Jerry Brown

Jessica Karp, UCI Adjunct Professor, Seeks to Expose ICE's "Secret" Meetings with Gov. Brown

The American public must be let in on what's going on behind closed doors regarding the federal government's attempts to preserve the full force of its controversial Secure Communities immigration enforcement program, a UC Irvine law professor argues."There's a public right to know about issues surr ... More >>

Orange County Fair Board Feet to be Put to Fire Again at Morning Meeting

Ever since former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger backed the Orange County Fair Board's desire to sell the state-owned property, a good chunk of fun has left the place known for good times since 1949. Let the bad times roll: the Orange County Fair Preservation Society (OCFPS), which has been highly crit ... More >>

[UPDATED with Appeal Withdrawn:] Dr. Lisa Tseng's Over-Prescription Cloud Hangs Over Surf City's Now-Closed Pacifica Pharmacy

See the update at the end of this post about the former Pacifica Pharmacy owner withdrawing his appeal of his pharmacy license revocation.ORIGINAL POST, FEB. 25, 7:30 A.M.: As you've probably seen or read, former Rowland Heights physician Lisa Tseng has pleaded not guilty to three counts of second- ... More >>

Greg Diamond: In the Rough

[Moxley Confidential] The Brea resident prefers digging into another man's marriage rather than focusing on his California senate race

[UPDATED] Orange County Prosecutors Oppose Prison Release For Paul Crowder, 1991 Anaheim Prom Night Killer

[Updated at end of this original Sept. 18 post] Paul Crowder has never taken responsibility for getting drunk and murdering Berlyn Cosman, a 17-year-old high school student on her Anaheim prom night in 1991, but he wants a California parole board to vote to release him back into society on Sept ... More >>

Job Fair Seeks to Help Returning Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans in Dire Need of Work

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan seem to have dragged on forever, but a California job fair aimed at veterans of those and other conflicts is only in its fifth year. "Honor a Hero, Hire a Vet," an initiative begun under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and continued by Gov. Jerry Brown, holds a free job f ... More >>

KCBS Reporter Dave Lopez to Gov. Jerry Brown on California High-Speed Rail: Hold The Phone!

You know professional politicians are in big trouble when mainstream daily journalists openly mock them.Take the case of veteran KCBS/KCAL television reporter Dave Lopez, who late last week reported Gov. Jerry Brown's press conference to celebrate California's new costly, controversial high-speed ra ... More >>

Stephen N. Zack, Past American Bar President, Warns Budget Cuts May Doom Equal Justice

"Equal justice does not mean justice for the rich, for the powerful, for the privileged. . . . It means justice for everyone that lives in this country."-Stephen N. Zack, immediate past president of the American Bar Association and administrative partner at Boies, Schiller and Flexner LLP, during hi ... More >>

Why Do Mexicans Have So Many Names?

[¡Ask a Mexican!] And your last reminder to buy 'Taco USA' before Gustavo gets deported!

Ivan Von Staich: Killer Loses Parole Battle But Wins the Ugliest Mugshot of the Week War

​The ugliest police mugshot of the week comes not from a cop shop or district attorney's office but the California Department of Corrections, which is charged with continuing the incarcerate Ivan Von Staich with the governor's reversal of the Lake Elsinore 56-year-old's parole.For reasons known on ... More >>

California Dream Act Repeal: EPIC FAIL!

​Supporters of a state initiative to repeal the California Dream Act Governor Jerry Brown signed into law last year announced today they failed to obtain the 500,000 signatures required to get a proposition on the ballot. See what happens when you have your Mexican gardener's wife distribute petit ... More >>

Paul Crowder, Who Killed Star Student-Athlete on Her Prom Night, Has Parole OK Reversed by Gov. Brown

​As his predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger did last year, Gov. Jerry Brown has reversed a state parole board decision to release from prison Paul Crowder, who was convicted in 1991 of murdering a brilliant student-athlete from Anaheim's Crescenta Valley High School on her prom night.But Brown stil ... More >>

Jose Solorio and Tony Mendoza, Assembly Democrats, Blasted for "Anti-Business" Bills

Solorio​A proposed law authored by one Orange County assemblyman is being called a big favor for big labor, while legislation from another has powerful California business interests lined up against it.The legislators are Democrats and California Latino Legislative Caucus leaders Jose Solorio of S ... More >>

California DREAM Act Passes State Assembly

​It's a little confusing, but no less a victory for illegal immigrant college students. While the national DREAM Act, an immigration bill aimed at providing a path to citizenship for young people, died in the U.S. Senate--and possibly forever--last year, the California DREAM Act is very much alive ... More >>

John & Ken: Radio's 'Flame-Fanning Populists' Frighten Politicians

Is that you Tom Harman?​The San Francisco Chronicle supplied excellent news this weekend.There is hope after all that this state's inept or corrupt (or, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, a combination of both) politicians and bureaucrats aren't entirely immune from accountability.And what's the cause of ... More >>

Fair Games Over the OC Fairgrounds

The huge swath of public land is in play. But is the whole thing rigged?

