Here Comes Skippy Care. You Have to Pass It To Know What’s In It.

And So It Begins. This will be fun.

—————————————–    ~   Steve  ~  ————————————

CVS Ordering Workers To Reveal Weight, Health Info.

March 21, 2013 12:37 AM

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/03/21/cvs-ordering-workers-to-reveal-weight-health-info/

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) — Pharmacy giant CVS has told workers in the Bay Area and around the nation to reveal their weight and other health information, or pay extra for health coverage.

The company announced Wednesday what it called “A Plan for Health,” that features a mix of rewards and penalties for employees.

Among the measures, employees must report their weight, body fat, cholesterol, blood pressure and blood sugar levels. Workers must also be tobacco free or enroll in an addiction program by next year.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=8672154

Employees who refuse will have to pay $50 more for health coverage each month, totaling $600 a year.

In a video released by CVS, a top executive said the plan is progressive and cutting edge. “These changes aren’t just about costs, they’re about us, each of us taking personal accountability for our own health,” said Lisa Bissacia, Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer.

“(CVS Executives) better get some pretty good legal counsel and decide whether your policy is really legal, because the policy as announced is not legal,” said Richard Schramm, a Bay Area employment lawyer.

Schramm told KPIX 5 the company is trying to tell employees what they can and can’t do on their off time.

“If we granted that right to employers, employers could tell employees who to date, who to see, what kinds of foods to eat, what to drink, all kinds of behavior off site could be controlled. And that’s absolutely not the law in California,” he said.

KPIX 5 tried talking to employees at a CVS location, but they refused to comment on the plan.

Company officials said personal information is given to WebMD, and that CVS will not have access to employee’s personal health information.

 

 

This just in: Sen. Holstein (ain’t that a cow?) Feinstein coming for your guns

You have to admit it looks like that ugly, buffalo breath, no talent hack, who should have been put out to pasture 30 yrs ago.    :D    

But how do you really feel, steve?

The Senate Judiciary Committee has approved a controversial ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, but the measure faces nearly certain defeat on the Senate floor.

The proposal, authored by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), bans 157 different models of assault weapons, as well as magazines containing more than 10 bullets.

The vote was 10 to 8, with all Democrats supporting and all Republicans opposed. 

For more information… http://www.politico.com

Keep ‘em oiled boys and girls

-Steve

Will the last one to leave CA please turn off the lights…

CHEVRON…is leaving California, heading for TEXAS

Front Page: Chevron is California’s largest corporation, but it seems to be making the move to becoming Texas’ largest corporation instead.

Employees at Chevron’s San Ramon corporate headquarters received an unexpected email yesterday. It notified them that a quarter of their jobs are being moved from California to Texas.

That’s 800 jobs out the door which gives Chevron a larger presence in Texas than it still has in California.

Forbes noted that Comcast shut down its Northern California call centers this year, citing “the high cost of doing business in California.”Some 1,000 workers lost their jobs.

Campbell’s Soup, which padlocked its Sacramento factory, displacing some 700 workers. The company decided to move production to Texas, North Carolina and even Ohio of all places.

Anywhere but California. The new motto is no longer “Go West, Young Man.” That dates back from the days when you could escape over-regulated areas for a fresh start in the West. Now it’s “Go East, Young Man.”

Forbes magazine this month ranked California one of the 10 worst states for businessbased on six factors: business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life.

The Mercatus Center, “Freedom in the 50 States,” ranked California’s regulatory climate the fourth worst among the states. California has the fourth-highest tax burden, according to a study by the Tax Foundation. And energy costs here in the Golden State are 33 percent above the national average.

But surely this is another problem that can be solved with more taxes. If we just invest more money in the schools, then the next generation of Californians will be divided between those who stay and collect welfare checks and those who get the hell out.

