Delicious.com - Discover Yourself!

fullosseousflap Feed

Stacks Links

Create Stack Add to Stack

8334 links

Effort to repeal new Senate districts advances -

1 save http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2011/11/10/effort-to-repeal-new-senate-dist...

A Republican effort to repeal the newly drawn state Senate districts by means of a ballot referendum has begun submitting the required petitions, and expects to have sufficient signatures turned in by Sunday to qualify the measure for the ballot.

The new districts give Democrats a good chance to gain a two-thirds majority of the Senate, which would mean they could raise taxes without a single Republican vote. Republicans contend the districts have been gerrymandered.

Redistricting

Controller John Chiang says California has $1.5 billion cash gap

1 save http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/11/california-controller-jo...

California has fallen $1.5 billion behind in revenues through the first four months of the fiscal year, according to state Controller John Chiang, amplifying fears the state will impose deeper budget cuts this winter.

For the month of October, Chiang said California was $810.5 million behind what was expected, or 16.3 percent. Notably, the state missed its personal income tax estimate by $451 million, or 12.9 percent, which the Franchise Tax Board attributed to both lower withholdings and estimated tax payments.

The state also faced spending pressures through the first four months of the year. Chiang reported that California spent $1.7 billion more than budget writers expected.

California_Budget

Chiang

Do Local Tax Election Results Foreshadow 2012 State Tax Fight?

1 save http://www.foxandhoundsdaily.com/2011/11/do-local-tax-election-results-fore...

With the expectation that taxes dealing with California’s budget issues will dominate the state’s general election one year from now, the tea-leaves of yesterday’s local elections around the state might indicate how voters are feeling about taxes.

Overall, there were 53 tax, bond and fee measures on local ballots. With the understanding that the results are preliminary for the final counts are not in, 40 of the 53 tax measures passed for a solid passing percentage of 75%. The results included 18 of 22 city majority vote tax measures passing, and 11 of 14 parcel tax measures in special districts and school districts getting the necessary two-thirds vote to pass.

Police arrest UC Berkeley students, professor over Occupy camp - San Jose Mercur...

1 save http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19298649?source=rss

Moving quickly to quell a protest on the site where the Free Speech Movement was born, UC Berkeley police in riot gear on Wednesday tore down tents and arrested at least seven people who had established an Occupy Cal camp.

The violent clash was in stark contrast to peaceful speeches about protecting higher education from budget cuts and a short march that started the demonstration in front of Sproul Hall at noon. By 3:30 p.m., protesters linking arms were facing down lines of police officers as the Occupy group tried to protect a handful of tents that had been erected on a lawn in front of the building.

Dan Walters: New California Senate maps still not settled

1 save http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/09/4040604/dan-walters-new-california-senate....

It's been nearly three months since the state redistricting commission released its maps for 177 congressional, legislative and Board of Equalization districts.

They're not quite final. A Republican-backed referendum to overturn state Senate maps is still pending, with signatures to qualify for next year's ballot being submitted this week.

The state Supreme Court had summarily rejected a GOP legal challenge to the Senate maps. But were the referendum to gain enough signatures to qualify for next year's ballot, the Supreme Court would be compelled to step back into the issue, deciding which Senate districts would be used for the 2012 elections pending the referendum's outcome.

However, the court and the ballot are not the only venues for challenging what the commission wrought. Any election law changes that affect four California counties – Monterey, Merced, Yuba and Kings – are subject to review by the U.S. Justice Department under the federal Voting Rights Act.

Redistricting

Walters

GOP lawmakers demand special session on public pensions

1 save http://blogs.sacbee.com/the_state_worker/2011/11/california-republican-sena...

Four GOP lawmakers this morning praised Gov. Jerry Brown's 12-point plan to change public pensions, then challenged him to go a step further by calling a special session to address the issue.

"The Legislature needs to give our full attention to this, right now," Senate Republican leader Bob Dutton said at a press conference held in his office. "After the first of the year, we're going to be all budget, all the time."

