Union Thugs vs. Idiot Administrators

Thinking is not allowed in the People's Republic.
The police Labor Union thugs in Stockton put up billboards to frighten the public.  The union also bought a home next to the city manager to intimidate him. 

Both police unions and administrators think only in terms of government workers to solve any problem


By Gary;

Stockton, California has a 20% unemployment rate, has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country.

As cash-strapped cities up and down the state demand concessions from employees, the police union in nearly bankrupt Stockton is fighting hard to keep the fiscal crisis from breaking its contract.  The police union also bought the house next to City Manager Bob Deis in an attempt to intimidate him.

The 315-member police force is down more than 25% from its highest staffing levels in 2008; and the city forced wage and benefit reductions on officers while trying to close a deficit of more than $20 million.

The union is suing the city, challenging its declaration of a fiscal emergency that allows it to break employees' contracts. If the union wins, the city — which is already flirting with bankruptcy — could owe up to $10 million in back wages. City leaders declined to comment on pending litigation reports the Los Angeles Times.

"Everybody knows that revenues in cities are down because of the recession. But in Stockton, it is more than that," said Officer Steve Leonesio, the union president. "The city spent money they didn't have on a sports arena and downtown structures and then when it all hit rock bottom they went after public safety. We're sticking up for what is right."

REAL CHANGE  -  Everyone from city administrators to government workers refuse to think outside the box.  Both sides only think in terms of unionized government workers as the be all and end all of policy.

But where is it written that only unionized police can maintain law and order?

Every large community has thousands of residents with experience as former or retired law enforcement officers or ex-military.  If the city budget will not allow the hiring of police then why not flood the streets with a part-time volunteer police force?

There is no logical reason on earth why an retired ex-Marine with 20 years of service could not volunteer 10 to 20 hours a week to help police the city he lives in.  Many in the community would love the opportunity to help. 

Naturally logic has nothing to do with modern 21st century government.  In the minds of administrators only government workers can do anything . . . and the unions would oppose it because they would net get any dues money.

So goes down the drain the People's Republic of California.

For more on this story


A part-time volunteer police.
A 1922 volunteer posse in Arizona was used to hunt down criminals.  Except for labor unions, there is
no reason on earth why many cities could not make massive use of volunteer police.

Indian casino tribes give $275,000 to increase taxes

The Indian Casinos have their lips firmly planted in Jerry Brown's ass.

I say fuck the Indians.  If the Indian Casinos want to screw me over and raise my taxes then I will take my gambling dollars to Nevada.

California gambling tribes have given $275,000 toward Gov. Jerry Brown's new 2012 ballot initiative to raise taxes on sales and the wealthy, the first known major contribution to his effort reports the Sacramento Bee.

The California Tribal Business Alliance and two of its member tribes have written checks to help Brown's cause, said the group's political director, David Quintana.

The Alliance gave $75,000, while the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians and Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians each gave $100,000.

Brown's initiative would raise the sales tax by a half-cent and increase income taxes starting at $250,000 for individuals to raise an estimated $7 billion in the first fiscal year. Both would expire at the end of 2016.

For more on this story

An increase in high paid government workers

Everyone from illegal aliens to government workers to corporations have their
snouts deep in the trough of taxpayer money.

A World Gone Mad
A 9% increase in government workers earning more than $100,000.


The insane government spending goes on and on.

The 3,800 employees who earned at least $100,000 annually last year made up 10 percent of the Sacramento region's city and county workers, but ate 25 percent of payroll.

Their ranks increased by about 80, while the number of city and county workers earning less than $100,000 fell by almost 3,000, according to a Sacramento Bee review of new data from the state controller's office.

The city and county of Sacramento collectively increased the total amount paid to six-figure employees by $23 million, or 9 percent, while cutting 1,800 workers from their payrolls.

The number of county of Sacramento employees under 30 – most of them low earners – fell by 50 percent, to 900, from 2007 to 2010, according to actuarial documents from the county retirement system. During the same period, the number of workers over 30 declined by just 4 percent.

