THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA - This site is dedicated to exposing the continuing Marxist Revolution in California and the all around massive stupidity of Socialists, Luddites, Communists, Fellow Travelers and of Liberalism in all of its ugly forms.
"It was a splendid population - for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home - you never find that sort of people among pioneers - you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day - and when she projects a new surprise the grave world smiles as usual and says, "Well, that is California all over."
- - - - Mark Twain (Roughing It)
Showing posts with label Property Rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Property Rights. Show all posts
(KTLA) - California Gov. Gavin Newsom released a sweeping executive order on Thursday that allows the state to commandeer hotels and medical facilities to treat coronavirus patients and permits government officials to hold teleconferences in private without violating open meeting laws.
Newsom issued the order hours after he called for the cancellation of gatherings of 250 or more people through the end of March, marking the first time he has applied so-called social distancing practices to the entire state of California.
“This is where we need to go next, and to make sure we fully implement those procedures and protocols to slow down the spread to get through a peak and to get through the next few months, so we don’t overwhelm our healthcare delivery system,” Newsom told reporters.
But as he used his executive powers to expand the state’s response to the outbreak and made unprecedented requests of its 40 million inhabitants, the first-term governor also faced questions about whether he was going far enough.
(L.A. Times) - John Diepersloot squinted under a bright Central Valley sun, pointing to the damage to his fruit orchard that came with the California bullet train. He lost 70 acres of prime land. Rail contractors left mounds of rubble along his neat rows. Irrigation hoses are askew. A sophisticated canopy system for a kiwi field, supported by massive steel cables, was torn down. But what really irritates Diepersloot is the $250,000 that he paid out of his own pocket for relocating wells, removing trees, building a road and other expenses.
“I am out a quarter-million bucks on infrastructure, and they haven’t paid a dime for a year,” he said. “I don’t have that kind of money.” Up and down the San Joaquin Valley, farmers have similar stories. The state can take land with a so-called order of possession by the Superior Court while it haggles over the price. But farmers often face out-of-pocket costs for lost production, road replacement, repositioning of irrigation systems and other expenses, which the state agrees to pay before the final settlement. Those payments and even some payments for land have stretched out to three years. State officials have offered endless excuses for not paying, the farmers say. Eminent domain,the legal process by which government takes private land,is complicated enough, particularly in California with a maze of agencies involved. But the rail authority’s constantly changing plans, thin state staff and reliance on outside attorneys have made it more difficult, some say. “They are bogged down,” said Mark Wasser, an eminent domain attorney in Sacramento who has represented more than 70 farmers and other businesses losing land to the rail project. “I would draw an analogy to Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.”
The Socialist Democrat super majority is determined to abolish private insurance businesses
(ABC 10) - A California bill to replace health insurance companies with universal government-funded care is advancing to a vote in the full Senate.
But Democrats who back the measure have not identified a way to pay for the estimated $400 billion annual cost.
The single-payer health care bill cleared a hurdle Thursday when it passed the Appropriations Committee in a 5-2 party-line vote.
SB 562 has energized liberals at a time when President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are looking to overhaul former President Barack Obama's health care bill.
Supporters say a single-payer system would redirect insurance company profits and administrative costs to patient care.
Insurance companies and business groups say the bill would upend the health care system and its costs would cripple businesses.
A vote in the state Senate is expected next month.
The Statists who worship an all-powerful Federal Government just cannot stop themselves from trying to control everything you do, eat, drink, smoke or think.
(East Bay Express) - California’s multi-billion medical cannabis industry will remain in the crosshairs of federal prosecutors, despite direction from Congress to cease interfering with state medical pot systems.
In December, the US Congress passed and the president signed a historic amendment that de-funded the Department of Justice’s war on medical pot. Medical marijuana is legal in 23 states, yet the Obama Administration had spent an estimated $300 million enforcing the marijuana provisions of federal Controlled Substances Act.
After three months reviewing the amendment, the DOJ told the Los Angeles Times this week that “it did not believe the amendment applies to cases against individuals or organizations.”
The amendment states no DOJ funds may be used to: "prevent [medical marijuana] States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, pos- session, or cultivation of medical marijuana."
The Justice Department spokesperson said the department won’t arrest state regulators, but will continue to arrest, imprison, and seize the property of citizens and organizations involved in lawful state medical marijuana activity.
