California

California’s politicians dream of ecotopia, but fire victims just want to rebuild.

What is 'vote harvesting,' anyhow? And why did Arizona ban it?

Federal forest (mis)management is high on the list of reasons.

Plus, when Mission Impossible meets Paddington Bear.

The GOP can’t even win in Orange County.

Another meme, another falsehood.

George Soros, the Rothschilds, and Harold Wilson walk into a bar...

A 60-count federal indictment was only a slight impediment to reelection. Whether he serves out his term is another question.

There are questions as to whether she will serve the entire six years.

In California’s 8th, both candidates are on the right. But which is Trumpier?

Are California’s Democrats really charting a future path for the rest of the country?

With an eye toward helping its native sons (and daughter), California moves its presidential primary.

His district is just that red.

Plus, how the CIA blew its cover in China.

The National Park Service’s skewed teaching on Japanese internment.

Things have gotten bad in California. So bad, in fact, as the New York Times recently reported, that some not insignificant number of San Franciscans are actually thinking of . . . voting Republican. The streets are filthy, crime is on the uptick, and government services are in decline. Add to that…

Cleaning up a misleading claim about two bills signed into law.

Victorino Matus: From toast to fancy guac, the green fruit’s moment is ripe at last.

Solar perplexus.

In Sierra Pacific v U.S., the court can undo an injustice committed by the DoJ.

What makes the mayor of highly polluted, crime-ridden, poorly run Los Angeles think he should run the country?

On March 29, California superior court judge Elihu Berle ruled that most coffee sold in the Golden State will have to bear a warning label stating that it may increase the likelihood of cancer. Roasted coffee contains traces of the carcinogen acrylamide, and so Californians, if the ruling stands,…

The Commerce Department announced Monday night that the administration would reinstate the question of citizenship for the 2020 census, a contentious move President Donald Trump’s Justice Department has urged since the early days of his presidency.

American liberals love the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech” clause. They remember their brave forerunners—muckraking journalists, civil rights activists, religious and political dissidents—and venerate the constitutional right that enabled their eventual vindication. Yet it’s striking how…

Liberals love the First Amendment’s “freedom of speech” clause. They rightly remember their forerunners—liberal journalists, civil rights activists, religious and political dissidents—and venerate the constitutional right that eventually vindicated these brave citizens. Yet it’s striking how often…

On election night 2016, political activist Jess Self wasn’t in much of a partying mood. She’d just spent four days knocking on doors in neighboring Nevada. Her efforts helped elect a Democratic U.S. senator and representative and pass two controversial ballot measures.

The Issue with Steve Hayes. Want to know what is in this week's magazine? Lucky for you, our editor Steve Hayes is putting together a brief video preview. Check it out here.

Charlie and the Tide Pod Challenge. Over at McSweeney's, there's some fine content (as usual) mocking the young kids who are sticking Tide pods in their mouths.

A “best practice” among those who spread false information is sloshing it around with the tiniest bit of truth. Some, however, ignore this and go straight to peddling absolute falsehoods.

Readers may remember Charlotte Allen’s September 12, 2016, cover story on high-speed rail in the Golden State: “Bullet Train to Nowhere: The Ultimate California Boondoggle.” Allen memorably visited “a 1,600-foot viaduct spanning the Fresno River on the rural outskirts of Madera,” which was just…

Facebook users questioned the validity of multiple articles covering a movement in California that recently declared independence from the state.

If there’s one modern pricing phenomenon The Scrapbook loathes, it’s the add-on surcharge—a deceptive little proviso in the consumer/service-provider compact whereby the latter essentially says to the former, “We’re going to fleece you, but not tell you by how much until later.” There’s nothing…

For many California families, the accelerating housing crisis affects not just their budget, but their way of life. Every year over the past decade, the state estimates, 100,000 fewer units of housing have been built than were needed to keep up with demand. The result has been spiraling housing…

In the game of electoral addition, Republicans find themselves calculating a doubtful future in California. A dizzying carousel of unfavorable statistics reminds the national party that the Golden State, once reliably red, is now hostile political territory. Decades of changing demographics,…

