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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 June 05, 2016 13 Comments
I am taking a few moments from my "Crazy California" and science coverage today to hit a topic that will be critically important in November: Jobs. Yesterday, the media coverage I followed was focused on San Jose. Interestingly, for those of us who have been following the Facebook trending news saga, San Jose completely failed to appear in the trending items. In fact, here is today's list: LI #53 Facebook Tredning And while I am grateful to see news about the Great Pyramid, I also noticed that another critical story is also absent:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 04, 2016 21 Comments
As a proponent of serious scientific review of environmental policies, I have been blessed to share news related to climate change with Legal Insurrection readers. Little did I realize this might have made me a criminal in my home state! Fortunately, it looks like I have dodged a bullet...legally. California Senate just sidelined a bill to prosecute climate change skeptics.
Senate Bill 1161, or the California Climate Science Truth and Accountability Act of 2016, would have authorized prosecutors to sue fossil fuel companies, think tanks and others that have “deceived or misled the public on the risks of climate change.” The measure, which cleared two Senate committees, provided a four-year window in the statute of limitations on violations of the state’s Unfair Competition Law, allowing legal action to be brought until Jan. 1 on charges of climate change “fraud” extending back indefinitely. “This bill explicitly authorizes district attorneys and the Attorney General to pursue UCL claims alleging that a business or organization has directly or indirectly engaged in unfair competition with respect to scientific evidence regarding the existence, extent, or current or future impacts of anthropogenic induced climate change,” said the state Senate Rules Committee’s floor analysis of the bill.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 03, 2016 142 Comments
San Jose media appears to be following the same template used by San Diego's press last Friday: Make the focus of the Donald Trump rally reports the protests that occur after the event, instead of the thousands of enthusiastic supporters who attended. During the rally within an annex of the San Jose Convention Center, Trump addressed about 5,000 Californians. Interestingly, his remarks included sharp retorts to Hillary Clinton's supposed "national security" speech in San Diego that was mainly a tirade against the GOP's presumptive nominee:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 02, 2016 14 Comments
My campaign field report series continues today with the Hillary Clinton speech in San Diego. The underlying reason for the event is that Clinton is barely clinging to a 2-point lead in California polling data, ahead of its June 7th primary. Based on my observations, the "national security address" at the Prado in Balboa Park was an utterly astonishing failure. Furthermore, the arrangements associated with her appearance show that if she does win, Clinton will extend the Obama imperial style of presidency. I will begin my analysis with crowd size comparisons:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 01, 2016 31 Comments
Legal Insurrection readers will recall that security was tight at the Donald Trump rally I attended, and was full deployed after the event to avoid a another Albuquerque-style riot from occurring. Most San Diegans were thrilled that our police department was diligent about implementing effective security measures. However, progressive activists were exceedingly unhappy at the level of containment our police force achieved. A group of their "leaders" held a press conference in Barrio Logan, the staging area of anti-Trump marchers that day, to complain about....martial law!

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 30, 2016 72 Comments
Unexpectedly, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens were the focus of Memorial Day weekend news coverage, after their star gorilla Harambe was shot to protect a boy who had fallen into its enclosure.
We are heartbroken about losing Harambe, but a child’s life was in danger and a quick decision had to be made by our Dangerous Animal Response Team,” said Zoo Director Thane Maynard. “Our first response was to call the gorillas out of the exhibit. The two females complied, but Harambe did not. It is important to note that with the child still in the exhibit, tranquilizing the 450-pound gorilla was not an option. Tranquilizers do not take effect for several minutes and the child was in imminent danger. On top of that, the impact from the dart could agitate the animal and cause the situation to get much worse.”

