Jerry Brown packs government with labor union hacks

LEGAL BRIBERY:  If you hand a politician an envelope full of cash you go to jail for bribery.  But if the enveloped is marked "campaign contribution" it is legal.

Socialist Gov. Jerry Brown is seeding state government with fellow Democrats, political supporters and appointees linked to powerful labor groups that helped install him in office, an Associated Press review found.

Public employee unions representing nurses, teachers, firefighters and other workers spent millions of dollars in the 2010 campaign to put Brown in charge in California, fearing Republican Meg Whitman would make good on her promise to shrink the state payroll and collar the soaring cost of government pensions.

So far, Brown has placed a string of appointees with ties to those unions in prominent jobs that intersect with labor: The state agency that negotiates worker contracts is now headed by a former champion of the prison guards union, and the chief lawyer for the agency that settles disputes between workers and state managers has ties to the powerful California Nurses Association.

Brown's office says there is no connection between the union support he received in 2010 and his job picks, but it has opened him to criticism that he is stacking the deck in favor of labor interests as the state struggles with an ongoing financial crisis.

"If you look at who funded his gubernatorial campaign, they are getting one hell of a return on their investment. It's paying off in spades through these appointments," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, a low-tax advocacy group that supported Whitman in 2010.

Some accounts nearly 3,000 appointments come with the California governorship that range across state agencies and a web of boards and commissions that have influence in everything from agriculture to energy.

Records show appointees with ties to unions are laced throughout the administration. They include:

• Ronald Yank, a retired labor lawyer and Democratic donor who has represented bargaining units for state prison guards and firefighters, is making $143,000 as director of the Department of Personnel Administration, which negotiates contracts with state employee unions. His appointment also made him a board member at the California Public Employees' Retirement System, which oversees state worker pensions and its $226 billion in assets.

• Howard Schwartz, special legal counsel from 1984 to 1999 for the Service Employees International Union Local 1000, the state's largest public employee union, joined Yank as chief deputy director at the Department of Personnel Administration, where he makes $132,396.

• Marty Morgenstern, whose union ties include consulting for labor organizations and serving as a former area director at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is making $175,000 as head of the Labor and Workforce Development Agency, which oversees an array of labor and business panels. He was director of the state Department of Personnel Administration from 1999 to 2003 in the administration of former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. Pension benefits were sweetened for many state workers during that period.

• A. Eugene Huguenin, staff counsel at the California Teachers Association from 1979 to 2000 and husband of longtime Democratic activist and donor Aleita Huguenin, was appointed to a $128,109 position on the Public Employment Relations Board. The quasi-judicial agency oversees labor laws for tens of thousands of state workers.

• M. Suzanne Murphy, legal counsel for the California Nurses Association from 2006 to 2007, was named general counsel of the Public Employment Relations Board.

Brown's office said in a statement that he makes appointments based on qualification, not campaign donations or party affiliation.

Kelly Green, a regulatory policy specialist at the California Nurses Association since 2009, who was named to a $105,000 deputy director's post at the Department of Health Care Services, and Patricia Ann Rucker, named to the state Board of Education. Rucker worked as a lobbyist for the California Teachers Association and, earlier, was a consultant to the union on instruction and professional development from 1997 to 2008.

Brown rewarded his campaign manager, Steven Glazer, with a nomination to the California State University Board of Trustees, while Richard Maullin, co-chairman for Brown's 1980 presidential campaign and associate campaign manager for his 1974 run for governor, was named to the Independent System Operator Board of Governors.

Banker Mark Ferron, a frequent Democratic donor who, with his wife, gave more than $50,000 to Brown's campaign last year, was named to the California Public Utilities Commission. Duran, Brown's spokesman, said Ferron's donation had no connection to his appointment.

The state is facing a host of issues tied to labor, including examining benefits for disabled workers and meeting the staggering cost of payments to unemployed workers in a state with double-digit unemployment - nearly $23 billion last year, according to state records.

Public employee unions wield broad influence with Democrats who control the Legislature. With Brown's picks, unions will have ties to administration appointees who negotiate labor contracts, as well as legislators who later ratify them.

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Libraries closed in order to fund illegal aliens



The Socialists of California worship before the throne of Labor Unions and illegal aliens.