"Workers that were able to stay had higher seniority and are at the higher wage scale," said Chris Andis, a spokeswoman for the county of Sacramento.

At the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, workers did get raises, partly to offset a deal that increased workers' contributions to their pensions, sheriff's spokesman Jason Ramos said.

The number of six-figure earners in the Sheriff's Department grew by 25 percent from 2009 to 2010, even though the department employed 400 fewer workers.  The Sacramento Police Department, 173 employees earned six-figures in 2010, up by 15 from the year earlier.

(Sacramento Bee)

A part-time legislature for California?

Bakersfield Assemblywoman Shannon Grove filed a constitutional amendment to return
the legislature to a part-time status.

A part-time legislature would slash lawmaker's pay down to $1,500 a month

California's Legislature would become part-time under a constitutional amendment proposed Friday by a Republican lawmaker and the head of a political watchdog group.

The measure calls for the nation's most populous state to meet three months per year – and for lawmakers' pay to be cut from $7,940 per month to $1,500 per month – or $18,000 annually reports the Sacramento Bee.

Republican Assemblywoman Shannon Grove of Bakersfield is teaming with Ted Costa of People's Advocate in hopes of gathering 807,615 voter signatures to qualify the measure for the November ballot.

The proposal was filed Friday with the state attorney general's office, a first step toward launching a campaign.

BRAVO to Grove for proposing real reform.

The State Legislature was a part-time body until 1966.  Going back to that system is a major reform of a totally corrupt system.

Today the legislature is filled with full time political hacks who mostly have near zero job skills out in the real world where normal people live.

These hacks float from one full time office to another to earn a living.  To keep sucking on the public tit they will sell their souls to the Devil for the campaign money needed to hold office.

What the people back home want has little meaning in their lives.  Hacks are devoted to keeping the special interests happy.

A part-time legislator would go to Sacramento for a few weeks to make laws and pass a budget.  With their job over they would return to their districts and work for a living like everyone else.

This is a reform that is long overdue.

How it would work

- - - Have lawmakers meet for 30 days in January each year, recess, then reconvene in May for 60 days.

- - - Allow the governor to call special sessions to address extraordinary issues, but limit them to 15 days.

- - - Not allow legislators to accept state employment or appointment to a state post while serving in the Capitol or for five years afterward.

- - - Require the Legislature to adopt a balanced, two-year budget by June 15 of each odd-numbered year – and to forfeit salary and per diem for each day it is late.

Now comes the hard part.  Will Republicans back reform or will they leave Grove to twist slowly in the wind. 

I suspect the GOP will totally ignore Grove.  The past record of the liberal leaning GOP shows no real interest in reform.  Any reform will come from the bottom up.  The Republican Party, except for Grove, is nearly worthless.

(Sacramento Bee)


A part-time legislature will pass when pigs fly.  Every corrupt business and union will do everything
in their power to prevent them losing control of their pet legislators.

Democrat in foreclosure on $1.15 million home



Sacramento area Democratic Assemblywoman Alyson Huber is in default on her home which is just the position she has put the state of California in.


Foreclosure
Doing to California what she has done to herself

Democratic Assemblywoman Alyson Huber is in default on a million-dollar mortgage in El Dorado Hills as she copes with a contentious divorce, political redistricting and a rocky real estate market.

The tangled fiscal chain of events could complicate her efforts to seek re-election in a neighboring Assembly district, where she will run because a state commission redrew her current district to tilt strongly Republican.

Huber, 39, has announced that she is moving to Rancho Cordova to seek a final two-year term from a newly drawn district, stretching from Citrus Heights to south of Wilton, that she thinks she can win.

Huber is leaving behind two El Dorado Hills homes: a five-bedroom, 4,900-square-foot residence on Terracina Drive that she plans to rent out, and a four-bedroom, 4,000-square foot home on Breese Circle with pool, spa and golf course view that was $21,100 in arrears when a default notice was filed Oct. 12.

A timeline of Huber's troubles encompasses much of 2011, from January, when she left her husband, to the mortgage default in October.