But the amendment’s author, Congressmember Dana Rohrabacher, said in February in San Francisco that prosecutors who waste time targeting legitimate dispensaries are breaking the law.
“If any of you is being attacked, that federal prosecutor is breaking the law — that breaks the letter and the spirit of the law that passed the House with great debate,” he said. "Make sure your lawyers know [U.S. prosecutors] are breaking the law by being there. Their paycheck cannot be used to prosecute."
Federal appeals court judges have already begun to question prosecutors on the amendment's applicability to pending cases.
Northern California’s US Attorney Melinda Haag has targeted several of the Bay Area’s most legal, regulated dispensaries for property forfeiture including Harborside Health Center, and Berkeley Patients Group. These cases are mired in appeals motions over the cities of Oakland and Berkeley’s rights to have standing in the cases.
Harborside attorney Henry Wykowski told the Times the amendment is vague and open to interpretation in upcoming court hearings.
The amendment could be read broadly to cover the California cannabis industry, the regulation of which includes some state laws, as well as a California Supreme Court ruling vesting regulatory authority with local jurisdictions.
Many cities have banned cannabis dispensaries, while others tax and regulate collectives operating out of retail storefronts as well as cultivation. The federal government has a history of threatening California city councilmembers, county supervisors, and government staffers with drug trafficking charges if they seek to regulate medical cannabis cultivation or distribution. Federal prosecutors have shut down cultivation regulation programs in Humboldt County and Oakland.
Update 4/3 3:20 p.m.: Congressmember Rohrabacher's office responded to the DOJ's statement via email, calling the DOJ's reading of his law incorrect. Rohrabacher’s Communications Director Ken Grubbs stated: “Rohrabacher believes the DOJ's self-referential interpretation to be emphatically wrong. The legislation's explicit language speaks for itself.” (East Bay Express)
Medical pot is a legal business, but Sacramento Democrats are "cracking down" on people who dare to try and self-medicate and grow their medicine on private property.
Personally gin is my drug of choice. God Bless it. But if someone wants to smoke a joint in the privacy of their home who cares. Send the cops after the gangbangers and crooked politicians, not those who self medicate.
(Reuters News) - Citing marijuana fields springing up next to high schools and in abandoned barns, Democrat run Sacramento County's supervisors are set to declare pot gardens a public nuisance in the latest move by a local government to rein in California's cannabis industry.
U.S. states are increasingly moving to drop curbs on marijuana following landmark voter initiatives in Colorado and Washington state in 2012 that legalized the drug for recreational use.
But in California, where medical marijuana is legal but recreational use is not, state laws are hazy on who is allowed to grow and sell the drug, leading to a chaotic and largely unregulated marketplace of street-corner pot dispensaries, illegal cannabis farms and inappropriate prescribing by unethical doctors.
Cities and counties have struggled to impose order on an piecemeal basis as the state wrestles with developing a regulatory framework for the thriving if messy medical marijuana
industry.
"A huge number of complaints were received last year from residents with regard to outdoor marijuana cultivation," said Sacramento County Supervisor Roberta MacGlashan, who introduced the measure to ban marijuana gardens as a public nuisance. "Many were close to schools, group homes and other sensitive uses."
The fields can also be dangerous, as owners use weapons and dogs to guard their investments. Ten slayings currently under prosecution in the county have been linked to attempted marijuana theft, she said.
On Tuesday, the board unanimously signaled its intent to approve MacGlashan's ordinance, which will be up for a final vote on May 13.
The board postponed a decision on banning indoor cultivation of marijuana to study whether an all-out prohibition would infringe on the rights of medical cannabis patients to grow plants for their own use.
Sacramento County's plan would apply to unincorporated areas outside of the city of Sacramento, many of which have large lots and a semi-rural feel.
Two state bills to regulate the cultivation, selling and prescribing of medical pot are working their way through the legislature, but differences remain on whether health officials or the alcoholic beverage control department should oversee rules on cultivating and distributing the drug.
Follow the Money Trail The giant pharmaceutical industry gives the politicians hundreds of millions in cold, hard campaign cash. In return they are allowed to advertise on TV and "legally" distribute highly addictive drugs through neighborhood pharmacies. . But if you dare to try and grow your own drug on your property and medicate yourself the entire police state machine goosesteps into action.