When I got back from India in April 1969, I knew instantly everything had changed. A ’60s commando with a backpack, I could feel it even before I got out of Kennedy Airport: an aura of resentment, a light smog of paranoia, a lurch in the American vibe I’d left the year before when everything seemed…

When I got back from India in April 1969, I knew instantly everything had changed. A ’60s commando with a backpack, I could feel it even before I got out of Kennedy Airport: an aura of resentment, a light smog of paranoia, a lurch in the American vibe I’d left the year before when everything seemed…

It's always a source of delight when liberal pieties collide. Which is what happened last week in Laguna Beach, California, when Art had it out with the Environment—and Art lost. What made the contretemps doubly delicious was that the art in question had been promoted as an environmental statement.

We are living through the golden age of the cinema of Sacramento. Oh, you didn’t know there was such a thing? There is. It’s new. Very new. In 2015, the Sacramento radio station NOW 100.5 could find only eight movies filmed in part in Sacramento over the previous 30 years, and in all of them it was…

Broadcasting from the heart of California’s San Joaquin Valley, KUFW-FM offers a mix of regional Mexican and ranchera music, the sort popularized by Selena, Los Tigres del Norte, and Vicente Fernández (aka El Rey de la Canción Ranchera). And there are commercials—lots of them—advertising everything…

The Sacramento statehouse, according to conventional wisdom, is a bellwether for social policies that soon sweep the nation. This week, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed the legislature's attempt to give Obama-era Title IX guidance the force of law that it never had nationally.

In 1894 San Francisco dedicated an elaborate monument to the history of California, a vast pile of granite and bronze paid for by the estate of philanthropist James Lick. Last week San Francisco took a step toward getting rid of it.

In 1894 San Francisco dedicated an elaborate monument to the history of California, a vast pile of granite and bronze paid for by the estate of philanthropist James Lick. Last week San Francisco took a step toward getting rid of it.

The Scrapbook visited Los Angeles for the first time around 20 years ago, and it was a delightful experience in most every way. One oddity stood out, though: the sheer number of homeless people. We don’t mention this to denigrate the needy, but the experience of being approached on nearly every…

As white supremacists go, Joey Gibson makes for a lousy one. For starters, he’s half Japanese. “I don’t feel like I’m Caucasian at all,” he says. Not to be a stickler for the rules, but this kind of talk could get you sent to Master Race remedial school.

On a rainy afternoon in late November 2012, Matthew Kelley, a project manager for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, pulled his truck over to the side of a road in Tehama County in northern California.

Some people endeavor to live an eco-friendly life. But why should your environmental activism stop just because you die? California legislators are debating a bill that would give morticians permission to dispose of corpses in a relatively new way—one in harmony with nature—known as “water…

Some people endeavor to live an eco-friendly life. But why should your environmental activism stop just because you die? California legislators are debating a bill that would give morticians permission to dispose of corpses in a relatively new way—one in harmony with nature—known as “water…

Cambria, Calif.

Cambria, Calif.

Bhavini Bhakta loved her union—until she got to know it. As a fifth-grade teacher in southern California’s Monrovia Unified School District, she put her trust in her local chapter. But after Bhakta’s principal had to fire and rehire her six years in a row because of a nonsensical seniority law, she…

Jurupa Valley, Calif.

The rhetoric on the Republican bill in Congress to overhaul Obamacare has been a bit overheated, to say the least. Specifically, the preferred criticism of the bill seems to be that it will kill hundreds of thousands of people.

Some of the entertainment coming out of California these days is simply outstanding.

California’s quest to tax itself into oblivion looks to be taking another great leap forward, with the state legislature approving a plan that will hike gas taxes by 12 cents a gallon. That will solidify the state's standing as one of the highest gas-taxers in the nation. Add requirements for…

California politicians aren't sitting around waiting to see what becomes of Obamacare reform on Capitol Hill; the state Senate Health Committee voted 5-2 in favor of a single-payer bill for Californians on Wednesday.

How to persuade liberal, regulation-crazed California to ease up? Market your libertarian pet project as the ultimate in political correctitude. Also, find some Democrats to sponsor the legislation you need to ditch those irksome regulations and get your project off the ground.

Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren voiced her opinion on the controversy behind conservative pundit Ann Coulter's visit to the University of California, Berkeley.

California tries diligently to be an environmental leader. From spending billions of dollars building a high-speed rail system to nowhere to forking over tens of millions each year on urban forestry—code for planting trees in cities—the state has not shied away from spending big on green goals.

On March 28 California attorney general Xavier Becerra threw the book at anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. The penal code book, that is. Becerra's office charged the pair, famous for their undercover Planned Parenthood recordings, with 14 felony violations of California…

On March 28 California attorney general Xavier Becerra threw the book at anti-abortion activists David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt. The penal code book, that is. Becerra’s office charged the pair, famous for their undercover Planned Parenthood recordings, with 14 felony violations of California…

Non-Californians need not apply. That’s the message the University of California system sent last week, when it proposed to limit out-of-state residents to just 20 percent of student slots at its flagship schools. At UC campuses with higher rates of out-of-state students—at Berkeley, for example,…

To hear governor Jerry Brown tell it, California is all that stands between Washington and the ruin of the nation. In his recent "State of the State" address, Brown promised to defy Donald Trump, fashioning it as a great patriotic quest: "When we defend California," Brown said, "we defend America."

To hear governor Jerry Brown tell it, California is all that stands between Washington and the ruin of the nation. In his recent “State of the State" address, Brown promised to defy Donald Trump, fashioning it as a great patriotic quest: "When we defend California," Brown said, "we defend America."

On January 6, a 27-year-old woman, Emilie Inman, was stabbed to death inside her home in Berkeley, California, and another Berkeley woman was stabbed on the street, allegedly by the same assailant, a UC-Berkeley student named Pablo Gomez Jr., who was arrested the next day and remains in custody.

The January 6 stabbing death of 27-year-old Emilie Inman in Berkeley, California, and the arrest of the alleged killer, 22-year-old University of California-Berkeley undergraduate Pablo Gomez, Jr., who is suspected of stabbing another young Berkeley woman although not fatally, remains shrouded in…

When it comes to pushing the Donald J. Trump panic button, hardly anyone has been more industrious than just-retired Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California).

A leading House Democrat called on his party to reconsider its political strategy ahead of the 2018 elections and praised incoming president Donald Trump for making a "smart" political decision by convincing an American manufacturer to keep some jobs in the United States. Adam Schiff, an eight-term…

If you have had food delivered to your home or office from a favorite restaurant that doesn't offer in-house delivery service, chances are you've used a service called GrubHub.

Opponents of the death penalty have made a serious tactical error. Rather than stress what is by far their strongest argument—the partially persuasive claim that the government should not, ethically, be in the business of killing people—they have instead stressed the "cost" of executions. The fact,…

We’ve heard some weird political arguments this year. The strangest of them is raging in California, where else? There the hotly contested question revolves around an electoral initiative known as Proposition 60.

Darrell Issa has been in plenty of fights since entering politics, but he's never had to battle for reelection. The Southern California Republican has rarely had a serious challenger in his eight terms in Congress and has never won less than 61 percent of the vote in a primary—until this June.

California is one of the newest parts of North America. Not long ago—just a couple hundred million years ago, which isn't much on a geologic timescale—North America ended, roughly, in Nevada. To the west of Nevada was the Pacific Ocean, and in it, a great chain of islands that no longer exists. The…

Darrell Issa has been in plenty of fights since entering politics, but he’s never had to battle for reelection. The Southern California Republican has rarely had a serious challenger in his eight terms in Congress and has never won less than 61 percent of the vote in a primary—until this June.

In truth, farmers and environmentalists should be allies. The environmental and agricultural communities have more in common than conventional wisdom might suggest. Both desire to preserve our planet and its resources for future generations. I am not shy about saying farmers are the original…

In truth, farmers and environmentalists should be allies. The environmental and agricultural communities have more in common than conventional wisdom might suggest. Both desire to preserve our planet and its resources for future generations. I am not shy about saying farmers are the original…

Sacramento

Sacramento

Liberal members of the California Assembly are outraged today after Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill that would eliminate sales taxes on women's hygiene products. Proponents of the bill have misleadingly dubbed their bill as a solution to the "tampon tax" — though there is no specific tax on…

Madera, Calif.