I say they get what they vote for. Combine low information voters approving Proposition 30 and corporate taxes down, I wouldn’t be surprised if more businesses start leaving the state.

h/t Laura

DCG

CA releases rapist, costs too much to care for him

Court orders the release of ‘repulsive’ quadriplegic rapist from prison because it costs too much to take care of him

DailyMail: California prison officials are releasing a quadriplegic rapist whose care costs the state $625,000 per year, despite concerns that even paralyzed he remains a threat to those around him. The San Diego appeals court has ordered the release of Steven Martinez under a medical parole law designed to reduce prison costs.

He applied for the release in 2011, but was initially turned down as a public safety risk. In the rejection, the Board of Parole Hearings agreed that Martinez required round-the-clock nursing care but also had a history of verbally assaulting and threatening his prison caretakers, who characterized him as an ‘angry, repulsive person,’ to the L.A. Times. A state appeals court also worried that given his history and behavior, Martinez would seek the help of others to harm people if he was released.

In October an appeals court in San Diego rejected that decision as unreasonable and ordered his release. Martinez will be sent to an undisclosed facility pending a 10-day review before being fully released from the state’s custody, said corrections spokesman Luis Patino.

Martinez was sentenced to 157 years-to-life in 1998 for a vicious assault in San Diego in which he rammed a woman’s car, kidnapped her, and raped her repeatedly.He was paralyzed a decade ago in prison when another inmate stabbed him in the neck and sliced into his spinal cord.

Martinez’s mother, Norma Martinez, has vowed to take care of him at her home in Clairemont – a prospect that’s been met with mixed reaction from her neighbors. ‘It’s a definite issue and I will have to keep a real eye on things that [are] going on around here,’ neighbor Gregory Smith told 10News when Martinez first petitioned for release. ‘It’s a concern.’

Still others said Martinez’s condition made him safe enough. ‘[It] doesn’t really bother me because he’s in that state,’ neighbor Irene Walden said. ‘He can’t go out and rape anybody.’

During his 1998 court hearing one victim said she never wanted him to be released. ’I don’t ever want him to get out of jail because I don’t think I would feel safe. I don’t feel safe still,’ said the anonymous woman.

And just who is going to pay for his care when he is released? His mom? Or the taxpayers?

I find it unreasonable that a criminal is released and his full sentence is not served.

DCG

Californians are just plain nuts

Proposition 30 wins: Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax will raise $6 billion to prevent school cuts

Mercury News: Overcoming decades of anti-tax sentiment in California, Gov. Jerry Brown’s Proposition 30 — billed as a tax hike to rescue the state’s schools — has emerged victorious in surprisingly decisive fashion.

The measure led 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent with all precincts around the state reporting results by Wednesday afternoon, according to the Secretary of State.

With some ballots left to be counted, the difference was 717,960 votes — hardly a landslide but more than anyone expected in what was supposed to be a very tight race. Some pollsters were even leaning toward predicting a defeat for the measure in the weeks before the election.

Brown declared victory in a rally just before midnight Tuesday and the opposition conceded Wednesday morning. “We had a lot of obstacles,” the governor said. “We overcame them.” He added: “I know a lot of people had some doubts and some questions: Can you really go to the people and ask them to vote for a tax?‘ Here we are. … We have a vote of the people, I think the only state in the country that says, ‘Let’s raise our taxes, for our kids for our schools, and for our California dream.”’

Proposition 30 will raise the state’s sales tax by a quarter of a cent for four years starting Jan. 1 and increase income taxes for people who make at least $250,000 by up to 3 percentage points for seven years, retroactive to the start of the 2012 tax year. It is projected to raise an average of $6 billion annually for the state’s general fund and education to prevent nearly $6 billion in “trigger cuts,” mostly to education, this year.

It is the first general tax Californians have passed in two decades.  “While we are disappointed in the outcome of the campaign, the voters have spoken,” the No on 30 campaign said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We congratulate Gov. Brown and his team on their victory and thank all the small business owners, taxpayers and other groups from every corner of the state for their extraordinary commitment to the ‘No on 30 campaign.”