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 28, 2016 68 Comments
Earlier this week, I was mulling over whether to go to Donald Trump's rally with my teen son. Based on suggestions from friends and readers (thank you Valerie), I arranged for a security detail in the form of my fellow San Diego blogging group friend and former Green Beret, Barry C. Jacobsen. We headed down to the Convention Center to enjoy the full Donald Trump Experience! IMG_2576 One of the most intriguing aspects of my adventure is comparing what I actually saw to how the mainstream media is reporting it. Questing for some information about the rally, I noticed all the headlines focused on the protesters who assembled outside as if this were the only story:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 27, 2016 7 Comments
I have long sensed that the 2016 California primary would be very memorable. Kemberlee Kaye just reported that Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders may debate ahead of the California primary, as Hillary Clinton declined to debate Sanders recently. Hillary Clinton may want to rethink the non-engagement approach that led to this development, as Sanders is now closing the gap in recent polling.
The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) poll, conducted May 13 – 22 and released Wednesday, found: “Among Democratic primary likely voters, 46 percent support Clinton and 44 percent support Sanders. These voters include Democrats and independents who say they will vote in the Democratic primary. Clinton has a slight lead over Sanders among registered Democrats (49% to 41%)."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 26, 2016 40 Comments
This Friday, I had planned to take my teen son to the Donald Trump rally at our Convention Center. I am now mulling over a change of plans, due to the level of organized leftist violence that has targeted the presumptive Republican presidential candidate and his campaign. The anger, derision, and chaos directed at Trump supporters and the security teams at the event in Albuquerque was absolutely astounding. Four arrests have been made (with more likely to occur soon), and the city cleaning crews are still mopping destruction left in the wake of Wednesday night’s protests.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 25, 2016 11 Comments
The last time we checked the regulatory runoff from the Animas River spill, a 132-page report by the Interior Department and Bureau of Reclamation laid the blame for the contamination at the doorstep of the Environmental Protection Agency. Now, the legal runoff is about to hit.
New Mexico is seeking more than $136 million from the Environmental Protection Agency and the owners of Colorado’s Gold King Mine, noting that dangers from contaminants spewed into the Animas River by the Aug. 5 mine spill are still lurking in New Mexico waters. In a lawsuit filed Monday in federal court, Attorney General Hector Balderas and the New Mexico Environment Department cite economic setbacks and environmental damage suffered by the state after more than 3 million gallons of toxic waste was dumped into the river. It demands reimbursement of $889,327 for short-term emergency-response costs paid by the state, more than $6 million to pay for long-term monitoring of the Animas and San Juan rivers and $130 million for lost income, taxes, fees and revenues suffered by the state because of the spill.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 24, 2016 11 Comments
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders predicts that the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia could be "messy" as he presses his progressive platform planks: "Democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle." If the upcoming California primary is any indication, the Democratic Party could get messier far sooner. Both former President Bill Clinton and Sanders held rallies in the San Diego area this weekend. Sanders' first rally had at least 10,000 attendees.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 22, 2016 5 Comments
Legal Insurrection has been covering the lawsuit against the producers of a Star Trek fan film, and the amicus brief filed in the case by the Language Creation Society. There has been a development in this case that has been...fascinating.
In advance of the July release of Star Trek Beyond, it seems Paramount is going to try to get itself beyond a serious problem it’s having with the passionate fanbase of Trekkies, and clear up a PR black eye in the process. Tonight during a Trek fan event held on the Paramount lot, Star Trek Beyond executive producer JJ Abrams announced that the studio will be dropping a contentious lawsuit against a Star Trek fan film production. “This wasn’t an appropriate way to deal with the fans,” Abrams put it bluntly, signaling a major about face and many mended fences.
That is thrilling news indeed for many Trekkies. The Star Trek universe is certainly large enough for both the involvement of major studios and group-funded fan productions. It seems like Abrams and the director of the movie poised to be released this summer, Justin Lin, put a lot of pressure on the studio to back off the legal attack.
“A few months back there was a fan movie — Axanar — that was being made and there was a lawsuit that happened between the studio (Paramount and CBS) and the fans and Justin was sort of outraged as a longtime fan. We started talking about it and we realized that this was not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be iceboating this thing, like you’re saying right now.” Abrams said when asked about the Axanar lawsuit.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 21, 2016 20 Comments
State attorneys general aren't the only ones engaging in climate justice thuggery. The board for Portland Public Schools unanimously approved a resolution to eliminate materials that question on the existence of climate change and mankind's impact on the global environment.
