From the Californian Riverside County Sales Tax Revenues Rise

By: CHRIS BAGLEY – Staff Writer Retail sales have continued to grow in most local communities, but a number of new shopping centers have helped unincorporated areas such as Wildomar grow much faster than their city counterparts, according to a consultant’s report. Unincorporated areas of Riverside County generated $10.2 million in sales-tax revenue in the second quarter, a 34 percent gain from the second quarter of 2004, according to MBIA, a firm that does financial consulting for governments.

Yes the sound of hammers and nail guns are heard every day in Southwest Riverside County. Private capital comes in, business is created, consumers consume and wow, government has more money. Capitalism, more places should try it.

Now local government with more money is not always a good thing. The good news is that most of the local elected types here are of the conservative sort. They understand… Read More

Alternative ending to Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back: It’s the climactic laser-sword fight between fledgling Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker and the sinister Sith Lord, Darth Vader. Young Luke is down to one arm, no weapon, and cowering precariously at the end of acatwalk when Vader lays the bad news on him: "I am your father."

Now at this point, instead of bugging out and throwing himself into the abyss, what if Luke had thought it through?

Alternative Scene One, Take One:

Vader: "I am your father."

Skywalker: "Get out. Dad wasn’t black."

Vader: "This is a mask, stupid. Join me."

Skywalker: "Well, o.k., but you’ll need to give me a hand, since you chopped off my other one."

The point is, maybe they could have worked together, as Vader suggested, whacked the Emperor, and Luke could have helped dad with some of his totalitarian and planet-destroying… Read More

I got a lot of comments on my OC Power Broker Series published yesterday. So I am continuing with it today. I want to make a few things clear. 1) These people are listed in no particular order. 2) You can be important, elected and or rich but that does not make you an OC Power Broker. To be one, you have to possess extra-ordinary ability to navigate the political and more specifically the government scene.

So below is the list continued without numbers…

Brett Barbre. Elected member of the Municipal Water District of Orange County and chief-deputy to OC Treasurer John Moorlach. Barbre is a leader in the effort to build a tunnel between Orange and Riverside counties. With Moorlach running up-opposed for OC Board of Supervisor, watch for soon to be COS Barbre to gain influence.

Gary… Read More

Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo is finding out that running statewide has its bumps.

First the story about his favors for "slumlords". Now the LA Weekly is exposing his firing of a tough deputy attorney that may have helped let a child molester go. Read it here.

And there is still 7 months before the primary!… Read More

OC Blog reports that 35th Senate District candidate Diane Harkey has picked up the endorsement of OC Supervisor Chris Norby, the most conservative member of the OC Board of Supervisors. While there’s no overlap between the 35th SD and Norby’s supervisor district, Norby’s endorsement is a sterling bona fide for Harkey to present to conservative activists and GOP regulars to whome she is still largely unknown. Plus, Chris Norby is also a recognizable name with positive resonance for anit-airport voters in the southern reaches of the 35th.

Coming on the heels of her endorsement by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore and OC Supervisor Jim Silva, the Norby endorsement emphasizes Assemblyman Tom Harman’s isolation from the GOP establishment in Orange County, despite nearly five years of being an Orange County legislator. Usually, your fellow Orange… Read More

NEW VERSION OF PAYCHECK PROTECTION? Lew Uhler, President of the National Tax Limitation Committee, and the ‘father’ of current Paycheck Protection movement is looking towards a new ballot measure for November of next year. This one would have a different twist to it. Here is a pull-quote from an interview that Uhler has in today’s George Skelton column (featured on the FR main page):

Last Friday I attended a lunch sponsored by the Southern California Public Affairs Association (of which I sit on the Board of) in Ontario. Orange County political attorney extraordinaire, Dana Reed, served as the Master of Ceremonies. The featured speaker was the esteemed Sacramento Bee Columnist and Blogger Dan Weintraub. While I don’t always agree with Weintraub, I do think he always brings an honest approach to the topic at hand.

After his recap of the special election (Governor Lost, Unions Won, and Governor in political trouble, yada,yada, yada) the topic turned to the future of print media. As we all know, newspaper circulation is plummeting throughout the nation. Weintraub adroitly pointed out that the newspaper publishers are still using Gutenberg technology in the age of Gates technology. Every morning more and more of us pour the cup of java and head for the computer rather then the porch to get out news. The advent of more powerful PDA’s will assure that this trend continues. Weintraub was one of the pioneering journalists to have a regular Blog and thus has great instinct on the future of news… Read More

I am stunned and saddened that my FR Blog colleague has left me — ME! — off his list of OC Power Brokers. Oh woe betide me! I was so looking forward to adding that testimonial to my promotional materials.… Read More