Brown has made Proposition 30 the hallmark of his administration, spending the year trying to convince voters that California schools have reached a breaking point and need taxpayers to come to the rescue. “It sold itself,” he said at a victory party in Sacramento. “The core reason it brought people together was a belief in schools and universities and the capacity of government to make wise investments that benefit all of us.”

Los Angeles County, the Bay Area and coastal areas supported the measure while inland and rural areas rejected it. The biggest support was in liberal San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Alameda counties, while the largest opposition was in little Modoc County at the northeast tip of the state.

Brown’s campaign has raised more than $40 million, mostly from teachers unions and other labor groups. Some business groups, most school districts, celebrities and the state’s major newspapers also endorsed the measure, saying a tax increase was needed to balance the state budget and prevent schools from chopping days or even weeks off the school year.

“If Prop. 30 doesn’t pass, we’ll be looking at huge class sizes and a lot of major cuts,” Kevin Thompson, a teacher in Union School District in San Jose who took time off from teaching to campaign for the measure, said if Proposition 30 had failed, “we’d be looking at huge class sizes and a lot of major cuts.”

Meanwhile, anti-tax groups led by Palo Alto physicist Charles Munger Jr., son of billionaire businessman Charles Munger, and an Arizona group fought hard to defeat the measure. They argued that the state was wasting money on high-profile projects such as high-speed rail and did not need more tax money.

Brown’s approval of $69 billion high-speed rail line, the discovery of a hidden pot of state parks funds and other problems made Brown’s effort harder.

With a state budget deficit of over $16 Billion, Californians really want to pay more taxes and entrust the state to invest their money wisely?  Maybe if the state had learned how to invest wisely to begin with, the state wouldn’t be in such a financial crisis. 

DCG

California State knows best for your child

State bans gayhomosexual-repair therapy for minors

San Francisco Chronicle: California has become the first state in the country to ban controversial  therapy practices that attempt to change the sexual orientation of minors after  Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill  to outlaw them Saturday.

The bill, SB1172 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance (Los Angeles County), bars mental health practitioners from  performing so-called reparative therapy, which professional psychological  organizations have said may cause harm. Gay Homosexual rights groups have labeled them  dangerous and abusive.

“This bill bans non-scientific ‘therapies’ that have driven young people to  depression and suicide. These practices have no basis in science or medicine and  they will now be relegated to the dustbin of quackery,” Brown said in a  statement to The Chronicle.

National gay homosexual rights organizations had been lobbying the governor intensely to  sign the therapy ban. The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay homosexual, bisexual and transgender  rights organization, sent Brown a petition with nearly 50,000 signatures urging  him to approve the measure.

“LGHBT youth will now be protected from a practice that has not only been  debunked as junk science, but has been proven to have drastically negative  effects on their well-being. We commend Gov. Brown for putting children first,  and call on all states to take California’s lead on this issue,” said Chad Griffin, president of the Human Rights Campaign.

Penalty for therapists

Under the new law, which will take effect Jan. 1, no mental health provider  will be able to provide therapy that seeks “to change behaviors or gender  expressions, or to eliminate or reduce sexual or romantic attractions or  feelings toward individuals of the same sex.”

Mental health professionals who violate the law, which applies to therapy for  patients younger than 18, will be subject to discipline by whatever group  licenses them.

The therapy often starts from the premise that a person’s childhood and  parental upbringing has somehow left that person deficient and thus has led him  or her to same-sex attractions. Practitioners often are religious, and gay  homosexual rights groups have derisively characterized the therapy as an attempt to “pray  away the gay.”

As Eowyn noted last October, California law lets 12-Yr-olds get STD vaccines without parental knowledge. Eowyn also pointed out:

Nos. 40 and 41 of the “45 Communist Goals for America” that was entered into the Congressional Record on January 10, 1963, are:

“Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce” and “Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents.”

California, working very hard on owning your children.

DCG

Government’s kids, not yours anymore…

California law barring parents from ‘curing’ gay children moves through  legislature

Fox News: A first-of-its-kind state law that would restrict parents from trying to  “cure” their minor children’s same-sex attractions seems headed to the  governor’s desk.

If both state houses can agree on the final language, the legislation, which  would ban all sexual orientation change effort (SOCE) treatment for minors, will  be sent to Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown for his signature sometime in September.  But, so far, there has been no indication from his office on whether he will  sign the bill into law.

Whatever the governor does, he’s sure to face criticism. Backers see it as a  civil rights issue, while critics say lawmakers are infringing on not only  parents’ rights but also on the mission of mental health professionals.

“[The law] unconstitutionally prohibits speech…violates privacy and personal  autonomy rights, intermeddles in theological disputes, clashes with other laws  and creates significant unintended consequences,” Matt McReynolds,, a staff  attorney with Sacramento-based Pacific Justice Institute, said. “As long as this bill threatens to shame patients and silence counselors,  therapists, psychologists and psychiatrists, we will vigorously oppose it,”  McReynolds told Fox News. “We cannot afford to let the state invade the  counseling room or doctor’s office to dictate what views on sexuality are  acceptable and unacceptable.”

Sponsored by a coalition of gay rights groups led by California Equality the  bill was introduced by State Sen. Ted W. Lieu (D-Redondo Beach).  Lieu told  Fox News his interest in the issue was sparked by a news report he saw on  television in 2011. “The story detailed the harmful impact on vulnerable minors of this kind of  supposed reparative therapy,” Lieu said. “So when California Equality approached  me about introducing a bill to ban that kind of therapy for minors, I jumped at  the chance.”

Lieu also cited studies like the American Psychological Association (APA)  2009 Task Force, which reported SOCE therapy could lead to depression, feelings  of shame, self-loathing, drug abuse, high-risk sexual behavior, anger,  withdrawal and in some cases, even attempted suicide in minor children, if those  same-sex attractions continue to persist.

Libertarian and conservative  political and legal groups including McReynolds’ group and the National  Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), a nationwide  group of conservative mental health providers based in Salt Lake City have  blasted the bill.

David Pickup, a Glendale, Calif. therapist said he’s  been a member of NARTH for more than eight years. He told Fox News that he went  through his own SOCE treatment and uses it to treat his patients. Pickup said that although he’s had thousands of sexual interactions with men,  he never identified himself as being gay. “I describe myself as being a heterosexual man with a homosexual challenge,”  Pickup said, adding that after his own SOCE treatment he had feelings for women  and now only experienced attractions towards men “once in a blue moon.”  Pickup claims that SOCE treatments work to varying degrees on “95 percent” of  his patients and he vehemently opposes SB 1172 as a “violation of parental  rights,” and said the law would have a “chilling effect” on the ability of  therapists to treat their patients.

Brad Dacus, president of PJI told Fox News that whether or not the therapy  is viable isn’t for lawmakers to decide. Parents, patients and therapists should  not be dictated to, he said.  “This is really a serious violation of the constitutional rights of patients  and counselors, a violation of privacy and an outright attack on the rights of  parents to decide what is best for their children,” Dacus said.

Lieu  responded to the criticism by pointing out this was a health issue and his bill  was written to protect the health, welfare and rights of minors who were  experiencing same-sex attractions. “We (the government) intervene all the time to restrict the rights of  individuals and parents regarding health issues,” Lieu told Fox News.  “We pass laws saying minors can’t buy tobacco products; anyone under 21 can’t  legally drink alcohol and we force parents to put their very young children into  car seats while they’re driving,” Lieu said.

While public opposition to the bill has been loud and long, it was actually  opposition to portions of the legislation from mainstream mental health  associations that forced Lieu and the bill’s sponsors to amend it.

Today, the bill only bans SOCE treatments for minors, regardless of their  parents’ desires. Initially, the bill’s sponsors had wanted a total ban on SOCE  in the state. Also cut was a provision that subjected mental health providers to  damage claims and civil suits by their former patients and immediate family  members if they violated the law.

