With the casting couch being front page headlines in Hollywood, New York, Washington D.C. and in California’s State Capitol,“unwanted sexual advances” has become the latest unfortunate phrase in today’s news pages. Common to most stories is how perpetrators have protected themselves, with the help of high placed accomplices.

My previous article, “Capitol Cesspool: Dem. Sen. Nancy Skinner Involved in Cover-Up of Sexual Harassment?” identified just how deep the California Capitol swamp is, with then-Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, head of the Assembly Rules Committee, covering up sexual harassment in the Assembly in 2009.

Her cover up allowed accused then-Capitol staffer harasser Raul Bocanegra to run for Assembly, without his voters knowing of the allegations, or of the Rules Committee investigation which found “that more likely than not,” Bocanegra engaged in harassing behavior.

And now, Assemblyman Bocanegra has been accused by six new women of sexual harassment,… Read More

“Not surprisingly, within moments of news of Detroit’s bankruptcy, pension scare mongers took to their pedestals to place all the blame on pensions. California, Los Angeles, and other governments would surely follow Detroit’s footsteps in short order, they cried. It’s simply not true, like most of the claims made by the anti-pension soldiers who have been trying for years to take away the retirement security of firefighters, teachers, police officers and other public servants.”

Ralph Miller,President, LA County Probation Officers’ Union, AFSCME,Fox & Hounds, August 20th, 2013

Miller has a point. California is not Detroit. California’s population has not imploded, nor will it. Detroit’s economy was reliant on one industry, California’s huge economy is diverse and relatively healthy. Turning California around, while daunting, is going to be a lot easier than turning around Detroit. And, yes, it was a collapsing industrial base and an imploding population that did as much or more… Read More