When a Democrat Congressional candidate gets financial backing and support from Nancy Pelosi it is to be expected – Pelosi really wants back her old job as Speaker. But when that candidate is also being bankrolled by far left sugar daddies like Sean Penn and George Soros it causes you to roll your eyes — these folks only get animated about extreme, left-wing ideologues.

Over in California’s 36th Congressional District (Central and Eastern Riverside County) local and national Democrats have insisted that Raul Ruiz is the challenger who will finally unseat Rep. Mary Bono Mack. He’s a 40 year old emergency room physician running in a district that is increasingly competitive and Hispanic.

That having been said, any realistic ability for Dr. Ruiz to garner meaningful support from patriotic, America-loving voters in the 36th Congressional District, will rapidly evaporate when work gets around about his radical past. It turns out that Dr. Ruiz, was arrested in 1997 at a Thanksgiving protest in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Read on…… Read More

I received an distressed phone call yesterday from a reader about a starling accusation of school cheating.

This reader, whose children attend the Oxford Preparatory Academy, which runs charter schools in Mission Viejo and Chino, CA, said that after months of diligent, time-consuming preparation for the mandatory May Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR exams testing), and months of teachers putting in 12-hour days, the Oxford charter school students reached an outstanding score of 997 out of 1000 possible points on the Academic Performance Index.

What should be good news has turned to controversy, because someone on the Capistrano Unified School district School Board has now accused the charter school of cheating.

The parent said that she and other parents are flabbergasted, especially after having worked along side the children and teachers, and said that the cheating accusation is likely motivated by the local teachers union.

No stranger to controversy

Capistrano Unified School District’s Superintendent Joe Farley informed charter school officials that the school’s charter could be revoked in the face of… Read More

The following column was penned by Rebekah Rast of Americans for Limited Government…

CALIFORNIA’S SELF-INFLICTED GAS SHORTAGE By Rebekah Rast

In September 2008, before Barack Obama was elected president and Steven Chu appointed Department of Energy Secretary, Chu stated, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.”

Thanks in large part to strict pollution limitations and refinery and pipeline misfortunes, one state is now much closer to those levels.

Gas prices hit an all-time high in California… Read More

It’s too early to know for sure, but so far sales tax revenue this year appears to be largely on track to meet the state’s budget needs.

The latest general fund sales and use tax revenue numbers show that from July through September the State Board of Equalization received $4.64 billion in revenue. That’s just two and a half percent shy of the Department of Finance’s budget projection of $4.76 billion.

Of course, I can’t help but think that if more Californians had jobs, these revenue numbers would be even stronger.

The latest numbers do not reflect the recent spike in gas prices. And those high fuel prices have the potential to create a tax windfall for state and local government.

Earlier this year I proposed legislation capping rising fuel taxes. Unfortunately, it failed to gain traction in the Legislature.

We don’t know yet how much revenue will come in this month. But we do know one thing for sure: Californians will pay plenty in tax.… Read More

*BREAKING*

This statement was just received by the FlashReport from Assemblyman Dan Logue:

FROM THE DESK OF DAN LOGUE

Dear Friends,

I visited my physician late last week and he informed me that some antibiotics that I had been taking had damaged my kidneys.

The doctor informed that unless I stopped taking the antibiotics and rested for six weeks, I could do severe damage to my kidneys. He also indicated that my health would completely return in 6 weeks and took a different medication.

As you may be aware, the Fourth District Senate represents all or part of 12 counties running from Placer to Del Norte. It is a vast district with many rural communities. The demands of traveling and campaigning in such a vast region are rigorous and the requirements of running a competitive race conflict with my doctor’s orders.

For this reason, it is… Read More

Here’s an excellent letter to the editor by my good friend Paul King — concerning CA’s soaring gasoline prices (I updated and expanded the figures, and added verifying URL’s):

The Los Angeles Times correctly reported that refinery problems were the major cause of the supply problem on the West Coast. CA once had 14 refineries producing the state’s unique blend of gasoline mandated by its legislature, but that number has declined to 12. Among those 12, four are shut temporarily due to maintenance issues. With CA strict bureaucratic refinery regulations, we have not built any new refineries in 40 years.

Because of California’s unique fuel blend requirements, motorists can rely only on California’s refineries to correct their supply problem. They can’t solve the shortage by buying from their next door neighbors in Arizona or Nevada the way other states might. So now that the state legislature has effectively imposed an embargo on the citizens of California, we are all paying the price of our politicians’ stupidity.

But that’s not… Read More

In order to stimulate the inert economy, we now have the government investing in government. The public sector is trading public dollars for public dollars.

“How will you spend your future?” the California State Teachers Retirement System logo asks. I wouldn’t spend it on a solar plant. Nor would I voluntarily spend my future with CalSTRS.

‘Infrastructure investments’

Nearly every time I pick up the newspaper, the headline screams that another solar plant has closed and the business gone under. Yet I see that the California State Teachers’ Retirement System is investing $42.8 million in a large solar plant in Sacramento.

… Read More

Today, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association filed a class action lawsuit against Jerry Brown and the Legislature to overturn the unconstitutional Fire Tax.

As one of California’s elected tax officials, it’s my responsibility to use my elected office to ensure that taxpayers are treated fairly.

Accordingly, I commend the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association for bringing together Californians from every walk of life and region of our state to right the wrong that is the fire tax.

The Governor and Legislature’s willingness to impose such an unfair and regressive tax in direct violation of the Constitution should serve as a wake-up call for all freedom-loving Californians.

I am pleased to lend my full support to this lawsuit, and I look forward to seeing it prevail.… Read More