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Detroit's (predominantly black) public schools are the worst in the nation and it takes some doing to be worse than Washington, D.C. Only 3 percent of Detroit's fourth-graders scored proficient on the most recent National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) test, sometimes called "The Nation's Report Card." Twenty-eight percent scored basic and 69 percent below basic. "Below basic" is the NAEP category when students are unable to demonstrate even partial mastery of knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at their grade level. It's the same story for Detroit's eighth-graders. Four percent scored proficient, 18 percent basic and 77 percent...

The desperate demand for dollars expresses itself in many ways. Shane Goldmacher and Evan Halper report for LaTi: Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already suffering local mass transit programs, renew his push to expand oil drilling off the Santa Barbara coast and appeal to Washington for billions of dollars in federal help, according to state officials and lobbyists familiar with the plan. If Washington does not provide roughly $8 billion in new aid for the state, the governor threatens to severely cut back -- if...

As this page has long noted, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s goal of being revered as a global green giant has a potentially huge downside for California’s economy. The governor considers AB 32 – the landmark 2006 anti-global warming state law that forces increased use of cleaner but costlier forms of energy – his greatest achievement. But ever since the bill’s adoption, Schwarzenegger has found it increasingly difficult to reconcile his claims to support economic growth with his environmental policies, which add unique costs to California businesses not borne by their rivals in other states and nations. His cheerleading for ever-more-onerous regulations...

California got $7 billion in state grants from Porkulus, and an opportunity to catch their breath while they attacked a monstrous state budget that desperately needs pruning. Congress has now begun to consider Porkulus II, with even more block grants for states, enabling them to paper over serious budget gaps. But that’s not enough for Arnold Schwarzenegger, who wants an additional $8 billion from the feds in order to bail out a state that seems incapable of governing itself: Facing a budget deficit of more than $20 billion, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to call for deep reductions in already...

EAST PALO ALTO -- Alberto Alvarez should be put to death for murdering an East Palo Alto police officer nearly four years ago, a San Mateo County jury decided Tuesday. The same jury of six men and six women convicted Alvarez, 26, last month of first-degree murder with the special circumstance of murdering a police officer. On Tuesday, the jury chose death for the East Palo Alto resident rather than life in prison without parole. A judge will officially sentence Alvarez on Feb. 2. "It was the verdict we were seeking because of the aggravating factors in the case -...

The Obama administration's new plan to give a boost to small businesses reflects continued trouble in that sector, which is facing new failures even as much of the nation's economy is stabilizing. As credit lines have shrunk and consumers have cut back on spending, thousands of small businesses have closed their doors over the last year. The plight of struggling firms has been aggravated by the reluctance of banks to lend money, said Brian Headd, an economist at the Small Business Administration's office of advocacy. "While bankruptcies are up, overall, small-business closures are up even more," Headd said. California has...

CLICK ON LINK ABOVE I'm sure this has been posted already but I couldn't find it. Martial Law before Nov 2012?

Washington (CNN) – Not every Republican is a critic of President Obama. At least one thinks the president is doing a fine job – at least when it comes to the effort involved in being the country’s chief executive. Asked to give Obama a grade as the end of the president’s first year in office approaches, Arnold Schwarzenegger, California’s Republican governor, gave Obama high marks. “When it comes to effort, [Obama] should get a straight A,” Schwarzenegger told CNN Chief National Correspondent John King in an interview that aired Sunday on State of the Union. “He’s out there with tremendous...

The first ever remix music video political ad! California Senator Barbara Boxer has had some notable confrontations over the past year in her duties as head of the Environmental and Public Works Committee in the U.S. Senate. Over the summer she dressed down a general for using the standard military protocol of addresses elected officials (namely "ma'am") Later that summer, Madam Boxer would stir up more controversy by playing the race card against Harry Alford, Chairman of the National Black Chamber of Commerce discussing her massive energy tax scheme known as "Cap & Trade". The Chuck DeVore campaign prides itself...

Kremlin position papers presented to Prime Minister Putin today on his upcoming meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen state that the European-US military alliance has authorized an ‘emergency request’ from President Obama to utilize American and Canadian NATO troops to put down what is expected to be a “rebellion” after the expected January, 2010 ‘declaration of bankruptcy’ by the State of California. According to these reports, Obama’s fears of rebellion are due to the economic health of California (the United States largest State) after the 3rd largest US State, New York, declared a ‘fiscal emergency’ and refused to...

