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With even GOP Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California calling for a $1 an hour increase in his state’s minimum wage, political momentum has clearly shifted in favor of the unions pushing similar hikes in other states. About half of Americans live in 17 states where mandatory hourly wages exceed the federal government’s minimum of $5.15 an hour.… Read More
Agriculture is a very important part of life and industry on the Central Coast. From the lettuce fields of Salinas to avocado orchards in Ventura County, agriculture is essential to the Central Coast economy.
An article in this morning’s Ventura County Star covered a study on labor and immigration in California agriculture. According to the Ventura County Star, the study was directed by Maxey and Bill Watkins, executive director of the Economic Forecast Project at UC Santa Barbara in cooperation with California Lutheran University. It was commissioned by the Workforce Investment Board of Ventura County and was formally unveiled during a conference today in Oxnard.
The article states, "’As durable as agriculture has been in California, I think there’s a level of threat in the coming decades that is… Read More
In a typical Bay Area approach to problems, local government officials in Oakland and Contra Costa are blaming fast food restaurants for littering and juvenile obesity.
Oakland‘s City Councilmember Jane Brunner is proposing a new tax on fast food restaurants that are located near schools (read the SF Chronicle story here). Why? She says that they need to pay because they "are making a profit off of students." Gee, how about holding the kids doing the littering accountable for their behavior rather than making it more expensive for local businesses to do business in Oakland?… Read More
My kids get a kick driving by the Pixar Studios when we’re running errands in Emeryville. They love knowing that there are big kids (masquerading as grown-ups) inside who spend their days creating family-friendly movies like "The Incredibles" and "Finding Nemo." Yesterday my 10-year-old daughter had the same reaction to the big Disney-Pixar deal as many of us grownups when she asked doubtfully, "Um, does that mean that Disney is going to make the Pixar movies now?" You don’t have to be over 5′ tall to know that Pixar is the king of animation and Disney runs a slow second. For Disney maniacs like me, it was painful to watch Michael Eisner at the helm of Walt’s company. I never felt that he cared about Walt’s vision. Iin the end, Roy Disney didn’t care for Eisner’s leadership either and resigned the board in 2003… Read More
On Tuesday I took an eight hour drive from San Diego back to Sacramento. I made myself one promise the Monday before – that I would NOT be stuck going over the hill on the 405 looking at the Getty Center at 5pm. That I would plan to avoid one of the worst bottlenecks in the state by leaving on time from San Diego at 1:30 or 2:00. Instead I left at 3:00 and found myself, you guessed it, looking right up at the Getty Center at 5pm.
I’ve now made the drive back and forth probably 100 times in the last ten years, and based on this experience I am going to state some rules of thumb for statewide campaigns on the road, since my experience is everyone’s estimates are different. Assuming light or no traffic and averaging 75 miles per hour on the parts of the road that are not totally urban, it is three hours from downtown San Diego to downtown Bakersfield. It is an hour and a half from Bakersfield to Fresno. And generally two and one half hours from Fresno to Sacramento. I’m driving down again in a month and a half and will relay the time from Sacramento to Stockton to Modesto to Fresno to Bakersfield to downtown LA to Irvine to Carlsbad to downtown… Read More
My wife handed me a press release this morning from the Ray Haynes for Board of Equalization campaign, in which she is the finance coordinator, stating that he had picked up the endorsements of two big names in the Inland Empire; Senator Bob Dutton and Assemblyman John Benoit. These are good pick ups for Haynes.
My take on the race for this seat, in which what 95% of Californian’s have no clue what is it, has the advantage going to Haynes. His opponent, wealthy Los Angeles businesswomen Michelle Steel, does however havetwo bigadvantages over Haynes . She can self fund where Haynes can’t. Evidence of this is the fact that she has chosen to pay the high advertising rates on the FlashReport and other BLOGs such as Rough & Tumble an OC Blog. If she can afford the FlashReport, television ads can not be far behind. Steel is also currently working as an assistant to Claude Parrish the termed out member of the BOE in which she and Haynes currently want to replace.
Many would say that the money advantage and near incumbent status that Steel enjoys in this lesser known office should give her the advantage, and it… Read More
ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS’ PAY-AS-YOU-GO PLAN GOOD NEWS There is much written today about the new proposal introduced by Assembly Republicans for a "Pay-As-You-Go" plan for infrastructure investment in the state. In essence, this plan says that the fiscally prudent course for California to set when looking at building and improving our state’s highways and roads, state universities , water storage, and flood control is to use money in the bank now – rather than maxing out the state’s ‘credit card’. We should be putting aside money every year from the general fund targeted towards these essential projects. You see, over the past decades, there has been a total failure on the part of legislatures and Governors to address infrastructure needs in the state. The Democrats in charge of the legislature are intent on using tax dollars for their social engineering projects, and have preferred to let infrastructure needs be handled in a piecemeal fashion through assorted bond measures. Any responsible strategic growth plan must… Read More
ASSEMBLY REPUBLICANS’ PAY-AS-YOU-GO PLAN GOOD NEWS There is much written today about the new proposal introduced by Assembly Republicans for a "Pay-As-You-Go" plan for infrastructure investment in the state. In essence, this plan says that the fiscally prudent course for California to set when looking at building and improving our state’s highways and roads, state universities , water storage, and flood control is to use money in the bank now – rather than maxing out the state’s ‘credit card’. We should be putting aside money every year from the general fund targeted towards these essential projects. You see, over the past decades, there has been a total failure on the part of legislatures and Governors to address infrastructure needs in the state. The Democrats in charge of the legislature are intent on using tax dollars for their social engineering projects, and have preferred to let infrastructure needs be handled in a piecemeal fashion through assorted bond measures. Any responsible strategic growth plan must… Read More