Meet Cal Gore - California's GOP Version of Al Gore

By Chriss W. Street

Rural Northern California has always been the great bastion where solidly conservative Republicans go to escape the Democrats’ nanny state.  NorCal political discourse is focused on family values, support of agriculture, gun rights and a visceral loathing of crony capitalists like Al Gore.  That’s why the shenanigans of Shasta County Supervisor Glen Hawes is about to give the Republican Party such a black eye.

 Seven years ago Reverge Anselmo left the Los Angeles rat race, to build a world class winery and cattle ranch just outside Redding, California.  As a former combat Marine, international businessman and son of the founder of the Univision media empire, Anselmo began investing tens of millions into the depressed rural economy.  A deeply religious man, Anselmo even worked with the Vatican to design and construct a Romanesque Catholic Chapel on the highest point of his vineyards as a place of personal worship and reflection for visiting monks. 

But just as Anselmo Winery picked their second harvest on October 16, 2007, Andrew Jenson of the Shasta County office of the California Water Quality Control Board came on the property and issued a “stop-order” for all agricultural operations.  Mr. Jenson demanded that Mr. Anselmo immediately spend over $10,000 on erosion control at various parts of the ranch.  Shortly thereafter, Mr. Jenson issued clean-up and abatement Order #729, demanding tens of thousands of expenditures and threatening daily fines of $10,000 to $25,000.  

Anselmo later would learn that Mr. Jenson had shaken down the farm to the west for $20,000 and the farm to the east for $28,000, as ransom money to pacify the “Fish Cops” and other regulators.  A stressed out Mr. Anselmo called Les Baugh, his local County Supervisor, about his predicament.  Supervisor Baugh said, “Somebody has got to say enough is enough,” and agreed to be that man.  But he called back shortly thereafter and said that when it comes to this issue, he was not that man.  Soon thereafter, Anselmo received his first $240 fine from Shasta County.  

Mr. Anselmo hired a local lawyer who notified the Fish & Game Department that under Section 404 of the United States Clean Water Act, agriculture activity has been exempt from “Fish Cop” tyranny since 1985.  Shortly thereafter, platoons of vans with the insignia of the United States Army Corps. of Engineers arrived and put frogmen in Anselmo’s local creek to take underwater soil samples in search of “single cell organisms.”  He also discovered another group of regulators at the 200 foot waterfall on the other side of his property, supposedly trying to prove that an extinct species of salmon had once jumped up the falls and spawned in the pools above.

               

One of Anselmo Vineyards largest vendors and a regular on his property was Hawes Farm & Ranch Supply, whose proprietor, Glen Hawes, is also a Shasta County Supervisor.  Supervisor Hawes visited Mr. Anselmo and stated that he owned “Stillwater Plains Mitigation Bank” and the Supervisor suggested it might be helpful if Anselmo bought “environmental credits” from his bank.           

  

Research from a messy divorce and subsequent bankruptcy filing of Mr. Hawes’ son, Greg, has indicated the Supervisor’s “mitigation bank” is mandated as a monopoly in Shasta County and has already reaped $3 million since 2002 from local businesses.  Even the City of Redding pays Stillwater Plains an $85,000 fee anytime they need to move an elderberry tree.  Cal Trans also paid Hawes cash to build an overpass. 

Generous Supervisor Hawes appears to have taken Shasta County Resource Management Director Russ Mull and his family on hunting trips to Mexico, Canada and Venezuela.  Hawes in his benevolence, donated environmental credits toward approval to build a Veteran’s Hospital, and then charged the facility for soil movement. 

Shasta County in a June legal brief arrogantly argues that Anselmo's "'it's my property and I can do what I want' attitude has led to these lawsuits."  Because Anselmo refuses to “play ball”, Shasta County has racked up 7,467 days of fines totaling over $18.7 million.  Anselmo filed lawsuits in state and federal court and has received numerous favorable rulings.  But three days after his last victory in Appellate Court, Shasta County retaliated by declaring the Chapel a "public nuisance" and red tagged the winery and ranch to try to financially starve Anselmo and his 38 employees. 

Supervisor Glen Hawes’ family were legendary California pioneers and operated the first hay combine north of Sacramento in the 1800s.  But today the Supervisor farms “environmental credits”, instead of crops.  From 2002 to 2008, there were plenty of land developers happy to “pay to play.”  But after the housing bust, Shasta County farmers and ranchers appear to now be his prime business targets.  Supervisor Hawes hasn’t made as much money as Al Gore, but with gangs of County regulators furiously generating new prospects, selling environmental credits looks to remain very profitable. 

