Jerry Brown Signs Bills Removing "Alien" From Labor Law

I'm not an "Alien"

I'm a "Foreign National"

(International Business Times)  -  California Gov. Jerry Brown signed several bills Monday changing immigration policy in the state. One of the three bills Brown signed removed the word "alien" from the state's labor code, an attempt to remove what some view as an offensive descriptor for people who aren't fully naturalized citizens.

Aside from the "alien" bill, Brown signed legislation that allows high school students who are legal permanent residents to sign up to work at polling sites to help Spanish speaking voters on election days. Brown also signed a bill that bans the consideration of a child's immigration status during civil liability cases.

"Alien is now commonly considered a derogatory term for a foreign-born person and has very negative connotations,” state Sen. Tony Mendoza, the Democrat who sponsored the bill, told the Los Angeles Times. “The word 'alien,' and any law prescribing an order for the issuance of employment to 'aliens,' has no place in the laws of our state and more importantly, should never be the basis for any employment hiring.”

The bills are the latest in a push for expanded immigration rights in the state. Those efforts have been gaining steam, including a push to bypass federal law and give work permits to undocumented immigrants to work on farms, expand health care coverage for undocumented children in the state and give residency permits to undocumented immigrants in California.

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Supreme Court may have blocked Bullet Train

Environmental Laws May Block Train

• There is too much raw cash out there to truly stop the train. The corrupt special interests will keep trying to get around any barriers.

(Breitbart News)  -  The California Supreme Court threw a giant obstacle on the California bullet train’s track, ruling that the state agencies cannot escape the state’s environmental laws by claiming federal laws supersede them.

The case from which the argument against the California High Speed Rail Authority derives, City of San Diego vs. Board of Trustees of the California State University, revolved around the board wanting to expand the campus of San Diego State University (SDSU) to accommodate more than 10,000 additional students in the next few years. The board argued that CSU “may not lawfully pay to mitigate the off-campus environmental effects of its projects unless the Legislature makes an appropriation for that specific purpose.”

As explained by The National Law Review:

The California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) mandates that, before approving a project, a public agency must first identify the project’s significant adverse environmental impacts, and then mitigate those impacts by adopting feasible, enforceable mitigation measures or selecting feasible alternatives that avoid the impacts. If mitigation is infeasible, the agency may approve the project despite adverse impacts only by finding that unmitigated effects are outweighed by the project’s benefits.

The board attempted to use City of Marina v. Board of Trustees (2009) to buttress its argument, as the court had ruled, “[A] state agency’s power to mitigate its project’s effects through voluntary mitigation payments is ultimately subject to legislative control; if the Legislature does not appropriate the money, the power does not exist.” The board argued that the court’s statement prohibited it from funding off-site mitigation without express appropriation by the Legislature.

But the court called the Marina language overstated, and ruled against CSU, stating, “In mitigating the effects of its projects, a public agency has access to all of its discretionary powers and not just the power to spend appropriations.” The court added:

CEQA does not authorize an agency to proceed with a project that will have significant unmitigated effects on the environment, based simply on a weighing of those effects against the project’s benefits, unless the measures to mitigate those effects are truly infeasible. Such a rule, even were it not wholly inconsistent with the relevant statute would tend to displace the fundamental obligation of ̳[e]ach public agency [to] mitigate or avoid the significant effects on the environment of projects that it carries out or approves whenever it is feasible to do so.

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California Democrats could allow more felons to vote

"I voted, Did you?"

Democrats Pander to Criminals

• To a Democrat if you obey the law you are a fool to be laughed at.
• Democrats drop their pants and bend over for illegal alien law breakers and now for convicted criminals giving them the vote as a "reward" for their conduct.

(Los Angeles Times)  -  California election officials are reversing a policy that prevents 45,000 felons from casting ballots, placing the state in the forefront of a movement to boost voting rights for ex-criminals.

California has until now maintained that state law prohibits felons from voting not only when they are in prison or on parole but also when they are under community supervision.

Democrat Secretary of State Alex Padilla said Tuesday that the state would now back voting rights for felons on community supervision, which is generally overseen by county probation departments.

