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax, Tax

John Seiler: In his column on the budget disaster, L.A. Times columnist George Skelton continues with his perpetual mantra: tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax, tax,

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Redevelopment is dead! Hooray!

Steven Greenhut: The governor signed the legislation killing redevelopment. What else can I say other than hasta la vista! JUNE 29, 2011

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Amazon Warns It Will Fire Affiliates

John Seiler: Update, 6:13 pm, June 29, 2011: Gov. Jerry “Kill Businesses” Brown just signed this jobs-killing bill. It also slams Internet commerce globally, something anyone in California should oppose because of our huge Internet companies. Brown fashions himself a

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Left spitting mad at Jerry Brown

Steven Greenhut: Maybe the old, cantankerous and unpredictable Jerry Brown is rearing his head at the state Capitol. The governor, despite being a close ally of the labor unions, actually vetoed Darrell Steinberg’s noxious SB104, which would have essentially eliminated

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John Shirey Calls The Kettle Black

Steven Greenhut: The California Redevelopment Association’s claim that the state’s attempt to take money from redevelopment agencies is a form of “illegal extortion” is one of the most hypocritical and otherworldly statements I’ve heard in a long while. Never mind

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Shallow Cuts For Lifeguard Pensions

Katy Grimes: With the recent discovery that many Southern California lifeguards receive the same fat pensions as other “public safety” officers and fire fighters, the public outcry at the absurdity is apparently paying off. The Newport Beach City Council is

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But — It's Still a Phony Budget

John Seiler: If a new budget passes as described in news accounts, Controller John Chiang should continue withholding legislators’ pay. That’s because the deal worked out between Gov. Jerry Brown and the dominant Democrats in the Legislature still would be

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