The High Speed Rail Authority will have access to the property and can start construction even before the state owns it.
"Everybody is scared of the state of California coming to your house and saying we're going to take this, we're going to take your parking lot or your business, and they don't know what to do." - - - Frank Olivera, Bullet train opponent.
A State People's Board gave approval Friday for the California High-Speed Rail Authority to start the process of seizing its first piece of property through eminent domain for a $68 billion bullet train. .
The unelected State Public Works Board voted 3-0 to approve a request from the authority to try to seize a 2.5-acre parcel in Fresno that is needed to build an underground trench for the project. The authority has declared an impasse with the owner of property. .
Fresno County records value the property at $2.4 million. It includes a 20,000-square-foot commercial building that is leased to the state Department of Corrections reports the Monterey Herald.
Rail officials said they have been unable to reach an agreement with owner Frank Solomon Jr. after making an initial offer in May. Details of the offers have not been made public. .Solomon did not appear at the hearing and a phone listing under that name in Fresno could not receive messages. .Don Grebe, director of real property for the rail authority, said the parcel has been pegged as critical to acquire early because of the complicated construction needed to be done there. He said the rail authority is still open to negotiations with the owner.
The action by the board allows the rail authority to file paperwork in court asking a judge to determine the fair market value of the property as well as compensation the owner is entitled to for relocation.
The legal action also could allow the rail authority to access the property and start construction even before the state owns it.
Frank Olivera, co-chairman of the group Citizens for High-Speed Rail Accountability, told the board it would be premature to let the state acquire the property, given recent legal and administrative setbacks for the project.
Last month, a Sacramento County judge invalidated the state's funding plan and said it must have 300 miles of environmental clearances in place to meet the terms of Proposition 1A, the bond measure voters approved to sell nearly $10 billion in bonds for high-speed rail.
"I question the necessity to even take this parcel when the rail authority may not even be able to pay for it," Olivera said.
Grebe said the authority has closed escrow on five of the 380 parcels needed to complete the first nearly 30-mile stretch from Madera to Fresno.
"Overall we have people that have been signing agreements. I think it's been going quite positively, slowly," he said. Still, he estimated that as many as 20 percent of the properties could end up going through the eminent domain process.
Olivera, the rail opponent, said the prospect of eminent domain has cast a pall over many residents and business owners in the train's proposed path.
Everybody is scared of the state of California coming to your house and saying we're going to take this, we're going to take your parking lot or your business, and they don't know what to do," he said.
Grebe said if the project were scrapped at some point and the property was no longer needed, state law gives the original owner the first option to buy it back.
Marxist Obama attacks Berkeley medical marijuana dispensary
Obama and Democrats at the Federal level try to steal the private property of legal businesses in California in the insane "war" on drugs.
BERKELEY -- Comrade Obama's Federal government filed a lawsuit targeting
the city's largest medical marijuana outlet and is aiming to seize the property
from its landlord.
The suit, filed May 2 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, says Nahla
Droubi of Moraga, who is the landlord for Berkeley Patients Group, is breaking
federal drug laws by allowing the sale of marijuana and therefore is subject to
seizure of her property.
The suit comes after Berkeley Patients Group was forced to close its previous
location down the street on San Pablo Avenue last May when the landlord there
received a letter threatening seizure for the same reason. The letter also cited
the fact that it was too close to two nearby schools reports the Contra Costa Times.
It then moved down the street and reopened in December.
Sean Luse, chief operations officer for Berkeley Patients Group, which has
been doing business in the city since 1999, said he was surprised at the suit
because he did everything asked of him when he was forced to leave the last
location.
"We moved our previous location and moved 1,000 feet from any school, so
we're very surprised," Luse said.
The lawsuit against the Berkeley Patients Group landlord, in addition to citing federal drug laws, also mentions the proximity of two preschools in the neighborhood near the new location.
The War on Drugs with John Stossel
Luse said Berkeley Patients Group will join the lawsuit as a defendant and
stay in business as the saga unfolds.
"We look forward to our day in court," he said.
Last August, Droubi said she was not worried about having her property seized
when Berkeley Patients Group announced it would become her new tenant.
