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Diane Harkey parties poolside as her husband’s company goes BK

Published on June 19, 2013 by in 2014 Elections, Carmen Cave, Diane Harkey, Orange County, Phil Tsunoda

Harkey's dumb supporters

Diane Harkey is something else.  The termed out Assemblywoman is running for the State Board of Equalization just a few months after her husband Dan filed for bankruptcy to stop a lawsuit that accused him of fraud, ”using investments to fund the Harkeys’ lavish lifestyle, and contributions from developers of doomed projects financed by Point Center Financial to pay for Diane Harkey’s political career,” according to the OC Weekly.  You can read all about the Harkeys and the Point Center Financial scandal here.

Clearly Harkey is the last person on Earth who ought to be running for any office, much less the State Board of Equalization, but that hasn’t stopped a slew of lame Orange County Republicans from endorsing her, including: Read more…

 
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Huff issues a statement on the Legislature’s flip-flop on transparence

Published on June 19, 2013 by in Bob Huff, California, Democratic Party, Orange County, Republican Party, Transparency

Bob Huff

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 19, 2013
CONTACT: Bill Bird, (916) 651-4029

Senate Republican Leader Issues Statement on Legislature’s About-Face on Government Transparency

SACRAMENTO: Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) issued the following statement in response to Democrat efforts to reverse course on a Public Records Act Budget Bill that made some provisions of the state’s Public Records Act optional for local governments.

“Our job as lawmakers is to gain the trust of the public by making it easier for people to understand at all times how government will impact them. Because we believe Californians deserve to have their voices heard, Senate Republicans requested during budget negotiations that all budget trailer bills receive a public hearing in Committee and that they be in print for at least 72 hours. Read more…

 
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Grand Jury reports lead to an FPCC investigation of the OC Supervisors

Published on June 19, 2013 by in Caloptima, Corruption, FPCC, Janet Nguyen, OC Board of Supervisors, OC Grand Jury, OCDA, Orange County, Shawn Nelson, Todd Spitzer, Tony Rackauckas

Cartoon Janet Nguyen

OC Supervisors, CalOptima Under FPPC Investigation

By NORBERTO SANTANA JR., TRACY WOOD AND NICK GERDA, The Voice of OC

The state’s Fair Political Practices Commission confirmed Tuesday that the agency is investigating a majority of Orange County supervisors along with the CalOptima board of directors for potential conflict of interest violations of the Political Reform Act, based on the findings of two Orange County Grand Jury reports filed earlier this year alleging corruption at the highest levels of county government.

The revelation about the FPPC probe spilled out from an emotional public meeting Tuesday where all five county supervisors lashed out publicly at Orange County grand jurors accusing them of using irresponsible headlines to cover badly focused probes that had now triggered state reviews. Read more…

 
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CA Legislature threatening to undermine the California Public Records Act

Published on June 19, 2013 by in California, Jerry Brown, Transparency

Sealed public records

The California Public Records Act (CPRA) is gravely threatened by stealth amendments revealed for the first time yesterday as part of a “trailer bill” to the new state budget. Instead of the relatively minor cost-saving tweaks proposed earlier by the Governor and approved in legislative committees, the actual amending language will gut key transparency safeguards in California’s most important open-government law, according to the First Amendment Coalition.

How, exactly, will the budget trailer bill undercut the CPRA and set back open government? Read more…

 
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Assemblyman Allen’s resolution on the NSA scandal needs our support

Published on June 19, 2013 by in Barack Obama, Big Government, NSA, Orange County, Travis Allen

The NSA is watching us

Assemblyman Travis Allen (R-72-Huntington Beach) will be presenting a resolution on the Assembly floor of our State legislature called AJR-26 and it addresses the NSA surveillance scandal. You can view it on the CA Legislative website, here.

Assemblyman Allen needs our support and attention before this resolution hits the Assembly floor.  You can call his office at (916) 319-2072 or send a fax to (916) 319-2172.  You may also share your opinion online here.