Chriss Street and Paul Preston Co-Host
“The American Exceptionalism Radio Talk Show”
Streaming Live Monday Through Friday at 7-10 PM
Click Here to Listen:  http://www.mysytv.net/kmyclive.html

If you can add any more information regarding mitigation banks in California or across the United States, please e-mail Chriss Street or Paul Preston: 

chriss.street@gmail.com or paul@EDTALKRADIO.COM

Visit our Website:  www.edtalkradio.com

California Sales Tax Revenue Nose-Dives by 33.5%

 By Chriss Street

We were severely criticized last week by the left and the right for publishing “CALIFORNIA DEFAULT RISK TURNS BROWN INTO A CAPITALIST.” The report highlighted that California Governor Jerry Brown is steam-rolling environmentalists and regulators to generate more state tax revenue by expediting approval of pro-business infrastructure. But our detractors were stunned to learn from State Controller John Chaing that California’s July sales tax revenue was down 33.5% from the Budget approved in late June. Even more ominously, the state’s $9.6 billion cash deficit that was rolled over from the June 30th fiscal year has catapulted to $18 billion last month.

The state has avoided default by temporarily borrowing from state trust funds, but those accounts will soon need their cash back to continue operating. Today California quickly began trying to sell $10 billion in municipal bonds to fund the record $28 billion they need to keep the lights on. With tax revenue plummeting and the state already the second lowest rated credit in the country, if the independent credit rating agencies downgrade the state to “junk bond", California will be short up to $18 billion and default.

Governor Brown used his line-item veto authority to strike $128.9 million in spending from the $91.3 billion California general fund before signing the state budget. Brown’s cuts surprisingly hit Democrat priorities, such as spending for child care and preschool for low-income children, and closing 30 state parks. But Republican Senator Tom Berryhill warned Brown: “This budget is a slow-motion train wreck, and you’re driving the bus.” Berryhill criticized Democrats for failing to reign in public pensions, regulatory terrorism and cap state spending that Republicans say are all needed to rescue state government. But by agreeing to sign the budget before the June 30th end of the fiscal year, Brown spared all the California legislators from losing their paychecks under a voter-approved initiative that blocks their pay if a budget is late.

The governor justified signing the budget based on the twin assumption that the California economy was expanding and the voters would approve his tax initiative that would raise $8.5 billion. Many analysts doubted the voters willingness to vote to raise sales tax on themselves, but we were virtually alone in warning California’s shallow economic recovery had peaked and the state was at risk for a double dip recession.

State Controller John Chiang tried to rationalize that even though California revenues were “disappointingly” down $475 million in July: “However, because spending appears to be tracking and the funds that the State depends on for liquidity are performing well, California’s cash outlook remains stable." This is sort of like the pilot of a jumbo jet announcing to the passengers that as a safety precaution they may want to cross your arms over your calves and grab your ankles and to brace yourself for possible impact.

Chriss Street will be in Studio with Paul Preston on “The American Exceptionalism Radio Talk Show” Streaming Live Monday through Friday at 7-10 PM Click here to listen: http://www.mysytv.net/kmyclive.html

The Train the Broke California’s Back

By Chriss Street

The State of California was already facing a $19 billion budget deficit, had shorted K-12 public schools $8 billion and are releasing imprisoned rapists into “community probation” when the California Legislature’s Democratic majority voted last week to approve selling $4.6 billion in new state bonds to build 130 miles of railroad track through some of the most uninhabited farm country in Central California.  The arrogance of the leveraging the already insolvent state caused a volcanic public outrage, but the Legislature and Governor Jerry Brown were desperate to get their paws on $3.3 billion in federal grants from the Obama Administration.

But in a shocking development, Moody’s Investor Services, who was expected to provide the credit rating to justify selling the debt, may have just torpedoed California’s credit rating by tripling their estimate of the state’s unfunded public pension liability from $38.5 billion to $109.1 billion liability and raising the annual cost of state pension funding by $7.3 billion.    

California has long been ground zero for financially dysfunctional government.  Under the California State Constitution, the Legislature is required to approve a “balanced budget” each year.  At the start of the last year’s budget on July 1, 2011, California had an $8.2 billion budget deficit carry-over from the prior year.  No problem for Sacramento political magicians to balance a budget, they simply estimated the state would collect $9.7 billion in capital gains taxes from the Facebook initial public offering.  Twelve months later, the state has collected less than $1 billion from Facebook and the deficit has grown by another $1.4 billion to $9.6 billion.  This year the Legislature passed another dicey “balanced budget” on the expectations voters would approve in November $8 billion in new sales and income taxes. 

