Facebook’s Fall Takes Toll on State Revenue

On August 17, Facebook shares closed at $19.05.

Projections by Gov. Jerry Brown’s Department of Finance upon which the current state budget is premised say in November Facebook stock will trade at $35. The Legislative Analyst’s estimate is $45.

If those predictions are true then the state will pocket $1.2 billion, the Department of Finance says, and $2.1 billion by the analyst’s reckoning.    Read more »

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Today’s Latin Phrase Is A Good Yardstick for Politicians

Bonitas Non Est Pessimis Esse Meliorem  

“It Is Not Goodness to be Better Than the Worst.”    Read more »

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Flinders

Noun: “Bits, fragments or splinters.”

Used in a Sentence: “This is slightly more than budget dust, Madam Chair, it’s more like budget flinders.”

(Sir Matthew Flinders mapped the Australian coast in 1802.)

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‘Yes’ on Proposition 35*

In California, vulnerable women and children are held against their will and forced into prostitution for the financial gain of human traffickers. Many victims are girls as young as 12.

Human trafficking is one of the fastest-growing criminal enterprises in the world and it’s happening right here on California’s streets and online where young girls are bought and sold.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Gary Larson!

Born in Tacoma Washington in 1950, Gary Larson vacationed in San Francisco in 1979 and showed his portfolio of cartoons to the San Francisco Chronicle. The visionary editors were captivated and not only wanted to run his single-panel creations in the Chronicle but syndicate them as well.

They weren’t thrilled with the title, though.    Read more »

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Be The Bookworm

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people who didn’t read all of the time — none, zero. You’d be amazed how much Warren (Buffett) reads — and at how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I am a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”    Read more »

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Will The Governor Nip “Absentee Florists” in the Bud?

An almost perennial effort to prevent florists from misrepresenting the location of their business was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown by the state Senate August  13.

The bill is the fifth such measure in 13 years to prevent call centers, potentially located hundreds or thousands of miles away, from using a local city or neighborhood in their name and duping consumers into believing they are patronizing a “local” florist.    Read more »

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Controller Says Revenue Nearly $500 Million Below Estimates for First Month of New Fiscal Year

SACRAMENTO – Total revenues were $475 million below projections contained in the budget for the fiscal year that began July 1, said State Controller John Chiang on August 13 in his monthly report covering California’s cash balance, receipts and disbursements in July 2012.

“Revenue collections were disappointing for the month of July,” said Chiang.    Read more »

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Too Often Too True

“Those who have not undergone minor disasters are usually being held in reserve for something major.”

— Gore Vidal, Creation    Read more »

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Happy Belated Birthday Governor Stoneman!

George Stoneman was a Civil War general and cavalry commander, who enjoyed national celebrity before being elected California’s 15th governor in 1882.

The highest-ranking Union officer captured by the Confederates, Stoneman is immortalized in The Band’s “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

Levon Helm sings:

“Virgil Caine is the name and I served on the Danville train, ‘til Stoneman’s cavalry came and they tore up the tracks again….”    Read more »

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