Author: viamedia
California Attorney General Rob Bonta sues Huntington Beach over voter ID. “The city will vigorously uphold and defend the will of the people.” Huntington Beach’s city attorney, Michael Gates went on to say “the people of Huntington Beach have made their voices clear on this issue.” A measure on the ballot in March allows the city to require voter identification, increase in-person voting sites and monitor ballot drop boxes in local elections. Voters approved the measure by 53% according to county election data. “They have greatly overstated the authority they think they have,” said Bonta. “They have willfully violated the…
Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón Is Handing Out Overdue Promotions Prompting Deputy DAs To Question His Motives George Gascón, the controversial District Attorney for Los Angeles County is on the ropes. Polls show the progressive DA has a negative view from a majority of voters leading into the November election. After two recall efforts, and nearly all his prosecutors against him, Gascón needs support wherever he can get it. Is he mounting a comeback from within? Sources say yes. Gascón’s soft-on-crime progressive policies have led to negative press, but most notable are the lawsuits that came out against the…
No more drought, but use less water. Strong Sierra snowpack, but you must conserve. Ample rain, but still, we need you to save resources. “We’ve been successful in conservation to the point where our sales are declining, and we need to make that up somehow,” says the Metropolitan Water Department (MWD) board chair Adan Ortega. The MWD chair says the quiet part out loud: conserve, conserve, conserve, and your rates will still go up, up, up. They will get theirs. On April 9, 2024, the MWD board of Southern California approved a $2.4 B budget and increased water rates by…
The Wall Street Journal is reporting the US is scrambling at least two warships to protect Israel and American forces in the region. An attack from Iran in retaliation for Israel’s attack on a diplomatic building could occur anytime. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, publicly threatened retaliation for the Damascus strike and Israel disrupted local GPS networks that can be used to guide weapons. US officials fear that an Iranian strike against Israel could prompt an Israeli response inside Iran that may spark a regional conflict and draw in America, whose forces and allies in the Middle East could…
The only state where gas prices continue to surge is California. The cost per gallon in the Golden State is up 23 cents to $5.27 per gallon in less than a week. The nationwide average is $3.54 per gallon, up 4 cents a gallon during the same period. California’s regulations for renewable fuels is the reason. Tom Kloza, energy analysis at OPIS, points to refinery challenges as the main culprit for California’s surging prices, including an important Phillips 66 refiner in the Bay Area halting gasoline production in favor of renewable diesel. And soon all the oil producers may leave…
A flag flying upside down is a signal of distress. The California state flag should be waving bottoms-up today. California, once a booming economic engine with its gross domestic product (GDP) ranking as the fifth largest in the world, is slipping. The California Business Roundtable predicts the state’s real GDP will slip below India from the fifth largest to the sixth. In 2022 the Roundtable predicted California would spring to the fourth largest GDP above Germany. But the economic engine has stalled and California’s GDP was rated 32nd in the US in 2023. Here’s why: Will California recover? Not anytime…
Landlords in LA have been on the hook for their tenants back rent following a barrage of COVID policies delaying payment for years. But just as the light can be seen at the end of the tunnel, darkness appears again. February 1, 2024, is the last deadline for tenants to pay back rent owed between Oct 1, 2021 to Jan 31, 2023. But days before the deadline the LA City council passed a new motion delaying the deadline another 120 days for those approved for rent relief funds but have yet to receive them. Now landlords may not get paid…
California has 940 school districts, the most of any state in America. By comparison, Florida has just 63. A California lawmakers audit in 2014 shows district consolidation would save hundreds of millions of dollars in the annual school budget. For example, each of those 940 districts has it’s own administrators. In California a superintendent is paid roughly $200,000 a year – that’s 190 million dollars from the state school budget annually. Add assistant superintendents and that’s another 90 million dollars, totaling almost $300 million a year spent on school administrators in California, not students. Money that could help California schools…