Posts Tagged ‘San Francisco’
Wednesday, October 15th, 2014
Via Dwight comes word that alternative weekly the San Francisco Bay Guardian has ceased publication. Alternative weeklies used to have a market niche as carrier mediums of left-wing opinion, music gig listings and porn ads. The Internet has taken over the music and porn listings, and the left-wing opinion market is glutted not only online, but with MSNBC, New York Times, CNN, NBC, CBS, Washington Post, NPR, etc.
But if you can’t make money with an alternative weekly in San Francisco, where can you? (And keep in mind that this was after they received a settlement from rival SF Weekly.)
Well, probably Austin. At least as long as you have an enormous, money-making music festival attached to it…
(Flashback: “I missed the Bay Guardian’s coverage of their investor’s indictment on child prostitution charges.”)
Tags:California, Democrats, Media Watch, San Francisco, San Francisco Bay Guardian
Posted in Austin, Democrats, Media Watch | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, July 30th, 2014
Another Texas vs. California roundup:
How Los Angeles is killing itself. (Hat tip: Karl Rehn.)
Texas places five cities on list of top 10 growing cities: Austin, Dallas, McAllen, Houston and San Antonio.
California school officials are still grossly overpaid. Including 31 janitors who make more than $100,000 each. (Hat tip (for this and a few more): Pension Tsunami.)
And many of these munificently compensated employees are double-dipping: “More than 1,000 retired instructors who had already begun receiving their state-funded pension continued to work and receive a salary from districts in 2013.”
“Only in California could a bill that requires 32 years to catch up and fund parts of the California State Teachers’ Retirement System’s current $74 billion in unfunded liability be hailed as a major reform.”
Essential school services in California are about to be cut to pay for doubled pension payments.
San Francisco landlords are suing the city over a law that requires them to pay as much as two years rent for evicted tenants. Of course, many landlords were evicting people because insane rent control laws make it almost impossible to sell a building that actually has tenants…
How the Texas model supports job creation.
Evidently male students simply aren’t welcome in California colleges. (Hat tip: Instapundit.)
Actual headline: “LA Councilman Convicted Of Voter Fraud Will Continue To Collect $116K Annual Pension.”
What a conservative Texas budget should look like.
California retail apparel chain Love Culture files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Evidently summer bankruptcies for retail stories are very unusual, since this is the time they start stocking up for the holiday season.
Another California for-profit university chain shuts down.
Oakland Raiders to move to San Antonio?
Are inherited IRA’s exempt from bankruptcy hearings in California? It depends on which precedent the judge chooses to follow.
Not news: Houston ISD holds job fairs looking for teachers. News: In North Carolina.
Tags:Budget, California, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Texas, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, April 29th, 2014
Big news, as one of the world’s largest car makers decides to abandon tax-and-spend California for the Lone Star State:
Toyota is moving U.S. sales and marketing operations from Torrence, California to Plano, Texas.
California has become infamous with business executives and owners there not only for high tax rates and complex taxing schemes but also for overzealous regulations and regulators that have managed to stifle the entrepreneurial energy of thousands of companies.
“Criminal activity is the extreme manifestation of California’s institutionalized progressive hypocrisy.”
ZeroHedge (quoting a certain gun-grabbers business news service) offers up the most and least taxing states in America. Once again, California tops the list for most taxing. Plus a handy visual representation:
“California doesn’t just have the highest state income tax in the nation. It leads the rest of the country in almost every category of taxation: the highest state sales tax, the highest taxes on gasoline at the pump, and the highest corporate tax west of the Mississippi. And the taxes aren’t doing much for the people of the state, rich or poor. For the first time in history, the Census Bureau reports that California is also the poorest state in the nation, with 23.8% of the population living in poverty, in large part because of California’s high cost of living (which is not helped by all the sky-high consumption taxes the Democrats have enacted and the poor must pay to survive.)”