A crime against Civilization:  "These actions are completely irreversible, and will be deeply regretted by future generations"


In a major victory for Socialists in the People's Republic of California, a key state Senate committee cleared the most significant obstacle to a bill that would give college students who are illegal immigrants access to public aid for the first time.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved the final part of a two-bill package known as the California Dream Act, which would allow students who qualify for reduced in-state tuition to apply for an estimated $40 million in Cal Grants, community college fee waivers, and other public scholarship and grant programs.

So while the Share-the-Wealth Socialists fall all over themselves to fund illegal aliens the libraries of universities are being closed for lack of funds.

Driven by dramatic budget cuts that will shutter four campus libraries, staffers at UC San Diego are removing roughly 150,000 books and journals from their collections by summer’s end – selling volumes to the highest bidder or donating them.

If UCSD students or researchers want to check out the selected writings of Benjamin Rush, they might have to request it through an interlibrary loan and wait for a couple of days until it is delivered from another UC campus or from one of two UC library storage facilities, says California Watch.

The UCSD libraries face at least a $3 million budget cut in the coming academic year – about a 12 percent decrease. That comes on top of previous cuts of $5 million since 2008-09, UCSD libraries spokeswoman Dolores Davies said.

To deal with the cuts, the university has closed its medical center library, the International Relations & Pacific Studies library, and the Center for Library & Instructional Computing Services. The Scripps Institution of Oceanography is slated to be closed next year.

Officials have said the savings will come from eliminating vacant positions and ceasing to operate the buildings. The library closures sparked controversy among faculty and students, but it's less widely known that they have also caused a significant weeding of the university’s collections.

Overall, the university will cull about 4 percent of its 3.5 million volume print collection by the end of summer. The university could get rid of more volumes later this year, depending on officials’ assessment of other collections.

Andrew Hsiu, a UCSD student hired to help pack and move the withdrawn books this summer, said the university has been trying to keep a low profile on the project. He said that when a library facilities employee saw him taking photos of withdrawn books and blacked-out barcodes, the employee ordered Hsiu to delete the photos, telling Hsiu that releasing the images to the public could stir controversy.

"Even though all the students here at UCSD know that certain libraries are closing, the vast majority of them are completely unaware that this entails discarding hundreds of thousands of books," Hsiu said in an e-mail.

Hsiu, a junior majoring in linguistics, said he's concerned about the university's shrinking collections.


A student worker was told to stop taking pictures
of library books being boxed up and sold because his
actions were "disruptive".


"These actions are completely irreversible, and will be deeply regretted by future generations," Hsiu said. "Out-of-print books that used to be at UCSD are going to be gone forever. Future generations of scholars and students need the books right here in San Diego."

Davies said a student employee had been asked to stop taking photos because "his actions were disruptive to the work flow and we do have clear guidelines about filming or photographing in library buildings."

A draft report released in May by a UC library task force said that as a result of UC's obligation to fully fund the retirement system and to absorb a cut of $500 million to $1 billion in state funding, the libraries may see budget cuts as much as $52 million, or 21 percent of their budget base, over the next six years.

The budget cuts will "inevitably have an undesirable effect on library services and support for the University’s academic programs," task force chair and Executive Vice Chancellor Gene Lucas wrote in the May report.

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Seven Assembly Republicans vote for "Green Taxes"

The Bi-Partisan Socialists in California are using Green Taxes to re-distribute the
wealth to their special and approved friends.

Seven "small government" Assembly Republicans sided with Democrats to tax $400 million out of our wallets


Socialist California Gov. Jerry Brown is sponsoring legislation to extend a state program that collects about $400 million a year from utility customers and invests it in renewable energy and efficiency programs.

Bi-Partisan Socialism is all the rage.  Just color the Big Brother program or tax "Green" and many Republicans just drop their pants and vote yes.

The surcharge, added to monthly electric bills since 1997, is set to expire at the end of the year, and the Legislature has only two weeks to reauthorize the levy.

But because the surcharge is a tax, the bill has to be passed by a two-thirds majority of the Legislature. That would require rare bipartisan approval, yet some Republicans have shown support for the idea of more taxes on the public.

A draft of the bill — which the Brown administration calls the Clean Energy, Jobs and Investment Act of 2011 — was presented at a private meeting late last week in the governor's office with utility executives, legislative staffers, environmentalists and power plant developers, The Times has learned.

The bill to reauthorize it has broad support from the renewable-energy industry, environmentalists and labor unions that would benefit from new construction jobs.

It's opposed by antitax groups and some business groups, such as the California Manufacturers & Technology Assn.


Green Marxism  -  The environment is used
as an excuse to re-distribute wealth to
those with "needs".


