Sunday, May 31, 2015 – 10:40 a.m.
InlandPolitics.com would like to convey condolences to Vice President Joe Biden and Family on the loss of their son, Former Delaware Attorney General Joseph R. Biden III, age 46, after following a battle with brain cancer.
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Saturday, May 30, 2015 – 09:30 a.m.
An interesting column was published in Saturday’s edition of IE Business Daily.
The column raises several interesting questions.
To read the point of view, click here.
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-0.7 %By Martin Crutsinger
AP Economics Writer
May 29, 2015 – 10:39 am. EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at a 0.7 percent annual rate in the first three months of the year, depressed by a severe winter and a widening trade deficit.
The government’s revised estimate for last quarter was weaker than its initial estimate of a 0.2 percent growth rate. The U.S. trade gap – the difference between the value of exports and the larger value of imports – was found to be wider than first estimated. And consumer spending was slower than previously thought.
But steady job gains are expected to fuel modestly healthy growth for the rest of 2015. The harsh winter, which kept many consumers home and businesses closed, and a labor dispute that slowed trade at West Coast ports are both over. Home sales and construction are rebounding, along with business investment.
Analysts generally foresee the economy, as measured by the gross domestic product, growing at an annual rate of 2 percent to 2.5 percent in the April-June quarter, with further strengthening later in the year. But risks remain: A stronger dollar, which makes U.S. exports more expensive, will likely continue to keep the trade deficit wide. And cutbacks in oil drilling, a result of low energy prices, could depress spending in the energy industry.
“While the evidence of a second-quarter rebound hasn’t been overwhelming, we still think that the outlook for the economy is very encouraging,” Paul Ashworth, chief U.S. economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a research note.
Last quarter’s contraction marked the first since a 2.1 percent annual drop in the first three months of 2014, a slump that was also due in part to severe winter weather.
Last quarter, the trade gap subtracted 1.9 percentage points from growth, the biggest drag in 30 years. Consumer spending, which drives about 70 percent of economic activity, slowed to annual growth of just 1.8 percent for the quarter, slightly below the government’s first estimate. Consumers spent less on mobile phone services, among other expenses, than first estimated.
One of the biggest hits to the economy last quarter came from cuts in drilling activity by energy companies, fallout from the sharp drop in oil prices over the past year. The government said investment in the category that covers energy exploration plunged at an annual rate of 48.6 percent, the steepest drop since 2009, during the Great Recession.
To read entire story, click here.
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Published: May 27, 2015 – Updated: 9:29 a.m.
Photos with high-profile conservatives and a focus on national security are major components so far of Paul Chabot’s bid for a San Bernardino County congressional seat.
To read story by Jeff Horseman in The Press-Enterprise, click here.
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This is the newest national cemetery. It is located between Tehachapi and Bakersfield. It is on land donated by the Tejon Ranch. It is quite beautiful there with a lot of wildlife. It is still very small but there are a lot of graves already.
I have only visited three national cemeteries in recent years. It sure is a sobering experience. We owe such a debt to those who served. I wrote a story about it a couple of years ago for anyone interested in seeing additional photos: Bakersfield National Cemetery
440 total views, 440 views today
Monday, May 26, 2014 – 10:10 a.m.
Remembering the men and women who died while serving in the country’s armed forces.
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Sunday, May 24, 2015 – 05:30 p.m.
The Pew Research Center has issued a not-so-pleasant report on the state of print media in the country.
The findings agree with what InlandPolitics.com has been saying for years now. The value of print newspapers is falling, and falling fast, and advertising revenue, the life blood of newspapers, has fallen some fifty-percent over the past 10 years.
A perfect example is the recent “No Sale” of Digital First Media (DFM).
DFM, the parent of the Los Angeles and Bay Area News Groups, received some interest from hedge fund Apollo Global Management. A sale was actually expected, until DFM took itself off the market.
The company, which also owns The Denver Post and Inland Empire newspapers The Sun, Inland Valley Daily Bulletin and Redlands Daily Facts, thought it would garner about $600 million.
Wrong!
The number was settling in the area of $400 million. A number DFM probably couldn’t stomach.
Apollo was likely looking to breakup the media entity and sell the pieces for more than the whole.
Here’s the pew report: The declining value of U.S. newspapers
The post InlandPolitics: We’ve been saying it for years. Newspapers a failing business model appeared first on InlandPolitics.com.