A piece of California legislation, unanimously approved by the state assembly and just waiting for the governor's pen, would relax the definition of rape to include any non-consensual sexual contact.

Strange things are afoot at the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), an agency housed within the Department of the Interior tasked with managing the nation's vast swaths of publicly held land.

In a press release, Los Angeles mayor and Hillary Clinton supporter Eric Garcetti announced a partnership with the American Institute of Graphic Arts and other non-profits to "launch [a] targeted 'get out the vote' initiative featuring Edward James Olmos."

A bill targeting California's religious colleges was effectively declawed on Wednesday, after sustained vocal opposition from legal scholars, lawmakers, faith leaders, and university presidents.

The California state assembly is seeking to weaponize Title IX, the Higher Ed Act's anti-discrimination rule, against religious colleges. The proposed legislation, SB 1146, seeks to require religiously affiliated colleges and universities to advertise their exemption from Title IX, and would expose…

Pasadena, Calif.

Hillary and Bill Clinton will hold eight events in California Friday, days before the primary, in an attempt to thwart the threat of a Bernie Sanders victory there.

Before Memorial Day, the California state legislature is expected to vote on two bills restricting religious liberty. One, AB 1888, would cut off public grants to all colleges and universities without policies specifically protecting gay, lesbian and transgender students from any form…

On three separate occasions, I’ve written about the determined struggle of one man in the face of appalling political correctness, anti-Americanism, and bureaucratic senselessness. In Orcutt, California, about an hour north of the Reagan Ranch on the beautiful Central Coast, Steve LeBard has been…

The bottom line from a reported minimum wage agreement in California? No one knows how it'll be affected.

In California news, activists are angling for a new “wildlife overpass" to allow mountain lions to cross L.A.'s busy 101 Freeway. This would help boost the population and health of the big cats by making them more mobile and thus diversifying the leonine gene pool. The cost is estimated to be $38…

It's been news in recent days at left-leaning organs like The Nation that in the waning days of the Obama administration, there are still dark, cobwebbed sections of public law that need to be cleansed of their misogyny.

Since the arrival of Christmas break and J-Term, the screaming campus hordes of November have largely gone the way of summer soldiers and sunshine patriots. The dropping temperatures transform outdoor protests into events suitable only for those of the most iron resolve. Still, there are…

California is reeling from a drought, rather like the one suffered by Israel in 1998-2002. California, with an 840-mile coastline on the world's largest ocean, has a water shortage; Israel, with a mere 170-mile coast line, does not. Israel invests in desalinization; California is building a…

Congressional lawmakers and presidential candidates are currently debating criminal justice reform, offering to lessen the legal consequences for “non-violent drug offenders.” For most, the underlying motive is compassion for drug offenders, giving them the chance to avoid a criminal record. Yet…

California governor Jerry Brown gave signs in a Wednesday interview on CNN that he may be considering running for president.

Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a Republican candidate for president, will address the Ronald Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, on Monday evening on her foreign policy outlook. In her speech, Fiorina will discuss how as president she would broker a "new deal" with…

Actor Tom Selleck has shirked California’s restrictions on water use in a pretty deplorable way. The Los Angeles Times reports,

Not all Californians believe that drought is the greatest threat to their state’s future. Early this month, a bipartisan group of current and former local officials filed the “Voter Empowerment Act of 2016,” a statewide ballot measure aimed at reforming the politics of public pensions. Its passage…

Los Angeles

Over the past decade, huge improvements in hydraulic fracturing techniques used to unlock natural gas deposits have lowered energy prices and boosted the economy. They’ve been great for the environment, too. While it’s not pollution-free, gas produces almost none of the particulates and much less…

California’s terrible drought has become -- like just about everything else in the United States -- a political issue. Many liberals have taken to blaming anthropogenic climate change for the drought, while some conservatives have placed the blame at the feet of “liberal environmentalists.” The…

