Posts in "California"

By Devon Minnema at 3:17PM

Jan 3, 2011

AFP Video on CA's Public Pensions

You think you have it bad in __________ state? Take a look at what we have to deal with in California!

Hat tip to Halfway to Concord.

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Ryan Gilroy at 10:47AM

Dec 6, 2010

Nit-picking Nanny Statists

After reading about California's "Recycling Ambassadors" and their job description, I've come to realize that the state of California has truly reached the breaking point:

A little-known regulation is costing the city's taxpayers at least $1 million a year to employ trash cops to root through bins and tag residents who don't separate the paper and bottles from the coffee grounds and chicken bones.

In an era in which the City of Angels is trying to stay afloat with a budget deficit projected at $330 million for 2011-12, a dozen uniformed "recycling ambassadors" armed with clipboards are busy traversing the city trying to get residents to dump recyclables in their blue bins, trash in the black and landscaping in the green.

Tellingly, when the reporter question city council members about the regulaton in light of budget deficits, the officials essentially refused to answer questions.

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Shaun Bowen at 11:35AM

Oct 13, 2010

Everyone who is involved in politics knows that it is those with committed activists willing to make calls, stuff letters, and organize events that truly drive either candidate and legislation to their desired goals.

If you support California's attempt to legalize marijuana use, you can now help out from the comfort of your own home.

Sign up today here to make calls to push not only for the California initiative but also to help support the medical marijuana pushes in multiple other states this election year.

Join the fight; take action; and be the change you want to see.

Posted in:

1 comment

By Peter Anthony Tariche at 9:08AM

Aug 16, 2010

YAL Southern California Meetup

We are having the first annual YAL Southern California Meetup on August 18, 2010. The goal of this meetup is to learn from other YAL organizations in the area, share ideas, events, and successes; also, coordinate speakers and events to lower costs for the coming year. We also want to invite others who are interested in starting a YAL group at their university to attend.

Both Adam Weinberg, the new West Coast Regional Director of Young Americans for Liberty, and Ankur Chawla, the Southern California Students for Liberty regional coordinator will be present.

We are meeting at Lee's Sandwhiches (near UC-Irvine) 4127 Campus Dr. Irvine, CA on August 18th at 2pm.

Posted in:

1 comment

By Adam Fowler at 8:29PM

Jul 5, 2010

California's Balance Between Free Speech and Property

Over at my personal blog, I've posted more on California's approach to balancing free-speech and property rights. That topic stems from the comments thread from a post I made on the YAL blog last week concering a suit against a California mall for restricting speech.

Here is an excerpt from the new post:

One notable point made in the comments thread involved the case of Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980).

In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states could extend rights beyond that of the U.S. Constitution so long as doing so does not violate rights protected by the Constitution. The case dealt with the California Supreme Court ruling that their constitution’s protection of free speech allowed for individuals to exercise their free-speech rights in a private shopping mall, despite the wishes of the mall owners. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed with the California Supreme Court that this did not violate the mall owner’s property rights under the fifth and fourteenth amendments.

Read the entire post here.

Posted in:

Add new comment

By Wesley Messamore at 1:57PM

Jun 9, 2010

End California's Three Strikes Law

According to Stanford's Criminal Defense Clinic, "Over 4,000 inmates in California are serving life sentences under the Three Strikes law for committing non-violent crimes."

This article first appeared at CAIVN:

In a recent San Francisco Chronicle article, Peter Mandel, a second-year law student, relates the story of Mark, who has been serving 14 years for shoplifting. As Mandel explains, "Had this been [Mark's] first crime, his maximum penalty would have been $1,000 and six months in jail.
Instead, because Mark had committed two burglaries a dozen years earlier, when he was 19 years old, he may be in prison for life." This hardly seems fair to Mark, or like an efficient use of scarce state resources.

Nanny State Comes Back to Suffocate California...AGAIN

When I interned this past semester in Arlington, VA, I didn't notice a ridiculous policy implemented just across the river in the nation's capital: There's a 5¢ fee for every plastic bag you use in DC.

Now the government of California has found a similar way to take money from an economy starving for innovation and freedom. Instead of letting the market reward good behavior like some stores do by giving discounts for people using "green bags" which are far more sturdy and reusable, California has banned plastic bags -- a plan that won't help anybody. Will someone please let these naive lawmakers know that prohibition doesn't work?

Oh wait...if my memory served me correctly, after government banned alcohol, everything was just fine: nobody missed it and crime rates didn't change...

Posted in:

3 comments

By Ryan Gilroy at 11:32AM

Mar 25, 2010

Revenue or Liberty?

California's broke. In fact, it makes my home state of New Jersey almost look financially healthy. The state government is bogged down with massive entitlement spending which it simply can't afford -- and now it's seriously considering legalizing marijuana. I find this situation intersting: Has the state realized that prohibition is an utter failure and that it's foolish to try to regulate vices/victimless crimes? Or is California just trying to find something new to tax to fill its desperately empty coffers?

Posted in:

2 comments

By Devon Minnema at 12:20PM

Feb 16, 2010

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.

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 Times, a field poll from April of 2009 concluded that 56% of California voters want to legalize and tax marijuana.

Posted in: