The Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort — Part 2

A former Bank of America that opened in 1906, L’Opera, the 101 Pine Ave. Long Beach restaurant where Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has dinner the night before First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, is swamped by conference attendees.

Nevertheless, the hostess accommodates both O’Connor and her team of marshals.

Dinner conversation is varied.    Read more »

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“What Were the Voters Thinking?”

This is the name of a poll released November 3 by Cheryl Boudreau and Scott MacKenie through the University of California at Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs. It examines how much influence policy considerations and the position of a voter’s political party influence decision-making.

As to the title, the political scientists pose an excellent question.    Read more »

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One Presumes They Wouldn’t Be Anything Else…

(An e-mail from Tom Angell, media director for the “Yes on Proposition 19” campaign, regarding voter turnout. Proposition 19 would allow localities to legalize and tax marijuana:)

“I’m told by organizers on the ground that youth turnout is so high that the polling location at San Diego State University has completely run out of provisional ballots.     Read more »

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The Confessions of a Women’s Conference Escort — Part 1

Spending a day and a half with Sandra Day O’Connor, it’s quickly apparent why Ronald Reagan nominated her in 1981 to be the first woman Supreme Court justice in United States history.

O’Connor, 80, describes herself as an “unemployed cowgirl” when receiving an award for her trail-blazing career at California First Lady Maria Shriver’s Women’s Conference, making it easy to understand her appeal to Reagan, an accomplished horseman and believer in the sort of values one expects to find in an Arizona rancher’s daughter.    Read more »

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You Know the Mood Is Ugly Out There When…

On the back of a tanker truck tooling down Interstate 80  is a vintage “Uncle Sam Wants You” poster with the inscription:

“I Want You to Fire Incumbents. If They’re In, Vote Them Out.”    Read more »

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Yet Another Daunting Problem for California’s Next Governor

Besides a projected budget shortfall of $21.3 billion in their first year in office, California’s next governor also faces an unemployment insurance fund that will end 2011 at least $13.4 billion in the red, according to the state Employment Development Department.

The insolvency of the fund, which is financed through employer contributions, will have an impact on the state’s cash-starved general fund next September when the state owes the federal government $362 million in interest on loans from Uncle Sam that have allowed the fund to keep issuing checks to out-of-work Californians.    Read more »

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California’s Unemployment Rate Remains at 12.4 Percent

SACRAMENTO – California’s unemployment rate was unchanged at 12.4 percent in September, and nonfarm payroll jobs decreased by 63,600 during the month, according to data released October 21 by the California Employment Development Department from two separate survey.

The U.S. unemployment rate also was unchanged in September at 9.6 percent. In August, the state’s nonfarm payroll jobs were revised upwards 44,200 for a total gain of 10,700 jobs, with the unemployment rate at 12.4 percent.    Read more »

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A Yardstick to Help Measure the State of the State’s Economy

California New Car Sales on a Slow But Steady Recovery

SACRAMENTO – The California New Car Dealers Association  announced that registrations of new cars and trucks in California continued to increase through the third quarter.

“Serious car buyers are returning to the market and fueling the California auto industry’s slow but steady recovery,” said Peter Welch, the association’s president.    Read more »

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Given the Voter Registration, This Is Probably a Good Thing

(Editor’s Note: According to one of the Sacramento lobbyists for the Service Employees International Union, approximately 40 percent of its state employee members are registered Republican,  just as Roger Niello is.

Niello, one of three Republicans vying to fill the 1st Senate seat left vacant by the July death of Dave Cox, might also get a favorable nod from the other 60 percent of the union’s state employee members who are Democrat or decline-to-state — assuming the allegation in the mailer is true and assuming SEIU’s members vote with their pocketbooks.    Read more »

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If Proposition 27 Fails, a Redistricting Commission Is Near

Proposition 27 on the November ballot would eliminate a 14-member citizens commission, approved by voters as Proposition 11 in November 2008, that’s charged with drawing the district lines for California’s 80 Assembly seats and 40 Senate seats.

Propositon 27 was placed on the ballot by the California congressional delegation which would have its lines drawn by the commission if voters approve Proposition 20, also on the November ballot.    Read more »

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