MONDAY MORNING MEMORANDUM

Farewell To My Friends

2006-11-14T16:12:00.000-08:00

I have spent a lot of time trying to think of what I would say to each of you in this, my last, Monday Morning Memorandum. God, and some gonzo lawyer, has put an end to this phase of my political career, and I personally don’t have the hardware or the training to send this out each week to the 30 or so thousand of you that receive this memo. So, I have to end this commentary, for the moment. If I can, I will resume it, but for the moment, this is the last of my comments to you.

14 years is a long time, and I have spent that time in Sacramento doing what I can to change the direction of California. For the moment, it appears that I have been unsuccessful, but I know that my duty has been done. I stood for what I believed was right. I expressed that belief at every occasion, and I fought the battles necessary. For that, I have earned great friends and a good life.

To my constituents in Western Riverside and Northern San Diego Counties, thank you. It has been a great honor in my life to be able to represent you. You invested a level of faith in my abilities. I only hope that I have justified the faith you had in me. To the others who have fought the good fight, I only hope that from time to time something I have said and done helps you continue the fight. Our country and our state are worth fighting for. The freedom our founding fathers secured with their blood, and each succeeding generation has preserved with theirs, is unique in this world, and it is our duty to pass it along to our children. No sacrifice is too great to ensure that we preserve that legacy. It would be a sad comment if our posterity were to look back at our time and said, “They ruined it for us.” It is our responsibility to ensure their futures.

There will always be those who say that compromise and peace are better than freedom. We will be exhorted to lay down our arms to “work together” with those who would expand their power at the expense of our freedom. That is the siren’s song. We cannot destroy our children’s future freedom on the shoals of a compromise to achieve a peace that increases the power of government. Diligence in the preservation of freedom requires a willingness to ignore the insults of those who counsel surrender to power. Our short term distress and unease will yield to the long term internal peace in the knowledge that we have done our duty for our children and grandchildren, that we have preserved this great republic for their enjoyment as our forbears preserved it for us.

The battle is never over. Even now, after this last election, some are telling us to give up, to “just get along” with those who have made it clear that their acquisition of power is more important than freedom for our children. My counsel is this: Never give up. This is just one short term setback in the return of a national and state government that recognizes its limits and its power. The next election is just two years away, but freedom sacrificed for short term peace may never be regained.

I don’t know what will happen to me. I do know that the cause for which I have fought these last 14 years is an important cause. It is the cause for which hundreds of thousands have fought and died throughout the entire history of our Republic. It is the cause of limited government, individual freedom, and family. It is the cause of freedom.

In my time in the Legislature, I have had the opportunity to cut your taxes, and the opportunity to participate in a small way in the historic recall of a Governor. I have had the opportunity to fight against every increase in the size of state government, and to fight for families and the children not yet born. I may not have succeeded in all my endeavors, but I have never turned from a fight. I never will, and I hope you don’t either.

Thank you.

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Let's do our part to thank veterans

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_4627233

11-09-06

All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women who have served in uniform. I feel strongly that we must do more to recognize the contributions of veterans and to express appreciation. On Veterans Day - and throughout the year - I would like to see Americans take the following steps to show our individual and collective thanks: Think about veterans. Take a moment to remember those who have served in the armed forces.

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School district devours classroom funding

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/
editorial2/20061105-9999-mz1ed5bottom.html

11-06-06

One of the enduring mysteries of our public school system is why spending more money does almost nothing to better educate our children. The answers are troubling. For openers, California pours far too much money into the maw of school district bureaucracies. Consider San Diego Unified, which in 2001 spent 62.5 percent of its operating budget inside its classrooms. That's according to SchoolMatters, a neutral clearinghouse for federal data. This year the district's budget calls for just 53 percent. So a key measure of efficiency is in free-fall.

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World listens in online when Cal professor teaches physics

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/
c/a/2006/11/06/BAGCVM6PHC1.DTL

11-06-06

UC Berkeley physics Professor Richard A. Muller finds himself suddenly popular in some surprising corners of the world. It turns out self-starting students in 35 states and 43 countries have been watching the 90-minute "Physics for Future Presidents" talks he gives every Tuesday and Thursday morning to a packed lecture hall of 300 undergrads on campus. And the list is growing.

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Election could drive minimum-wage hike

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-minwage
9nov09,1,4304720.story?coll=la-headlines-
business

11-09-06

The first raise in the U.S. minimum wage in a decade has become a very likely possibility following Tuesday's Democratic election victories and passage of minimum-wage ballot measures in six states. President Bush suggested Wednesday that he would agree to a hike in the federal minimum, set at $5.15 an hour since 1997. This could restore a bit of California's competitive edge by making its recently passed minimum-wage hike less out of line with other states.

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Santa Ana is now nation's largest city with an all-Latino city council
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
santaana9nov09,1,1362569.story?coll=la-
headlines-california

11-09-06

Santa Ana has already been anointed the most Spanish-speaking city in the United States. Now, it is the largest U.S. city with an all-Latino city council. On Tuesday, three Latino candidates won seats on the city's seven-member council, joining four other Latino incumbents. According to the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, no other city with a population over 300,000 holds that distinction.

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San Bernardino's bad luck underlies its crime wave

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
sbmurders6nov06,1,1000463.story?coll=la-
headlines-california

11-06-06

As daylight faded in San Bernardino, Reggie Brown, 12, traced a familiar path on his red bike: from Home Avenue to the white house on Magnolia Street where his friend Anthony Ramirez, 11, lived before he was shot to death. One evening in June, nearly a dozen neighborhood kids were choosing teams for a pickup basketball game at nearby Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School when a 15-year-old aspiring gang member fired into the crowd, striking Anthony in the back.

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State ads blur lines of political influence

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/71366.html

11-06-06

California's state auditor last week issued a scathing review of the practices of a commission created in 1998 when voters approved a tobacco tax increase to fund services for young children. The California Children and Families Commission, the auditors said, used shoddy practices and violated state law in awarding millions of dollars in contracts to private firms for public relations work to promote its causes. But these transgressions, serious as they are, were run-of-the-mill government malfeasance. The commission skirted bidding rules and failed to account properly for costs. These problems can be corrected with better controls and improved oversight. People who broke the law can be prosecuted.

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New York Plans to Make Gender Personal Choice

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/07/nyregion/07
gender.html?ei=5090&en=2586a6f49b530f49&ex=
1320555600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssuserland&emc
=rss&pagewanted=print&adxnnlx=1162953783-
nH7zdytSjxXLuNR7opwHNA

11-7-06

Separating anatomy from what it means to be a man or a woman, New York City is moving forward with a plan to let people alter the sex on their birth certificate even if they have not had sex-change surgery. Under the rule being considered by the city’s Board of Health, which is likely to be adopted soon, people born in the city would be able to change the documented sex on their birth certificates by providing affidavits from a doctor and a mental health professional laying out why their patients should be considered members of the opposite sex, and asserting that their proposed change would be permanent. Applicants would have to have changed their name and shown that they had lived in their adopted gender for at least two years, but there would be no explicit medical requirements.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

From - the editor@ccnews.org - it has been a pleausre and joy to stand in the wing watching and assisting the Monday Morning Memorandum as a blog with real satisfaction. Assembyman Haynes, you have done an outstanding job and you are much appreciated by the people of California. We will not forget you. Instead we will pray for God's blessing of protection, direction and favor (pdf) over this next phase of your life. The best is yet to come! Thank you for your leadership and sacrifice as a public servant!

Fight For Freedom

2006-11-06T14:55:00.000-08:00

FREEDOM COSTS

November 6, 2006

This is a call to action. For too long, we have been told to “vote our pocketbooks.” That sort of selfishness has left us with a selfish government. We can no longer vote “our pocketbook,” we must vote for our children’s political freedom.

For those who may wonder what they can do to vote for freedom, it is simple. We need to vote for smaller government, less taxes, property rights, and candidates who support these principles.

That’s it, and that has to become a moral imperative for those of us who believe in these principles.

Bonds grow government. Taxes grow government. Property rights shrink government, and shrink government taxes.

That is why the Governor’s opposition to Proposition 90 makes absolutely no sense.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I like Governor Schwarzenegger, and he is the better candidate by far. Even when I was criticizing him for growing state government too much, I still wanted him to be re-elected. The alternative would be disastrous. That desire, however, doesn’t mean that I abandon all common sense.

In his statement opposing Proposition 90, the Governor said that he believed “independent analysts” who said that Proposition 90 would lead to “higher taxes,” and that is why he is opposing the initiative. Of course in reality, his bonds are more likely to lead to higher taxes than Proposition 90, but even assuming that were not so, when have those in “government” been worried about increasing taxes? The independent analysts the Governor cited have openly and consistently advocated for greater taxes for welfare and other government programs. It appears that the only time they apparently worry about increased taxes is when the government is going to have to pay out money if it intrudes on individual freedom.

More important, the independent analysts are not all that independent. They work for government, and ignored the evidence brought to them that Proposition 90 will not cost any more money. Unfortunately, for these “independent analysts,” they sacrificed their independence to achieve a political goal, that is, the defeat of Proposition 90.

Even if the initiative would cost more money, the cost would be justifiable, since the major role of government is to protect our personal security and our individual freedom. Having said that, however, I don’t believe Proposition 90 will increase government costs one penny. What it will do is change the government’s behavior. Right now, government can trample on an individual’s property rights with impunity. Proposition 90 will hold those government officials accountable if they do so. That is fair and proper. To complain that a government agency may have to pay if that agency abuses a landowner is akin to arguing that it is unfair to require someone to pay for an accident they caused. It is nonsensical.

I don’t expect our elected officials to understand the nuances of protecting freedom, but it is fair to expect them to do all they can to protect individual freedom, not government prerogative. Unfortunately, the Governor chose government over the individual when choosing to oppose Proposition 90. The Sacramento establishment opposed 90, and the Governor chose not to fight that establishment.

We, however, can fight that establishment. We can choose freedom. We can choose property rights. We can choose to limit the power of government and to limit government prerogative when it interferes with our individual freedom. We can do that when we vote. Many Americans have fought and died to protect our freedom. We can honor their sacrifice and their legacy by choosing to exercise our vote to promote and protect freedom. Voting for freedom is not that great a sacrifice, but it can make all the difference in the world for the future we are creating for our children.

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Taxing Decisions

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20061101/news_lz1ed1top.html

11-01-06

You are not alone if you think this year's voter information booklet, which seems as thick as the San Diego phone book, is pretty intimidating. Thankfully, however, help has arrived from the Tax Foundation. In a recent study, the respected Washington think tank reports that California's tax policies make it more hostile to business when compared with other states. Last year, California's “business tax climate” was the nation's ninth-worst; this year it is the nation's sixth-worst, surpassed only by those rust-bucket engines of innovation in New York, Ohio, New Jersey, Vermont and Rhode Island.

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819 More From Class Of ’06 Pass California Exit Exam

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/local/15909108.htm

110-02-06

When more than 40,000 seniors from the Class of 2006 failed to pass the California High School Exit Exam before graduation in June, many schools offered prep classes and extra help. The hope was that educators would track the students who didn't receive a diploma and encourage them to keep taking the test until they graduated from high school. But five months after graduation season, only 819 students -- about 2 percent of the former seniors who didn't pass the exam last year -- have earned winning marks and the chance for their high school diploma.

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Is the Sky Really Falling? A Review of Recent Global Warming Scare Stories

by Patrick J. Michaels, The Cato Institute

http://www.cato.org/pub_display.
php?pub_id=6622

08-23-06

Executive Summary

In the last two years, a remarkable amount of disturbing news has been published concerning global warming, largely concentrating on melting of polar ice, tropical storms and hurricanes, and mass extinctions. The sheer volume of these stories appears to be moving the American political process toward some type of policy restricting emissions of carbon dioxide. It is highly improbable, in a statistical sense, that new information added to any existing forecast is almost always “bad” or “good”; rather, each new finding has an equal probability of making a forecast worse or better. Consequently, the preponderance of bad news almost certainly means that something is missing, both in the process of science itself and in the reporting of science. This paper examines in detail both recent scientific reports on climate change and the communication of those reports. Needless to say, the unreported information is usually counter to the bad news. Reports of rapid disintegration of Greenland’s ice ignore the fact that the region was warmer than it is now for several decades in the early 20th century, before humans could have had much influence on climate. Similar stories concerning Antarctica neglect the fact that the net temperature trend in recent decades is negative, or that warming the surrounding ocean can serve only to enhance snowfall, resulting in a gain in ice. Global warming affects hurricanes in both positive and negative fashions, and there is no relationship between the severity of storms and ocean-surface temperature, once a commonly exceeded threshold temperature is reached. Reports of massive species extinction also turn out to be impressively flawed. This constellation of half-truths and misstatements is a predictable consequence of the way that science is now conducted, where issues compete with each other for public support. Unfortunately, this creates a culture of negativity that is reflected in the recent spate of global warming reports.

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Sun Delivers For Oakland Mail Plant

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
localnews/ci_4584229

11-01-06

Chevron is going solar. The San Ramon-based energy company today unveils one of the nation's larger solar arrays, a nearly 1-megawatt system atop the U.S. Postal Service's processing plant in West Oakland. The solar array, combined with energy-efficiency improvements made throughout the cavernous sorting plant, will save the agency an easy $1 million a year and cut power purchases from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. by nearly one-third.

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Choices, choices, choices

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/47308.html

11-01-06

When it comes to natural gas, California faces a quandary. On one hand, the state does not have a terminal anywhere along its coast that can off-load LNG (natural gas that is stored in a ship in its super-cooled, liquefied form). On the other hand, California does have an increasing demand for natural gas. It has become the clean-burning fuel of choice to generate electricity and heat homes. Yet new domestic supplies aren't keeping up with future demands.

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The Audacity of Hospitals

Do you want cheese with that whine?
Written By: Greg Scandlen, Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19987

11-01-06

When it comes to audacity, no industry has hospitals beat. For how many years have you heard them whine about the inappropriate use of emergency rooms? The hospitals are especially unhappy because they are the providers of first resort for all the illegal immigrants coming into the country, which adds an enormous burden to their finances. So the federal government appropriates one billion dollars to help with that problem ... and the hospitals can't be bothered to collect it. A September 19 Chicago Tribune article quoted the director of the federal Center for Medicare Management, Herb Kuhn, as saying, "We are really not certain why providers are not claiming the money." The article lists a number of excuses the hospitals give. They complain they might have to hire a staffer to apply for the funds because the application process is too complicated. The feds won't give them enough money (so they would rather have none). And reason number one is that it would be rude to ask patients about their immigration status.

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Brewer’s Millions

http://dailynews.com/opinions/ci_4581983

11-01-06

If the cliché that you get what you pay for holds true in public education, then the Los Angeles Unified School District will soon have an educational miracle-worker as superintendent. It better. Because absent some truly extraordinary leadership, it's hard to see how the taxpayers of Los Angeles aren't overpaying for incoming Superintendent David Brewer III. Aside from his staggering six-figure salary, just look at Brewer's other perks: A $45,000 annual expense account. A $3,000 monthly housing allowance. Plus a car - and a driver.

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Neither rain, nor sleet, nor squirrel ...

‘It was a freak thing,’ PA letter-carrier says after attack by jumpy rodent

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15530693/

11-02-06

OIL CITY, Pa. - Letter carriers occasionally have to deal with angry dogs or maybe even a spider’s nest in a mailbox, but a mean squirrel?

Barb Dougherty, a 30-year Postal Service employee, said she was attacked and bitten Monday by a squirrel while delivering mail in Oil City, about 75 miles north of Pittsburgh.

“It was a freak thing. It was traumatic,” Dougherty told The Derrick newspaper. “I saw it there on the porch, put the mail in the box and turned to walk away and it jumped on me.”

She said the animal ran up her leg and onto her back.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

The Real Evil In This Election - October 30, 2006

2006-10-30T20:13:00.000-08:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

I guess I’m a real political junkie. I just love political commercials. I know it sounds weird, but I actually change channels during the news programs during an election season, just to see the commercials. Who’s running them, what they say, what they think the issues are, and who are they trying to talk to. Call Republicans racists in the last three weeks of a campaign, and African Americans will forget the bad things that Democrats have done over the last two years, and vote straight Democrat. Talk about raising taxes, and Republicans will vote against it. Talk about protecting the environment and improving education, and Democrats will vote for it. Quite frankly, the messaging becomes so important that the substance of the message is often lost in the words of the message.

Take the No on 90 campaign. They are trying to have it both ways. The “taxpayer trap” words are trying to get Republicans and the “environment” language is trying to get Democrats. They are wrong on both counts, but that is why they are doing it. Messaging.

We see the same thing in the Yes on 86, 87, 88, and 89 campaigns. These initiatives are tax increases. When the Yes on 86 campaign says they want to tax big oil, they don’t say “We are going to tax Big Oil, and give the money to ‘Big Government.’” They say, Big Oil is destroying the world, and we want to stop big oil, and create alternative fuels. You don’t like Big Oil, so you want to stop them, too.

Or, Big Tobacco. Big Tobacco is killing your kids, and they want to kill you. We are going to stop Big Tobacco.

I don’t give money to Big Tobacco. I don’t give money to Big Oil. I pay for gasoline because I like my SUV, and that darn thing needs gas to go. But you can rest assured I will never buy a Prius, or some other low emission vehicle. I hate them. I want to make Big Oil rich with my car. I really dislike cigarettes, so I will never make Big Tobacco rich. However, in both cases, it is my choice. The point is that Big Oil and Big Tobacco make big money because we give it to them for gasoline and cigarettes. If we don’t buy cigarettes, or if we buy a sissy, prissy Prius, they make less money. That is fair.

Big Government, however, makes money by taking it from us. If I don’t like Shell, but I like Chevron, Chevron makes money. If I don’t like the gas tax, but I don’t care about the cigarette tax, I still have to pay Big Government. Big Government doesn’t care about my likes, dislikes, desires, or satisfaction, it just takes the money. The subtext of each of the campaigns for the initiatives to raise taxes is “We don’t like ‘X” industry or group, so take their money, and give it to ‘Big Government.’”

Big Government, not Big Oil or Big Tobacco or special interests or rich people, is the problem. Big Government takes our money, and spends it on what they want to spend it on. My choice is to pay or get shot.

The real evil in society is Big Government. Big Oil and Big Tobacco will leave us alone if we don’t want their stuff. Big Government will search for ways to harass us. As long as we keep giving it money, it will continue to ask for more, and those who make money off of Big Government will continue to pay for the laws to take more. If we vote for Big Government, I guess we get what we deserve.

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We Worked Until July 12 to Pay for Gov't

Written By: Elizabeth Karasmeighan, Budget & Tax News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19645

09-01-06

The typical American this year worked until July 12 to earn enough gross income to pay his or her share of spending and regulatory burdens imposed by federal, state, and local governments, according to the annual Cost of Government Day (COGD) report issued by Americans for Tax Reform. "The Cost of Government Day report has become a true measure of whether the conservative movement is achieving its goal of shrinking the size of government," said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, upon the report's release July 12. "And this year's report demonstrates that there is a lot more work to do at the federal, state, and local levels to prevent government from growing out of control."

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Union Dues And Don’ts

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1329028.php

10-25-06

A fundamental American freedom is being able to spend – or not spend – one's own money on political campaigns, for persons or initiatives. Money forcibly taken from a person to support a candidate or initiative that the person opposes is a form of tyranny. In early November the U.S. Supreme Court will begin hearings on one of the most important cases in this area, Washington vs. Washington Education Association.

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State Regulations Drive Up Health Care Costs: Study

Written By: Michael Coulter, Health Care New, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19753

10-01-06

A report released this summer by The Heritage Foundation's Center for Data Analysis (CDA) demonstrates a strong relationship between state regulation and the rising cost of individual health insurance plans. Insurance premiums are $80 per month higher in states that require more than the national average of 26 benefits, mandate direct access to specialists, make employers liable for damages because of health plans, or prevent insurers from terminating contracts with medical providers, than in states without those regulations. "Differences in health care costs are due to insurance regulation," said author Michael New, Ph.D., a political scientist at the University of Alabama. "In fact, regulation in some states makes it almost impossible to offer individual health insurance plans."

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Backlog in California DNA database impedes detectives

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dna24
oct24,1,710411.story?coll=la-headlines-california

10-24-06

With state officials 14 months behind in putting DNA evidence into a database, Los Angeles police detectives are having a tougher time identifying suspects in hundreds of violent crimes, including five that apparently involve serial killers, officials said Monday.

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Region's illegal immigrant population pegged at 272,000

http://californian.com/articles/2006/10/25/news/
top_stories/1_04_4910_24_06.txt

10-24-06

NORTH COUNTY -- According to a new study, an estimated 272,000 illegal immigrants are living in San Diego, Imperial and southern Riverside counties, a figure that translates to nearly 7 percent of the region's 4 million residents. While the percentage of illegal immigrants remained in the single digits, their numbers are rising rapidly, according to the study. The number of illegal immigrants living in San Diego and Imperial counties rose 38 percent; in southern Riverside County, the number rose 18 percent between 2000 and 2005, according to the study commissioned by the American Immigration Law Foundation, a nonprofit in Washington that supports legal immigration.

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Big Drop In U.S. Home Prices – California Sees Rise

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/10/26/BUGHQLVSTH1.DTL

10-26-06

National housing prices took a record fall in September as the pace of sales skidded for the sixth consecutive month. The median price for an existing home nationwide -- including single-family houses, condos and co-ops -- dropped 2.2 percent to $220,000 from $225,000 a year earlier, according to the National Association of Realtors. It was the biggest drop on an annual basis in monthly housing prices on record.

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Taxifornia, Here We Come

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1330494.php

10-26-06

California may be back on its way to becoming Taxifornia – and that's before voters give their verdicts on Propositions 86 (cigarette tax), 87 (oil tax), 88 (property tax) and 89 (corporation tax). California was rated as having the 45th-worst tax climate among the 50 states in 2007, down from 42nd in 2005, according to the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Climate Index, released this week.

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LAUSD Added More Charter Schools In Fall – City Now Has Most In U.S.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4557582

10-27-06

Los Angeles Unified opened 20 charter schools this fall - roughly one-third the total launched statewide - with most of them modeled after existing programs, the California Charter Schools Association announced Thursday. The opening this fall of 65 public charters in California brings the total to more than 600 campuses, with some 220,000 students enrolled. With that surge, one in 15 public schools statewide is a charter.

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Analysis: Environmental Activists Just Don't Get It

Written By: Joel Schwart, Environment New, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19733

10-01-06

America's entrepreneurs and venture capitalists are passing up a chance to earn billions of dollars by investing in technologies to reduce California's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The only way to overcome business people's stubborn refusal to get rich is for California policymakers to adopt mandatory GHG controls. That's the conclusion of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Climate Action Team, according to an April report to the governor, and of researchers at the University of California at Berkeley Climate Change Center in an August report, "Economic Growth and Greenhouse Gas Mitigation in California." The UC-Berkeley experts claim meeting the governor's GHG reduction target--a 25 percent reduction in GHG emissions by 2020 when compared with a "business-as-usual" projection--would increase California's economic output by $74 billion per year, or more than $1,700 per person. If that's true, then reducing GHGs would create tremendous wealth in and of itself, and society should be eager to do so regardless of how concerned we are about human-induced climate change.

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Celebs Who Claim They're Green but Guzzle Gas

http://www.tmz.com/2006/10/18/celebs-who-
claim-theyre-green-but-guzzle-gas

10-18-06

Hybrid cars are all the rage in Hollywood. Celebrities drive them like they're a badge of honor. You save a few gallons of gas, you save the planet. Right? Well, not when you hop on a private jet and burn enough fuel to propel NASCAR through 2050. Of course, the stars need to go here and there. The location shoots, the fabulous vacations, etc. But that's why God created United Airlines. G-IV's, on the other hand, were created in the image of precious celebs.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

The Greatest Generation? - October 23, 2006

2006-10-23T12:28:00.000-07:00

A lot of comments have been directed at this country’s “greatest generation,” those who suffered the Great Depression, fought World War II, and then rebuilt this country from the ruins of those catastrophic events.

I remember, as my generation attended college and entered the workforce, a lot of debate among my peers as to what we would do when we take over. We all thought we would “do it right,” make this country a better place to work, live and raise a family. I think I can say, having inherited a sizable legacy from the “Greatest Generation,” the baby boomers have pretty much screwed things up.

My peers really thought they were smarter than anybody else. Just ask them. They will tell you how much smarter they are than you. You are greedy. If you keep your money, you will just spend it on selfish things, like food, clothing and shelter for you and your family. You have to give your money to them, so they can spend it on food, clothing and shelter for your family. Medical care? Education? If you choose your doctor or your children’s school and pay for it, you will refuse to make sure your kids are healthy or can read and write. If they choose your kid’s doctor or school and pay for it, your children will get quality health care or education.

Of course, you have to hire them to do the work, and because they are so much smarter than you about what is good for you, they are going to require you, by use of government rules and regulations, to pay them a lot of money. They then use that power and money to enhance their power and money, not because they are greedy. Of course not, you are the greedy one, not them, because you don’t want to give them more of your money.

As a result of the arrogance of my generation, our health care system is falling apart, and our education system has collapsed. Government is bloated, incompetent, and inert. My generation is so smart, however, that these problems cannot possibly be our fault, so we keep doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to make things better.

Most of the initiatives on this November’s ballot prove this point. With the notable exceptions of Propositions 83, 85, and 90, the rest of the initiatives grow government, increase taxes, and/or expand government spending beyond all comprehension.

When I joined the state legislature in 1992, total state general fund spending was $42 billion. Our bonded indebtedness was about $15 billion. The Legislature talked about floating a $3 billion school bond. Today, total general fund spending is $102 billion; our bonded indebtedness exceeds $50 billion, and we have floated $35 billion in school bonds in the last six years. My colleagues in the state legislature still think we are not spending enough money, that we don’t have enough money to build schools, and that the people of the state of California are still too cheap because they don’t want to pay more in taxes.

When the “greatest generation” took over state government, they built an entire freeway system, a water system, a higher education system, and our entire K-12 structure on a state budget of less than $15 billion general fund per year. We can’t build a dam, a freeway, a levee, a school or a university on $102 billion. We can hire 50,000 new bureaucrats who will sit around and collect $100,000 a year to think about how they can build a freeway, school, dam, or university better, but they will never actually build anything.

I wonder what our kids will say about us when we hand this mess over to them.

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VOTE!

PROPOSITIONS ON THE NOVEMBER 7, 2006 BALLOT

Prop. 1A: Transportation Investment Fund Protection. Will make it harder for the Government to borrow money from the Transportation Investment Fund (TIF). The State cannot borrow the money more than twice in any 10 year period, and must repay it within 3 years. Prohibits Suspension of Prop 42 if the money from a previous year has not been repaid. Any money borrowed to date must be repaid by June 20, 2016.

SUPPORT: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Democrat Pty; CA Republican Pty

OPPOSE: Los Angeles Times

Prop. 1B: Highway Safety, Traffic Reduction, Air Quality, Port Security Bond Act of 2006. Authorizes the issuance of $19.925 billion of general obligation bonds for high priority transportation corridor improvements, port security projects, and mass transit projects, and local street and road improvement, congestion relief, and traffic safety. Part of the Governors Infrastructure Plan.

SUPPORT: Governor; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Democrat Pty; CA Republican Pty

OPPOSE: Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes

Prop 1C: Housing & Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006. Authorizes the issuance of $2.85 billion in general obligation bonds for various housing programs for the poor and homeless, infill development, and housing related parks. Part of the Governors Infrastructure Plan.

SUPPORT: Governor; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Democrat Pty

OPPOSE: Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes ; CA Republican Pty

Prop 1D: Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 2006. Authorizes the issuance of $10.416 billion in general obligation bonds to provide aid to school districts, county superintendents of schools, county boards of education, the California Community Colleges, the University of California, the Hastings College of the Law, and the California State University to construct and modernize education facilities. Part of the Governors Infrastructure Plan.

SUPPORT: Governor; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Democrat Pty

OPPOSE: Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes

Prop 1E: Disaster Preparedness and Flood Prevention Bond Act of 2006. Authorizes the issuance of $4.09 billion in general obligation bonds for the purposes of financing disaster preparedness and flood prevention projects, such as the levees in Northern California. Part of the Governors Infrastructure Plan

SUPPORT: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Democrat Pty; CA Republican Pty

OPPOSE: Asm. Ray Haynes

Prop. 83: Jessica’s Law – punishments and restrictions on sexually violent predators. . Increases penalties for violent and habitual sex offenders and child molesters. Prohibits registered sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of any school or park, and requires lifetime Global Positioning System monitoring of felony registered sex offenders.

SUPPORT: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; CA Republican Pty; CA Democrat Party

OPPOSE: Los Angeles Times; CA Attorneys for Criminal Justice

Prop. 84: Flood Control. Natural Resource Protection. Park Improvements Bonds. Authorizes the issuance of $5.388 billion in general obligation bonds, for safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, state and local park improvements. Cost of about $10.5 billion over 30 years.

SUPPORT: Governor; CA Democrat Pty; Phil Angelides

OPPOSE: Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; CA Republican Pty

Prop. 85: Waiting Period And Parental Notification Before Termination of Minor’s Pregnancy. Amends the California Constitution to prohibit abortion for un-emancipated minor until 48 hours after physician notifies minor’s parent or legal guardian, except in medical emergency or with parental waiver.

SUPPORT: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; CA Republican Pty.

OPPOSE: CA Democrat Pty; Los Angeles Times

Prop. 86: Tax on Cigarettes to fund Emergency Room Services. Imposes an additional tax of $2.60 per pack on cigarettes as well as increasing the taxes on other tobacco products for the purpose of funding emergency services at hospitals, nursing education, and to provide health insurance to eligible children.

SUPPORT: CA Democrat Pty; Phil Angelides; Los Angeles Times; Am Lung Assoc; Latino Issues Forum

OPPOSE: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Republican Pty

Prop. 87: Tax on oil extracted in California. Imposes a tax of 1.5% to 6% (depending on oil price per barrel) on crude oil extracted in California. Establishes the California Energy Alternatives Program Authority, an energy bureaucracy to disperse funds for alternative energy research, alternative energy vehicles, and energy efficient technologies.

SUPPORT: CA Democrat Pty; Phil Angelides; Pres. Bill Clinton; Julia Roberts

OPPOSE: Governor ; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Republican Pty

Prop. 88: Imposes a Parcel Tax for education funding. Imposes a $50 per parcel tax on all property in California, to raise funding for public schools to provide for class size reduction, textbooks, school safety, and computer systems. Will raise about $450 million annually.

