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In The News
The Republican Liberty Caucus of California is dedicated to bringing our message to the public and keeping activists informed. We will work to make the text of our press releases and relevant news articles available to the public from our website. Keep checking back here for the most current information.
Now Playing at Reason.tv: Raiding California—Drew Carey on Medical Marijuana and Minors
June 15th, 2008
Should medical marijuana be kept from minors at all costs? Why is it that pharmacists can dispense amphetamines without getting busted, but legal operators who dispense medical marijuana face prison time? Why do armed federal agents persist in raiding California?
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Lifelong Republican finds himself unlikely hero of gay rights activists
May 22nd, 2008
California Chief Justice Ronald George could have taken the easy road in the legal conflict over gay marriage.

But as a crowd gathered outside the state Supreme Court's headquarters last Thursday morning, anxiously awaiting a ruling on the fate of same-sex marriage, George had already decided that the time was ripe for his court to make the hard decision and rewrite California's civil rights landscape.

When the clock struck 10 a.m. and the Supreme Court released its decision, George knew his court had made history.
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Same-Sex Marriage and Racial Justice Find Common Ground
May 17th, 2008
Not long into the oral argument before the California Supreme Court in March over whether gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional right to marry, Chief Justice Ronald M. George showed his hand.

Three times he quoted from the court’s 1948 decision in Perez v. Sharp that struck down a state ban on interracial marriage, a high point in the history of a prestigious and influential court.

“The essence of the right to marry is freedom to join in marriage with the person of one’s choice,” Chief Justice George said, quoting Perez.
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Same-sex marriage is no threat to society
May 17th, 2008
I keep thinking that if same-sex marriage posed such a threat, why isn't it clear to me or millions of others? We understand other obvious threats, such as disease or armed robbers or sour milk.

If gay marriage is so inherently threatening to society, and if we're telling the truth when we say we want to preserve that social order, why isn't the gay-marriage "threat" obvious? I grew up in the church; how come gay marriage doesn't threaten me?

Because it isn't a threat.
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California Focus: Tax man grabs jocks, and more
February 23rd, 2007
Duane Hoffman is a tax auditor who tracks professional athletes, and specifically their "duty days" in California. The state then shakes them down for state taxes at the same high rates as residents. According to a report in the Sacramento Bee, this brings in some $100 million annually, including $163,000 from a three-day trip by the New York Knicks and $106,000 from the 2006 California sojourn of Yankee infielder Alex Rodriguez. As we noted when we first covered this story in 2004, this confiscatory activity is not limited to athletes.

The tax also applies to a blues singer from Chicago, a home-care nurse from Nevada, and a novelist from Montana. According to the Los Angeles Times, an out-of-state salesman earning $50,000 a year, about $200 a day, would owe 9.3 percent of that, $18.60 a day, to California. Such people are not as easy to track as Shaquille O'Neal and other professional athletes, whose stellar salaries, usually public knowledge, make them an easy target for the "jock tax" that actually applies to everyone. Like all taxes, it has consequences.

Because other states retaliate, California's money grab is really a kind of zero-sum game. The Bee's report also notes that high taxes make contracts with California teams worth less money, and that state tax laws are now a factor in contract negotiations. It may not come out in the sports pages, but athletes have solid fiscal grounds for wanting to work elsewhere. So does everybody else, and many are doing so.
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Advocacy group’s suit calls on U.S. to acknowledge pot’s medicinal value
February 22nd, 2007
A patient advocacy group sued the federal government Wednesday to try to force U.S. health agencies to acknowledge that marijuana has merit as a medicine.

The lawsuit by Americans for Safe Access follows a two-year effort to reverse what it calls a "misinformation campaign" by U.S. health agencies.

Americans for Safe Access is suing under the Data Quality Act, a little-known statute that lets citizens challenge the accuracy of government-disseminated information.

The Oakland-based group filed a petition in October 2004 asking the United States to reverse its staunch opposition to pot as medicine. After months of delays, the government rejected the petition.
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Lawmaker drops bill to give LAUSD board hefty raises
February 22nd, 2007
A California lawmaker who proposed legislation that would have given Los Angeles Unified school board members six-figure salaries said Wednesday that he is abandoning the proposal.

Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, said he now believes voters should determine board members' pay and that he plans to withdraw his legislation.

The move, which became public earlier this week and drew widespread criticism, would have allowed boards overseeing 500,000 students or more to become full-time employees and vote themselves hefty pay hikes.

LAUSD board members - currently part time with salaries of $24,000 a year - would have seen raises of 600 percent, to $171,000 a year.
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Promises give way at first sight of bond money
February 22nd, 2007
As California voters last year considered Proposition 1B, the $20 billion transportation bond sponsored by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature, they were told that the money would be distributed through normal channels -- not earmarked by politicians eager to bring home the bacon without regard to the greater transportation needs of the state.

At the same time, however, the governor and legislative leaders promised voters in every part of the state that they would benefit if the bond passed. As they campaigned, the leaders distributed lists of specific highway projects they said would get money from the bond, easing congestion and shortening commutes.