OC Legislators Seek Pension Reform, Attack Collective Bargaining in California

​With union-backed Democrats holding the governor's office and both houses of the California Legislature, it's unlikely collective bargaining for public employees will be torpedoed or pension-ending reform will be enacted.But, God bless 'em, three Orange County Republicans are going to try to acco ... More >>

As State Supremes Vow to Rule on Prop 8 Backers' Standing, Tom Harman Tries to Make Matter Moot

Presumably non-gay State Sen. Tom Harman​The California Supreme Court yesterday agreed to analyze whether Proposition 8 proponents have standing to appeal a federal judge's ruling that lifted the ban on same-sex marriages in the Golden State--a legal detour that could delay an appellate decision o ... More >>

Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, Imprisoned Ex-Santa Ana Abortion Clinic Owner, Could Win Early Release, Claim Pro-Lifers and LA District Attorney

​Give Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley credit for this: He knows how to get anti-abortion advocates to do his bidding. Bertha Pinedo Bugarin, the former owner of a Santa Ana abortion clinic where women were once treated like slabs in a butcher shop, was sentenced in 2009 to 10 years in ... More >>

Steven Greenhut Left The Orange County Register for Sacramento, But His Poison Pen Still Stings Jim Silva

​The Orange County Register's longtime columnist and senior editor Steven Greenhut left the Santa Ana daily in 2009 to open a Sacramento news bureau for the Pacific Research Institute, a free-market, individual liberty think tank based in San Francisco. But it's obvious he misses Orange County, o ... More >>

Lou Correa Lets Online Poker Bill Ride

​State Senator Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana) has introduced a bill that would help cut into California's budget deficit by installing an online poker system that aims to generate $1 billion in state revenues and 1,100 new jobs over the next 10 years.Vegas gives it 3-5 odds to pass--or at least Vegas d ... More >>

[UPDATED:] What Court Ruling? OC Fairgrounds Board of Directors Meeting Called For New Year's Day--Now Called Off

Update, December 29, 10:28 a.m.: Meeting cancelled. Attorneys threatened to seek contempt of court if the OC Fairgrounds Board of Directors held its emergency meeting, and they backed off. Going against the ruling of the court is never good business. So, for now, the sale of the fairground ... More >>

Akaninyene Efiong Akan, San Clemente Resident, Tied to Rape in Oakland. No, the Other Oakland

​A San Clemente man is being held for a rape in Oakland.No, not the Oakland of A's, Raiders, Oak Town, Jerry Brown and Epic Beard Man fame, but the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania. Akaninyene Efiong Akan, a 29-year-old Nigerian, is charged with rape, burglary, assault and other crime ... More >>

Sacramento Bee Slams OC's Tom Harman On Anti-Gay Marriage Idea

Harman: pro-zealot?​We learned this year that Orange County state Senator Tom Harman shamelessly used personal connections in the local district attorney's office in a plot to steal the weighty if deceitful ballot designation "prosecutor" in his campaign to win the Republican Party primary for Cal ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Election 2010: Coker is Spun, Polled, Teabagged

​1:28 p.m.: Orange County agreed with state voters on most ballot initiatives, although more of us did want to keep choking on polluted air until the unemployment rate drops and most like the state budget approval process to remain fucked-up, thank you very much (probably because many are philosop ... More >>

Meg Whitman, Direct From My Mailbox

​Four fliers delivered to my mailbox this afternoon bring to mind instant images of Meg Whitman, your Republican nominee for governor of California. What follows is the actual order I pulled these fliers out of the box at Casa de Coker:

Racist OC Register Reader Fustercluck of the Day

​Headline: Latino Study: Likely to Vote Democrat, Low Voter MotivationComment by CRANKITUP: Take a close look at the picture in the headline. Is that what you want California to look like. Btw anyone who tells you that illegals are unable to vote in this election are lying through their teeth it's ... More >>

[UPDATED:] Will Maid's "Explosive Allegations" Sink Meg Whitman's Latino Outreach?

