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California Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on August 10, 2015 18 Comments
While it's hard to believe California can get any nuttier, the city of Huntington Park has managed to set a new standard. In addition to allowing illegal immigrants access to driver's licenses and the state's Obamacare exchange, now Huntington Park has given them an opportunity to actually govern legal American citizens. Two Mexican migrant leaders have been appointed to city commissions.
Julian Zatarain always assumed the doors of City Hall were closed to him because he is here illegally, arriving from Sinaloa in 2007 when he was 13. The 21-year-old college student found other outlets for service, such as volunteering for the Red Cross and with an organization that helps young people like him get access to educational resources. Then on Monday, Zatarain proudly accepted an appointment to the Huntington Park parks and recreation commission. Another immigrant here illegally, Francisco Medina, 29, won an appointment to the health and education commission.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on July 05, 2015 41 Comments
After California became the epicenter of a measles outbreak earlier this year, the state's legislature proposed a tough, new bill making vaccinations for children attending public school mandatory (with few exceptions.) Governor Jerry Brown just signed that bill into law.
Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday signed into law one of the nation’s strictest childhood vaccination requirements, approving a bill that generated multiple protests and controversy as it moved through the Legislature. Senate Bill 277, authored by Sacramento pediatrician state Sen. Richard Pan and former Santa Monica-Malibu school board president state Sen. Ben Allen, eliminates parents’ ability to claim “personal belief” exemptions to schoolchildren’s vaccine requirements at both private and public schools in California. Only medical exemptions, approved by a doctor, will be allowed under the law. A licensed physician will have to write a letter explaining the child’s medical circumstances that make immunization unsafe for that child.
Opponents are so unhappy with the new rule that they began preparing a lawsuit before the ink had dried.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on June 15, 2015 23 Comments
In 1849, gold inspired a big rush to California and a whole lot of thievery. In 2015, water has become the new gold!
Police are warning for businesses and residents to start locking up their taps. California’s drought has gotten so bad, people are stealing water. Thieves busted the locks on the spigots at a popular Asian shopping center on Barber Lane in Milpitas, just to get their hands on what has become liquid gold. Palo Alto resident Jason Zhur said he’s shocked it has come this far. “But water’s becoming more expensive than gas,” he said. ...Many businesses here have surveillance cameras, but apparently they weren’t a deterrent. “I imagine it’s come to that point because water rates are going up, everything is going up, now,” said Zhur.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 28, 2015 50 Comments
The delicate flowers at Georgetown who demanded "Trigger Warnings" for Christina Hoff Sommer's talk really should come to California. Here they will experience a political San Andreas fault, where progressive theory collides with daily reality....and Californians are hit with the falling debris. Bruce Jenner's public reveal has brought transgender issues into the national conversation, despite a myriad of urgent matters that could really use more attention. However, California has been enacting gender identification polices for years (to the point we have to have ballot measures demanding bathroom privacy rights). In preparation for life under Obamacare, I want to offer this example of what happens when public health care gets coupled with personal politics. It features a single mom, Cindy K., who recently took her 11-year old son for a simple physical exam required for middle school entry. After taking her son's vitals, she reports the doctor began to ask some really troubling questions about gender and sexual  identity:
...The doctor then proceeded to ask..."do you know what your gender identity is?" I looked at the doctor and said, "What are you asking my son?" She proceeded to explain to me that sometimes kids don't know and they like to help explain it to them. My son asked what the doctor was asking him and I said, "She wants to know if you are a boy or a girl?" My son looked at me funny and said, "I'm a boy", with a look of bewilderment on his face. The doctor then proceeded to ask if my 11 year old son new what his sexual identity is?" At this point I stopped again and said, "Why are you asking these questions?" The doctor's response was that not all parents have these conversations with their kids, so they want to be the one's to explain it to the kids. Again, my son asked me what the doctor was asking him. I said, "Well, the doctor wants to know if you would prefer to kiss boys or girls." My son had a look of disgust on his face and said, "A girl, of course".