"In our view, there's plenty of public-sector funding out there to support these energy-efficiency programs," said David Wolfe, legislative director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. "You're gouging ratepayers with very little accountability."

The manufacturers trade group said the plan is unneeded and would lead to higher electric rates. And ratepayers' advocates, who support the aims of bill, fear that the surcharge could be grabbed by future lawmakers to fill budget holes.

In a January report, however, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office questioned the value of the research and the ability to quantify the benefits, saying "it is by no means clear that the investment has resulted in a payoff to the state's electricity ratepayers."

A related measure that would extend the surcharge until 2020 passed the Assembly with 58 votes, including those of seven Republicans who broke ranks and sided with the Democrats.

Wolfe, of the Howard Jarvis group, which advocates lower taxes and government spending, said the organization is determined to get those lawmakers to change their minds.

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Massive public school dropout rate in California



The Socialist Elite takes your hard earned tax money from you and then tells you that you MUST send your children to sub-standard public schools and like it.  Freedom of school choice is an alien thought to the Liberal Statist.


18.2% public school dropout rate for California

"What’s wrong with education cannot be fixed with technology. No amount of technology will make a dent. It’s a political problem. . . . I’m one of those people who believe the best thing we could ever do is go to the full voucher system."   

- - - - Steve Jobs, Co-founder, Apple Computers

_______________________________________________________________________

New student dropout numbers from the Department of Education show a total and massive breakdown of the public school system in the People's Republic of California.

The Government Monopoly school system is seeing student dropouts at an alarming rate.  Add in the dumbing down of the quality of a high school diploma.  Many, many students are simply passed through the schools to keep the system "churning".  

Huge numbers of freshmen at the California State University schools are enrolled in so-called "dumb-bell" classes in order to get them up to grade level.

The failed public schools are graduating generations of functional illiterates.

BI-PARTISAN STUPIDITY:   The People's Republic is ruled by a bi-partisan Socialist Elite.  If a real democracy existed then a true opposition party would fight the status quo.  They would introduce bills to promote School Freedom of Choice or put an initiative on the ballot that might even grow their political party.

But nothing happens.  California is a Socialist one-party dictatorship. 

About a quarter of California counties have high school dropout rates of 20 percent or more.

The new figures released by the California Department of Education last week are based on information collected about individual students from their freshman year in 2006 through graduation in 2010.

Statewide, the study found nearly three out of four students graduated and 18.2 percent dropped out. The remainder of the students are either still in school, earned their GED or are in alternative programs, according to the department's press release.

The counties with a dropout rate of 20 percent or more are split between predominantly white, rural counties and more diverse counties of 100,000 residents or more.

Some of the worst dropout rates were in:

• Inyo County (46.3 percent) 
• Nevada County (46.1 percent)
• Los Angeles County (20.3 percent)
• San Bernardino County (21.2 percent).

Seven counties had a dropout rate of less than 10 percent – San Luis Obispo (9.7 percent), Mariposa (9.4 percent), Sierra (8.9 percent), Placer (8.7 percent), Amador (7.9 percent), Marin (7.3 percent) and Calaveras (6.5 percent).

The study also found "that there is still a significant gap that persists between Hispanic and African American students and their peers," with 67.7 percent of Hispanic students making it to graduation and 59 percent of African Americans earning a high school diploma.

Translation . . . .

32.3%    -    dropout rate for Hispanics
41%       -    dropout rate for African Americans

These figures represent the first time dropout rates are derived from following individual students and should more accurately represent the number of students leaving school before graduating.


Sorry little girl.  The politicians are bought and paid for by Public School Teacher Union campaign money.  Your education comes second to feathering the nest of union workers and the private contractors who service the Government School Monopoly.


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Taxes, taxes and more taxes

Don't worry.  It is a "fee" not a tax.

All Liberals understand is taxing the producers and stealing more and more of their money so they can buy votes


This is the way The People's Republic of California works:  the taxpayers pay for the fire departments and then selected taxpayers get taxed again to pay for the fire departments a second time.

It is the same old Bull Shit song and dance of not having enough money. 

There is no money for fighting fires, but somehow there is plenty of money for the Democrats to bend over, drop their pants and sign off on a Prison Guard Union contract.  After all, the prison guards give millions to the political hacks to make sure they get everything they need.

The state fire board approved a maximum $90 annual fee on rural homeowners Monday, well below the $150 charge envisioned by lawmakers in their June budget.

