Good ol' Tom

And now for another installment in our irregular look at Republicans who feed at the public employee union trough. According to this press release, the California State Sheriff’s Association has just named Senator Tom Harman (R, Huntington Beach) — and

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Names! All I wanted were names!

Just thought I’d blog for a bit about the journalistic process, as it pertains to my Jan. 15 column “Using soldiers as props,” which was hooked to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s State of the State Address. “[I]f you look to the

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Bill Language To Change

After reading my story about AB 978, the bill proposing to streamline the business permitting process only for California businesses contracting with the state, the office of Assemblyman V. Manual Perez, the author of the bill, called me. Amy Wilson

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Junk bond territory

California’s dysfunctional government yesterday saw its bond rating drop again: Jan. 14 (Bloomberg) — California bondholders got an early glimpse of what the state’s budget-negotiation season may bring as a looming $20 billion deficit led Standard & Poor’s to cut

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Capitol Security Conundrum

Having been recently mugged downtown, I carry pepper spray. Last week, I forgot I had it in my pocket, and went through the security screening at the entrance to the State Capitol. The metal detector beeped, I blushed and handed

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Helping Haiti

One thing right about California is we know how to deal with earthquakes. After the 7.0 temblor in Haiti that reportedly killed many thousands, California will be sending rescue teams to help dig people out from under the rubble. If

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Vote by mail soars in 72nd race

Fred Smoller of Brandman University (and an advisor to CalWatchdog) made this observation regarding the 72nd Assembly District race: “With 197 of 197 precincts reporting, turnout for the 72nd special election was a dismal 14.8 percent. 81 percent of the

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Will Norby be the new McClintock?

Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby, a Republican from Fullerton, easily won the 72nd Assembly District seat vacated by a disgraced Mike Duvall. This was no surprise given that California’s heavily gerrymandered legislative districts assure that Republicans will win Republican seats

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'Almost non-existent'

The Legislative Analyst’s Office released their long-awaited 2010-11 Budget Analysis this afternoon, and it’s not likely anyone will have any trouble finding the money quote: “While the odds seem favorable for some federal relief sought by the administration, we believe the likelihood

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Arnold's top achievement

Gov. Arnold’s more than six years in office have been pretty dismal. He never “blew up the boxes” of government waste, as he promised. He never came close to solving the state’s endemic budget deficits. But there’s one area where

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