California embarked on a “grand experiment” in 2011 with a massive prison downsizing. Responding to a 2009 order by a federal three-judge panel, California had to reduce its overpopulated prisons by 25 percent within two years. This amounted to a reduction of nearly 46,000 prisoners, within a very short time period. The state appealed but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the mandate in May 2011, in a 5-4 decision. In a dissenting opinion, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said it was “perhaps the most radical injunction issued by a court in our nation’s history.”

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This is the first in a series of stories about the Japanese forced in to labor camps in Siberia immediately following the end of WWll.

Seventy years have passed since World War II ended, but for many Japanese soldiers captured and deported toSoviet detention camps in Siberia, the story needs to be told.

At the time of Japan’s surrender to Allied forces on August 15, 1945, most of the rest of the world thought it was the end of World War ll. However, another horror was just beginning for more than 600,000 soldiers of Japan’s army; they were deported to Soviet labor camps in Siberia known as Shiberia yokuryū, the Siberian Internment. Most were held for years, and forced into labor and reeducation campaigns. More than 60,000 of the captured Japanese soldiers died.

Most Americans are unaware that the Soviet Red Army imprisoned more than a half-a million Japanese soldiers and civilians immediately following the end of World War II in 1945. The Red Army deported the Japanese to labor camps in Siberia, where many remained imprisoned until 1956, despite Japan’s efforts to gain their release.

And it’s been a little-discussed topic even in… Read More

Back in February 2014 the California Policy Center publicly announced the Transparent California website, developed in partnership with the Nevada Policy Research Institute. An article covering this announcement was posted on the Forbes Magazine website, entitled “Hundreds Of California Government Employees Are Paid Over $400,000 A Year,” which a review of2013 Transparent California data(2014 data is still being assembled) easily confirms. As a matter of fact, in 2013, total compensation in excess of $400,000 was paid to 1,292 public servants in California. A staggering 2,818 of California’s public employees collected total compensation in excess of $300,000 in 2013.

Some have argued that it is misleading to claim people are making, for example, over $400,000 per year, when in fact the $400,000 being referenced is total compensation, not regular earnings. We reject this argument categorically. It is incumbent on anyone who assesses compensation to treat total… Read More

In America, we have a double standard when it comes to tax issue groups. The press and the Left labels any group that opposes tax increases as “anti-tax.” Yet I’ve NEVER heard the left wing groups pushing higher taxes defined as “pro-tax.” Why is that?

Okay, okay — the Left controls the MSM and academia — we all get that. But “anti-tax” is a labeling double standard that too many conservative pundits routinely employ when describing the position of taxpayer advocate groups.

Moreover, an “anti-tax” group is periodically accused to being opposed to taxes, PERIOD. ALL taxes.

Of course, such a zero-tax group is a nonexistent straw man — outside of anarchist groups (is not an “anarchist group” in itself an oxymoron?). Logically speaking, should not that labeling standard mean that any group favoring tax increases therefore favors 100% taxes?

I think it’s important to bring this labeling inconsistency up in the debates over taxes. I use this as a response to the “anti-tax” stereotype the progressives love to use to smear any opponent of higher… Read More

The ugly truth about the business side of the abortion culture in America recently became even more gruesome. The undercover operation of the Center for Medical Progressrevealed Planned Parenthood’s government subsidized abortion and political business has also been raising funds by harvesting and selling fetal body parts. Nothing is off the table – brain matter, eyes, hands, livers, hearts, lungs, and assorted tissue from aborted infants in various stages of development.

The accompanying videos show Planned Parenthood abortion doctors talking about their work as if its just another day at the office, and they are negotiating bulk sales of wheat instead of the prices for baby body parts.

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