Posts in "California"

Devon Minnema's picture
By Devon Minnema at 1:20PM

Sacramento's Getting Pretty Desperate

According to a staff editorial in the Sacramento Bee, the Governator has actually proposed selling advertising space on the traffic bill boards meant to alert highway drivers of bad traffic conditions in order to shrink California's approximately $20 billion deficit.

This time the governor wants to sell advertising space on state highway message boards.

The proposal is serious. If approved, existing message boards – the ones used to alert drivers to road hazards ahead or abducted children – would be upgraded with LED technology and converted to colorful commercial grade electronic billboards. The state would lease the billboards to outdoor advertising firms and collect the money upfront to help balance the state budget – as much as $2 billion over 20 years for 500 billboards.


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Peter Tariche's picture
By Peter Tariche at 7:46AM

Will California be the First State to Legalize Marijuana ?

From the Los Angeles Times:

Proponents of an initiative to make California the first state to legalize marijuana have collected about 693,800 signatures, virtually guaranteeing that the measure will appear on a crowded November ballot.

The initiative to legalize marijuana if passed would allow the regulation and taxation of marijuana by local cities and counties. According to the Timesa field poll from April of 2009 concluded that 56% of California voters want to legalize and tax marijuana. 

Devon Minnema's picture
By Devon Minnema at 11:48PM

The good doctor is popular, even in California.

This is a recently published Letter to the Editor in the Vacaville Reporter, which serves the California Bay Area and Sacramento metro vicinity. The good doctor has supporters even in Garamendi/Boxer/Feinstein-land.

Dear Editor,

Just writing to let Americans know that there is very little time left to vote off the rotten apples that we have up on Capitol Hill.

The only decent one is Ron Paul -- he really cares about what happens in America. Capitol Hill has been laughing at us for a long time now. When the treasury secretary of the Federal Reserve (Timothy Geithner) said he wasn't sure where $2.5 trillion went, the Americans did nothing.


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Devon Minnema's picture
By Devon Minnema at 7:50AM

END COMPULSORY EDUCATION

Though the only real hope for American education is privatization, public education isn't going anywhere over night. Jack Batson, a career teacher and former city councilman for Fairfield, CA -- about 20 minutes from the YAL@DHS Chapter -- wrote an excellent editorial for the Vacaville Reporter in light of a coming education reform bill from thegovernator's administration:

So we're going through another "education reform," because "our schools have failed." Well, here we go again.

Pardon the cynicism, but haven't we seen a goodly number of these crusades before? When I first went into teaching in 1971, we were in the midst of the first great convulsion of educational reform. You may remember the books that fueled that long-ago fire: "Why Johnny Can't Read" and "Teaching as a Subversive Activity."


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Alex Kharam's picture
By Alex Kharam at 8:38PM

Re: Just Say No!

Legal pot may be coming to California:

The first step to legalize marijuana in California is on a roll.

Lawmakers on Tuesday approved Assembly Bill 390 -- legislation to tax and regulate marijuana. The Assembly's Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 on bill at a hearing in Sacramento. The bill will now be passed to the full Assembly on Friday for consideration.

This would legalize marijuana -- and not just for medicine. I'm not sure how much chance this has to be passed by full assembly, but it's definitely interesting.

Brian Beyer's picture
By Brian Beyer at 8:31PM

Just Say No!

California is inching its toward legalization:

A proposal to legalize and tax marijuana in California was approved by a key committee of the Assembly this morning, over the dire warnings of police chiefs and prosecutors. The Public Safety Committee voted 4-3 to approve AB 390 by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco), who said the bill would provide tax revenue to the state and regulation of the drug. The new law includes a requirement that users be at least 21 years old.

Who would have ever thought that the government of California would be praised with doing something right?

Rachel Kania's picture
By Rachel Kania at 7:12PM

Police Force Being Questioned in California

Following an  incident in Cornonado, California, where a police officer tased a man not wearing his seatbelt, a federal appeals court is questioning the use of Tasers.  When is it appropriate to use the a Taser? Michael Gennaco, who has conducted internal reviews of Taser use for the LAPD, comments on the decision made in the 9th circuit ruling:

This decision talks about the need for an immediate threat. . . . Some departments allow Tasers in cases of passive resistance, such as protesters who won't move," he said. Tasering for "passive resistance is out the door now with this decision. Even resistance by tensing or bracing may not qualify.

Still, there is a need to question the use of Tasers all together. Can we trust the officer to use the Taser "appropriately" and only at a time when the person refuses to comply with the officer's orders?  I don't believe so.


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Brian Beyer's picture
By Brian Beyer at 7:35PM

California: The New Ideal?

California, typically thought of as the most progressive state in the union, has done something surprisingly unprogressive: it has invoked its rights as a state. A ballot measure being proposed by activists would legalize possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, permit residents to grow  it in their own gardens, and allow counties and cities to either uphold or shoot down the measure. If passed, this measure would result in the de facto nullification of certain federal drug laws.

What is even more encouraging is that local jurisdictions will ultimately decide the bills fate. Local governance, at least for the time being, is on the rise (As an aside, around where I live, many communities have voted to reduce the size of the town boards. It has been mainly seen as a "piss off" to our oversized local governments.) This bill, which has much more potential to come to fruition than do the many other states' rights bills in other state legislatures, could set a precedent and even start a domino effect. States are starting to realize that they should ultimately have much more of a say than the federal government, which is usually either insensitive to or ignorant of the cultural differences between the many states.

End the Drug War. Invoke states' rights. It's the only chance we have of escaping the Leviathan. 

Shaun Bowen's picture
By Shaun Bowen at 1:38AM

Perhaps John Connor's Metal Friend needs a Tune up

ARNOLD

It’s okay for John Connor fight the evil Cyberdyne’s Skynet with more firepower than most delta force squads, but a regular Joe who is trying to protect his property from criminals must be fingerprinted. This is the new edict from California’s "Governator" Arnold Schwarzenegger.  The star of such shoot'em ups as “The Terminator,” “Predator,” "Total Recall," and "True Lies,” now apparently does not trust his own constituents to purchase ammunition. Ammunition dealers in California must now fingerprint all purchasers of handgun ammo and keep a record of their sale for the next 5 years. To make sure you don’t try to skip over the database they have modeled this law after a gun law in which all purchases must be done in person, i.e. no online sales, so supposedly no one can fool the system. On top of this you must also provide photo ID to verify that these are your finger prints. They even were trying to make all dealers selling over 50 rounds a month to be registered with the state, but this provision was stripped in a “compromising” deal. The new law goes into effect in February 2011. This new bill raises many questions, besides the obvious question of "What are you thinking?" Some question I have are, what about current ammo stockpiles. Will they need to be registered? Will police conduct campaigns to search for them and force complience? All I know is that this typically does not end in more liberty nor safety for law abiding citizens.


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Ryan Gilroy's picture
By Ryan Gilroy at 3:49PM

California's Reality Check

It was roughly 30 years ago that Gerald Ford told New York his famous two word response for when they asked for a bailout of New York City:  DROP DEAD.

Might Obama say the same thing to California?  The state's spendthrift government has in its favor the power wielded by the Californian Speaker of the House and Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the latter of whom was a major cosponsor of the Cap and Trade bill.

Whether or not Obama would take Ford's line may shortly be seen: Politico reports that California is hoping to use TARP funds for a one time fix for the state to deal with its massive $24 Billion deficit.


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