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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.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 19, 2017 27 Comments
California has moved one step closer to becoming a sanctuary state, one in which its law enforcement agencies are prevented from cooperating with increasingly busy federal immigration agents.
With minor changes to win over moderates, a polarizing California bill to keep California’s law enforcement agencies from cooperating with federal immigration agents cleared a key hurdle Monday and will head to the full Senate for a vote.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 19, 2017 17 Comments
A few, short weeks ago, I reported that President Trump's Secretary of Transportation halted the transfer of millions of dollars in funding for the California bullet train, our governor's legacy project. However, those monies were not the sole source of funding. The main source of ongoing support for the train is the income from the cap-and-trade auctions that California sponsors. It appears as if the all the air (carbon dioxide included) has gone out of the cap-and-trade market:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 17, 2017 15 Comments
The California Senate may have taken "Teacher Appreciation" to a whole, new level. As Legal Insurrection readers are aware, California is one of the most heavily taxed in the nation. However, at least our teachers are poised to get a huge tax break if a proposed measure becomes law.
A Los Angeles state lawmaker has introduced a bill to exempt teachers from paying state income tax after five years in the classroom. Under Senate Bill 807, teachers and other educators would also be allowed a tax deduction for the cost of obtaining a teaching credential.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 15, 2017 8 Comments
Over the course of the last 2 months, the alt-left and their media minions have done nothing but rage against President Donald Trump. As a result, grass-roots leftists are now channeling their anger into verbally assaulting Trump's staff and destroying his property. Additionally, they are posting their atrocious behavior on social media.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 11, 2017 12 Comments
The Environmental Protection Agency's new chief is now on-the-record as declaring that the life-sustaining gas, carbon dioxide, is not responsible for "global warming".
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Thursday he does not believe carbon dioxide is a primary contributor to global warming. "I think that measuring with precision human activity on the climate is something very challenging to do and there's tremendous disagreement about the degree of impact, so no, I would not agree that it's a primary contributor to the global warming that we see," he told CNBC's "Squawk Box."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 11, 2017 17 Comments
Never let it be said that California's Democratic legislature doesn't work hard on behalf of...its own interests. The latest proposal from Sacramento, Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 10, would make the Golden Sate first in the nation to fully allow 17-year-olds to vote in elections.
"We want to expand the opportunity," said Assemblyman Evan Low (D-Campbell), author of the constitutional amendment that would have to be approved by a statewide vote in 2018.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 09, 2017 17 Comments
It is astonishing how much is being revealed about the "Deep State" since Donald Trump was inaugurated less than two months ago. This week, Wikileaks published almost 9,000 documents from the CIA about the agency’s own malware used to hack into anyone’s electronics make it look like the cyber-attack came from Russia. Now, after years of struggling for real justice from the Obama Administration that falsely claimed Tea Party groups were never targeted, citizen activists now have access to nearly 7,000 documents related to the illegal man-handling of their tax status applications by the Internal Revenue Service.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 05, 2017 26 Comments
Some intriguing reports have recently been published, which highlight the nature of unintended consequences that are often associated with environmental protection do-gooderism. We have regaled readers with the complete failure of Obama's green energy programs, including the loss of hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars when the lights went out on the now infamous Solyndra. Under Obama, solar energy was promoted as the best, most practical solution to preventing the release of green-house gases such as carbon dioxide. A federal report just released by the Environmental Protection Agency shows the production of solar panels has led to a substantial increase in in a compound that is 17,200 more potent as a greenhouse gas than CO2.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 04, 2017 68 Comments
The last time we checked in on the construction of California Governor Jerry Brown's legacy project, the high speed train connecting Los Angeles to San Fransisco, it was already already $3.6 billion over budget and seven years behind schedule. In that piece, I a surmised that federal funding to help complete this project could be axed, as several pricey grants were sitting on the desks of administrators now working for President Trump (who has been defied and mocked by numerous California politicos, including our governor). Sure enough, the Secretary of Transportation has halted the transfer of millions of dollars in funding for the bullet train:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 03, 2017 8 Comments
Savvy Legal Insurrection readers may have already noticed the historic stock market levels that ensued after President Trump's address to the Congress. However, I think that only part of this optimism stem's from Trump's well received speech. I suspect another aspect to this optimism is that businesses are beginning to enjoy the regulatory relief from new rules that is the direct result of the President's very busy pen.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 01, 2017 74 Comments
The last time we checked in with Bill Nye, "The Science Guy", he was indicating that jail might be an appropriate place for climate change skeptics in an interview referencing the targeting of Exxon Mobil:
..Was it appropriate to jail people from the cigarette industry who insisted that this addictive product was not addictive, and so on?” “In these cases, for me, as a taxpayer and voter, the introduction of this extreme doubt about climate change is affecting my quality of life as a public citizen,” Mr. Nye said. “So I can see where people are very concerned about this, and they’re pursuing criminal investigations as well as engaging in discussions like this.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 28, 2017 12 Comments
During the Obama era, many taxpayers had to trim back discretionary expenses for luxury items, like gym memberships. However, some of our government bureaucrats enjoyed those perks...using our tax dollars. A detailed audit of expenditures for 2016 revealed that the EPA's money management was polluted by improper purchases.
Environmental Protection Agency employees used their government purchase cards to spend $14,985 on fitness memberships, according to an audit by the inspector general of the agency. With the goal of assessing the risk of illegal, improper, and erroneous purchases made on the EPA's purchase card, the auditors evaluated 18 transactions totaling $48,345 and found that none of them complied with any of the internal controls that were tested.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 26, 2017 21 Comments
The last time we checked in with the head of the California State Senate, Kevin de León, he was explaining that half his family would be subject to President Trump's policy on the actual enforcement of immigration rules. He is now proposing outlandish, energy-based legislation. Despite the limitations set by both technology and reality, he has submitted a bill that demands California be powered by 100% renewable energy by 2045.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 25, 2017 10 Comments
President Trump has been meeting with business leaders regularly since his inauguration, including a meeting this week. These sessions cover a wide array of topics and grew out of Trump's December announcement of an advisory panel on manufacturing.
“Today we have 24 CEOs from the largest manufacturing companies in the country and even in the world. They represent--people in this room--nearly $1 trillion of sales and two million employees, large majorities of which are in the United States. They share our commitment to bring manufacturing back and to create jobs in this country,” Trump said.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 24, 2017 24 Comments
I noted that after Meryl Steep hectored the audience at the Golden Globes, her last name became a verb to describe a prominent person using a non-political platform to make a political statement demeaning a portion of their audience in a quest for social justice credentials. Entertainers aren't the only ones who can "streep", either. At a recent conference in Modesto, CA comprised of nearly 700 community organizers and social justice activists, the Bishop of San Diego, Robert McElroy, recently encouraged "disruption" in response to President Trump's immigration and economic policies.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 24, 2017 21 Comments
Just a few short weeks ago, the 9th Circuit Court in San Fransisco refused to overturn a lower court decision that halted the implementation of President Trump's Executive Order that would temporarily halt immigration from seven countries until "extreme vetting" procedures had been established. One of the reasons the judges cited was the hardships the travel restriction would cause and applied 5th Amendment protections to non-citizens. Here's is a snippet from Professor Jacobson's review as a reminder.
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