Free Republic

Why hasn’t Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger replaced controversial movie director/initiative promoter Rob Reiner as chairman of the California Children and Families Commission? That’s the question that has many, especially Schwarzenegger’s fellow Republicans, perplexed. Reiner has stepped away, taken a “leave of absence” from his post at the so-called “First Five Commission” in the wake of revelations about its highly questionable spending practices under his leadership. But he intends to return to the chairmanship after his Proposition 82 universal preschool initiative is voted on in June, even though his term in office expired in 2004. Many Republicans thought they understood Schwarzenegger’s motivation...

Several Martinsville High School students say teachers stopped their calls to 911 while a fellow student was choking, because cell phones aren't allowed on campus. Witnesses tell police the victim was rushing to finish his lunch before leaving the cafeteria, because you can't bring food outside. That's when they say he started choking, went into cardiac arrest, and died at the hospital. Multiple 911 calls went out from Martinsville High School. Witnesses say Jesse Tucker choked on a hamburger. Paramedics rushed the 15 year-old freshman to the hospital, where he later died. "It's really hard to grasp the fact that...

N.Y. teen performs Heimlich on nurse who gave him CPR years earlier Call it a simple twist of fate — times two: A teenager in western New York state has saved the life of the same woman who years ago saved his life.

DALLAS. Nov. 28 - When it comes to CPR, doubling the number of chest compressions and delivering them more quickly is the key to saving a life, according to the American Heart Association's revised guidelines issued today. The updated guidelines call for 30 chest compressions delivered hard and fast for every two breaths administered by a single rescuer aiding a patient with cardiac arrest. That's a doubling from the 15:2 ratio, or 15 chest compressions for every two breaths, previously recommended. The guidelines, intended for everyone from bystanders to trained paramedics, were presented at a press conference here and were...

ASSOCIATED PRESS DALLAS -- Too busy to take a four-hour CPR course? New research shows the lifesaving procedure can be effectively taught in a little more than 20 minutes. The finding, presented Sunday at an American Heart Association meeting in Dallas, could broadly expand the number of Americans who can perform CPR. "It's brilliant," said Dr. Lance Becker, director of the Emergency Resuscitation Center at the University of Chicago. "I think it's going to make our ability to train people much, much easier." The study, led by Dr. Ahamed Idris, professor of emergency medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern...

California's reformer-in-chief looked a lot better in the previews For an action-hero politician who likes to taunt "girlie-men," Arnold Schwarzenegger sure turned out to be a wuss. Two years after sweeping into office with promises to "blow up boxes," perform "the Miracle of Sacramento," and "not rest until our fiscal house is in order," California's Milton Friedman–quoting governor is wasting our time with a special election that does little more than tweak his unionized political tormentors and tinker at the margins of mis-governance, while the state's fiscal house maintains its disorder of $6 billion budget deficits. The governor is tramping...

One of the more bitter ironies to emerge from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is that his beloved California Performance Review now risks becoming a monument to what it was supposed to counter - bureaucratic inefficiency. Sacramento is home to many a needless commission, panels that publish reports that no one reads and that never amount to anything. Who would have guessed that the CPR commission and its 2,200-page treatise could become but one more exercise in futility? To be fair, the CPR does have some worthwhile accomplishments to its credit: shorter lines at the DMV and reorganization at the Department...

Cable Repair Workers Rescue 10-Year-Old Boy Who Fell to Bottom of Swimming Pool The Associated Press Published: Jun 17, 2005 DES MOINES, Wash. (AP) - Two cable repairmen who learned CPR in case their families ever needed help rescued a 10-year-old boy who fell into a swimming pool, sank to the bottom and stopped breathing. Without Todd Hickam and Ryan Thornhill, Jamario Covington "wouldn't be here right now," said his mother, Melody Covington. The boy remained hospitalized Friday in stable condition. Jamario was wearing swim trunks Monday when he fell into the pool at a townhouse development in this Seattle...

SAN QUENTIN – Maligning San Quentin State Prison as "an expensive mistake," two state politicians this week urged officials to shutter the aging facility to save cash-strapped California millions of dollars. They also urged the state to back away from a plan to spend $220 million to improve the prison's death row facility. The California Department of Corrections is scheduled to break ground on a new death row this fall on 40 acres west of the existing prison on the San Francisco Bay in scenic Marin County. The legislators support a bill set to go before the Assembly Appropriations Committee...

Abandoning one of his most far-reaching and controversial proposals since taking office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to withdraw his plan to eliminate 88 regulatory and policy-setting boards and commissions, sources close to the governor said Wednesday. In a letter the administration plans to deliver to the state's Little Hoover Commission today, Schwarzenegger concedes the proposal needs further review. Members of the commission, which has held hearings on Schwarzenegger's proposal and plans to release a highly critical assessment at its meeting next Thursday, have already recommended that the government reorganization be scaled back substantially. Included on Schwarzenegger's hit list were...

