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California Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 12, 2017 75 Comments
Governor Jerry Brown recently spoke out against President Trump for his NASA-space focus and climate skepticism while asserting California’s independence. The state's legislatures have vowed to create a "Sanctuary State."  A day after Trump's presidential victory, both state houses issued a joint letter that began, "Today, we woke up feeling like strangers in a foreign land, because yesterday Americans expressed their views on a pluralistic and democratic society that are clearly inconsistent with the values of the people of California."

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 11, 2017 32 Comments
President Trump's "shock and awe" approach continues with a massive crackdown on illegal aliens in Southern California.
Federal immigration officials say 160 people were arrested across the Southland over the past week during a crackdown targeting “criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants and immigration fugitives.” The arrests took place in six counties during what U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials described as a “five-day targeted enforcement operation” that began Monday and wrapped up around noon Friday.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 05, 2017 16 Comments
Milo Yiannopoulos isn't the only conservative who needed a security escort from a public event in California this week. So did one of our state's Congressmen:
Congressman Tom McClintock, a Republican from California, on Saturday faced a rowdy crowd at a packed town hall meeting in Northern California, and had to be escorted by police as protesters followed him shouting "Shame on you!"

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 03, 2017 25 Comments
The smoke is clearing from the violent demonstration at University of California - Berkeley, and reports of attacks on conservative students who were planning to hear Breitbart editor Yiannopoulos are finding their way into social media. For example, the pepper-spraying on a young woman wearing a Make Bitcoin Great Again cap.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on February 02, 2017 40 Comments
I can forgive Legal Insurrection fans who think that Californians have lost their collective minds. 1) We have a group openly promoting secession and a state government that approved a #CalExit petition effort. 2) A senior politician seriously suggested the state withhold transfer of funds to the federal government. 3) Our representatives are mulling over a third gender option for identity documentation. Furthermore, in response to President Trump’s move to end sanctuary cities, our government officials are working to declare California a “Sanctuary State”.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 30, 2017 46 Comments
The showdown over sanctuary city policies between California and the Trump administration continues to escalate. After President Trump signed an executive order reinforcing current immigration regulations, politicians in our state's government opted to counter that order by exploring ways to protect the non-citizens who are already here.
The cities and counties Trump is targeting have many tools to strike back. Among the most potent are high court decisions that have interpreted financial threats like the one Trump is now making as an unlawful intrusion on state’s rights.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 29, 2017 17 Comments
California lawmakers have dived deeper in the pool of progressivism, apparently to swim away from the red states responsible for the election of Donald Trump as President. Between bitterly threatening to build our own satellites and clinging to sanctuary city policies, state lawmakers are now weighing a fun, new revision to state identification cards: A third gender option.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 28, 2017 64 Comments
2018 is going to be a big election year for California. Not only do we get to pick a new governor, but we may get a chance to vote to secede from the United States of America as well. #CalExit, a #Brexit inspired movement in which California would secede from the union, has cleared an important hurdle and a secession measure would be on our 2018 ballot. I have previously reported that leader of Yes California (the organized, supposedly San Diego-based effort for this movement) is an American who lives in Russia and runs the independence campaign from there. Louis Marinelli has now gotten approval from California Secretary of State Alex Padilla to begin collecting signatures begin gathering signatures to place secession on the California ballot.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 20, 2017 13 Comments
In the tense political maneuvering between California's progressive representatives and the Trump administration, our state may have just blinked first. The repeal and replacement of Obamacare has been one the most consistent promises of President Donald Trump during his successful campaign. And, controlling illegal immigration has been just about the biggest plank in Trump's platform. So, in the height of the general election campaign, our state's politicians decided it would be a great idea to be the first state to offer Obamacare to illegal immigrants.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 17, 2017 12 Comments
You would have thought no California Democratic politician would act loonier after Donald Trump's presidential victory than Governor Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown, who threatened to launch a state-sponsored satellite in response to the incoming administration proposals to return NASA's focus back to space exploration. But never underestimate the ability of the Party's representatives in the Golden State to plummet off the deep end and sink to the lowest possible level.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 15, 2017 24 Comments
I have chronicled the saga of the California bullet train and its construction since 2012. A report obtained by The Los Angeles Times confirms my concerns about the project's fiscal drain on our state. The review shows that this monstrosity will cost $3.6 billion more than original budget projection.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 11, 2017 41 Comments
Now that Barack Obama's farewell speech is over, and there is less that 10 days until the inauguration, speculation is beginning about the actions that Donald Trump will take in his first 100 days in office. Doubtless, immigration will be on the top of his task list. Alan Gomez, immigration reporter for USA Today, notes that Trump will have broad presidential powers in dealing with "sanctuary cities".
Trump will be armed with a range of powerful options, including federal lawsuits and the power to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in grants that states and cities rely on.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on January 10, 2017 20 Comments
In 2015, Kathryn Steinle was murdered by Francisco Sanchez, a Mexican citizen and illegal immigrant who had been deported five times prior to killing Steinle. Steinle was shot and killed while walking along San Francisco's Pier 14. “We have been and always will be a city of refuge, a city of sanctuary, a city of love...We promise to be a city that’s always welcoming. There are no walls in our city!” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee, confirmed the city's sanctuary status. Following her death, Steinle's family filed a wrongful death suit against the city of San Francisco.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 09, 2017 33 Comments
California politicos are going all-in when it comes to squandering taxpayer dollars for social justice causes! Last week it was reported that California has arranged for the completion of expensive sex-reassignment surgery so that a man serving a life sentence for murder has been transformed into a woman, and is now on her way to a woman's prison to complete the full sentence.
California prison officials agreed in August 2015 to pay for the surgery for Shiloh Heavenly Quine, who was convicted of first-degree murder, kidnapping and robbery for ransom and has no possibility of parole.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 06, 2017 50 Comments
Legal Insurrection has often chronicled the unintended consequences of minimum wage hikes across the country, from worker struggles in Seattle, automation replacing service personnel, the closing of a popular eatery in New York, and the loss of jobs at UC Berkeley. Now, in my home town of San Diego, diners are being served-up a surprise along with their bills as a result of voters approving a minimum wage hike in last June: A dining surcharge.
Girding for the second minimum wage hike in six months and the fourth in 2-½ years, many of San Diego’s full-service restaurants are introducing for the first time an average surcharge of 3 percent of the meal’s cost to help cover increased labor expenses that some operators say amount to hundreds of thousands of dollars in a single year. ...Hoping to preserve what restaurateurs insist are already thin profit

Posted by Leslie Eastman on January 05, 2017 22 Comments
California has a massive housing crisis, pension troubles, and an escalating crime rates. So, what do the state's leaders decide to do? Hire one of the most controversial figures in the Obama Administration to engage in legal battles against the Trump Administration.
Bracing for an adversarial relationship with President-elect Donald Trump , the California Legislature has selected former U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. to serve as outside counsel to advise the state’s legal strategy against the incoming administration. The unusual arrangement will give Holder, leading a team of attorneys from the firm Covington & Burling, a broad portfolio covering potential conflicts between California and the federal government. Former Los Angeles Rep. Howard Berman, a Democrat who is now a senior advisor to the firm, will also be part of the effort.
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