But one major sticking point remained. Randall Hagar, Government Affairs director of the California Psychiatric  Association told Fox News the coalition remained opposed because the bill’s  definition of SOCE was “overly broad and could have inhibited minors from  discussing even legitimate issues, fears and concerns about their sexual  identity with their therapists.”

A compromise was finally brokered that enabled the coalition to move to a  neutral position on the bill, Hagar said. In laymen’s terms, Hagar said, SOCE  was defined as any therapy whose sole purpose or aim was to change a person’s  sexual orientation from same-sex to opposite sex attraction.

Banned SOCE treatments would exclude psychotherapies that provide acceptance,  support, and understanding of clients or the facilitation of clients’ coping,  social support and identity exploration and development, including sexual  orientation-neutral interventions to prevent or address unlawful conduct or  unsafe sexual practices and do not seek to change sexual orientation.

Yes, your children at birth and in your home.  Once at school and at the doctor’s office, not so much.

DCG

Any wonder why California state and cities are broke?

Working hard for the money…

Hermosa Beach Meter Maids Making Nearly $100k?

OC Register: When contemplating the many reasons cities in California and elsewhere are venturing closer to bankruptcy, look no further than the relatively lucrative and often-unjustifiable salaries bestowed on municipal employees – and the lofty pension benefits attached to the high pay.

One of the latest examples comes from the California coastal city of Hermosa Beach, where some community service staffers who collect money from parking meters and manage their operations – positions once widely known as “meter maids” – are making nearly $100,000 a year in total compensation, according to city documents.

There are 10 parking enforcement employees for the 1.3-square-mile beach city southwest of downtown Los Angeles, and they pull down some disproportionate compensation, considering their job functions. In fact, the two highest-earning employees for fiscal year 2011-12 are estimated to have made more than $92,000 and $93,000, respectively, according to city documents provided by Patrick “Kit” Bobko, one of five council members and who also serves as mayor pro tem. Those two have supervisory roles. The other eight parking-enforcement employees make from $67,367 to $84,267 in total compensation.

There are four qualifications for being a city “community service officer,” Bobko told me: “You have to be able to drive a standard transmission; you have to able to handle large animals; you have to read and interpret statutes and regulations; and you have a high school diploma or equivalent.”

According to the city’s job description, these community service officers are supposed “to enforce meter and other regulations governing the parking of vehicles on streets and municipal parking lots; to enforce animal regulations; may drive city buses; collect meters and perform minor meter repairs; perform related work as required.”

The section of the job description that gives examples of job duties reads as follows: “Patrols streets and municipal parking lots and checks vehicles for parking violations; issues citations for parking violations; impound vehicles in certain cases; collects and transports stray dogs to designated holding facilities; investigates complaints for animal control violations; may drive city buses; meter collection and minor meter repair.”

Bobko also wrote in a memo that the retirement costs for these 10 employees “from [fiscal year 2011-12] through their retirement age at 62 was nearly $1.6 million, and the medical costs for these employees from this fiscal year to their retirement at age 62 would be $1,353,827.” Excluding salaries, the [retirement] contributions and medical costs for the 10 employees performing parking enforcement will cost, on average, nearly $300,000 apiece.”

Aside from the personnel costs, there has been criticism from Hermosa Beach Treasurer David Cohn that parking meter operations have been mismanaged. Cohn cited nonfunctioning parking meters, a backlog in disputed parking tickets and problems with the accounting for revenue.

Bobko told me that his concern is that, when taxpayers learn that city employees “are making high wages for low-skilled jobs, they are not OK with it.” That’s especially true when considering these jobs easily could be at least partially automated or even outsourced, for less money.

Bobko is pushing a plan to outsource the city’s parking enforcement operations, which he says will save money, reduce maintenance costs, relieve the city of accounting functions related to parking enforcement, increase efficiency and, perhaps most importantly, increase revenue and “reduce the city’s pension and salary obligations.”

There has been opposition to the outsourcing proposal from Hermosa Beach’s Police Chief Steve Johnson and Councilman Howard Fishman. Both expressed concerns about letting go full-time city staff. Bobko accurately characterized the resistance: “When you outsource, you take away union jobs.”

