Subject: State and Provincial Budgets

• 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 crime David Boyd, Wendy Leece (Costa Mesa City Council), Ben Stein, Alan Mansoor (Costa Mesa CC), sheriff's lieutenant Ron Cunningham (from which sheriff's agency, Lordy knows), "Don't Call Me" Shirl

  November 7, 2006

• Your Tax Dollars on the Campaign Trail

  Well, Arnold promised to be a different kind of governor when he ran for office back in the recall election, and he is. In some ways. In June, Governor Schwarzenegger's office put out a press release marking the 62nd anniversary of the D-Day invasion, and hailing the heroism of the US troops. This was a little surprising, since Arnold had ignored the 60th anniversary in 2004 (as well as the 61st the next year), but maybe it shows the different kind of thinking Arnold brings to the office-- he

  September 5, 2006

• Numbers, Numbers (and a semi-Nun)

  First for some numbers that aren't as big as you might think, or others might want you to think. If California were a separate country, it would have the world's sixth-largest economy, one hears time and time again. The governor even repeated the We're Number 6 bleat in his State of the State speech last week. Turns out, the Sixers, from Schwarzenegger on down, have been using out of date numbers. The Los Angeles Daily News reports: California's economy no longer ranks No. 6, but rather is t

  January 15, 2007

• Them That's Got

  If you belong to one of the groups targeted for a good squeezin' called on to sacrifice in the governor's budget plan-- college students, public school teachers, families on welfare-- rest assured that the truly needy will still be well taken care of. Kate Folmar reports in the San Jose Mercury News: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to boost spending on his personal office next year by more than 5 percent, even as a lean budget prompts him to limit welfare grants and ask college students to pay

  March 26, 2007

• Change in the air?

  This is certainly a refreshing development, although the participation of a gubernatorial candidate smacks of political posturing. NEW REPORT ON COMPANIES IN CALIFORNIA, ELSEWHERE TO FIND WIDE DISPARITY IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESPONSES; INVESTORS WILL PUSH POOR-PERFORMING FIRMS TO SHAPE UP NEWS ADVISORY - March 21, 2006 -- A first-ever comprehensive assessment of a half-dozen of California's largest companies on their handling of climate change risks and opportunities is the subject of a major new

  March 17, 2006

• Let the Schwarzenegger Dirty Tricks Begin

  Like any good Republican--and only good Republicans--we got to participate in a telephone poll last night. One of the first questions the young lady on the other end of the line asked was, if the election was held today, who would I support, "Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Governor of California, or Phil Anga ... Angluuuuh ... Auuuunglish ... I'm sorry, I cannot pronounce his name." "Angelides?" we offered. "Oh, is that how you say it? Angelides, the state treasurer." Now, truth be told, we don't kn

  August 18, 2006

• Wrongly Imprisoned OC Man Wins State Payment

  For Buena Park's James Ochoa, the indescribable agony of spending 16 months locked in the Orange County Jail and a California prison for crimes he did not commit is a bit less painful today. This afternoon, a state board in Sacramento voted 3 to 0 to award Ochoa nearly $30,000 in compensation in one of the final chapters of a bizarre law enforcement case. (Witnesses at the scene say board member Rosario Marin, a member of the governor's cabinet, argued against the payment but must have recorde

  April 22, 2008

• State Taxman Pops Buena Park Doctor and Wife for Alleged Fraud

   The state Franchise Tax Board (FTB) reports today that physician John S. Han, 61, and his wife Sonya Han, 55, were arrested on felony counts of Medicare fraud and filing fraudulent state income tax returns after a search of their Buena Park home. According to FTB special agents, Mr. Han, who owns John S. Han, M.D., Inc. and operates Pain Medical Center in Norwalk, billed Medicare for more than $10 million in services from 2001-05 but failed to report more than $6.2 million in i

  February 5, 2009

• DeVore Scoffs at Budget Data Suggesting Orange County Uses More, Spends Less for State Services

  Assembly Budget Committee chairwoman Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) released data from the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) that suggests cuts under the state budget plan approved Thursday morning could hit Republican areas hardest because they use more government services, while the tax burden falls more heavily on Democratic leaning counties. Evans' analysis rubs Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) the wrong way, Malcolm Maclachlan reports in Sacramento's Capitol Weekly

  February 20, 2009

• Commie Girl

  February 2, 2006

• Wrong Side of the Tracks

  July 14, 2005

• Tax Man Tran

  July 14, 2005

• Letters

  November 6, 2003

• Foster-Child Meat

  July 17, 2003

• Santa Ana Teachers Protest Funding Shift in State Budget

  ​Teachers from the Santa Ana Unified School District are among educators from 13 low-income school systems protesting at the Capitol in Sacramento right now over funding that may be lost with the enactment of the 2009-2010 state budget.The Quality Education and Investment Act was established in 2006 to provide additional resources to help eligible low-performing schools reduce class sizes, provide more support to students and increase student achievement. More than $402 million from the state'

  September 2, 2009

• Secret Code In Arnold's Letter to Legislature: F.U.

  Arnold and lawmakers have never really gotten along, and that's been even more the case over the past few years of California's budget metdown. So it's not too crazy to read into even the seemingly polite communications between the two...

  October 28, 2009