Vernon’s Texas Campaign
With
Speaker John Perez’s success in getting his bills on Vernon’s disincorporation
to the Senate floor, the question is: Will Vernon’s "Texas campaign" intensify
or is it just a negotiating ploy? Looking at the situation, it appears real.
Competition
between states for businesses and jobs was ratcheted up a notch when Texas
Governor Rick Perry took the unusual step about a month ago of writing to some
disaffected Vernon businesses frustrated with the Speaker’s effort to fold the
industrial city into Los Angeles County. Perez proposes to make Vernon a Community
Services District in an effort to end government corruption there.
Vernon
businesses and labor argue jobs will be lost if the Perez bills become law and
the city’s business friendly advantages are threatened.
California Doesn’t Need a Lieutenant Governor
It’s time to put Gavin Newsom out of his misery and
eliminate, once and for all, the lieutenant governor’s job.
Eliminate as in abolish, eradicate, dump, erase, wipe out,
vote away, strike from the Constitution. The voters don’t care about it, the
state doesn’t need it, and it’s nothing but a source of frustration to
ambitious politicians like Newsom, people who got into government with the idea
of doing something to make California a better place.
That’s not something anyone can do from the lieutenant
governor’s office.
Recent press releases from Newsom’s office have marked the
celebration of International Olympic Day at the state capitol, congratulated
Butte College on its "grid positive" energy status, thanked the New York state
Legislature for legalizing same-sex marriage and backed legal efforts to
restore same-sex marriage in California.
Why L.A. May Get More Seoul
The fact that Los Angeles is a capital of the Pacific Rim is old news. After all, America’s business relationship with Japan has peaked and the one with China is pretty mature.
But wait. L.A.’s status in the Pacific Rim may get a jolt soon.
That’s because a U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement, long and dull though the process has been, finally appears to be nearing a successful conclusion. If approved, the treaty will result in a higher level of business between the United States and Korea because it will eliminate 95 percent of tariffs in five years.
This could be a big deal. And Los Angeles stands to be the prime beneficiary.
That’s partly because Los Angeles is where Koreans land when they enter the United States. There are about 450,000 ethnic Koreans here, more than anywhere outside of Korea, and there’s a thriving business community in the Koreatown area west of downtown Los Angeles. So any increase in business between the two countries will at least partly be done in and through Koreatown.
Banning Junk Food At The State
Another ridiculous bill is traveling through the Legislature which would kill more small businesses in California because Big Brother wants you to lose weight.
AB 727 authored by Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, would require 50 percent of the food sold in vending machines in state buildings to meet federal nutritional standards, and by 2016, 100 percent.
California is crumbling under the weight of an ever expanding government, irresponsible and condescending legislators, and not because of the waistlines of state employees and school children.
Mitchell’s website states “As part of the First Lady’s Let’s Move Initiative…California plans to help lead the effort in creating healthier environments by adopting a similar food procurement strategy for its cafeterias, office buildings, and vending machines.”
California is leading the effort in whacky laws and infringements on individual rights and liberties.
The current requirement for healthy food in vending machines in the state is already a whopping 35 percent.