In this case, outsourcing parking-enforcement duties would benefit the taxpayers among Hermosa Beach’s population of slightly less than 20,000. For an example of how such a switch might work, Hermosa officials could travel about 45 miles south along the coast to Newport Beach, where the city successfully moved to outsource parking enforcement last year.

“We have seen increased revenues with the private company operating the meter program,” Newport Councilwoman Leslie Daigle said. Since Newport made the move, the city “has seen a 24.4 percent increase in parking-meter revenues over last year and salary savings of approximately $500,000 from outsourcing parking meter operations,” according to Tara Finnigan, a spokeswoman for the city.

Public employee compensation and retirement costs are proving unsustainable. More cities in the Golden State and elsewhere need to accept that reality and act on it to avoid fiscal calamity, perhaps starting with the meter maids.

Forget fiscal calamity, it’s all about “union jobs” for some city employees.  Way to serve the public.

DCG

This is what 4 more years of Obama look like

Just ask any Californian or move there!

California’s Not Dreamin’: This Is the Nightmare of an Obama Second Term

By Roger Hedgecock, former Mayor of San Diego

I live in California. If you were wondering what living in Obama’s 2nd term would be like, wonder no longer. We in California are living there now.

California is a 1-party state dominated by a virulent Democrat Left enabled by a complicit media where every agency of local, county, and state government is run by and for the public employee unions. The unemployment rate is 12%.

California has more folks on food stamps than any other state, has added so many benefits and higher rates to Medicaid that we call it “Medi-Cal.” Our K-12 schools have more administrators than teachers, with smaller classes but lower test scores and higher dropout rates with twice the per-student budget of 15 years ago. Good job, Brownie.
This week, the once and current Gov. Jerry “Moonbeam” Brown had to confess that the “balanced” state budget adopted 5 months ago was billions in the red because actual tax revenues were billions lower than the airy-fairy revenue estimates on which the balance was predicated.

After trimming legislators’ perks and reducing the number of cell phones provided to state civil servants, the governor intoned that drastic budget reductions had already hollowed out state programs for the needy, law enforcement and our schoolchildren. California government needed more money.

Echoing the Occupy movement, the governor proclaimed the rich must pay their fair share.

Fair share…?

The top 1% of California income earners currently pays 50% of the state’s income tax.

California has 7 income tax brackets. The top income tax rate is 9.3%, which is slapped on the greedy rich earning at least $47,056 a year. Income of more than $1 million pays the “millionaires’ and billionaires’” surcharge tax rate of 10.3%.

Brown’s proposal would add 2% for income over $250,000. A million-dollar income would then be taxed at 12.3%. And that’s just for the state.

Brown also proposed a .5¢ sales tax increase, which would bring sales taxes (which vary by county) up to 7.75% to as much as 10%. Both tax increases would be on the ballot in 2012.

The sales tax increase proposal immediately brought howls of protest from the Left (of Brown!). Charlie Eaton, a sociology grad student at UC Berkeley and leader of the UC Student-Workers Union, said, “We’ve paid enough. It’s time for millionaires to pay.”

At least 5 other ballot measures to raise taxes are circulating for signatures to get on the 2012 ballot in California. The governor’s proposals are the most conservative.

The Obama way doesn’t end with taxes.

The governor and the state legislature continue to applaud the efforts of the California High Speed Rail Authority to build a train connecting Los Angeles and San Francisco. Even though the budget is three times the voter-approved amount, and the first segment will only connect two small towns in the agricultural Central Valley. But hey, if we build it, they will ride.

And we don’t want to turn down the Obama bullet-train bucks Florida and other states rejected because the operating costs would bankrupt them. Can’t happen here because we’re already insolvent.

If we get into real trouble with the train, we’ll just bring in the Chinese. It worked with the Bay Bridge reconstruction. After the 1989 earthquake, the bridge connecting Oakland and San Francisco was rebuilt with steel made in China. Workers from China too. Paid for with money borrowed from China. Makes perfect sense.