For your further enlightenment, two news stories on page one of last Sunday’s New York Times. One begins a long report on California’s water problems, attributed to a drought rather than bureaucratic mismanagement. A list of past “catastrophes” that state has survived ends with “budgetary collapse…

Supporters of Carly Fiorina, the former Hewlett Packard CEO and Republican Senate candidate from California, have started a new political action committee ahead of a possible Fiorina presidential run. The PAC, called Carly for America, will be separate and distinct from Fiorina's Unlocking…

One of the underappreciated problems of the growth of the regulatory state is that rather than clarifying the rules of the road for companies and consumers, regulations often simply beget more regulations. A textbook example can be seen in the evolution of so-called "sharing economy" firms, and how…

The White House launched a new campaign this week to build support for President Obama's executive action on immigration. Although the campaign is to feature state-by-state advantages weekly over the new few months, one of the purported nationwide benefits of the president's actions is what amounts…

Back in the late 1970s, when I worked for Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan, our office followed the changing data about the Empire State closely.  It was a habit of Pat Moynihan’s, indeed almost an obsession, to chart the state’s decline.

California senator Dianne Feinstein told CNN this morning that she'd be "flattered" if Michelle Obama is considering a run for her Senate in 2018:

The editors at the San Francisco Chronicle have endorsed Republican Pete Peterson for secretary of state in California. Here's an excerpt from the endorsement:

Los Angeles

A Democratic congresswoman told her colleagues at a House hearing Wednesday morning that the debate over a bill that would grandfather in otherwise canceled group plans under the Affordable Care Act reminded her of a comedy skit about "whiners."

In a recent edition of Kristol Clear, a weekly newsletter (you can sign up for free here), the boss mentioned an instance of some homeland heroics by a group of Marine volunteers. When a California wildfire reached Camp Pendleton last month, a group of Marines volunteered to save a dozen large,…

It appears that in the age of Obamacare, no health care plan is safe.  Not even one covering California farm workers and named after Robert F. Kennedy. 

It's not just veterans at VA hospitals who are having trouble finding care. One young Marine veteran in California can't find a doctor who will accept his Anthem Blue Cross insurance plan he purchased through Covered California, the state's Obamacare exchange. KPIX-TV reports:

The Los Angeles Times has endorsed Republican Pete Peterson for secretary of state of California. Here's an excerpt from the endorsement:

Beverly Hills has banned fracking. Which makes it "the first municipality in California to prohibit the controversial technique for extracting natural gas and oil from underground rock deposits," according to Reuters.

The Republican party's best chance to win a statewide office in California for the first time since 2006 all started with a check for $800. Pete Peterson’s wife Gina is graphic designer in Santa Monica who owns her own business, a limited liability company. Last year, she was getting ready to pay…

Los Angeles

The Washington Post reports that Sandra Fluke is preparing a run for Congress in California. 

Doug Kmiec has had an amazing political journey. Today a chaired professor at Pepperdine Law School, Kmiec has traveled nearly the full gamut of public life: He worked in the Office of Legal Counsel under both Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush and pursued an active career teaching law, at Notre…

A local reporter finds a California woman who, since enrolling Obamacare, can't find a doctor:

Atherton, Calif. 

San Bernardino is a smallish city to the east of Los Angeles but a judge's ruling yesterday that it is, indeed, insolvent will reverberate loudly across the country in all those jurisdictions where political power was bought by promises of future benefits that are now coming due and cannot be…

Republican Andy Vidak, the newly elected California state senator from Fresno, won a heavily Democratic and Hispanic district in last week's special election. The Washington Times reports that Vidak succeeded because he and other local Republicans showed up:

The California inusrance commissioner, a Democrat, is warning that Obamacare could be disastorous. "We can have a real disaster on our hands," David Jones, the commissioner, tells the Associated Press.

New York City

Much will be written about Chief Justice Roberts's opinion for the court in Hollingsworth v. Perry, holding that supporters of California's Proposition 8 lacked constitutional "standing" to defend in federal court California's ballot initiative against same-sex marriage. (Whether or not same-sex…

President Obama called the plaintiffs of the Prop. 8 Supreme Court case while they were being interviewed on MSNBC:

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The press pool reporter passes along an email with the subject line, "Secret Service on Santa Monica College shooting reports." President Obama is currently at a Democratic fundraiser in Santa Monica. And he appears to be completely out of harm's way.

