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By Charles M. Phipps on January 29th, 2018 
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any crazier in California, one of their leading politicians steps up to the plate. Ian Calderon, the Democratic majority leader in California’s lower house has decided that the big problem his state needs to address is straws. Yes, straws. Not taxes, not immigration, not crime, not the abysmal California budget. Straws.
Calderon has introduced a bill to stop restaurants from offering their customers a straw unless they ask for one. The penalty set forth in the bill for giving an unrequested straw is up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. I suppose they think the thousand dollars isn’t much since Nancy Pelosi said a thousand dollars is just “crumbs.”
Calderon said in a press release that his bill is designed to “create awareness around the issue of one-time-use plastic straws and its detrimental effects on our landfills, waterways, and oceans.”
Six months in jail and $1,000. For […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on January 13th, 2016 
Earlier this week the Supreme Court heard arguments in Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, a case that asks whether public workers who are not members of a union can be forced to pay “fair share service fees” in order to cover the cost of collective bargaining. A group of California teachers is suing to end the compulsory fees, which costs them $650 per year instead of the $1000 that union members pay. Both the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times have articles indicating that the tone of the proceedings seemed to indicate a majority of the Justices would be voting to overturn a 1977 Supreme Court ruling that allowed the fees.
Los Angeles Times– “Everything that is collectively bargaining is within the political sphere,” Justice Antonin Scalia said.
So the key question, according to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., is “whether or not individuals can be compelled to support political views that they disagree with.”
On Monday, […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on April 4th, 2013 
California Congresswoman Jackie Speier, Democrat, wants to federalize a state law that protects pedophiles. No, that’s not the main part of the bill, known in California as SB1172. Speier’s bill is designed to prohibit counseling to change a person’s sexual orientation. “Sexual orientation change efforts’ means any practices by mental health providers that seek to change an individual’s sexual orientation,” the bill says. Under the bill’s language, a mental health counselor could be sanctioned if there was an attempt to get a pedophile or gay individual to change his behavior or speak negatively about their behavior as it relates to sexuality.
When the law was passed in California, Republicans did attempt to add an amendment specifying that pedophilia is not covered as an orientation, but the Democrats defeated the amendment. What the Democrats either failed to realize or didn’t care about was that, by labeling pedophilia a sexual orientation, discrimination laws apply and pedophiles cannot be barred from jobs such […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on September 9th, 2011 
Today being the 161st anniversary of California’s admittance to the Union, I thought it would be a good time to see how things are going on the left coast. Not very well, it appears. California has recently made the news for a bill expected to become law that would require parents to provide workers’ compensation benefits, rest and meal breaks and paid vacation time for…babysitters!
Under AB 889, household “employers” (aka “parents”) who hire a babysitter on a Friday night will be legally obligated to pay at least minimum wage to any sitter over the age of 18 (unless it is a family member), provide a substitute caregiver every two hours to cover rest and meal breaks, in addition to workers’ compensation coverage, overtime pay, and a meticulously calculated timecard/paycheck.
This is just one item on a long list of California stupidity I read recently:
#1 For seven years in a row, a major survey of U.S. CEOs has ranked […] → Keep reading
By Charles M. Phipps on August 10th, 2011 
California Governor Jerry Brown has signed legislation that allows California to join seven other states in awarding all the state’s electoral votes to the presidential candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide in a general election. Currently, all 55 of California’s electoral votes are awarded to the ticket that receives the most votes in the state.
The change will occur only if it is adopted by states with a majority of the electoral votes in the country. The other seven states who have already enacted the change are, with their number of electoral votes: Vermont (3), Massachusetts (11), New Jersey (14), Maryland (10), Illinois (20), Washington (12), Hawaii (4) and the District of Columbia (3), for a total of 132 of the 270 needed electoral votes before the measure will take effect. Proponents of this multi-state compact are hoping to have enough states adopt the measure in time to have it effective for the 2016 election.
Governor […] → Keep reading
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