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.
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More rights for couples?
December 18th, 2006
Curtis Park residents Susan MacCulloch and Steven White split the mortgage, hold a joint checking account and take turns walking their 7-year-old Sheltie, Kiko. In all their 25 years together, they never needed a marriage license to say "I do."
But if one were to end up in the hospital, it's not clear whether the other partner would have all the medical decision-making powers afforded to spouses.
"If a decision has to be made about my health care, I want to make sure he's No. 1," said MacCulloch, 50.
Brawl Began Over Political Boss Charged with Rape Threats
December 15th, 2006
Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally's fight with his fellow lawmaker, Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, is rooted in a longstanding feud over a South Gate political boss now in jail for embezzling millions. Four years ago, Dymally intervened to defend the corrupt official while De La Torre was trying to clean up South Gate's political cesspool.
This month, De La Torre is leading an Assembly Rules Committee investigation into whether Dymally improperly ordered and distributed fake official-looking badges to relatives and campaign contributors. In turn, Dymally has called De La Torre "the most racist legislator I have encountered in over 40 years."
RoblesIn 2002, Dymally and De La Torre took separate sides when then-South Gate treasurer Albert Robles, in photo, was charged with threatening to rape then-state Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) and shoot her husband, political consultant Leo Briones. Robles, the self-described "King of South Gate," also allegedly threatened to kidnap then-Assemblyman Marco Firebaugh (D-Los Angeles), drive him to Tijuana and shoot him in the head. Firebaugh died in March 2006 of liver failure.
Head of badge investigation a ‘racist,’ Dymally says
December 15th, 2006
The assemblyman at the center of a controversy over the issuance of official-looking badges to campaign supporters on Thursday called the fellow lawmaker asked to investigate the practice "the most racist legislator I have encountered in over 40 years."
Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton) made the comment about Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) in response to a question from a television reporter.
De La Torre, chairman of the Assembly Rules Committee, was asked Monday by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) to investigate the public distribution of Assembly wallet badges. Nuñez called for the inquiry in response to a Dec. 5 Los Angeles Times story that detailed how Dymally's office had given more than a dozen of the metal badges with a likeness of the official Assembly seal to donors and constituents.
County to appeal medical-marijuana ruling
December 14th, 2006
A week after a Superior Court judge threw out their case against California's medical-marijuana laws, San Diego County's supervisors have voted to appeal the ruling.
The case will be sent to the 4th District Court of Appeal, with county lawyers again arguing that San Diego County should not have to enforce state laws that conflict with federal laws.
In January, San Diego County sued the state of California rather than implement medical-marijuana laws that permit qualified patients to smoke and grow marijuana and require counties to issue them identification cards.
FEC fines Swift Boat, MoveOn
December 14th, 2006
In 2004, Swift Boat Veterans and POWs for Truth played a highly visible role in the presidential campaign by running ads in key states questioning the Vietnam War record of the Democratic candidate, Sen. John F. Kerry, and charging that "he cannot be trusted."
Likewise, the MoveOn.org Voter Fund criticized President Bush, repeatedly referring in its ads to his "failure of leadership."
Both operated as "527" organizations independent of political parties. That designation, from the tax code provision governing their activities, allowed them to solicit unlimited amounts of cash, which they could use to raise the public's awareness of issues.
But those overtly partisan activities crossed the line, the Federal Election Commission ruled Wednesday, fining both groups — along with two affiliated with the League of Conservation Voters — for failing to register as political committees, which have much stricter fundraising rules, and for raising millions of dollars over the limits that apply to such committees.
The Swift Boat group was fined $299,500, the MoveOn group $150,000, and both League of Conservation Voters groups $180,000.
Panel calls for hearings on ‘alcopop’ tax
December 14th, 2006
Reversing a decision made a day earlier, the state's tax policy board on Wednesday voted to take the first steps toward hiking the tax on "alcopops" -- sweet-tasting alcoholic drinks that a coalition of youth groups believes are targeted at teenagers.
By approving a petition submitted by the coalition, the Board of Equalization agreed to hold hearings on raising the tax, with final approval to be considered next year.
Alcopops -- which refer to flavored malt beverages such as Smirnoff Ice and Mike's Hard Lemonade -- are taxed at 20 cents per gallon, the rate for beer. The coalition wants the beverages taxed at $3.30 per gallon, the rate for distilled spirits, with the hope that the steeper price will make the drinks less accessible to minors.
In San Diego, a sneak peek at a fiscal horror show
December 14th, 2006
San Diego County has just become the first big government agency in California to confront an issue that most have chosen to ignore for years, if not decades: the long-term cost of providing health insurance for retired public employees. This unpleasant experience will soon be coming to a town near you.
Starting next year, state and local governments will be required to come clean on the promises, implied or direct, that they have made to their employees -- and the cost to taxpayers of making good on those obligations.
The biggest of the obligations -- pensions -- have always been tracked publicly, and most governments set aside money every year from employees and taxpayers to pay for the estimated future cost of retirement checks.
But unlike pensions, the cost of providing health insurance for retirees has been an accounting afterthought. Although the bill is large and growing bigger every year, hardly anyone ever bothered to add it all up and contemplate how those costs would eventually be paid for.