Here is Allen’s official press release on AJR-26: Read more…

 
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Stop the TCA from building the first “segment” of their illegal toll road

Published on June 18, 2013 by in Development, Orange County, Toll Lanes, Transportation

The first five-mile segment of a planned 16-mile toll road through south Orange County and northern San Diego County fails to account for a range of  ecological and economic impacts, according to  a lawsuit filed by the Save San Onofre coalition in May.  The suit asserts that the Foothill/Eastern Transportation Corridor Agency (TCA)’s approval of the flawed toll road project is in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for not meeting basic environmental review, as reported by Surfline News.

Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League, said that “This illegal segment is a desperate attempt to perpetuate a project which is so contrary to the public interest. TCA’s existing toll roads are a financial disaster, and we shouldn’t throw good money after bad.” Read more…

 
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Politico: Rohrabacher advised Boehner against a ‘betrayal’ of GOP lawmakers

Published on June 18, 2013 by in Dana Rohrabacher

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, Actor Steven Seagal. Photo: AP, via Poltico.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (CD46)
Photo: AP, via Poltico.

From the Politico this morning Orange County Congressman Dana Rohrabacher’s drawing his own line in the sand on the House Immigration Bill:

“If Speaker Boehner moves forward and permits this to come to a vote even though the majority of the Republicans in the House—and that’s if they do—oppose whatever it is that’s coming to a vote, he should be removed as Speaker,” Rohrabacher said on World Net Daily radio on Monday…“I would consider that a betrayal of the Republican members of the House and a betrayal of the Republicans throughout the country,” Rohrabacher said.

Read more…

 
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The L.A. City Council votes to ban plastic bags and tax paper bags

Published on June 18, 2013 by in Los Angeles

APBA

For Immediate Release: June 18, 2013
Contact: Molly Pacala, 212-819-4869

Statement from the American Progressive Bag Alliance on the Los Angeles City Council decision to regulate plastic and paper grocery bags

Los Angeles, Calif. – Today the Los Angeles City Council voted to ban plastic bags and impose a 10-cent tax on paper bags, all of which retailers get to keep.

The following is a statement from Mark Daniels, Chairman of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, an organization representing the United States’ plastic bag manufacturing and recycling sector, which employs 30,800 people in 349 communities across the nation, including approximately 2,000 in California: Read more…

 
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Everyone’s a target in the surveillance state

Published on June 18, 2013 by in Barack Obama, Civil Rights, Federal Government, NSA

holder spying

By John W. Whitehead, California Political Review

 

The recent revelation that the National Security Agency (NSA) is collecting the telephone records of millions of Verizon customers, with the complete blessing of the Obama administration, should come as no surprise to anyone who  has been paying attention over the past decade.

As I document in my new book “A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State,” what we are witnessing, in the so-called name of security and efficiency, is the creation of a new class system comprised of the watched  (average Americans such as you and me) and the watchers (government bureaucrats, technicians and private corporations). What too many fail to realize, consumed as they are with partisan politics and blinded by their own political loyalties, is that the massive bureaucracies — now computerized — that administer governmental policy transcend which party occupies the White  House. Read more…

 
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More secrecy issues at CalOptima as mystery check arrives

Published on June 18, 2013 by in Caloptima, Healthcare, Janet Nguyen, Orange County

 Caloptima logo

Mystery Check Leads to More Secrecy Issues at CalOptima

By: Tracy Wood, the Voice of OC

Behind-the-scenes politics at CalOptima, Orange County’s $1.5 billion health plan for low income and disabled residents, took a mysterious turn in late March with delivery of a $90,391 cashiers check, but the sender refused to say who supplied the money. 

A cover letter from Richard Afable, CEO of the recently formed Covenant Health Network, which accompanied the cashiers check, indicated the money was from multiple prominent county health and government organizations that once formed a group to create health programs to help the poor. But he wouldn’t say who donated and influential members of the group denied pitching in. Read more…

 
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