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Runner sues Attorney General over ballot wording SACRAMENTO • State Sen. George Runner is suing California Attorney General Jerry Brown for crafting what Runner calls an “overtly biased” summary of a ballot measure the senator created to prevent voter fraud. “I believe he has misrepresented what this initiative does,” said Runner, R-Lancaster, in an interview Monday. “That’s a tremendous disservice to the citizens of California.” Earlier this year Runner submitted ballot measure Vote SAFE, which would require voters to present photo identification at the polls, allow county Registrar of Voters additional time to count military votes and protect the identity...

State Sen. George Runner is stepping down as chairman of the Senate Republican Caucus, the Flash Report reported today. The 57-year-old Lancaster lawmaker told his 14 GOP colleagues that he will leave the post at the end of this month, according to the blog, written by state GOP official Jon Fleischman. Runner said that resigning the chairmanship will allow the post to be held by someone who is not seeking higher office and, at the same time, trying to qualify and pass a statewide ballot measure.

At a time when stores like Mervyns and Circuit City are closing hundreds of locations, and thousands of private sector jobs are being cut, government jobs and salaries are remaining safe. San Bernardino County registered an 9 percent unemployment rate in October, the highest rate in 15 years, according to the California Employment Development Department. Yet government itself seems to be weathering the economic firestorm just fine. Despite the Inland Empire losing 22,300 jobs over the past year, government reported the greatest year-over-year gain, adding 5,500 jobs... Local government accounted for more than 85 percent of the job growth in...

When I came to the Legislature in 1996 as an Assemblyman, the California state budget was just shy of $50 billion. Now it tops more than $100 billion. The population in that time frame did not double but in fact grew by 18 percent. Why then has the budget doubled? Quite simply, the Democrat-controlled Legislature was spending money as fast as it came in — creating new programs and greatly increasing money to expand existing programs — from revenues generated by the technological boom based largely in Silicon Valley. It was as if California won the lottery and no adults...

A magazine news article warned of the impending doom of climate change: "There are ominous signs that the Earth's weather patterns have begun to change dramatically and that these changes may portend a drastic decline in food production, with serious political implications for every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now. ... The evidence in support of these predictions has now begun to accumulate so massively that meteorologists are hard-pressed to keep up with it." You might be surprised that this gloomy scenario refers to global cooling, and comes...

The ripple effect of President George W. Bush's selection for the next director of the Securities and Exchange Commission could send waves all the way to the Antelope Valley. Bush has picked Congressman Christopher Cox, a Newport Beach Republican, to head the SEC. If Cox is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, the California state Senate could lose one its members, if Sen. Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, succeeds in replacing Cox in a special election. That would leave a vacancy in Ackerman's present position as Senate Minority Leader, the GOP leader in the state's upper house. State Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, is...

For 12 hours on that hot August morning a year ago today, two Antelope Valley teenagers stared death in the face, prisoners of a convicted felon who kidnapped them from a remote lovers lane in a quiet desert town. For hours on end, an army of law enforcement men and women scoured the Southland, issuing makeshift Amber Alert broadcasts and tracking down leads. As one emotional hour after another passed, a community feared the worst, but fervently prayed the girls would be found alive and return home safely. When word finally came just before 1 p.m. that Jacqueline Marris and...

Amber Hagerman's mother made her way to the White House on Wednesday with a heavy heart and as much pride as a mother can muster. Amber disappeared seven years ago in northern Texas. Thanks to the law President George W. Bush signed with Amber's mother at his side, her name will be linked nationwide with the missing-child alerts that have helped save at least 64 children. "It's a bittersweet thing," Donna Norris said before the Rose Garden ceremony. "My little girl was abducted and butchered for this bill to even exist. But it's saving children's lives. It's just a bittersweet...

What began for California right here in the Antelope Valley is now headed to President George W. Bush's desk where his signature will mean the introduction of a national Amber Alert system. Fear that legislation drafted by the House that would implement a national system might be snagged in the Senate because of unrelated language added to the bill was quashed late Thursday when it was unanimously approved by the Senate. "I'm just glad they've been able to reach a compromise," said former Assemblyman George Runner, who drafted the legislation for the system in California last year after the idea...