In California, we hate the evil, greedy rich (except the rich in Hollywood, in sports, and in drug dealing). But we love people who have broken into California to eat the bounty created by the productive rich.

Illegals get benefits from various generous welfare programs, free medical care, free schools for their kids, including meals, and of course, instate tuition rates and scholarships too. Nothing’s too good for our guests.

To erase even a hint of criticism of illegal immigration, the California Legislature is considering a unilateral state amnesty. Democrat State Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes has proposed an initiative that would bar deportation of illegals from California.

Interesting dilemma for Obama there. If immigration is exclusively a federal matter, and Obama has sued four states for trying to enforce federal immigration laws he won’t enforce, what will the President do to a California law that exempts California from federal immigration law?

California is also near fulfilling the environmentalist dream of deindustrialization.

After driving out the old industrial base (auto and airplane assembly, for example), air and water regulators and tax policies are now driving out the high-tech, biotech and even Internet-based companies that were supposed to be California’s future.

The California cap-and-trade tax on business in the name of reducing CO2 makes our state the leader in wacky environmentalism and guarantees a further job exodus from the state.

Even green energy companies can’t do business in California. Solyndra went under, taking its taxpayer loan guarantee with it.

No job is too small to escape the regulators. The state has even banned weekend amateur gold miners from the historic gold mining streams in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

In fact, more and more of California’s public land is off-limits to recreation by the people who paid for that land. Unless you’re an illegal. Then you can clear the land, set up marijuana plantations at will, bring in fertilizers that legal farmers can no longer use, exploit illegal farm workers who live in hovels with no running water or sanitation, and protect your investment with armed illegals carrying guns no California citizen is allowed to own.

The rest of us only found out about these plantations when the workers’ open campfire started one of those devastating fires that have killed hundreds of people and burned out thousands of homes in California over the last decade.

It’s often said that whatever happens in California will soon happen in your state.

You’d better hope that’s wrong.

[End of Hedgecock's essay]

These are all California State agencies:

California Academic Performance Index (API) * California Access for Infants and Mothers * California Acupuncture Board * California Administrative Office of the Courts * California Adoptions Branch * California African American Museum * California Agricultural Export Program * California Agricultural Labor Relations Board * California Agricultural Statistics Service * California Air Resources Board (CARB) * California Allocation Board * California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority * California Animal Health and Food Safety Services * California Anti-Terrorism Information Center * California Apprenticeship Council * California Arbitration Certification Program * California Architects Board * California Area VI Developmental Disabilities Board * California Arts Council * California Asian Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus * California Assembly Democratic Caucus * California Assembly Republican Caucus  * California Athletic Commission * California Attorney General * California Bay Conservation and Development Commission * California Bay-Delta Authority * California Bay-Delta Office * California Bio Diversity Council * California Board for Geologists and Geophysicists * California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors * California Board of Accountancy * California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology * California Board of Behavioral Sciences * California Board of Chiropractic Examiners * California Board of Equalization (BOE) * California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection * California Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind * California Board of Occupational Therapy * California Board of Optometry * California Board of Pharmacy * California Board of Podiatric Medicine * California Board of Prison Terms * California Board of Psychology * California Board of Registered Nursing * California Board of Trustees * California Board of Vocational  Nursing and Psychiatric Technicians * California Braille and Talking Book Library * California Building Standards Commission * California Bureau for Private Post Secondary and Vocational Education * California Bureau of Automotive Repair * California Bureau of Electronic and Appliance Repair * California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation * California Bureau of Naturopathic Medicine * California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services * California Bureau of State Audits * California Business Agency * California Business Investment Services (CalBIS) * California Business Permit Information (CalGOLD) * California Business Portal * California Business, Transportation and Housing Agency * California Cal Grants * California CalJOBS * California Cal-Learn Program * California CalVet Home Loan Program * California Career Resource Network * California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau * California Center for Analytical Chemistry * California  Center for Distributed Learning * California Center for Teaching Careers (Teach California) * California Chancellors Office * California Charter Schools * California Children and Families Commission * California Children and Family Services Division * California Citizens Compensation Commission * California Civil Rights Bureau * California Coastal Commission * California Coastal Conservancy * California Code of Regulations * California Collaborative Projects with UC Davis * California Commission for Jobs and Economic Growth * California Commission on Aging * California Commission on Health and Safety and Workers Compensation * California Commission on Judicial Performance * California Commission on State Mandates * California Commission on Status of Women * California Commission on Teacher Credentialing * California Commission on the Status of Women * California Committee on Dental Auxiliaries * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office, Junior  Colleges * California Community Colleges Chancellors Office * California Complaint Mediation Program * California Conservation Corps * California Constitution Revision Commission * California Consumer Hotline * California Consumer Information Center * California Consumer Information * California Consumer Services Division * California Consumers and Families Agency * California Contractors State License Board * California Corrections Standards Authority * California Council for the Humanities * California Council on Criminal Justice * California Council on Developmental Disabilities * California Court Reporters Board * California Courts of Appeal * California Crime and Violence Prevention Center * California Criminal Justice Statistics Center * California Criminalist Institute Forensic Library * California CSGnet Network Management * California Cultural and Historical Endowment * California Cultural Resources Division * California Curriculum and  Instructional Leadership Branch * California Data Exchange Center * California Data Management Division * California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission * California Delta Protection Commission * California Democratic Caucus * California Demographic Research Unit * California Dental Auxiliaries * California Department of Aging * California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control Appeals Board * California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control * California Department of Boating and Waterways (Cal Boating) * California Department of Child Support Services (CDCSS) * California Department of Community Services and Development * California Department of Conservation * California Department of Consumer Affairs * California Department of Corporations * California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation * California Department of Developmental Services * California Department of Education *  California Department of Fair Employment and Housing * California Department of Finance * California Department of Financial Institutions * California Department of Fish and Game * California Department of Food and 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But when it comes to budget cuts, Gov. Jerry Brown and the Democrat-controlled state legislature can only think of cuts to police, fire, and education. Go figure!

A big h/t to FOTM’s beloved Lady Wendy.

~Eowyn

What’s next? Taxes for breathing?

California Proposes Tax on Driving

AOL Autos: A California transportation agency recently proposed what could become the most unpopular tax of all time: A tax for simply driving your car.

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) of San Francisco is behind the idea and has said that the tax would work by installing GPS units into cars to track the miles that they travel. The vehicle owners would then be charged accordingly, with low-income drivers exempted.

The hope is that a VMT (vehicle miles traveled) tax would cut down on pollution and traffic congestion, while raising funds for things like road construction and surface repair.

Randy Rentschler, spokesman for the MTC, said that the group knew the proposal could be a longshot and could take a long time to implement. Theoretically, it could take up to a decade before the plan would be rolled out in full force. “I don’t want to say it’s pie in the sky. A VMT charge is really an option for the future to be looked at and considered,” he said.

Given the very low popularity gas taxes have been met with in the past, the proposed driving tax seems like a very bold move. Consumers hate frequently being reminded of taxes when they gas up, but this VMT charge would take that to a whole new level.

The Association of Bay Area Governments is slated to analyze a study of the proposal on Thursday.

With a current budget deficit of $15.7 BILLION, I guess the state has no other options but to tax drivers for each and every mile they drive.  Nevermind the fact that the state 1) has the second highest gas tax in the nation - 48.6 cents per gallon (add the federal gas tax of 18.4 cents per gallon and Californians pay 67 cents in taxes for every gallon of gas they purchase), 2) has the highest state sales tax in the nation - 7.25 percent general sales and use tax on consumers, and 3) has the second highest personal income tax in the nation – as of January 2012 the top rate is 10.3 percent.

At this rate, the next thing you know the State of California will have no other option but to tax their residents for breathing!

DCG