Now they are, and the numbers are staggering. Experts say the obligation, once tallied, will reach into the hundreds of billions of dollars in California alone.
Dymally: Race is a factor in badge dispute
December 14th, 2006
An African American legislator charged Wednesday that his skin color and legislative position are partly responsible for a controversy sparked by his staff's issuance of replica Assembly badges to supporters or friends.
"It's nice and proper and polite to say that racism doesn't exist in American society and politics," said Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton. "But it exists. People have to deal with that. Why am I being singled out?"
Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, ordered the Assembly Rules Committee this week to look into unauthorized distribution of metal badges containing the Assembly seal.
Nuñez wants use of badges probed
December 13th, 2006
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez is calling for an inquiry into at least one lawmaker's practice of distributing official-looking badges to supporters and contributors.
Although Nuñez did not name any lawmaker, he issued a sharply worded letter aimed at Assemblyman Mervyn Dymally (D-Compton). Through his aides, Dymally has been handing out "Assembly commissioner" badges to his supporters.
"Somewhere down the line, a breakdown has occurred," Nuñez said in the letter dated Monday. Nuñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, asked that Assembly Rules Committee Chairman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate) report to him in a month.
Dymally's practice of distributing badges attracted attention when the Redondo Beach city attorney charged Dymally protege Pirikana Johnson, 27, with impersonating a state official. The charges, filed last week, stemmed from two incidents in which Johnson allegedly flashed at police a badge issued by Dymally's office.
Panel rejects proposal to boost ‘alcopop’ tax
December 13th, 2006
The state's tax policy board on Tuesday rejected a petition by a coalition of youth groups to hike the tax on "alcopops" -- sweet and fruity malt beverages that the coalition believes are targeted at teenagers.
The coalition hoped that by making the drinks more expensive, they would become less accessible to minors.
The Board of Equalization rejected the effort on a 2-2 vote.
"It seems like it's an intentional design to destroy an industry," said board member Claude Parrish, who worried the tax hike was an unnecessary hardship on the beverage industry.
Gary Miller can always get what he wants
December 13th, 2006
GARY MILLER, you make a grown man cry.
Using your congressional staff, and your official letterhead, to score some tickets to see the Rolling Stones? That's a violation of federal law and leaves us, frankly, shattered.
According to a Dec. 12 story in The Times, citing records provided by former staff, the Republican congressman from Diamond Bar has his taxpayer-salaried staffers perform such personal and family chores as registering his son for college classes, checking his stock prices and getting tickets to see his favorite rock band.
But that's almost cute compared with Miller's real estate transactions.
Avalanche of federal regulations is upon us
December 12th, 2006
Congress comes and goes, but new federal regulations just keep on coming, thousands upon thousands of them.
While Congress has gone home, bureaucrats are still concocting regulations to govern American life. It's a sprawling agenda, spelled out this week in illuminating detail.
Welcome to the administrative state, displayed yesterday in all its rule-promulgating glory. Among politicians, it induces schizophrenia. They write the laws that require rules, then denounce the civil servants who do the work.
“The framers of the Constitution feared one thing above all else,” Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., declared at the start of the 109th Congress, “and that was a tyrannical central government made up of unaccountable federal bureaucrats.”
Competition in sight: State eyeglass law takes well-deserved hit
December 12th, 2006
In a victory for consumers, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton has ruled that big out-of-state chains such as LensCrafters that offer eye examinations and sell glasses on the same premises may continue to do so.
A state law sought to ban such one-stop-shops for eye care businesses, but only if they were operated by out- of-state corporations. That same law, however, allowed such businesses if they were owned and operated by state licensed ophthalmologists and optometrists.
Karlton concluded reasonably enough that the law discriminates against out-of-state chains and thus violates the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
Ex-aides allege abuse of power
December 12th, 2006
With community activists packed into the Monrovia Community Center one winter night in 2000, U.S. Rep. Gary Miller (R-Diamond Bar) implored City Council members to purchase 165 acres he owned in the foothills and turn the land into a wilderness preserve.
Earlier that day, according to interviews with former Miller staff members and official correspondence reviewed by The Times, Miller asked one staffer to find a way to place one of the councilmen — a pawnshop owner with no parks experience — on the prestigious National Park System Advisory Board.
The aide said he was told to "make it a priority."
Miller then continued to push for the councilman's appointment even after staff members warned him that trying to secure the park board seat for the councilman could appear to be a bribe, internal memos show.
State cracks down on lawn mowers
December 12th, 2006
Come next spring, cutting the green will become greener in California thanks to a federal decision Monday granting the state permission to require smog controls on lawn mowers.
California air quality officials applauded the hard-won U.S. Environmental Protection Agency waiver, saying it reaffirms the state's need to set its own, strongest-in-the-nation emission standards.
U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., had tried for years to block California's effort to curtail smog-forming exhausts from small engines, saying the costs of making the lower-polluting models would force production overseas. The leading small-engine manufacturer, Briggs & Stratton, has two plants in Bond's home state.