Supporters of President Obama’s overhaul of American medicine are touting the early evidence from California’s Obamacare exchange (still under construction) as good news for their side.  But as the Los Angeles Times notes, the Golden State’s version of Obamacare will mean higher insurance premiums…

The Sacramento Bee reports: 

Will be getting higher. As reported by Chad Terhune in the Los Angeles Times:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD podcast, hosted by Michael Graham, with Ken Grubbs on his cover story, Paradise Lost.

Americans have long had to fight City Hall, but now they have to fight an almost endless list of government bureaucracies at both the state and federal levels.  Occasionally, however, the little guy still wins.

For three years, a private citizen named Steve LeBard has led the effort to build a privately funded memorial in Orcutt, California—a tranquil small town located on the Golden State’s gorgeous Central Coast—to honor military veterans.  And for the better part of those three years, he has run into a…

Phil Mickelson had a bad weekend on the golf course and was almost 20 strokes behind the leader, Tiger Woods, when play was suspended Sunday in the Farmers Insurance Open tournament at Torrey Pines. But as poorly as he hit the ball, it was nothing as to how badly Mickelson misplayed public…

The Associated Press reports that a homegrown terror plot was busted in California.

On November 6 voters in California did something nearly unheard of during the past 30 years: They approved, by a margin of 54 percent to 46 percent, a ballot measure raising state income taxes on the most prosperous Californians and sales taxes on everyone, even though the state’s sales tax is…

‘California is a wonderful state mismanaged by lunatics,” declares Steven Greenhut, vice president of journalism for the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. Anyone who examines California’s economy ought to agree.

The Emergency Committee for Israel has released this ad, targeting Democratic Rep. Lois Capps from California:

Thank goodness the everyday Americans of Main Street, U.S.A. have someone to run on their behalf against the out-of-touch rich guy.  As the Hollywood Reporter writes, the candidate of the exceptionally rich and famous is arriving in town tonight for a $25,000-a-plate fundraising dinner (nearly half…

Just when you thought the state of California couldn't possibly receive any more bad economic news:

San Bernardino on Tuesday became the third California city in less than a month to seek bankruptcy protection, with officials saying the financial situation had become so dire that it could not cover payroll through the summer.  According to the story in the Los Angeles Times, one resident “blasted…

Vice President Joe Biden called California governor Jerry Brown "the smartest guy in American politics" last night at a California fundraiser. Via the pool report:

Michael Barone writes:

Mark Hemingway notes that, "While all eyes were on Wisconsin last night, few people noticed that...residents of both San Diego and San Jose voted to rein in exorbitant public employee retirement packages by huge margins. ... Also worth noting is that these measures had support from key Democrats at…

President Obama is off to California for five fundraising events across two days. The events were, doubtless, scheduled before yesterday's recall election in Wisconsin, the results of which the punditry is analyzing in exceedingly close detail. Their preliminary conclusions that provide the most…

Bloomberg reports: 

This month, the Los Angeles city council is expected to ban single-use plastic bags. “[T]he ban is an attempt by the city to reduce litter,” says the Los Angeles Daily News. But it is likely to reduce something else: jobs.

In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices.

The first GOP presidential poll taken in California in 2012 shows Mitt Romney leading Rick Santorum by just 2 percentage points, which is well within the survey’s 4.6-point margin of error. The poll, taken by SurveyUSA, shows Romney with 33 percent support and Santorum with 31 percent support. Newt…

National Journal: "McConnell Breaks With Boehner, Says House Should Pass Payroll Extension"

iWatchNews: Solyndra and "Bundlers on the inside"

Even as the rest of the country focuses on the economy, the inventor of the scratch-off lottery ticket continues his push to all but eliminate the Electoral College. John Koza’s National Popular Vote (NPV) effort is making unfortunate progress. Just last week, Governor Jerry Brown’s signature…

Los Angeles Times: "Gallup: Obama job rating sinks below 40% for first time"

