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California Tag

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 06, 2016 10 Comments
Investigators are working to determine the cause of a massive warehouse fire that claimed the lives of over 30 young adults who were attending a party.  The facility housed a community of artisans in Oakland, California.
The warehouse where at least 36 people died in a massive fire Friday night has been deemed too unsafe and unstable for emergency workers, prompting fire officials to temporarily halt search efforts that have now stretched into a fourth day. Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley said a criminal investigation team is involved, which means the site of the warehouse fire is a potential crime scene. Melinda Drayton, battalion chief for the Oakland Fire Department, said at a news conference Monday morning that crews stopped searching overnight after noticing that a wall at the back of the building was leaning at an alarming angle. The search was halted just after midnight, Drayton said, adding that once it resumes, “we absolutely believe that the number of fatalities will increase.”

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on December 03, 2016 38 Comments
The nation's largest sanctuary cities, San Francisco and New York City, are busily revisiting their budgets in anticipation of President-elect Trump taking office and making good on his pledge to slash federal monies sanctuary cities currently receive. From the federal government, San Francisco gets a billion dollars each year, and New York City gets approximately $7 billion each year.   For some perspective, NYC receives more money from the federal government than the state budgets for Delaware ($4.1 billion), Mississippi ($6.4 billion), New Hampshire ($5.7 billion), Oklahoma ($6.8 billion), South Dakota ($4.5 billion), and Vermont ($5.8 billion). San Francisco is struggling with budget-related problems already, and with Trump's threat of withdrawing up to a billion federal tax dollars, the city is anticipating further budget issues.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on December 03, 2016 21 Comments
In October, I reported that thousands of California soldiers in the National Guard soldiers were being forced to repay over-paid enlistment bonuses and student loans. Many of these brave men and women were struggling financially to meet the repayment terms. Shortly after the Department of Defense took a substantial P.R. hit once the details behind this travesty became widely known, Secretary Ash Carter announced he was suspending this program.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 24, 2016 22 Comments
It's as predictable as the sun rising in the east: A Democratic candidate loses the presidential election and progressives begin complaining about how the unfair Electoral College. This Thanksgiving Week, I would like to discuss how Americans everywhere should be thankful our Founding Fathers established this system by using California as an example of what would happen if the presidency rested on popular vote totals.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 21, 2016 26 Comments
Recently, there has been one bright spot for me remaining a California resident: The sheer entertainment value offered by the dramatic response of our leading politicians to President-elect Trump. For example, our state's representatives are lining up to work actively against our new President. The apparent goal is to make California to Trump what Texas was to Obama.
In the early morning hours after Donald Trump became president-elect of the United States, California Senate leader Kevin de León and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon were on the phone grappling with what comes next.

Posted by Mary Chastain on November 12, 2016 46 Comments
A student at Bret Harte Preparatory Middle School in Los Angeles, CA, caught a substitute teacher telling Latino students their parents will be deported after Donald Trump won the election:
“If you were born here, then your parents gotta go and they gonna leave you behind. You’ll be in foster care,” according to the recording made by one of the 6th-grade students.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 12, 2016 72 Comments
In June, I noted that interest in #CalExit, a #Brexit inspired movement in which California would secede from the union, was growing. National Review now reports on #CalExit, #OrgExit, #WasExit, and other secession campaigns coalescing within deep blue states where progressives are bemoaning the fact that billionaire businessman Donald Trump is now President Elect.
“Yes California,” a political action committee fighting for California’s independence from the union, is campaigning to qualify a secession initiative for the 2018 ballot, which in turn would force a special-election referendum on the question. The group had gained little traction since its founding in 2015, but received an outpouring of support for their movement in the aftermath of Trump’s victory.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 10, 2016 42 Comments
While my friends across the nation are celebrating conservative and Republican domination and all the free market, fiscal goodness that it brings, my home state took a slightly different path. As I predicted, retiring U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer is being replaced by Kamala Harris, one of the state Attorney Generals who planned to use RICO statutes to pursue firms that were "climate change deniers". I anticipate she will make Boxer look like a sane and reasonable politician in retrospect.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on November 04, 2016 33 Comments
Aleister blogged about James O'Keefe's video exposing a Chicago activist, who visited the White House 45 times since President Obama took office, and his description of how voters are bused into key precincts to influence results. Mary Chastain noted that Indiana officials are investigating possible voter fraud after people noticed their voter registration cards had incorrect information.

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 26, 2016 16 Comments
The Pentagon received a lot of heat this week when The Los Angeles Times reported officials demanded California National Guard soldiers repay bonuses the government enticed them with to reenlist and go to war. Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced he will suspend this program:
"Today, in keeping with that obligation, I am ordering a series of steps to ensure fair treatment for thousands of California National Guard soldiers who may have received incentive bonuses and tuition assistance improperly as a result of errors and in some cases criminal behavior by members of the California National Guard.”

Posted by Mary Chastain on October 25, 2016 16 Comments
On Sunday, Leslie reported that the Pentagon has started to collect overpayments officials made to 10,000 National Guard soldiers in California to reenlist for war. Now House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has joined forces with California GOP members to ask the Pentagon to stop these collections:
“These brave Californians were willing to give everything to serve our country, and they earned every penny and benefit given to them," Pelosi said Monday in a brief statement.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 23, 2016 36 Comments
About one-year ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed the state's assisted-suicide bill into law. It fully went into effect this June, with the opening of the first clinic. While there is no data on the number of California assisted-suicides, Oregon recorded over 130 last year as part of their legalized physician-assisted death program. Now, one young mother says her insurance company denied her coverage for chemotherapy treatment after originally agreeing to provide the fiscal support for it, but indicated it would be willing to pay for assisted suicide instead.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 23, 2016 40 Comments
The members of the California National Guard are awesome. These soldiers are on the frontlines of the huge wildfires this state frequently experiences. They have been called upon to deal with the riots and civil unrest that sometimes plague our cities. They have fought in Iraq and Afghanistan during our "War on Terror". Now, the Pentagon is asking the men and women to repay enlistment bonuses they received.
Short of troops to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan a decade ago, the California National Guard enticed thousands of soldiers with bonuses of $15,000 or more to reenlist and go to war. Now the Pentagon is demanding the money back.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on October 06, 2016 1 Comment
While tensions related to the fatal shooting of a a black man by El Cajon police have subsided, it appears the Los Angeles Police Department has also became a center of #BlackLivesMatters demonstrations. The triggering incidents seem similar to the one in the San Diego, in which Alfred Olango took a shooting stance with an e-cigarette. However, both of these situations involved either a gun or an object that more closely resembled an actual weapons.
The Los Angeles police chief on Monday defended the use of deadly force against two men in separate fatal shootings over the weekend, saying one turned toward officers with a gun and the other pointed what looked like a real gun at police.
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