If that weren’t bad enough, a new bill (SB 1372) threatens to levy a class-war tax on CEO salaries. “Their bill would change the state’s fixed tax rate on publicly traded corporations to a sliding levy that’s pegged to the earnings gap between the top-paid executive and the median worker.” Evidently Democrats want all publicly traded corporations in California to move their headquarters to Texas…
The Pension Tsunami is going to wreck California sooner rather than later. “State and local governments in the Golden State have underfunded their golden-parachute pension promises by a terrifying half a trillion dollars. Twenty thousand public employees now collect yearly pensions of $100,000 or more.”
Some of the money those “public servants” are raking in is pretty staggering: “In 2012, more than 100 individuals took home more than $500,000 in total compensation; 8,248 raked in more than $250,000; 28,844 cashed in to the tune of $200,000 or more.”
Superintendent in a California school district who oversees 6,600 students pulled down a cool $674,559 last year. (Hat tip: Dwight.)
Evidently CalPERS and San Bernardino are still negotiating.
If you think CalPERS is going broke now, just wait to California’s bankrupt cities start writing down debts owed.
Everyone knows San Francisco is as liberal as liberal can be. Yet even there voters have voted down green energy mandates.
California hot sauce maker Sriracha is still mulling relocation offers. Texas is still a possibility.
California’s tax bureaucracy will continue suing you after 20 years, even if they’ve lost in court.
Poll of residents shows that Texas is one of the five most popular states to live in. “Texans rank high on standard of living and trust in their state government, and they are less negative than others are about the state taxes they pay.”
Texas isn’t immune from California’s troubles when big city officials start spending like California Democrats. Big-spending Texas cities should learn from bankrupt Detroit’s example.
Tags:California, CalPERs, San Bernardino, San Francisco, Sriracha, Texas, Toyota, unions, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Democrats, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | 1 Comment »
Monday, April 21st, 2014
More details and repercussions from the indictment of California State Senator Leland Yee and his criminal associates on gun-trafficking and other charges:
Feds plan to add racketeering charges to the Yee indictment.
Prominent Democrat Willie Brown (former Speaker of the California House and Mayor of San Francisco) wonders what the big deal is with the Yee indictment:
Give the guy a break. When all is said and done, his alleged crimes come down to taking campaign contributions in return for issuing proclamations, using campaign funds to set up a meeting and taking campaign funds for writing a letter.
Never did he sell his vote, steal public money or actually put money in his own pocket, as far as I can tell.
None of Yee’s decisions affected the public.
I’ve gone over the FBI’s criminal complaint and, from what I can see, the biggest crime he was accused of was trying hustle some undercover FBI agents who were out to get alleged Chinatown gang leader Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow.
First, I don’t think Brown has read that indictment carefully enough. Second, notice how prominent Democrats seem to think that some felonies are just no big deal…
“Leland Yee symbolizes the pay-to-play virus that has infected our entire body politic.”
But don’t worry, Californians! Your Democratic Party-controlled government has the solution to all this slime and corruption: “intensive ethics training for senators and staffers.” Because ordinarily people just wouldn’t know that engaging in illegal arms trafficking to Islamic rebels was wrong. “Was that wrong? Should I not have done that?”
Alleged money laundering co-conspirators Leslie Yun and James Pau granted bail. They’re also accused of stolen stolen cigarette smuggling, marijuana distribution, and owning “a massage parlor that provides sexual services for its customers.”
Back when Yee was a mere school board President, someone once sent him a message in the form of a pig’s head with a clever embedded in its skull.
Yee’s defense team accuses FBI of entrapment.