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office recently reported that the State faces a $21 billion shortfall in the current as well as the next fiscal year. That’s a problem, a really big problem. My young son would say it was a ginormous problem. In fact, it may be an insurmountable problem. Our governor and legislature used every trick in their books when they created the most recent budget. They even resorted to mandatory interest-free loans from the taxpayers. Now, they have no idea where to go. The Democrats have declared that they will not allow budget cuts. The Republicans will not...

18 states allow for recall votes on US Senators. The 18 states allowing for recall are as follows: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington and Wisconsin. The Senate oath of office is: I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Obama administration refused Friday to follow a federal judge's order to provide insurance benefits to the wife of a lesbian court employee in San Francisco and said its hands were tied by a discriminatory law. "This issue shows exactly why Congress needs to repeal" the law, which prohibits federal benefits to same-sex couples, government lawyer Elaine Kaplan said in a message to attorneys for court employee Karen Golinski. One of Golinski's lawyers, Jenny Pizer of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal, said Kaplan's response was "something we might have expected from the Bush or Reagan administration, and...

“Not good news ... but that's life. We all end up dead in the end ... it's what we do between birth and death that counts.” Those were the words of our friend, Larry Toelle, just days after receiving the news that he had only a short time to live. Having battled cancer for several years and thinking he’d conquered the beast, this came as a shock to all of us who knew and loved this fine American gentleman. We thought he had more time, that we would get to see him again, but when I got the email from...

Over the past few days, Arnold Schwarzenegger has been in Copenhagen making the bizarre claim to anyone who will listen that his job destroying environmental regulations are somehow good for the economy. He also made the even more off the wall assertion that America's economy would be stronger if only the entire country followed California's lead in this area, and that Governor Palin's common sense skepticism to the man-made global warming religion was somehow wrong. All of these musings by the Governator were forthcoming despite the fact that foisting his regulations on California's economy have chased businesses and the jobs...

Lila Rose has made a name for herself exposing the abuses at Planned Parenthood centers, such as staffers misleading women about abortion or hiding cases of sexual abuse. Rose became a victim herself Thursday morning as a Planned Parenthood staff member attacked her. Late Thursday morning at the Planned Parenthood abortion facility located at 1691 The Alameda in San Jose, California, Rose led a group of pro-life advocates.... According to a police report filed at the scene and numerous witnesses, a uniformed Planned Parenthood escort engaged in a short exchange with Rose and eventually struck her on the hand, knocking...

California's population growth slowed over the past year as tens of thousands of residents moved away - many of them heading to other Western states, according to the state Department of Finance. The Golden State's population grew by 353,000 to 38.4 million from July 2008 to July 2009. The only years with lower growth rates since 1900 were 1994-96, according to a report released by the department Thursday. More people left the state for other parts of the country than moved here, a difference of about 142,000 people. While that number is outweighed by people moving from other countries to...

Leadership: Alaska's ex-governor asks a question we'd like answered: Why is California's current governor pushing the same policies in Copenhagen that helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? The movie series that made Arnold Schwarzenegger a household name involved cyborgs traveling through time to alternately try to destroy or save one John Connor, who would grow up to be the leader of the resistance against a race of machines that ruled the planet. Prominent in the series was his tough cookie of a mom, Sarah Connor. Another Sarah has taken the lead in another resistance against another group...

Judges of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will vote soon on whether to reconsider their decision last week denying gay rights advocates access to internal communications of Proposition 8 supporters who succeeded in getting voters to ban same-sex marriage last year. In a terse announcement filed this evening, the three judges who denied the access, citing 1st Amendment grounds, said one of the 27 active judges on the court had called for a vote to rehear the issue with a full 11-member panel of judges. The call for the rehearing vote could signal dismay by at least one...

WASHINGTON – Washington is moving to assist California and other cash-strapped states that face the prospect of raising taxes or cutting spending again in 2010 to balance their books. The House took the first step Wednesday evening, passing a $75 billion jobs bill that would help states pay for infrastructure projects and prevent more public employees from being laid off. Some are calling it Stimulus II, and the sequel would come as good news for 35 states that face budget gaps totaling $31.5 billion by the middle of next year. California is projecting the largest shortfall, at $6.3 billion, followed...

