There Oughta Be a Law… For the least several weeks I’ve been diligently following the Anna Nicole Smith tragedy. Nightly watching the Nancy Grace hard news updates, pouring over the tabloids, just waiting for the story to meet the litmus test that would allow me to write about it on these pages — some semblance oftie-in to California politics.

At last, with the California Medical Board entering the fray, my opportunity is here.

It seems that every one of the 11 medications found in Anna Nicole’s room at the time of her death was prescribed by the same California physician. The State Medical Board promises an investigation…and right they should!

There oughta be a law, and if there already is one, there oughta be another. Perhaps even a handful.

We need to lead the way on this. California has more celebrities than any other state, we undoubtedly fill more celebrity drug prescriptions than most other countries… Read More

– Senator Feinstein is under scrutiny for some of her/her husbands dealings…I have always preached that we should all be careful what we wish for. If she has a true financial conflict of interest based on the law. Shame on her. If there is not legal conflict, only one that is perceived. Shame on her accusers.

– I don’t know much about the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) other than I pay it. And it is a major disincentive for charitable giving. Once the AMT kicks in, the deductions you take for contributions to non-profits often times fall out.

– State Senator Abel Maldonado is right. Mission San Miguel and others like it that dot the California landscape and shaped our history should be eligible state funds for rehab. I am not sure it isn’t the job of the Church or private sector or some non-profit (for which you won’t get a tax deduction for giving to because of the AMT) but if state funds are being used to fix up… Read More

– Senator Feinstein is under scrutiny for some of her/her husbands dealings…I have always preached that we should all be careful what we wish for. If she has a true financial conflict of interest based on the law. Shame on her. If there is not legal conflict, only one that is perceived. Shame on her accusers.

– I don’t know much about the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) other than I pay it. And it is a major disincentive for charitable giving. Once the AMT kicks in, the deductions you take for contributions to non-profits often times fall out.

– State Senator Abel Maldonado is right. Mission San Miguel and others like it that dot the California landscape and shaped our history should be eligible state funds for rehab. I am not sure it isn’t the job of the Church or private sector or some non-profit (for which you won’t get a tax deduction for giving to because of the AMT) but if state funds are being used to fix up… Read More

Today the United States Olympic Organizing Committee has decided to choose Chicago over Los Angeles as the site for our country’s bid to bring the 2016 Olympic Games to America. The field had already been narrowed down to these two finalists.

I guess this is good news or bad news depending on how you look at it. I will let other people share their perspective, but I will tell you that as far as I am concerned, this is great news on two levels.

From a concerned-taxpayer perspective, I was very disturbed to see the State of California provide a financial guarantee (courtesy of taxpayer dollars) in case the games lose money. How much? If the games were to tank financially, we’d be on the hook for up to $250,000,000.00.

Let me share another perspective on why this is good news for… me. I love the Olympic Games. There is almost nothing the beats being present to watch the best athletes in the world compete against one another! To give you an idea of my enthusiasm, in 2004, I made… Read More

As if newly elected OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen didn’t have enough to deal with (having just won by three votes and still facing a legal challenges to her seat) this morning the Capitol Morning Report pulled a two-year-old press release from the CalChamber web site talking about their support for Supervisor Nguyen’s run at Assemblyman Van Tran’s 68th Assembly District seat (even though Van is not termed out until 2010. NOT TRUE (well the part about the Chamber support is or was…read on).

Back when the jockeying for Joe Dunn’s 34th Senate seat was happening Assemblyman Van Tran was the likely GOP nominee and at that time then-Councilwoman Janet Nguyen was on track to run to replace Tran. Janet Nguyen a former local chamber government affairs exec. had the support of the CalChamber. When Tran decided to stick it out in the Assembly, the whole thing became moot.

According to FR publisher Jon Fleischman, who has been in contact with the Capitol Morning Report and CalChamber today, the correction will be published tomorrow.

While it might have been a fun war to watch, don’t count on… Read More

Today, the FlashReport makes a humble request of Republican legislators in the State Capitol. Back up, and take a 30,000 foot view of what is going on in the State Capitol BEFORE you write your press releases. This time a year, faxes machines and e-mail accounts are being filled up with thousands of press releases from legislative offices touting legislation that has passed out of Committees. Note to Republicans: The Democrats KILL almost all truly meaningful pieces of legislation proposed by Republicans. This has led, over time, to a few things. First and foremost, less and less truly meaningful pieces of legislation are being introduced by Republicans, which is understandable. Were I in the legislature, I might say to myself, "Why bother introducing a bill to lower income tax rates in California?" given that we know the outcome — certain death. In addition, we see more and more bills being introduced by Republicans that make you scratch your head, and wonder, "Is this why we send folks to Sacramento?" Don’t get me wrong, many of these GOP bills achieve some important ‘technical fix’ or… Read More

Today, the FlashReport makes a humble request of Republican legislators in the State Capitol. Back up, and take a 30,000 foot view of what is going on in the State Capitol BEFORE you write your press releases. This time a year, faxes machines and e-mail accounts are being filled up with thousands of press releases from legislative offices touting legislation that has passed out of Committees. Note to Republicans: The Democrats KILL almost all truly meaningful pieces of legislation proposed by Republicans. This has led, over time, to a few things. First and foremost, less and less truly meaningful pieces of legislation are being introduced by Republicans, which is understandable. Were I in the legislature, I might say to myself, "Why bother introducing a bill to lower income tax rates in California?" given that we know the outcome — certain death. In addition, we see more and more bills being introduced by Republicans that make you scratch your head, and wonder, "Is this why we send folks to Sacramento?" Don’t get me wrong, many of these GOP bills achieve some important ‘technical fix’ or… Read More

Earlier in the week, I posted on a decision by the Court of Appeals in Orange County agreeing to hear arguments on a writ filing on behalf of Trung Nguyen, who won the election day balloting for First District Supervisor, but in a recount, was deemed by the Orange County Registrar of Voters to then be the loser. Janet Nguyen was sworn in after being certified with margin of votes you could count on two hands. Anyway, I threw out an amazing statistic about how the Appeals Court only hears 1 in 100 or so writs that are filed with the court, and made it sound like that hurdle had been jumped by Trung’s legal team.

In another reminder of why we should let lawyers blog about this legal-beagle stuff, I was wrong. The Court has not agreed to hear the matter, they have agreed to take written testimony on why they should or should not hear the matter.

So while I would imagine it is not that easy to get even to the point where the Appellate Court wants to hear such arguments, Trung Nguyen’s legal challenge to the original Judge’s… Read More