The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection had to act by September under a Democratic budget plan to raise $50 million. But the board's emergency regulation falls well short of that target, especially when higher administrative and inspection costs are considered.

The fee structure is far from final.

Gov. Jerry Brown is working with lawmakers on a new version that allows the state to use some revenue for firefighting. Meanwhile, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has vowed to file suit against whatever plan emerges, saying the proposal is a tax that requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

Board members sought to lay groundwork that would set the fee in motion, as required by Assembly Bill X1 29. Democrat Socialist Chairman Stan L. Dixon acknowledged that the regulation was a first draft and expected the board would "get an earful" from the public after approving the fee Monday.

An estimated 850,000 rural residents who live in a "state responsibility area" would have to pay the fee. The board plan calls for a maximum of $90 in annual costs for those who live in areas designated as "extreme" fire zones, while those elsewhere would pay $70.

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Jerry Brown believes in 19th Century technology

Luddite Socialist Governor Jerry Brown believes in ancient 19th Century technology for
transportation like covered wagons and choo-choo trains.

Earth to Brown . . . . ever hear of the Wright Brothers?  Modern people use airplanes not trains

Governor Jerry Brown, the Socialist leader of the People's Republic of California, said that the state should press forward with its troubled high-speed rail project, despite growing criticism about the project's management and cost.

Brown is the usual Luddite Democratic fool.  Airplanes transport people rapidly all over the world.  Train travel is as dead as the post office and the Pony Express.

While the nation is in a "period of massive retrenchment," Brown told the Fresno Bee's editorial board, "I would like to be part of the group that gets America to think big again."

The Democratic governor had said little publicly about the project since it came under fire this year in Sacramento, with cost estimates rising and lawmakers questioning its oversight. The project, to connect San Francisco and Los Angeles, was once expected to cost about $43 billion, a figure the California High-Speed Rail Authority is expected to update this fall.

Brown said his administration is "working directly with the authority to get their act together," adding, "I'm doing the best I can to keep this train running."

He lamented Republican opposition that defeated his plan to extend higher taxes on vehicles, income and sales, and he again suggested a ballot measure to increase taxes next year.



Earth to Moonbeam Brown.  Modern technology allows travelers to walk into a tube with wings,
sit in a chair and in only a few minutes magically arrive at cities all over the People's Republic.

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More jobs leave California

B-2 stealth bomber flies over the 2005 Rose Parade in Pasadena.  The military giant has
30,000 workers spread around the region.


California exports jobs and imports poverty


Yet another industry is leaving the People's Republic of California  -  the aerospace industry and thousands of good paying jobs leave with it.

Northrop Grumman Corp., the last big-name aerospace company headquartered in Southern California, is headed out of town this week.  The nation's second-largest military contractor, founded in 1939 by visionary aircraft designer Jack Northrop, is officially moving its main office to Falls Church, Va., on Monday.

When California was just a Republic the state actually made things and created good paying jobs.  But today under the Socialist People's Republic jobs are eagerly exported around the world and the poverty of poor immigrants eagerly imported from around the world in the name of "fairness."

It is just a matter of time until the 30,000 Northrop jobs left in California are relocated to business friendly states like Florida, Nevada or Texas.

It is a milestone for the corporation that along the way absorbed big names like TRW Inc., Litton Industries Inc., Westinghouse Electronic Systems and Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Today, the company is an industry giant with about $35 billion in annual sales, building such things as sophisticated satellites, high-flying spy drones and the ghostly B-2 stealth bomber. While 300 members of its corporate staff departs, it still will have about 30,000 jobs in the Southland and remain one of the region's largest private employers.

The company joins an exodus of military companies — including Lockheed Martin Corp., Science Applications International Corp. and Computer Sciences Corp. — that have abandoned the Southland since the mid-1990s in favor of headquarters nestled nearer to decision makers in Washington.

The now closed General Motors plant in Van Nuys.  California used to make things like steel, cars and TV sets and provided thousands of good paying jobs.  But under the People's Republic we export jobs and import poverty.

Having some of the world's largest aerospace companies headquartered in the Southland helped define the region, said Joel Kotkin, a professor of urban development at Chapman University in Orange.

"It used to be that if someone thought of aerospace, they'd think of Southern California," he said. "Those companies aren't here anymore. The city let them go."

When a company is based in a region it financially helps local universities and charities, as well as attracts ambitious professionals and adds to the region, Kotkin said. He points to the Walt Disney Concert Hall and J. Paul Getty Museum as examples of those benefits.