"I pay all my bills," Alyson Huber said. "I believe in honoring my commitments. But I've been put in an impossible situation. I cannot, as a single mom with two children, pay my mortgage and pay my ex-husband's mortgage."

The Breese Circle home initially was listed at $1.15 million, but the asking price has fallen gradually to $725,000, records show. Alyson Huber said a short-sale offer on the house was made about a month ago. Lenders are weighing whether to accept it, she said.

(Sacramento Bee)

Democrats crack down on Medical Marijuana

Democrat officials are using $1,000 a day fines to close down medical marijuana stores.

In the almost totally Democratic city of Sacramento Democrat officials are working overtime to close down every possible medical marijuana store.  It would appear that personal freedom and property rights have no meaning to the Democratic Party.

Eight marijuana stores – from as many as 99 dispensaries that opened – are left. Dozens have closed in recent weeks amid fears of federal prosecution and aggressive actions by the county that include litigation and fines for building code violations.

The city of Sacramento has frozen permit applications for existing dispensaries, but has allowed most to stay. Sacramento County's crackdown in the unincorporated areas, by contrast, is having a dramatic effect on California's quickly shrinking medical marijuana industry, reports the Sacramento Bee.

"There is a high rate of people closing voluntarily," Rush said. "They didn't want to cause trouble for their landlords or they're closing to get a chance to figure out how to come back in compliance."


The Green Temple Cannabis Collective in south Sacramento is among stores selling medical marijuana that are closing. The United Food and Commercial Workers union, which sought to organize medical pot employees, estimates that California has lost up to 5,000 jobs as dispensaries have closed.


In San Diego, nearly two-thirds of some 220 dispensaries have shut down amid threatened federal property seizures and city lawsuits.

Three well-known San Francisco dispensaries closed after receiving warning letters from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag. California's oldest dispensary, the Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana, is fighting to stay in business and preparing to pull its cannabis products after a federal suit to seize the property. The dispensary offers other services, including magnetic massage therapy, physician evaluations and counseling.

"We need to move the marijuana very shortly. I don't want to get the landlord in any more trouble," said operator Lynette Shaw.

In Sacramento County, many marijuana stores had stayed open even as the county collected $91,000 in fines against businesses operating in violation of zoning codes. Two months ago, the county began threatening $1,000 daily fines against property owners for building code violations for unpermitted work that converted rental space to dispensaries.

Faced with monthly penalties of $30,000, "the property owners all of a sudden got interested in evicting their tenants," said Steve Pedretti, the county's director of building and code enforcement.

For more on this story

Dianne Feinstein picks up a GOP challenger

With less than a year to go until the November 2012 election, a GOP challenger to Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has emerged reports the Sacramento Bee.

Elizabeth Emken, a longtime advocate for children with autism and 2010 congressional candidate, has decided to run against the incumbent Democrat next year, announcing her candidacy on her campaign website and the conservative blog Flashreport.org.

"She's definitely in and we're putting together the campaign now," campaign consultant Tim Clark said in an interview.

Emken, 48, most recently served as vice president of governmental relations for Autism Speaks, a national nonprofit organization that bills itself as the cause's largest U.S. advocacy group. The Danville Republican, whose 19-year-old son is autistic, previously worked as a legislative consultant and board member for Cure Autism Now, another nonprofit advocacy group that merged with Autism Speaks in 2007. Clark said she also worked in what he called an "efficiency manager" role for IBM Corporation.

"I'm running for U.S. Senate because my children need me to," Emken, who Clark declined to make available for an interview, wrote in a guest post on FlashReport, which first reported the news of her bid. "The massive government debt, the lack of resolve to control spending, and excessive government regulation threaten to fundamentally change the American way of life. I'm not going to let that happen, at least not without a fight."

Emken loaned her 2010 campaign for the 11th Congressional District $300,000, according to federal campaign records, but placed last in the four-way GOP primary with 16.7 percent of the votes cast Clark said he expects Emken, who has launched a campaign website and opened a federal committee to raise money for her new bid, to focus on cultivating a "broad based group of donors" instead of tapping into personal funds to fuel her bid.