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Cardiopulmonary resuscitation is often inadequately performed by doctors, paramedics and nurses, two studies of resuscitation efforts during cardiac arrest have found. Two common problems are rescuers not pushing hard enough or frequently enough on the chest to restart the heart, and rescuers breathing air into the lungs too often, either mouth to mouth or through tubes. In a study that involved 67 adults at the University of Chicago, doctors and nurses failed to follow at least one CPR guideline 80 percent of the time. Failure to follow several guidelines was common. The other study involved 176...

Sometimes a cartoon says things better than thousands of words. So it was the other day when Bruce Tinsley's "Mallard Fillmore" spoof predictions for 2005 contained this zinger: "All agencies will be consolidated under the new 'agency of agencies,' which will oversee and coordinate the activities of the 'bureau of bureaus' and the 'department of departments.'" All, of course, would be ruled by the "czar of czars." Ordinarily a fan of California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Tinsley comic strip this time was perfectly timed to puncture a key part of Schwarzenegger's many-pronged plan for so-called reform in California government. For...

California has a long road ahead in fixing its $15 billion budget deficit. However, it can start by eliminating $12.9 billion in wasteful spending, says Citizens Against Government Waste. CAGW’s recently released California Piglet Book details numerous examples of how California’s bureaucrats have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars. Among the examples: The Los Angeles Unified School District is now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation over its $74.5 million purchase of a downtown high-rise building for its administrative headquarters; the charge alleges that it overpaid for the building to bail out investors. City officials in San Francisco preside...

The Little Hoover Commission published its much-anticipated report on the California Performance Review today. The 38-page document contains a mix of strong support for the concept of government reform and skepticism over the execution of proposed changes. The CPR report, a 2,500-page publication that was initiated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in February, contains recommendations on how the state can become more efficient, responsive, streamlined, and effective. The final document, released in August after a spate of public hearings, proved controversial as members of the CPR commission recommended the elimination of numerous boards and commissions. Then there was the matter of...

SACRAMENTO -- Improving government services, not saving money, should be the priority of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to streamline state government, a state advisory commission said in a report released Friday. The Little Hoover Commission's skeptical view of the potential savings that could be generated by the California Performance Review made it the second independent analysis to question the projected savings that Schwarzenegger touted when he accepted the CPR report in August. Schwarzenegger said the recommendations in the 2,500-page review would help the state save $32 billion over a five-year period. But the Legislature's chief budget analyst said later that...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - In stark contrast to the 2,500 pages of the California Performance Review, a commission's analysis and recommendation of the massive plan for reorganizing state government offered little help to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on which goals to pursue. The 12-page report from the governor's 21-member commission shied away from virtually all of the controversial aspects of the plan while making only general comments about the proposal. The California Performance Review, which the governor has hailed as a landmark analysis of state government, called for the consolidation of dozens of departments, reduction of the work force by 12,000 positions...

IRVINE, Calif. -- A proposal to reform California's government by privatizing some functions and eliminating others won a qualified endorsement Wednesday from the bipartisan commission charged with collecting public testimony on the massive overhaul. The California Performance Review Commission ended a series of public hearings with a draft report agreeing with "a significant number" of changes proposed by the team commissioned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to find ways of eliminating government waste. But the 21-member commission also urged the governor to reject some proposals including elimination of the Air Resources Board, a requirement that public university students do volunteer service...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Claims by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review that the state can save $32 billion over five years by reorganizing state government are overblown and the problems caused by such a massive shake-up have been largely overlooked, according to a report made Friday by the Legislative Analyst. Schwarzenegger launched the review in January to fulfill a campaign pledge to reinvigorate state government. The group issued a 2,700-page report earlier this month that offered more than 1,000 recommendations - including the slower growth of state jobs, merging dozens of departments and improving customer service. He also said the...

SACRAMENTO – Despite initial promises of saving billions by overhauling state government, it now appears likely that only a fraction of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to "blow up the boxes" of California bureaucracy will see the light of day. Key Schwarzenegger advisers are said to be divided over whether to push politically unpopular proposals, such as eliminating regulators of the state's air quality. Members of the team that crafted the California Performance Review have come forward, saying many proposals were conceived by staff who knew little about what they worked on. And as a Schwarzenegger-appointed commission to take public comment...

"My relationship to power and authority is that I'm all for it... People need somebody to watch over them... Ninety-five percent of the people in the world need to be told what to do and how to behave." Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. News & World Report, November 26, 1990 In the eyes of many elected officials, America is no longer capable of self-government. Many Americans were stunned to learn that a small group of Congressmen have requested the United Nations to monitor our federal elections this November. Yet at the same time, other elected officials are working to ‘reinvent’ American government...