This is Part lll of this series. Here isPart ll and Part l.

An article masquerading as serious journalism ran in the Los Angeles Times one week ago, touting California’s Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, as a “Rock Star.”

Bureaucrats can’t be rock stars, despite what the Los Angeles Times says.

What most people don’t know is her husband, John Daum, is a lawyer for ExxonMobil. Nor do many… Read More

(this is part ll of “CARB’s Mary Nichols is No ‘Rock Star’ Among Bureaucrats.” Part l ishere)

Bureaucrats can’t be rock stars, despite what the Los Angeles Times says.

Mary Nichols, California’s Air Resources Board Chairwoman, was referred to as a “rock star” in a LAT article Saturday.Seriously.

As the Chairwoman of the California Air Resources Board, Nichols is charged with the implementation of AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006, and SB 375, the Sustainable Communities Protection Act – both explicit social engineering processes intended to force Californians into high density, high rise housing, out of personal automobiles, and onto public transportation.

That’s not exactly the purview of the Rolling Stones. But more importantly, there are two important points surrounding Nichols’ actions: one is the CARB knowingly… Read More

An article masquerading as serious journalism ran in the Los Angeles Times Saturday touting California’s Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols, as a “Rock Star.”

Once I got the coffee out of my nose, I reasoned that Nichols, the CARB’s dear leader, might indeed be a rock star… in a sort of Rosie O’Donnell or Janet Napolitano way. And she’s just about as pleasant as those two fishwives.

However, Nichols actually functions more like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton – she’s known as a shakedown artist, but comes with a state-issued badge.

The LA Times story testified to this:

“A meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown… Read More

California Democratic politician Jesse Unruh’s famous description of Sacramento lobbyists rings true even today: “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, screw their women and then vote against them, you have no business being up here.”

Unruh also said, “Money is the mother’s milk of politics.”

Remembering these cynical thoughts, California Republicans have a few people to thank this Christmas for maintaining the Unruh status quo: Senators Leland Yee, Ron Calderon, Rod Wright, Ben Hueso, outgoing Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, and incoming Senate President pro TemKevin De Leon.

The Senate scandals in 2013 and 2014 were legendary, as was the gross mishandling of the aftermath.You can’t make this stuff up.

Scandals remind people of the shady underpinnings of politics, and the temptations lurking around the Capitol that some lawmakers are just incapable of resisting.

The difference usually is, when it’s Republicans caught with their hands in the proverbial cookie jar, they are shunned, and forced to leave in shame. Democrats, on the other hand, circle the wagons, pretending its business as… Read More

The solar energy rage is all over the media. Radio and television advertisements scream “No money down!” “Turn sunshine into savings.” “Make your electricity meter run backward!”

And the common theme of, “Everyone knows that solar power is better for the environment than fossil fuels,” is bandied about as if it is gospel.

With energy prices climbing rapidly, largely because of severe alternative energy mandates imposed by state and federal governments, consumers across the country are seeking ways to save on utility costs. In doing so, many are unwittingly becoming victims of consumer fraud.

While the consumer is looking for ways to save on energy bills, solar companies found that instead of trying to hard-sell the pricey rooftop solar systems outright, leases were a much more appealing option for the homeowner, with less out-of-pocket investment.… Read More

The US Fish and Wildlife Service recently double-crossed the National Shooting Sports Foundation, as well as voters. Following a Freedom of Information Act public records request to the Fish and Wildlife agency, the shooting sports foundation obtained emails that prove the federal agency withheld pertinent, official data in its annual report on the California Condor’s lead blood levels, until well after the California state legislature passed a law in 2013 to ban all lead ammunition.

The annual update, which had been previously issued annually every June, found little change in the condor’s blood lead levels. TheCalifornia state legislatureacted, despite previous data, at the insistence of animal activists groups, led by the Humane Society, which have long said the California condor is poisoned by lead shot. I’ve been following… Read More

These dubious “conversations on race” are becoming exasperating because they aren’t real conversations.

In Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle, former California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown weighed in on the Ferguson, Missouri conflict between police officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown, a Ferguson street thug who was shot and killed following a convenience store robbery, and confrontation with Officer Wilson.

Willie Brown advocated for having a “conversation about a legal process that has district attorneys, who work with police every day,… Read More

On Monday, Assemblyman Jim Patterson, R-Fresno, Sen. Andy Vidak, R-Hanford, and more than 20 other Republican lawmakers announced the introduction of theAffordable Gas for California Families Act,legislation to exempt transportation fuels and natural gas from the California Air Resource Board’scap-and-trade program.

“We struck a nerve!” Patterson told me. Patterson said he was surprised at the media response, and how many in the media did not know the gas tax is starting Jan. 1 – next month.

Patterson is working on issues like… Read More