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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 January 09, 2016 8 Comments
We recently noted that enforcement of the REAL ID Act was poised to begin shortly, and that airport travelers from several states were going to need passports or other forms of identification because the state driver's licenses do not meet the regulatory requirements. States on the "naughty" list were pushing for implementation delays, and California had already received approval for an October compliance start date. The Department of Homeland Security has now delayed implementation of travel identification requirements until 2018 for everyone:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 08, 2016 7 Comments
We recently reported that Enrique Marquez was indicted by a federal grand jury of conspiring with San Bernardino terrorists Sayed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik. He just pleaded "Not guilty."
The man accused of supplying guns to the San Bernardino, Calif., terror attackers pleaded not guilty Wednesday to conspiracy and other charges. Enrique Marquez Jr., 24, is charged with two counts of lying on forms in the alleged "straw" purchases of two assault rifles used in the attack Dec. 2 at the Inland Regional Center. Marquez is also accused of conspiring with shooter Syed Rizwan Farook in 2011 and 2012 to provide material support to terrorists.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 06, 2016 4 Comments
As so many readers reviewed my review of The Big Short, which featured investments, I thought a good follow-up post would focus on the stock market. Obama's "Theater of the Absurd" gun control press conference played well on Wall Street, as stocks of gun makers soared in trading yesterday. Smith and Wesson stocks jumped over 11% in trading. LI #10 Smith and Wesson
Earnings per share is estimated to come in at $0.39 to $0.41, which is way above the previous estimate of $0.27 to $0.29. Analysts were expecting only $0.29.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 05, 2016 30 Comments
Turns out that the must-see movie of 2015 wasn't Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but The Big Short! The movie focuses on four finance professionals and 2 amateurs who predict the housing bubble collapse of the mid-2000s, and use arcane rules and special deals to punish the big banks for their greed while making a hefty profit for themselves. I must admit, I was skeptical about how much I was going to enjoy the movie when my husband suggested seeing it this weekend. I detest preachy films that bash capitalism and deride businessmen as greedy.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 03, 2016 9 Comments
The EPA has been hit with a veritable flood of scandals recently. We covered the Animas River spill, caused by the EPA's rush to solve a non-problem involving a mine's wastewater, which impacted the water quality for several Western states. In 2013, one climate change expert who posed as a CIA operative was jailed for conning the agency out of nearly $1 Million.
The Environmental Protection Agency's top climate change expert and highest paid employee was sentenced to 32 months in federal prison today for defrauding the government. John C. Beale, who lives with his wife in Virginia, claimed he was a CIA agent working in Pakistan so he didn't have to show up for work for months at a time and defrauded the government out of more than $900,000....

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 02, 2016 11 Comments
One 2016 prediction is very easy to make: Obamacare will continue its trajectory of failure. For example, Covered California has been heralded as one of the greatest state exchange successes for the "Affordable Care Act". The reality is that one-third of California's residents are now using a system that was initially intended for the low income families.
The state's health plan for the poor, known as Medi-Cal, now covers 12.7 million people, 1 of every 3 Californians. If Medi-Cal were a state of its own, it would be the nation's seventh-biggest by population; its $91-billion budget would be the country's fourth-largest, trailing only those of California, New York and Texas. "When the final numbers started coming out, where a third of the population was on Medi-Cal, it went way past anyone's expectations," said state Sen. Ed Hernandez (D-West Covina), who chairs the Senate Health Committee.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 01, 2016 7 Comments
Enrique Marquez is finishing 2015 with an indictment by a federal grand jury of conspiring with San Bernardino terrorists Sayed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik.
Marquez, who was arrested two weeks ago, also faces two counts of making a false statement when buying two rifles, one count of marriage fraud and one count of making a false statement on immigration paperwork. Marquez is suspected of buying rifles used by Farook and Farook's wife, Tashfeen Malik, in the December 2 mass shooting that left 14 people dead in the Southern California city. Farook and Malik were killed in a shootout with police a few hours later. Authorities said Marquez, 24, and Farook, who he met in college, planned terror attacks but never carried one out.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 31, 2015 18 Comments
As Americans begin counting down to the beginning of 2016, the Transportation Security Agency is beginning its own countdown for its enforcement of Real ID Act Rules. Starting January 10, Alaska, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Washington would be out of compliance with requirements for state-issued driver's licenses used as identification at airports. Despite the deep concerns about privacy and fears over potential misuse of the national database that is to be created from information collected during the license compliance process, the TSA is now going to strong-arm states to comply.