Chow’s lawyers also accuse the FBI of entrapment, saying that the FBI threw millions of dollars at him. His lawyer also says that “the $58,000 Chow received from undercover agents were legal gratuities, not kickbacks for illegal activity.” Yeah, good luck pushing that theory…
Tags:California, Crime, Democrats, FBI, Guns, James Pau, Leland Yee, Leslie Yun, prostitution, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, San Francisco, Willie Brown
Posted in Crime, Democrats, Guns | No Comments »
Thursday, March 27th, 2014
There’s just no end to the Leland Yee/Raymond “Shrimp Boy” Chow arms trafficking story, so here are some updates and tidbits:
Yee is out on $500,000 bond, his passport has been confiscated, and he’s been told not to leave California. I dunno about you, but $500,000 seems low for someone accused of running a major arms trafficking ring. Good thing Chinese tongs have never been known to smuggle people in or out of a country illegally…
Yee also withdrew from the California Secretary of State race. There goes the “any publicity is good publicity” theory…
Democrats were all for keeping convicted felon Rod Wright around as a state senator, but now that Yee is making all the wrong headlines, suddenly they want to kick Yee out because he was indicted.
Yee was honored last week by the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.
A quick rundown on all the key players.
And an even quicker look at all the charges.
The indictment on Shrimp Boy’s misdeeds: “Chow’s criminal history includes a guilty plea in federal court for racketeering, involving murder for hire, conspiracy to distribute heroin, arson, and conspiracy to collect extensions of credit.” 1. Shrimp Boy is obviously well-rounded, 2. “conspiracy to collect extensions of credit”? YOU MONSTER! (Actually, I’m guessing this may be loan sharking.)
Also indicted is a Alan Chiu, who is described as a “close associate” of Chow and is “employed by Men’s Warehouse.” Well, now we know where Shrimp Boy gets all of those natty outfits…
Kongphet Chanthavong is described as a Thai citizen with a felony conviction and “an outstanding warrant of deportation; however, country conditions preclude deportation.” What? Which country’s conditions? Ours, because Obama refuses to enforce immigration law, or Thailand? If the later, just get him a one way-ticket to Bangkok and let Thai officials deal with him. Problem solved.
Marlon Darrell Sullivan was indicted on narcotics trafficking, gun trafficking, and the murder-for-hire scheme. I’m guessing it’s this Marlon Sullivan, who represents football players Matt Toeaina, Jonathan Fanene, and Pat Williams, and boxer Karim Mayfield. I was unfamiliar with Mayfield until I ran across his name this morning. Where? On Chow’s Facebook page.
Just how does a sports agent wake up one day and say to himself: “You know, the agent business is good and all, but I really want to break into the lucrative world of contract killing”?
Maybe because he never left the street. “Marlon Sullivan, according to the federal affidavit, told undercover agents he’d have no trouble pulling off a ‘hit’, saying ‘I got a hundred niggas, I still got my ties to the street. I got young boys who love me.’”
Also this: “As I write, Sullivan’s whereabouts are unknown. He did not appear at the hearing where more than 20 of the defendants were arraigned.”
Yee traveled in the circles you would expect a California state senator to travel in:
He evidently has friends on the South Side:
(In case you don’t get the reference, that’s singer Moby. Kids, ask your parents what a “Moby” was…)
Lee has a Twitter account.
Oh my:
Iowahawk goes to town on the story (no doubt in a souped-up dragon tong roadster):
Iowahawk also pointed out this gem of an Los Angeles Times headline: “For Democrats, politicians in handcuffs point to image problems.”
But that’s not the only supergenius headline they offer up on the case. There’s also this sparkling example of the headline-writer’s art: “Leland Yee indictment may mark abrupt end to his political career.” Really? You think? Then again, he is a Democrat. Convictions couldn’t fully derail Marion Barry or Alcee Hastings careers…
All the story needs to take it to the next level is Lo Pan casting fireballs from his fingers…
Tags:Alan Chiu, Border Controls, California, Crime, Democrats, Guns, Iowahawk, Jihad, Kongphet Chanthavong, Leland Yee, Marlon Darrell Sullivan, Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, San Francisco, Twitter
Posted in Border Control, Crime, Democrats, Guns | 1 Comment »