For more on this story

Gay Softball lawsuit settled

The stupidity of San Francisco is a gift that just keeps giving.

Three members of an amateur San Francisco team who said they were branded "not gay enough" and stripped of their second-place finish at the Gay Softball World Series have settled their lawsuit against a national gay sports organization.

Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ, who were members of D2, a team that was part of the San Francisco Gay Softball League, will receive an undisclosed sum from the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance and will get their second-place 2008 championship trophy back, said their attorney, Suzanne Thomas reports the San Francisco Chronicle.


Three members of an amateur San Francisco team who said they were branded "not gay enough" and stripped of their second-place finish at the Gay Softball World Series have settled their lawsuit.


"This is an amazing result," Thomas said Monday. "It's also an opportunity to put a spotlight on significant discrimination in sports against the LBGT community, and going forward we will look at this as an opportunity to provide additional education about this discrimination."

Roger Leishman, an attorney for the alliance, said the settlement Friday came a week after U.S. District Judge John Coughenour in Seattle ruled that the group had the right under the First Amendment to limit the number of heterosexuals who could play on a team to two.

"It is reasonable that an organization seeking to limit participation to gay athletes would require members to express whether or not they are gay athletes," Coughenour wrote.

For more on this story

California faces a $13 Billion deficit



California is the Greece of the USA.



Failed Socialism in the People's Republic . . .

• State spending is projected to increase by 12 percent.
• A $13 Billion budget deficit.
• 10% unemployment to 2014.

The Legislative Analyst's Office for the People's Republic warns of declining tax revenue and a rocky statewide economic outlook that will lead to budget shortfalls for years to come.

California faces a $3 billion shortfall through the remainder of the fiscal year and is expected to have $10 billion less than the state needs in the fiscal year that will start July 1, resulting in a $13 billion gap over the next 18 months.

The current budget was based on a combination of spending cuts, fee hikes and projections of higher tax revenue in the months ahead. Republican lawmakers, who opposed tax increases, had warned that the revenue projections were overly optimistic, reports the Associated Press.

"The Legislative Analyst's Office report indicates, as predicted, that the budget passed by Democrats with only a majority vote was overly optimistic and based on shaky assumptions," Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, said in a statement.

He also noted that state spending is projected to increase by 12 percent in the fiscal year that will start July 1.

"It indicates that a lot more needs to be done to get California's budget under control, and that does not happen through tax increases," he said.

California State University trustees voted to increase annual undergraduate tuition to 9 percent, $5,472 to $5,970. The system has more than 400,000 students.

The legislative analyst said a double-dip recession was not likely, it did downgrade its forecast for employment growth and housing permits. It projects California's jobless rate will remain above 10 percent through the middle of 2014 and above 8 percent through 2017.


.

For more on this story

Howard Jarvis 2011 Legislative Report Card



The capitol of the People's Republic of California.

  
2011 ratings show that Marxists still rule the People's Republic of California.


The annual ratings from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association are in and the news is not good.

As usual the state legislature of the People's Republic of California is filled to overflowing with wild-eyed Marxists looking to re-distribute the wealth.

California Marxists have not a single original thought in their heads.  Every word that comes out of their mouths demands more spending and more taxes until the entire state is ground into Greek poverty.

The 2011 scores stem from 22 bills. This year the HLTA double-weighted two bills: ABX1 40 and Assembly Constitutional Amendment 6, as they represented a tax increase and a threat to Proposition 13 and the initiative process, respectively.

Also for the first time, the HJTA did not give a score to a legislator. Since March, State Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Ventura) has been serving our country overseas in Afghanistan and was unable to vote on many legislative bills.



.