The Rancho Cucamonga Republican said that he sent his request that Brown reconvene lawmakers before the regular session starts in January. Dutton said he hadn't received a response as of this morning.

Taxpayers Take On L.A. County’s Unconstitutional Grocery Bag Tax

1 save http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2011/11/07/taxpayers-take-on-l-a-county%e2%...

With inflation eating away at Californians’ buying power, going to the grocery store has become an increasingly expensive activity for the average family. But in their quest to create an environmentally-friendly utopia, California liberals don’t seem to care that families are struggling to pay those hefty grocery bills. The most blatant example of this insensitivity is the imposition of a new grocery bag tax.

Several cities and counties across the state have passed or are considering plastic bag bans in order to placate the demands of the environmental elites. As part of the bans, local municipalities also impose a 5 or 10-cent tax per bag if customers fail to bring their own grocery bags to the store. This tax increase was never brought before voters and as such is a violation of last year’s Proposition 26, which specifically precludes a new tax—or euphemistically referred to as a “fee” to skirt tax laws—without a two-thirds vote. Los Angeles County passed such an ordinance in its unincorporated areas and it went into effect July 1.

California

Taxes

California Politicians may get good fundraising news

1 save http://www.dailynews.com/politics/ci_19279241?source=rss

The state Fair Political Practices Commission might have an early Christmas gift for some of the state's politicians who lost money in accounts handled by campaign treasurer Kinde Durkee of Burbank.

Durkee is accused of misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars, or possibly millions, from the more than 400 accounts that she controlled for some of the state's top politicians.

Among those affected are Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is believed to have lost $5 million in campaign funds.

Others, like City Controller Wendy Greuel, who had more than $500,000 with Durkee in her run for mayor for 2013, was among the lucky officials who did not lose any money, campaign aides say.

California

Durkee

Dan Walters: Profligacy persists in California

1 save http://www.sacbee.com/2011/11/05/4033368/profligacy-persists-in-california....

As recession lingers, the bipartisan history of expedient, irresponsible fiscal decisions continues to haunt the state.

Gov. Jerry Brown, elected on a promise to avoid budget gimmicks, nevertheless resorted to a fanciful projection of $4 billion in extra revenue to balance the 2001-12 budget on paper – money that so far isn't showing up and probably won't.

And he signed a bill that delays action on a union-opposed ballot measure that would compel the state to shift future windfalls into emergency reserves.

Meanwhile, bean counters are projecting another multibillion-dollar deficit for the 2012-13 budget.

The beat goes on.

Walters

An accidental social media phenomenon emerges from the Occupy Oakland general st...

2 saves http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19278377?source=rss

Few people would know the name Spencer Mills or be able to identify his face.
But tens of thousands of online viewers around the world would recognize his online alias, OakFoSho. Nearly 60,000 have tuned into his video stream of the violence that erupted after Wednesday's Occupy Oakland general strike. Many heard Mills narrating in the early hours of Thursday while tear gas filled the middle of the city's downtown district.
That the images appeared jerky and blurry dissuaded no one. They could see the flames, the police, the protesters and the boom of the tear gas canisters exploding, all live. The experience provided a new twist to the old Gil Scott-Heron political song "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
Mills live-streamed with nothing more than a Motorola Droid X smartphone equipped with an 8-megapixel camera and Web access.

Occupy

Fullerton officer charged in beating death gets big L.A. pension

1 save http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-fullerton-20111106%2C0%2C2862686.story

Los Angeles officials are calling for a review of the pension given to one of the two Fullerton police officers charged in the beating death of a homeless man.

Jay Cicinelli, a former Los Angeles Police Department officer who lost an eye when he was shot on the job in 1996 during a routine traffic stop, receives 70% of his salary as a disability pension. City officials approved the large sum because it was unclear at the time whether he could again work in law enforcement.

But Cicinelli soon got a job with the Fullerton Police Department, where he eventually earned $88,544 a year on top of his $39,625 in pension benefits from L.A.