The key to California politicians being able to continue their Ponzi spending far above the state’s revenues, has been the willingness of ratings agencies, like Moody’s, to dutifully collect huge consulting fees for providing the state with an “investment grade” credit rating.  Armed with the Moody’s “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval”, municipal bond investors have been willing to loan California huge amounts of cash.    

But the bogus choo choo bonds may have been so toxic even for Moody’s high tolerance for government shenanigans; they were the proverbial “straw that broke the camel’s back”.  If Moody’s issued an investment grade credit rating and the railroad bonds eventually default, the firm would undoubtedly be sued for billions of dollars by lots of angry retired people who tend to be the main buyers of municipal bonds. 

      

This newfound conservatism by Moody’s comes at a very in-opportune time for the State and its 58 counties and 478 cities.  Each year, California governments have borrowed huge amounts of money by selling low cost municipal bonds in late July to finance the period until they collect the majority of their tax revenues in December and April.  The State of California was expecting to borrow $28 billion and municipal governments were anticipating borrowing anther $50 billion.   

But any downgrades of the state or municipality debt from investment grade to “junk bond”, would send the cost of borrowing up to Greek like levels of 20%.  This appears to be exactly what just happened to San Bernardino, California and forced the city to file for an emergency Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy.  According to Los Angeles Times:

“The city's fiscal crisis has been years in the making, compounded by the nation's crushing recession and exacerbated by escalating pension costs, lucrative labor agreements, Sacramento's raid on redevelopment funds and a city reserve that is tapped out”.

This same language could apply to most of the cities and counties in California over the last few years.  The real reason for the collapse of San Bernardino and the growing panic is Moody’s was about to downgrade the city’s credit rating to junk.  With state and most local governments running out of cash, there will be more bankruptcies in California.  It looks to me that it was the train that broke California’s back.

Chriss Street will be in Studio with Paul Preston on “The Inside Education”; Streaming Live from Monday July 9^th to Friday July 13^th.  Click Below to listen between 7-10 PM each night:  http://www.mysytv.net/kmyclive.html

Only YOU can Prevent Elder Abuse

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – so what  do these people have in common? 

See if you can match the face to the crime:

According to the Orange County District Attorney’s (OCDA) office, your mother’s  care-giver, relative, best friend, attorney, doctors, fill in the blank,  announced the arrest of Joe Doe/Jane Doe. Your mother with Alzheimer’s disease entered a nursing home some eight months ago.  Somehow, Joe Doe/Jane Doe  acquired your mother’s power of attorney.

While announcing the arrest ed o 52 year old Ross M. Rabelow and three other suspects on charges of scamming more than 200 seniors in three states out of nearly $700,000. The fraud involved seniors paying for home security services, home care, and long-term care insurance, Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly said:  “This was a disturbing and despicable scheme designed to extract as much money as possible from unwitting seniors who believed they were protecting themselves against costly future home care expenses.”

This was a disturbing and despicable scheme designed to extract as much money as possible from unwitting seniors who believed they were protecting themselves against costly future home care expenses.”

Also charged in the scheme were Bruce Howard Cherry, 52, of Philadelphia, Thomas J. Muldoon, 57, of Delaware County, and Robert P. Lerner, 56, of Philadelphia. The men face charges of theft, unfair business practices, insurance fraud, conspiracy and dealing in proceeds from unlawful activity. All four defendants remain behind bars awaiting bail.

Investigators allege the four men used a series of front businesses to sell bogus home care and home security services. In many cases the victims received little or no services after paying thousands of dollars and signing contracts.

Alameda County Superior Court Judge Paul Daniel Seeman was charged last week with 13 felony counts of theft and embezzlement for allegedly stealing from  his elderly neighbor, whom he took advantage of, until she was weeks from death and told police that he was "just trying to be helpful" despite having no experience with estates or family trusts, according to investigators. Prosecutors say Seeman stole at least $200,000 from the elderly woman.

Seeman, 57, of Berkeley acknowledged to police that he had put himself in an "awfully bad situation" while handling the financial affairs for his neighbor, Anne Nutting. Seeman told a Berkeley police detective that it was "clearly a mistake for me to stay as enmeshed with her as I did," authorities said.

Because Judge Seeman is an elected official he can not be administratively removed from the bench. The options for removing Seeman include a recall by voters, impeachment by the state Assembly, or a vote to remove him by the Commission on Judicial Performance. Until there is a resolution to his case Judge Seeman has been transferred from Superior Court in Oakland to a Small Claims court in Pleasanton.

