A woman’s right to choose is a rallying cry for women across the country. But they are talking about choice over abortions, and not vaccinations.

Parental choice and decision making over childhood vaccinations was removed in California thanks to a state law passed in 2012. Assembly Bill 2109 by then-Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, orders that children will not be allowed to attend public school without proof that parents have been counseled, and children vaccinated in accordance with the vaccination schedule of the federal Center for Disease Control. The only exception to the law is a personal belief or religious exemption – the only way Pan could get the bill passed. However, now-Sen. Richard Pan is back with another bill, Senate Bill 277, to remove even the personal belief/religious exemption, following the measles outbreak at Disneyland in January. “We are in a situation where there are not enough people being vaccinated to contain these… Read More

Flexing Republican muscle, the Irvine City Council is making headway on repealing years of heavy-handed Democrat policies, which are bad for business, and worse for taxpayers.

On the heels of passage of the new Los Angeles minimum wage of $15.00 per hour by 2020, the new GOP supermajority in Irvine just repealed its “living wage” ordinance. While the rest of the state seems to be pushing for mandatory minimum wage laws, or higher minimum wage laws under Democrat majorities, killing free market principles, as well as driving up the cost of city contracts, and preventing many employable students from getting important work experience, Irvine is doing things differently.

The Irvine City Council voted last week to repeal its Living Wage Ordinance, the only of its kind in all of Orange County.Where Republicans are governing, ridiculous and burdensome top-down mandates get cut.

The City of Irvine website explains the living wage:

… Read More

As Gov. Jerry Brown prepares to sign another climate change agreementwith “government leaders from around the world,” as his office announced, remember the recent agreement Brown got into with the scandalized Oregon Gov. Kitzhaber. “In October 2013,California Gov. Jerry Brown, together with the Governors of Oregon and Washington and the British Columbia Premier,signedthePacific Coast Action Plan on Climate and Energy, “to align climate change policies and promote clean energy,’” I wrote in February.

The Pacific Coast Collaborative links with theWest Coast Infrastructure Exchange(WCX), a compact betweenCalifornia, Oregon, Washington and British Columbia, formed in 2013 to promote “the type of new thinking necessary to solve the West Coast’s infrastructure crisis.” And the WCX is linked to… Read More

Thursday, a California Appellate Court struck a blow to autocratic labor, when it struck down California’s Compulsory Contracting Statute as unconstitutional, and set aside the state’s Agricultural Labor Relations Board-ordered contract on Gerawan Farming. The court called the forcing of this unwanted union contract on workers an “unconstitutional abuse of authority.”

And, the Court even awarded repayment to Gerawan of its costs for bringing this appeal.

The ruling is a significant victory for Gerawan Farming and its 5,000 workers. Gerawan’s workers have been fighting a UFW takeover since October 2012, when the United Farm Workers labor union showed up unannounced after abandoning workers for more than 20 years, and ordered workers to pay 3 percent of their… Read More

A mandatory vaccination bill that would undermine informed consent, parental choice, and discriminate against certain California families, was passed by the State Senate Thursday. SB 277, which would end all personal belief exemptions to childhood vaccination requirements, was passed largely on a party line vote, 25 – 10.

What’s this all about? The Disneyland measles outbreak in January was hyped to hysteria thanks to the media. With the United States population at more than 320 million people, and 38 million in the state of California, it was interesting that a handful of pinpointed measles cases caused the Los Angeles Times to place blame on some parents, calling them “ignorant,” and engaged in a “self-absorbed rejection of science,” instead on the real cause. The Center for Disease Control said the viruscame from overseas, carried by a foreign tourist. But the Times Editorial was titled: “Blame Disneyland measles… Read More

California’s kids receive more than 50 childhood vaccinations. However, not all parents agree with the aggressivevaccination scheduleand opt out. Well, they used to be able to opt out.

Parental choice over vaccines was removed thanks to a state law passed in 2012. AB 2109 by then-Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, orders that children will not be allowed to attend public school without proof that parents have been counseled, and children vaccinated. The only exception to the law is a religious exemption.

The State of California has injected itself into the doctor-parent relationship, and lawmakers can’t see how… Read More

‘Transparency’ is probably the most overused word in political speech, while at the same time, the most underutilized in practice.In a free society, transparency in government means openness, accountability, and honesty. It is the obligation of government to share information with citizens, yet is increasingly difficult to access – even in California, home to Silicon Valley.

Without transparency, citizens are unable to hold public officials accountable. And that’s the problem –government is responsible for making itself available to be accountable. It’s unnatural. While the true statesman values principle above popularity, today’s era of politics in California doesn’t breed an abundance of statesmen.

However, one of the good guys – a real statesman – former State Sen. Sam Blakeslee, has tackled the problem of transparency in politics. The Institute for Advanced Technology and Public Policy, under the leadership of Blakeslee, officially launched the Digital Democracy Project, to provide a searchable database of all legislative hearings. “This package… Read More

Subtitle: The Fleecing of Sacramento’s Taxpayers

Sacramento’s City Manager John Shirey released the proposed 2015/2016 budget last week. It’s clear that this city manager, the mayor, and the city council members are cavalier with their spending of other people’s money.More is never enough. And the word “austerity” is not in their vocabularies.

The other important issue to note is even with his latest attempt to become a strong mayor squashed (again) by the voters last year, Mayor Kevin Johnson is the driving force anyway behind this… Read More