"Our property is not close to any school," she said at the time. "The
previous landlord had a very good experience with this group. He said they were
very organized and most important thing is they had no violations and great
security."
Droubi did not respond to calls seeking comment Tuesday afternoon, nor did a
spokesman for the U. S. attorney in San Francisco.
The lawsuit is similar to one filed last year against Harborside Health
Center in Oakland, the nation's largest medical marijuana dispensary. That
lawsuit has not yet been resolved.
Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access which advocates for
medical marijuana with 50,000 members nationwide, said there have been about 20
dispensaries targeted in a similar fashion across California in the last couple
of years, but he did not know how many of the suits have been successful.
He said the U.S. attorney's office has sent hundreds of letters to landlords
threatening forfeiture "and hundreds have shut down as a result."
More recently he said a new round of threatening letters has recently gone to
landlords of dispensaries in San Francisco and San Jose.
"The Obama Administration has so far gotten away with claiming that they are
only targeting those in violation of state law," Hermes said. "Berkeley Patients
Group stands in direct contrast to that contention. It's patently false."
“No power on earth has a right to take our property from us without our
consent.” John Jay Founding Father of the United States
“Among the natural rights of the colonists are these: First a right to life,
secondly to liberty, and thirdly to property; together with the right to defend
them in the best manner they can.” Samuel Adams
Bullet train draws a bull's eye on downtown Bakersfield
The train could run through the 174-bed Bakersfield Homeless Center, Bakersfield High School and dozens of buildings.
The insanity of the People's Republic's Bullet Train goes on and on. Up and down the empty agricultural Central Valley the government hacks have chosen the most densely populated and expensive areas to run the tracks.
California High Speed Rail officials have released a preliminary track alignment through Bakersfield that would steer clear of several notable local sites but would require the bulldozing of others.
The rail authority's alignment alternatives for Bakersfield have raised considerable concern locally. One option would require demolition of a building at Bakersfield High. Churches and businesses would also be negatively impacted by different scenarios, as would city-owned facilities.
In late 2011, the rail authority proposed a new option that staff said would lessen the impact on the city. But that "hybrid" route also caused concern because it would run through the 174-bed Bakersfield Homeless Center on East Truxtun Avenue, as well as new housing proposed at Mill Creek, parking for the downtown convention center and other properties reports the Bakersfield Californian.
A spokeswoman for Mercy Hospital said the preliminary alignment released Tuesday would affect the medical center.
Bakersfield City Manager Alan Tandy and the Kern Council of Governments had argued in favor of delaying a decision on route alternatives through the county. Noting that there is no money to build the project's initial phase all the way south from Merced to Bakersfield anyway, they proposed a tentative alignment following the existing BNSF railroad. That would leave options open but avoid placing a stigma on properties that would be affected by any final alignment.
Wasco city manager Dan Allen noted that the City Council has passed a resolution opposed to the project.
In an empty agricultural Central Valley government hacks run the train through the most expensive and densely populated areas.
SHOCK - Trains Stop! No one appears to notice that trains make stops. The Bullet Train will not be rushing at ultra-speed from Los Angeles to San Francisco. What no one talks about is trains make stops to drop off an pick up passengers and their luggage. . There will be multiple stops for the train such as Burbank, Palmdale, Bakersfield, Fresno and San Jose. Each stop will require 30 to 45 minutes to load and unload everyone involved. A trip with five stops at different stations could add perhaps 3 hours or more to the trip. You might be able to drive there faster in your car.
Owens "Lake" Los Angeles drained the Eastern Sierra Nevada lake dry and created a dust bowl environmental disaster as part the city's endless quest to suck down every drop of water. Now the political hacks are leering at the beautiful Sacramento River Delta.
Northern California House members slam Delta plan
Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/03/northern-california-lawmakers-slam-newest-part-of-delta-plan.html#storylink=cpy
The politicians could build desalinization plants on the ocean and pump that water into the aqueduct system. But there would not be enough graft tax money to steal and stuff into the pockets of businessmen and unions.
Soon after People's Republic of California Governor Jerry Brown unveiled more details of his draft plan to "restore" the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, members of Congress from Northern California reacted no differently than they had earlier this month when the first part of it became public - they threw cold water on it.