District	Assembly Member	Party	Grade	%
1	Chesbro	D	F	22.9
2	Nielsen	R	A	91.7
3	Logue	R	A	94.6
4	Gaines	R	A	92
5	Pan	D	F	21.7
6	Huffman	D	F	12.5
7	Allen	D	F	12.5
8	Yamada	D	F	13
9	Dickinson	D	F	12.5
10	Huber	D	D	45.9
11	Bonilla	D	F	14.3
12	Ma	D	F	16
13	Ammiano	D	F	16
14	Skinner	D	F	12.5
15	Buchanan	D	D	26
16	Swanson	D	F	11.5
17	Galgiani	D	D	28
18	Hayashi	D	F	14.6
19	Hill	D	F	17.4
20	Wieckowski	D	F	12
21	Gordon	D	F	17.6
22	Fong	D	F	11.5
23	Campos	D	F	13.3
24	Beall	D	F	12
25	Olsen	R	B	86.9
26	Berryhill, Bill	R	B	89.1
27	Monning	D	F	16
28	Alejo	D	F	12.9
29	Halderman	R	A	100
30	Valadao	R	B	88.4
31	Perea	D	F	20.4
32	Grove	R	A	100
33	Achadjian	R	B	87.5
34	Conway	R	A	100
35	Williams	D	F	16
36	Knight	R	A	95
37	Gorell	R		0
38	Smyth	R	C	79
39	Fuentes	D	F	14.6
40	Blumenfield	D	F	14
41	Brownley	D	F	16.7
42	Feuer	D	F	12.5
43	Gatto	D	F	24
44	Portantino	D	F	15.2
45	Cedillo	D	F	11.5
46	Perez, John	D	F	13
47	Mitchell	D	F	20.8
48	Davis	D	F	15.4
49	Eng	D	F	15.3
50	Lara	D	F	13
51	Bradford	D	F	13.3
52	Hall	D	D	26.8
53	Butler	D	F	16.7
53	Lowenthal	D	F	12
55	Furutani	D	F	14
56	Mendoza	D	F	11.5
57	Hernandez	D	F	14.6
58	Calderon	D	F	11.5
59	Donnelly	R	A	100
60	Hagman	R	A	93.4
61	Torres	D	F	22.9
62	Carter	D	F	16.7
63	Morrell	R	A	100
64	Nestande	R	B	85.2
65	Cook	R	A	93.7
66	Jeffries	R	A	92
67	Silva	R	A	98
68	Mansoor	R	A	96
69	Solorio	D	F	16.7
70	Wagner	R	A	90
71	Miller	R	A	93.7
72	Norby	R	A	93.7
73	Harkey	R	A	96.3
74	Garrick	R	A	90
75	Fletcher	R	C	78.2
76	Atkins	D	F	15.4
77	Jones	R	A	93.8
78	Block	D	F	15.9
79	Hueso	D	F	15
80	Perez, Manuel	D	D	26

District	Senator	Party	Grade	%
1	Gaines	R	A	96.8
2	Evans	D	F	17.3
3	Leno	D	F	17.9
4	LaMalfa	R	A	91.5
5	Wolk	D	F	21.3
6	Steinberg	D	F	14.8
7	DeSaulnier	D	F	14.9
8	Yee	D	F	16
9	Hancock	D	F	17.1
10	Corbett	D	F	17.9
11	Simitian	D	F	20
12	Cannella	R	B	80
13	Alquist	D	F	19.7
14	Berryhill, Tom	R	B	82.7
15	Blakeslee	R	B	85
16	Rubio	D	F	19
17	Runner	R	B	87.5
18	Fuller	R	B	89.3
19	Strickland	R	B	80.3
20	Padilla	D	F	14.3
21	Liu	D	F	17.6
22	De Leon	D	F	18.4
23	Pavley	D	F	16.6
24	Hernandez	D	F	15.1
25	Wright	D	D	28.8
26	Price	D	F	17.9
27	Lowenthal	D	F	20.6
28	Lieu	D	F	16.7
29	Huff	R	A	91.4
30	Calderon, Ron	D	D	28.9
31	Dutton	R	A	90
32	Negrete McLeod	D	D	32.8
33	Walters	R	A	94.2
34	Correa	D	C	64.6
35	Harman	R	B	88
36	Anderson	R	A	96.3
37	Emmerson	R	B	85.9
38	Wyland	R	B	86.6
39	Kehoe	D	F	13.9
40	Vargas	D	F	18.5



.



.

For more on this story