Katy Grimes: The plastic bag activists are at it again, and they are nothing, if not persistent. With the eleventh bill regulating plastic bags in less than 10 years, grocery stores don’t have a chance in California.

Passed today by the Assembly, SB 1219, the latest plastic bag regulation bill, by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, will require grocery stores to implement, manage, and report on the “At-Store Recycling Program” to the Cal Recycle state agency.

Besides imposing more rules and regulations on privately-owned grocery stores, SB 1219 which appears to be aimed at large grocers like WalMart, Target and other large supermarket chains, will require that stores “place recycling bins in a readily accessible location for consumers, assure the collected bags are recycled, and provide reusable bags. Additionally, stores track the collection, transport, and recycling of plastic carryout bags and regulated manufacturers provide educational materials to assist in recycling (see requirements).”

This could be the work of a… Read More

The California Air Resources Board seems to be on everyone’s list of what not to do in state government. Charged with implementing AB 32, the California’s Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, CARB is under increasing scrutiny for operating as a rogue agency, appearing to be accountable to no one.

All attempts to reel in the agency have failed, including another attempt to audit its operations and finances–thanks to Democratic legislators who clearly are getting marching orders from Assembly and Senate leaders.

A Joint Legislative Audit Committee hearing on Wednesday brought CARB close to accountability with the threat of the six-month state audit. But the committee chairman, Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, surprised everyone when he nixed the plan after having made the pretense that he was on board.

CARB and AB 32

In 2006, the Legislature promised that AB 32 would help clean the environment while still protecting the economy. Supportive legislators promised that utility and gasoline costs would not increase with the implementation of the climate change law.

The opposite has happened, and businesses are now… Read More

The CRP Platform Drafting Committee drafted a platform to present to the entire platform committee thinks they have a solution for winning election.

Stand for nothing. Pretend we are Democrats and all will be well.

For at least two decades liberals in the party have wanted to water down parts of the platforms that deal with protecting innocent human life, the family and protecting the second amendment. Saturday they got their chance and adopted a platform that does that. The proposed platform deletes over 98% of all the language on those issues.

There is more said about “Defending Agriculture” then protecting marriage or the unborn.

There are some suggestions that were recommended by the committee that make this watered down platform slightly better. Think of it as the first stage of treating waste water. Would you still want to drink it?

Amendments to add in the current pro-life plank and current statement on marriage and the family only received two votes (Myself and Craig DeLuz). The committee ended debate to avoid an amendment to keep the current Right to Keep and Bear Arms Section.

In the debate about the marriage issue, it… Read More

The liberal Campaign Legal Center says former Democrat Vice-Presidential nominee and former U.S. Senator John Edward’s indictment on corruption charges “paints a troubling picture,” that raises the “specter of political influence peddling in the form of ‘gifts’ to candidates in high stakes campaigns.” Edward’s friends helped pay-off the mother of his secret out-of-wedlock love child while he was running in the presidential primaries, and federal prosecutors see that as secret and excessive and therefore illegal contributions to his failed campaign for President. There are other related claims of criminality. But even then the Campaign center complains of delays in prosecution, a feeble FEC enforcement posture, and urges broader actions including against former U.S. Senator John Ensign of Nevada, who is alleged to have arranged employment in exchange for silence in connection with a sex scandal.

Reports in the New York press and from Europe suggest that friends of the disgraced former head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the “champagne socialist” who was on his way to what might… Read More