SUPPORT: Jack O’Connell, CA Sup of Education; Los Angeles Times

OPPOSE: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; CA Democrat Pty; CA Republican Pty

Prop. 89: Public Financing of Campaigns. Candidate must collect a specified number of $5.00 contributions, (from 750 to 25,000 depending on the office, and money must be turned over to the state), they may receive public campaign funding. The amount of funding would depend on the office sought. For Assembly, they could receive up to $250,000 for the primary, and $400,000 for the general election. It increases the income tax rate on corporations and financial institutions by .2% to fund the program. It imposes new limits on private campaign contributions (For Assembly it would reduce the individual and corporate contributions from $3,300 to $500). Provides for each candidate who choose public funding and won their election, to receive $50,000 annually to pay for campaign expenses..

SUPPORT: Phil Angelides; CA Nurses Assoc; Sierra Club

OPPOSE: Governor; Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; Calif Chamber of Commerce; CA Republican Pty

Prop. 90: Restrictions on the use of eminent domain by government. Amends the Constitution to bar state and local governments from condemning or damaging provide property to promote other private projects or uses. Provides for just compensation for government takings for public use.

SUPPORT: Sen. McClintock; Asm. Ray Haynes; CA Republican Pty

OPPOSE: CA Democrat Pty; Nature Conservancy; Sierra Club; CA Teachers Assoc

******************************

Rental Ban For Illegal Immigrants Enacted

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20061019/news_7m19ecoun.html

10-19-06

With supporters calling it a historic day for the city and the United States, the City Council voted 3-2 yesterday to enact an ordinance that prohibits landlords from renting to illegal immigrants. In so doing, Escondido becomes the largest city in the nation to pass such a law, which opponents say will be challenged in court and hope never will be enforced.

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Taxing gifts

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_17_ed_
remittances1.31f4a8b.html

10-17-06

The Federal Reserve Board undermines America's border security efforts by encouraging illegal immigrants to pump billions of dollars out of the U.S. economy every year in the form of "remittances." Congress should tax remittance services and use the revenue for border security programs. U.S. banks collect hundreds of millions of dollars a year from immigrants who transfer money to relatives in their home countries. Given how lucrative such services are for banks, Congress is unlikely to crack down on the practice. But legislators don't need to ban remittances to discourage illegal immigration; taxation could accomplish the same goal.

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In A Pickle Over Plans To Pay For Retirement

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/39174.html

10-16-08

When Tim Smith was running for City Council a few years ago in the Sonoma County town of Rohnert Park, he noticed a footnote in a city document that mentioned the public's liability for health care benefits the city had promised its employees in retirement: $39 million. That seemed like a big number for such a small town, and Smith, who is now mayor, began asking questions. Why did the city owe so much money?

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Your Taxes At Work In Alabama

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez1
5oct15,1,2386875.column?coll=la-headlines-
california

10-16-06

Whether you live in Eureka or Escondido, vote Democrat or Republican, make six figures or barely break even, one thing unites all Californians. We're being pickpocketed. For every dollar sent to Washington in federal taxes in 2004, the last year for which records are available, 79 cents came back to the state in spending, contracts and services.

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Caltrans – Dodging Reform

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/
abox/article_1314012.php

10-16-06

For more than three decades, the California Department of Transportation has dodged efforts to reform its controversial land-management practices. An Orange County Register investigation on Sunday showed how the department's appetite for property acquisition has turned neighborhoods into eyesores and deprived local government of millions of dollars in property taxes.

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O.C. Supervisors OK Plan to Allow Deputies to Act as Immigration Officers at Jail

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ocsupes
18oct18,1,1301600.story?coll=la-headlines-california

10-18-06

Orange County supervisors approved a plan Tuesday to allow 24 sheriff's deputies to act as federal immigration officers so they can check inmates' legal status when they are booked into county jail. The program will expand efforts already underway by U.S. authorities to identify illegal immigrants in the county's jail system, by checking the status of foreign citizens brought into custody.

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I Is Smart

Study finds half of college graduates are only semi-literate
Goldwater Institute, Center for Educational Opportunity

http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article.php?
/1151.html

10-17-06

Earlier this year, the American Institutes for Research (AIR) assessed the literacy of 1,800 graduating seniors from 80 randomly selected two- and four-year colleges and universities. What they found was not pretty. 20 percent of U.S. college students completing four-year degrees have only basic quantitative literacy skills. That means they are unable to estimate if their car has enough gas to get to the next gas station or to calculate the total cost of ordering office supplies. The study also finds that more than 50 percent of students at four-year colleges have only the most basic literacy skills, meaning they can't do basic tasks like summarize the arguments in a newspaper editorial. On both measures, students at two-year colleges perform even worse.

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Educators Look To Duplicate Charter Success

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20061020/NEWS01/610200320/1001/
NEWS01

10-20-06

Charter schools outperformed their traditional public school counterparts on standardized tests in 2006, and educators in charter and traditional schools are hoping they can use the results to improve education everywhere. Not only did charter schools outperform traditional schools, according to a report released earlier this month by the California Charter Schools Association, test scores among charter schools that have been in existence for five years or longer tend toward the top.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

Welcome to the Conservative California Election Website!

2006-10-20T23:20:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Robyn Nordell's Conservative California Election Website

For the November 7, 2006 General Election

Remember - You do not need to fill in every office or proposition
on your ballot in order for the ballot to be valid.

Our Governor, Legislators, Local Officials, and Judges
Are going to be making decisions that affect these important issues:

War on Terrorism... Illegal Immigration... Eminent Domain Abuse...
Education... Out of Control Spending... Massive Bond Debt...

The "LGBT" agenda in our public schools and communities
(Lesbian, Gay, Bi-Sexual, Transsexual)...
Euthanasia... Cloning...Embryonic Stem-Cell Research...

Every Election is Incredibly Important!

If you find this information helpful,
Please tell others about our site!

Assemblyman Ray Haynes Debates Prop 90 at Chapman Law School

2006-10-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

YOU'RE INVITED!
I WILL BE PARTICIPATING IN A DEBATE ON PROP 90

PLEASE FORWARD TO INTERESTED FRIENDS!

Friday, October 20, 2006: PLF-Sponsored Eminent Domain Debate in Orange County

What: Symposium on eminent domain issues and DEBATE ON PROPOSITION 90 (initiative that would restrict eminent domain) . Free to general public. Attorneys may receive 3 CLE units for $15 ($10 for current Federalist Society members).

Co-sponsored by Pacific Legal Foundation.

Where: Chapman Law School, Room 237, One University Drive, Orange, California 92866.

When: Friday, October 20
1:00 p.m. Panel One: History of Eminent Domain and Current Controversies.

3:30 p.m. Panel Two: DEBATE on Prop. 90, which, if passed, would restrict eminent domain and other regulation.

"Yes on 90": Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Riverside; Professor Gideon Kanner, Loyola Law School

"No on 90": Gary Patton, Planning and Conservation League; Ken MacVey, Best Best & Krieger

Moderator: Dave Stirling, Pacific Legal Foundation

5:00 - 7:00 p.m. Reception.

You are invited to a discussion and debate on property rights and eminent domain this Friday afternoon, October 20, at Chapman University School of Law in Orange, California.

Co-sponsored by PLF, the event is entitled, "Eminent Domain: An Imminent Danger?" Lead-off speaker will be PLF attorney Timothy Sandefur, whose new book, "Cornerstone of Liberty: Property Rights in 21st Century America," has just been published by the Cato Institute.

Another highlight will be a DEBATE on Proposition 90, the California statewide initiative that would bar eminent domain for private projects and impose other restrictions on land use regulations. David Stirling, PLF’s vice president, and a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution, will moderate the debate. Speaking in support of Proposition 90 will be Assemblyman Ray Haynes, R-Riverside, and Loyola Law School Professor Gideon Kanner, one of the nation's leading authorities on property rights law. The "no" side will be represented by prominent eminent domain attorney Ken MacVey, and Gary Patton, executive director of the Planning and Conservation League.

Along with Pacific Legal Foundation, the event is co-sponsored by the law firm of Nossaman Gunther Knox & Elliot, and the Chapman University Federalist Society.

Admission is free, but attorneys may receive three units of CLE credit for $15 ($10 for current Federalist Society members).

The first presentation starts at 1:00 p.m.; the debate commences at 3:30 p.m.; and a cheese and wine reception follows at 5:00 p.m.

Chapman University School of Law is at One University Drive, Orange CA 92866. For more information, visit PLF's website: www.pacificlegal.org. For directions, visit Chapman's web page.

Freedom First

2006-10-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

October 16, 2006, By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

If we have lost anything in this country, it is our sense of what is important in a political election. Recently, Jerry Brown called Chuck Poochigian an extremist because Senator Poochigian believes in the Constitution.

Mayor Brown is a very smart and experienced politician. Obviously, he thought his accusation would get him votes. That is very frightening. An electorate that doesn’t soundly reject any politician who advocates ignoring the Constitution, expanding government power, and diminishing freedom is in serious trouble.

In so many ways, California is in serious trouble. Quite frankly, there are just too few voters whose decision on issues and politicians are driven by protection of the fundamental American value of freedom.

Of course, a lot of politicians invoke that value in political discussions to justify their political positions. Unfortunately, in California, fewer and fewer politicians believe that they need to use their defense of freedom as a reason to vote for them. Like Brown, they just invoke some obscure fear as a reason for government expansion. The people then vote for him over someone, like Senator Poochigian, who will actually defend freedom and the Constitution.

There are bigger things to fear. Like an all powerful government.

In the last week, Secretary of State records revealed that the League of California Cities gave over $2.5 million to oppose Proposition 90. When the contributions from the California State Association of Counties ($400,000) and the California Redevelopment Association ($300,000) are added to the totals, the contributions to the No on 90 campaign from government supported organizations totals over $3.2 million. In addition, the list of donors includes a laundry list of private organizations who make money off of big government, either as government vendors (such as lawyers, trash collectors, and street improvement contractors) or beneficiaries of the use of government powers (such as the developers who use eminent domain to take your property so they can pay less money for their development projects).

Almost $5 million has been collected by the opposition.

The question is: how did they get that money? How are the League, CSAC, and the CRA able to raise $3.2 million to contribute to a political campaign, when they a consortium of local government entities? They say the money is “nonpublic” funds, but how can that be? Are there private individuals whose favorite charities are lobbying organizations for government? Or, are these just our taxes, laundered through some complicated scheme, into the campaign? Are those private organizations who are contributing to oppose property rights in California getting preferential treatment from these governments for helping to protect the power of these governments? Or are they being forced to pay the money under threat of being denied some government permit to do business? The whole thing stinks.

The former Soviet Union used to have elections, complete with campaigns. The people were told they were free because they had a Constitution and elections, but the courts ignored the Constitution and the government hijacked the elections. If anyone had the audacity to challenge the existing power structure, they were first vilified, and then jailed.

In California today, our courts routinely ignore our constitutionally guaranteed rights, such as property rights. And government uses our own tax dollars to vilify anyone who deigns to challenge the inappropriate assertion of government power, like those who support Proposition 90

Why should freedom be the overriding value in our political choices? Unless we vigilantly defend and preserve freedom, evil things like government trying to hijack elections, will continue to occur. The campaign against Proposition 90 has exposed this evil. The only question is whether we will heed the warnings, or succumb to an all powerful government.

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Editorial: How to build affordable housing

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
abox/article_1304818.php

October 9, 2006

First, take down the government regulations and subsidies that distort the housing market.

Even with the air slowly seeping out of the housing bubble, bringing home prices down to more realistic levels, Orange County residents still pay an inordinately large percentage of their budgets to pay the rent or mortgage and other shelter-related expenses.

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Huge Baja Project May Chill Others' LNG Plans

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
lngbaja9oct09,1,601366.story?coll=la-
headlines-california

October 9, 2006

In the high-stakes competition to import natural gas from across the Pacific to California, one San Diego-based company has such a commanding head start that it could determine whether others can stay in the race.

Being the first to open a marine terminal to process liquefied natural gas on the West Coast involves more than bragging rights. International companies are spending millions to get permits to build giant terminals in hopes of reaping billions in revenue.

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Court Ruling Could Force State to Lose $1.5 Billion in LLC Fees

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
payments10oct10,1,3509158.story?coll=la-
headlines-california

October 10, 2006

A legal glitch in the state's tax code could cost California $1.5 billion in corporate tax payments, further draining a state budget that is projected to be billions in the red next year.

The state is in a quandary over taxes it demanded from companies that did no business in California. The collections affected a small fraction of the state's limited liability corporations, but one of them asked a trial court to declare the entire fee unconstitutional, and it did.

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'Orphan' Initiatives Left to Fail

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/
la-me-orphan11oct11,0,2804567.story?coll=la-
center-politics-cal

October 11, 2006

It must have seemed like a good way for two politically connected Silicon Valley millionaires to donate a slice of their fortunes: bankroll a campaign for a $50 annual property tax to help fund schools.

Netflix founder Reed Hastings and venture capitalist John Doerr jump-started the effort with nearly $7 million. The contributions, used to pay signature gatherers, consultants and attorneys, were enough to secure a spot for the parcel tax on the November ballot as Proposition 88.

******************************

False Child Support Case Exposes System's Failures

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,219497,
00.html

October 10, 2006

Trevino's fraud began in 1999 when she and her former husband Steve Barreras divorced. Trevino claimed she had given birth to a child after the divorce and sued Barreras for child support, claiming he was the father. This fraud dissolved in 2004, when it was finally discovered that there was no such child. But Barreras, who works as a corrections officer in law enforcement, was forced to spend the ensuing years trying to make the New Mexico courts and child welfare service even look at evidence that the child for whom he was paying support did not exist.

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Stem cell board plans to make big grants in '07

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/10/12/BAGFSLNE8H19.DTL

October 12, 2006

California stem cell policymakers revealed a rough outline of what could be a $500 million attempt in 2007 to push the state's stalled experiment in stem cell research into a new phase of productive grant making.

The outline emerged from interviews during a two-day meeting here of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine's governing board, which is charged with implementing the $3 billion Proposition 71 stem cell bond initiative passed by state voters in the November 2004 election.

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Immigrants pay in-state fees, judge says

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/
news/state/15739168.htm

October 12, 2006

A judge has upheld a state law allowing public colleges and universities to charge in-state fees to undocumented immigrants.

The law had been challenged by a class action lawsuit filed in December on behalf of out-of-state students who claimed the tuition break discriminated against U.S. citizens.

Out-of-state students pay higher rates than California residents in the state's three-tiered higher education system -- the University of California, the California State University and California community colleges.

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Food-Stamp Program Finally Speaks Their Language

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/
la-me-stamp13oct13,1,552214,full.story?coll=la-
news-politics-california

October 13, 2006

Now a Spanish-language news report and television ad campaign have spurred thousands of immigrants in Orange County over the last several weeks to contact a nonprofit organization that offers a Spanish-language class called "Food Stamps in Four Hours."

The stream of immigrants contrasts sharply with what was going on just a few months ago when only a handful of immigrants would attend the free course.

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For Gays, a Loud New Foe

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-russgay
13oct13,1,2542185.story?coll=la-headlines-california

October 13, 2006

Organizers of the annual Rainbow Festival were prepared for trouble.

The Q Crew, a local "queer/straight alliance," distributed cards telling people what to do if approached by hostile demonstrators. Sympathetic local church groups formed a protective buffer along the festival ground's cyclone fence. Mounted police were on patrol.

Jerry Sloan manned a table for Stand Up for Sacramento, a recently formed gay self-defense organization.

"So far, so good," he said. "No Russians."

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Jumbo fire jet limited in state

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/local/states/california/northern_california/
15748589.htm

October 13, 2006

DC-10 TANKER CAN'T WORK OVER FEDERAL LAND BECAUSE IT HASN'T PASSED U.S. SAFETY CHECK

Federal safety rules are preventing wider use of a major advance in firefighting -- a jumbo jet modified to drop 10 times more flame retardant than the typical air tanker.

The DC-10 first flew this fire season, opening its belly and releasing torrents of pink liquid in a spectacular string of sorties that helped halt blazes threatening state land in California and Washington.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp
To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

Scaredy Cats - October 9, 2006

2006-10-12T15:24:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

In 1922, Ludwig Von Mises, an Austrian free market economist wrote: “It is not the business of entrepreneurs to lead the political fight against Socialism…It follows, therefore, that neither associations of entrepreneurs, nor those organizations in which entrepreneurs support counts, are inclined to fight on principle against socialism.”

When I first joined the Legislature, I could never figure out why the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Manufacturers Association, the California Taxpayers’ Association, and the variety of other “business” associations which populate the halls and lobbies of Sacramento, could not be counted upon to fight the left wing agenda of my Democrat friends in the Legislature. They were always ready to accommodate their demands. The unions would fight Republicans with all their influence and power, giving 99% of their contributions to Democrats. The business groups would (and still do) give 50 to 60% of their campaign money to Democrats. I used to complain that in politics, the Democrats married the unions, who have remained faithful partners. Republicans married the business community, and we got a partner who slept around. I then read the Mises quote, and knew that if was true in 1922, and still true in 2002, I wasn’t going to change it by complaining. I personally would fight against encroaching socialism in California, and leave the compromising with the Socialists and business lobbyists.

Free markets require two basic components to work: freedom of contract and protection of private property rights. A society that chooses to take private property is either socialist, or traveling quickly down the road to socialism. The threat of losing a lifetime of work to the whim of an all-powerful government will often convince even the most principled person to forego his or her freedom of speech.

I joined up with the proponents of Proposition 90, the “Protect Our Homes” initiative because of my belief that our current system of land use control, whether through the use of eminent domain or regulatory takings, is the key factor in California’s leftist state and local governments obtaining and maintaining power. This was my way of taking a principled stand against socialism in California.

I did not think that my friends in the business community, however, would oppose the roll back of socialism in California. They may not support us, but they certainly would not oppose those of us who stand in favor of free markets.

Boy was I wrong.

They are afraid, they tell me, of retaliation from the government, if they don’t oppose the initiative. Local governments are telling business and developers that, if they don’t oppose Proposition 90, they will make their business lives miserable. They are being told that if they donate money, their projects will be fast tracked. However, if they don’t help, their projects will go into some sort of governmental purgatory, lost in the bowels of some regulatory or planning agency until the new temple is built in Jerusalem. I am told that they have to oppose us because they just can’t risk it.

That is how far down the road to socialism California has gone. So much of the financial future of our business community depends on government action that the business community trembles in fear of the government officials. The ruling class in California knows that Proposition 90 will be their Waterloo, and they are trying to enlist the aid of all of their economic slaves to fight this last battle. The business community, now the economic slaves of our state government, is willing to sell out the freedom of us all to stay in business.

I know Mises was right; the business community is a bunch of “scaredy cats.” I have seen it in action day after day in Sacramento. I understand why; they have to survive in this socialist political environment. I am still disappointed.

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Escondido: Legal fights could delay immigrant housing law

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20061006/news_7m6folo.html

October 6, 2006

Long before the illegal-immigrant housing ordinance passed by the City Council goes into effect, legal challenges are likely to be brought that could stall its implementation indefinitely.

The American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego and Imperial Counties, in conjunction with lawyers representing various immigrant-rights groups, is evaluating what to do.

******************************

New passport hurdle for churches

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_
News_Local_D_passport06.397247d.html

October 6, 2006

No passport, no mission.

That will be reality for Inland churches and others with longtime mission programs in Mexico as new passport requirements take effect over the next 15 months.

******************************

Appeals Court Upholds State's Ban on Same-Sex Marriage

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-marriage
6oct06,1,4381808.story?coll=la-headlines-california

October 6, 2006

A state appeals court upheld a ban on same-sex marriage Thursday, ruling 2 to 1 that only the Legislature or voters can change California's traditional definition of marriage.

"Courts simply do not have the authority to create new rights, especially when doing so involves the definition of so fundamental an institution as marriage," William McGuiness, presiding justice of the 1st District Court of Appeal, wrote for the majority.

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Hewlett-Packard Wiretapping Scandal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/
a/2006/10/06/BUG87LJ2UD1.DTL

October 6, 2006

Former Hewlett-Packard Co. Chairwoman Patricia Dunn appeared Thursday before a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge to hear criminal charges in connection with the HP spying scandal.

Her surrender came a day after California Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed criminal charges seeking indictments against Dunn and four other defendants implicated in HP's probe of boardroom leaks to journalists.

The scandal that has engulfed HP in recent weeks, and has become one of the most watched corporate scandals in Silicon Valley history, continued to generate news on multiple fronts Thursday.

******************************

Thieves going after catalytic converters

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews
/news/local/15693604.htm

October 6, 2006

The owners often come into auto shops confused. Their SUVs were working fine when they parked them, but when they came back and turned on the ignition, their engines ran loud . . . super loud.

Their cars were so noisy because somebody had stolen their catalytic converters.

Over the past three months, dozens of SUVs have been turning up in South Bay auto shops with missing catalytic converters -- mirroring theft trends in other parts of the country. Toyota 4Runners seem to be a particularly popular target.

******************************

Governor: Mexican immigrants should assimilate into U.S. culture

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/
2006/10/05/politics/p160037D05.DTL&type=
politics

October 5, 2006

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that some Mexican immigrants "try to stay Mexican" when they come to the United States, and he urged them to assimilate into the American culture.

Schwarzenegger's comments came during a stop in Chinatown when he was asked about assimilation.

Recalling his own experience emigrating from his native Austria, the Republican governor said immigrants should learn English, learn U.S. history and "make an effort to become part of America."

******************************

No NFL team for LA?

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4443303

October 5, 2006

Frustrated by an apparent lack of interest from the NFL in selecting a stadium site, members of the Coliseum Commission said Wednesday that it might be time to end their decade-long pursuit to bring pro football back to Los Angeles.

"We probably started negotiating before we went into Iraq," commission member David Israel said of the latest negotiations that began 3 1/2 years ago. "At the current rate, we'll still be negotiating after we've left Iraq.

"We have to send a message to the league that if we don't get affirmative progress, we may have to go in another direction."

******************************

L.A. Unified Rebuffs Villaraigosa in Picking New Schools Chief

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lausd
5oct05,1,3896493.story?coll=la-headlines-california

October 5, 2006

The Los Angeles Board of Education has rejected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's request to take part in choosing the city's next superintendent of schools.

"It is disappointing from my standpoint that there doesn't seem to be any opportunity on this issue for partnership," said Ramon C. Cortines, the mayor's top education advisor.

"The mayor and I understand that the board has the authority to select the superintendent." But, he added, it is proper for Villaraigosa to "have a role" in light of legislation signed into law last month that will give him substantial authority over Los Angeles schools. The law is scheduled to take effect in January.

******************************

Fatherly footsteps lead son to Nobel

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
ci_4444590

October 5, 2006

Stanford University professor Roger Kornberg on Wednesday became the third Bay Area scientist to win the Nobel Prize this week, this time in chemistry for his groundbreaking work examining how cells copy genetic material — a finding that can lead to therapies for cancer and other diseases.

The award came 47 years after Kornberg's father, Arthur, shared the Nobel Prize in medicine for his discoveries on how genetic material moves from one DNA molecule to another.

******************************

Charter school group: Scores on upswing

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
localnews/ci_4444588

October 5, 2006

Oakland charter schools have caught up with their traditional counterparts and made greater overall gains this year on standardized test scores, according to an analysis released Wednesday by the California Charter Schools Association.

That data — the latest in a series of conflicting statistical reports on the subject — was heralded by charter advocates as evidence that the independently-run public schools were hitting their stride in Oakland.

"They've jumped over a tipping point here," said Gary Larson of the charter association.

*****************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7
text.htm

Why We Need Bigger Government

2006-10-03T22:54:00.000-07:00

There is always a good excuse for big government.

I thought I would spend some time to catalogue some of those excuses, just to put them down on the record. Whether it is on the floor of the Senate or Assembly, in budget or other committee hearings in the Legislature, these excuses pop up from time to time. In this era of term limits, it is rare for those in decision making positions to hang around long enough to hear these excuses repeated, so this article can act as a chronicle, since I have now heard many of these excuses over and over again.

Let’s start with the environment, since that seems to be one of the topics we have heard about of late. The excuse for big government can be broken down into four major categories: air, water, soil and the globe.

First, air. The excuse goes something like this: Business owners are greedy, say the proponents of big government, and care only about making a profit. Given half a chance, these greedy business owners would kill off all of their customers, their neighbors, their children, their spouses, and themselves by spewing dirt into the air on purpose just to make this profit. Only government can save the lives of all of these people, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats.

Water. Greedy business owners like dirty water, it increases their profit. So government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats.

Dirt. Greedy business owners dump stuff on their own property because that is how they increase the value of their property. Only government can stop this greed, so it needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats

The Globe. People drive cars, cars spew greenhouse gases. Farmers raise cattle, cattle spew greenhouse gases. Business owners liked the age of the dinosaur, and therefore, spew greenhouse gases to return to that age. Politicians talk a lot, and spew greenhouse gases, but politicians can control everyone else’s greenhouse gas emissions to make sure that the globe never again gets as warm as it did with the dinosaurs, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats.

Next, welfare. Poor people exist, and existed long before poverty programs were created. There is more poverty today than when poverty programs first started, and the more poverty programs we have, the more poverty grows. Rich people are heartless, and will never help poor people. Therefore, government must create more poverty programs, so government needs more money, more power, and more bureaucrats.

Next, government education, child care, and children’s programs. Parents don’t love their children, and want to be sure that every child they raise grows up ignorant and starving, so government must have school breakfast and lunch programs. Childhood obesity is a growing problem, especially among children on government run school breakfast and lunch programs. Ignorance is a growing problem, especially at government run schools, so government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats.

Next, government health care. People don’t know who is a good doctor, doctors don’t care about their patients, and greedy business owners only want sick employees. Only a government run health care program can deliver quality health care on a timely and inexpensive basis, therefore, government needs more money, more power and more bureaucrats.

In California, in the last 14 years, government has grown 250%. It has continually demanded more money, more power, and more bureaucrats, yet the problems it was supposed to solve with the money, power, and bureaucrats have gotten worse, so it demands more money, more power, and more bureaucrats. It will never end until the whole thing collapses, which may not be far away. We can only hope.

******************************

Governments Face Big Bills For Promises

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_4391830

09-25-06

The bill is coming due for years of generous benefits bestowed upon state, county, city and school employees, and it's a stunner: hundreds of billions of dollars over the next three decades, threatening some local governments with bankruptcy and all but guaranteeing cuts in education, public safety and other services. This staggering burden is coming to light because of new rules issued by the Government Accounting Standards Board. They require public agencies to disclose the future cost of health care and other benefits - such as dental, vision and life insurance - promised in addition to traditional pensions to the nation's estimated 24.5 million active and retired state and local public employees.

******************************

Driver’s License Bill Vetoed By Governor

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/31264.html

09-29-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation Thursday to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses, marking the eighth consecutive year such proposals have died. Senate Bill 1162 was a far weaker proposal than had been pushed in years past, recognizing the string of defeats and bitter political friction over the issue in an election year. The veto marked one of dozens of actions taken Thursday by Schwarzenegger, who is racing to meet a deadline of midnight Saturday to sign or veto about 500 bills remaining on his desk.

******************************

Bill To Let Schools Land Good Teachers

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/28829.html

09-25-06

It can take years to fire a bad teacher. So some principals don't even bother trying. Instead, they make a deal. The principal asks the teacher to look for a job elsewhere in the district. In exchange, the teacher gets a good evaluation. Now here's the rub. Since there's plenty of competition for plum jobs at affluent schools, the bad teacher gets funneled to a struggling school serving a needy population.

******************************

Workers’ Comp Rates Keep Falling

http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/31198.html

09-29-06

Steven and Jennifer Sarver feared another double-digit spike in workers' compensation insurance rates would put a stranglehold on their fledgling restaurant business. The surging costs, they worried, could threaten ambitious plans to grow their San Francisco Soup Co. retail and wholesale business. "Our rates were astronomical. It was keeping us from expanding," Jennifer Sarver recalled.

******************************

More Needs To Be Done For College Readiness

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/opinion/15610497.htm

09-26-06

Most first-year students entering California State University schools such as San Jose State aren't ready for college-level math or English, despite earning a B average or better in college-prep courses in high school: 60 percent will be placed in no-credit remedial classes in English, math or both. For the past three years, juniors in high school have been able to take a CSU-designed assessment test added to the California Standards Test given in the spring.

******************************

Remember The Structural Deficit?

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
abox/article_1290109.php

09-27-06

One issue that needs much more play in the gubernatorial election is California's structural deficit. On Sept. 26 state Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill released her latest analysis of the state budget. She found that the state's structural deficit – its nagging inability to pay its bills – will be "in the range of $4.5 billion and $5 billion projected for" fiscal 2007-08, which begins next July 1, and fiscal 2008-09.

******************************

No on 89

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_27_ed_
prop89_1_elx_edit.32d29b2.html

09-27-06

California politics are bad enough without billing taxpayers for the ads that assault state residents before each election. Voters would do well to defeat Prop. 89 on the Nov. 7 ballot. Prop. 89 would raise an estimated $200 million a year by boosting taxes on banks and corporations to publicly finance election campaigns. But public funding of campaigns is far down the list of the state's pressing needs. If Californians wish to support a tax increase, the money would better go to address deficiencies in roads, courts, law enforcement and other public services.

******************************

School bond burden shouldn't be increased

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1284744.php

09-27-06

Measure O on the November ballot would raise $393 million in construction bonds for Rancho Santiago Community College District. It's a 25-year bond that follows on the heels of Measure E, a $337 million bond passed in 2002. The cost to taxpayers in the district for Measure O would be about $149.94 a year for a home assessed at $600,000. That's slightly more than the $147.78 a year that Measure E tacks on to the same house.

******************************

Prop. 73 returns as 85

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/
abox/article_1288690.php

09-27-06

The message hasn't changed: Proponents want parents notified before minors get abortions. The same measure lost in November's special election. Backers of Proposition 85 expect to be outspent again by their opponents, but they say they'll win this time around because of a different type of voter turnout – one more sympathetic to their cause. "If it was on any other ballot besides that special election, it would pass," said Newport Beach's Mike Schroeder, a supporter and former chairman of the state Republican Party, referring to last year's defeat.

******************************

O.C. Contract Slashes Union Retiree Medical Coverage

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
oclabor27sep27,1,2757165.story?coll=la-headlines
-california

09-27-06

Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved labor contracts with unions representing attorneys and managers, granting pay raises of as much as 4.75% in exchange for concessions on retiree medical coverage. The agreements, approved by the rank and file, are modeled on deals with two larger unions that the board adopted this month after vociferous opposition from retired county employees and lengthy speeches by supervisors. No opponents spoke against the deals this time, and the board adopted them with no discussion.

******************************

Top-flight colleges fail civics, study says/ Cal and Stanford seniors test poorly

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/09/27/MNGC4LDHS91.DTL

09-27-06

Seniors at UC Berkeley, the nation's premier public university, got an F in their basic knowledge of American history, government and politics in a new national survey, and students at Stanford University didn't do much better, getting a D. Out of 50 schools surveyed, Cal ranked 49th and Stanford 31st in how well they are increasing student knowledge about American history and civics between the freshman and senior years. And they're not alone among major universities in being fitted for a civics dunce cap.

******************************

State Red Tape Trips Up Green Energy Efforts

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/09/24/MNGFTLBL0B1.DTL

09-25-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger prepares this week to sign into law the nation's most ambitious effort to address global warming, a key component of California's push to reduce greenhouse gas emissions -- increasing the use of renewable power to create electricity -- has faltered. Despite overwhelming public and political support for renewable power, ratepayer contributions of $319 million, and a 2002 law mandating a dramatic increase in the use of sun and wind to create megawatts, California has boosted its use of renewable energy by less than 1 percent of the state's overall electricity use in the past four years.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

Are You Registered to Vote In California?

2006-09-28T09:21:00.000-07:00

Voter Registration Deadline Is October 23, 2006

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as many as 35 percent of the eligible Americans are not registered to vote thats 45 to 65 million people! Less than half of the voting-age population actually votes in any given election. California's general election voter registration deadline is October 23. CLICK HERE for a voter registration form for California.

Tuesday, October 31 is the deadline to apply for an Absentee Ballot. CLICK HERE for Absentee Voting information.

The American Family Association has created ValuesVoters.com as a resource to help you become an informed voter and it has been completely updated for 2006. CLICK HERE for your total voter information guide for California.

Your vote will make a difference. Please be an active citizen and vote. Also remind others to vote by forwarding this email to your friends and family. Call others who do not have computers and remind them to vote today.

Make a difference! Remember to vote in Californias General Election on Tuesday, November 7. Urge your friends and family members to join you in this privilege that millions of people in other parts of the world can only dream about.

Publicity Hounds And Hot Air - September 25, 2006

2006-09-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

This week, Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced that he is going to sue automakers in order to get them to pay for the damage caused by global warming. Here is the line of his argument: Cars emit carbon dioxide, carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, greenhouse gases cause global warming, global warming will turn the entire California coast, from San Diego to Yreka, into an underwater farming community, so therefore, the automakers should pay the California government money. He called automobiles “a public nuisance” because people drive them to work to feed their families, and because people drive them from all over the United States to vacation at Disneyland or Sea World, and because, while all these people are doing all of these heinous things, the world is getting warmer.

Let’s leave the debate over whether global warming is actually occurring aside. We won’t even discuss the idea that, even if it is occurring, it may not be occurring because of human activity. (You remember the dinosaurs. The whole world was pretty warm then, and there wasn’t one single automobile, airplane, or politician spewing hot air anywhere). Let’s get into what is really happening here.

Not too long ago, the Public Policy Institute issued a poll which showed that somewhere around 60% of the people in California think that global warming is actually occurring (all the more reason to send this article to people, it just shows that we haven’t been doing our jobs). This poll was done in July, one of the hottest months on record, and released in August, one of the coolest August months ever. This summer proves that you can never count on the weather to prove or disprove political positions.

Due to the hot weather in July, the Capitol building in Sacramento was treated to the emission of tons of greenhouses gases in August, as politicians spewed out their tripe about the importance of doing something about global warming. Governor Schwarzenegger got into the act, and ultimately signed AB 32, which will usher in one huge new “clean air” bureaucracy. AB 32 was simply a bad idea that I believe many will come to despise over time, but it is the law now.

I adamantly disagree with the Governor on the issue, but I cannot fault his process. He followed the constitutionally mandated way of dealing with the issue, and, as flawed as the legislation is, it at least followed the appropriate procedure as it passed through the Legislature. I suppose that the real remedy for the passage of AB 32 would be to get a new Legislature.

What Attorney General Lockyer is doing, however, is a pure publicity stunt. He read the poll, and, not to be outdone by the Governor, decided to get in on the political action. He drafts up this questionable lawsuit, spends your tax dollars on the lawyers to go after the automakers, holds a big press conference to show that he is “fighting” global warming, and hopes that you will vote for him for State Treasurer. He claims that the “public nuisance” law allows him to do this (it doesn’t, but hey, it’s worth a try), but he is really making a mockery of the law, the state, and the judicial system by filing this lawsuit.

Cars perform an important function in California, and their benefits to society outweigh any costs. Think about the emissions that occurred in the horse and buggy days. I prefer global warming to horse manure on Main Street, to be sure. To use our legal system and our tax dollars to claim otherwise is simply an abuse of our legal processes, and a publicity stunt that deserves condemnation. Attorney General Lockyer should go catch bad guys and put them in jail. Leave the automakers alone.

******************************

House Backs Anti-Illegals Legislation

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4377714

09-22-06

The House voted Thursday to support three measures cracking down on illegal immigrants, including a bill to criminalize the financing and construction of border tunnels between the U.S. and Mexico. The widely popular legislation, based on a measure introduced in May by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is almost certain to be signed into law this year.

******************************

A No-Brainer On Sexual Predators

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
election/article_1277185.php

09-18-06

Along with all the confusing and contentious initiative choices that voters will face Nov. 7, there is one initiative that should not take too much energy, thought or time. That's Proposition 83, which would put into effect in California what is known as Jessica's Law. Named after a 9-year-old girl from Florida who was kidnapped from her bedroom, assaulted by a predator and then buried alive, the law would tighten up our state's laws for dealing with sexual predators.

******************************

Clearing Arnold’s Desk

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
columns/article_1276021.php

09-18-06

Some year I wish a California governor would announce that he won't sign any bills passed by the Legislature after June 15, the day the California constitution says the state budget is supposed to be passed (but seldom is). He would veto any bills passed after that date. Such a promise – and keeping it – would effectively give California a part-time Legislature and would cut down the number of bills passed to a manageable number, concentrating on those that really are needed.

******************************

Auburn Dam, Peripheral Canal Back On The Table For Discussion

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/24948.html

09-18-06

Elvis Presley was a young man when bureaucrats and politicians began talking about two large projects to control and use the water that seasonal rain and snow storms dump on Northern California. Building a high dam on the American River near Auburn, water engineers reasoned, would hold more of the seasonal flows for later use while protecting the Sacramento area from flooding.

******************************

Ruling Against Santa Ana’s English-Only Recall Petitions Is Reversed

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-recall20
sep20,1,2253513.story?coll=la-headlines-california

09-20-06

Recall petitions need to be printed only in English, even when some voters are not proficient in the language, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The federal Voting Rights Act requires ballots and other government-produced election material to be published in other languages if more than 5% of the voters speak a different language.

******************************

GOP Advances Enforcement-First Approach for Border

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-
immig21sep21,1,4661201.story?coll=la-headlines
-politics

09-21-06

Republicans pushing for tougher means to stem illegal immigration got a boost Wednesday when the Senate agreed to consider a bill that would build a 700-mile fence along the U.S.-Mexico border and the House approved a measure that would require voters to show photo identification at the polls. Republicans in both chambers said the steps were necessary to protect the United States from illegal immigrants entering the country or trying to corrupt the voting process.

******************************

Saintly? Hardly

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/
editorial2/20060921-9999-lz1ed21bottom.html

09-21-06

Few initiatives have made as aggressive a claim to saintliness as Proposition 89, the “California Clean Money and Fair Elections Act.” The measure – which would set up an elaborate system of public financing for elections, paid for with higher corporate taxes – is billed as a sure-fire way to “stop political corruption and make elections about ideas, not money.” Press releases from proposition backers are marked by the sort of unctuous self-regard worthy of a French waiter. To be fair to the California Nurses Association – the initiative's prime advocates – the measure had won enmity from both Republicans and Democrats, and from both big business and some big unions. Yet admirers of Proposition 89 have never been able to offer a coherent justification for its biggest loophole: the provision limiting corporate, but not union, contributions to initiative campaigns. Don't the public employee unions that dominate Sacramento qualify as special interests? Now those who suspected the worst have had their worst suspicions confirmed: Forget all the noble talk – Proposition 89 is first and foremost a fraudulently packaged measure designed to clear the way for a state government takeover of health care.

******************************

CSUs Get Influx Of Unprepared Freshmen

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4377289

09-22-06

Year after year, a tidal wave of freshmen not quite ready for college washes up on California State University campuses. It's a problem that forces the schools to provide remedial instruction to get them prepared for college-level work. Results of the Early Assessment Program tests, which are administered by the state university system, show that only one-quarter of California 11th graders who took the exam in spring 2006 had the skills needed to take university-level English classes.

******************************

Age-Old Question

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_
News_Daily_D_drivers19.3a49b64.html

09-19-06

Legislative attempts to toughen licensing standards for older drivers in California have yielded few changes despite public outcry that arose three years ago after an elderly man drove through a bustling Santa Monica farmers market, killing 10 people. Gov. Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed legislation that requires the state Department of Motor Vehicles to study whether a more extensive testing system for license renewals that reviews drivers' vision and physical abilities would root out "functionally impaired" drivers.

******************************

Prison Jobs Give Inmates Access To Identity Data

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/25421.html

09-19-06

California prisoners have revealed the dangers of letting inmates get access to other people's Social Security numbers, federal investigators warn. In 13 states, prisoners can do data entry, document scanning and other work that potentially provides them with the personal identification numbers. A security breach at a California prison shows what can happen next.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

When Governments Whine

2006-09-18T10:22:00.000-07:00

One of the favorite tricks of the opponents of an initiative is to claim they oppose an initiative because it is “poorly written” or it has “unintended” consequences. If the opponent believes that the policy of an initiative is popular, the opponent will say “Hey, I support that policy, I just don’t support this initiative because it just does too much, or it will cost too much, or it is poorly written.” We are currently seeing this tactic used by those that oppose Proposition 90.

Let’s start with the context of the discussion. For years, state and local governments have pretty much had their way with landowners in California. If government wanted to take your home to build an auto mall, or a shopping mall, luxury condominiums or the like, all these politicians had to do was declare your neighborhood blighted (even if your house was in good shape), and the government could take your land and sell it to a politically influential developer who would then make a ton of profit off of your land, at your expense. If you demanded fair market value for your land, the government would call you greedy, set a price, and take the dirt. The developer then reaps the profit because they built and sold a commercial building, which also increased sales tax revenue to the city. Good for the city, good for the developer, bad for you.

Not only has government been able to take your land, but they have been able to change how you use your land because some bureaucrat thinks you’re using it badly. Your family has been farming for 100 years? Too bad, the government passes a law and requires you to stop farming. Thanks Government!

So, along comes Proposition 90 and the people say government can’t do these things any more. And these government bureacrats, who have been doing these evil things for all these years say “Hey, we agree with that policy, government shouldn’t do this. But this initiative is just poorly written.” First, if they agreed with the policy, they would stop doing it. Second, if the initiative was poorly written, they wouldn’t care if it passed. There would be loopholes in it for them to exploit.

Trust me, Proposition 90 is very well written, and it has no loopholes. That is exactly why the opponents don’t like it. They can’t figure out a way around it. Of course those bureaucrats who have run roughshod over California think the initiative is poorly written. Their party is about to end, and they are doing everything they can to keep whatever semblance of power they still have.

Then they argue that it does too much or will cost too much. It will cost too much money if the government abuses the landowner. If the government respects property rights, it won’t have to pay money. If it doesn’t, then it can change its behavior or pay. That is not only fair, it is what the US Constitution requires.

Finally, a government can never do too much to protect its citizens from the abuses of overzealous bureaucrats. Will those bureaucrats complain about losing their power? Of course. Will they claim that all civilization will end, and that we will all undoubtedly be afflicted with the heartbreak of psoriasis? Probably, but they will be wrong. All that will happen is that ordinary people will get a fair shake from their government.

And that is all Proposition 90 does. Give the citizens of California a fair shake. Isn’t that what government should do?

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Gap Growing Between State’s Voters And Nonvoters
http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/22786.html

09-15-06

As Californians prepare to head to the polls this fall for the fifth year in a row, the gulf between those who vote and those who don't is becoming wider than ever. Voters are older, whiter, wealthier, better educated and tend to own their own homes. Nonvoters are younger, more ethnic, poorer, not as educated and tend to be renters. Not surprisingly, given those characteristics, those who vote are generally more conservative than those who do not go to the polls, especially on issues involving taxes and spending.

******************************

No On Prop. 86

http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/21171.html

09-11-06

Emergency rooms are a boom and bust enterprise. The patients with insurance are profit centers. Those without insurance are drains on the system. Hospitals have long sought to dig into somebody else's pocket to pay for the uninsured patients at the ER. A few years back their advocates proposed, of all things, a tax on cellular phone users. Now they are back with Proposition 86.

******************************

Two-Year Degree Gets Tougher

http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/21852.html

09-12-06

One health club has a higher initiation fee but a lower monthly charge than another gym. Which would be cheaper after a year? The answer requires simple calculation: Multiply the monthly charge of each club by 12 and add the initiation fee. But figuring out the month when one club becomes a better deal than the other requires more abstract thought and critical thinking. The added sophistication -- and the need for it in today's work force -- has prompted state officials to toughen up graduation requirements in math and English skills for community college students.

******************************

Parties Battle Over New Voter ID Laws

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation
/la-na-voting12sep12,1,2191743.story?coll=la-
headlines-nation

09-12-06

Little noticed by voters, a nationwide melee has broken out pitting liberal and conservative groups in a duel over new laws that could determine who wins close elections in November and beyond. The dispute, which is being fought in disparate and often half-empty courtrooms in as many as nine states, concerns new state laws and rules backed primarily by Republicans that require people to show photo identification in order to vote and, in some cases, proof of citizenship and identification when registering to vote.

******************************

No On Prop. 87

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/
editorial1/20060912-9999-lz1ed12top.html

09-12-06

Even by California standards, the number of ill-conceived, deceptive propositions on the ballot this November is unusually high. A perfect example is Proposition 87, which would impose a tax on in-state oil production and expire when $4 billion had been generated to pay for a variety of alternative energy programs. Proponents' TV ads, which assail the high cost of gasoline and tout Proposition 87 as a means of relief, are hopelessly confused.

******************************

Mayor Calls For ‘Sanctuary City’ Label

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060913/news_7m13ncsafe.html

09-13-06

While other cities in the county aggressively attempt to rid their communities of undocumented immigrants, local activists are planning to turn National City into a “sanctuary city.” Such a classification means city funds will not be used to enforce federal immigration laws, which is already the case in National City. Mayor Nick Inzunza declared in an interview on National Public Radio last week that he wants National City to be a sanctuary city, a designation being promoted through a grass-roots effort in other parts of California and the country.

******************************

Back, And Stronger

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-econ13
sep13,0,5542922.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

09-13-06

Just a few months after 9/11, Osama bin Laden boasted that the attacks had "hit hard the American economy at its heart and its core." If they did, the effect was transitory. In all the commemorations and assessments on the anniversary of 9/11, the resilience of the U.S. economy has attracted less notice than it deserves. Bin Laden was not alone in his analysis. In the United States, there were warnings of burdensome security costs, sharp business cutbacks and recession on the horizon.

******************************

Prop. 84 – A Grab-Bag Of Spending

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/editorials/article_1273083.php

09-13-06

Proposition 84 on the November ballot is a grab bag of spending proposals related to water – some rather tenuously – to be funded by bonds that would provide $5.388 billion. The funding would cost taxpayers about $10.5 billion over 30 years, reduce property tax revenue to some localities and require state and local governments to spend up to tens of millions of dollars per year maintaining new facilities.

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Pension Pushing

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_13_ed_calstrs1.
2acf798.html

09-13-06

The solution to the long-term shortfall in California's teachers retirement fund does not lie in pushing more of the financial burden onto state taxpayers. School districts and teachers should bear responsibility for the fund's solvency. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, or CalSTRS, disagrees. On Friday, the fund's governing board proposed that teachers, school districts and the state pay more into the pension plan.

******************************

Education Tax Plan In Setback

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/22994.html

09-14-06

The principal financial backer of a statewide parcel tax initiative has apparently stopped funding the drive, leaving supporters without the kind of cash, staff and ads typically needed for a full-fledged campaign. Political consultant Rick Claussen said he has advised Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to "let go" of Proposition 88, which would establish a $50 parcel tax on all property for public school funding.

******************************

Gas At $1.15 A Gallon? Experts Say Maybe

http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/23013.html

09-14-06

The recent sharp drop in the price of crude oil could mark the start of a sell-off that returns gasoline prices to lows not seen since the late 1990s -- perhaps as low as $1.15 a gallon, some analysts say. "All the hurricane flags are flying" in oil markets, said Philip Verleger, a noted energy consultant who was a lone voice several years ago in warning that oil prices would soar. Now, he tells McClatchy Newspapers, they appear to be poised for a dramatic plunge.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

Freedom Fades, Part II - September 11, 2006

2006-09-11T10:47:00.000-07:00

In Nazi Germany, the first step in Hitler’s effort to eliminate opposition was to undermine the influence of churches and people of faith. Since the church in Nazi Germany was receiving state subsidies, it wasn’t too hard to get compliance, but the consequences of that compliance was devastating. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer describes the effects of Hitler’s policies on the church, and how that ultimately led to the collapse of the moral fabric of the nation. We all know what occurred after that.

There are several linchpins of liberty. The first is property rights. If a persons property rights are threatened, that is, the ability to feed their families and the right to keep the fruits of their labor, then they will say whatever they have to say, and do whatever they have to do to try and keep what they have. Freedom of speech is irrelevant when it comes to keeping the family nest egg.

Next is religious freedom. A government that requires a faithful person to participate in, be complicit in, or be silent in the face of what that person considers sin in order to survive in society will lose all semblance of order in a very short period of time. People of faith will ignore the law rather than sacrifice their eternal soul. The rest of society, released from any constraints of morality or internal regulatory restraint, will simply choose a self-indulgent lifestyle, a lifestyle not necessarily conducive to following any other law. The consequence to the social order of these behaviors is disastrous.

California’s Legislature has not yet learned this lesson, and they are making a serious attempt to undermine the church and people of faith in California, and they are using the guise of “discrimination” against homosexuals in order to do it. Many people of faith believe that if they aid in or promote homosexuality (even if they don’t engage in the behavior themselves), they are committing a sin. They are particularly concerned if others are trying to lead their children down the road to this sin, because they believe it endangers their children’s eternal soul.

So, when the government, under the guise of prohibiting “discrimination” starts interfering with the operations of their church or starts “promoting” homosexuality in the schools, people of faith get upset. In the early “anti-discrimination” laws, churches were exempted. Over the last several years, the activists in the legislature who have advanced pro-homosexual legislation have removed the church exemptions from their legislation. Today, churches that run hospitals or schools cannot discriminate against employees who are openly homosexual.

This year, the Legislature attempted to advance that agenda even more. It passed SB 1437, SB 1441, AB 606 and AB 1056. Each in their own way seeks to require people of faith to accept homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle. AB 606 requires school district to adopt “nondiscrimination policies” even though discrimination against homosexuality is already barred by state law. AB 1437 (just vetoed by the Governor) would have required schools to “not discriminate” against homosexuals in the selection of textbooks, although it is not clear how current textbooks discriminate. AB 1056 requires the introduction of “tolerance” into the curriculum (“tolerance” is the code word for acceptance of homosexuality), and AB 1441 would require anyone who gets state financial assistance (including faith-based colleges and social service organizations) to not discriminate against homosexuals in any of its operations. A rule in the religious school against sex outside of marriage could be interpreted as violating this law, and result in the loss of state aid to the students of that school.

A state that doesn’t respect religious freedom is fascist. It is just that simple, no matter what excuse or guise the fascism takes. How far have the mighty fallen?

******************************

’Gut And Amend’ Bills Deserve A Veto

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/abox/article_1267419.php

09-07-06

The California Legislature has finished its sausage-making for this term, leaving a pile of "statesmanship" on Gov. Schwarzenegger's desk. Unfortunately, however, much of it deserves to be vetoed as a blatant abuse of the legislative process. In particular, those bills that were the result of the legislative practice dubbed "gut and amend" (GANDA), and which escaped virtually all scrutiny, should be vetoed, as the governor promised to do when he first ran for governor in 2003.

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Unions Gain Political Clout While Losing Ground In Workplace

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
walters/story/14317333p-15234885c.html

09-05-06

Remember the old adage about being lucky in cards and unlucky in love? California's labor unions find themselves in something like that quandary on this Labor Day -- enjoying unprecedented political influence but seeing their share of California's work force continue to shrink. Labor's political clout was starkly demonstrated last year when it spent something in excess of $100 million to defeat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot measures that, in aggregate, would have reduced union influence in state and local government.

******************************

School Measure On Gays Vetoed

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/19270.html

09-07-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday vetoed a bill prohibiting schools from using textbooks and teaching materials that disparage gays. Schwarzenegger -- who has a mixed record on gay rights bills and received heavy lobbying from conservative groups to oppose the bill -- argued that existing education codes already protect students against discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

******************************

Horrifying

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1262721.php

09-05-06

On the Register's Friday front page, next to the story on the California Legislature's passage of hundreds of bills before its midnight Aug. 31 deadline, was a picture of "The Scream," Edward Munch's painting of terror, which had just been recovered from thieves. That was good news about the recovery of the classic artwork. The bad news is that screaming is also how Californians might feel when they realize the magnitude of what Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, appropriately called "a landmark legislative year for us."

******************************

New Voters Not Emerging In Cities

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/
state/article_1265074.php

09-05-06

Immigration protests that brought hundreds of thousands of marchers into the nation's streets this spring promised a potent political legacy – a surge of new Hispanic voters. "Today We March, Tomorrow We Vote," they vowed. But an Associated Press review of voter registration figures from Chicago, Denver, Houston, Atlanta and other major urban areas that saw large rallies shows no sign of a historic new voter boom that could sway elections.

******************************

No On Prop. 88

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/
editorial2/20060908-9999-lz1ed8bottom.html

09-08-06

Poorly crafted, dubious initiatives are par for California. But even given this history of ballot-measure botches, the all-star lineup that's assembled to oppose Proposition 88 seems unprecedented. The measure would add a $50 property tax to almost every parcel in the state, whatever the size, to provide about $450 million in additional annual revenue for schools.

******************************

Gasoline Prices Could Keep Falling

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-gas6sep06,1,
3687175.story?coll=la-headlines-business

09-06-06

California motorists could see the state's average price for a gallon of regular gasoline fall to $2.75 or lower in the coming weeks as the nation's refineries closed out the summer driving season without serious problems and forecasters rolled back their projections of a harsher-than-normal hurricane season. The average price of self-serve regular gasoline in California fell 8.8 cents to $3.01 a gallon during the week ended Monday, according to the Energy Department's weekly survey of gas stations that was released a day late because of the Labor Day holiday. The average was 4.6 cents below the price one year ago.

******************************

Our Hit List

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060906/news_lz1ed6bottom.html

09-06-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got off to a fast start in his annual September Veto Parade yesterday by saying he would reject state Sen. Sheila Kuehl's nonsensical, poorly drafted bill mandating that California adopt socialized medicine. It is a sad commentary on the Legislature that Kuehl's bill made it this far. Perhaps the governor next can tackle measures that are, respectively, anti-consumer, anti-common sense and pro-corruption.

******************************

Student Aid Bill At Final Hurdle

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/15459047.htm

09-07-06

A controversial bill that would allow illegal immigrants to get state financial aid while attending California's public colleges and universities is now in the hands of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has until the end of this month to sign or veto. The bill's author, state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, called on the governor Wednesday to ``invest in California's future'' by signing SB 160, also called the California DREAM Act, into law.

******************************

Ante Up On Pacts

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_R_op_07_ed_
compacts1.2b1a1bc.html

09-07-06

The Legislature's rejection last week of a spate of tribal gambling compacts represents a sacrifice of the public good to a special interest group -- unions. Legislators should discard the unions' specious concerns and ratify the pacts as soon as they return to Sacramento after the November election. Last Thursday, the final day of this year's legislative session, legislators declined to take up five bills ratifying six gambling compacts that Gov. Schwarzenegger signed with Indian tribes.

******************************

Immigration Revamp Put On Backburner

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/19860.html

09-08-06

A comprehensive immigration overhaul appears dead for the year, as House Republicans on Thursday announced plans to push ahead with border security measures and leave everything else for another time. Facing a tight schedule and sharp divisions within their own ranks, GOP leaders will be sticking with border-enforcement priorities that can be passed before the November election.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066
To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

Religious Fascism

Freedom Fades in California - this should Scare YOU!!

2006-09-05T11:58:00.000-07:00

Freedom Fades in California -

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
September 5, 2006

Freedom is a fragile thing. A candlelight in a windstorm, if you will, requiring constant vigilance to preserve. It is never safe, as the old saying goes, as long as the Legislature (or Congress) is in session.

That is because the ruling class, that is, elected officials, bureaucrats, and their allies in the private sector, get money, power and prestige from bigger government, and bigger government is an anathema to freedom. Therefore, those who are in charge of protecting our freedom, (i.e. government officials) have a vested interest in taking it away. Human nature being what it is, everyone, including those in government, act to enhance their money, power and prestige. The less freedom you have, the more power the ruling class has.

Let’s take a look at what the collectivists in Sacramento did this week to infringe on your freedom, and enhance their power.

First, SB 840 by Sheila Kuehl, a socialist from West Hollywood. SB 840 would create a “single-payer” medical system (that single payer being the government) so that “everyone” would have “medical care.” Of course everyone means everyone, whether they are in this country legally or illegally, and whether they can afford to pay for it themselves or not, or whether their boss is already paying for it. Essentially, you or your boss would pay a tax to the state, and in return, you would get medical care.

The key problem is what kind of medical care you would get. It would be rendered by government bureaucrats who have lifetime jobs from which it is impossible to fire if they accidentally killed you while rendering the care. And if the government ran out of money, they could just tell you the care is not available. Or, you would pay taxes for bureaucrats who earn six or seven figure salaries, never see a patient, and who just sit around all day and try to figure out how not to give you medical care. Government created the problems in medical care. Creating bigger government will only make the problem worse.

Next, Fabian Nunez “attempted” to stop global warming by presenting AB 32. If California doesn’t stop greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (like carbon dioxide, which is what we breathe out when we talk), the whole world will collapse into a molten pool of hot lava (or so Nunez contends). So let’s create a large government bureaucracy, which will write a whole bunch of reports and regulations (which, by the way, kill trees, trees which would absorb carbon dioxide), and the world will be safe again.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but poppycock. The only GHG we need to stop is from blow hard politicians who think they can control the weather and the rotation of the Earth. This is just an intrusion into our freedom.

Next, Sally Lieber presented AB 1835 to increase in the minimum wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a large chunk of the hourly workers who get minimum wage are teenagers. So your son, the one who takes his car out Friday night, and doesn’t tell you where he is going, just got more beer money. Other than that, a lot of other people are going to lose their jobs, because the small business that hires them can’t afford to keep them. Thanks a lot California government.

This is just a few of the bonehead ideas that have come out of this Legislature under the guise of helping and protecting you. The worst part of all is that each of these rules, regulations and bureaucracies will take more of your freedom, and hand more control of your life over to government in America, which is supposed to be the guardian and beacon of freedom. Thank God the Legislative session is over.

******************************

Sweeping Legislation Approved As Lawmakers Conclude Session

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
homepage/abox/article_1262472.php

09-01-06

As the clock ticked down on the last day of session Thursday, lawmakers approved several key pieces of legislation with far-ranging effects for California and its residents. The Senate adjourned about 10:15 p.m. The Assembly finished passing bills before the midnight deadline but did not adjourn until about 12:15 a.m. "This has been an incredibly productive legislative session, one of the most productive in decades,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

******************************

Storming The Prop. 13 Battlements

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1255124.php

08-28-06

Proposition 13 faces one of its most serious challenges on the ballot this fall, in the form of Proposition 88. Enacted by California voters in 1978, Prop. 13 limited property taxes to 1 percent of the purchase price, with a maximum increase of 2 percent per year for inflation. Changes to Prop. 13 could only be made by state or local voters.

******************************

(This bill was passed and sent to the Governor)

Saving Health Aid For Needy

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/
14309634p-15203889c.html

08-28-06

A debate over whether the state should provide health coverage to undocumented immigrants could heat up in Sacramento as an outgoing senator tries to preserve a local indigent care program. With one week left in the legislative calendar, Sen. Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, wants to adopt language into state law that affirms city and county rights to provide health services to undocumented immigrants.

******************************

Parental Notification A Reasonable Requirement

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
editorials/article_1257671.php

08-29-06

Abortion is one of the most contentious issues of our time. But even many who favor legalized abortion support the idea that a minor's parents or legal guardian should be notified by medical authorities before she can be given an abortion. It does seem odd that parents must be notified before a school can give a girl a flu shot, but under existing California law can be kept in the dark about a procedure that has far more serious medical, psychological and other consequences for their daughter.

******************************

Nightmare Mortgages

They promise the American Dream: A home of your own -- with ultra-low rates and payments anyone can afford. Now, the trap has sprung

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/
content/06_37/b4000001.htm

09-02-06

For cash-strapped homeowners, it was a pitch they couldn't refuse: Refinance your mortgage at a bargain rate and cut your payments in half. New home buyers, stretching to afford something in a super-heated market, didn't even need to produce documentation, much less a downpayment. Those who took the bait are in for a nasty surprise. While many Americans have started to worry about falling home prices, borrowers who jumped into so-called option ARM loans have another, more urgent problem: payments that are about to skyrocket. The option adjustable rate mortgage (ARM) might be the riskiest and most complicated home loan product ever created.

******************************

(All three of the current bills were passed and sent to the Governor)

Three Big Bills This Year Echo Three Bills That Passed A Decade Ago

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14311237p-15211107c.html

08-29-06

Ten years ago, this column noted that the California Legislature had enacted three pieces of legislation with potentially major consequences: "a blueprint for the deregulation of private electric utility services that affect millions of Californians, the creation of a California Earthquake Authority to offer insurance protection for those who live and work in quake-prone areas and a decision to channel substantial amounts of school funds into reducing class sizes in elementary grades in an effort to improve educational performance."

******************************

(This bill was passed and sent to the Governor)

Global Warming Bill Is Political Symbolism With Consequences

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
walters/story/14312090p-15214737c.html

08-30-06

Politicians -- especially those seeking re-election -- love symbolic acts that send attractive messages without, or so they hope, any political or financial cost. Assembly Bill 32 is, in the main, a symbolic act by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his newly found friends in the Legislature's Democratic leadership that aligns California with the cause of fighting global warming -- in effect ratifying the Kyoto greenhouse gas treaty that the Bush administration has shunned

******************************

(This Bill was passed and sent to the Governor)

Say ‘No,’ Governor

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060830/news_lz1ed30bottom.html

08-30-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to quickly veto Democratic legislation to stage a government takeover of health insurance in California. He will be doing us all a medically necessary favor. It's hard to imagine anything worse than giving control of health care to the same folks who brought California the power crisis, budget deficits, crumbling freeways and struggling schools. But that's precisely what Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, has in mind.