The lawmakers called Brown's $23 billion Bay Delta Conservation Plan "flawed," "rushed," "reckless" and "expensive."
They questioned the science behind the proposal, as well as its environmental impact. But the lawmakers' core concern appeared to be that the plan diverts too much water from the Delta through twin 35-mile tunnels to supply Central and Southern California says the Sacramento Bee.
The Bessie Brady steamship on Owens Lake.
In Owens
Valley on the east side of the Sierra Nevada Range, desert steamers once served
the silver mining boom of the 1870’s. This curious maritime history began in
1872 when the first steamboat was christened on the saline waters of Owens Lake.
The pioneer steamer, the Bessie Brady, proudly proclaimed to be "The
Pioneer inland steamer of the Pacific Coast.” Though this was untrue, as
steamers had already been used in Lake Tahoe in 1864, in Meadow Lake in 1866,
and Donner Lake a few years later, the sight of a steamboat in the midst of Death Valley must
have been a strange site. (legendsofamerica.com)
"To solve California's water situation, we must find an approach that doesn't take the problems of one half of the state and lay them at the feet of the other half," said. Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento. .
"This is simply an expensive plumbing system that doesn't add a single drop to the state's water supply," said Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove.
"Moving forward could cause permanent harm to wildlife and devastate farmers, fishers and small business owners who depend on the Delta for their livelihoods," said Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa.
"Continuing with this plan, without getting input from all stakeholders, without considering other alternatives, and without specifying how the project will be paid for is a bad idea," said Rep. Ami Bera, D-Elk Grove.
In contrast, the Southern California Water Committee, which represents businesses, agricultural interests and water districts from roughly Bakersfield south, have praised the plan.
"Businesses, farmers, local elected leaders and public water agencies are all stepping up to support the Bay Delta Conservation Plan," said Charles Wilson, the committee's chairman, earlier this month.
The California Delta One of the most beautiful places on earth
Save the Sacramento Delta Don't let the political hacks destroy it.
California voters, lawmakers have no say in OK of major river diversion plan
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/24/5288162/california-voters-lawmakers-have.html#storylink=cpy
Appointed political hacks will carve up the Delta to pay off Big Money campaign contributors from businesses to unions all looking to suck on the government treasury.
The Bay Delta Conservation Plan proposes to "restore" one of every five acres in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, breaching levees on some of the estuary's 70 islands to create tidal wetlands and marshes.
The Delta belongs to everyone.
Somehow Jerry Brown "restores" the Delta while sending the water south. Yeah I believe that Bullshit if you do.
It also proposes diverting the Sacramento River through two massive tunnels, 35 miles long, using three new intakes near Courtland, each nearly a half-mile square.
The idea is to revive native fish species that are drifting toward extinction and protect a freshwater supply essential to the world's eighth-largest economy.
No one knows for sure if it will work. Or if the estimated $23 billion cost will seem like a fantasy decades from now, when construction is projected to be done.
Despite these high stakes, as the process now stands California voters will have no formal say in approving the plan. Nor will the state Legislature.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/24/5288162/california-voters-lawmakers-have.html#storylink=cpy
The transformation of the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas is slated to be shaped and approved by a handful of appointed government officials.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/03/24/5288162/california-voters-lawmakers-have.html#storylink=cpy
Drain the Delta Dry With one hand the liar political hacks claim they want to "save" the Sacramento Delta. Then with the other hand they plan to send the Delta's water south to use on Southern California front lawns, crops and golf courses.
Corruption in all directions High-Speed Rail is nothing more than a "full employment" act for lawyers looking to drain dry both sides.
By a pure accident of fate, the trial lawyers fully fund the Democrat Party that demands the useless pork barrel rail system that will employ an army of lawyers for years on end.
A perfect circle of corruption.
The property rights of local people are being crushed in order to line the pockets of lawyers up and down the state.
Real estate attorneys are seizing a monumental opportunity as the People's Republic of California lumbers ahead with its high-speed rail plans in the central San Joaquin Valley.
The Fresno Bee reports that with 1,100 or more pieces of property in the path of the proposed route between Merced and Bakersfield, lawyers who specialize in eminent domain cases could see business spike over the coming months as the state's High-Speed Rail Authority starts trying to buy land for rights of way.