On Monday, August 8, Governor Jerry Brown finally signed a bill the California state legislature had passed in July—a bill that binds California to “National Popular Vote” (NPV). Which is to say, to the committing of all its electoral college votes in a presidential election to the winner of the…

Residents of California do not have nearly enough insurance to cover rebuilding costs following a big earthquake. One proposal to deal with this problem, a bill before Congress called the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act, would not make things better and would drain billions from federal…

The Los Angeles Times reports:

In tomorrow's special election in California’s 36th Congressional District, Los Angeles city council member Janice Hahn, a well-known Democrat, leads Craig Huey, a Tea Party-backed Republican and businessman. The race, long considered a sure bet for Democrats, seems now to be a little closer than…

Two months ago, I wrote about the plight of a private, Tocquevillian-style civil association in the small town of Orcutt, California. That group, the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA), has raised $60,000 in private donations to build a flagpole — from which the American flag would…

Last week the Supreme Court reentered the business of dubious liberal policymaking with its decision in a case from California, Plata v. Brown. With Justice Kennedy writing for himself and four colleagues, the Court sustained a lower court’s order requiring the state to reduce the number of…

Hmm: "Group Launches Effort To Draft Ryan For WH Bid"

Perry contemplating throwing a 10 gallon hat in the ring?

"My question is, what the hell was the Secret Service agent driving the limo doing drinking a Slurpee while on duty?"

"Want to guess which potential Republican candidate looks ready to pass the pH test on [cap and trade]? Mitch Daniels. In early 2009, when the issue was ill-defined, he was already arguing against it. That's a nice arrow in the quiver the next time he's asked about the 'social truce.'"

Alternate headline: "Honestly, Who Cares?"

In the small town of Orcutt, California, a private association has raised donations to erect a flagpole and monument between a highway exit and a park-and-ride lot, at the entrance to the community’s Old Town section. The pole would hang the American flag, encircled by five pillars, one each for…

"JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR"

Oh goody: "Trump Will ‘Probably’ Run as Independent If He Doesn’t Win GOP Nomination"

While Democrats did well throughout the state of California in last November's election, they didn't everywhere: San Diego took a slight turn to the right.

Dictator from Neptune says capitalism killed life on Mars.

President Obama’s controversial plan for a high-speed rail system took a hit Tuesday as the top California member of Congress, House majority whip Kevin McCarthy, voiced strong opposition to building a new rail line between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Last week Fred Barnes, Robert Poole, and I all wrote about how highways work and how government planning types often try to “improve” them. None of this, however, is new. A friend sends along Joan Didion’s wonderful 1976 essay “Bureaucrats,” concerning the imposition of car-pool (or High-Occupancy…

Over at Reason, Tim Cavanaugh has a lengthy piece in the current issue on California's struggles to rein in public unions. Even though it must have been written well in advance of the current foofaraw in Wisconsin, the timing couldn't be better. Cavanaugh makes the oft-overlooked point public…

Palo Alto

Anyone who proposed even a decade ago that a state should be permitted to file for bankruptcy would have been dismissed as crazy. But times have changed. As Arnold Schwarze-negger’s plea for $7 billion of federal assistance for California earlier this year made clear, the states are the next…

Politico reports that Proposition 19, which would have legalized recreational marijuana in California, has failed:

After former California Democratic governor (and 2010 gubernatorial candidate) Jerry Brown lost the 1992 presidential primary, he was a bit candid about his campaign promises on a CNN program:

Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown attacks Bill Clinton at what appears to be a campaign stop in California:

Jodie Evans is a terrorist sympathizing, America and Israel bashing extreme left-wing activist in California. Evans, also, is a supporter of Democratic California gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. And, apparantely, Brown is a supporter of Evans.

I had the pleasure of traveling to California last week, a place D.H. Lawrence once described as “crazy sensible” because its people think about “just the moment: hardly as far ahead as carpe diem.”

The state of California, a major player in the American textbook market, introduces its students to Islam in the seventh grade. For this purpose, the California State Board of Education has recommended the use of, among others, a world history textbook entitled History Alive! The Medieval World and…