"Southern California used to be a place of great animal instincts when it came to business," he said. "We no longer have that drive."

 

Northrop Aircraft Co. founder Jack Northrop, right, and pilot Edward Bellande in 1929 with the original "flying wing," a design that evolved into the B-2 stealth bomber decades later.

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The Democratic answer to everything is more taxes

Sign posted in the office of Los Angeles Mayor Villaraigosa.  He has never
created a job, made a payroll or even worked for a living.  He has spent his
entire life as a "community organizer" and public employee.

11.8% unemployment in California  -  the "solution" for Democrats is to raise taxes


IDIOT ALERT   -   California has massive unemployment and many businesses leaving the state.  But all Marxist Democrats can think to do is increase taxes and expand regulation by Big Brother Government.  Perhaps they are having a contest to see how many employers they can drive out of the state in a one year period.

The simple fact of Business 101 is by encouraging the creation of more businesses you get more taxpayers and more tax income to spend.  But career hack politicians don't take business classes in college or even bother to open a real business themselves.  Opening a business would require working for a living.

Socialist Democrat Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called Tuesday for changes to Proposition 13, challenging Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) and state lawmakers to remove business property owners from some provisions of the groundbreaking 1978 tax revolt law.

Villaraigosa said the measure, which regulates how much property taxes can rise, has become a "corporate tax giveaway" and had the "unintended effect of favoring commercial property owners at the expense of homeowners," reported the Los Angeles Times.

Villaraigosa  also suggested expanding the sales tax to include services.  Wonderful.  Under the Mayor's moronic Socialist plan the state will charge sales taxes on "services" provided by business.  This should work.  Charge sales taxes on doctor services, accounting services, banking services, escrow services, lawyer services, barber services etc.  The list is endless.


Big Government is an ugly thing.

 Villaraigosa made clear, however, that his ultimate goal was more money for state coffers.

"Gov. Brown, I say we need to have the courage to test the voltage in some of these so-called third-rail issues, beginning with Proposition 13," said the mayor –- a potential successor to Brown — in a speech to the Sacramento Press Club.

California Chamber of Commerce President Allan Zaremberg called it "a speech about raising taxes on business. It's exactly the opposite of what we want to happen to pull California out of a recession."

Villaraigosa is a loser

It is amazing to me why people for to elect a Socialist Elite Ruling Class that does not and has never worked for a living.  The Mayor is a slacker and a loser who has done nothing real with his life.  Created nothing.  He just collects paychecks while witching other people work for a living.

• Villaraigosa attended University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), but he did not graduate by the time that he left in 1975.   
• At UCLA, Villaraigosa was a leader of MEChA.  A Mexican-American left-wing activist group.
• Villaraigosa attended the People's College of Law (PCL), an unaccredited law school that promotes labor union causes in Los Angeles. Villaraigosa's desire to practice law has been prevented due to his repeated inability to pass the Bar Exam, which he has failed four times.
• He became a field representative/organizer with the labor union United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).
• Served as president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Federation of Government Employees.
• Elected to the State Assembly based on an outstanding career as a "community organizer" and labor union stooge.
• Elected Mayor.

Now he is thinking of taking these massive job skills and perhaps run for Governor of the People's Republic.

Those who can do . . . those who can't go into politics.

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300,000 illegal aliens left California, many to Mexico



Though construction generally is the best-paying work for undocumented immigrants, the state's agriculture industry has depended on these workers also. Now, more are heading back to Mexico where opportunities are improving.


Many of 300,000 illegals returned to Mexico where unemployment is lower and the economy better than in California

There are fewer undocumented immigrants in California – and the Sacramento region – because many are now finding the American dream south of the border.

"It's now easier to buy homes on credit, find a job and access higher education in Mexico," Sacramento's Mexican consul general, Carlos González Gutiérrez, said Wednesday. "We have become a middle-class country."

Mexico's unemployment rate is now 4.9 percent, compared with 9.4 percent joblessness in the United States reports the Sacramento Bee.

An estimated 300,000 undocumented immigrants have left California since 2008, though the remaining 2.6 million still make up 7 percent of the population and 9 percent of the labor force, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.

Among metropolitan areas with more than 1 million residents, Sacramento County ranks among the lowest, with an unauthorized population of 4.6 percent of its 1.4 million residents in 2008, according to Laura Hill, a demographer with the PPIC.