The issue came to the attention of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions Department after Cicinelli's name surfaced as one of the six officers involved in the incident that led to the death of Kelly Thomas.

Pension

Presidents are bowing out at some Cal State schools

3 saves http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-calstate-presidents-20111107%2C0%2C...

San Francisco State President Robert Corrigan decided this summer that at 76, he could not outlast a battered state economy that has forced deep cuts in programs and faculty at his and other Cal State campuses.

In August, he announced that he would step down at the end of the academic year to return to research and writing, leaving worries about the budget to his successor.

Corrigan is not alone.

Long-serving presidents of four other Cal State campuses — Northridge, Fullerton, San Bernardino and the California Maritime Academy — also are retiring this year or next. The university's leaders face the challenge of finding replacements during the state's fiscal crisis and at a time when Cal State is also under scrutiny for recent hiring and compensation decisions.

Searches are underway to find candidates for Northridge and Fullerton, with the Board of Trustees due to fill those positions by January.

Tony Strickland's party favors

1 save http://blogs.venturacountystar.com/therdt/archives/2011/10/tony-strickland-...

There is no California politician more adept than Sen. Tony Strickland of Moorparkl at tapping into obscure county party committees as a fund-raising vehicle. His latest coup, reported on Monday, was a $50,000 contribution from the Stanislaus County Republican Central Committee.

The website ElectionTrack.com reports that the contribution followed donations of a nearly identical amount to the Stanislaus County committee from entities associated with Farmers Insurance. Coincidentally, those contributions were made not long after Strickland had been credited with playing a key role in negotiating an end-of-session bill designed to smooth the way for construction of Farmers' Field, the proposed downtown Los Angeles football stadium to which Farmers Insurance Group has purchased the naming rights

tony_strickland

Dan Walters: With its high unemployment, California can't afford to be choosy

1 save http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/23/3999692/dan-walters-with-its-high-unemploy...

Remember the old adage that beggars cannot be choosers?

It's worth recalling because of recent statements from Gov. Jerry Brown and other politicians, and the policies they are enacting that affect California's recession-wracked economy.

This has been the worst recession since the Great Depression, thanks largely to our central role in the unsustainable housing bubble, and it has erased well over a million jobs.

Although there are hints of an anemic recovery, our unemployment rate continues to hover around 12 percent, the second highest in the nation. We've borrowed nearly $10 billion from the federal government to keep unemployment insurance checks flowing, and state and local governments face yawning budget deficits.

California_Unemployment

2012 Proposition voting will require a college degree; long ballot good for Repu...

1 save http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2011/10/23/2012-proposition-voting-will-req...

It will take a college degree to understand the Secretary of State’s voter information pamphlet for the November, 2012 election, given the partisan, pro-union move by the Legislature and the Governor to force measures off the ballot next June, and lump them all together in November. But history demonstrates the crowded ballot really helps Republicans, whom demographics demonstrate are better educated and more prepared to comprehend the information and actually vote than voters registered in other parties in California.

The Democrats changed the balloting on propositions because they were afraid an “anti-union” proposed proposition had a less likely chance of passing in November rather than June.

But average citizens in California will be overwhelmed with a likely 200 or more page guide to ballot propositions that will create so much eye strain that it will be more useless to them than a telephone book. Like the ubiquitous yellow page directories dropped off and quickly discarded at people’s homes and offices, the Secretary of State’s pamphlet will largely be sent right to the trash bin in most voting households.

California_Election_2012

Two efforts launched to repeal Calif. DREAM Act - Total Buzz : The Orange County...

1 save http://totalbuzz.ocregister.com/2011/10/20/two-efforts-launched-to-repeal-c...