The shift affects a growing number of felons because under the state’s effort to reduce prison and jail crowding, the vast majority of nonviolent offenders are being released into community supervision programs.

Padilla said the decision was “compelled by conscience.”

Using the "Race Card"

“It is not lost on me that persons of color are disproportionately represented in our correctional institutions and that undeniable disparities exist,” he added.

To ease prison overcrowding, California lawmakers in 2011 passed laws that require lower-level felons to serve their time in jails or under county supervision instead of state lockups and parole. Padilla’s predecessor, Debra Bowen, had instructed county election supervisors to extend the state’s felon voting ban to those offenders. She cited a staff opinion that voting restrictions don’t change just because post-prison release “is labeled something other than ‘parole.’”

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California: A state-run bank for marijuana industry?

Follow The Money

• It is refreshing to see Republicans and Democrats join arm-in-arm to help new businesses in the state . . . in order to collect MORE TAXES naturally.
• I am against a state run bank.  We have lots of private banks, but they are under the Big Brother thumb of the Feds.

(Sacramento Bee)  -  With legalized recreational marijuana possibly on the horizon in California, tax board officials signaled their interest Friday in forming a state-run bank that would allow pot-industry operators to transition from what has traditionally been a cash business.

Access to financial institutions is difficult given the federal prohibition on the drug.

Democrat Fiona Ma, of the state Board of Equalization, said that under the state’s nearly two-decade-old medical marijuana program, growers and dispensary operators typically pay their state taxes in cash, creating concerns about public safety.

With state initiatives to legitimize recreational pot aiming for next year’s ballot, and with federal lawmakers taking up legislative solutions, Ma said the time is right for officials here to begin assessing the details of what a state-run bank might look like.

“We’re a big state, and we have very creative minds,” Ma said at a meeting on the topic she called Friday with fellow board member George Runner. “We lead in many first-in-the-nation initiatives, and I believe we could create some sort of state depository that could handle cash deposits and also be available for the industry to make electronic transfers to make their payments.”

Laws designed to combat drug trafficking and money laundering have long restricted bank access. However, Obama administration officials have begun adjusting certain rules to extend banking services to state-approved marijuana companies.

Last week, the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee passed an amendment allowing banks to serve marijuana sellers in states where the drug is legal. At the same time, the Federal Reserve Board this month denied an application by a Colorado credit union seeking to provide banking for the pot industry.

In California, the lack of access to banking has hampered the state’s ability to collect taxes. A recent study of Ma’s San Francisco-based district that stretches across 23 counties found just 35 percent of the medical marijuana dispensaries paid sales taxes, totaling about $27 million last year.

Board of Equalization Chairman Jerome E. Horton this month said he supports an “Eliot Ness Plan” that enforces collection of taxes on cannabis. A Horton-supported bill by Assemblyman Mike Gipson, D-Carson, would create a state tax amnesty program for pot operators.

Storefront businesses that are paying taxes often carry the money in large sacks to field offices that state officials say are not equipped with money counters or other tools and safety measures associated with banks. Many do not have access to credit and use cash to obtain marijuana, pay employees and make transactions.

Runner said a recent tax delivery to his district office in Sacramento involved about $200,000 in cash.

A conservative Republican and former state senator from the Antelope Valley, Runner said he didn’t envision dedicating so much energy to marijuana. He has traveled to pot-rich Humboldt County to study the issue, and met with officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“If a couple of years ago somebody would have told me we would be coming and spending this much time on cannabis ... I’d say ‘you must be smoking something,’” Runner said. But it’s clear “this is an industry that we’ve got to figure out how to deal with; how to make it legitimate, and try to help them in that process.”

Tax board members have yet to commit a plan to writing but say it would likely take the form of state legislation to be introduced in the next session.    Read More . . . .

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article29685532.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article29685532.html#storylink=cpyRead More . . . . 

Newsom has $5.5 million for 2018 California governor's race

Gavin Who?

(AP) - California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom reports that he has already banked nearly $5.5 million for a possible run for governor that's still more than three years away.

The Democrat and former San Francisco mayor filed campaign finance reports Friday showing he has $2.5 million in an exploratory account set up in February.

That's on top of the nearly $3 million in his re-election account for lieutenant governor.

Among his biggest donors are technology leaders such as Yahoo! Chief Executive Marissa Mayer, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff and Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt. He also received contributions from the California Nurses Association and the Service Employees International Union's health care branch.

Gov. Jerry Brown reported Friday that he has $19.6 million in his re-election account, though he is termed out next year.

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Ghost Towns - Drought Could Wipe Cities Off Map

Berlin, a ghost town in Nevada

New California Ghost Towns

• Yet another week goes by and the legislature refuses to build a string of desalination plants up and down the coast.

TULARE COUNTY (CBS13) — The epicenter of California’s drought crisis is in the Central Valley, where there are growing fears the drought could wipe entire towns off of the map.

Wells are going dry, jobs are harder to come by and families are already moving, either to different states or even Mexico in search of work.

Before visiting Tulare County, a place where wells have gone dry and some people are living in third-world conditions, we went to a place deep in the Mojave Desert that offers a dire warning of what can happen when the water runs out.

Desolate and deserted, Dave Leimbach is one of the few left in Lockhart.

Once home to hundreds, it’s an all but abandoned and forgotten ghost town in the Mojave that barely a half-dozen people call home.

The sun set slowly on the old farming town when the nearby lake dried up.

“I’ve been out here since 1980,” he said. “And they’re all gone. All of them.”

Hundreds of miles away, communities similarly built on farming are struggling as water is scarce. Orchards have been ripped out, and farm jobs are few. Many worry new ghost towns could be on the horizon in Central California.

In these parts, Donna Johnson is affectionately known as the water lady. She’s delivering water to a needy family in East Porterville, a devastated town we’ve visited before. Dozens more wells have run dry since our last trip. Most of the Tulare County community south of Fresno still has no water.

Inside, Juanna Garcia does dishes with bottled water. In the days before help arrived, she didn’t use soap. She gave the leftover dishwater to her kids. Living in poverty with no running water, she may have to leave.

Here we met Alex, a farm worker who drives nearly a day for the closest job to Washington state or even Toronto. Next month he plans to move away.

“No water, no nothing,” he said.

Drinking water and food lines are longer than ever at Iglesia Emmanuel.

“It’s dire, it’s dire here, it’s dire straits,” said Antonio Alvarez.

Fear in the air is as thick as the humidity on a sweltering summer day. The Porterville church hands out fruits and vegetables. Each time, the supplies seem to run out faster.

“We’re seeing a lot of new faces lately in the last few weeks, said Iglesia Emmanuel Church Pastor Roman Hernandez.

Nobody knows the area’s worsening struggles more than he does. He says families are packing up for Oregon, Illinois, and even Georgia to find farm work. One woman talked of going back to Mexico.

“She grew up in Mexico very poor: no running water, no shoes, no electricity, but she told me that she at least had plenty of water,” he said. “I haven’t seen her, so my suspicion is she went back to Mexico altogether.”

Water trucks fill up tanks in East Porterville front yards, but as the drought deepens, there are new reports of neighbors becoming hostile with the water haulers. They don’t want their dwindling well water to be taken elsewhere.

In one case, people reportedly parked their cars, trying to form a barricade to keep the truck from getting to that well. Another time it got so tense, the sheriff’s department was called out.

Raindrops fell on Porterville recently for the first time in months. Children were so excited they swam in the pastor’s church parking lot.

Any glimmer of hope is welcome in towns across Tulare County. Nearly 1,500 wells are tapped out and farms are scaling back.

UC Davis Professor Dan Sumner specializes in agricultural economics.

“It’s just tough, and people are having to leave communities they’ve grown up in,” he said.

He says while there are communities on the edge, the agriculture that supports them is strong enough to survive.

“The farms themselves, they’ve been built to deal with this drought and the next drought unless we do something really crazy,” he said.

But for those who live it every day, that fear is very real if the drought doesn’t end soon.

“They’re just gonna dry up just like the old days when there was a drought, towns would turn into a ghost town,” Alvarez said.

Out in the Mojave Desert, Leimbach saw it with his own eyes.