​UPDATE: New details throughout . . . Billionaire Meg Whitman exploited a Latina housekeeper the GOP nominee for California governor knew was in the country illegally, alleged celebrity lawyer Gloria Allred this morning, setting off an array of charges and counter-charges.

UPDATED: Prop 8 Judge: Same-Sex Weddings Can Resume ... on Wednesday

Law.UCI.eduChemerinsky​UPDATE: The dean of the UCI Law School does not see grounds for an appeal of the stay against gay weddings in California (see below) . . . U.S. District Court Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker in San Francisco today lifted the stay on same-sex marriages in California--beginning ... More >>

First a Victory, Now a War

Same-sex marriage supporters and detractors react to Proposition 8 ruling, what happens next

Hot Air, Mad Men and Hog Slopping at the California GOP Convention

Carly Fiorina--the former Silicon Valley CEO and current U.S. Senate candidate who ruffled the feathers of Irvine assemblyman and fellow Republican nomination seeker Chuck DeVore with her campaign's "demon sheep" ad--apparently scored a big hit at this past weekend's GOP state convention in Santa Cl ... More >>

Orly Taitz to Run for Office?

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen to be replaced by Orly Taitz?​ Anti-Obama crusader Orly Taitz may be finished with her lawsuit in the Orange County federal courthouse, but that doesn't mean we're done seeing her around here.In fact, Californians may get to know her even better in 2010- ... More >>

High Bid for Orange County Fairgrounds is Low

​It was revealed today that Craig Realty Group of Newport Beach was the high bidder in the state's auction of the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa--with a bid that was much lower than the $96 million to $180 million the 150-acre property had been expected to fetch.The owner of several outle ... More >>

Another Probe Deferred for Mike Duvall

​Assembly Speaker Karen Bass won't do it. Attorney General Jerry Brown won't do it.And now, California's official political watchdog institution, the Fair Political Practices Commission, has announced it, too, will not be making an official inquiry into the conduct of drippy, disgraced former Asse ... More >>

Another Day, Another Dropped Mike Duvall Investigation

"Open Mike" Duvall​A day after the Assembly Ethics Committee and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass announced they will not go after disgraced former Assemblyman Mike Duvall, California Attorney General Jerry Brown revealed today he doesn't plan to investigate the Yorba Linda Republican either.In other D ... More >>

Sanchez for Governor: I'm In, I'm Out, Maybe I'm Back In, Perhaps Not

Several thousand words into Mark Leibovich's 8,000-word New York Times Magazine piece titled "Who Can Possibly Govern California?" our own superstar Latina of Congress pops up briefly.Recently I called Loretta Sanchez, the outspoken and increasingly visible Democratic congresswoman from Orange Count ... More >>

The Party's Over

State GOP chairman Ron Nehring: "Lease, don't buy..." The state GOP's "Victory Night Party" (hah!) was over before it started. Driving over to the Hyatt Regency Irvine to make the 8:30 p.m. start time, I was talking on my Bluetooth to my brother in San Francisco when he informed me John McCain was ... More >>

Weenie Roast

Allen Baylis, you and your fellow nudie burgers just won the right to continue sunbathing in the buff at Trail 6 on San Onofre State Beach. What are you going to do next? "We'll probably have a barbecue at the beach this weekend." What, you thought they were going to Disneyland? Baylis, a Huntin ... More >>

Jerry, Be Wary

AG Brown: Investigate Santa Ana Renaissance Plan's conflict-of-influenza, por favor

Less than an hour until the polls close...

... and I'm soooooo confused. I was out of town last Thursday through Sunday, and when I returned there were 17 messages on my phone from the likes of Pete Wilson, Dick Ackerman, Hillary Clinton, someone yammering about Jessica's Law, the Nguyen running for an OC school board seat and his partner in ... More >>

Eddie Rose on "The Good, the Bad & the Ugly"

Eddie Rose writes: "In California this year, we have--with one notable exception--the WORST slate of candidates, including a man who can't pronounce the name of the state he claims to serve! Were it not for the importance of several ballot propositions, it probably wouldn't make much sense to go to ... More >>

Arnold Uber Alles!

Mine Kampf

Orange home project plagued by the law that time forgot

What Gives?

Bye, Tim Carpenter

Letters

Shut Up and Take It

Joan Didions insiders guide to the insiders

I, Cardenas

More evidence that Orange County justice is just plain scary

October-December

Eeeek!

Fire-breathing bands and fictional porn stars

Fringe Benefits

Web gives all gubernatorial candidates a forum