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Author: Leslie Eastman

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Leslie Eastman

I am an Environmental Health and Safety Professional, as well as a science/technical writer for a variety of news and professional publications. I have been a citizen activist since 2009, and am one of the co-founders of the San Diego-based group, Southern California Tax Revolt Coalition.

While following climate change news for the past year, I have marveled at the lack of attention given scientific specialties outside of "climate science", despite the fact the foci of those studies could significantly impact global weather patterns. Take, for example, heliology (the study of the Sun). A new study released by a team from the University of California San Diego has focused on our home star. It indicates that the Sun will experience a cold period where all solar activities will be reduced drastically.

The last time we visited Stockton, California, the city residents were voting on a sales tax to help city finances after it filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy. The tax passed and the city exited bankruptcy in 2015. It appears few lessons have been learned in the interval. The city's 27-year old mayor is planning to launch its "universal basic income" plan, where its citizens are paid simply for being citizens.

President Donald Trump and Congress are preparing for another round of negotiations over Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), this time without the national budget being held hostage.
The program expires March 5, leaving the nearly 2 million people eligible for DACA vulnerable to deportation, unless Congress acts on immigration reform and secures them legal protection.

Perhaps the two aspects of Donald Trump's presidency that I admire the most are is ability to go around supposedly immovable blocks to his proposals and the way he stiffens the spines of his fellow Republicans. After the humiliating Obamacare repeal failure of 2017, many weaker men would have moved on to other matters. However, as Trump continues to take a giant eraser to Obama's legacy, he has obviously moved Congress to take a more piecemeal approach to ending the onerous health insurance regulations promulgated under his predecessor.

The weekend, I discussed that Trump Derangement Syndrome had affected the America media so badly that it distorted its space-time continuum. It appears fewer people want to travel to #Planet Resistance, which led the #FakeNews makers purchased fake Twitter followers to promote their alternative reality.
Big media outlets have embraced Twitter as a distribution platform but still struggle with how reporters and editors use the social media service, particularly when they appear to be breaching journalism ethics.

American automakers are trapped between the regulatory-crushing Godzilla that is President Donald Trump and the green-energy monsters that pervade California's state political system. The nation's car industry is unsure whether to promote traditional, fossil-fuel using vehicles (which are becoming exceptionally cost efficient to run in the era of fracking), or bend to excessive political pressure and force more electric cars onto the market.

On January 13, we covered the reports that a false alert about a ballistic missile headed toward Hawaii was sent to cellphones there, urging people to seek immediate shelter. There were many troubling consequences as a result of that alert being issued, including parents placing their small children in sewers with potentially hazardous conditions.

Legal Insurrection readers will recall the California legislature's attempt to create a special government fund as a "charity" for taxpayer donations to mitigate the loss of state and local tax (SALT) deductions in the recently passed GOP tax plans. The politicians must have realized the approach was full of fail, so now leaders of several blue states are planning a lawsuit to block the entire overhaul package. California may join in.

According to its website, New York City's Guggenheim Museum "collects, preserves, and interprets modern and contemporary art, and explores ideas across cultures through dynamic curatorial and educational initiatives and collaborations.". Therefore, when given the opportunity to send a Vincent Van Gogh piece to display at the White House, so First Lady Melania Trump could demonstrate American support for classic art, the representatives at the Guggenheim behaved in the professional and exemplary manner that you would expect from the New York City art world:

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has been overseeing the substantial reduction in staff of the his agency. However, each of the 10 regional offices usually have a designated head to run the local operations. One of those regions still lacks a chief because the administration is finding it difficult to locate someone wiling to face the gauntlet of eco-activists in the San Fransisco Region 9 headquarters.
"On Tuesday, an oil and gas lobbyist from New Mexico who, according to several people inside the Trump administration, was poised to fill the post told The Times it was all a big mistake. He'd be staying put in New Mexico.

A California law, which goes into effect on April 1, automatically registers people to vote when they apply for a new driver's license or new state identification card. The Golden State permits anyone who claims to be in the country legally, even without proof, to obtain a license. So, logically, I anticipate that California could be getting a whole, new crop of illegal immigrant voters.