From a Subscriber: The Modern Church Service

PASTOR: “Praise the Lord!” 

CONGREGATION: “Hallelujah!” 

PASTOR: “Can we please turn on our tablet, PC, iPad, smart phone and Kindle Bibles to 1 Corinthians 13:13. And please switch on your Bluetooth to download the sermon.” 

P-a-u-s-e… 

PASTOR: “Now, Let us pray committing this week into God’s hands. Open your apps, BBM, Twitter and Facebook — and chat with God.”     Read more »

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California’s Revenue Cup Continues to Runneth Over

Net state income tax collections for April climbed to $10.1 billion through April 18 — $1.5 billion more than needed for the $138 billion budget proposed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown to remain in balance.

Brown’s January budget plan called for the state to receive $13.3 billion in net income tax receipts in April but because of nearly $5 billion more than expected in January tax payments, only $8.5 billion was necessary in April to stay on target.    Read more »

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The Rest Is Gravy — April Tax Receipts Keep Budget Balanced

The Franchise Tax Board reported another $2.9 billion in state income tax payments on April 17 bringing the month’s total net receipts to nearly $9 billion.

That’s very good news for state budget writers because it means – at a minimum — Gov. Jerry Brown’s January budget plan remains balanced.

“With month-to-date (state income tax) collections, net of refunds, now approaching the $9 billion mark, California has surpassed the $8.5 billion total for the month that was necessary to remain on track with the administration’s most recent revenue estimates,” the Legislative Analyst writes on its website.    Read more »

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The Difference a Day Makes — About $2.8 Billion

California logged more than $2.8 billion in state income tax receipts on April 16 pushing month-to-date collections close to $7.5 billion – less than half way to April’s ’s estimated $16 billion total.

Through April 15th, income tax collections were just over $4.7 billion in withholding by employers and estimated payments by individuals.    Read more »

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California Unlikely to Collect Expected $16 Billion in April Tax Receipts — And No One Cares

A record $16 billion in income tax revenue will flow into state coffers during April, according to predictions in Gov. Jerry Brown’s January budget plan.

About $5 billion of that $16 billion comes from higher taxes approved by voters in November through Proposition 30 — $4.5 billion in taxes owed for 2012 and $500 million in estimated payments for what’s due next April.    Read more »

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Lawmakers Back More Money to Confiscate Illegal Weapons from Californians

The state Department of Justice is likely to win legislative approval by the end of April to use $24 million in registration fees paid by gun owners to speed up taking away weapons from Californians prohibited from owning them.

Emergency legislation is awaiting action on the Assembly floor that would earmark the money, already collected by the department, to enforce the findings of its Armed Prohibited Persons System, which has identified 38,563 handguns and 1,647 so-called assault weapons in the hands of 19,770 Californians, such as felons or the mentally ill, who the law says can’t possess them.    Read more »

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Margaret Thatcher Remembered

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.”

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“Any woman who understands the problems of running a home will be nearer to understanding the problems of running a country.”

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“If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a  woman.”    Read more »

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Sacramento Has Apparently Been Annexed By Los Angeles

Eric Garcetti is running for Los Angeles mayor “with a focus on job creation and solving everyday problems for LA residents,” his campaign biography says.

He was president of the Los Angeles City Council from 2006 to 2012. 

Additionally, the biography notes that Garcetti was raised in the San Fernando Valley, graduated from Columbia University, was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and the London School of Economics and taught at Occidental College and the University of Southern California.    Read more »

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Of Foreign Relations and Testosterone

“Foreign relations, to a great extent, has a lot of male testosterone involved,” U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein said April 4 in San Francisco.

The comment by the senior senator from California came during an answer to a question about tensions In North Korea at the University of California at Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies annual Salon Gala dinner.     Read more »

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A Fairer Way to Fund Schools

By Christopher J. Steinhauser 

Hanging on the wall just outside my office here at the Long Beach Unified School District is a framed, yellowing copy of a budget for a local grammar school from 1913.  Created with pencil and ruler, the budget is a simple ledger of revenue and expenditures. It takes up just one page.    Read more »

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