But those two sets of promises were in conflict. The politicians could not guarantee that any project would be built if they were really going to let the professionals in the state bureaucracy hand out the money. Now we are seeing the results of that contradiction.
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California prison drug treatment called waste of money
February 22nd, 2007
California's $1-billion investment in drug treatment for prisoners since 1989 has been "a complete waste of money," the state's inspector general said Wednesday, and has done nothing to reduce the number of inmates cycling in and out of custody.

One study of the two largest in-prison programs found that recidivism rates for inmates who participated were actually a bit higher than those of a group of convicts who did not receive treatment, Inspector General Matt Cate said.

He said corrections officials were told in more than 20 reports since 1997 that the programs were failing but did nothing to fix them, choosing instead to expand them and fund more studies of their results.
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Analyst: Red ink’s ahead
February 22nd, 2007
California will take in about $2 billion less than previously expected in tax revenues this fiscal year and the next, so lawmakers should cut spending now, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget adviser said Wednesday.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, whose view of the state's fiscal situation has been more pessimistic than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's in recent weeks, also said the governor's spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 would leave the state with a deficit of over $700 million.

"We face a very challenging budget situation," Hill said at a news conference where she released her office's annual review of the governor's spending proposals. "It requires additional solutions. We are urging that decision makers act now."

H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's Department of Finance, said the administration believes it is still too early to make predictions about how much money the state will take in this year and next. The governor will issue a revised budget in May based on cash flow data updated after the mid-April tax filing deadline, he said.

Until then, Palmer said: "We're not backing away from anything we put into our January budget. We believe it provides a solid road map."
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California faces budget shortfall, analyst warns
February 22nd, 2007
The Legislature's chief budget analyst warned lawmakers Wednesday that an unexpected dip in tax revenues, along with a number of overly optimistic assumptions in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget, leaves the state facing a much larger fiscal problem than the governor's spending plan reflects.

Nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Elizabeth G. Hill, to whom lawmakers of both parties look for advice on fiscal matters, urged the Legislature to begin cutting programs now to keep California from plunging too far into the red.

"The state still faces many major risks and pressures," Hill said at a news conference where she released her analysis of the governor's budget plan. She projects that about $2 billion in tax revenue the governor's plan relies on to balance the fiscal 2007-08 budget won't be there.
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When legislation makes people giggle
February 15th, 2007
When "Saturday Night Live" wanted an opinion about a proposed bill in California that would outlaw spanking young children, the show turned to an actor playing a short-tempered, cigarette-smoking nanny whose child-rearing skills are summarized in her book, "I Will Beat Yo Ass."

Another comedy television show, "The Colbert Report," parodied proposed legislation by a Van Nuys lawmaker that would ban the ubiquitous incandescent light bulbs in favor of compact fluorescent lamps.

State legislators say they want to solve the state's health care crisis, address overcrowded prisons and take the next step in shoring up California's aging infrastructure, but the spanking and lightbulb proposals have been hogging the media spotlight.
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Case shines light on how war contracts are awarded
February 15th, 2007
When Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes heard that the United States was going to go to war with Iraq, he was ecstatic, say several former colleagues.

“He and some of his top executives were really gung-ho about the war,” said a former employee of his now-defunct firm ADCS Inc. “Brent said this would create new opportunities for the company. He was really excited about doing business in the Middle East.”

Wilkes eventually got his wish of doing business in the war zone. But his contract – to supply $1.7 million worth of bottled water and other goods to CIA operatives in Iraq – is now the focus of a federal indictment.
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2 charged in Cunningham bribe case
February 14th, 2007
A defense contractor and a former top-ranking CIA official were indicted Tuesday on corruption charges in a case that also involved bribes to disgraced ex-congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham.

Brent R. Wilkes was charged with bribing Cunningham (R-Rancho Santa Fe) and Kyle Dustin "Dusty" Foggo to get contracts for his San Diego companies. Until he resigned in May amid a federal investigation, Foggo was the CIA's third highest-ranking official, directing the spy agency's daily operations.

Wilkes, according to the indictment, provided Cunningham with prostitutes, vacations, corporate jet travel, limousine service, cash, meals, furniture and equipment for his boat. The value of the alleged bribes was put at $700,000.
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Senate agrees to move ‘08 vote to Feb.
February 14th, 2007
The California Senate voted Tuesday to move the state's presidential primary from June to February in hopes of increasing the state's political clout — but the plan could backfire.

The Senate passed a measure that would enable Democrats and Republicans to choose presidential nominees Feb. 5 instead of June 3. The bill is expected to be heard in the Assembly next week and to pass easily. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will sign it.

Lawmakers hope that an early California primary will force contenders to rethink a campaign strategy that traditionally focuses on face-to-face persuasion in New Hampshire and Iowa, which hold the country's first primaries or caucuses in January.

But at least four other big states are poised to hold early primaries as well, potentially eroding the greater role California hopes to play.
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