After years ofintense government and union harassment by theAgricultural Labor Relations Board and the United Farm Workers labor union,Gerawan Farming Inc. notified its workers that effective February 25, 2016, the company will fully close its entire table grape operation, in the County of Fresno. Pursuant to the Federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, known as the WARN Act, Gerawan has been forced into a position of closing an entire arm of its farming operations because of California government assisting a labor union attempt to take over a large company.And Gov. Jerry Brown has not once intervened to stop the unlawful harassment by the union or his own state agency.

The table grape operation closure does not affect any of the employees’ employment in other Gerawan farming operations, but now thousands of farm workers will lose well-paying farm jobs because of California’s corrupt state government. Gerawan always exceeds industry average wages and are the first to increase wages. Gerawan’s website shows their hourly wage for grape packline as $16.27, and upwards of $20.00 per… Read More

House Amendment 1 to HR 2029, Omnibus Spending Act,is the 2,000-plus page $1.15 trillion spending act to fund the government through September 30, 2016. Congressman Tom McClintock voted NO, and explains why.

“A bill of this complexity always has good and bad provisions, and the question comes down to whether in balance it moves the government in the right direction,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-CA posted on his Congressional website Friday.

McClintock explains:

On the plus side: • It stops bailouts of insurance companies required by Obamacare. • It ends the oil-export ban on American petroleum. (Although it should be noted that the president has the authority to do so on his own, and in 13 months we are likely to have a president who will anyway). • It blocks the proposed IRS rule that would formalize the… Read More

With California dominated by irreverent liberals at every level of government, saying ‘Merry Christmas’ is so awkward. Christmas carols are no longer allowed sung in public schools. Christmas plays have been cancelled, and gift exchanges must be generic.

To accommodate this brave new world thinking, may I present the Twelve Days of California’s Generic Holiday, sung to the antiquated Twelve Days of Christmas:

On the first day of HOLIDAY

my partner sent to me:

A condor on protected… Read More

What’s missing in most government representation these days is actual representation of the citizens. The city of Fresno, CA is fortunate to have a councilman who works on behalf of its residents. And now, Councilman Clint Olivier, a Republican, is running for State Assembly. But what makes his race so interesting is he announced his Assembly run early to replace Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno. However, complicating issues, Perea just announced last week he is resigning office effective December 31.

There will be a Special Election to fill out the remaining months of Perea’s term, likely to be held in early April, if all goes well.

“If Olivier’s name isn’t familiar, be thankful,” I wrote in June. “He’s not the son of a politician. He’s not from Hollywood. He didn’t get independently wealthy as a hedge-fund manager on oil and coal investments. He hasn’t sold rocket launchers to Filipino Muslim separatists, or offered bribes to FBI agents.”

Assemblyman Perea shook up the race for his seat as he announced his resignation last week to head for a lucrative lobbying job. The two previously announced contenders for the Assembly seat… Read More

This is the second part in a series; Part l is here.

California businesses are being targeted for retribution through a bill passed by the Legislature and signed into lawby Gov. Brown October 10, rewriting the definition of the labor rules governing piece-rate compensation in California.

Assembly Bill 1513 unfairly singles out two of the largest fruit growers in the San Joaquin Valley, for discriminatory treatment, based on demands that these two companies be excluded from protection under the bill’s affirmative defense. Both companies are targets of United Farm Workers unionizing efforts.

It is however, a violation of the U.S. Constitution to single out members of a group so as to inflict punishment on them without a judicial trial (United States v. Lovett).

Fowler Packing Company and Gerawan Farming are the victims of an injustice done at the behest of the… Read More

California’s gun control leftists hold some responsibility for the mounting deaths in Wednesday’s vicious terrorist attack in San Bernardino.

California’s gun laws are some of the strictest in the country, and Gov. Jerry Brown continues to make them even tighter. The bottom line is that citizens aren’t allowed to protect themselves in the Golden State.

The mass shooting took place Wednesday morning in San Bernardino, California at the Inland Regional Center, a facility for developmentally disabled adults, where 14 people were killed and at least 17 injured. Two of the suspects are both Muslim, a husband-and-wife team named Syed Rezwan Farook, 28, and Tashfeen Malik, 27. Both were killed by police. Some news reports say there are thought to be more suspects involved.

… Read More

The IRS scandal in the headlines for several years revealed the Internal Revenue Service developed a scheme to prosecute conservatives who publicly oppose President Obama’s policies.

California Gov. Jerry Brown and his legislative Democrats have just accomplished a similar scheme with the passage of a bill targeting two large agriculture businesses, which dared to challenge the illegal stranglehold on Brown’s appointed Agriculture Labor Relations Board by the waning United Farm Workers labor union.

Family owned and operatedFowler Packing Company and Gerawan Farming are targets of Assembly Bill 1513, which unfairly carves-out the two employers who have long been targeted for UFW unionizing efforts, from the limited safe harbor provisions in the recently passed and signed bill.

Both large employers and growers, Fowler Packing grows peaches, nectarines, plums and mandarins, and Gerawan grows nectarines, peaches and grapes.

Wag the… Read More

California’s Political Climate Needs to Be Cleaned of Polluted Politicians

Tuesday’s Sacramento Bee has an op ed from Senate President pro Tem Kevin de Leon, a Democrat from Los Angeles, on full attack of the Bee’s own Dan Walters for daring to point out that California is not booming economically, despite what de Leon and Gov. Jerry Brown tell us.

Fuzzy Math

De Leon claims in his op ed (‘Climate Change Policies Will Help Poorest Californians’), “California’s job growth outpaced all other states in 2014 and unemployment is 5.8 percent, the lowest since October 2007.”

This is only true if like de Leon, Gov. Brown, and the Obama administration, an employed Californian is defined as a worker who performs at a job one hour a week, and therefore can be counted as “employed.”

A full time “job” used to be defined by the government and Bureau of Labor Statistics as 30 or more hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Labor Law attorneys still consider 30+ hours of work… Read More