As the United Nations Climate Change Conference enters its second week in Copenhagen, California will send a delegation to showcase the state’s own climate change policies. Since his election to office in 2003, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has made global warming and climate change a cornerstone of his gubernatorial legacy. When he addresses conference delegates this week, Schwarzenegger will boast that under his watch the state has implemented some of the strictest and most comprehensive environmental regulations in the world. But delegates won’t be presented with the true cost of Schwarzenegger’s war on global warming. Californians know better than anyone else...

The state Treasurer's Office came down hard this afternoon on a prediction from California Lutheran University economists that the state could default on some of its debt, calling the warning "balderdash" that is "nothing more than irresponsible fear-mongering with no basis in reality, only roots in ignorance."

One of every six U.S. employers that closed permanently in 2008 was in California, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration using bankruptcy court data. However, one in nine employers that opened in 2008 was in California. The net result was almost 47,000 fewer companies with employees in California by the end of 2008. The data are part of the Census Bureau’s Statistical Abstract of the United States 2010. The state had 45.1% more business “deaths” than “births,” one of the steepest changes. Note that many of the closures were started in other years. In California’s case many of those...

fter Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized Sarah Palin’s stance on global warming yesterday, few thought it would take long for Palin to respond. She launched a broadside on her Facebook page, and reminded California’s governor that the “grain of salt” the Governator recommended should be taken with economic advice from the leader of a state in free-fall and unable to budget its money properly. Even if the world is warming, it doesn’t mean that the warming is either anthropogenic or catastrophic — and conservation doesn’t mean killing the economy: Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen...

Despite its good intentions, San Francisco is not leading the country in gay marriage. Despite its good intentions, it is not stopping wars. Despite its spending more money per capita on homelessness than any comparable city, its homeless problem is worse than any comparable city's. Despite its spending more money per capita, period, than almost any city in the nation, San Francisco has poorly managed, budget-busting capital projects, overlapping social programs no one is certain are working, and a transportation system where the only thing running ahead of schedule is the size of its deficit. It's time to face facts:...

Former Gov. Hiram Johnson, recently posthumously inducted into the California Museum’s Hall of Fame, helped create California’s initiative process to break the stranglehold of the railroads on the state Legislature. Johnson, a Sacramento native who was governor from 1911 to 1917, is likely spinning in his grave. As of December 14, there are 45 measures being circulated for voter signatures, another 38 are awaiting titles and summaries by the Attorney General. So far, three initiatives have qualified for the 2010 primary election – the most significant of which would create open primaries in 2012 allowing voters to cast a ballot...

California Insurance Commissioner and candidate for the GOP nomination for Governor, Steve Poizner, has announced that he'll donate another $15 million of his own fortune to float his flagging Gubernatorial campaign making himself his biggest contributor. Once the transfer is complete, Mr. Poizner will have donated a total of just over $19 million of his own cash to his campaign. And it should be noted that this is being termed a donation, not a loan. Let's be clear, though, Poizner is not the only major candidate for governor that is using his own fortune to fund his race. Chief opponent...

California Republicans may be delusional about their chances in coming elections By thomas d. elias Posted: 12/08/2009 09:16:17 PM PST Updated: 12/09/2009 08:37:43 AM PST It's the holiday season, so optimism is in the air, not least among California Republicans. As they head into next year's election, they sound like they have before one major election after another since 1992. Trouble is, little of that earlier happy talk ever materialized.Candidates from George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush to John Seymour, John McCain, Matt Fong, Bill Simon, Bill Jones, Michael Huffington and Dan Lungren have predicted they would run strongly...

Those hoping to ride the state's high-speed train next decade will have to dig much deeper into their wallets than officials originally thought, a harsh reality that will chase away millions of passengers, according to an updated business plan released Monday. The average ticket on the bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles is now estimated to cost about $105, or 83 percent of comparable airfare. Last year, the state said prices would be set at 50 percent of comparable airfare and predicted a ticket from San Francisco to Los Angeles would cost $55. As a result of the...

For Immediate Release Thursday, December 10, 2009 Contact: Contact: Kaelan Richards 202-225-3661 DeLauro Calls for Equality for Women Farmers Washington, DC— Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-3) today introduced the Equality for Women Farmers Act. She was joined by Congresswoman Anna Eshoo (CA-14), an original co-sponsor of the bill, and by six women farmers who shared their stories of discrimination by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) simply because of their gender. This legislation will seek to change the USDA’s history of discrimination towards women farmers, by addressing past transgressions and working to prevent future problems. For those who have been...