Two proposed ballot measures seeking to block the California DREAM Act, which would provide financial aid to qualifying illegal immigrants, took steps forward this week.
A petition for a proposed referendum by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, was cleared for circulation Thursday by Attorney General Kamala Harris. Read the referendum and read the approved title and summary.
Another proposed measure would not only block the state DREAM Act but would require fingerprinting for Medi-Cal pregnancy services, with fingerprint reports relayed to the federal Department of Homeland Security. The proposed measure was submitted Monday to Harris for approval so that signatures can be gathered. It is proposed by former state GOP chairman Tirso Del Junco, San Diego Republican Ted Hilton and Concord Republican Bill Siler.

Dream_Act

eBay leery of 'Amazon tax'

1 save http://www.sacbee.com/2011/06/23/3720948/ebay-leery-of-amazon-tax.html

California lawmakers thought they were targeting Amazon.com, the out-of-state giant, when they voted last week to force Internet retailers to collect sales tax.
It turns out eBay Inc., California's own golden child of e-commerce, isn't so thrilled about it, either.

The San Jose online auction company says the legislation would hurt its business model, which relies on thousands of entrepreneurs who sell goods on its site.

The intent may have been to go after Amazon, but "we're literally caught in the crossfire," said David London, senior director for state government relations at eBay.

And they say it was written in a way to prevent any harm to eBay.

========

Yeah right.....this tax is a lose- lose for California

Amazon_Tax

Amazon Tax: Tax inequity

1 save http://www.pe.com/localnews/opinion/editorials/stories/PE_OpEd_Opinion_D_op...

California's attempt to corral more revenue from Internet sales would address a real inequity, but the effort could just as easily harm as help the state. A disjointed, state-by-state approach to collecting online sales taxes will not work. Congress needs to provide a comprehensive national solution instead.

The budget plan the Legislature passed last week included a bill designed to boost sales tax collection by Internet retailers. The bill, ABx1 28, would generate an estimated $200 million a year for the state's deficit-ridden general fund. And the legislation would ease the competitive advantage distant online sellers have over in-state retailers. While Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the main budget bill last week, the online sales tax legislation remains alive.

=======

Read it all

Amazon_Tax

IN-Sen: Questions Raised About Sen Richard Lugar's Residency

1 save http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2011/02/18/questions-raised-about-l...

Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar has been preparing for an intra-party challenge since he was first elected, but recently, questions have popped up about his residency and commitment to Indiana.

Asked if Lugar lived in a hotel when he returned to Indiana, Lugar chief of staff Mark Helmke said, "That's correct."

Lugar owns a farm in the Hoosier State that he's been tending for decades. His siblings own parts of the farm, but he still works on it once a month with his son, even though he doesn't live there.

As for the living conditions on the farm, Helmke joked, "The place is pretty rustic."

Asked how Lugar's team would respond if challenged about his residency, Helmke shot back, "We'll be happy to talk about the farm."

"It's not an issue. They can try to make it an issue. We'll be happy to talk about the farm and what it means to him," Helmke said.

+++++++

Not like Rham Emanuel and Chicago but Lugar really should have a residence in the state he represents.

richard_lugar

Dem Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz suggests 'ObamaCare' rhetoric should be banned...

1 save http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/145057-tensions-rising-in-house...

House Republicans and Democrats started Friday morning's debate over whether to defund last year's healthcare law, and as part of this debate sparred over whether members should be allowed to call that law "ObamaCare."

After two House Republicans called it "ObamaCare," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) asked the chairman whether these "disparaging" remarks should be allowed on the House floor.

"That is a disparaging reference to the president of the United States; it is meant as a disparaging reference to the president of the United States, and it is clearly in violation of the House rules against that," she said.

Because Wasserman Schultz only asked if it would be appropriate to curb the use of the term "ObamaCare," the chairman said he would not rule on a hypothetical. But he did urge members to "refrain from engaging in personalities or descriptions about personalities in general."

++++

Well, what should be call it?

Obama's attempt to ruin American medicine?

How's that?

Obamacare

debbie_wasserman-schultz

1 2 3 4 →

fullosseousflap

Joined some time ago
http://flapsblog.com
RSS: Public
Following: 1 Users

8334 Links