******************************

(This Bill Passed and was sent to the Governor)

Illegal Immigrant Driver’s License Bill Is Back

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14311236p-15211103c.html

08-29-06

Legislation to allow illegal immigrants in California apply for driver's licenses was resurrected Monday in a weakened version that's contingent on federal funding. Senate Bill 1162 by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, was approved by Democrats in the Assembly on a 42-34 vote, a week after Democrats derailed its precursor, fearing a voter backlash in November. The emotionally charged measure still requires confirmation by the state Senate, which passed an earlier version, SB 1160.

******************************

Voters Might Need To Do It Themselves

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20060828/OPED01/608280322

08-28-06

Fabian Nûñez's self-serving stubbornness has ended for this year an opportunity to strengthen representative government in California and return some semblance of fairness to Sacramento. The California Legislature was on the verge of a historic moment when Senate Constitutional Amendment 3 was passed. It would have created a bipartisan commission to establish election districts.

******************************

Forgetting The Bilingual Lesson

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-ed-bilingual29aug29,0,662605.story?coll=la-
opinion-center

California was supposed to have learned a sad but important lesson from its years of experimenting with bilingual education: When you isolate a group of largely poor, minority students and give them different instruction from what other students receive, they tend to get a dumbed-down, second-rate education. Unfortunately, that lesson hasn't fully sunk in. Nor has the idea that playground politics and retribution are not in the best interests of schoolchildren.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.
htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.
htm

Pastoral and Local Church Rules of Engagement

Pandering With the Best - August 21, 2006

2006-08-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

From the beginning of his time in government, Phil Angelides has never met a government program he didn’t like, or tax that he thought was too high.

In the midst of the energy crisis, he proposed a complete government takeover of the electricity system. During the budget crisis, his contribution to the spending problem was to renegotiate state bonds to obtain a payment holiday. In other words, for two years we did not pay off any of the principal while interest accrued. That is Phil Angelides way of “saving” the state money. In the end, state taxpayers ended up spending more money, and getting no relief, as Angelides tried to paper over the state’s deficit. You and I are still paying for his ill-considered solution to the deficit.

During his campaign against Steve Westly, he proposed tax increases to close the deficit he worked so hard to create and perpetuate. He claimed that the state could not cut any government programs, and that the only way to solve the state’s continuing fiscal crises was to raise taxes on you and me. Even though state spending was $57 billion just seven years ago, and $79 billion just two years ago, State Treasurer Angelides believes our $101 billion general fund budget is not adequate enough to deal with the state’s problems.

For example, when I joined the Legislature 14 years ago, the state spent approximately $6,000 per student in 2006 inflation adjusted dollars to educate our children. This year, we are spending well over $10,000 per student, over 70% increase in spending per student in the last 14 years. Angelides believes that 70% more is not enough.

In 1998, the state was spending approximately $20 billion on health and welfare. Last year that number was $34 billion. Another 70% increase.

hen he did a poll. Tax increases are not popular. Angelides said he only wants to tax the rich, not the middle class, but most people are smarter than that. They know that if a politician is eager to raise taxes on one group of people, it is only matter of time before their taxes will go up as well.

What is a big government liberal to do, when the old liberal line of “tax the rich” is not working? Resort to the old Bill Clinton line—tax cuts for the middle class. So, this week, Mr. Angelides proposed an increase in the deduction for dependents; a whopping $200 for a middle class family with kids. See, he says, “I’m not taxing you. I am cutting your taxes. It is safe to vote for me.”

Except it is really bad fiscal policy. If the state increases taxes on the rich, they move to Florida or Texas, or some other state where they don’t tax income. Since rich people pay over 30% of our taxes, government revenue will go down and if these rich folks move to another state. Their employees pay income taxes and they pay thousands in sales taxes that are not directly attributable to them. In addition, most of these rich people own businesses that have employees who pay income taxes.

If these rich people start moving out of California, and taking their money and their businesses with them, the state will never be able to give anyone a tax cut. The Angelides budget will look an awful lot like the Davis budget; lots of red ink and a fiscal crisis of epic proportion.

He thinks it is good politics though. We all hate rich people. So, if he punishes rich people for being rich, Angelides thinks, we might actually vote for him. Good pandering, bad policy. It’s not worth the risk.

******************************

Immigration Politics Stall License Bill

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14300487p-15165295c.html

08-18-06

Fearing a voter backlash this fall, Democratic lawmakers Thursday derailed legislation to allow illegal immigrants to obtain California driver's licenses. For the eighth consecutive year, legislation pushed by state Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, that has provoked deep emotions on both sides of the immigration debate has apparently failed. Unlike last year, when the legislation was vetoed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger -- who had vowed to do so again -- Democrats in the Assembly pre-emptively shelved Senate Bill 1160.

******************************

A Bad Way To Pay For Some Worthy Programs

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/homepage/article_1245090.php

08-18-06

One of the unfortunate trends in California politics in recent years has been the use of initiatives to fund the causes of special interests, sometimes called "ballot-box budgeting." Funding comes from tax increases or from bonds that must be paid back from the state general fund. If general-fund spending is increased enough through bonds, tax increases also are almost inevitable to pay for the extra spending.

******************************

It's 'Get These People Out of Town'

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/
la-na-immig16aug16,1,3320723.story

August 16, 2006

Since July, when the Pennsylvania city of Hazleton passed an ordinance aimed at making it "one of the most difficult places in America for illegal immigrants," dozens of other communities have picked up on the idea, saying local governments must find ways to expel illegal immigrants. Already, laws have passed in a handful of places: In Valley Park, Mo., population 6,518, landlords over the weekend began evicting tenants who were not legal residents. In Riverside, N.J., families departed so quickly that they left piles of mattresses behind.

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Mammoths may roam again after 27,000 years

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/
0,,2-2312860,00.html

August 15, 2006

Bodies of extinct Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths, that have been frozen in permafrost for thousands of years may contain viable sperm that could be used to bring them back from the dead, scientists said yesterday. Research has indicated that mammalian sperm can survive being frozen for much longer than was previously thought, suggesting that it could potentially be recovered from species that have died out.

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One tribe's slot jackpot sparks envy

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/
stories/PE_News_Local_H_gamble13.4682857.html

August 12, 2006

If other tribes follow in the Agua Caliente Band's footsteps and strike deals that also allow them to significantly expand, the region's gambling market could double in size, said William Thompson, a University of Nevada Las Vegas public-administration professor who studies gaming. The other tribes are going to demand the same deal, Thompson said, adding, "They're entrepreneurs; entrepreneurs want money."

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Gay rights advocates give ground, but perennial battle continues

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14296634p-15149822c.html

August 14, 2006

As the Legislature reconvened last week, a flurry of electronic battle cries marked resumption of the perennial war over homosexuality -- and pro-gay rights forces immediately beat a tactical retreat on the year's most controversial bill. Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and other supporters of her bill to mandate positive images of gays in textbooks and classroom, faced with a veto threat from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, dropped those provisions. Instead, the measure, Senate Bill 1437, now would prohibit instruction or textbooks that "reflects adversely" on groups because of their sexual orientation.

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Bush transfers disputed San Diego cross to federal government

http://www.pe.com/ap_news/California2/
Cross_Dispute_249574CA.shtml

August 14, 2006

A giant cross in San Diego that's been contested for 17 years by an atheist became the property of the federal government Monday with President Bush's signature. Supporters hope the legislation transferring the 29-foot cross and war memorial it's a part of to the federal government will protect it for good. A series of court decisions have deemed the cross unconstitutional because it stands on public property.

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Test scores improve, but most students still below proficiency

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CA_TEST_
SCORES_CAOL-?SITE=CADIU&SECTION=
HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

August 15, 2006

The percentages of California students who passed standardized state tests in English and math continued to improve in 2006, but a majority still fell below proficiency levels, education officials said Tuesday. "California is clearly making meaningful, sustained improvement," Jack O'Connell, the superintendent of public instruction, said in a statement. "There is no doubt we still have a lot of work to do, and no one should be satisfied with our current position. But reforming an entire education system is slow, difficult work."

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Redistricting Reform Sputtering Along

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/
68164.html

08-17-06

When legislative leaders pulled the plug on political reform this week, few people were more disappointed than Bakersfield's Republican state senator, Roy Ashburn. Ashburn is one of the strongest supporters of stripping politicians of the right to draw their own districts, but negotiations on a plan to do that broke down Tuesday. A backup version passed the Senate Wednesday, but its prospects in the Assembly don't look good.

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Out Of Control At LAX

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-faa17
aug17,0,265568.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

08-18-06

The first time one of the air traffic control systems at Los Angeles International Airport failed, a month ago, it seemed a routine glitch. These things happen with sophisticated technical devices. The second time, on July 26, it was a little scary. Still, it passed with a shrug. Now that the fourth incident in a month has stalled air traffic at LAX, nobody's shrugging anymore. It strains credulity to believe that all these glitches are merely coincidental.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

August 14, 2006 - The More Things Change…

2006-08-14T10:16:00.000-07:00

The American Dream - ("affordable house"??)

Sometimes, I think that I am repeating myself over and over again. It seems that my liberal friends in the Legislature keep doing the same things over and over again, and never realize that it is what they are doing that is hurting the rest of us.

The latest thing is affordable housing. About a month ago, playing off of the theme of her husband’s presidential campaign, Senator Hillary Clinton said, “It’s the American dream, stupid,” obviously implying that Democrats should focus on making sure people can buy a home—the “American dream”.

This has led to a lot of the Democrats in the Legislature trying to come up with ideas that would promote “affordable housing.” Two ideas were on the floor of the Legislature this week. SB 521 by Senator Tom Torlakson would allow Contra Costa County to assess an extra $1.00 per page on the recording of documents for real estate transactions to provide “seed money” for affordable housing in Contra Costa County. SB 1432 by Senator Lowenthal would allow the use of the so-called Mello-Roos districts to assess fees on existing houses to provide incentives for “lower income housing.” SB 521 was expected to provide about $2 million per year for lower income housing. SB 1432 could provide untold millions to the rest of the state by taxing existing homeowners (without a vote) for lower income housing. SB 521 failed, but SB 1432 passed.

These bills are an example of the insanity that grips the left in our Legislature. In 1972, Neil Diamond wrote “I am, I said”, which starts out commenting on the weather, the flora, and the low housing prices in Los Angeles. In fact, 80 percent of the people in California could afford a median priced home in 1974.

Then Jerry Brown became Governor. In 1970, apartment owners in Los Angeles were offering free televisions to potential renters. In the next six years, the environuts took over the reins of California government, and through a series of changes in laws, regulations and tax assessments, cut down the number of houses and apartments in California. By 1980, the Los Angeles City Council had imposed rent control and the voters of California enacted Proposition 13 because housing prices and rental rates skyrocketed as a result of these changes in the law. Today, only 17 percent of the people can afford a median priced home.

I understand that people don’t like growth. Freeways that once flowed freely get congested, neighborhoods change, and people now have neighbors where there were once just farms or trees. However, people have to live somewhere.

In 1980, the environuts enacted a “no-growth” initiative in Riverside, California. It stopped growth in Riverside, but caused an explosion of growth in the outlying areas, requiring people to drive further to work in order to have a place to live. The resulting traffic congestion and air pollution only complicated the problems of growth as people struggled to find a place to live and work. Today, the average new home has over $75,000 in fees to the government built into its price before anyone evens turns a shovel.

As Milton Friedman once said, “If you want less of something, tax it.” SB 521 and 1432 tax housing, which will lead to decreased supply of more expensive homes. So, the taxes that will go to providing “low income housing” will be ineffective.

As a state and a society, we are depriving our children and our grandchildren of an affordable place to live. We keep enacting new taxes and new regulations on new homes and new apartments, and then we wonder why the price of housing keeps going up. When our children are living with us until they retire, we will have no one to blame but ourselves.

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15 Women Who Took Up Priestly Roles Face Excommunication

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-priests
11aug11,1,777297.story?coll=la-headlines-california

August 11, 2006

Fifteen Roman Catholic women in the United States, including some Californians, face excommunication after taking up priestly duties following their "ordination" in recent ceremonies designed to challenge the all-male priesthood.

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Bill Would Protect College Newspapers

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-censor
11aug11,1,2511068.story?coll=la-headlines-california

August 11, 2006

SACRAMENTO — Without debate, the state Senate on Thursday sent Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger a bill that would make California the first state to prohibit college and university administrators from censoring student newspapers.

Sen. Debra Bowen (D-Marina del Rey) said the bill would give college journalists the same free-press rights as high school reporters and their professional colleagues. Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on the measure, a spokeswoman said.

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Bill's supporters seeking state-run health insurance

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14292784p-15132055c.html

August 10, 2006

Democratic state lawmakers are embracing the one solution to spiraling health care costs that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has ruled out: eliminating private insurance plans in favor of a single-payer system that allows the state government to buy health services for everyone.

With three weeks left in the legislative session, a single-payer bill, Senate Bill 840 by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, is heading toward the Assembly floor for a vote.

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Demand is up for vegetable-oil vehicles

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/county_
news/article/0,1375,VCS_226_4906993,00.html

August 10, 2006

Greg Stuart hopes to soon be filling up his diesel pickup for free at a local Japanese restaurant, instead of his usual pricey stop at gas stations.

Stuart, of Thousand Oaks, is on a waiting list to convert his 1996 Ford F-350 pickup from running on diesel to vegetable oil. Because demand is so high for such conversions, he has to wait another few weeks before the work is done by Lovecraft Biofuels in Los Angeles.

A cottage industry of mechanics who convert diesel vehicles to run on new and recycled vegetable oil — available free at some restaurants — is sprouting up around Southern California.

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Mayor, Police Chief Endorse Bullet-Identification Measure

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-guns10aug
10,1,5286491.story?coll=la-headlines-california

August 10, 2006

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Police Chief William J. Bratton added their support Wednesday to a bill requiring gun manufacturers to build handguns that would stamp bullet casings with serial numbers — an innovation intended to speed investigations by making it easier to link bullets to the weapons that fired them.

The bill, introduced by Assemblyman Paul Koretz (D-West Hollywood), would only affect the manufacture of new semiautomatic handguns, but Bratton and others said it would aid officers in investigating gun violence.

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AFL-CIO, day laborers strike a deal

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/
news/local/states/california/15240654.htm

August 10, 2006

The nation's largest federation of unions agreed Wednesday to work with a network of immigrant day laborers to improve wages and working conditions for those who solicit work from street corners across America.

The agreement between the AFL-CIO and the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, formally adopted in Chicago, is a sign of day laborers' growing role in the U.S. economy.

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Churches camouflage cell towers as crosses

http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/
63785.html (registration required)

July 24, 2006

Hiding a cell phone tower in a huge cross is a perfect win-win for both the church and the cell phone company, said Higher Ground member Karen Turner.

Higher Ground gets some big cross bragging rights and the cell phone company’s customers get better service.

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DOJ: Over Half of Violent Felons Have a Record of Crime

http://www.foxnews.com/story/
0,2933,207233,00.html

August 6, 2006

More than half of those convicted of violent felonies in large urban areas between 1990 and 2002 had previous convictions, the government reported Sunday.

Nearly four in 10, or 38 percent, of those convicted of violent felonies had previous felony convictions.

Another 18 percent had prior misdemeanor convictions.

In all, 56 percent of violent felons during that period had prior convictions of some sort, the Bureau of Justice Statistics reported.

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EDITORIAL: Protecting search habits of Web users

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/opinion/15265212.htm

August 13, 2006

Earlier this month there was another breach in what has become a too common assault on Internet users' privacy.

AOL disclosed 20 million Web searches that 658,000 users made over three months, posting them on an Internet site. AOL didn't identify the individuals by name, but in some cases the search terms offered enough clues for an enterprising marketer, health insurer, nosy government agent or a criminal to figure out who they were.

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In search of judicial diversity

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14295984p-15146146c.html

August 13, 2006

As California has become one of the most ethnically diverse states in the nation, so has its Legislature. But one branch of state government has been slow to change: the courts.

Whites account for less than half the state's population but slightly more than 82 percent of the lawyers and the same percentage of trial judges, according to the State Bar.

"There is a geographic and, perhaps, a demographic inequity on the bench throughout California," said Sen. Richard Alarcón, D-Sylmar.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

August 7 - My Final Roller Coaster Ride

2006-08-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

The Legislature has been on a one month hiatus after six months of session. I have often compared the legislative process to a roller coaster ride, and following that analogy, the first six months of session are sort of like the part of the roller coaster where the ride takes the riders higher and higher with the chain underneath. Everyone on the ride knows that the higher the ride goes, the wilder the ride will be when the car finally goes into free fall.

This year the roller coaster ride had a couple of interesting dips, the largest being the approval of a record amount of bonds for the November election. Between the school bond, the water bond, the housing bond and the transportation bond, the Legislature approved over $37 billion in bonds for a variety of public works projects to be approved by the voters. But if the Governor’s state of the state address was any indication of things to come, this is just the beginning of such proposals. The Governor proposed $220 billion in bonds for dams, prisons, roads (including toll roads) and the like. He and Legislative leaders are right now discussing prison bonds for an August vote. So the Legislature is about to send the people on a real wild ride on the issue of bonds alone.

But that is not all. The Democrats violated the rules of the house recently to send a bill, AB 1437, which would mandate that schools teach students about the “accomplishments and contributions” of homosexuals, in the bill described as lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgender persons, throughout history. Add to this the bills about gay marriage and other mandates on schools to emphasize a person’s sexual behavior, and the August offerings on the California Channel should be as spicy as a daytime soap opera. We will spend more time talking about people’s sexual activities than Susan Lucci on All My Children. Now that’s real entertainment.

In addition, the Legislature will have at least one bill, perhaps more, that addresses how we will deal with the health care costs of old people and the disabled. It is a unique solution for the United States. The last country to use this method was Nazi Germany. The current proposal in the Legislature is called the “Compassionate Care Act” and purports to help make it easier for the old and disabled to make “end of life” decisions. Where I come from, we say we are going to kill them off, but I guess I just understand the nuances of the English language.

Then there’s single payer universal health care. That’s “pretty speak” for socialized medicine. Maybe we won’t need a bill to help old people and the disabled kill themselves, we’ll just enact universal health care and kill them off by not providing them with any health care.

All of this does not even talk about the hundreds of ways that the ruling class wants to intrude upon your life. The Legislature will pass a whole bushel of bills that create more government bureaucrats who write more useless government reports about arcane government issues that no one cares about, and that no government bureaucrat ever really solves. (If they actually solved the problem, they would no longer have a job, and that would be a bad idea for their long term prosperity.)

It will be my last roller coaster ride, since term limits says it is time for me to go. I can only recommend that you hold on. As for me, I’m going to sit in the front car, and put my hands in the air. It is going to be a wild ride.

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Alternative Energy Initiative Could Benefit Its Sponsor

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
weintraub/story/14286237p-15102830c.html

08-03-06

Direct democracy in California is becoming the latest hot investment for venture capitalists looking to merge their societal goals with a good return on their money. By backing ballot measures tailored to promote their personal and financial interests, investors can quickly change public policy and make a buck at the same time. Proposition 87 on the November ballot, which would tax oil to promote alternative fuels, is winning support from a key financier who is heavily invested in the kind of technologies that the initiative would reward.

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Testing CAHSEE; Arnold’s ‘Helpful’ Testimony

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/
14285204p-15098732c.html

08-02-06

The battle over the constitutionality of CAHSEE, the California High School Exam, goes on, but what's most notable about the latest numbers is not that so many seniors didn't make it, but that fewer than 5 percent of the class failed who otherwise would have graduated. Some 40,000 students in the class of 2006 failed either the math or English parts of the test, or both. But according to state Department of Education spokesman Rick Miller, an informal survey of a sample of districts showed that only 20,000 of those students had fulfilled all the requirements -- had taken the courses and/or received the grades -- to graduate even if they'd passed CAHSEE.

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Exit Plan – Follow Nissan

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-nissan31jul31,1,5891325.
story?coll=la-headlines-business

07-31-06

Linda Johnston shed no tears as she flew away this month from the place that had been home for all 43 years of her life. The administrative assistant for Nissan North America is among 550 headquarters employees who opted to stick with the company as it relocates from its freeway-bound campus in Gardena to the hill country of middle Tennessee, just south of Nashville.

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’Jessica’s Law’ Hits Ballots This November

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_4115145

07-31-06

California voters will decide in November if sex offenders should stay in prison longer, live farther from schools or parks and wear tracking devices that will monitor them for life. The latest initiative that focuses on the state's sex offenders is Proposition 83 or "Jessica's Law." It's named for 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, of Florida, who was kidnapped from her bedroom on Feb. 23, 2005, and allegedly molested and killed by sex offender John Evander Couey.

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Billions In Prison Bond Funds Sought

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14285231p-15098746c.html

08-02-06

The Schwarzenegger administration will ask the Legislature next week to approve nearly $5.8 billion in bonds to relieve prison overcrowding and pave the way for lawbreakers to break their cycle of crime. Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation acting Secretary James Tilton, laying out the cost of the administration's prison plan for the first time in a Tuesday press conference, characterized the expense as a necessary "investment" needed to solve the intractable overcrowding and recidivism problems.

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Hot Air On Global Warming

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
abox/article_1230186.php

08-02-06

Gov. Schwarzenegger and British Prime Minister Tony Blair got a lot of favorable publicity with an agreement to work together to curb greenhouse gas emissions and collaborate on research to fight global warming. Not only are they portrayed as pioneers in what Mr. Blair called "long term, the single biggest issue we face." As politicians who have to face voters in places where President Bush is unpopular, they distanced themselves from him.

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Mortgage Default Notices Soar 67%

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-defaults3aug
03,1,824432.story?coll=la-headlines-business

08-03-06

As the housing boom fades, a rising number of Californians are struggling to hold on to their homes. Lenders warned 20,752 homeowners in the second quarter that they were on the path to foreclosure because of missed payments, according to data Wednesday from DataQuick Information Systems in La Jolla. That was a jump of 67% from the year-earlier period, the fastest increase since DataQuick began tracking such default notices in 1992.

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Power System Aging, Inadequate

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_4115638

07-31-06

Even as California has built a dozen power plants in the past two years, the entire system remains so old that the statewide average plant age tops more than 30 years, according to a review of state energy commission data. The aging infrastructure means that, while California utilities have added about 12,900 megawatts of capacity, they have lost about 4,500 megawatts at the same time because plants have had to be retired.

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Costs of Illegal Immigrants Called 'Catastrophic'

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immig3aug
03,1,5670547.story?coll=la-headlines-california

08-03-06

At a spirited congressional hearing Wednesday organized by House Republicans, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich and other witnesses painted a bleak portrait of the costs of illegal immigration to American taxpayers. But Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee, which held the field hearing, sharply criticized its tenor, calling the event the latest in a series of repetitive sessions meant to delay making hard choices on the illegal immigration issue.

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A Matter Of Rights

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/
14286304p-15102811c.html

08-03-06

Imagine you have spent years pursuing the right to build on a piece of property you own. Having at last secured that right, you begin excavation. A couple of days into it, you unearth Native American pottery shards, evidence that California Indians either camped at this spot, discarded their refuse there or, in a worst-case scenario for you as a landowner, buried their dead there. Assemblyman Joe Coto, D- San Jose, has introduced Assembly Bill 2641, which would require landowners in such circumstances to stop work and notify the state Native American Heritage Commission.

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U.S. – Minimum Wage, Estate Tax Bill Dead For Now

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/08/04/MNGIDKB4Q21.DTL

08-04-06

The Senate, by a narrow margin, blocked legislation Thursday night that Democratic critics said could have slashed the pay of about 650,000 Californians who rely on tips for a big part of their income. The provision was included in a fiercely lobbied election-year "trifecta bill'' that seemingly offered something for everyone: Democrats' long-sought minimum wage increase, Republicans' cherished cut in estate taxes for the wealthiest families and business tax cuts that appealed to both parties.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

July 31, 2006 - A Streamlined Sales Tax Equals A Bloated Bureaucracy

2006-08-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

One of the things I enjoy most about this job is the opportunity to watch how the ruling class in our society, that is the politicians, the bureaucrats, and their allies in the private sector, try to dupe people into giving them more power.

Case in point—there is an effort nationwide, in which California is participating, to develop the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP). The SSTP would force businesses that do mail order and internet sales to collect sales taxes from citizens of other states. SSTP would require Congress to enforce the system and would use an organization called the Multistate Tax Commission to collect and audit the sellers. Congress is being asked to force all sellers, even if they operate in a state that does not participate in the SSTP to collect taxes from buyers in states that do participate.

Today, these sellers need to know the sales tax laws in the states where they actually have a business. If the seller is not located in the state, no tax is due from the seller. The buyer owes a use tax, and it is the responsibility of the state in which the buyer lives to collect that tax from the buyers.

The states are whining. If states actually try to collect this tax from buyers after the purchase is complete, buyers will then know the cost of the tax, and probably balk at paying the high sales tax in those states with a high tax. If these states can force a few sellers (whose political power is limited) to collect the tax, buyers will be less aware of the true cost of government in their lives.

The National Retail Federation (NRF) and the International Conference of Shopping Centers (ICSC) are also whining. They think that internet businesses are getting a competitive advantage from not having to pay the sales tax. Of course, the tax is still due, so the only thing the SSTP will do is make collection of the tax “more efficient.” Hence, the name “streamlined sales tax.”

The problem is that it will make sellers who ship their product responsible to know the sales tax laws in all fifty states, and in the nearly 10,000 jurisdictions within those states. The bookkeeping nightmare that will result from this system will put a lot of these internet and mail order businesses out of business. That is more than likely why NRF and ICSC support the SSTP. SSTP will give the Multistate Tax Commission, which is an unelected tax collection agency, almost plenary power to determine the tax regulations which govern these businesses, and then allow these unaccountable bureaucrats the power to raid these businesses to collect the tax.

Business groups like the NRF and the ICSC claim it will “level the competitive playing field” by requiring shipping businesses to pay their “fair share” of the taxes. It does so, however, by raising taxes and regulations on their competitors.

SSTP is a disaster in the making. It will strengthen unaccountable bureaucrats, protect high tax states from competition with low tax states, and require businesses to become the financial agents of the welfare state. It will streamline nothing except the tax collection process, and it will allow government once again to intrude into more areas of our lives.

Worse than all of this, the bureaucracy has willing allies in the private sector who want to use government to squelch their competition, to the detriment of lower prices, better products and more convenience to the consumer. It is the worst of all possible worlds for you and me, and the best of all possible worlds for the ruling class, which means it will probably come to pass in our country, the beacon of freedom for the entire world.

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Schwarzenegger’s Bond Package Facing Dicey Fate At The Polls

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14282933p-15090725c.html

07-28-06

Last fall, when it was evident that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "year of reform" ballot measure package was doomed and had seriously eroded his popularity, he and his advisers began looking for a political life ring and hit upon "infrastructure" -- doing something about the state's badly neglected highways and other public facilities. It was, in a sense, a natural choice. Schwarzenegger had assumed the governorship on a three-word slogan, "recover, reform and rebuild."

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Convoluted study finds residential water crisis where none exists

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
walters/story/14281082p-15089310c.html

07-24-06

California has no shortage of critical political and public issues -- public education, traffic congestion, housing costs and medical care, to name but a few. Too much green grass isn't one of them, despite the assertions of a new think-tank study. Ellen Hanak, an economist at the Public Policy Institute of California, would have us believe that as population grows, lawns and other residential greenery will consume inordinately high amounts of water.

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Fewer illegal immigrants caught crossing border since Guard deployed

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060726/
news_1n26border.html

07-26-06

The number of illegal immigrants caught trying to sneak into the United States has dropped since President Bush ordered the military to help tighten the border, the head of the Border Patrol said yesterday. Officials surmise that part of the reason is that fewer people are even attempting to enter the states because they're discouraged by the ramp-up in efforts against them.

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Don't Give Exit Exam a Pass

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-
oe-riordan25jul25,0,1044305.story?coll=la-opinion-center

07-25-06

In his eye-opening book, "The World Is Flat," New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman warns that the United States is in a "quiet crisis" and that "we should be embarking on an all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred, no-budget-too-large crash program for science and engineering education immediately." If we don't, Friedman points out, our society will not be able to compete with such countries as India and China in today's unprecedented open market. Millions of American jobs could be at risk.

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Down the drain

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/editorials/
story/14281752p-15089824c.html

07-26-06

Here, as if it were needed, is yet another costly indication that the state's prison system is out of control. The latest report from the Office of the Inspector General focuses only on management of union release time, which is time that prison guards spend on union business. The report shows everything that is wrong with the 2001-2006 contract with the guards union, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association. It also shows the state's utter failure to do even the most basic accounting of time and money.

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Doctors – Medicare Pays Us Too Little

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14282404p-15090325c.html

07-27-06

At a House hearing this week on controlling payments to doctors for treating Medicare patients, members of the California congressional delegation raised an even bigger problem facing growing counties -- payments so low that doctors are balking at taking on new clients as the number of senior citizens grows. The problem is so severe in Santa Cruz County that as of June 1, doctors there stopped taking new Medicare patients, said Elizabeth McNeil, director of federal affairs for the California Medical Association.

******************************

City may make 'big box' retailers toe wage line

http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/bigbox21.html

07-21-06

Chicago would become the nation’s first major city to establish a wage and benefit standard for “big-box” retailers, under a watered-down ordinance advanced Wednesday that threatens to undermine Wal-Mart’s urban expansion plan. Wal-Mart said last week that Chicago could be home to as many as 20 new Wal-Mart stores over the next five years, but only if the big-box ordinance is defeated. On Wednesday, the City Council’s Finance Committee ignored that warning, emboldened by a new poll that shows that 84 percent of Chicagoans favor wage and benefit standards for retailing giants, even at the risk of losing jobs.

******************************

Long waits looming for license renewals;

DMV officials fear new federal ID rules will lengthen lines

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/07/24/MNGIHK4CT01.DTL

07-24-06

Starting in 2008, all 22 million licensed California drivers will be required to go in person to a DMV office and prove their identity and address with three different documents before getting a new, federally approved state license. The sheer size and scope of that task -- required by a federal law passed in the wake of Sept. 11 -- already has the state Department of Motor Vehicles worried about lines that would make current complaints about the agency's notoriously slow service seem trivial.

******************************

Gays taunt straight residents

http://washingtontimes.com/culture/
20060727-112208-7283r.htm

07-28-06
PROVINCETOWN, Mass. -- Heterosexuals in this overwhelmingly homosexual resort town on the tip of Cape Cod are complaining that the oppressed have become the oppressors. Heterosexuals say they have been taunted as "breeders." One woman who signed a petition against homosexual "marriage" said she was berated as a bigot by a homosexual man. Another signer said that dog excrement was left next to her car, an accusation the town police chief said would be impossible to prove. "The gay community is not immune to having potential prejudices. We're all human, including gay people," said Tom Lang, director of knowthyneighbor.org, a nonprofit group that supports homosexual "marriage." Provincetown, or P-town, has long attracted writers, artists, homosexuals, and is known as a place where people can feel free to be themselves -- a seaside version of Greenwich Village. New England's unofficial homosexual capital has just 3,400 year-round residents, but summer tourism brings nearly 10 times as many people. Locals say the intolerance from those who have long pleaded for tolerance has been stirred, in part, by the dispute regarding Massachusetts becoming the first and only state to legalize homosexual "marriage."