The Sacramento region, suffering from 12.3 percent unemployment and the construction bust, may have triggered a large exodus of undocumented immigrants, González Gutiérrez said.

The best-paid jobs for undocumented migrants are in the building industry, "and because of the severe crisis in the construction business here, their first response has been to move into the service industry," González Gutiérrez said. "But that has its limits. Then, they move to other areas in the U.S. to find better jobs – or back to Mexico."

Hill said it's hard to know whether the benefit of having fewer undocumented migrants outweighs the cost to employers and taxpayers.

California may have to provide less free education to the children of undocumented immigrants and less emergency medical care, she said, but it will also get less tax revenue.

In 2008, at least 836,100 undocumented immigrants filed U.S. tax returns in California using individual tax identification numbers known as ITINS, said Hill, who conducted the tax survey.

Based on those tax returns, the study found there were 65,000 undocumented immigrants in Sacramento County that year, far fewer than in many other big counties.

Sacramento's undocumented population ranked 10th in the state that year, behind Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, Santa Clara, San Bernardino, Riverside, Alameda, Contra Costa and Ventura.

There were an estimated 12,000 undocumented immigrants in Yolo County; 9,000 in the Sutter-Yuba area; and 8,000 in Placer County.

Some aren't sticking around for the upcoming tomato harvest, said Sylvina Frausto, secretary of Holy Rosary Church in Woodland. "Some have a small parcel in Mexico. They own their own home there, so instead of renting here they go back to their small business there."

Many raise animals, run grocery stores or sell fruits and goods on street corners.

As its economy rebounds, Mexico "is becoming a better option than it was in the past, but you still have to find a job and reconnect," Barnes said.

"They're going back home because they can't get medical help or government assistance anymore," Frausto said, "And when it's getting so difficult for them to find a job without proper documentation, it's pushing them away."

Mexico's average standard of living – including health, education and per capita income – is now higher than those in Russia, China and India, according to the United Nations.

Mexico's growing middle class "reduces the appetites to come because there are simply many more options" at home, González Gutiérrez said. "Most people who decided to migrate already have a job in Mexico and tend to be the most ambitious and attracted to the income gap between the U.S. and Mexico."

Mexico's economy is growing at 4 percent to 5 percent, benefiting from low inflation, exports and a strong banking system, the consul said.

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The inmates are running the asylum

The inmates are running the asylum that is California.  With massive unemployment
the Elite Political Hack Class is worried about bed sheets.

Unemployment?  The People's Republic only cares about what type of sheets are used on beds.


Business owners and others who have long complained that companies are overburdened by state regulations say a proposal now moving through the Legislature shows that lawmakers have lost all touch with reality: It would require that hotels use fitted sheets.

"We are now going to make it a crime in California not to use a fitted sheet? Really?" State Senator Sam Blakeslee (R-San Luis Obispo) asked during a debate before the Senate passed the measure in June says the Los Angeles Times.

The bill, one of nearly 900 awaiting final action in the Legislature when it returns Monday from a monthlong recess, is intended to address back injuries sustained by hotel housekeepers. But it has revived a long-simmering debate over whether California has become a hyper-regulated "nanny state."

In 2007, the Legislature was subject to national ridicule when it considered a bill to outlaw spanking of young children. Embarrassed lawmakers eventually shelved that proposal, but businesses have decried the Legislature's subsequent ban on trans fats in restaurant cooking, requirement that calorie counts appear on menus, and prohibition on dairies docking cows' tails.

The sheet bill author, State Senator Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles), said scores of housekeepers suffer back injuries each year lifting heavy mattresses to replace flat sheets.

The bill also would require special tools to enable maids to clean bathrooms without having to stoop or get down on their hands and knees.

The dispute is particularly intense this year as California struggles with a tough economy and high unemployment.

"Californians will be outraged when they learn that instead of focusing on the many real problems facing this state, lawmakers want to regulate bed sheets," said Lynn Mohrfeld, head of the California Hotel & Lodging Assn.

The hotel industry says that it would have to spend at least $30 million to replace sheets and buy appropriate laundry equipment, and that De Leon's measure, SB 432, would open the door for more employee lawsuits.

In response, De Leon is planning changes to his bill that would give hotels the option of adopting other methods of protecting housekeepers from back injuries, such as purchasing equipment to reduce strain.

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Slavery is legalized in California



Californians work 230 days out of the year to support the Marxist Big Brother State.