"A lot of the text materials are kind of thick with the language of doubt, and obviously the science says otherwise," Bill Bigelow, a former Portland Public Schools teacher who was involved in working to present the resolution, told the Portland Tribune. "We don't want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 20, 2016 10 Comments
I have previously reported that a coalition of 17 state attorney generals has formed (AGs United for Clean Power), which intends to promote the climate change agenda by targeting the fossil fuel industry. The first victim of the Climate Change purge was the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), a non-profit organization that has assisted businesses in countering climate justice activism, when Attorney General Claude E. Walker of the U.S. Virgin Islands issued a subpoena in an attempt uncover the content of CEI’s comprehensive work on climate change policy.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 19, 2016 7 Comments
The last time we looked at Flint, the courts arraigned three bureaucrats over their roles in allowing lead-infused water to contaminate the municipal drinking water supply. Now, in an apparent bid to regain some relevancy, one national group is filing a lawsuit over the water-crisis.
Another big name has surfaced in the tsunami of Flint water lawsuits: the NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People], which is suing several state officials and two engineering firms, alleging they poisoned a city with toxic drinking water by failing to detect that something was wrong, pretending a problem didn't exist and ignoring numerous red flags. "Just the color of Flint's water should have led any reasonable engineer to the conclusion that Flint's pipes were dangerously corroded," the 103-page lawsuit states. The NAACP announced the lawsuit today, though it was filed on March 31 in U.S. District Court, where at least two dozen other Flint-related lawsuits are pending. This one blames Gov. Rick Snyder, several state officials and two engineering firms for the crisis, claiming they engaged in "gross negligence" and "outrageous conduct" that harmed many. Not only did officials fail to detect a water problem, the lawsuits says, but they made the problem worse by not properly treating the water. And even when they knew the water was tainted, the suit says, public officials repeatedly maintained that it was safe to drink, despite a deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak linked to the water. "All the while — despite public assurances of safety — government officials in Flint quietly switched to bottled water while the citizens and businesses of Flint continued to drink dangerously contaminated water,” the lawsuit states.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 18, 2016 28 Comments
The way I see it, #NeverHillary can truly claim the primary victory in Oregon's contests on Tuesday.
Sen. Bernie Sanders is the projected winner of the Democratic primary in Oregon. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican party nominee, has won the GOP primary in Oregon, CNN projected. Tuesday's contests aren't likely to change the overall dynamics of the race. Clinton maintains a sizable delegate lead and is poised to become the presumptive Democratic nominee in early June when the final round of states vote. But her inability to snuff out the Sanders challenge has underscored concerns about her skills on the campaign trail and raised questions about whether the party will unite behind Clinton when she takes on presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump in the fall. Trump taunted Clinton about the closeness of the Kentucky race. "Do you think Crooked Hillary will finally close the deal?" Trump tweeted.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 18, 2016 10 Comments
Recall the initial days of the 2016 presidential primary cycle, when Hillary Clinton's victory over Bernie Sanders in the Iowa caucus was the result of 6 perfectly tossed coin flips. Now, as we are wrapping up the primary season, Clinton shas scored a razor-thin win over sanders in Kentucky.
Hillary Clinton is the apparent winner of the Kentucky Democratic primary Tuesday night, NBC News projects. The win — which seems like it will be by the narrowest of margins, perhaps just a few thousand votes — will blunt rival Sen. Bernie Sanders primary winning streak by winning Tuesday's nominating contest in Kentucky. ...After the results came in, Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver said, "Essentially a tie in a state they dominated last time. And Oregon is yet to come."
The press is already massaging the news, because "a few thousand votes" is a stretch. It was approximately 1800, and less than 0.5% difference.
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