A sign posted at a home close to the train's proposed
route near Hanford, in Kings County.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
"I think there's going to be a lot of attorneys who have never handled an eminent domain case who will suddenly be experts," said C. William Brewer, an eminent domain specialist with the Fresno law firm Motschiedler, Michaelides, Wishon, Brewer & Ryan.
Up and down the Valley, the rail authority anticipates spending tens of millions of dollars to buy the land it needs in Merced, Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties. The agency hopes to begin construction next year on a stretch of about 30 miles from northeast of Madera to the south end of Fresno -- the first portion of what is ultimately planned as a 520-mile system linking San Francisco and Los Angeles.
But some vocal property owners, including farmers, are loathe to part with their property and have vowed to force the state to use its power of eminent domain -- a potentially costly and time-consuming ordeal.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
Eminent domain, or condemnation, is a legal process by which a government agency can declare a public need for property and sue to acquire it if the government cannot reach agreement with the landowner. A judge decides whether the agency is entitled to the property; in a second phase, a jury decides the fair market value and other compensation due the owner.
KFI 640 AM John and Ken on California's High Speed Rail
The rail authority last week identified four companies that it plans to hire, at a cost of $34 million, to negotiate the rights-of-way purchases in the Valley: Hamner Jewel Associates of Pismo Beach, Continental Field Services Corp. of Virginia, Universal Field Services of Oklahoma, and Golden State Right of Way Team in Sacramento.
Those four companies will be tasked with not only negotiating with property owners to buy their land, but also to survey, appraise and perform environmental assessments on the properties, handle utility relocation, and provide relocation assistance to businesses and homeowners that will be displaced by the line.
Amtrak Rail Map.
California already has a rail system in place.
But leaving the current system in place means
there is no new tax money to steal.
After the state appraises a parcel, it can make an initial offer to a landowner. The owner has the right to have his own appraisal done at the state's expense.
But if there is a chasm between what the state wants to pay and what the owner believes he or she is due, the state can proceed with a public hearing on what's called a resolution of necessity to seize the land. Negotiations, however, can continue all the way through the process, even into a trial.
"These public agencies typically send out a right-of-way agent, and these guys are pretty savvy," Brewer said. "Their job is to try to talk the property owner into accepting the initial offer and discourage them from talking to an attorney."
Attorneys don't come cheap. Some charge based on their billable hours invested in a case. Some charge a contingency fee based on a percentage of the amount ultimately recovered, while others base their contingency percentage only on what they successfully gain for their client above the government's original offer.
In some instances, if a judge determines that the government's offer was unreasonably low, the court can order the state to pay the property owner's legal fees as part of the award.
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242_p2/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242_p2/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242_p2/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
Read more here: http://www.fresnobee.com/2012/12/25/3113242_p2/valley-land-a-likely-issue-for.html#storylink=cpy
Conservative Republican Kern County voted to fine pot dispensaries and property owners with penalties of $50,000 each plus fines of $1,000 per day.
Republican Kern County marches in lock-step with the Democrats in growing the Police State in a "war" on drugs.
Legal and peaceful trade between free people is made a "crime".
The California Kern County Board of Supervisors came down hard on medical marijuana dispensaries and their landlords in the first set of enforcement actions under Measure G, the restrictive zoning ordinance approved by Kern voters in June.
Supervisors voted unanimously in a majority of the 12 cases before them to hit dispensaries and property owners with penalties of $50,000 each plus fines of $1,000 per day, starting Wednesday, until the establishments close or move to a permitted location.
Rejecting sometimes bitter accusations that Measure G is a de facto ban on otherwise lawful businesses, the board found that the dispensaries constituted public nuisances in violation of new zoning rules that forbid dispensaries from operating within prescribed distances of schools, parks and other establishments reports The Bakersfield Californian.
Pot Wars in California
Not all the businesses ended up with fines. Proceedings against one dispensary and its landlord were dropped entirely without explanation, while another was given until Jan. 1 to come into compliance with the zoning ordinance. Another dispensary, Rosamond's Top Flight Organics, and its landlord escaped without fines after evidence was presented that the business had recently ceased operations.
Some dispensary representatives pleaded with the board not to fine them, saying they could not afford the penalty and that there was nowhere else they could set up their business.
"The individuals have no rights anymore," property owner, Joe Ypez, said.
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