John Arthur Walthall, 56, of La Habra, California was sentenced to  168 months in federal prison and to pay $2,479,000 in restitution to his victims after he was convicted in December of multiple counts of wire fraud. Walthall, stole nearly $5 million dollars from a Laguna Niguel couple in their 80s. Walthall persuaded the couple to invest in his company Advanced Recycling General Partnership. He convinced the victims he would use the money to extract gold for abandoned mines. Prosecutors argued Walthall used the money to purchase cars, make payments on personal debts, school tuition for his son, and back alimony

On March, Fresno County California Sheriff’s Deputies arrested Sharon Elaine Harrelson on several counts of felony embezzlement and elder abuse. After her arrest authorities executed search warrants on her home, office, and financial institutions.  Since thenm additional victims have come forward and in the course of examining evidence gathered during the searches authorities found more victims. Harrelson was re-arrested by detectives while in court of the previous charges.  Harrelson remains in the custody of the Fresno County Sheriff’s Department, charged with two additional felonies.

The Dauphin County Elder Abuse Task Force announced the arrest of Kevin Marcy.  According to  investigators say Marcy, who had his aunt’s power of attorney, stole $379,132.62 from his 89 year old great aunt, a retired teacher with Alzheimer’s disease.   Authorities charged Marcy with theft for allegedly taking money from his aunt since 2005, about the time she entered a nursing home.

Now consider that according to the California Attorney General’s website, California's most vulnerable people are its children, poor, elderly and disabled and can all too often be victimized by:

Medical doctors ordering unnecessary lab tests, and allowing untrained, uncertified assistants to provide medical treatment to patients

Dentists performing unnecessary teeth extractions on both adults and children

Medical supply companies billing for equipment and products that were neither ordered nor delivered

Nursing homes allowing their patients to suffer from bedsores, malnutrition and dehydration

Nurse assistants physically abusing elderly and dependent adult patients who are entrusted to their care

In a separate piece, we make the argument that elder abuse, like any other crime, in most cases – some 70-90% of them, the culprit is an insider.  Someone close to the vulnerable.  We also make the case that while laws, regulations, and law enforcement agencies, such as the OCSD, OCDA and politicians, industry lobbyist (such as the AARP) and  the various bureaucracies, such as California Adult Protective Services, California Department of Aging, California, California Long Term Ombudsmen, and on an on ad nausea may help, all are for the most part useless and do not provide the return for the tax Dollar.  Let me clarify politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies are not the solution - they ARE the problem.

The problem is the symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyist and bureaucracies

Instead, only YOU can prevent Elder Abuse:  A grass roots efforts involving the community and the local city council.

Stay tuned as we expand on the reasons to support our argument, including proposals going forward.

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Elder Abuse Aided and Abetted by Parasitic Bureaucracies 

Posted By CotoBlogzz June 26, 2011

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – If you want to get back at your elder parents for your own shortcoming, this is your day.  According to  Kathleen Wilber,  USC's. Mary Pickford Professor of Gerontology,  recent studies suggest that more than one in seven older adults is victimized each year. Unfortunately, such studies rarely take into account what we refer to as the parasitic bureaucracy effect – this is where a bureaucracy either to cover up its own incompetence and or to increase its sphere of influence, delays, denies and ore ignores reporters requests for transparency, as described in some of the pieces summarized below

Documented Elder Abuse, including examples of the parasitic effect.

 

“Elderly Abuse:  Parolees discovered living in nursing homes, residents not told of sex offenders, ex-cons”  Chris Fuscon and Lori Rackl describe how they investigated the high numbers of sex offenders and parolees living in Illinois’ nursing homes – Investigative Reporters and and Editors (IRE) September/October 2005

 

“Poor Regulation,” The Oregonian.  Brent Walth writes about and investigation that he and fellow reporter Erin Hoover Barnett did on the sudden collapse of the Oregon-based Assisted Living Concepts.  The company, which at some point acquired a new assisted-living center every week., “slashed budget, paid measly wages and hired inexperienced staff.”  The article points to some of the differences in regulations in assisted-living and nursing homes - – Investigative Reporters and and Editors (IRE) November/December  2002

 

 

“Agencies in New Mexico impeded fraud and elder care investigation,” The New Mexico Independent.  The series explored allegations that state agencies interfered with fraud and elder abuse investigations.  The Medical Fraud Division stated that the Human Services Department and the Health Department had withheld, filtered and sanitized information and documents requested by investigators – Government Health, February 23, 2011

 

“Edler Abuse investigations mishandled at state veteran homes.” The Dallas Morning News, James Drew of the Dallas Morning News found that a criminal investigation into alleged abuse by two workers at a state veteran’s home in West Texas languished for more than two years because of confusion who should investigate and conflicts among police, state officials and veteran’s home investigators – Justice, April 7, 2011

 

Helping California Crack Down on Elder Abuse

Elder abuse is a devastating but often overlooked problem that can cause emotional as well as physical pain and suffering, shattered trust, financial ruin and even an increased risk of dying. The tragedy of elder abuse was recently brought home by 90-year-old screen legend Mickey Rooney in his dramatic Congressional testimony describing his own experiences.

