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California Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 07, 2016 7 Comments
Finally, some good news from the Golden State! It looks like we have solved all our other problems, so Governor Jerry Brown was able to focus on the issue of paramount importance: Smoking!
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a package of bills that will regulate the manufacture and sale of e-cigarettes and increase the legal smoking age from 18 to 21. Other bills the governor signed will close loopholes in existing smoke-free workplace laws and require that all K-12 schools be tobacco-free.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on May 04, 2016 18 Comments
In the wake of Bernie Sanders' shock win in Indiana, and now substantially narrowed GOP field, the center of the Democratic Party's political universe is now California. Since there is currently a mere two point poll gap between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, every vote in this state is critical. So, both Clintons will be in California for various events over the next few weeks. Yesterday, I read that the former President would be in San Diego's Balboa Park Club for a speech. So I donned by Star Wars t-shirt (May the Fourth be with you) and attempted to blend in with Clinton fans for a on-scene report.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 29, 2016 48 Comments
Anti-Trump protesters surrounded rally sites, waved Mexican flags, and ventured to prevent Trump supporters from seeing The Donald speak. The term "protesters" being used to describe these thuggish demonstrators is an inaccurate, weak description. They harassed and intimidated Trump's supports who were attempting to hear the candidate speak at two separate California events.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 22, 2016 5 Comments
Regular Legal Insurrection readers may recall that prior to signing the new state minimum wage law, California Governor Jerry Brown was heckled at the Paris Climate Conference. Brown was challenged by a group of protesters opposed to carbon offset programs they said could hurt indigenous people. However, his enthusiasm for imposing draconian rules limiting carbon dioxide emissions has remained quite vigorous.
“This is one skirmish, but I’ll tell you, it’s increasing the intensity of my commitment to do everything I can to make sure we reduce oil consumption in California,” he said. “My zeal has been intensified to a maximum degree, and nothing, nothing is going to stop this state from pushing forward on our low-carbon fuel standard and our cap-and-trade and our ZEV [zero-emission vehicle] mandate.”
Brown's zeal was such that about a year ago he issued an executive order setting a goal for greenhouse gas emissions to be 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The California Governor's mandate was short on specifics about how his new goal will be achieved, and relied on currently undeveloped or uninvented technology to ultimately achieve the goal.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 18, 2016 27 Comments
Minimum wage hikes tend to hurt lower income-wage earners more than help. California recently mandated a $15 minimum wage. Now, facilities maintenance and food service workers at UC Berkeley may find their jobs imperiled. Justin Holcomb writes for Townhall:
The $15 minimum wage hike in California has sent financially troubled UC Berkeley into decision making mode, and "the people who clean buildings, who work in food services or health clinics,” says Todd Stenhouse, will be the ones without a job.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 18, 2016 35 Comments
The Environment and Public Works Committee has been gathering testimony from a wide range of witnesses (industry experts, military official, and faith leaders) to discuss the Obama Administration's Clean Power Plan. Because the Senators obviously wanted listed to many different perspectives, those invited to offer input included Alex Epstein, author of A Moral Case for Fossil Fuels and President of Center for Industrial Progress, as well as Father Robert Sirico (a Catholic priest and President of the free-market supporting Acton Institute).

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 13, 2016 77 Comments
Donald Trump inexplicably waited until YESTERDAY to name a State Political Director in California. The California primary on June 7 could determine whether Trump reaches the magic 1237 majority delegate number prior to the July convention. By all reports, Cruz is far ahead in the ground game in California, which awards delegates not only on the statewide vote but also by congressional district. Even if Trump wins the state, he may underperform in enough congressional districts due to Cruz's superior campaign preparation that Trump is stopped short. Or he may fail to file delegate slates in all districts. Erick Erickson reports:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 12, 2016 21 Comments
Californians are thrilled at the prospect of having their votes actually matter during the presidential primary season, especially when every delegate is critical. So many Republicans in the southern California area headed to various rallies yesterday to see aspirant Senator Ted Cruz. I joined two of our local Tea Party bloggers (W.C. Varones and Left Coast Rebel) and 2000 other interested voters at his San Diego event yesterday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 12, 2016 10 Comments
If the list "Best California Governors" is ever created, our current one has a better shot at making the cut than Arnold Schwarzenegger. Schwarzenegger began his time in office with record high approval ratings (89% in December 2003), he left office with a record low 23% in 2011, only one percent higher than that of Gray Davis's when he was recalled. The reasons for the plummeting approval are many, but ultimately stem from selling himself as a conservative but abandoning these principles after important citizen-backed control measures were defeated because of union shenanigans. Californians might have forgiven him for bad politics, but one of his final acts as Governor was utterly disgraceful and unforgivable.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 07, 2016 10 Comments
I would like to introduce you to California Attorney General Kamala Harris, who is running for the U.S. Senate and hoping to take the seat occupied by Barbara "Don't Call Me Ma'am" Boxer. I would like to say that Harris, who is both the likely nominee and ultimate November victor, will be an improvement over the pugnacious pixie. But I can't.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 06, 2016 3 Comments
California's primary is June 7th, and because of the ongoing election drama of both parties, voters in the Golden State are already very excited about their votes making a difference. So much so that the state's election officials are preparing for an election-day voting tsunami:
More than 600,000 Californians have registered to vote online or updated their registration in just the last three months, and county election agencies may be overwhelmed by the volume of people who show up, Secretary of State Alex Padilla warned Gov. Jerry Brown. Voter registration application cards are in high demand statewide, he wrote in a letter Monday to the governor. Padilla also wrote that "one campaign" alone recently requested 200,000 registration forms to sign up voters, although he did not specify which candidate's campaign made it. “Our data suggests a surge in voter participation in both the presidential primary election in June and the general election in November,” Padilla wrote in the letter.