“No people, no alfalfa, no store; just me and my dad,” he said.

He can’t help but worry for the future of California’s farming heartland.

There is hope of drilling a new well to solve East Porterville’s water problems. Tulare County has a $1.6 million state grant and is asking the federal government for the remaining $400,000 balance to cover the cost of the new well.

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Perth, Australia Desalination Plant
If California needs water then the state should build desalination plants like they do all over the world.  California has the entire Pacific Ocean to draw from.

California will keep Iran sanctions

California United on Iran

(Breitbart News)  -  The States of New York and California have no intention of complying with the Iran deal’s requirement that state and local governments lift their own sanctions against the Iranian regime.

As Breitbart News first reported last week, and the Wall Street Journal confirmed Monday, states have the constitutional authority to retain their existing sanctions against Iran, or even to apply new ones, because President Barack Obama decided to impose the Iran deal as an executive agreement without any federal enabling legislation that would override state laws.

“We will do everything in the world not to support the world’s foremost sponsor of terrorism,” said Democrat Dov Hikind, a New York State Assemblyman, speaking to Breitbart News on Monday.

Hikind said that while he was “cautiously optimistic” that Congress would have the votes to override President Obama’s expected veto and reject the Iran deal, he was also confident that New York would keep tough sanctions in place against Iran. New York, like 29 other states, has passed divestment laws that prevent the state from investing public funds in Iran.

In addition, New York is one of about a dozen states with laws that prevent the state and local governments from entering into contracts with companies that do extensive business in Iran’s energy sector.

The New York Iran Divestment Act of 2012 requires the state to maintain a blacklist of companies that are excluded. Many of the same companies are specifically granted sanctions relief by the Iran deal, which also provides (p. 15) that the U.S. must “take appropriate steps” to reverse “law[s] at the state or local level” that interfere with “sanctions lifting.”

Hikind told Breitbart News that he was confident that the Governor Andrew Cuomo would not yield in the face of pressure from the Obama administration. (The governor’s office did not return a request for comment. A spokesperson from the New York Department of Financial Services told Breitbart News: “We have a general policy of not commenting on ongoing enforcement matters.”) Hikind added that sanctions could be dropped when the Iranian regime had changed significantly, such that it no longer supported terrorism against the U.S. and Israel.

California is also unlikely to drop its sanctions against Iran, according to Republican Assemblyman Joel Anderson of Alpine, who introduced the Public Divest from Iran Act, which was signed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007. The law “requires that two conditions are met before we can resume investment,” Anderson told Breitbart News via e-mail on Monday. “Neither have been met to date.”

Those two conditions, according to the bill’s text, are 1) that “Iran is removed from the United States Department of State’s list of countries that have been determined to repeatedly provide support for acts of international terrorism,” and 2) that “the President of the United States determines and certifies to the appropriate committee of the Congress of the United States that Iran has ceased its efforts to design, develop, manufacture, or acquire a nuclear explosive device or related materials and technology.” Neither of those conditions is likely to be met soon.

State sanctions against Iran were passed over the past several years to complement and expand federal and international sanctions. They enjoyed strong bipartisan support in many cases, building on public opposition to the Iranian regime. The California law, for example, passed the State Assembly and the State Senate unanimously.

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Barely hanging on in California

Hang on, it's a long way down

The once Golden State has become an over 

priced, over populated asphalt jungle.

(Orange County Register Editorial)  -  California remains the Golden State for most of us, a place of opportunity and fantastic weather. But for an increasing number of our residents, it is a place of perpetual economic struggle.

The difficulties are detailed in a new study by United Ways of California, “Struggling to Get By: The Real Cost Measure in California 2015.” The RCM is a new formula that takes into account California’s high cost of living.

It found that 31 percent of Californians were living in poverty in 2012-13. That’s higher than the 23.4 percent poverty rate, the worst in the nation, found in an October 2014 study by the U.S. Census Bureau.

A big cause, obviously, is the high cost of housing. According to a March analysis by the California Legislative Analyst, “Today, an average California home costs $440,000, about two–and-a-half times the average national home price ($180,000).”