“Recent studies suggest that more than one in seven older adults is victimized each year,” said the USC Davis School of Gerontology’s Kathleen Wilber, who is the Mary Pickford Professor of Gerontology. “Sadly, a recent summary of elder abuse interventions found that there is little evidence that efforts to prevent or address abuse work.” – June 2011

 

“The Price of Living” series, The Post Courier, Chareslton, S.C.  The newspaper spent months going through individual case files at the Charleston County Probate Court to learn what was happening to the savings of the elderly incapacitated persons.  Reporter Doug Pardue discovered a court that was set up to protect vulnerable elderly persons but often helped drain their estates though court-approved fees to lawyers, guardians and conservators.  Health, Justice, Dec. 2010

CBS Reports CA graduation rate up, drop out rate down. Hold on to your wallet!

Posted by CotoBlogzz

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA - I keep making the argument that a fundamental transformation of America is as easy as eating an elephant:  You do it one bite at a time.  In this case, one school district at a time, or as the new far left’s ad might say, it’s a simple math problem, Stupid!

To fundamentally transform America is a simple math problem, Stupid!

Yesterday’s slobbering media coverage of the California state Department of Education’s report indicating that more California high school students graduated in 2011 and fewer dropped rivaled that of  the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  Either it was a slow news day, or the teachers union PR campaign was in full swing setting you up for yet another tax increase in November.

For example, Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said he was encouraged by the results, which put California's graduation rate at 76.3 percent, up 1.5 percent from 2010, and dropout rate at 14.4 percent, down by 2.2 percent, from 2010, although he added the obligatory  “ but  there is still much room for improvement,” note

Apparently Torlakson does not speak six-sigma.  Instead of a drop-out rate goal in parts-per-million (PPM) he prefers to speak in terms of percentages:  "It's going in the right direction, but it's not where we want it to be," Torlakson said. "We want to be at 85-90 percent."  When you consider that the teachers’ union combined with the SEIU have invested over $500,000,000 buying lawmakers in Sacramento, it is no wonder that mediocrity abounds, as opposed to the aforementioned PPM benchmark.

Symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies

It should be noted that the report shows that graduation rates for  Hispanic, black, English learner and poor students were higher statewide than the overall average, indicating  that progress was being made in closing the achievement gap and that the largest school district, Los Angeles Unified, posted a 4.2 percent drop in its dropout rate, to 20.6 percent, and less than 1 percent decline in its graduation rate, to 61.6 percent.

Now, while all eyes were on Wisconsin, local voters approved 63% or 55 of the 87 local tax, bond or fee measures on the June 5, 2012 California primary ballot. Given California’s Triple Threat and the symbiotic relationship between politicians, unions, lobbyists and bureaucracies, you can bet that the they will be making a case for additional taxes, based on the glowing reports by the main stream media afforded the California state Department of Education’s report

To view local and or statewide report, click here t

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While all eyes were on Wisconsin, The Union Wreaks Havoc in SOCAL

California Voters Approve 63% of tax Measure

Local voters approved 63% or 55 of the 87 local tax, bond or fee measures on the June 5, 2012 California primary ballot according to Michael Coleman, the creator of CaliforniaCityFinance.com. Majority vote measures fared much better than super-majority votes requiring 2/3 approval to pass special taxes and bonds. Fifteen or 79% of the 19 majority vote measures passed, but only eighteen or 53%% of the 34 supermajority vote taxes passed. Voters favored approval of school tax and bond measures by 66%, compared to 45% for non-schools.

How to fundamentally transform America:  Just like you eat an elephant - One school district at a time.

Rancho Santa Margarita, CA – We all know that President Obama, Pelosi, Boxer, Reid, Van Jones et all want to in the President’s own words, fundamentally transform America.  This past week during a Gay Lesbian Transgender  (GBLT) fund-raising event in California, the President boasted about his accomplishments promoting the GBLT’s agenda saying something to the effect: “I could not be prouder of my accomplishments, as these contribute to a more perfect union”