WASHINGTON, Dec 14 (Reuters) - California, the largest borrower among U.S. states, may see its debt interest costs nearly double to over $10 billion in 2020, the state treasurer reported on Monday. Financials General fund debt service on outstanding bonds, authorized but unissued bonds and proposed water bonds is set to peak in fiscal 2020 at $10.45 billion, compared with a current level around $6 billion, and stay near that level through fiscal 2028, Treasurer Bill Lockyer said in a presentation for the state legislature. Crippled by the housing downturn and high unemployment, California has been one of the worst-hit...

<p>Police are still looking for a man accused of stabbing his pregnant estranged wife to death in Chula Vista. According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, a gray pickup truck that was driven by Jesus "Alex" Arteaga Garcia was found in Tijuana Friday night.</p>

When it snows in the mountains and rains in the basin, Jessica Hall thinks of the lost streams of Los Angeles. In fact, she thinks of them all the time. For the last nine years, the 41-year-old garden designer has been retracing the paths of the native creeks, streams and springs that once ran wild before they were filled in and paved for homes. In the process, Hall has come to believe that the best town planning and landscape design principles for the future may lie in understanding the habits of the watercourses of the past. Those who missed the...

Note: The following text is a quote: December 11, 2009 286 arrested in ICE's largest ever enforcement surge targeting criminal aliens 2 convicted rapists and armed robber among those captured in 3-day California operation LOS ANGELES - Nearly 300 foreign nationals with criminal records have been removed from the United States or are facing deportation following a three-day enforcement surge in California, making it the biggest operation targeting at large criminal aliens ever carried out by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). During the operation, which concluded late Thursday, ICE officers located and arrested a total of 280 criminal aliens...

Jesus Arteaga 'Alex' Garcia stabbed his wife to death in Chula Vista, CA just south of San Diego last night and is now on the loose. Be on the lookout for the man in the attached photo. He was last seen driving a gray 2007 Ford Ranger pickup truck, California license plate # 8T23674. It had a yellow ribbon sticker in the rear window. Mr. Garcia is a resident of National City, CA, has a tattoo of a tiger on his right arm, and is considered dangerous and a threat to others. Anyone with information about the attack or the...

Bae Yong Joon may be one of the few oenophiles still living in Korea based on wine's dropping popularity on the peninsula. (Photo courtesy of Arnaldo Bassini) Wine sales in Korea are continuing to decline according to a Dec. 8 Korea Times article. The Korea Customs Service told the Times that 2009 (at least the first 10 months) was the first year they noticed a decline in wine sales in Korea since the Asian financial crisis reached its zenith in 1998. However, the South Korean government expect wine imports from Europe and South America to improve after recently signed free-trade...

LOS ANGELES – California has more Chihuahuas than it can handle, and it has Hollywood to blame. There are so many Chihuahuas at shelters in Oakland, they have started shipping the dogs out of state, said Megan Webb, director of Oakland Animal Services. They have sent about 100 to Washington, Oregon and Arizona, she said, "and as soon as they get them, they are ready for new ones." Chihuahuas make up 30 percent or more of the dog populations at many California shelters. And experts say pop culture is to blame, with fans immitating Chihuahua-toting celebrities like Paris Hilton and...

In 1998, Californians voted to pass Proposition 227, the “English for the Children Act,” and dismantle the state’s bilingual-education industry. The results, according to California’s education establishment, were not supposed to look like this: button-cute Hispanic pupils at a Santa Ana elementary school boasting about their English skills to a visitor. Those same pupils cheerfully calling out to their principal on their way to lunch: “Hi, Miss Champion!” A statewide increase in English proficiency among all Hispanic students. Instead, warned legions of educrats, eliminating bilingual education in California would demoralize Hispanic students and widen the achievement gap. Unless Hispanic children...

The city of Berkeley made an official statement on abortion Wednesday by sending coat hangers — a symbol of illegal abortions — to 20 Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives who voted to restrict federal funding for abortions in the health care bill. Councilmember Kriss Worthington, who co-sponsored the item before the City Council on Tuesday night with Susan Wengraf and Linda Maio, put the coat hangers and an official city letter in the mail Wednesday. "The coat hanger represents the time when women had to have abortions in back alleys and tried to self-abort," Wengraf said. "My initial...

Gartman: Illinois Is The New California Vince Veneziani|Dec. 9, 2009, 10:39 AM | 1,750 |17 Dennis Gartman addresses the critical issue of Illinois and the downgrade of its debt yesterday by Moody's. Essentially, Illinois is in line to become the next California, if not already: The Gartman Letter: Regarding the Illinois downgrade, Moody’s downgraded Illinois’ general obligation bond rating from A1 to A2 and cited Illinois’ problems stemming from the U.S. recession. Making matters worse, Moody’s also cut other Illinois bond ratings from A1 to A2 including sales tax revenue bonds, also cut to A2 London from A1. In the...