******************************

Overtime fattens paychecks of state workers;

77 employees topped $200,000 last year, a big jump from 2004

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/07/24/BAG6GK49J61.DTL

07-24-06

Most state employees earn modest salaries of less than $50,000 a year, plus a decent pension and other benefits. But a growing number are earning more than $200,000 a year. For example: -- Jose Chacon, a lieutenant in the state prison system, earned $228,971 in 2005, more than half of that in overtime.

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Even if approved, Kings deal may run afoul of state tax vote law

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14281841p-15089900c.html

07-26-06

Looking beyond the hype, the deal between Sacramento-area politicians and the Kings basketball team on building a new downtown arena is looking more and more like a giveaway to the team's very wealthy owners, the Maloof family. Bee columnist Dan Weintraub donned his green eyeshade, examined the deal -- centering on a countywide sales tax -- on how it stacks up in purely economic terms, and figured out that the Maloofs' real contribution to the project is only a fraction of its purported level.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Robin Hood or the Sheriff of Nottingham

2006-07-24T21:33:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
July 24, 2006

Phil Angelides has made no secret of the fact that he wants to raise taxes (if he becomes Governor that is). Like all liberals, he talks about taxing the rich to pay for government largesse. Liberals consistently trot out tired platitudes and rehash failed ideas when it comes to solving the problems of California. Just for the record, we increased spending over last year by 12% with the recently passed budget. But it is still not enough to placate them. No matter how much they spend, it’s never enough. There is always some social program for the poor that needs more funding.

To be fair, Angelides doesn’t actually want to raise “your” taxes. He wants to raise “their” taxes; as in the rich who aren’t supposedly paying their fair share. We have heard this song and dance before. Taxing the rich is to Democrats, what marijuana is to heroin addicts. Taxing the rich is their gateway drug to taxing us all. Phil Angelides doesn’t just want to tax the rich. He wants to tax YOU!

And why does he feel the need to raise your taxes? He says we need to increase education funding, raise employee salaries, and take care of the poor through dozens of social programs (many benefiting illegal aliens).

Before we go any farther, I just want to give you some facts (something sadly missing in the liberal diatribes). According to Americans for Tax Reform, the top 20% of all taxpayers (those making over $71,000 per year), pay 83.9% of all the taxes.

In 2001, at UC Berkeley (of course!), Angelides stated unequivocally that he would like to see a weakening in the protections afforded homeowners by Proposition 13. He supported the illegal tripling of the car tax by Governor Gray Davis and criticized Governor Schwarzenegger when he kept his campaign promise and repealed it. In 2003-2004, Angelides proposed numerous additional taxes. He wanted to raise the state sales tax rate, the state income tax rate, the corporate tax rate, and institute a tax on farm equipment and diesel fuel used in farming activities. Angelides even sought to raise property taxes on commercial properties. These taxes punish the lower and middle class working families, not the rich. A friend of the working man he is not.

In 1898, Congress levied a tax on the few wealthy Americans who had telephones to help fund the Spanish-American War. It was “only” a penny per call. The war lasted four months. The tax, which will finally die on July 31, has been with us for 108 years. What started out as a scheme to “soak the rich” at a penny per call morphed into a monstrosity that taxed everyone three percent of their overall phone bill. Once a tax is implemented, it’s with us for generations, if not forever.

I don’t always agree with Governor Schwarzenegger, but at least he has brought down the deficit without imposing any new taxes. Phil Angelides, like all liberals, is addicted to raising taxes. In his mind, he takes from the “rich” to give to the poor, but he looks a lot more like the Sheriff of Nottingham if you ask me.

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’Smart’ growth: Haves vs. have-nots

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/columns/article_1215882.php

07-20-06

When conservationists talk about "saving" this and "protecting" that, a logical question might be: Saving it from whom? Protecting it from whom? And why should the government force what you want on someone else who obviously wants something different, or there would not be an issue in the first place? After all, the Constitution says that all citizens are entitled to the "equal protection of the laws."

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Levee Bond Measure Poised To Spring A Leak

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/
cctimes/news/state/15055994.htm

07-17-06

State lawmakers are betting that voters eager to avoid a Katrina-style disaster in California will rally behind a $4.1 billion bond on the November ballot to shore up the state's fragile levees. Although few experts disagree that California needs to rebuild its aging levee system, an Associated Press review of the bond has found the measure requires voters to take a leap of faith that the state will spend the money the way lawmakers have promised.

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Market Should Set Wages

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/abox/article_1214095.php

07-18-06

Democrats apparently believe that increasing the national minimum wage is a winning issue in their bid to win back Congress this November. The Democrats' proposal is for Congress to boost the national wage to $7.25 an hour over the next two years from the current $5.15. That would be a staggering increase of 41 percent. Raising the minimum wage is an issue with crowd appeal: Supporters argue that the least-paid are lifted (stingy business can afford it!) and those who aren't least-paid feel like they're doing good.

******************************

Fairer districts for longer terms—a good trade

http://www.dailybulletin.com/opinions/ci_
4070309

07-20-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state Democrats are showing an increasing willingness to compromise. They did it on the state budget and Los Angeles schools. The latest deal on the table is the best: Schwarzenegger will back a proposal lengthening term limits if Democrats support a smart proposal by state Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, that would strip legislators of their ability to draw voting lines for the Assembly and Senate.

******************************

The Area-Code Plot to Kill L.A.’s Housing Market

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/
la-oe-ayres21jul21,0,5841121.story?coll=la-
opinion-center

07-21-06

At last, someone has stepped in to end the foaming-at-the-mouth insanity of Southern California's real estate boom. Fed chief Ben Bernanke and his Amazing Jumping Interest Rates (watch them leap!) couldn't do it. The "America's Most Overvalued Real Estate" blog couldn't do it (as of Wednesday, it had disappeared entirely). But make way for the state Public Utilities Commission, an organization whose name practically guarantees a bad time. Its scheme to make sure no one moves for the next five years? A new area code for West L.A. — a code so undesirable it will turn a 310 number into a bragging right.

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Smokers May Get Burned In Cigarette-Tax Collection

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14279501p-15088102c.html

07-19-06

California consumers and retailers who thought they had dodged sales and excise taxes when they bought cigarettes from out-of-state Internet and mail-order vendors are about to get smoked out. As part of a sweeping effort to crack down on such purchases, the state Board of Equalization has obtained 450,000 invoices from out-of-state Internet tobacco sellers showing untaxed sales to California residents over the past three years.

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SDG&E Sees Efficiency In Wireless Meters; Consumer Advocates Worry

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060719/news_1b19power.html

07-19-06

San Diego Gas & Electric will begin installing 1,000 wireless electric meters next month in a test of equipment that can provide hourly reports of electricity usage and could set the stage for electricity rates that vary hourly, the utility said yesterday. The devices would eliminate the need for pedestrian meter readers and could be tools in encouraging conservation during peak demand periods, SDG&E officials said.

******************************

Latest Retail Niche – Clinics

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-clinics18
jul18,1,3983922.story?coll=la-headlines-business

07-18-06

Coming soon to a store near you: health clinics. Seeking to capitalize on the country's costly and often slow healthcare delivery system, a number of start-ups are building storefront clinics that offer quick and cheap medical services inside chain pharmacies and large retailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. There are currently more than 150 such clinics nationwide.

******************************

School Board Shakedown

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/
editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_
op_17_ed_schoolboard3.132eb90.html

07-17-06

California's Legislature should not be micromanaging state education policy. An effort by a handful of legislators to strong-arm the California Board of Education into adopting particular classroom materials is little more than political extortion. Members of the Legislature's Democratic Latino Caucus last month decided to punish the state Board of Education for simply doing its job.

******************************

Keeping Term Limits

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci_4059865

07-17-06

It’s no secret that California's experiment with term limits hasn't lived up to expectations. Incumbency for life may be dead, but political hackery lives on in the form of politicians madly hopping from post to post. Still, there's one unmistakable sign that term limits are doing good - the politicians hate them. And that's why we should resist the various efforts under way to water down term limits at both the city and state levels.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

Bilingual Blues

2006-07-17T10:56:00.000-07:00

(Cultural Assimilation)

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
July 17, 2006

Bilingual Blues

A few years ago, I visited the state of Israel as a part of a delegation from California. As a part of that visit, I participated in a meeting with the Superintendent of Schools for city of Tel Aviv. In that meeting the Superintendent was describing the most serious problem facing the government-run schools in Israel.

Israel has very specific immigration rules. Simply stated, any Jew from any country in the world may emigrate to Israel without restriction. There are religious disputes over what is a Jew, but if any person can demonstrate that he or she is Jewish, that person may emigrate to Israel.

The problem with this type of immigration rule is the problem of assimilation, particularly language assimilation. There are 87 separate languages spoken in the Tel Aviv school system. Since Hebrew is the official language of Israel, making sure that all the students can master the Hebrew language is a key factor to each student’s success, according to the Superintendent. So, to help each student learn Hebrew, the school system put each student in a Hebrew language school, and then puts them into the mainstream school system. This is a type of immersion instruction, and the Superintendent was very satisfied with its success.

One of our group then described the system used in California. When we receive a foreign student, we teach them the core subjects in their native language, introducing English along the way. We call this native language instruction technique “bilingual education.” Since there are 92 languages spoken in the Los Angeles school system, finding the native language instructors is a challenge.

The Superintendent of the Tel Aviv schools looked at us quizzically and said, “How do they ever learn English.” They don’t, our group replied.

In 1998, the voters of this state approved Proposition 227, which required immersion education for English as a Second Language (ESL) learners. The Legislature, particularly the Latino caucus, has done everything in its power to undermine and thwart Proposition 227.

This week, the state discovered the latest effort. This year, the State Board of Education (SBE) adopted a curriculum for the ESL program that complied with 227. The Latino Caucus went nuts, and cut the entire budget of the SBE. Governor Schwarzenegger signed the budget without the funding, picking up the costs of the SBE in his administration. Senator Martha Escutia has a bill to restore the funding of the SBE, but only on condition that it adopt a native language instruction model for ESL learners, in violation of Proposition 227.

Old ideas die hard in the Legislature. Native language instruction, the so-called bilingual program (which is hardly bilingual at all), has been proven to be a monumental failure, marginalizing thousands of non-English speaking students, keeping them out of the mainstream of American life, by failing to teach them English. Undeterred, the leftists in the Legislature, who maintain control over these marginalized students and citizens by controlling their language, continue to try and force their failed system in spite of the clear voice of the citizens expressed through the initiative process.

It is a classic Clash of the Titans scenario. As of this moment, we don’t know how it will turn out, but the future success of thousands of ESL students depends on the outcome of that fight. They will either be condemned to a life in the ghettos of our cities, trying to make their way in a city where they can barely read the street signs and food labels, or they will be taught English, and have a fair chance at the American Dream. Governor Schwarzenegger understands the stakes. Let’s all hope the Latino caucus recognizes its folly, and starts representing its citizens, and not the power brokers who benefit from the current system.

******************************

Last week I wrote on eminent domain, and received the following paragraph from the individual whose tire shop was the subject of my comments. I relayed the story as I heard it, but want to be sure that the record is accurate. He didn’t loose his tire shop to Sears, it was to apartments.

“I went on the Protect Our Homes Coalition website and read your article dated July 10,2006 titled "Why You Should Care About Property Rights" You referred to my story when you wrote "In California, eminent domain was used to take a small tire shop from its owner, and sell it to a large Sears tire shop". This statement is not accurate. Although I don't mind your including my eminent domain abuse story as an example,it has to be accurate. It would be better if it said (In California, eminent domain was used to take a small tire shop from its owner after having been in his family for almost sixty years so that apartments could be built. We do not want to give anyone any false information to use against us. The Sears tire store is now located on the block behind me. That block is going to be developed also so Sears tire store has to be relocated. The City of Oakland,through eminent domain, took a small parking lot at the corner of 20th. Street and Telegraph Ave. from its owner in order to move the Sears tire store.

Thank You

John M. Revelli

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Davis’ Pension-Spiking Needs Reform

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/abox/article_1211344.php

07-14-06

Even a booming economy is not saving taxpayers from having to subsidize the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS) to the tune of $240 million more than expected for fiscal year 2006-07, which began July 1, reported the July 11 Sacramento Bee. That raises the general-fund payment into CalPERS to $2.67 billion for the year. The problem stems from the huge pension increases then-Gov. Gray Davis gave to state employees during the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

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Medi-Cal Spending Goes Up For Illegal Immigrants

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14276283p-15085678c.html

07-10-06

The recent state budget debate over whether California should provide health insurance for children who are undocumented immigrants largely overlooked one key fact: The government already spends almost $1 billion a year for some health care services for the undocumented through Medi-Cal. Amid a renewed national focus on illegal immigration, health services for undocumented immigrants in California returned as a political flash point this year for the first time since debate over Proposition 187 roiled the state in the 1990s.

******************************

Voters Face Campaign Onslaught For Propositions

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_
4029015

07-10-06

Despite rising voter fatigue and the growing political risks for ballot initiatives, California voters in November once again will be faced with sifting through more than a dozen measures that would add up to $43 billion in state borrowing and $3 billion in annual tax increases. Los Angeles voters also could face two extra measures as city officials weigh whether to tack on a $1 billion housing bond and a $1 billion street-paving bond.

******************************

Inviting Gridlock

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_R_op_12_ed_
traffic2.1dc4e86.html

07-12-06

San Diego County cannot bus its way out of traffic congestion nor ship gridlock out of town by rail. While mass transit has a role in easing traffic woes, the county will still need more freeway lanes, no matter what planners suggest. The Independent Transit Planning Review Board last month told San Diego County's transportation planners that they should stop investing in freeway projects and pour their money into buses and commuter railways.

******************************

Latest >From The School Policy Sausage Machine

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/
story/14277043p-15086252c.html

07-12-06

Anyone who thinks the battle over bilingual education or high academic standards is over in California had better think again. Last month the Legislature, in thrall to the bilingual lobby, cut all funding for the staff of the State Board of Education -- a small, but symbolically large, $1.5 million -- from the state budget. The cut was in retaliation for the board's refusal to approve Option VI, a separate curriculum for English learners that might well have begun the formal resegregation of immigrant kids in California schools.

******************************

With Gay Marriage Duel In Courts, Capitol Faces Curriculum Fight

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
columns/walters/story/14278037p-
15087005c.html

07-14-06

While one skirmish in the battle over gay rights plays itself out in the courts -- lawsuits testing the validity of a voter-passed initiative that denies official recognition of same-sex marriages -- another over classroom instruction is heating up in the Capitol. When the Legislature returns to Sacramento in August for the final four weeks of its 2006 session, a couple of highly controversial measures await final disposition, with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger likely to have the final say just weeks before the election where he's seeking another term.

******************************

Policy Blight

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060709/news_lz1ed9top.html

07-10-06

Policy-makers have made pathetically little progress in the six years since San Diego exploded into international prominence as Ground Zero of California's power crisis. The debacle cost the state's consumers at least $50 billion in higher bills, but most of the cash simply disappeared. It certainly didn't buy reliable electricity infrastructure. Rolling blackouts remain perilously close, as evidenced by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent call for conservation this summer.

******************************

Charter Operator May Get Own Say

http://www.dailynews.com/
news/ci_4034816

07-11-06

Inspired by a brother who dropped out of high school and died young of a drug overdose, Steve Barr devoted himself to creating schools that educate teens in a nurturing environment. Now the founder of the successful Green Dot Public Schools is on the verge of a major breakthrough that could make him the king of Los Angeles charter schools. On Wednesday, the state Board of Education is poised to vote on giving Green Dot the authority to create independent charter schools without having to first get approval from local school districts.

******************************

Gone Fishing

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060711/news_lz1ed11top.html

07-11-06

Now that Congress has wrapped up its first round of field hearings on the volatile issue of immigration reform – and is threatening to hold more – this is a good time to examine what purpose was served. It won't take long. That's because the hearings didn't serve any purpose at all beyond giving some members of Congress some additional face time on C-Span, which broadcast the proceedings.

******************************

CalPERS May Run Health Benefits Fund

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/
story/14276080p-15085550c.html

07-10-06

Already a colossus in the investment arena, the California Public Employees' Retirement System is seeking legislative approval for a new investment fund that would boost the agency's financial clout. Motivated by a change in accounting rules, city and county government leaders are pressing CalPERS to set up a fund in which their agencies would annually invest tens of millions of new dollars to cover future health benefits for retirees.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.ht

Why You Should Care About Property Rights

2006-07-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
July 10, 2006

Of all the issues I have seen in my time in politics in California, the most misunderstood has to be property rights. This week, the “Protect Our Homes” initiative qualified, and the state is about to embark on a long debate over property rights, so I thought I would put in my two cents worth right now.

First, property rights are the keystone to liberty. For those of you who are not architects, the keystone is the part of old buildings (particularly tall ones) upon which all the structure relied. If the keystone broke or collapsed, the entire structure would collapse. Protecting the keystone, therefore, was very important to the strength and stability of those buildings.

In the same way, property rights are the building block upon which the entire structure of liberty rests. If government does not protect property rights, all other freedoms are meaningless.

How can that be, you ask?

Think of it this way. What if the government can take away your home for any reason it chooses? Would you be more likely or less likely to criticize the government? Or suppose you do criticize the government, some bureaucrat or elected official gets upset, and takes your house? What are you going to say to your spouse when they make a comment about what a stupid thing that was? Your spouse responds: “Was it worth the consequences? You didn’t have to say anything and we would be just fine. Thanks for standing up for what is right now that we are homeless, you stupid jerk.”

Won’t happen, you say, not in America. Trust me; it does a lot more often than you think. I have one example. In my early time in politics, I took on an influential city council person, who got upset by my comments. The first move – try to embarrass me in the newspapers. I don’t embarrass easily, so the next move was to call all my clients, and tell them if they didn’t fire me, they would never do business in that city again. I lost $5000 a month in business in two days. That can have a huge effect on someone. Most people, after such an event, simply slink away in silence, having learned their lesson about exercising their first amendment rights.

What about a church that teaches things the government doesn’t like? There goes the church. Or if the government doesn’t like whom you hang out with. Oops, there goes your house again. Without a solid protection of property rights, all of these things happen, and they happen a lot.

In California, eminent domain was used to take a small tire shop from its owner, and sell it to a large Sears tire shop. Another business owner lost his business for a car dealer’s parking lot. Several churches have lost their land to Costco or condominiums. And the government tells us it needs this power to protect us.

In the fight against “Protect Our Homes” the ruling class, which includes the bureaucrats, the politically powerful and the politicians, is going to tell us just how much they need to be able to take your home to protect the environment, or to protect us from criminals, or to save women and children from cancer or baby seals from vicious clubbing by homeowners who just want to heat up the planet. All they really want to do is protect their power and influence over your life, and they will say or do anything to protect that power.

We have a unique chance in California. We can strike a blow for liberty, or preserve the power of the ruling class. It is going to be interesting to see what Californians do.

******************************

Scapegoating Prop. 13

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
commentary/editorials/article_1197652.php

06-13-06

And speaking of how state budgets just keep getting bigger .... A few days ago we joined other editorial writers in questioning three government officials and an association president about state and local government finances at a forum presented by the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Our conclusion: government officials – at least those on this panel – want even more of your money than they’re taking now and are not all that concerned with economies in government.

******************************

Don’t Forget – Politicians Share Blame With Lay For Energy Debacle

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14275641p-15085216c.html

07-07-06

The purveyors of revisionist political history are back at work this week, inspired by the death of Enron Corp. founder -- and convicted felon -- Kenneth Lay to revive the myth that were it not for Enron and Lay, California wouldn't have experienced its 2001 energy crisis. "We cannot allow his death to rehabilitate his image," state Sen. Joe Dunn, D-Santa Ana, was quoted in one obituary. "This is a man who is responsible for damaging millions of lives."

******************************

Governor Rules Out Tax Hikes

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14275638p-15085199c.html

07-07-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared Thursday he will not raise taxes if re-elected as governor, establishing a fundamental contrast in his November race against Democrat Phil Angelides, who wants to boost taxes on the state's highest earners and corporations to balance the budget. In an hourlong interview with The Bee editorial board, Schwarzenegger did not promise to balance the budget but said he would "chip away" at the state's structural spending gap by controlling costs and expanding California's economy. He said new taxes are not an option.

******************************

Billions Needed For Highway Fixes

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?
AID=/20060630/NEWS01/606300322/1001

06-30-06

Transportation leaders have confirmed what drivers already know: California's highways are in bad shape. A national transportation research group on Thursday released a report saying California needs to invest billions of dollars in the interstate highway system, including widening the highways, patching up potholes and fixing obsolete bridges. The report found that the interstate system, which provides wider, more direct routes among regions, is saving California about $99 billion annually in safety benefits, saved time, and reduced fuel and consumer costs, according to the report released by The Road Information Project.

******************************

Money To Help Students Pass Exit Exam OK’d

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14273446p-15083556c.html

06-30-06

A small sliver -- less than 1 percent -- of the $131 billion budget the Legislature approved Tuesday is supposed to help struggling students pass the California High School Exit Exam. A two-part test of math and English, the exit exam became a graduation requirement this year for the first time. About 42,000 seniors had not passed the exam by the end of the school year and did not receive high school diplomas.

******************************

State Senate Committee OKs Cable Oversight Bill

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-tvbyphone
30jun30,1,516364.story?coll=la-headlines-business

06-30-06

A key Senate committee Thursday endorsed a bill that would shift oversight of cable providers away from cities and counties and clear the way for telephone companies to offer television services. Despite objections that the legislation was rushed, the Energy, Utilities and Telecommunications Committee unanimously approved the bill sought by AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. that backers said would spur competition, lower prices and speed the adoption of new technology.

******************************

Grand Jury -- $500 Million In Fraud

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3996635

07-10-06

Calling Los Angeles County child-care programs an "ATM for thieves," the county grand jury on Thursday said welfare recipients and their friends and relatives are defrauding taxpayers of $500 million a year, much more than previously estimated. Failure of the county Department of Public Social Services to verify that welfare-to-work recipients qualify for child care has resulted in about half of the $1.1 billion CalWORKS child-care program being lost to fraud, jurors wrote in their report.

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Vote Stalls On Panel To Redraw Voting Maps

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/
mercurynews/news/politics/14937505.htm

06-30-06

Senate Democrats held up a vote Thursday on a bill to authorize an independent commission to draw legislative maps, saying they needed more time to iron out concerns over minority representation and to determine whether there will be any fallout from this week's U.S. Supreme Court decision on redistricting. Supporters said they plan to bring back the measure, a constitutional amendment, when lawmakers return from their summer break Aug. 7, but the delay threw into doubt whether it could be completed in time to be placed on the November ballot.

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Poor Hollywood?

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/
stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_H_op_07_ed_
hollywood2.13772aa.html

07-07-06

Phil Angelides cannot match California's movie-star governor for celebrity power. So the challenger has devised an equalizer: Propose tax breaks for Tinseltown -- a blockbuster of a pander for an industry that hardly needs relief. The Democratic gubernatorial candidate last week premiered his idea in an interview with The Associated Press. But Angelides' plan is a remake; Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed the same giveaway last year.

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What goes around comes around, as two medical bills show

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
columns/walters/story/14274338p-15084173c.html

07-03-06

Demography, it's been said, is destiny -- and two bills pending in the Legislature as it churns toward adjournment frame that adage in political terms. A quarter-century ago, when members of the post-World War II baby boom generation were young, strenuous activities such as running and tennis were popular and -- not surprisingly -- foot, ankle and leg injuries were common. Hoping to cash in on the phenomenon, podiatrists mounted a full-blown political drive to capture some of the trade for themselves, sponsoring a series of legislative measures to expand their "scope of practice" upward from the foot. Orthopedic surgeons, who had a legal monopoly on ankle and leg surgery, resisted stoutly and repeatedly turned back the podiatrists' crusade. Eventually, however, the foot doctors prevailed, moving their surgical authority to the ankle, after collecting a big political war chest and drawing powerful lawmakers, including then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, to their cause. It was a classic example of a Capitol political syndrome -- the efforts of medical specialty groups to expand their "scope of practice," often intruding on the monopolies that other specialties have carved out. And there's a good reason for it: money.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Rules? What Rules? Subverting the will of the Majority

2006-07-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

Bending the Rules

July 3, 2006

I have tried on many occasions to explain to people exactly what happens in the legislative process, that is, how committees are organized, how they vote, who influences those committee outcomes, and how the legislative rules actually work. Usually, by the time I am finished explaining how the Legislature really works, most people look at me with a dull, blank stare, and say “that can’t be happening, you must be lying. You are just a partisan hack.”

I may be a partisan hack, but that doesn’t change reality, and this week demonstrated just how badly the Legislature can use the rules to subvert the will of the majority.

SB 1437, by Senator Sheila Kuehl, prohibits schools from using textbooks that “discriminate” against homosexuals, and requires that these textbooks “include age-appropriate study of the role and contributions of … people who are [homosexual]…” The bill was referred to both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Education Committee, both of which passed it out. It passed the Senate Floor on a 22-15 votes (all Senate Republicans voting no).

The bill came to the Assembly, and was similarly referred to the Assembly Education Committee and the Judiciary Committee. The Assembly Education committee passed the bill out on June 15, and sent it on to the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which set a June 20 hearing. That June 20 hearing was inexplicably cancelled by Senator Kuehl, and on June 26, the Assembly waived its rules requiring a policy hearing in Judiciary, and sent the bill straight to the floor.

How unusual is this? It has never happened before in my entire 14 years in the Legislature. A bill referred to a committee is heard by that committee before the floor votes on it. If the committee votes against the bill, it dies, no matter how popular it is with the public. In fact, the committees are designed by the Speaker to kill bills popular with the public, but not popular with Democrat constituency groups, like the trial lawyers. My “red license plate for drunk drivers” was hated by the criminal defense lawyers and the ACLU, so it died.

SB 1437 did not. It was never heard by the Judiciary committee. Why? The rules require it, but it did not happen, because the Democrat majority just waived the rules. They didn’t waive the rules for anyone else. They don’t do that for Republicans. Only Democrats. In the Legislature, we call it the rule of 41, meaning the party with 41 votes makes the rules up as they go along, mostly to benefit their legislative agenda, and to thwart the Republican agenda.

I have heard more than one person say they would not vote for this or that Republican candidate because the candidate disagrees with them on one or two issues. However, the power to appoint the committees and to waive the rules determines the outcome of thousands of bills each year. If I am pro-life, or pro-gun, or pro-property rights, or anti-tax, my vote for a Republican Speaker of the Assembly guarantees that I have a fighting chance to promote that agenda. A Democrat Speaker, however, will set up the committees to kill those issues in committee, and, if a bill they want is going to die in committee, as the Kuehl bill was about to do, the majority just waives the rules. The bill will be heard on the floor, not because a majority of Californians agree with the bill, but because the Legislature has a Democrat majority willing to violate its own rules without shame.

The rule of 41 is an important rule to remember next time you vote. Even if you disagree with a candidate on one or two issues, your failure to vote for that candidate could result in a lot of good bills with which you agree being killed in committee. Like it or not, that is the way it works.

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Lawmakers Approve Budget

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
news/state/article_1195645.php

06-28-06

With three days to spare until the start of a new fiscal year, state lawmakers approved an on-time budget late Tuesday that devotes billions of dollars to paying down debt, boosting reserves and increasing school funding. The $131 billion spending plan includes money for new judges and high school counselors, expands services for foster children and invests in public transportation without raising taxes.

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Ritual Renewed As Business Singles Out ‘Job Killer’ Bills

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
columns/walters/
story/14271774p-15082306c.html

06-26-06

Inevitably, as spring turns to summer and the Capitol begins to get serious about what the Legislature will do, or not do, for the year, the building's longest-running and most fundamental conflict is renewed: Big Business vs. the Big 4 liberal groups that seek higher taxes and/or more regulation of corporate California.

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Loan Program Helps 5,000 Students Attend California Charter Schools

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charter29jun29,
1,7279165.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-29-06

A program designed to boost enrollment at California charter schools has helped get nearly 5,000 mostly low-income children off waiting lists and into high-quality classrooms, charter school officials said Wednesday. The Charter School Growth Loan Program was created by the California Charter Schools Assn. and taps banks and lenders to provide loans to schools to help them expand.

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California Pushes Government Takeover of Health Care System

Published In: Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19108

06-01-06

On April 11, I had the privilege of participating in a public forum sponsored by the Mendocino County Health Planning Council. We debated the merits of the so-called California Health Insurance Reliability Act, which would impose single-payer, government-monopoly health care in California.

Last spring, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) introduced S.B. 840, which passed the Senate in May 2005 on a 25-15 party-line vote. Six weeks later, the State Assembly's Health Committee passed the bill 9-4 and referred it to the rules committee, where it remains at press time. S.B. 840 is largely a rerun of the California Health Security Act outlined in Proposition 186--which went to a special ballot in November 1994 and which California voters defeated by 73 percent.

The advocates of government-monopoly health care have waited 12 years to resurrect this proposal. Legislators believe such a bill enhances their political traction, but it better serves as something else: a shocking testament to their willingness to take away Californians' freedom to choose whatever health care best suits them. While the bill sits in legislative limbo, S.B. 840's advocates have acted tirelessly to move the climate of public opinion in favor of a government takeover of health care.

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Battle Lines Drawn As Driver’s License ID Law Gets Nearer

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060625/news_1n25realid.html

06-26-06

In the name of national security, California motorists probably will confront more hassles and higher fees when it's time to renew their licenses to drive. Under the federal Real ID Act, California's 23 million licensed drivers will have to submit to more stringent identification requirements once renewal notices appear in mailboxes starting in May 2008. But the battle between the states and the federal government over how to make it work is well under way.

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State Of Vulnerability

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060623/news_1n23califoil.html

06-23-06

Just two Arab countries have supplied almost 50 percent of California's imported oil over the past five years, a dependence that leaves the state more vulnerable than the rest of the country to disruptions in the world oil market. The finding, based on an analysis of state and federal crude oil import statistics, underscores the challenges confronting California and the country as lawmakers grapple with consumer outrage over high fuel prices and a federal deficit that has widened on the back of high crude prices.

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Fall Ballot Is a $46-Billion Question

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot29jun29,
1,2117874.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-29-06

Already cranky about tax increases and big-ticket bonds, California voters now face a November ballot that would break records in government spending. Never before has so much taxpayer money been at stake in a California election: a total of $46 billion in five bond measures and four tax increases. Voters will face a fusillade of messages over who should carry the burden of public programs.