The Road to Serfdom
Slavery is legal in California  -  you are forced to work for the Marxist Big Brother State for 230 days out of 365 each year.

Call yourself a slave or a serf.  There is little difference.

No matter what name you are called by, most of the fruits of your labor are taken away by force to support your Marxist Overlords in Government.  Your position in society is getting worse by the year.  The Overlords are always thinking of new ways to extract money from you and new ways to spend it so they can buy their way to power.

Californians will work until Aug. 18 this year – 230 days – to pay for the spending and regulations of federal, state and local government,  reports the Americans for Tax Reform Foundation, a Washington D.C. advocate for cutting government.

But that’s good news. This “event,” which the group calls Cost of Government Day is nine days sooner for Californians than in 2010 reports the Orange County Register.

The national Cost of Government Day is Aug. 12, two days sooner than in 2010.  The day ranges from July 19 in Mississippi to Sept. 10 in Connecticut.  California ranks 5th along with Minnesota, Washington and Wisconsin.

The foundation defines Cost of Government Day as “the date on which the average American worker has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of the spending and regulatory burden imposed by government at the federal, state and local levels.”

This report is broader than the Tax Freedom Day by the Tax Foundation, which looks only at federal, state and local taxes. This year, Tax Freedom Day was April 12 nationally and April 16 in California.

California’s cost of government dropped this year because of the expiration of the temporary hike in income tax on Jan. 1 and sales tax and vehicle license fees June 30.

Federal spending is the biggest chunk, accounting for 153 days for the average American worker, while  state and local spending and regulations add 71 days.

This year’s earlier Cost of Government Day “is likely temporary,” the report says. “The implementation of the Dodd-Frank financial regulatory overhaul, coupled with …the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, portend far later COGDs in the future.”

But the group sees a possible change as some local and state governments and Congress scrutinize public spending. “The debate over the country’s debt has precipitated remarkable scrutiny of government spending,” the report says.


The Marxist overlords in California are never satisfied with the labor of their Serfs.
Every word out of their mouths is "work harder for the state, we need more money" or
the classic "Think of the children."

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Kern County bans store-front medical marijuana shops

Fear of Freedom is bi-partisan.  Both parties in California oppose legalization.

"Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire."   - - - - Robert A. Heinlein


Another victory for Big Brother and increased crime


Big Brother is bi-partisan.  People live in fear that someone might enjoy their lives without having to bow down and beg permission to do so.

So Democrat and Republican County Supervisors joined ranks to ban legal store-front pot outlets.  The Kern Supervisors voted not only to increase crime but to make currently law abiding citizens criminals.

The crowd in the Kern County Board of Supervisors chambers erupted with shouts of rage laced with profanity Tuesday after supervisors unanimously passed a ban on store-front medical marijuana collectives in unincorporated Kern County.

The vote to create the "emergency" ordinance was unanimous says the Bakersfield Californian.

Pot workers, patients, caregivers and their attorneys vowed to immediately launch a referendum to reverse the decision and sue the county to block the ban from taking effect in 30 days.

But the biggest immediate impact of the supervisors' actions could be to the large number of marijuana grows that instantly became illegal Tuesday when supervisors passed an emergency ordinance that limited the number of plants that could be grown on any parcel of property to 12 or less.

The people in the supervisors' chambers, the decision that angered them most was the ban on store-front collectives or cooperatives and the sale of edible marijuana products.

They had been rallying against the proposed ban in front of Kern County Superior Court since early Tuesday morning and they were fired up when the vote took place at about 6:30 p.m.

Jeff Clark yells "it's against the law" as he storms out of the Kern County Board of Supervisors meeting before the vote on the medical marijuana dispensary issue. He would later say outside the chambers that "he can't tolerate this kangaroo court."

The only option the ordinance leaves patients who rely on marijuana to battle AIDS, cancer and a host of other illnesses is to go to a drug dealer, said attorney Phil Ganong.

"They want us to go to the back alleys so the sheriff can arrest us," he said.

The room erupted into shouting and the small army of Kern County Sheriff's deputies stationed in the chambers cleared the room while Supervisor Mike Maggard called a five-minute recess to restore calm.


Kern County Sheriff deputies line the lobby outside the Board of Supervisors chambers as the overflow crowd filed out after the vote on medical marijuana dispensaries.  It appears the Government Elite are fearful of the peasants revolting.

Kern County, California

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Public employee salaries gone wild

The City of Sacramento is worried that their "leaders" are underpaid.

