Ask About the Jellyfish

It’s bound to happen, just given the odds. This year’s class of legislative freshmen is the largest since 1966 when the Supreme Court’s one-man, one-vote ruling changed how state lawmakers were elected. One-third of the 120 members of the Legislature are new.

Given that volume – and California’s unique diversity – there must be some legislators with interesting backgrounds. There are. But only one is a member of the Half Century Club.

There are 64 members of the club, which is comprised of individuals 50-years-of-age or older who have swam the English Channel and other marathons. Assemblyman Mark Stone, a Santa Read more »

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Whole Lotta Prisons Goin’ On

Freshman GOP Assemblyman Danny Gilmore knows prisons. The retired California Highway Patrol assistant chief should. Seven of the state’s 33 prisons are located in the 30th District. That’s 21 percent of California’s prisons, for those keeping score at home.

The district – 6.3 percent of southern Fresno, all of Kings, 11 percent of western Tulare and 31 percent of northern Kern counties – is home to Avenal State Prison, Wasco State Prison, Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California State Prison and California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility/State Prison in Corcoran and the Kern Valley State Prison and North Kern State Prison, both in Delano.

That doesn’t even count the three Read more »

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The S-Man Cometh

Who says Republicans are melons? 

Assemblyman Cameron “Word-to-Your-Mother” Smyth was way crump the other night at Fiona Ma’s karaoke fund-raiser. So ill was the always dap S-Man that he totally overstood Vanilla Ice’s “Ice, Ice Baby.” 

Check out the hook while my DJ revolves it: 

Yo, vip, lets kick it! 

Ice ice baby, ice ice baby

All right stop, collaborate and listen

Ice is back with my brand new invention

Something grabs a hold of me tightly

Then I flow like a harpoon daily and nightly

Will it ever stop? yo — I dont know

Turn off the Read more »

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