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Land-Seizure Measure Qualifies For Ballot

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/
c/a/2006/06/28/BAG0LJLKDS1.DTL

06-28-06

An initiative that would ban government seizure of land to facilitate private developments has qualified for California's November ballot, the secretary of state's office said Tuesday. Supporters of the "Protect Our Homes Act'' collected about 1 million signatures, many more than the 600,000 valid signatures needed to qualify. It is one of many initiatives appearing on ballots across the country in response to the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling last year upholding a Connecticut town's right use eminent domain to seize private land to develop a hotel, condominiums and commercial space.

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Governor Talks Tough On Rights Of Crime Victims

http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/
localnews/ci_3988919

06-28-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger touted his record on crime victims' rights Tuesday, announcing his support of a proposed state constitutional amendment and introducing his new victims' rights czar. The governor, addressing reporters at the Alameda County Family Justice Center on 27th Street, also said he is speeding up a program to outfit the state's most dangerous sex offenders with GPS tracking devices so they can be located at all times.

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Denial At CalPERS

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/op-ed/
editorial2/20060626-9999-1ed26bottom1.html

06-26-06

One of the biggest stories of the next quarter-century in California will be the sharp cutbacks in public services and school programs that inevitably will have to be made to free up funding for unaffordable benefits for public employees and retirees. Last week, unfortunately, the agency at the center of this huge problem once again officially refused to acknowledge it exists. On an 11-1 vote, the California Public Employees' Retirement System's board rejected a package of small trims in health care benefits for the 1.2 million public employees, dependents and retirees whom CalPERS serves.

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Cable Firms Change Tune On Key Bill

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14272473p-15082807c.html

06-28-06

The cable television industry reversed course Tuesday on a bill to let telephone companies compete for cable business, agreeing to support it as long as cable providers have a way to get out of franchise agreements with local governments. Cities opposed to Assembly Bill 2987 said the change heightens their concerns, arguing it would let cable companies walk away from commitments to public and educational programming, serving low-income areas and responding to consumer complaints.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

Will They Ever Learn, Part II, June 26, 2006

2006-06-28T01:01:00.000-07:00

Will They Ever Learn, Part II
By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

The Legislature could take a lesson from George Santayana, a notable philosopher, who coined the phrase, "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

The best way to learn about how government works is to watch the budget process. In a state that distributes over $200 billion ($101 billion in general fund, $32 billion in special funds, and another $60 to $100 billion in a variety of other government programs), the stakes for those who can get a piece of that pie become very high. Most of what occurs in that process occurs behind the scenes in very high stakes negotiations, with very few participants. Most members of the Legislature are not always certain about what occurs, and are often left with just hours to consider how to spend this enormous amount of money.

I spent 10 years of my time in the Legislature on the budget committee, and I can tell you, even I am unsure about everything the state spends its money on. I can say that when I first joined the Legislature, our total general fund spending was $42 billion. If all of the programs the state spends money on were added together then, the total spending was about $110 billion. Today, that number is $101 billion general fund, and over $230 billion total, a huge increase in just 14 short years.

Which is why I have voted against just about every budget. The one budget I voted for was the smallest increase in the history of the state, a proposed $100 million increase, in the 2004-05 budget. That projection turned out to be wrong. The state ended spending about $2 billion more than the projection, but, all in all, it was a relatively restrained budget. Not so, today.

This week, the Legislature will vote on the 2006-07 budget. It will be the last budget on which I have the opportunity to vote, and, if I have any regrets about my time here in Sacramento, it has been my relative inability to restrain the expansion of government that has occurred while I was here.

In fact, all of the incentives in government weigh in favor of centralizing government power, and making that central government bigger. In most budget discussions at the state level, Democrats advocate for more spending on education and welfare, and most Republicans advocate for more spending on law enforcement and road construction. The compromise is usually to spend more money on both. The two-thirds vote requirement to pass a budget usually requires the Democrats to pay at least lip service to Republican priorities in the budget, but it has never worked to restrain the growth of government.

That is because all politicians benefit from the centralization and growth of government. By the granting and withholding of the benefits of government, or using the power of government to intrude on a person’s life or business, politicians make themselves more important to people. Most people avoid contact with the government, just ask anyone how happy there are to see a tax collector or a traffic cop. If government officials didn’t stick their nose into everyone else’s business, people would avoid them like the plague. Politicians and bureaucrats maintain their power by intruding on people’s lives and taking their money. That is true no matter who is in charge.

This year’s budget epitomizes the problem. The state is spending every dime it takes in, and then some. To the Governor’s credit, he is trying to pay down some of the debt he inherited from Gray Davis, but the Democrats in the Legislature don’t want to do that. In fact, they want to spend more money on more government programs. That is exactly how we got into trouble under Gray Davis, ending up with horrific deficits. It is only a matter of time before it happens again.

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Business Panel IDs ‘Job Killers’

http://www.mercurynews.com/
mld/mercury
news/business/14867121.htm

06-21-06

A business coalition is warning that California's economy will be ``devastated'' if measures requiring more stringent environmental standards, higher wages and worker protections are approved by the Legislature. The Coalition for California Jobs, a group that includes manufacturers, anti-tax groups and business owners, listed 32 proposed laws on its fourth annual ``Job Killer List'' Tuesday.

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Budget Still Stuck On Immigration

http://www.sacbee.com/content/
politics/story/14269633p-
15080670c.html

06-20-06

Democrats are dropping a proposal to extend state health insurance programs to all California children, including undocumented immigrants, a key stumbling block in negotiations over a state budget, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said Monday. But Republicans said they still wouldn't vote for the $131 billion spending plan because it also includes $23 million that GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put in to shore up existing county health programs covering children who are in the United States illegally.

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Pensions Get A Vote In Orange

http://www.sacbee.com/content/
opinion/story/14268802p-
15080035c.html

06-19-06

John Moorlach, a conservative politician in a conservative county, just got elected to a seat on the Orange County Board of Supervisors. And the first thing he wants to do is copy San Francisco. Come again? That's right. Moorlach was close to being a single-issue candidate, and his issue was pensions. Orange County's pension system for its government workers is generous -- and underfunded.

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The Law Of Unintended Political Consequences Trumps All Others
http://www.sacbee.com/content/
politics/story/14269992p-15080921c.
html

06-21-06

The most powerful law governing politics -- at least those in California -- is the one called "unintended consequences." While any major decision made by voters or politicians may have its declared or intended effect, inevitably it will also manifest itself in consequences that no one anticipated, or at least acknowledged, before the fact. California's nearly 30-year history with Proposition 13, the landmark ballot measure that slashed property taxes, is the most obvious case in point. As the state became the primary financier for schools, it sparked creation of a powerful "Education Coalition," dominated by the California Teachers Association and other unions, which made increasing state aid its central goal. And that would lead to Proposition 98, the 1988, union-backed initiative that enacted a highly complex formula for calculating the state's financial obligation to schools.

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Night Stalker Case Has Awful Irony

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
news/columns/article_
1187967.php

06-21-06

You've probably never heard of Bill Carns. After all, Bill was just a crime victim, a Mission Viejo resident who was shot three times in the head by a vicious psychopath 21 years ago. And after all that time, who ever remembers the victims? The courts certainly don't. But you almost certainly remember the man who shot Bill Carns and then brutally raped his fiancée. His name is Richard Ramirez, better known as "The Night Stalker," the Satanist serial killer and rapist who terrorized Southern California in the mid-1980s with a string of 13 grisly murders and dozens of other savage crimes.

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LAUSD’s Graduation Rate – 44%

http://www.dailynews.com/
news/ci_3961157

06-21-06

Just 44 percent of Los Angeles Unified students receive a high school diploma, making the 727,000-student district's graduation rate among the lowest of large urban school districts, a national study released Tuesday found. Published by the nonpartisan publication Education Week with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the study adds more evidence to support claims that the district's graduation rate is at or below 50 percent.

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Real Estate Slowdown Isn’t Expected To Cause Recession

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/
article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/21/
BUG9VJHB9A1.DTL

06-21-06

There's no question that California's housing market is cooling, with sales volume dropping. But the good news, according to an influential forecasting group, is that the state will manage a soft landing, experiencing only mild economic deceleration. "The weakness in the real estate sectors will slow everything down a little bit, but not enough to get an actual recession," said Ryan Ratcliff, an economist at the UCLA Anderson Forecast and author of a report on California titled "At the Tipping Point," to be released today.

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Brakes Put On Bond Issue

http://www.bakersfield.com/135/
story/57780.html

06-20-06

High Speed Rail may be on life support, but Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, is fighting to keep it alive. Voters were scheduled to vote in November on a $9.95 billion high-speed rail bond, but a bill making its way through the Legislature would push back the vote to 2008. The Assembly already has approved a bill to postpone the bond and the Senate is also expected to OK it.

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Charter Schools Joining Mainstream

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/
mercurynews/news/
14859166.htm

06-20-06

A decade ago, charter schools existed largely on the fringes. Many were start-ups operating out of rented church basements -- alternatives to failing urban schools that struggled to teach the basics. Now more than 200,000 California students are enrolled in 574 charters -- independently operated public schools that have wide latitude in what they teach and how they teach it.

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Under Tax, Cigarettes Would Cost $6.55 A Pack
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/
cctimes/news/local/14867220.htm

06-26-06

pack of cigarettes would cost more than $6.50 in California if voters pass a tobacco tax on the November ballot that would fund hospital emergency care and health insurance for children. The tax is one of two initiatives that qualified this week for what is shaping up to be a crowded November ballot after proponents collected nearly 600,000 signatures from registered voters. Voters will also weigh in on a proposal that would prohibit abortions for females younger than 18 unless their parent or guardian was first notified by a doctor -- a measure rejected by voters in November.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Will They Ever Learn? - June 16, 2006

2006-06-20T23:57:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes

June 16, 2006

If you ever want to understand government, take a look at the budget process.

This week was the budget deadline. It is a soft deadline. The state Constitution requires that the Legislature pass a budget by June 15, and that the Governor sign it by June 30 of each year. There are no penalties if the Legislature doesn’t act by June 15, so that deadline is rarely met. In fact, the only time it has been met since I have been in the Legislature was the 2000-01 budget, which increased state spending from $66 billion to $79 billion in one year. The very next year, the state found out it had a $28 billion deficit. The moral of this story? On-time budgets are not all they are cracked up to be.

This year, the Democrats in the Legislature really wanted to have an on-time budget. They talked about it in the press. They gave great speeches on the floor about the “unique” opportunity that the Legislature had this year to pass an on-time budget. They tried to push Republicans into believing that passing a budget on-time was critically important so that the Legislature could “preserve” its reputation. (What reputation an institution with a 21% approval rating has is beyond me, but they wanted to preserve that).

In my experience, every time my Legislative colleagues start going through this drill, they are getting ready to drop a budget bomb on the people of the state of California. As the 2000-01 budget proved, that bomb can go nuclear in a very short time. As the events of this week showed, it did.

This week the Speaker announced that they wanted to spend $30 million this year, up to a total of $300 million in the next 3 years, for an expansion of the “Healthy Families” program, to cover low cost health care for people who are not eligible for the federal S-CHIP (state child health insurance program). There are only two groups of people not eligible for that program—people earning $51,000 a year or more who do not have health insurance, and illegal aliens. Since most people earning over $51,000 have health care, 90% of this money (paid for entirely by the California taxpayer) would go to illegal aliens.

Republicans said NO.

A howl went up from the Capitol. Republicans hate children. Republicans are holding up the budget process. How could these “Wascally Wepublicans” be so hard hearted?

First of all, the “Healthy Families” program was intended to help only those who found it hard to pay for their own health insurance. Second, it was intended to be paid for by the Federal government, which promised to pay for two-thirds of the cost of the program. Finally, it was only supposed to help US citizens. This new program violated all three of those rules.

In 1998, when the state passed “Healthy Families,” I predicted it would blow up the state budget. I was actually wrong. In 1999, California government spent about $10-$20 million advertising the program. Not enough people were signing up for the program, so now we spend $120 million—all to expand the program, that is, to make it cost more to the taxpayer and encourage more people to mooch off the government. Evidently, this increased spending on advertising was unsuccessful. People are still not signing up enough, so the Legislative Democrats want to include illegals as eligible.

In the 1999-2000 and 2000-01 budgets, the state created its budget crisis by greatly expanding the health and welfare programs, increasing expenditures in that area by 41%. A lot of those new expenditures went to cover services for illegals. Unless Californians quit voting for them, Democrats will continue to push dumb ideas that lead to budget crises.

###

California Assemblyman Ray Haynes represents the 66th Assembly District, including portions of Western Riverside County & Northern San Diego County. For more information call our office at 951-699-1113.

Redistribution or reproduction of this article with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

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Budget Solution Today; Solution Will Come Later

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/
story/14267944p-15079488c.html

06-15-06

Today is the deadline in the state constitution for the Legislature to pass a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. With no deal in place by the close of business Wednesday, it appears as if lawmakers will miss the deadline again, as they have every year since 1987. Whether they do it on time or in a few days, however, it's clear that the two parties in the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger agree on the broad parameters of what state spending should look like next year.

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Hear-No-Evil Senate Rejects Pension Panel Dissident

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/
story/14267178p-15078935c.html

06-13-06

Few Californians will ever know or care about David Crane and his short, tumultuous tenure on the governing board of the pension fund that manages retirement benefits for the state's public schoolteachers. But Crane's story is instructive, because it shows just how difficult it is going to be to fix not only the teachers' retirement system, but all public employee retirement funds in California, which together are facing tens of billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities.

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GOP Blasts Plan To Cover Kids Of Illegal Immigrants

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060613/news_1n13budget.html

Democratic-written state budget is drawing fire from Republicans for expanding Healthy Families, a health care program for the children of the working poor, to include the children of illegal immigrants. The new spending plan, which could be voted on by the Senate and Assembly on Thursday, drops a requirement limiting the program to the children of legal residents. “It's another incentive for illegal immigration on top of the incentives already offered,” state Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth, R-La Mesa, said as a Democratic committee approved the proposed budget Saturday despite Republican opposition

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U.S. Targets L.A’s Seizure Of Property

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-condemn14
jun14,1,3281452.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-19-06

Investigators from a federal watchdog agency are coming to Los Angeles to meet with a group of business owners who allege that the city redevelopment agency has abused its eminent domain powers by forcing out their thriving enterprises to make way for other businesses. Robert Blue, the owner of Bernard Luggage Co. in Hollywood, said Tuesday that he was approached by a representative of the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan investigative and research arm of Congress, which is studying eminent domain practices nationwide.

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Water Bond Measure For $5.4 Billion To Go On November Ballot

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/
politics/20060614-9999-1n14water.html

06-14-06

A new bond measure has joined an already crowded November ballot, this one asking voters to approve spending $5.4 billion on water, parks and coastal protection. The Secretary of State's Office announced yesterday that backers had collected enough valid signatures of registered voters to qualify the initiative. It will take its place alongside a separate $37 billion package of public works projects promoted by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature.

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Scientists respond to Gore's warnings of climate catastrophe

"The Inconvenient Truth" is indeed inconvenient to alarmists

http://www.canadafreepress.com/
2006/harris061206.htm

06-12-06

"Scientists have an independent obligation to respect and present the truth as they see it," Al Gore sensibly asserts in his film "An Inconvenient Truth", showing at Cumberland 4 Cinemas in Toronto since Jun 2. With that outlook in mind, what do world climate experts actually think about the science of his movie? Professor Bob Carter of the Marine Geophysical Laboratory at James Cook University, in Australia gives what, for many Canadians, is a surprising assessment: "Gore's circumstantial arguments are so weak that they are pathetic. It is simply incredible that they, and his film, are commanding public attention."

But surely Carter is merely part of what most people regard as a tiny cadre of "climate change skeptics" who disagree with the "vast majority of scientists" Gore cites? No; Carter is one of hundreds of highly qualified non-governmental, non-industry, non-lobby group climate experts who contest the hypothesis that human emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing significant global climate change. "Climate experts" is the operative term here. Why? Because what Gore's "majority of scientists" think is immaterial when only a very small fraction of them actually work in the climate field.

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Do Exit Exam Right

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/
14267173p-15078934c.html

06-13-06

With graduation ceremonies in full swing, now is a good time to look at what schools are doing about students who have not passed the exit exam. The Sacramento City Unified School District is doing the right thing -- and should be a model for others. Superintendent Maggie Mejia and a majority on the school board made it clear they were not interested in a "second-class diploma," giving students who do not pass the exit exam a "certificate of completion." Instead, they decided to focus on ways to ensure that all seniors get a real diploma.

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Gun Ban In San Francisco Is Voided

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-gunban
13jun13,1,2248929.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-13-06

A countywide ban on handguns that would have been among the nation's toughest was overturned Monday by a state judge. In his decision, San Francisco County Superior Court Judge James Warren struck down a measure that passed with 58% of the vote in November. Warren sided with gun advocates such as the National Rifle Assn., which sued to overturn the law within hours of its passage.

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Ethanol Ideas Burn Bright In California

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/
c/a/2006/06/12/MNGDPJCJMR1.DTL

06-12-06

California has lagged in the national ethanol boom, but that is changing in a big way. If cars and trucks that can run largely on ethanol get a toehold in the state, advocates say, the sky's the limit for the market of the fuel additive. "Ethanol production looks really, really bright in California,'' said Tom Koehler, vice president of Fresno-based Pacific Ethanol Inc., a publicly traded company that's nearing completion on a 35 million-gallon-a-year corn-based ethanol plant in Madera in the Central Valley.

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State Bill Revamps Solar Initiative

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060611/news_1b11solar.html

06-12-06

Depending on your perspective, the state Legislature is on the brink of either bolstering or diluting the historic solar initiative enacted in January by the California Public Utilities Commission. The PUC attracted worldwide attention by proposing to spend $3.2 billion over the next decade to subsidize the installation of 1 million solar rooftop systems across the state. The subsidy funding would be raised by surcharges on utility bills.

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Tribes Look Far Afield For Casino Sites

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14266660p-15078574c.html

06-12-06

An Indian tribe rooted in Lake County is pushing a Las Vegas-style casino in the East Bay. Tribes from Humboldt and San Diego counties are vying to open casinos along busy Interstate 15 in Barstow. And a tribe from Oklahoma is searching beyond its reservation -- even across state lines -- to build a casino near Denver. Across the country, Indian tribes, often backed by wealthy investors, are aspiring to build casinos in lucrative markets -- even if those spots bear little or no historic connection to the tribe.

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California

or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

Quill Pens, Guns, Ink and Bullets - June 12, 2006

2006-06-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

June 12, 2006

Quill Pens, Guns, Ink and Bullets

When the Founding Fathers took the initiative to permanently inscribe our natural rights on paper, one can imagine it being done so with a quill pen. The first copies enshrined our liberties in the constitution as the Bill of Rights to include the freedom of religion, freedom of the press and the right to keep and bear arms and were printed with a manual printing press.

This freedom of speech includes our right to express ourselves with every available medium. At no point have we considered that the freedom of speech is limited to expressing oneself with hand presses and quill pens. We freely debate on the internet, television, telephones and other forms of communication.

So why is it that our Second Amendment is not treated the same as the First? The majority party in California, and their anti-civil rights allies, views our natural right to self defense to be limited to the musket and the flintlock.

Since I have been in office, the majority party has found cause to attack small guns, cheap guns, expensive guns, big guns, guns with too many accessories, guns by brand name, ugly guns, and pretty guns. We have a strange testing requirement to purchase a gun reminiscent of poll taxes and literacy tests that were designed to keep oppressed people from voting. We have limited the number of guns someone can purchase in a month. Can you imagine being told how many times you are allowed to attend church in a month?

As you can imagine, this has little impact on true crime or any of the other bogus arguments used to suppress your rights. The majority party claims to believe in several of your rights, and has seen fit to make themselves the arbiters of which ones you are allowed to exercise, how often, and with as many hoops to jump through as possible.

This session in the Legislature, we have defeated bills that would have required anti-gun rhetoric on material distributed with new firearms, a bill that would have required guns and ammunition to have microscopic serial numbers imprinted in them, as if inspired by a late night of watching TV shows like CSI, and a bill that would have banned dogs from chasing rabbits! These bills are sold as crime fighting tools. After a half century of these types of laws, we are no safer. In truth, the criminal element is safer every time we disarm the law abiding population.

Not able to totally ban firearms, the majority party has found a new vehicle to disarm you, banning ammunition.

AB 2714 (Torrico) passed the Assembly last week, and is now in the Senate. This bill will require that all transactions in ammunition require the consumer to meet with the retailer face to face and present ID. With tens of millions of shooters in America, untold millions of rounds of ammunition are sold directly to the public through catalog and internet sales. Hard to find, bulk items, specialty items, discounted rates and convenience are all to be had for the consumer by purchasing on-line. AB 2714 seeks to regulate interstate commerce, ammunition, gun rights, and the internet in one fell swoop by a rabid and illogical anti-gun owner agenda.

To get the bill out of the lower house, the author promised to amend it later. He promised that he wouldn’t seek to ban purchasing ammo anymore. He would instead amend the bill to require you to present identification to the UPS delivery truck that is bringing you your product. I suppose if law enforcement won’t support your unnecessary legislation, you can just deputize the entire UPS and FedEx fleets to do your dirty work. The goal is to make it so uncomfortable to be a gun owner that your kids won’t even bother. The outcome of this bill remains to be seen, but I know that when one right is stolen away the others will follow.

If this oppressive behavior continues, I just may have to send out my weekly opinion pieces on parchment, handwritten with a quill pen.

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State's budget approval process gets early start
Republicans critical of current version

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060611/news_1n11budget.html

06-11-06

A two-house committee approved a new state budget of roughly $131 billion yesterday, setting the stage for Senate and Assembly votes this week that could produce the first on-time budget in two decades. But Democrats sent the new spending plan to the legislative floors despsite opposition from Republicans, with the apparent hope that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger would help negotiate agreements on remaining differences. Republicans legislators, whose votes are needed for the two-thirds approval of both houses required to pass a budget, made it clear that they want changes made in the plan that was approved by the committee. Democrats said the spending plan meets their policy goals, while also addressing the governor’s bottom line of paying down debt and avoiding spending a temporary revenue windfall on permanent programs.

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If redistricting reform is real, it'll emulate state high court
http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14266828p-15078723c.html

06-12-06

Alhough few outside professional politics understand it, the once-a-decade process of redrawing legislative and congressional districts, ostensibly to make them equal in population, is the single most important factor in determining who enjoys partisan and ideological control of those seats. If, to cite one example, Republicans retain control of the House of Representatives this year despite President Bush's very low popularity, the fundamental factor will be the congressional districts that were drawn in 50 states after the 2000 census, including the 53 in California. Nationally, and especially in California, the maps were designed to lock in the status quo regardless of the overall mood of the electorate. What's true of Congress is also true of the California Legislature, whose leaders devised a bipartisan gerrymander of 80 Assembly and 40 Senate districts that froze the partisan numbers and, in effect, erased intraparty competition for legislative seats.

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Medicaid Changes Hit State's Aliens

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/09/
BUGORJAVC01.DTL

06-09-06

New federal rules that require Medicaid recipients to prove their citizenship could push huge numbers of beneficiaries off state programs for the poor and disabled and into the ranks of the uninsured, health advocates warn. The rules, set to go into effect July 1, could have especially severe consequences in California, where 6.8 million people are enrolled in Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid.

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Kill The Death Tax

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060606/news_lz1ed6top.html

06-06-06

A world that is sick of knowing about Paris Hilton is in for a tough week, because the Senate is expected to vote on repealing the death tax. The hedonistic rich must be punished, many Democrats will say, because sending their parents' hard-earned money to Washington will somehow help poor people, balance the budget and melt away those extra pounds without painful exercise.

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Union Opens Its Ranks To Non-Teachers

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-teachers5jun05,
1,5364860.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-05-06

In a move that could ease organizing in charter schools and preschools, leaders of the state's largest teachers union announced Sunday that they have opened their ranks to school secretaries, bus drivers and other education professionals who aren't teachers. The vote by the State Council of Education, the top policy-making body of the powerful California Teachers Assn., immediately turns about 5,000 support staff into full CTA members.

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San Bernardino seeking 'relief'

Struggling city's proposal targets illegal immigrants

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/
11/MNGM5JCE0B1.DTL

06-11-06

Few cities have been battered as harshly by shifting policy and economic forces as this working-class suburb 60 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Despite being in one of the fastest-growing regions of the state, San Bernardino is long on problems -- such as vanishing jobs, gang violence and poor schools -- and desperately short on solutions. But Chas Kelley, a Republican city councilman and unabashed town booster, says there is one thing even more galling: He hears little English spoken in his supermarket checkout line and, worse, he says, the local Wal-Mart ads seem to turn their back on people like him, showing more Mexican than American flags. "They're a business, and I understand that they're after market share," Kelley said of Wal-Mart, as he brandished a store advertisement showing a dark-haired family wearing Mexican soccer jerseys as they watch a televised soccer match between Latin American teams. "But at some point in time, when does it stop? When does it become my America?"

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Commentary: Windfall Profits Tax a Loser for Citizens and the Economy

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=19128

Written By: Peter Van Doren and Jerry Taylor, Environment News, The Heartland Institute

06-01-06

Egged on by the red-faced anger served up by rant-and-rave TV populists, Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle (D) on May 1 launched an online petition calling for Congress to put a cap on oil profits and subject oil companies to special new "windfall" profits taxes. The recent spike in gasoline prices has set off a stampede of such politicos demanding aggressive action against "Big Oil." Congress may prove unable to resist passing a windfall profits tax before voters go to the polls this fall. If so, we'll experience the full meaning of H.L. Mencken's adage that democracy is that form of government in which the people get exactly what they want, good and hard. What they won't get, however, is nearly as much money out of such a tax as they probably think. A windfall profits tax targeted at earnings far beyond the U.S. industrial average would return zero revenue to the Treasury because windfall profits in the oil sector are figments of the imagination. While the raw earnings figures sound big, they are unexceptional when we take into account the size of those companies. Divide profits by sales, for instance, and you'll find that in the fourth quarter of 2005 (the last quarter for which data are available), profit margins were 6.8 percent at British Petroleum, 7 percent at ConocoPhilips, 7.1 percent at Shell, 7.7 percent at Chevron, and 10.7 percent at ExxonMobil. The 20 largest investor-owned oil companies earned a collective 8.8 cents on every dollar of sales for that quarter.

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Crossing over: Toxic waste

U.S. lacks good data on hazardous materials trucked from Mexico

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060612/news_1n12waste.html

06-12-06

While U.S. politicians debate how best to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the border, huge holes plague America's system for counting and inspecting toxic waste migrating north from Mexico. U.S. environmental officials can't say how much of the waste is trucked in each year, what the top sources of that waste are or which chemicals get transported most through border crossing points, including the Otay Mesa and Calexico stations – where hazardous waste gets funneled into California.

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Judge orders lawyers to play game

Acrimonious attorneys told to settle dispute by playing a round of 'rock, paper, scissors.'

http://money.cnn.com/2006/06/07/magazines/
fortune/rps_fortune/index.htm

06-07-06

Faced with the inability of two bickering attorneys to resolve even the most innocuous scheduling questions without his intervention, a Florida federal judge yesterday ordered the two to meet on the steps of the federal courthouse and resolve their latest quarrel by playing "one (1) game of 'rock, paper, scissors.' " Judge Gregory A. Presnell of Orlando ordered the unusual measure, which he characterized as "a new form of alternative dispute resolution," after the two Tampa attorneys had proven unable to agree upon where to hold a deposition, even though both of their offices are just four floors away in the very same building in Tampa.

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State's Schools Found Skimping On PE Classes

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f
=/c/a/2006/06/08/BAG46JAKDG1.DTL

06-08-06

More than half of school districts reviewed by the state are giving kids less physical education than the law requires -- at least 20 minutes a day -- according to public documents obtained by the nonprofit California Center for Public Health Advocacy. "This is a tragedy for California education," said Harold Goldstein, executive director of the group, which found that 37 of the 73 school districts checked by the state Education Department over the last two years had failed to make students sweat to the extent required.

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House OKs Bill To Speed Permits For New Refineries

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=
/c/a/2006/06/08/MNGO3JADUC1.DTL

06-08-06

The House passed legislation Wednesday aimed at streamlining permits for new refineries, a step Republican leaders stung by public anger over high gas prices said could expand energy supplies and eventually cut prices. The Republicans, fighting to keep control of the House in November's elections, used the debate to attack minority Democrats who they say have been obstructionists, opposing any step that would increase gas supplies.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:

http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

32 Studies And 13 Commissions

2006-06-05T11:00:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
June 5, 2006

This was a deadline week in the California Legislature. That means the Senate and Assembly worked to get bills out of their respective houses to “make new laws” for this year. As a believer in small government, that means I had absolutely no bills up for a vote this week.

But—the socialists in the Legislature did. In fact, the Assembly approved bills that would initiate 32 new studies, 13 new commissions, 4 new task forces, and a variety of new regulatory powers in government. We wanted to study everything from Asian food to flood plains, and we set up commissions to study everything from mental health to job creation. It is an axiom of government—nothing happens unless thousands of bureaucrats sit around in offices and think about it for extended periods of times, kill lots of trees to write thousands of reports, and announce to the world just how smart they are about whatever it is that they are studying. All in all, it is a waste of time and taxpayer money.

Two bills struck me particularly. AB 1899 by Lois Wolk, which would require the state to study flood plains, and prevent cities from building in areas where there is a chance that there might be a flood in the next 200 years. The other was AB 2378 by Noreen Evans which would prevent people who bought a house from keeping the equity in that home.

I believe in freedom. I believe that the government that governs least governs best. I believe that, as Thomas Jefferson said in the Declaration of Independence, that the purpose of government is to protect the right to life, liberty, and economic liberty (the so-called “pursuit of happiness”). I also know that if government does not protect property rights, political liberty is an illusion. No one will speak out against a government that threatens to take away their wealth or property.

Which brings us to the Wolk bill. Assemblywoman Wolk believes that, unless the state government stops people from building houses in areas that might flood in the next 200 years, people might be hurt. Of course, there aren’t many places in California that won’t flood sometime in the next 200 years. Which means that very few, if any; houses will be built in California if Ms Wolk’s bill actually passes. As a result, since people will still want to buy houses, and there will be no new houses, the price of existing houses will go through the roof.

Which brings us to Ms. Evans bill. That bill imposes price restrictions on the sale of houses. Houses cost too much, we are told, and government must control the price if people are going to be able to buy them.

So, on the one hand, one bill prohibits houses from being built, and, on the other, when economics takes over and increases the price of existing houses, government will control the price of those houses, and prevent people from profiting “too much” from the housing shortage created by foolish government regulations.

We study whether or not we need new regulations, pass the new regulations the studies say we need, and then wonder why our economy is falling apart, as the new regulations make it impossible for business to satisfy our basic needs. Housing costs too much because government has made it impossible to build new housing, and then, to control the byproduct of excessive government regulation, government creates new government regulations.