42 police officers are laid off, but Sacramento gives a $49,000 pay increase to the city manager


The Socialists in the People's Republic bay like a pack of wild dogs for more and more of the money that you work hard to earn.  From each according to their ability, to each according to his needs.

And it appears that the Elite running the government is really in need.

Newly appointed Sacramento City Manager John Shirey will make tens of thousands of dollars more than the previous two full-time managers under a contract expected to be approved by the City Council says the Sacramento Bee.

Shirey, whose first day as the city's top executive is scheduled for Sept. 1, will receive $305,940 in salary, benefits and allowances, city officials said. His base salary of $258,000 is higher than that of any other current city manager in the region and is the highest salary ever granted to a Sacramento city employee.

In a first for a Sacramento city manager, Shirey will be working under a contract. The three-year deal will grant him a six-month severance package should he be fired by the City Council without cause.

In a first for a Sacramento city manager, Shirey will be working under a contract. The three-year deal will grant him a six-month severance package should he be fired by the City Council without cause.

The City Council's offer to Shirey comes just weeks after it filled a $39 million budget deficit by making cutbacks that included laying off 42 police officers.

He is the executive director of the California Redevelopment Association and was the city manager of Cincinnati for eight years.

"It's a fair package for a professional city manager, for the capital of California and the largest city in the region," Councilwoman Sandy Sheedy said. "We need someone who needs no training, who can just come in and start putting the city in the right direction."

Shirey's total annual compensation is roughly $35,000 more than what former interim Sacramento City Manager Gus Vina earned. Vina stepped down in April after serving for 13 months.

It's $49,000 more than what former City Manager Ray Kerridge earned before he resigned last year.

Shirey's compensation package includes a $500 monthly automobile allowance, $1,200 a month in medical benefits and a city contribution of $15,000 a year into a 457(b) retirement plan.

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Legislature exempts itself from laws others must follow

Who stole the People's Money?  - - - 'Twas him.
The names and the faces of corruption change, but not the corruption itself.

The legislature spent $256 million on itself, but we are not allowed to see how one single dime was spent.


Extreme bi-partisan corruption is standard in Sacramento.

Children and gullible adults are told pretend never-neverland bedtime stories about how government works.  Stories about brave politicians and the even braver loyal opposition.  While the fact of the matter is everyone has their snouts sucking furiously deep in the public trough.

There is no "loyal opposition" only fellow political hacks getting what they can for themselves.

Several newspapers, including The Los Angeles Times, have gone to court to challenge the Legislature's refusal to turn over records about how leadership doles out taxpayer resources to the rank and file.

If a real opposition party existed in this People's Republic they would be the ones filing a court challenge and try to build up their political party.  But no.  We live in a one Socialist Party state where both "sides" agree with each other 90% of the time.

The Legislature says those records are privileged reports the L.A. Times.

At the center of the court challenge are legal exemptions lawmakers long ago carved out for themselves so that they would not have to operate with the level of transparency required of almost everyone else in government. The Legislative Open Records Act, government watchdog groups have long complained, effectively shields backroom business from public view.

They see the law's title as a cruel joke.

"It really could be renamed the Public Secrets Act of the California Legislature," said Peter Scheer, executive director of the First Amendment Coalition. "It provides very little access."

The law includes nearly a dozen exemptions and makes each chamber's rules committee the arbiter of legislative records. Officials repeatedly have rejected requests for information that would shed light on the legislative process, including the daily calendars of lawmakers and details about taxpayer-financed trips.

Where a law comes from, and who's involved in influencing it, in what detail is made invisible," said Terry Francke, general counsel for Californians Aware, a group advocating open government.

This month, the Assembly Rules Committee denied multiple requests for the office budgets of all 80 members of the lower house, as well as spending records for legislative committees. Administrators argued that such records were exempt from disclosure under broad provisions that protect "preliminary drafts, notes or legislative memoranda" and "correspondence of and to individual members of the Legislature and their staff."

At issue in the lawsuit filed Friday in Sacramento County Superior Court is whether even the weak legislative open records law permits that level of secrecy.

Jim Ewert, general counsel for the California Newspaper Publishers Assn., called the committee's rejection a "tortured interpretation" of the law. "I fail to see how [the exemptions] apply to some of the most basic types of information that the public should have — and that is financial information about how government works," he said.

Tracking specific office spending in a timely manner is virtually impossible. In the state budget, the Legislature's allocation is a single line-item with no detail: $256 million.

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