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 14, 2015 43 Comments
I reported that California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled the state's first water restrictions in response to the "mega-drought". As I foresaw, the rules have turned out to be more about revenue generation than resource protection. What I did not predict is that my teen son and his lengthy showers would make him the latest environmental villain.
Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Gov. Jerry Brown (D-CA) said Californians will face heavy fines for taking long showers. Brown said, “This executive order is done under emergency power. It has the force of law. Very unusual. It’s requiring action and changes in behavior from the Oregon border all the way to the Mexican border. It affects lawns. It affects people’s — how long they stay in the shower. How businesses use water.” Brown said to enforce his order, “Each water district that actually delivers waters — water to homes and businesses, they carry it out. We have a state water board that overseas the relationships with the districts. Hundreds of them. If they don’t comply, people can be fined $500 a day. Districts can go to court to get a cease and desist order. The enforcement mechanism is powerful. In a drought of this magnitude, you have to change that behavior and you have to change it substantially.”
It looks like I am going to have to work harder to pay for my son than I originally thought.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 02, 2015 27 Comments
California's "mega-drought" has been caused more by water mismanagement than "global warming." As I have foreseen, the state's drought cycle is the pad for Governor Jerry Brown to launch new rules. This time, Brown is issuing the state's first set of water restrictions.
Brown ordered the California Water Resources Control Board to implement mandatory restrictions to reduce water usage by 25%. The water savings are expected to amount to 1.5 million acre-feet of water over the next nine months. Other elements of Brown's order would: --Require golf courses, cemeteries and other large landscaped spaces to reduce water consumption. --Replace 50 million square feet of lawn statewide with drought-tolerant landscaping as part of a partnership with local governments.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 16, 2015 32 Comments
The California "mega-drought" has officially gained the attention of the regulatory community. Recently, a NASA administrator pushed the panic button hard... by saying the Golden State had less than a year of water in its reserves and that it needs to start water rationing now!
California will run out of water in 12 months, according to a NASA scientist. The state only has one year of supply left in its reservoirs due to persistent drought and is also running out of backup groundwater, Jay Famiglietti, senior water scientist at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, wrote. The drought means that total water storage in California, which has been in decline since 2002, has been sapped by the need to use the resource for farming, he said in the Los Angeles Times. ...Famiglietti suggested immediate water-rationing measures, which are being considered in southern California, across the state.
Color me skeptical, in a nice golden brown shade. The last time a NASA scientist chimed in on the climate, it turns out the temperatures used to tout the "hottest year ever" were chalk full of errors. Why should I trust any government scientist's interpretation about climate policy matters when there are money and regulations to be made? In fact, following the money in this instance is the most logical step to take! It turns out that our state's legislators are mulling over water rate hikes.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on March 03, 2015 28 Comments
The last time we checked on California's new rules for issuing driver's licenses to undocumented immigrants, the Department of Motor Vehicles was so overwhelmed with requests for new licenses that it can take up to three months to get an appointment...even for lawful citizens. The new program has been so popular that now over 110,000 illegal immigrants now hold those vital pieces of identification.
California has handed out 110,000 driver's licenses to immigrants in the country illegally during the first seven weeks of applications. The figures for all of January and much of February were released this week by the state's Department of Motor Vehicles. In early January when the law took effect, hundreds of immigrants lined up at designated DMV offices for walk-in appointments. The applicants have to submit documents and take a written test, and later, they must take a road test. They receive licenses that read "not acceptable for official federal purposes" like boarding planes.
Let's take a look at the written test requirements for a moment. I remember studying diligently for several hours before taking my exam several years ago, and being very nervous about getting the correct answers. It is difficult to believe so many immigrants who have not had basic educational opportunities either here or in their native land would pass the exam.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 08, 2015 18 Comments
What is going on in the Left Coast? Reader and frequent commenter LukeHandCool, a resident of Santa Monica, sends along this note and link:
What happens when the blackboard jungle comes to two of the most progressive high schools in America? How could this possibly happen in Utopia when all the kids are taught they are unbelievably special just for breathing? I'll tell you what happens. You get long, long hand-wringing emails from the principal on an almost daily basis.
Here's the link, Video Emerges Of Nasty Brawl Between Rival High Schools:
Video of a nasty fight between rival high schools last month — touched off by basketball games — has now emerged.... The teams involved were Santa Monica High and Beverly Hills High. The fight broke out at Santa Monica High on Jan. 23 following a sweep of the JV and varsity boys’ and girls’ basketball teams by Beverly Hills....

Posted by Mike LaChance on January 31, 2015 4 Comments
Do you enjoy long wait times at the Department of Motor Vehicles? If you live in California, you're in luck. So many illegal immigrants are now applying for driver's licences that wait times are absurd. CBS News in Los Angeles reported (h/t Weasel Zippers):
Some Motorists Wait Months For DMV Appointments After Immigrants Law Goes Into Effect The Department of Motor Vehicles is so overwhelmed with requests for new driver’s licenses and vehicle registrations that it can take up to three months to get an appointment or a half-day wait in the lobby. A DMV spokesman told KCAL9 Political Reporter Dave Bryan there has been a crush of applications for new licenses for undocumented immigrants, a program that began earlier this month. The spokesman said the DMV is working to address the problems, but some people are having to take a day off of work to handle a 15-minute transaction. At the Hollywood DMV office, where they handle drivers license issues, the long lines outside and packed waiting areas inside are testimony to the long, grueling process that California drivers have to endure before getting service. For example, Jose Quiroz’s DMV ordeal spanned two days of waiting patiently with his family to have his license renewed. “Yesterday, I was here for four hours standing outside, and when I got to the front line they said that they were not taking us in no more,” Quiroz told Bryan. “And now I am back here again, because I am here to fix my license, and I have been here five or six hours.”
Here's the video report:

Posted by Amy Miller on January 24, 2015 20 Comments
California's seven Supreme Court judges have voted unanimously to prohibit state judges from holding membership in the Boy Scouts of America; the ruling is based on the grounds that the Scouts discriminate against gays. California is one of several states that has rules on the books banning judges from holding memberships in groups that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; the court, however, also carved out an exception for non-profit youth groups, including the Boy Scouts. Everything changed, however, when an ethics advisory committee recommended the ban last year. The San Francisco Gate has the history:
California has been among 23 states with an ethical code that prohibits judges from belonging to organizations that discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation. But the state’s Supreme Court in 1996 approved an exemption, unique to California, for “nonprofit youth organizations” to accommodate judges affiliated with the Boy Scouts. The Bar Association of San Francisco and other legal organizations sought to repeal that exemption in 2003. The court refused, and instead instructed judges to disclose connections to the Boy Scouts when they heard cases involving gay rights and related issues, and to disqualify themselves for any conflicts of interest. At the time, the Scouts also barred gay youths as members, a policy the U.S. Supreme Court had upheld in 2000. The organization repealed that ban at a national meeting in May 2013, effective the following January, but maintained the prohibition on gay and lesbian youth leaders. “The people of California have a right to an impartial and unbiased judiciary,” Richard Fybel, a state appeals court justice in Santa Ana and chairman of the high court’s ethics advisory committee, said Friday. “This is important to accomplishing that.”

Posted by William A. Jacobson on January 08, 2015 21 Comments
Barbara Boxer will be best remembered for dressing down a General during a hearing when he called her "Ma'am": Boxer just announced, via an almost unwatchable video interview with her grandson, that she is retiring at the end of her term in 2016:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 05, 2014 9 Comments
As I discussed earlier this week, the local races would be vitally important in this election. I must admit, I despaired that California would completely miss-out on this "change election", and simply hoped that we might be able to elect Republican Carl DeMaio into CA-52's congressional seat -- though I did predict that there would be "historic election results on November 4th that would have been unimaginable until this August" elsewhere. Imagine my surprise to discover I was not optimistic enough! The election tsunami generated a rogue wave that hit California! The Democrats have lost their supermajority in the state senate, and their status in the Assembly is in doubt.
Two years after California Democrats swept to commanding two-thirds majorities in both houses of the state Legislature, they were unable to again claim the same margin in the Senate and the Assembly remained in doubt with key races too close to call. Republicans captured two closely contested Senate seats central to the supermajority hopes of Democrats. Orange County Supervisor Janet Nguyen defeated former Democratic Assemblyman Democrat Jose Solorio, while Republican Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, repelled a challenge from Democrat Luis Chavez to retain a spot in the Senate he first won in a tight special election last year.

Posted by Amy Miller on September 29, 2014 38 Comments
We've written previously about California's proposed "affirmative consent" bill, which codifies -- for lack of a more delicate terminology -- what constitutes acceptable foreplay between consenting adults on college campuses. On Sunday, that bill became law. Via Fox News:
[Bill author Sen. Kevin] De Leon has said the legislation will begin a paradigm shift in how college campuses in California prevent and investigate sexual assaults. Rather than using the refrain "no means no," the definition of consent under the bill requires "an affirmative, conscious and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity." "With one in five women on college campuses experiencing sexual assault, it is high time the conversation regarding sexual assault be shifted to one of prevention, justice, and healing," de Leon said in lobbying Brown for his signature. The legislation says silence or lack of resistance does not constitute consent. Under the bill, someone who is drunk, drugged, unconscious or asleep cannot grant consent.
The bill holds hostage funding for colleges and universities unless "the governing board of each community college district, the Trustees of the California State University, the Regents of the University of California, and the governing boards of independent postsecondary institutions shall adopt a policy concerning sexual assault, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking..." That policy is strictly defined within the bill, and mandates new, uniform procedures for the reporting, counseling, and investigation of alleged sexual misconduct on campus.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on September 13, 2014 20 Comments
We previously covered the petition drive to put on the ballot this November a Proposition to split California into six states, Are six Californias better than one?:
The idea of splitting California into pieces is not new. The procedural hurdles are monumental, and perhaps insurmountable, but the idea doesn’t go away. CAlifornia is too damn big to govern, and has differing regional qualities that would make sense to separate out rather than bury under one state government. From a national political point of view, a break up would be a mixed bag. Yes, it might (might, not would) break the now near-permanent condition of all those electoral votes going Democrats without a fight. But as separate states, wouldn’t they be entitled to two Senator each? The more Californias there are, the more Democratic Senators we are likely to have, although depending on how the split-up takes place, perhaps it would be more neutral.
Unfortunately, the Proposition will not be on the ballot because they fell just short of the required signatures, although there may be challenges to the count. The Sacramento Bee reports, Six Californias initiative fails to make 2016 ballot:

Posted by Leslie Eastman on September 08, 2014 31 Comments
The police of the California city of Richmond are waging a social media war against prostitution...one that fans of "pet shaming" pictures on Facebook will recognize.
When a man is caught soliciting a prostitute, the punishment police hand out is usually far less than what they will find at home when their wife or girlfriend find out. So police in California are using the tactic of shaming Johns by posting their pictures online, in hopes the embarrassment being shared with the public will be enough to curb prostitution.
It appears that the tactic is meeting with initial success. In a video report from KTVU Channel 10 News, Jim Sciarroni, who owns an auto body shop near a hot-spot for prostitution, says that since the department started posting the pictures on their Facebook page: "Traffic has slowed down, there's very few that come by here during the day. The traffic on Ohio has quieted down." Local news has this video report:
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