I really don’t think Californians realize how close we are to the Soviet socialism that caused its government to collapse. Unfortunately, neither does the California Legislature.

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Limit New Spending, Says Governor

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14262639p-15075860c.html

06-01-06

As lawmakers Wednesday began the final phase of drafting a state budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger urged self-discipline. In a speech to students at California State University, Sacramento, the governor cautioned against saddling California with new costs that it might not be able to meet in the future.

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Assembly Approves Minimum Wage Bill

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/
20060531-2114-ca-minimumwage.html

06-01-06

Legislation that would give 1.4 million minimum wage earners a $1-an-hour pay raise and then tie their wages to increases in inflation was approved by the Assembly Wednesday night, setting the stage for a possible election-year fight with Gov Arnold Schwarzenegger. The 43-30 vote sent the measure by Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, D-Santa Clara, to the Senate, which planned to vote on an identical increase by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, on Thursday.

******************************

Exit Exam Leaves 2006 Class 42,000 Short

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-exitexam2jun02,
1,6535322.story?coll=la-headlines-california

06-02-06

One in 10 California high school seniors will not receive a diploma this month because they failed the state's high school exit exam, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education. Students who are Latino, black, English learners or poor were disproportionately represented in the failure rates. State Supt. Jack O'Connell urged the 41,758 seniors across the state who had not passed the exam to continue striving to receive their diploma, in summer school, independent study or community college.

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Workers’ Comp Rate Cut 10%

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/
story/14263251p-15076235c.html

06-02-06

California's largest workers' compensation insurance carrier announced plans Thursday to cut rates by an average of 10 percent starting July 1. In making its sixth straight reduction in two years, the quasi-public State Compensation Insurance Fund also extended a program that gives an additional 10 percent rate cut to small businesses with a strong safety records. "This rate filing validates our commitment to pass on the savings from the 2004 reform legislation, bringing further rate relief to California employers," acting State Fund President James Tudor said in a statement

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Assembly OKs Cable Franchises From State

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14262640p-15075848c.html

06-01-06

Legislation hailed as a way to give Californians lower prices and more choice in cable television services was approved overwhelmingly Wednesday night by the state Assembly. On a day in which scores of bills roared through the house to meet a Friday deadline, lawmakers also narrowly passed legislation to ban new Central Valley subdivisions on flood-prone land.

******************************

Gambling $13 Billion Industry In State

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/06/01/BAGLFJ5MD51.DTL

06-01-06

Gambling in California, fueled in large part by the expansion of Indian casinos, has grown into an industry worth more than $13 billion a year, according to a report released Wednesday by the state attorney general. Indian casino revenue made up the biggest single chunk, with an estimated $5.78 billion in 2004, the latest year for which figures were available, the 181-page report said.

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Science Test Scores Are Inching Upward

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/
news/opinion/14705319.htm

05-31-06

There was a glimmer of hope from otherwise distressing results of a national science test: California has put a little distance between it and Mississippi at the bottom of the heap. California's fourth-graders still ranked next to last in the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and its eighth-graders were 42nd out of 44 participating states. But its rate of improvement was among the best, especially for Latino and African-American kids, compared with results from 2000.

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Prop. 82 – This Just Doesn’t Add Up

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/
20060530/OPED01/605300307

05-30-06

Proposition 82 is one of those frequent "surface" ballot proposals that tends to tug along sympathetic voters. It all sounds so positive. The initiative is called Preschool for All. There's a celebrity - Hollywood actor and director Rob Reiner - leading the campaign. Then there's the Robin Hood-like quality of taxing the rich to supposedly give predominately to the poor. The end result is $2.4 billion a year to make voluntary preschool available to all 4-year-olds.

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Governor, Legislators Act On Minimum Wage

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/05/30/BAGGGJ48CN1.DTL

05-30-06

Tanning salon owner Lee Baker isn't against raising his workers' wages, but in a time when rising energy costs are already putting a squeeze on small businesses, increasing the minimum wage could result in eliminating jobs at his shop, he said. "The way I see it, people who are working minimum-wage jobs are getting some money. If we end up eliminating those jobs, it's going to put them in a welfare system," said Baker, 43, who owns Summ R Tan Tanning Centers in Sacramento and nearby Carmichael.

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Plan To Ban Cell Phone Use While Driving Moves Ahead

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14260524p-15074398c.html

05-26-06

California drivers caught using hand-held cell phones may face fines up to $50 under legislation approved by the state Senate on Thursday. The bill, which squeaked through with no votes to spare, 21-14, would ban drivers from using a cell phone unless it is on hands-free mode, such as with a speakerphone or a headset. "The difference between hand-held and hands-free is life and death," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, who has been championing the measure for several years.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset7text.htm

"Why I Boycotted President Fox"

2006-05-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

"Why I Boycotted President Fox"

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes,
California State Legislature
May 30, 2006

The President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, spoke to the California State Legislature on Thursday; this while the U.S. Senate was voting on an immigration bill. I chose not to go to the Fox speech. Since many people may misconstrue what occurred, I believe a statement explaining my actions is needed.

I have been in the Legislature for some time, and I have seen many heads of state pass through. The American Republic and its operations are fascinating to these foreign politicians, and addressing the California Legislature is often a high point in many dignitaries’ travels. Appropriate decorum dictates that we as Legislators be polite and treat these visitors with the respect their positions deserve.

However, most of these dignitaries are visiting our country to see it at work, and to talk with government officials to help their businesses trade with businesses in California, or to establish some sort of government to government relationship. They are not usually in this country, and in our state, to lobby Congress or the state for a change in policy.

President Fox’s trip had no other purpose. He was in this country addressing Legislative bodies for the sole purpose of trying to change U.S. immigration policy. He has continually complained about our policy, openly questioned the legality of Bush putting National Guard units on the border, and even complained when Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill which would have given California driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Throughout the last several years, he has encouraged his citizens to immigrate to this country illegally, and has, in many ways, benefited from that illegal immigration. When his citizens come to California, our taxpayers pick up their medical bills, pay for their education, food, clothing and housing. In return, these Mexican citizens usually take most of their earnings and send them back to Mexico. The relationship is all to Mexico’s benefit, and not much help to California.

So when President Fox came to California to promote amnesty for the Mexican nationals that have broken our laws, I found his presence here to be arrogant and offensive. Many of the Mexican citizens who come to the United States illegally are the “social problems” of Mexico. The corruption, the favoritism, the oppressive government has left many of these people in abject poverty, and, if they didn’t come to the United States, they would probably start a revolution in Mexico. Fox wants us to relieve the political tension that these social problems would cause.

So why should I sanction this visit? Why should I sit and listen to lies and propaganda meant to influence the legislative passage of a bill in Congress with which I vehemently disagree? We need to enforce our laws first, not listen to the President of Mexico ask us to pay for his social problems. He should go back to Mexico, fix his economy, fix his corrupt government, and quit sending us his social problems.

I couldn’t say that to him because he would not meet with us to hear these words. So I greeted him with silence. It wasn’t disrespectful. It was protest. It is how I would treat any lobbyist who was pushing me to do something I thought was wrong. More important, it was wrong of the leadership of the California Legislature to aid and abet his lobbying effort.

I wasn’t going to sanction it at any level, so I left, and encouraged others to do the same. It was the right thing to do.

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066 OR Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

"Why I Boycotted President Fox"

2006-05-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

"Why I Boycotted President Fox"

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
May 30, 2006

The President of Mexico, Vicente Fox, spoke to the California State Legislature on Thursday; this while the U.S. Senate was voting on an immigration bill. I chose not to go to the Fox speech. Since many people may misconstrue what occurred, I believe a statement explaining my actions is needed.

I have been in the Legislature for some time, and I have seen many heads of state pass through. The American Republic and its operations are fascinating to these foreign politicians, and addressing the California Legislature is often a high point in many dignitaries’ travels. Appropriate decorum dictates that we as Legislators be polite and treat these visitors with the respect their positions deserve.

However, most of these dignitaries are visiting our country to see it at work, and to talk with government officials to help their businesses trade with businesses in California, or to establish some sort of government to government relationship. They are not usually in this country, and in our state, to lobby Congress or the state for a change in policy.

President Fox’s trip had no other purpose. He was in this country addressing Legislative bodies for the sole purpose of trying to change U.S. immigration policy. He has continually complained about our policy, openly questioned the legality of Bush putting National Guard units on the border, and even complained when Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill which would have given California driver’s licenses to illegal aliens. Throughout the last several years, he has encouraged his citizens to immigrate to this country illegally, and has, in many ways, benefited from that illegal immigration. When his citizens come to California, our taxpayers pick up their medical bills, pay for their education, food, clothing and housing. In return, these Mexican citizens usually take most of their earnings and send them back to Mexico. The relationship is all to Mexico’s benefit, and not much help to California.

So when President Fox came to California to promote amnesty for the Mexican nationals that have broken our laws, I found his presence here to be arrogant and offensive. Many of the Mexican citizens who come to the United States illegally are the “social problems” of Mexico. The corruption, the favoritism, the oppressive government has left many of these people in abject poverty, and, if they didn’t come to the United States, they would probably start a revolution in Mexico. Fox wants us to relieve the political tension that these social problems would cause.

So why should I sanction this visit? Why should I sit and listen to lies and propaganda meant to influence the legislative passage of a bill in Congress with which I vehemently disagree? We need to enforce our laws first, not listen to the President of Mexico ask us to pay for his social problems. He should go back to Mexico, fix his economy, fix his corrupt government, and quit sending us his social problems.

I couldn’t say that to him because he would not meet with us to hear these words. So I greeted him with silence. It wasn’t disrespectful. It was protest. It is how I would treat any lobbyist who was pushing me to do something I thought was wrong. More important, it was wrong of the leadership of the California Legislature to aid and abet his lobbying effort.

I wasn’t going to sanction it at any level, so I left, and encouraged others to do the same. It was the right thing to do.

******************************

Legislature Faces Split In Pre-Election Season

Potential obstacles include legislation on gay history in textbooks, immigrant rights and sex predator laws

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/
cctimes/news/local/14646084.htm

05-23-06

Even as state lawmakers dive into what they're hoping is a relatively harmonious budget season, the Capitol's political landscape is littered with potential land mines that could make for an explosive buildup to the fall elections. Gay-friendly school textbooks. Driver's licenses for illegal immigrants. Sexual predator laws. Raising the minimum wage. Redrawing legislative boundaries. Public funding for elections. Those are just some of the looming legislative issues -- all pushed by majority Democrats -- that threaten to wipe away the collegiality that has reigned in the last several weeks when lawmakers worked out a deal to place infrastructure bonds on the November ballot and flush revenues made for few substantive disagreements when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger unveiled his revised May budget.

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Gay School Bill in Trouble

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/
14260132p-15074105c.html

05-25-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will veto a bill passed by the Senate and pending in the Assembly to revise California's school curriculum to include the contributions of gays and lesbians to the state and nation, a gubernatorial spokesman said Wednesday. "The governor believes that school curriculum should include all important historical figures, regardless of orientation," said Schwarzenegger's director of communications, Adam Mendelsohn. "However, he does not support the Legislature micromanaging curriculum."

******************************

Assembly Joins Immigration Fray

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14259084p-15073357c.html

05-23-06

The state Assembly approved a resolution Monday urging the Congress and President Bush to reject criminalizing illegal immigrants and instead adopt Senate reform proposals that include a path to legal residency and citizenship. The resolution does not support "any type of blanket amnesty" but calls on Congress "to work through a comprehensive immigration reform package, one that produces meaningful and effective immigration laws," Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, who co-authored the resolution, said on the Assembly floor.

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State Must Take the Lead in Pension Reform

http://www.insidebayarea.com/
opinion/ci_3855383

05-23-06

GOV. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the California Department of Personnel Administration did the right thing recently by closing a loophole in pension regulations that enabled one-tenth of the Forestry Department's top firefighters to retire with pensions higher than their salaries. It was obscene to think that 20 of California's top fire officials in their 50s were able to leave their jobs with pensions amounting to as much as 115 percent of their salaries.

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Overhaul of Sex Predator Law Slows

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14258557p-15072962c.html

05-22-06

Despite legislators' vows earlier this year to quickly revamp how California handles its worst sexual offenders, the effort is moving slowly and, critics say, could even end up weakening the state's control over sexually violent predators. Lawmakers and prosecutors say there is still a good chance that reform legislation will be passed in the coming months, but there are sharp disagreements over how tough the new legislation will be.

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Justices Restore Exit Exam

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/
mercurynews/news/14663564.htm

05-25-06

California's Supreme Court reinstated the high school exit exam as a diploma requirement Wednesday, less than two weeks after a trial court handed the Class of 2006 a free pass. But the drama isn't over yet for the estimated 47,000 students -- about 10 percent of the senior class -- caught up in an ongoing dispute over the exam's fairness. The Supreme Court sent the case to the state Court of Appeals, which it said was the appropriate forum to decide the question.

******************************

Students Rank Second To Last Nationwide In Science

http://www.insidebayarea.com/
oaklandtribune/localnews/ci
_3863243

05-25-06

As the old education joke goes, thank goodness for Mississippi. Were it not for that Southern state, California would rank dead last nationally in science test scores — with 50 percent of its fourth-graders falling below basic achievement levels, according to national scores released Wednesday. In eighth-grade, California tied with Hawaii for second-to-last place, with Mississippi again pulling up the rear on what federal officials call the nation's report card.

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L.A. Mayor Resurrects Office to Assist Immigrants Regardless Of Status

http://www.dailynews.com/
news/ci_3857850

05-24-06

Angering groups backing a crackdown on illegal immigration, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will revive a city office that helps new arrivals to Los Angeles get municipal services and participate in civic life without regard to their legal status. The mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs has been inactive for a year but the Villaraigosa administration, noting more than 40 percent of the city's residents are foreign-born, said the service is needed to inform immigrants about city laws and how City Hall works.

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Flush These Two Laws

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/commentary/editorials/article
_1151587.php

05-23-06

Is there no area of our lives so intimate, so personal that government doesn't want to regulate it? The latest invasion of privacy is an assault on cleanliness known as AB2496, by Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz. In the bill's language, it would mandate that "water closets and urinals have lower flush volumes, generally reducing toilets from 1.6 gallons per flush to 1.3, and urinals from 1.0 gallons per flush to 0.5 gallons per flush."

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State’s Traffic Woes May Hinder Ability to Deliver Goods to Ports

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.
dll/article?AID=/20060523/
NEWS01/605230333/1001

05-23-06

Just as commuters depend on the highways to get to work, the California economy relies on truckers to deliver goods to the state's ports in time. State officials worry that growing traffic jams and a neglected transportation system will force shippers to reroute cargo to more-reliable West Coast ports in Washington and Oregon, said Sunne Wright McPeak, secretary of the state Department of Business, Housing and Transportation.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Kelo Therapy - May 22, 2006

2006-05-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
May 22, 2006

There is a cancer in the body politic of our country today. Simply stated, it is eminent domain abuse. More broadly, it is the effort of our federal, state and local governments to erode long-standing property rights in real estate. For most of the history of our country, people have believed that their home was their castle; that government could not just come in and take their property to give it to someone else, or devote it to some public use without paying for it. Yet that is what is happening throughout our country today. More recently, the Supreme Court of the United States sanctioned the practice of taking people’s homes, and giving them to a powerful developer, in the case Kelo v. City of New London.

Property rights are the keystone of liberty. To those who don’t believe that, ask this question: when was the last time you heard a developer criticize a city councilmember or county supervisor? It doesn’t happen. Why? Because that developer knows that the local officials can deprive him of the use of his or her land, sending that developer into bankruptcy. So, they sacrifice their freedom of speech to avoid bankruptcy. Some people may be willing to die in the defense of liberty, but very few will be willing to go bankrupt in that defense, because, if they go bankrupt, they still have to explain to their family why there is no food on the table.

The reason Kelo is a cancer is that it accelerates the loss of liberty. It lets the politically powerful take the homes and the land of those not so powerful to line the pockets of the powerful, using the power of government to accomplish this nefarious scheme. Like cancer, it needs to be removed by a legal “chemo-therapy,” a “Kelo”-therapy, if you will.

That Kelo-therapy is the “Protect Our Homes” Initiative. The initiative submitted over a million signatures this week to the Secretary of State’s office in order to be on the November ballot. It is highly likely it will get there.

What the initiative does is relatively simple. It provides that government cannot use eminent domain to take your land and give it to some private developer, and it may not use the law to diminish the value of your land to accomplish this purpose. The bottom line, it restores property rights to the people of the state of California. It performs Kelo-therapy on the cancer of eminent domain abuse, and the loss of liberty that has come from the loss of property rights in this state.

Defenders of government power, and the politically powerful, are likely to scream bloody murder at the thought of losing this tool which is very effective at lining their pockets. They will make up all sorts of reasons why they should still be able to take your land, take your home, or diminish the value of your real estate using the power of government. They will claim that the environment will be destroyed, women, children and senior citizens will die, and that we will be invaded by the Mongol hordes if “Protect Our Homes” passes. These things will not occur.

What will occur is that Californians will once again enjoy the right to use and enjoy the property they own without fear from some bureaucrat, politician, or influential political donor being able to take their land without their consent. They will once again be able to use land as a retirement nest egg or secure home without being invaded by hordes of bureaucrats. In other words, California will be in America again. Freedom and liberty will once again reign in the Golden State.

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Early Signs Point To A Smooth Budget

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14255874p-15071049c.html

05-16-06

Signaling a quick resolution to the state budget, Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez said Monday that "we're very close" to a deal, and the nonpartisan legislative analyst congratulated Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for presenting a revised spending plan last week that contains "a number of positive features." Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said there are still a few disputes that separate him from the Republican governor, and Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill expressed some disagreement with Schwarzenegger's long-term debt repayment and school funding plans.

******************************

Say No To Deficit Spending

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
pinion/commentary/editorials/article_
1147448.php

05-19-06

The sad fact about the California state budget is that it's still spurting red ink – five years after the state's economy recovered from the dot-com-bust recession and 2- 1/2 years after Arnold Schwarzenegger became governor. The governor is right in pointing out that the debt is smaller than the $20 billion-plus gusher he inherited. But there's still no reason for his budget proposal for 2006-07, which he released May 12, to include a structural deficit of $4 billion.

******************************

Schools Failed The Exit Exam

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/columns/article_1142777.php

05-16-06

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert Freedman struck down California's new high school exit exam last week, saying the test is unfair to students who have been shortchanged by substandard public schools. The attorney who filed the lawsuit, Arturo Gonzalez of the San Francisco law firm Morrison and Foerster, said, "There is overwhelming evidence that students throughout the state have not been taught the material on the test.

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A Rumble Over Property

http://www.venturacountystar.com/vcs/
opinion_columnists/article/0,1375,
VCS_223_4703885,00.html

05-17-06

If you were too young or not around back then and you're tired of hearing old-timers talk about California's great political earthquake of 1978, maybe it's time to strap down the water heater. There's a new rumbling along the state's ballot-initiative fault line that, before it's over, could mimic the Proposition 13 quake of '78. Just as before, it involves private property.

******************************

State's Credit Rating Gets 1st Boost in 2 Years

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
credit18may18,1,7365342.story?
coll=la-headlines-california

05-18-06

California's credit rating rose Wednesday for the first time in nearly two years, signaling Wall Street's approval of the state's efforts to bring its chronic budget deficit under control. The upgrade from A to A+ by the rating agency Standard & Poor's moves California out of last place in the rankings to second-to-last — just ahead of Louisiana — and a safe distance from the near-junk bond status the state had in early 2004.

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End Run On Minimum Wage Issue

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14257156p-15071929c.html

05-19-06

Stymied in the Legislature, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday called on the all-but-moribund Industrial Welfare Commission to approve a $1 minimum wage increase, a move that had Democrats and Republicans accusing each other of playing politics with the working poor. In a petition submitted Thursday, Schwarzenegger asked the commission -- which the Legislature de-funded two years ago -- to take up his proposal for a two-step minimum wage increase that would raise the bottom-level pay scale from $6.75 to $7.75.

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Judge’s Ruling Flunks Out

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/
article?AID=/20060517/OPED0
1/605170307

05-17-06

Complete this sentence: A Superior Court judge's ruling to suspend the California High School Exit Exam for 2006 graduates: a. Is unfair to the 450,000 seniors who've passed the test. b. Ignores a decade of improvement in the state's secondary education system. c. Admits defeat in trying to raise standards. Alameda County Superior Court Judge Robert B. Freedman decided Friday that he knows more than a former governor, the California Legislature, most educators, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and thousands of students who have labeled the exam - designed to test eighth-grade math and 10th-grade English skills - "easy."

******************************

Sex Preference No Reason To Rewrite History

http://www.dailybulletin.com/
opinions/ci_3826908

05-16-06

Students should not leave public high schools without learning of the Stonewall Riots, the murder of Harvey Milk, and the activist response to the AIDS crisis. Those watershed moments in gay history are milestones in American history, and schools that overlook them provide their students with incomplete educations. But state Senate Democrats went too far last week by passing a bill that would require social science textbooks sold in California to include the significant contributions of gay, bisexual and transgendered people.

******************************

Strapped And Safe

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/
editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_
D_op_18_ed_carseats3.1d430024.html

05-18-06

Car seats save children's lives. But at some point, government should leave parents to decide when their kids are grown enough to safely ride in the front seat. The state would do well to regulate child car-seat safety by height and weight, instead of passing a law banning all but teens and adults from riding shotgun. Better still, the state could eschew more meddling regulation and devote additional resources to educating parents about the risks of letting children ride up front.

******************************

Delay Rapid Rail

http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/
editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_
D_op_17_ed_railbonds3.17f281e4.html

05-17-06

A high-speed passenger train system that whisks travelers around California offers futuristic appeal. But for now, the state has more immediate priorities, which is why the Legislature should again postpone a high-speed-rail bond measure. The Legislature initially approved the rail bond in 2002, to go on the ballot in 2004. But the state's dire finances prompted legislators to move the bond measure to the November 2006 ballot instead.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
acs/acsframeset7text.htm

Why Our Schools Don’t Work - May 15, 2006

2006-05-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

By Assemblyman Ray Haynes
May 15, 2006

This last week, a judge in Oakland said he thought the state’s high school exit exam is flawed, because it failed to account for English language learners’ inability to read the test. That is, since the test requires that those with limited English skills take and pass the test in English, it discriminates against those students.

Never mind that, no matter where you go in this country, English language skills are an important part of success. Never mind that a student should be able to read the high school diploma they are receiving when they graduate. Insuring competence in basic skills is apparently not the goal of our schools. Insuring that absolutely no school policy offends any person in this state is the most critical thing to this judge.

And that is one of the reasons why the state’s schools don’t work.

This week, based on a judge’s decision, the exit exam got tossed out because of its alleged discriminatory effect. The one thing in our schools that would make sure students actually knew something before they graduated from school has been tossed aside in favor of some alleged antidiscrimination ethic. Learning is not the most important thing in schools; advancing some liberal social ethic is.

This leads us to SB 1437, which passed the state senate on Thursday. SB 1437 would require, yes require, schools to teach about the contributions of gays, lesbian, bisexuals and transsexuals in history. Honestly, I don’t know what transsexuals have done in history, but, if my kids go to public school, they will be forced to learn about it.

Let me be clear. We don’t require that they learn about George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, any details of the Civil War, or just about anything else in history, but we are going to require that they learn about gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transsexuals. In fact, any book that says anything that might be interpreted as hostile to those groups would be banned from the classroom, and the textbooks that remain must go out of their way to mention their contributions.

Once again, the state senate, like the judge, has decided to emphasize a political agenda over a learning agenda. Quite frankly, a great person in history is great regardless of their sexual orientation. It really wouldn’t matter whether Thomas Jefferson had a sexual relationship with his slave, Sally Hemmings. His contributions to our history through the Declaration of Independence and the Louisiana Purchase occurred even though we don’t know who he slept with. It really doesn’t matter if Abraham Lincoln was gay or not (as homosexual activist groups have long tried to prove), his effort to abolish slavery in this country, and his work in preserving this country as a whole are a testament to his place in history no matter what they allege he did with his law partners at night when no one was looking.

We have a lot of problems in our schools. Our children are worried about their safety. We can’t seem to keep drugs out of the school. Sexual harassment, and in some cases molestations, seem to occur on a regular basis up and down the state. Our school buildings are crumbling, and we can’t fire incompetent teachers. Ten percent of the kids who enter school can’t prove they have an eighth grade level of knowledge when they graduate, and the judges and legislators are worried about discrimination and political correctness.

We give our schools $50-60 billion a year. Those that educate our children are supposed to make sure that our children know that two plus two equals four. One of the reason that they are failing at their jobs is because our political leaders are more worried about who is sleeping with whom than whether children can actually read a cereal box. We need to get our priorities straight.

******************************

Late-Night Bondage

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/commentary/editorials/article_
1131637.php

05-09-06

California badly needs infrastructure improvements, especially for transportation and levees. But last Thursday and Friday the Legislature drove down the wrong road when it rushed through affirmative votes to put four infrastructure bonds on the Nov. 7 ballot. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he would sign the authorization bills for the initiative.

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California History – What’s Sexual Preference Got To Do With It?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/
story/14252883p-15068913c.html

05-08-06

It is never a good sign when the California Legislature tries to micromanage what is in textbooks, especially the recounting of state history. When you see the signs, look for a contemporary political agenda. In this case, the agenda is the modern-day gay rights movement. SB 1437 proposes that new textbooks contain passages that view history from the perspective of our predecessors' sexual orientation.

******************************

No On Prop. 82

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060508/news_mz1ed8top.html

05-18-06

Helping 4-year-olds prepare for more productive lives should be an easy sell. That's why it was no surprise that Proposition 82, the “free preschool for all” initiative, polled so well in surveys early this year and won so many endorsements. But something unusual has happened: The more that both the public and politicians have learned about the initiative, the less they like it. This reaction makes sense – because under scrutiny, the case for Proposition 82 falls apart.

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Sales Tax On Gasoline A Bonanza For State

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/05/11/MNGR8IPK9C1.DTL

05-11-06

Oil companies aren't the only ones raking in the money because of rising prices at the fuel pump. The coffers of state and local governments are seeing big gains as a result of increased revenue generated by the sales tax that consumers pay on gasoline. Sales tax receipts from the gas pumps in the fourth quarter of last year grew by nearly $100 million from the same period the year before, according to the latest figures available.

******************************

Latest Front In Property-Rights Fight

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
commentary/editorials/article_1134374.php

05-09-06

Following the U.S. Supreme Court's Kelo v. City of New London (Conn.) decision last June, allowing a city to take private property in order to promote economic development, a backlash against eminent- domain abuse has been growing across the country. Advocates for eminent domain continue to insist that such reforms are not necessary because governments use eminent domain only in rare instances.

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Exit The Exam?

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060511/news_lz1ed11bottom.html

05-11-06

Mere weeks before high school graduations, Judge Robert Freedman of Alameda County Superior Court may stop before it starts the state's essential mandate that high school graduates score at least 60 percent on a test of eighth-grade math and 10th-grade English. Even that minimal requirement, measured by the math and English portions of the exit exam, would be out the window if Freedman orders that officials award diplomas to seniors who have passed their course work but failed one or both sections of the exam.

******************************

Valley Plans For Dam Rise Again

http://www.fresnobee.com/local/story/
12172993p-12917884c.html

05-12-06

Blocked in their push to get dam money in the $37 billion bond package, 10 Central Valley lawmakers are trying again. Those in the bipartisan group announced Thursday that they are preparing a bill that would place a dam bond on the November ballot. If passed, it would dedicate $1.2 billion in state money for a proposed dam at Temperance Flat and for restoration of the San Joaquin River. They are sure to face an uphill fight.

******************************

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?
artId=18944

HSAs Proving Profitable for Employers

Written By: Benjamin Cutler, Health Care News, The Heartland Institute

05-01-06

USHEALTH Group is a small insurance company, with fewer than 200 employees, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas. In March 2005, the company received a renewal notice from its group insurance carrier, UnitedHealthcare. USHEALTH had a traditional group health plan, with a $500 deductible and a $15 co-pay. Employees were pleased with their health insurance plan, which cost the firm $5,600 per employee, but they expected to get some bad news in United's renewal notice. The loss ratio for the past year was 103 percent, and the broker had warned them to expect a sizable rate increase. Loss ratios measure the relationship between the claims the insurer pays over the course of a year and the premiums paid by a policy group. Most insurers target loss ratios of 85 percent, leaving 15 percent of the premiums for profit and expenses. As expected, the renewal notice from United included a hefty 19 percent increase, resulting in a new per-employee cost of $6,600. In anticipation of that news, the company had requested an alternative quote from United for a high-deductible health savings account (HSA) qualified plan.

******************************

With Extra $5 Billion, Governor Plans to Pay Debt, Aid Schools

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-
budget10may10,1,4088526.story?
coll=la-headlines-california

05-10-06

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to retire a large chunk of the state's debt and boost education funding with more than $5 billion in unexpected revenue from surging tax receipts, according to documents obtained by The Times. The governor will offer details on the windfall, and the plan for spending it, in a revised budget proposal on Friday. The billions he will propose returning to schools promise to help him end a bruising political battle that has dogged his administration.

******************************

Toll Road Board Tries To Fight Back

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/
abox/article_1138362.php

05-12-06

The agency trying to build an $875million extension of the Foothill (241) South Toll Road on Thursday blasted back at an Assembly subcommittee that aims to kill off the 16-mile link that would go through popular San Onofre State Beach. With a unanimous vote, the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency passed a resolution asking state lawmakers to let the local government decide what is best for the region.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To contact Assembymember Haynes:
Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.
ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

It’s All About The Documents - May 8, 06

2006-05-08T14:33:00.000-07:00

Everything we do in life is about the documents. We are born, we live, and we die with documents attached to us. So whenever you here someone claim that something is not wrong, it is just “undocumented,” keep that in mind.

For instance, in California, if you practice law without the appropriate documentation twice, you are guilty of a felony. Would it be a defense to that felony charge that you are not a felon, but rather just an undocumented lawyer?

How about the unauthorized practice of medicine? If someone dies, and you don’t have the right medical documents, you are guilty of murder. It is not just the “undocumented” provision of medical services.

Unlicensed contractors? Just undocumented carpenters, bricklayers, engineers, plumbers, and electricians.

We even have documents that establish our ownership of our property. Car thieves are car thieves, not undocumented motor vehicle operators. Trespassers are trespassers, not undocumented easement holders. If you take property from a store without a receipt, you are a thief, not an undocumented possessor of property

Businesses require the right licenses from government. Indeed, if someone starts up a bank and does not get a license from the state and federal government will find that they will go to jail for being an “undocumented” money lender or “undocumented” savings institution. It is not a defense to their crime to say that they don’t “have the right documents.”