...The federal government cannot force states to adopt these identification standards, but it can gain compliance in other ways. In October, it began requiring that visitors to military bases, nuclear plants and federal facilities produce a driver’s license from a state that complies with the law, or show another form of government ID, like a passport.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 30, 2015 13 Comments
The goal of one of the most ponderous pieces of legislation ever to be generated in the Golden State, the Global Warming Solutions Act, was to substantially reduce the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Any gains that could be claimed, albeit questionably, from enforcement of this economy-crushing rule have essentially been wiped out by a massive leak of methane. The steady, significant release from an underground gas pipe in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles began in October.
...Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has called the leak an "environmental disaster," and the Los Angeles Unified School District shuttered two area schools for the rest of the year. Politicians and environmentalists in California are particularly sensitive to the toll the leak may take on the environment, especially after Gov. Jerry Brown doubled down earlier this year on the state's efforts to slash greenhouse gas emissions.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 30, 2015 6 Comments
2015 will be remembered as a wild year for many reasons, including the weather. While the Eastern part of the country was enjoying record high temperatures, the Great Plains was slammed by "Winter Storm Goliath".
Winter Storm Goliath, the seventh named storm of the 2015-16 season, brought more than three feet of snow and extremely dangerous blizzard conditions to parts of the Southern Plains. New Mexico was under a state of emergency, where the governor called the weather a "dire situation." The panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma were also hammered by this storm, and officials were forced to close Interstate 40, which runs through Amarillo, because of the life-threatening conditions. Major roads were covered in snow, and drifts up to 10 feet were reported.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 25, 2015 12 Comments
While the Christmas seasons is full of traditions that stem from the Victorian era, diseases of this past era are also now returning. England is reporting a rise in illnesses related to malnutrition:
Cases of malnutrition and other “Victorian” diseases are soaring in England, in what campaigners said was a result of cuts to social services and rising food poverty. NHS statistics show that 7,366 people were admitted to hospital with a primary or secondary diagnosis of malnutrition between August 2014 and July this year, compared with 4,883 cases in the same period from 2010 to 2011 – a rise of more than 50 per cent in just four years. Cases of other diseases rife in the Victorian era including scurvy, scarlet fever, cholera and whooping cough have also increased since 2010, although cases of TB, measles, typhoid and rickets have fallen.
While food poverty is one explanation, other factors must include immigration from third world countries and anti-vaccination adherents.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 25, 2015 5 Comments
While the Friday afternoon data dump is a hallmark of the Obama Administration, the release of heavily redacted Benghazi emails from Hillary Clinton on Christmas days scores points for sheer audacity.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence on Thursday released 16 pages of sensitive documents related to the 2012 Benghazi terror attack. The documents, released ahead of the Christmas holiday, include mostly blacked-out emails and some press clippings about events in Libya after the attack on the U.S. embassy, which left four Americans dead. The event has become a central part of Republican criticism of Hillary Clinton's time as Secretary of State as she runs for president. A few of the heavily redacted emails discuss the drafting of an assessment of the threat level before the attack occurred. Congress had requested the assessment in the months after the attack.
The emails are redacted so much that they are as black as lumps of coal. Via Mediaite:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 24, 2015 2 Comments
Presidential candidate Donald Trump once briefly owned the Miss Universe pageant, which he purchased after years of owning the Miss USA franchise and turning it around fiscally in his signature style. He sold it as he began seriously pursing the GOP nomination, and the subsequent contest turned out to be historic...for the controversies. In one of the most painful moments ever televised or shared via social media to an international audience, the host named the wrong contestant Miss Universe.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 23, 2015 23 Comments
I was astonished that Hillary Clinton wept as she decried bullying, after Donald Trump's used of the word "schlong". A woman who is seeking the office of "Commander-in-Chief" should really show a little more intestinal fortitude. The act is laughable, because her own use of profanity is so notorious that there are whole books on the subject! A California friend, Bill Monroe, offers this example.
Hillary's vulgar and nasty language is well documented. To directly quote her: 'F**k off! It's enough that I have to see you ****-kickers every day, I'm not going to talk to you too!! Just do your G*damn job and keep your mouth shut.'

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 20, 2015 14 Comments
One of my happiest birthday memories was seeing the original "Star Wars" in 1977, when I turned 15. I fell in love with science fiction that day. So when my son, who is a big fan of both the Star Wars and Star Trek franchises, turned 14 this month, my birthday gift to him was tickets for the earliest showing I could obtain for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The movie was the perfect present, as the stories behind the film and its making involve the struggles of one generation attempting to pass the torch of its values and ideals to the next. And while I didn't experience the same "high" after seeing The Force Awakens as I did with A New Hope, in many ways it was nearly as satisfying. First, a small clip for those few of you who haven't been exposed to the recent spate of "Star Wars" advertising:
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