Another big factor is the ongoing exodus from the state of decent-paying jobs for workers with few skills, Bill Watkins told us; he’s the executive director of the Center for Economic Research and Forecasting at California Lutheran University. “California used to manufacture Firebirds and Camaros,” he said, until General Motors’ Van Nuys assembly plant closed in 1992. Aerospace also has been hit hard by consolidation and moves to other states.

On the positive side, Tesla opened a plant in Fremont in 2010. But it was not part of a new trend, and the electric car company picked Nevada for its new battery plant.

California’s population continues to grow because of immigration from other countries. But Mr. Watkins also pointed to the net domestic migration of California residents to other states, especially Texas and Arizona.

Unfortunately, ongoing government actions will make poverty even worse. Minimum wage increases statewide and in such cities as Los Angeles and San Francisco will destroy the crucial first jobs for many of the young and low-skilled. Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, continues to drive up manufacturing costs. Possible higher taxes, ironically, to deal with poverty, will kill more jobs.

Things will change only when voters put into office pro-growth politicians.

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How about the quality of life?
People who deliberately want to live like this are mentally ill.

350 sham California commissions suck down tax dollars

"Corruptus in Extremis"

• The Democrat legislature keeps funding sham commissions so their buddies can have cush jobs and expense accounts.

(Aljazeera America)  -  More than 350 commissions, committees, councils and boards call California home, but few citizens and elected officials know exactly what they do.

Take the Senate Advisory Commission on Cost Control, for example. Its goal is to find new ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency in state programs, according to its website. When America Tonight asked legislators if they knew of the commission or what it does, none did.

America Tonight looked into the track record of the group and, beyond a few reports, it was difficult to find out exactly what the commission does, despite hundreds of thousands of dollars in expenses and salaries.

Since 2010, more than $150,000 was spent on travel by the commission, which is composed of 13 appointed unpaid commissioners and one salaried executive director.

One bill racked up more than $2,600 in rental cars, although the identities of the renters and the purpose of the rentals remains unclear. Another invoice showed American Express travel bills for $70,000. Some records were completely blacked out, including the purpose of travel, making it difficult to figure out how money was spent, who spent it and why.

It’s also unclear when the commission meets. Its website has no dates, minutes, agendas or schedule. But a public records request revealed that the commission met once in 2010 and again in 2013. An agenda item on the 2010 meeting was to “make the Legislature aware the commission exists.”

“I think it’s pretty clear you are not doing anything if the Legislature doesn’t know you exist,” said Doug Johnson, an expert on state government and a fellow at the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College. After looking at the expense reports and the commission’s website, he added, “This is way up in the absurdity ranks. It looks like they didn’t do anything. And the title of the commission is classic — the Cost Control Commission. And they are spending money and not saving it.”

“I think it’s pretty clear you are not doing anything if the
Legislature doesn’t know you exist.”
Doug Johnson
Fellow at the Rose Institute Claremont McKenna College

Across the U.S., states have had to do their fair share of belt tightening, and California is no exception. But America Tonight has discovered one area that hasn’t felt much of a squeeze: hundreds of obscure committees, commissions and councils — some claiming to help cut government waste.

But some groups, like the Cost Control Commission, may be doing anything but that.

Melissa Kludjian, the commission’s executive director, was a paid staff member before recently retiring. She defended the commission’s performance to America Tonight, saying the Legislature is to blame for not acting on the commission’s reports. The website shows the commission generated six studies since 2003, mostly done by academic institutions.

“I think it’s a bogus, sham commission, and I’m embarrassed by it,” said Laura Chick, California’s former inspector general of stimulus funds. “There is a state auditor that is looking for cost savings. There is an office of finance looking for cost savings. It’s redundant, and it’s doing nothing.”

The Cost Control commissioners are appointed by the Senate Rules Committee, which is chaired by Senate Pro TemKevin de Leon. When America Tonight asked him at the Capitol what the commission has accomplished, he was unable to answer.

One legislative unit that got de Leon’s attention in December was the Office of Oversight and Outcomes. It was a legislative unit staffed with three former investigative reporters whose mission was to improve transparency and accountability within government. During its five years, the group produced 27 reports on various issues, many of which led to state Senate hearings and prompted reform legislation, according to a report by the group. Despite that record, de Leon eliminated the office late last year, calling it a cost-cutting move.

