The U-T has the story… “District Attorney’s investigators raided the homes of three Sweetwater Union High School District board members and a former community college contractor today.” Read it all here. The Union-Trib‘s coverage of Sweetwater has been superb. Kudos to Wendy Fry and Ashly McGlone. The school district has seen lots of coverage on Rostra as well, including a …
North Korea’s Kim Jong-il has nothing on Encinitas!
If a fairly creepy “Cult of Personality” is what you’re into, there’s no need to go to North Korea because we have our own right here in San Diego County. Just look to Encinitas where some artists want to plaster 101 banners with the likeness of a recently deceased city council woman and hang them on light posts along public right of way on …
Nathan Fletcher Speaks to REBOOT San Diego
On Friday Nathan Fletcher spoke to REBOOT San Diego. REBOOT workshops are designed to assist members of the military in making the social and career transition from years of service by “re-booting” their skills. The workshop features three weeks of education designed to enhance and build upon their training, experience and skills to prepare them for life after the military. …
Field Poll: CA voters would derail high-speed rail
RICHARD RIDER COMMENT: Bottom line(s) — 1. According to a recent Field Poll, an amazing 64% of California voters want to vote again on state spending for the CA High Speed Rail (HSR) project. Just 30% opposed such a vote. 2. If the vote were held today, 59% would reject the HSR bonds, while only 31% would approve it. Let’s …
Does Maas miss good journalism or is ‘Sinko DeMaio’ his real end game?
Your weekend news aggregator leads off with the most interesting local stories of the week and includes links to stories about statewide politics, presidential politics and social media. A DeMaio Documentary might surface if there is any decent dirt to dig up on San Diego mayoral candidate Carl DeMaio, said Republican developer Fred Maas. The project is in the infant stages …
District 1 Council candidate Ray Ellis to focus on campaign — will step down from SD Retirement Board
After three years’ hard duty as one of Mayor Sanders’ volunteer trustees on the City Retirement board, businessman Ray Ellis (R) today said he will leave the board to concentrate on his 2012 election bid vs. incumbent Sherri Lightner (D). In thanking Ellis for his service Mayor Sanders said, “Ray has faithfully served taxpayers and the City San Diego as President …
Merry Christmas, George Bailey! The Richest Man in Town
WATCH | Its a Wonderful Life Final Scenes Nothing, I mean nothing, brings a tear faster to my eye than the hapless, deeply conflicted and vastly complicated George Bailey played by the affable James Stewart in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Each year, hubs holds my Christmas movie obsession at bay as long as possible. It’s not that he doesn’t love …
Holiday Movies That Did Not Make My Top Ten List
Written by Bob Siegel and originally published by Washington Times Communities. Used by permission December 12, 2011 – One would expect a Top Ten Best Holiday Movies list to be followed by a Top Ten Worst list. But what kind of Scrooge would I be if I made sport of something near and dear to somebody else’s heart? And yet, …
The Jitney Potential: Transportation for the Poor
Last month I did what amounted to a 3-on-1 public debate concerning public transit, sponsored by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. Naturally, I was the “1.” Actually it went well. My core thesis was that passenger rail is terribly expensive, inefficient and inconvenient for the people who most need public transit. Indeed 3/4 of rail transit riders formally were …
Fletcher Gets Failing Grade
For someone who has spent so much time talking about improving performance at schools, Nathan Fletcher should really be looking at improving his own grades. Yesterday, the California Republican Assembly released a scorecard for legislators on a variety of conservative issues. For the second year in a row, Fletcher received the lowest mark amongst all Republicans statewide. His 56% is …
One GOP presidential candidate departs to run as the LP option. No, not Ron Paul.
GOP presidential candidate (and two term Governor of New Mexico) Gary Johnson is leaving the GOP to run for President as a Libertarian. His frustration and being omitted from the debates and the polls finally drove him out of the Republican Party. Frankly I doubt it will have an effect on the outcome in November 2012, as few vote for …
California exports booming! And that’s a BAD thing.
Today I spoke for a few minutes on a conference call to state tax experts, lobbyists and activists across the nation — one of several speakers on a call sponsored by the Tax Foundation. It was an awesome audience. And I DO mean awesome — I was thoroughly intimidated. Let me tell you one thing — they LOVE California! Especially …
Special 2 Day event to aid SD’s Military Families — Brittany Catton reports SD Foundation helps Armed Services YMCA’s Toy Drive
Good morning ASY Supporters! The San Diego Armed Services YMCA is excited to announce the kick off of the first-ever GiveBIG San Diego online giving event with the San Diego Foundation! Starting now (December 14th) through tomorrow at 7pm, you can donate securely online to the San Diego Armed Services YMCA. The San Diego Foundation will match donations made during …
DeMaio Requests to Hear Water Department Billing & Customer Service Problems
I released the following memo yesterday requesting the NR&C committee to hear about customer service problems at the water department. As elected leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that taxpayers and ratepayers receive the level of customer service that they deserve, and we are currently not measuring up. MEMORANDUM DATE: December 13, 2011 TO: Councilmember David Alvarez — Chair, Natural Resources …
Rostrafarians can’t agree on PPIC survey
It’s a sad day when the bloggers here can’t agree on something as basic as a tax increase. Three different blog posts today on the PPIC survey, which shows support for Gov. Brown’s tax proposal, yet our bloggers disagree on what to call the poll’s methodology. Check out the three headlines here. Dubious? Dishonest? Incompetent? Which is it? We’d better …
Incompetent Polling on Brown’s Tax Hikes
Lest you get depressed over the stupidity in the headline in today’ U-T that a big majority approves of Jerry Brown’s proposed tax hikes, let me return you to reality, and a much better outlook. Here is the main quote. Nearly two-thirds of Californians favor Brown’s tax hike, but fewer than half of them think he’s doing a good job …
Dishonest PPIC poll on CA tax increases omits adverse effects
Below is a link to an op-ed/press release I wrote and posted on the FlashReport GOP website concerning the bogus PPIC tax increase survey. I posted a similar item on my Facebook page earlier, but this piece fleshes out the topic and, more importantly, is now on a website for sharing. I also emailed it to media up and down …
Chairman Fletcher Convenes Second Meeting of Select Committee on Job Creation for the New Economy
Chairman Nathan Fletcher and members of the Select Committee on Job Creation for the New Economy today were joined by experts and entrepreneurs as they probed the barriers to job creation in the new economy. Members heard testimony from representatives of UCSD, CONNECT, BIOCOM, Terra Verde Solar, investors and others who provided their first-hand experience creating jobs and insight to …
Fleischman on the Dubious PPIC Tax Survey
Regarding the news that a “big majority supports Brown’s tax increase plan” (UT headline), the FlashReport’s Jon Fleischman provides some insight… The results of a public opinion survey are totally dependent on the questions you ask. You can ask a question that you know will has a very positive answer, such as “Would you like prices to be lower to …
DeMaio to Campaign Against Gov. Brown’s Tax Increase in 2012
Says Sacramento Should Focus on Fiscal and Pension Reform Instead “Even as I campaign for Mayor, I intend to fight Governor Brown’s tax increase because it will only hurt working families and further damage our local economy. Instead of tax increases, Governor Brown should adopt the reforms I’m proposing here in San Diego such as pension reform, cutting wasteful spending, …
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