One of my favorites came from one of my legislative colleagues this last week, when informed that the Democrats wanted to take last Monday off to participate in the immigration protests. He said he had found former legislators who were qualified to do the job of the California Legislature, were willing to do the work of the current Legislature at half the cost to the taxpayer, and would show up to do the job. Their only problem? They were undocumented, they had not received the right documents from the Secretary of State to vote in the Legislature.

The absurdity of the claims of those who wish to justify the lawlessness of those who break our immigration laws by calling those illegal aliens “undocumented immigrants” is evident. Everything we do in life is about the documents. We get a birth certificate that establishes our citizenship, and a death certificate that establish inheritance rights. Deeds say who owns real estate, and contracts establish legal obligations. If we don’t have registration for our car, we can go to jail as a thief, or, at the very least get a ticket. In fact, we don’t even have laws unless some legislator gets a document passed through the Legislature and signed by the Governor. All of life requires the right “documents.”

The protests of this last week can be encapsulated this way: thousands of criminals wanted the government to ignore their crime. That reality is not changed by saying that they “are human and we need to recognize their humanity.” Of course we recognize their humanity; they just need to follow the law. We will not justify their lawlessness any more that we would justify the lawlessness of a trespasser or thief on the grounds that they “needed” the property they took. Marching in the street, protesting the enforcement of a law does not justify breaking that law. A legal system that rewards lawbreakers is destined to collapse into anarchy. Indeed, those who protested this last week were asking for anarchy; an open border and unlimited immigration. That is dangerous for our country (as 9/11 pointed out), and extremely shortsighted.

Our immigration laws may be complicated, but that does not justify ignoring them. We should enforce those laws, and, if the enforcement proves that the laws are unworkable, then you look at changing the law. But until that happens, the laws should stand, and they should be enforced.

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Legislature Passes $37.5 Billion Bond Plan

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
homepage/abox/article_1131111.php

05-05-06

Californians will vote on four separate billion-dollar bond measures in November to rejuvenate schools, levees, roads and housing. Approved by the Assembly after 3:00 a.m. today following an earlier vote by the Senate, the $37.5 billion package is more modest than the $68 billion in borrowing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed in January, but nonetheless is biggest bond package in state history.

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Immigrants Are Driving State’s Population Boom

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14250336p-15067092c.html

05-02-06

By pure happenstance, on the day that hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets of California to demand rights for immigrants - however those rights may be defined - the state issued a new report on population growth that demonstrated anew that immigration accounts for virtually all of the state's human expansion. The Department of Finance's demographers calculated that as of Jan. 1, the state's population had reached 37.2 million, up 444,000 over the previous year and continuing California on a track to approach 40 million by 2010 - and 50 million by the late 2020s.

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No Correlation Between Spending, High School Graduation

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14250046p-15066865c.html

05-01-06

The bottom line for any public education system is - or at least should be - how many of its young charges actually make it through 12 years of school and obtain high school diplomas that represent basic levels of knowledge and skills. That may explain why, in the vast welter of test scores and other benchmarks, high school graduation rates are among the most difficult data to obtain.

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New Revenue Windfall Is Opportunity, Challenge

http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/
story/14250406p-15067128c.html

05-02-06

California's booming economy is pouring record levels of new tax receipts into the state's treasury, solving some problems for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger while promising to create others for the Republican chief executive. In the short-term, the news is all good for Schwarzenegger, who plans to present a revised budget on May 12 that increasingly confirms his view that the state could grow its way out of years of fiscal frustration without raising taxes.

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Senate Closes In On Bond Ballot Package

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=
/c/a/2006/05/03/BAG2FIJFDI1.DTL

05-03-06

Lawmakers may vote this week on a bond package of more than $35 billion to relieve highway congestion, build new schools and shore up the state's deteriorating levees. A Senate vote on four public works bonds, which also includes money for emergency preparedness and affordable housing, could come Thursday. If the measures are approved by both houses of the Legislature, voters would have their say on the borrowing program in November.

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Still Dodging the Truth About Global Warming
http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=
18988&CFID=7577037&CFTOKEN=74127291
05-04-06

A draft report from a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was inadvertently made available on the Internet by a U.S. government committee.

The following comments about that draft can be attributed to James M. Taylor, managing editor of Environment & Climate News and senior fellow for The Heartland Institute

Global warming alarmism is in the air once again, complete with claims of "overwhelming evidence" showing human activity is responsible for global warming. Or maybe not.

A draft report from a working group of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was inadvertently made available on the Internet by a U.S. government committee. The IPCC--a political body created by the United Nations, not a scientific body--has been the source of false alarms before. Its new report appears to be no different.

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State Lawmakers Pushing Various Immigration Bills

http://www.dailybulletin.com/news/ci_
3777867

05-03-06

Even as national debate rages over illegal immigration, California legislators are weighing bills that take aim at the issue on fronts ranging from public benefits such as driver's licenses and in-state tuition rates to better investigation of the citizenship status of prisoners. Many of the bills are by Republican legislators looking to reduce public benefits to undocumented immigrants and investigate what they cost the state in resources and infrastructure.

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Intense Debate Surrounds Bill About Gays In Textbooks

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/
state/article_1127886.php

05-04-06

Someday soon, school textbooks in California could be required to include a reference to someone like Bayard Rustin. Never heard of him? He was a colleague of Martin Luther King, Jr., a low-profile organizer largely forgotten for his behind-the-scenes role in the civil rights movement. But under a bill by Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, which passed the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, Rustin would be of particular educational value because he was also gay.

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No On 82

http://www.pe.com/localnews/
opinion/editorials/stories/
PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op_05_ed_prop
82new_3_elx.d362951.html

05-05-06

California has enough fiscal strife without creating a new, multibillion-dollar-a-year universal preschool entitlement. We recommend voting no on Prop. 82 on the June 6 ballot. The initiative would raise income tax rates on wealthy Californians to provide $2.4 billion annually to fund free preschool for all 4-year-olds. That is not, as Prop. 82 proponents insist, a tiny, 1.7 percent tax increase; it is an increase of 1.7 percentage points that translates to an 18 percent increase in the tax rate.

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Low-Cost Auto Liability Insurance Sponsored By State Now Available

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060504/news_1b4insure.html

05-04-06

At least 165,000 drivers in San Diego County are uninsured, but some of them might qualify for new low-cost insurance sponsored by the state. Standing in front of a Department of Motor Vehicles office in Hillcrest yesterday, state Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi introduced a program that would allow the county's low-income motorists with good driving records to get state-required liability coverage at an affordable price, in some cases as little as $268 a year.

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Lobbyists’ Gifts – Lavish But Legal

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=
/c/a/2006/04/30/MNGJGII7BD1.DTL

05-01-06

Corporations and trade groups treated state lawmakers, their staffs and members of the governor's office to $940,000 in gifts last year that included rounds of golf at exclusive resorts, ski outings, hunting trips and seats to watch the Rolling Stones and WrestleMania, according to a Chronicle analysis. The largesse came as corruption scandals in Washington involving lobbyist Jack Abramoff and former U.S. Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham rocked Congress and prompted calls for reform from across the nation.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:

Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/senators/
senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

Redistribution or reproduction of this Memorandum with attribution is permitted and encouraged!

Monday Morning Memorandum on IPod

2006-05-01T20:47:00.000-07:00

May 1, 2006

I am doing a weekly IPod Broadcast which is available on my website. I would encourage you to visit my website and listen in

http://republican.assembly.ca.gov/members/
index.asp?Dist=66&lang=1

Scroll down to Sound Clips, This Week In Sacramento and click on “Listen”

The Real Price Gougers

Do you want to reduce the price of gasoline by almost 60 cents a gallon immediately?

Get the real price gougers. They take nearly 60 cents of every $3.00 gallon of gas. They should pay the windfall profits tax. They should be investigated. What are they doing with this money? How is it being spent? How are they ripping off the gasoline consumer?

They manipulate the market in oil. They withhold large amounts of the oil supply from the public, artificially reducing the supply so that the price of gasoline continually goes up. They prohibit the refining of oil, and, in fact, add useless, polluting chemicals to gasoline (claiming that it makes the air cleaner), which also artificially increases the price of gasoline. In fact, they profit from their activities at the expense of consumers everywhere. They gouge consumers, take home exorbitant salaries from their price gouging practices, and do absolutely nothing for the gas consuming public. They take the food from the table of the hardworking people of this state and country to satisfy their appetite for the big bucks they make from big oil.

How have these gougers avoided investigation so long? They blame others for the high price of gasoline. They use their public relations mechanisms to manipulate the press into shifting the blame from themselves to powerless scapegoats, and keep the flow of big bucks headed into their pockets from the pockets of working families.

Who are these gougers? They are the politicians and bureaucrats in the state and federal governments. Federal taxes take 18.4 cents of every gallon of gas. State gas tax is 18 cents a gallon. The state sales tax adds 22 cents to every $3.00 gallon of gas. Of course, the amount of sales tax goes up as the price of gas increases. Add these together, and the consumer pays 58.4 cents to the government for every $3.00 gallon of gas. These taxes don’t include the income taxes paid by oil companies, which last year was over $108 billion to the federal government alone.

And what does the consumer get for this price gouging? Nothing. Government tells us they collect the tax to build roads and freeways, yet the freeways are overcrowded and the roads are crumbling. All the consumer gets is bigger government, and useless studies. Lots of government bureaucrats make six figure incomes from the gas tax to do absolutely nothing. Billions of dollars a year flow to these useless government executives and politicians, and they use these billions to line their own pockets and increase their power.

In addition, these same politicians purposefully place some oil of limits, artificially limiting the supply, increasing the price of gasoline, and shifting more of our national wealth to the terrorist nations in the Middle East. The United States has over 200 years of known oil reserves that no one can touch because the government won’t let them. Add to this the fact that the government won’t let anyone expand the refining capacity in this country, and mandates the inclusion of artificial chemicals to gasoline that can pollute our water, and the result is constantly-rising gas prices at the pump.

On average, only 30 cents of every gallon of gas flows to the oil companies, yet politicians, and their allies in the press, accuse oil executives of gouging consumers. One politician in Sacramento wanted to assess a windfall profits tax on these oil companies this week, claiming that oil companies were ripping off consumers. This same politician did not once mention that government makes double the amount that oil companies make off the same gallon of gas on sales and gas taxes alone. The press dutifully reported his scapegoat tactics, never once investigating him for his consumer rip off.

Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric. The real price gouger in the oil industry is government.

*****************************

Calif. Beats April Tax Collection Estimate By $1.5 Billion

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/
20060427-1517-ca-taxwindfall.html

04-28-06

The state has collected $1.5 billion more in income taxes for the month of April than the Schwarzenegger administration expected, leading to a heated debate about how to spend the windfall. The state had collected $9.7 billion for the month as of Wednesday, with two more days to count returns. On Wednesday alone, $1.65 billion flowed into state coffers, which budget officials said is among the highest one-day totals in state history.

******************************

Phone Companies Vs. Cable Companies – An Old-Fashioned Duel

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
walters/story/14247439p-15065068c.html

04-24-06

There's nothing those in the Capitol like better than a full-blown, high-dollar duel between two powerful interest groups with billions of dollars at stake. Politicians' campaign treasuries get fatter, lobbyists' incomes spike, and media consultants find themselves in demand when big money collides with big money, so the Capitol historically sees such instances as win-win.

******************************

As Contract Talks Near, Pay Survey Guides

State\http://www.sacbee.com/content/
politics/story/14246895p-15064667c.html

04-24-06

Custodians, accountants and electricians working for the state of California are making more in salary and total compensation than their counterparts in the private sector, but less than those on other government payrolls. State medical workers and auditors, on the other hand, get less than they would in either the private sector or elsewhere in the public sector. But they can console themselves with this: A career state employee will get $494,000 worth of health benefits in 20 years of retirement.

******************************

Good News In These UC Numbers

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
weintraub/story/14246863p-15064651c.html

04-24-06

The University of California is in the midst of a historic transformation. Its student body is growing more ethnically and economically diverse as it admits more students than ever. For next year, the university has offered a slot to every California high school graduate who applied and met the system's minimum requirements for admission. You'd never know that, though, from walking the halls of California's Capitol or listening to the state's political campaigns.

******************************

Mandatory Health Insurance

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/abox/article_1119696.php

04-27-06

The Democratic majority in the California Legislature is making another stab at injecting socialized medicine into California's health care system. It was just over 18 months ago that voters rejected Proposition 72, which would have mandated that employers with 50 or more employees provide health insurance. The newest scheme is AB1952, by Assemblyman Joe Nation, D-San Rafael. It would mandate, in the bill's language, that each Californian must "demonstrate on an annual basis that he or she has health care coverage" or be forced to pay "a civil penalty for failure to comply with this requirement."

******************************

Californians Like More Tests In Their Schools

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/
2006/04/27/MNG52IG4M11.DTL

04-27-06

A vast majority of Californians support not only the state's controversial high school exit exam but also the idea of requiring all students to pass a test before advancing to the next grade level, a new poll shows. Although no such idea is in the works at the moment, 72 percent of Californians surveyed by the Public Policy Institute of California said they would support such a test for all 12 grades.

******************************

Bill To Let Landlords Reject Sex Offenders

http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/
story/14247518p-15065110c.html

04-25-06

Thousands of California apartment owners would gain the right to ask prospective tenants if they are registered sex offenders - and then deny them apartments - under a bill receiving its first hearing in the Legislature today. The proposal also allows landlords to evict tenants for misrepresentation if they aren't truthful. The bill follows a failed attempt by landlords in January to win similar rights in a state with an estimated 66,000 registered sex offenders.

******************************

States’ Voices In Immigration

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/news/
abox/article_1118406.php

04-26-06

While Congress debates a comprehensive immigration overhaul bill in Washington, states across the nation have been hammering out legislation of their own. Legislators in 43 states introduced 419 bills on immigration between Jan. 1 and April 21, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. That surpassed the number of state bills proposed during all of 2005, said Ann Morse, director of NCSL's Immigration Policy Project.

******************************

Oregon Supreme Court Upholds Law Protecting Property Rights

Published In: Environment News, The Heartland Institute

http://www.heartland.org/Article.cfm?artId=18777

04-01-06

The Oregon Supreme Court on February 21 unanimously upheld Measure 37, a property rights protection act approved by voters in the 2004 election, determining it does not violate the Oregon Constitution. The Marion County Circuit Court had earlier ruled the measure unconstitutional. In November 2004, Measure 37 passed with 61 percent of the vote (1,054,589 to 685,079). It provided that an owner of private property could seek just compensation if a government regulation--whether from a municipal service district, city, county, or state agency--was established that would reduce the fair market value of the land. Previously, compensation was required only if a government action took a person's property in its entirety.

******************************

Looking Tough

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060425/news_lz1ed25bottom.html

04-25-06

As inevitably as television cameras attract politicians, rising gasoline prices have moved some lawmakers to call for steep new taxes on the “windfall profits” of oil companies. This is a terrible idea that would hurt consumers – both immediately, as oil companies would simply increase pump prices to make up for the new tax, and also over many years, as fewer exploration firms would bother to look for new supplies, thus ensuring future spasms of outrageous prices.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers:
http://www.assembly.ca.gov/
acs/acsframeset7text.htm

A Budget Out Of Control - April 24, 2006

2006-04-24T21:51:00.000-07:00

By: Assembly Memeber, Ray Haynes

I have refrained from commenting on California’s budget because it is still uncertain exactly what is going to happen in this year’s budget debate. This, however, is what we know up to this point in time.

Last year, the Legislature approved, and the Governor signed, a budget that increased state spending by $11 billion.

The government employee unions complained that it wasn’t enough.

This year, the Governor proposed a budget that increased spending by an additional $7 billion.

The government employee unions are complaining that it is not enough.

The Governor’s budget spends $6 billion more than projected revenue.

The government employee unions complain that it isn’t enough.

In 1999, then-Governor Gray Davis proposed increasing spending by $9 billion. That was the largest spending increase in the history of the state of California, until 2000, when Gray Davis increased spending by $12 billion.

Last year’s spending increase was the second largest in California’s history. This year’s proposed increase is the same as the one in Davis’ first term. Unfortunately, Governor Schwarzenegger looks like he is making the same mistakes as Gray Davis. The only problem with his strategy is that if the budget collapses like it did during the Davis years, then the resulting budget deficit will be the Republican’s fault. In 1999-2001, Republicans could rightfully complain that the state’s budget woes were entirely Democrat’s fault. If Schwarzenegger’s plan is fully implemented, Republicans will lose that argument. Schwarzenegger’s spending plan is at least as bad as the spending plans proposed by Gray Davis, and, in my opinion, will lead to the same bad outcome if the economy should slow down (as it inevitably will).

The good news is that the Assembly Republicans have decided to say no to Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger said he wants to spend $7 billion more than the state receives in revenue. The Assembly Republicans said no, the state should only spend what it takes in.

Schwarzenegger said he wants to expand government as fast as Gray Davis. The Assembly Republicans said no, they want to slow down the growth of government.

The Schwarzenegger budget did not resolve the state’s debt issues, particularly the $15 billion debt that Gray Davis created. The Assembly Republicans said they want to make sure that debt is paid, before we spend another dime in new state programs.

The Schwarzenegger budget does not seek to resolve the growing government pension problem. The state’s Legislative Analyst Office recently reported that the state is facing a $40 to $70 billion problem because it has not funded state retiree health benefits adequately. According to the LAO, it will take $6 billion a year to adequately fund these former state employee benefits. Assembly Republicans say the state budget must resolve this impending crisis.

The good news is that when the state goes bankrupt, I won’t be in the Legislature. The bad news is that the state will go bankrupt if it continues to follow this course. But if the Governor listens to Assembly Republicans, he will avoid bankruptcy. The government employee unions will continue to complain. Who will the Governor listen to, Assembly Republicans or the unions? Only time will tell.

******************************

California Has Big Stake In Struggle Over Immigration Reform

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/columns/
walters/story/14243957p-15062611c.html

04-17-06

Foreign immigration - legal and illegal - is the single most important factor in shaping California's cultural, economic and political future. That gives the state a vital stake in the raging national debate over immigration reform. Although exact numbers are impossible to pin down, California clearly attracts more immigrants than any other state, approximately 300,000 a year, and they and their offspring, another 300,000 a year, constitute all of the state's net population growth.

******************************

Having It Both Ways On Global Warming

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
opinion/columns/article_1103562.php

04-17-06

Just as a gallon of gasoline hits $3 in many parts of California, the Schwarzenegger administration is touting a report that calls for those prices to go higher, thanks to a proposed new tax - supporters euphemistically call it "a public goods charge" - that would fund a new state bureaucracy designed to combat global warming. The proposal comes from the Schwarzenegger-appointed Climate Action Team, which last week released a detailed report on ways that California can battle the latest environmental Chicken Little fad, namely global warming.

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High School Isn’t Only Path To College

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercury
news/news/opinion/14356033.htm

04-17-06

Here is the reality of public education in California: For every 10 students who start high school, fewer than seven will graduate. Fewer than four will go to college. Fewer than three will still be enrolled in college in the second year. Fewer than two -- 1.9 to be exact -- will get an associate or bachelor's degree close to on time. The numbers are even bleaker for Latinos and African-Americans.

******************************

Income Taxes Generate Ever-More Revenues, But Deficits Persist

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
columns/walters/story/14244534p-
15063013c.html

04-18-06

As Monday's deadline for filing income tax returns passed, state officials eagerly anticipated a bumper crop of revenues - but it won't be enough to solve California's chronic budget crisis. The state has been running deficits for the past half-decade, thanks to a shortsighted political decision in 2000 to squander most of a one-time income tax windfall on permanent tax cuts and spending. Since then, the state's economy has been remarkably healthy, generating tens of billions of additional dollars.

******************************

Senate Panel Backs Driver’s License Measure

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060419/news_1n19license.html

04-18-06

Sen. Gil Cedillo's maneuvering to broaden the appeal of his ongoing campaign to grant undocumented immigrants the legal right to drive may cost him traditional allies. The Senate Transportation Committee yesterday approved his bill on a 7-3 vote amid the backdrop of recent massive immigrant rights rallies and a planned boycott of stores and jobs May 1. The bill, SB 1160, is designed to give illegal immigrants the opportunity to apply for a clearly distinguishable document that could only be used as a certificate to drive – not for identification.

******************************

Housing, Not More Planning, Is Needed

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
commentary/editorials/article_1107646.php

04-24-06

Legislation introduced in the state Senate captures the nature of the Legislature in a nutshell. SB1800, co-sponsored by Sens. Denise Ducheny, D-San Diego, and Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, identifies a serious problem, misses the obvious solution then goes on to propose a government-heavy approach that will only make things worse. In this case, the senators recognize that local cities often are hostile to the construction of housing, especially lower-cost housing.

******************************

Bonds Bonanza

http://www.dailynews.com/opinions/ci
_3720939

04-18-06

Seldom does an election pass in Los Angeles without politicians devising at least one more compelling reason why we should give them a little more money, and let them mortgage our future with one more loan. We've been asked to swallow higher property-tax bills and more debt for any number of causes: building new schools, fixing old ones, jails, police stations, libraries, animal shelters, zoos, community colleges - the list is dizzying.

******************************

Bill Would Include Gays In Public School Texts

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/
c/a/2006/04/16/BAGHLIA0M41.DTL

04-17-06

A proposal to require California public school textbooks to include gay and lesbian history is a top priority of the Legislature's Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Caucus, but opponents say it would indoctrinate students. The bill is garnering national attention because California makes up roughly 12 percent of the nation's textbook market, though major publishers said they produce national editions for other states so the law won't force kids elsewhere to learn about Harvey Milk or gay pride.

******************************

Jessica’s Law Qualifies For November Vote

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/
20060418-1249-bn18jesslaw.html

04-18-06

Jessica's Law, a measure that would impose stricter laws on sexual predators, has officially qualified to be put on the state's November ballot, backers and officials said Tuesday. The Sexual Predator and Punishment Act of 2006, commonly known as Jessica's Law, qualified with far more signatures than necessary. San Diego County offered the second highest number of signatures – 143,510 – of the 700,000 or so submitted to the Secretary of State's Office, according to Southern Californians for Jessica's Law.

******************************

Infrastructure Talks Still Miss The Point

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/
abox/article_1112472.php

04-21-06

California infrastructure reform in the Legislature still is driving the wrong way down the interstate. But at least it's going at a much slower, less alarming pace. Democratic and Republican leaders in the Capitol are working toward a $30 billion compromise package. That's much less than the $72 billion that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earlier this year was pushing them to put on the June primary ballot, but which fizzled in early March after Democrats larded it with massive pork for "resource protection," parks and mass transit.

******************************

Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at (951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066

To subscribe to this Memorandum by e-mail, please send a request to:
Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators: http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

To Contact California State Assemblymembers: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
acsframeset7text.htm

JUST WHAT ABOUT ILLEGAL DO THEY NOT UNDERSTAND?

2006-04-22T21:10:00.000-07:00

April 17, 2006

Sonny Bono, in the fight over Proposition 187 (the 1994 initiative that would have rescinded welfare benefits for illegal aliens) had the best line about the debate over illegal immigration. Many charges were tossed back and forth about the initiative and the motivation of its sponsors. The response of the future Congressman to those charges was always: “What is it about illegal that they don’t understand?”

Exactly!

Like many others, I watched television as the protestors waved their Mexican flags, then changed those flags to American flags, then yelled “Si Se Puede,” then yelled “Yes, We Can,” then demanded the same rights as American citizens, then said they were Americans.

Well, no, they are not. When someone breaks the laws of this country to enter it, for whatever reason, whether it is to work, or obtain free medical care, free food, welfare, a driver’s license, and reduced college tuition, they are still not Americans. We have a legally mandated process, established after years of debate, negotiations, arguments, social consensus, and legal maneuverings to determine how someone becomes a citizen. Until someone follows that process, they are not Americans, not entitled to become Americans, not entitled to claim to be Americans, and not entitled to the rights of Americans.

We are a very generous country. We allow more people than any other country in the world to come into our country legally, stay, and become naturalized citizens. We are second to none in welcoming people from all cultures to join us in the world’s common quest to extend representative government and individual liberty throughout the world. We don’t even really ask that much of people to go through the process. It may take some time, and it is usually stuck in the inevitable bureaucracy, but once someone has completed the process, they are Americans. In France, you can move to France, but you never become French. You can move to China, but you will never become Chinese. If you follow a few simple steps, you can move to the United States and become an American.

One of those steps is not sneaking through the fence, avoiding the law for ten years, receiving thousands of dollars in government aid, and then demanding amnesty for your illegal behavior. Yet, at this time, thousands of people throughout this country are demanding that we make that a legitimate way of becoming an American citizen. In essence, they want to profit from their illegal behavior.

That is just not right. Go home, follow the law, come here legally, and we will welcome you with open arms. Break our laws, and we will be justifiably outraged by your behavior. That is how it is, and how it ought to be.

I tried to qualify the California Border Police last year to do one simple thing—enforce federal immigration law, mainly because the federal government was refusing to do so. It sparked a national debate on the question of enforcement, and we are seeing that debate play itself out in Washington today. Enforcement of the law is the right thing to do. If we find that the law doesn’t work, that we need a larger labor pool, then we debate the best way to accomplish that goal. But, if we don’t enforce the laws we have now, it won’t matter what laws we have in the future. We will still fail to have an immigration policy.

The first thing that makes anyone a good American is their ability to follow the law. That is all anyone is asking these protestors to do. It is not that hard, and, if they do it, we will all be their good friends and neighbors.

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Graying but staying

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_3696256

04-11-06

Growing numbers of Los Angeles city government workers are staying on the payroll longer to reap richer benefits and job security, sending the average age soaring to 46, with potentially far-reaching impacts on pension costs and the future of city management.

Since 1988, the average city employee's age has risen from 41.2 to 45.6 years, records show. And that typical worker is staying on the job longer - up from less than 10 years in 1988 to 12 years now - with an average annual salary of $58,146.

The confluence of factors, including turnover of just 2.5 percent, has sent city salary costs soaring to $2.8 billion and pensions to $600 million.

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Inmate screening to focus on legal status

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sheriff
12apr12,1,4919841.story?coll=la-headlines-california

04-12-06

The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to crack down on illegal immigrants by allowing sheriff's deputies to screen jail inmates to determine their immigration status, a policy already in place in two neighboring counties.

Under the new program, specially trained deputies will identify illegal immigrants when they are booked in county jail and release them to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation when their sentences are complete.

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First virtual high school for the gifted

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercury
news/news/local/14323350.htm

04-12-06

Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth is taking the next logical step: launching what is believed to be the nation's first online high school for gifted students.

The virtual high school will offer a full standard curriculum -- and more -- for students in 10th through 12th grades, leading to a high school diploma.

The only restrictions? Students will have to prove their intellectual prowess -- and come up with the tuition of about $12,000 a year. Applications are being accepted later this month, classes will begin in the fall.

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Leaving town to cut costs

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/
20060413/news_1b13olhausen.html

04-13-06

Olhausen Billiards, which has built pool tables in San Diego County since 1973, is moving its Poway factory to Tennessee to save on trucking costs and to better compete against cheap imports.

The company said yesterday that it will close its 128,000-square-foot manufacturing facility on Kirkham Court in July or August, leaving about 120 workers out of jobs. About 75 other employees, most of them in supervisory and executive positions, plan to relocate with the company.

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Peripheral canal plan resurfaces

http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/
cctimes/news/local/14332341.htm

04-13-06

The Delta has degraded so badly that it is time to consider building a highly controversial canal to protect water supplies, a Bay Area legislator says.

State Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, has offered legislation that for the first time in more than 20 years asks state lawmakers to consider a version of the Peripheral Canal.

"It's the Peripheral Canal. It's the death knell for the Delta. It's just a water grab," said Dante John Nomellini Sr., manager and counsel for the Central Delta Water Agency.

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How much time should prosecutors have?

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/
news/state/article_1101146.php

04-14-06

Spitzer's bill, AB 2088, would eliminate the three-year statute of limitations on accessory to murder, making it like murder itself – a crime with penalties, no matter how much time has passed. The assemblyman touts it as fair and just.

But the bill's real power, prosecutors say, is in the kind of leverage it would give law enforcement with suspects. And that's precisely what might get it killed.

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First 5 panel seeks missing funds

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/
story/14243161p-15062046c.html

04-14-06

A public relations company the state hired to wage a controversial $23 million preschool ad campaign sued another firm Thursday, claiming it misappropriated $2.8 million in tax dollars intended to be used for the media campaign.

GMMB Inc., the politically connected public relations firm First 5 California hired to run the ad campaign, said in its lawsuit that it hired Durazo Communications Inc. to help with Spanish-language media buys.

GMMB claims in its lawsuit that Durazo now admits that $2.8 million of the state money it transferred to Durazo is missing.

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Guilty of “Crossing While Elderly”

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lopez15
apr15,1,814008.column?coll=la-headlines-california

04-15-06

I don't use a cane, which gave me a clear advantage.

The challenge? Trying to cross the street where 82-year-old Mayvis Coyle got a $114 jaywalking ticket from an overeager LAPD crime-buster for not making it across in time.

This is the first ticket I ever got in my life," an angry and crusading Coyle told The Times. She wants the "Walk" signal changed to allow more time for pedestrians. "I think people can see I'm being sincere. I'm speaking for all those seniors who can't get across the street."

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Eminent domain and private property

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/
nation/la-na-eminent16apr16,1,6000890.story?
coll=la-headlines-nation

04-16-06

The U.S. Supreme Court ruling that local governments could seize private property and hand it over to developers has set off a landslide of legislation in statehouses around the country.

Since the court expanded the definition of eminent domain in June in Kelo vs. City of New London, lawmakers in 47 states have introduced more than 325 measures to protect private property.

As many Democrats as Republicans have written these bills and constitutional amendments, sometimes moved by their own situations, such as fear that their aging parents' homes might be targeted.

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Mexican aliens seek to retake ‘stolen’ land

http://washingtontimes.com/national/
20060416-122222-1672r.htm

04-16-06

La reconquista, a radical movement calling for Mexico to "reconquer" America's Southwest, has stepped out of the shadows at recent immigration-reform protests nationwide as marchers held signs saying, "Uncle Sam Stole Our Land!" and waved Mexico's flag.

Even as organizers urged marchers to display U.S. flags, the theme of reclaiming "stolen" land remained strong. One popular banner read: "If you think I'm illegal because I'm a Mexican, learn the true history because I'm in my homeland."

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Full legislative text, analyses and votes are available on the State web server at:
http://www.leginfo.ca.gov

Assemblyman Haynes’ office can be reached at
(951) 699-1113 in Temecula, California
or in the Capitol in Sacramento at (916) 319-2066
Assemblymember.Haynes@assembly.ca.gov

To Contact California State Senators:
http://www.sen.ca.gov/~newsen/
senators/senators.htp

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http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/
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