Seat on some of California’s 350 committees, commissions and councils have long been considered soft landings for termed-out legislators or places to put a friend or allies. Some positions are full time and come with a salary and benefits, but the vast majority are part time or volunteer. 

In 2005, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tried to eliminate 88 commissions and committees but had little success.

“He thought it would be an easy win, and it didn’t turn out that way,” Johnson said. “This was personal. This was ‘The governor tried to fire personal friends of the legislators.’”

When Brown became governor, he consolidated and eliminated several boards and commissions in his 2012–13 budget, but the state still has well over 300 commissions, committees, councils and boards.

While many do good work, Chick is concerned that nobody is seeking accountability from those hundreds of commissions.

“It’s criminally wrong to be wasting public dollars that are so desperately needed in other ways. And it upsets me that other officials are upset and they go, ‘Oh that’s just the way we play the game.’ No! That’s not the game we should play!”

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California GOP worries Donald Trump's trash talk could hurt its image

Trump - "P.T. Barnum of the modern age"

• Trump forcefully brings up vital issues that are ignored by the professional political class.  The problem is when you use insulting language your message is lost.  
• If it was ever serious at all, the Trump campaign was defeated on day one when he insulted the Mexican people.  The latest insult to POWs like John McCain is just proof of a total disregard for the feelings of other people. 

 (Los Angeles Times)  -  As he intended, Donald Trump has hit a nerve.

"We've got 15-16 very serious people running for president — and one clown," fumed Shawn Steel, California's representative to the Republican National Committee, the GOP's organizing body. "Trump is a pig, and he's coming in upsetting every cart he can find, throwing dishes off the table."

"Intolerable and inexcusable," declared the state Assembly Republican leader, Kristin Olsen of Modesto. "Somebody who has never been active in the party and is looking for his 15 minutes of fame."

The derision sounds personal because it is.

For years California Republicans have tried to change their party's image, to invite everyone into the pool — especially Latinos, whose enmity arose after a 1994 GOP effort to block immigrants without proper papers from state services. And now, the architecturally coiffed, anger-venting Trump has cannonballed in, disrupting the presidential race with factually incorrect and caustic criticisms of immigrants from Mexico.

Republican Assemblywoman Ling-Ling Chan
The party is "embracing the changing demography of the state—which is
why the Trump situation is just absolutely irritating," said Ling Ling Chang,
a GOP Assembly member from Diamond Bar who emigrated from Taiwan.
Also see: Asian Americans Give New Face to County GOP

Olsen and Assembly Republicans quickly denounced Trump's remarks. The party's leader in the state Senate, Bob Huff, criticized him too. Some leaders encouraged the state party to come down on Trump, but it has not.

The state Republican chief, former legislator Jim Brulte, who has worked to broaden the party's reach, has declined to critique any candidate and said voters would make their judgment in June's primary. The national party also declined to criticize Trump's immigration comments, though it released a statement Saturday upbraiding him for mocking Arizona Sen. John McCain's war record.

California, of course, provides a searing lesson in what happens to a political party confounded by issues resting on demographic changes. As the numbers of Latino and Asian voters have risen, the GOP's ability to win statewide races has vanished.

Still, the party is not what it was in 1994, when Proposition 187 succeeded at the polls — it was later largely tossed by the courts — only to define Republicans harshly.

Now, almost 30% of Assembly Republicans are women — a higher percentage than among Democrats. Five of the 28 caucus members are minorities. Seventeen are both white and male, a description that used to apply to the entire caucus.

The party is "embracing the changing demography of the state—which is why the Trump situation is just absolutely irritating," said Ling Ling Chang, a GOP Assembly member from Diamond Bar who emigrated from Taiwan.

"The California Republican Party is not the same as the national Republican Party," said freshman Assemblyman Chad Mayes of Yucca Valley, who blamed cable news for merging the two. "When you have that diversity and interacting with folks, it does begin to shape your mind in a different way. I think that's good."

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