ALAMEDA, Calif. – The school board blinked. Under the duress of a lawsuit and threats of recall, the Alameda Board of Education has voted to phase out an elementary school curriculum it adopted in May to prevent anti-gay bullying. The so-called Lesson 9, which had become an opposition centerpiece in a national anti-gay marriage campaign, will be replaced by a more generic anti-bullying message. But the board's action Tuesday night did little to ease the tension between gay parents, who want their children protected, and parents who who think elementary school is too early to talk to students about gay...

I was driving by an elementary school the other day and I was shocked to find it covered in Aztec symbols. I actually made the effort to get out and snap some photos because when I was a boy, everything was red, white and blue, and we had pictures of George Washington. We even perfeormed the play "1776" while dressed in period patriot clothing. Oh dear.

BURBANK - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has widened its investigation into radiation overdoses that patients have received from a type of brain scan, suggesting the problem may be nationwide, it was reported Tuesday. The agency says it is looking into possible overdoses at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank and a hospital in Alabama, the Los Angeles Times reported. Providence St. Joseph is now the third hospital in Los Angeles County under investigation for problems with CT brain perfusion scans, a procedure used most often to diagnose strokes. Unlike the other cases, which involved scanners made by...

California: While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worries about rising seas, his state sinks below the waves. Don't mess with Texas, they say. But California and the nation could follow its lead. Last Wednesday, Gov. Schwarzenegger released a new report based on research compiled by the California Energy Commission claiming that by 2100 San Francisco Bay would be more bay than San Francisco, with Fisherman's Wharf and Treasure Island under the rising waters of climate change. His show-and-tell, which included a new Google Earth application the commission spent $150,000 to help develop, goes a long way toward explaining the once-Golden State's slide...

Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums is showing no signs of grounding his high-flying spending practices - running up nearly $60,000 on his city credit card in a one-year stretch for airline flights, restaurant meals, conference fees and stays at some of the toniest hotels in the nation. That works out to more than $1,000 a week that Oakland's taxpayers shelled out from September 2008 to September 2009 to keep Dellums traveling in style. The mayor ran up nearly every dime of his $59,079 in expenses after the City Council ordered employees in fall 2008 to halt all unnecessary travel to help...

The eligibility age for state-subsidized breast cancer screening has been raised from 40 to 50 by the California Health and Human Services Agency, which will also temporarily stop enrollment in the breast cancer screening program. Advocates for low-income women, whose health care the department helps pay for, say the cuts put a two-tier system in place that is based on money rather than medical standards. The cuts will greatly harm the clinic's mammogram program, said Natasha Riley, manager of Vista Community Clinic's Breast Health Outreach and Education Program. The clinic and others like it in San Diego County provide reduced-cost...

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE — Two storms appeared to be on course Friday to hit Southern California next week with potentially heavy rainfall that could unleash floods of mud and debris-laden water from wildfire burn areas into adjacent communities. The National Weather Service said the exact tracks of the storms and rainfall amounts were still uncertain, but it was likely that rain would fall over the region on Monday and possibly through the week until Friday. There was a possibility showers could arrive as early as Sunday night, the NWS said. A major area of concern is the string of Los...

Beginning with two editorials in late December 2008, this editorial page repeatedly has criticized the California Air Resources Board for its headline-hunting decision to adopt unprecedentedly sweeping and costly diesel-emission rules at its meeting earlier that month. Soon after that meeting, we had confirmed that Hien Tran – lead author and coordinator of the study justifying the rules – lied about having a Ph.D. in statistics from the University of California Davis. Our subsequent reporting showed senior air board officials from Chairwoman Mary Nichols down knew of Tran’s academic fraud before the Dec. 12, 2008, vote but chose not to...

Ah...nold Schwarzenegger takes us on a computer generated tour designed to promote awareness of the challenges Ah...nold faces from climate change in California. You know, seasons like spring, summer, winter and fall! And......he does it with a straight face! Deception knows no socia-economic-racial boundries!

A judge has attacked parents, suggesting they are bigots for seeking to opt-out their elementary-age children from a mandatory controversial pro-homosexual curriculum, according to a non-profit law firm.