Free Republic

Extraordinarily smart people at the California Air Resources Board have taken to using the term "leakage" as they go about devising the experimental cap and trade system for reducing greenhouse gases. Homer Perez, head boiler mechanic at Pacific Coast Producers' tomato cannery off East Main Street in Woodland, might use a word that is more familiar to the rest of us: "layoff." The cannery has been operating under one owner or another since the 1920s. A cooperative of 16 growers in Yolo, Solano and Sutter counties owns it now. Perez has worked there for 28 of the past 29 years....

The new year 2011 and lack of confidence in the tax policies of incoming governor Jerry Brown brings devastating news to Southern California. The progressive tax-and-spend policies of Democrat-run California government have chased another lucrative business out of the state. The open-borders, do-nothing immigration policy of the Obama administration claims the runner-up prize for this economic blow to an already-reeling economy in San Diego. The major cruise lines have just announced they are leaving San Diego, California to make NEW home ports in Texas, Florida and Australia. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that Texas and Florida don’t have state...

There has been meagre commentary on the economic plight of California, the propensity to keep spending, and the inevitable resort to DC for help. Since others have not opined on the subject, I'd like to get the views of this well-informed forum as to how this might come about.Will there be hearings?Will there be an appeal from Jerry Brown? from others?Will the GOP show tough love?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A fourth of all Californians are thinking about moving - either out of state or just to another town - to bring down their housing costs, a new survey shows. High rents and rising home prices have residents, particularly younger ones, rethinking the value of the mountain views and ocean shores they say they treasure. Of the respondents under 35, for example, nearly half say they might relocate to somewhere cheaper. The study, released Thursday by the Public Policy Institute of California, found that even many homeowners now see little upside to rising prices that have...

Analysis: Unions fared well on budget Governor more accommodating than his GOP predecessors. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spent years working in Hollywood, where unions have long had a strong say-so. Perhaps that's why his first budget is far more accommodating to labor than policies pursued by his Republican predecessors.

CALIFORNIANS FOR SCHWARZENEGGER RADIO:60 "TAX" JON COUPAL: THIS IS JON COUPAL, PRESIDENT OF THE HOWARD JARVIS TAXPAYERS ASSOCIATION. TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO WE SENT THE POLITICIANS A MESSAGE WITH PROPOSITION 13. THIS YEAR WE CAN SEND ANOTHER MESSAGE BY RECALLING GRAY DAVIS AND REPLACING HIM WITH ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, A STRONG FISCAL CONSERVATIVE. HE WILL REPEAL THE CAR TAX AND STAND AGAINST MORE TAXES. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: I STRONGLY SUPPORT PROPOSITION 13 AND WILL FIGHT ANY PROPOSAL WHICH SEEKS TO CHANGE IT. I AM IN PRINCIPLE AGAINST TAXING, BECAUSE I FEEL THAT THE PEOPLE OF CALIFORNIA HAVE BEEN PUNISHED ENOUGH. FROM THE TIME...