Extreme interest in the presidential race is a factor. Current polls report that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have substantial leads in their respective contests. However, June is months away and polls for this election cycle have been...unreliable.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 27, 2016 13 Comments
California's elite politicos have long resented our state's system of propositions and ballot measures, which give the voters some measure of control on how Sacramento runs. Famous tax-payer victories include Proposition 13 (capping property taxes). Furthermore, Californians have organized statewide to defeat other issues (e.g., Proposition 1A, a temporary tax increase that California Tea Party Groups fought successfully in 2009). After a ballot measure was recently approved for a proposed, gradually-implemented $15/hour minimum wage law, our state's politicians played a round of "Let's Make a Deal" to bypass the will of the voters.
Lawmakers and labor unions have struck a tentative deal to raise the statewide minimum wage to $10.50 an hour next year and then gradually to $15, averting a costly political campaign this fall and possibly putting California at the forefront of a national movement.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 23, 2016 3 Comments
In a post on Monday I noted a Report (pdf.) suggesting "Principles Against Intolerance" and containing a condemnation of anti-Semitism, was coming up for vote today at the University of California Board of Regents, UC Regents should seize its Moynihan moment on anti-Zionism. The key language in controversy was both the general condemnation of anti-Semitism, but most specifically a mention of anti-Zionism in a "contextual statement" that was not part of the Principles themselves (emphasis added):
"During the 2014-15 academic year, the Regents received correspondence and public comment from a variety of sources expressing concern that there has been an increase in incidents reflecting anti-Semitism on UC campuses. These reported incidents included vandalism targeting property associated with Jewish people or Judaism; challenges to the candidacies of Jewish students seeking to assume representative positions within student government; political, intellectual and social dialogue that is anti-Semitic; and social exclusion and stereotyping. Fundamentally, commenters noted that historic manifestations of anti-Semitism have changed and that expressions of anti-Semitism are more coded and difficult to identify. In particular, opposition to Zionism  often is expressed in ways that are not simply statements of disagreement over politics and policy, but also assertions of prejudice and intolerance toward Jewish people and culture. Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and other forms of discrimination have no place at the University of California...."
In that post, I noted the arguments for and against the Report. Those arguments played out today before the Regents in a public comment period.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 23, 2016 2 Comments
Californians are being treated to a rare opportunity to actually make a difference during a presidential primary season...at least if they are Republican. Senator Bernie Sanders is behind in the delegate count, and the "Super Duper" election results confirm Hillary is the likely nominee at this point. However, he is gamely continuing his campaign with a stop in my home town.
Thousands of supporters packed the San Diego Convention Center Tuesday evening to attend a Bernie Sanders rally. The Democratic Presidential Candidate stopped in San Diego for the rally more than two months ahead of the winner-take-all California primary in June. ...He said his campaign listened to the concerns of youths, military veterans and the elderly.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 21, 2016 3 Comments
On November 10, 1975, the United Nations General Assembly passed the infamous “Zionism Is Racism” Resolution 3379:
"Determines that Zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination"
The Resolution came on the heels of the failed 1973 Yom Kippur attempt by Arab armies to destroy Israel with Soviet backing, and the 1973 Arab oil embargo to pressure the West to abandon Israel. Resolution 3379 was not phrased as anti-Jewish hatred. It was framed in terms of anti-Zionism, a rejection of the Jewish people's right to self-determination in the homeland of the Jewish people. But the anti-Zionist phraseology did not fool anyone, least of all United States Ambassador to the United Nations Daniel Patrick Moynihan. In what would become one of his most famous speeches, Moynihan rose to denounce the Resolution as anti-Semitic and to declare it a "great evil... loosed upon the world."
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