If you don’t know the most obvious problem, you will have to read my story. But the issues go way beyond what I was able to check on a weekend via online access. I’m tempted to post the additional information I received as though it is a “rumor” until it can be confirmed, but honestly, it is sufficiently concerning enough that, if wrong, it could be considered libelous. However, I have every reason to believe most of it is valid due to the source.
I’m really scratching my head on this one. It would look like someone called in a favor except that I don’t believe for a moment Judge Smith is on the take. And, I’m not sure which side it can potentially benefit.
On one hand, I’m thinking things are not going well for the defense. On the other hand, I’m thinking Larson is loving this. I’m not sure what to believe.
200 total views, 200 views today
Political news, analysis, commentary and more about California and beyond
By Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine
Friday, May 22, 2015
Bottom line on the new Merv and Mark Poll: Kamala Harris looks strong, but far from inevitable, in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Barbara Boxer.
With only 531 shopping days until the 2016 election, the Field Poll out this week shows Attorney General Harris, who’s been a candidate for what feels like a year already, leading the field with 19 percent. Democratic rival Loretta “Big Whoop” Sanchez, who jumped in last week, has 8 percent, and the other declared wannabes are running for the exercise.
The vast majority of voters said they more greatly favor: a) the NBA playoffs; b) stories about coffee as an aphrodisiac and c) additional tweets of Kim Kardashian’s big butt.
Bird’s eye view: When we bumped into our old friend Rose Kapolcynzski, who managed all four of Boxer’s successful campaigns, at last weekend’s DisneyDem convention, she told us she’d been impressed with Queen Kamala’s “shock and awe” entry, aimed at clearing the field early.
“Despite a year of speculation about a Boxer retirement, only Harris was ready to run when Boxer announced in early January,” she said. “Clearly she was planning for the possibility of an open Senate seat long before Boxer announced.”
(We were kind enough not to point out that Rose herself may have been responsible for others being lulled, given that she was denying as late as September 2014 that Boxer was retiring).
The Field numbers largely reflect little but name ID, and it’s worth keeping in mind that Harris benefits from having run a successful re-election race just last fall, spending about $4 million versus 12 cents by a Republican stiff.
Rose Kapolczynski“To be fair to others,” Kapolcynzski (common spelling) added, “Harris had just wrapped up a statewide campaign 60 days before Boxer’s announcement and had an infrastructure in place and a statewide organization of donors and volunteers.”
Rose is one of the most professional, decent and least full of, um, herself consultants in the business, and we’re sorry she won’t be playing in her fifth consecutive Junior Senator from California Election Sweepstakes. The good news is that, because she’s freed of full time spinning duties, we’re able to consult her as a disinterested and well-seasoned campaign cognoscente.
“This race is wide open for the entry of other credible, well-funded candidates,” she concludes.
Paging Xavier Becerra…
Sifting the entrails: The most risible feature of Steve Glazer’s 10-point victory in Tuesday’s special election in the 7th state senate district, was the speed with which organized labor’s spinners, led by our friend Steve Mavigilio, aggressively tried to discount it.
To read entire column, click here.
The post Calbuzz: Round-up: Harris, Sanchez, Glazer & Kim K’s Butt appeared first on InlandPolitics.com.
Monday, May 18, 2015 – 09:00 a.m.
With selection of a new jury complete. The long-awaited trial to see how much more money, if any, Plaintiff Leonard Epps will get from San Manuel Tribal Members, and siblings, Erik Barajas and Stacy Nunez-Barajas, will resume Monday morning.
The two Tribe members conspired, with members of the Mexican Mafia, to kill Epps, who at the time was the manager of the now closed Brass Key Lounge in Highland.
Federal agents, working in tandem with the San Bernardino Police, stumbled onto the plot and quickly intervened.
Both Barajas’ struck plea deals with San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael Ramos, who eventially allowed the two to receive 15-years probation. Nunez-Barajas is currently serving a lengthy prison term for violating probation.
Full status members of the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians currently receive pro-rata profit distributions of $100,000 per month, with an additional lumps sum payout in December of each year.
A previous jury already awarded Epps just over $4.5 million in compensatory damages. That jury fell below the minimum number of twelve jurors and was unable to complete the punitive damages phase.
A punitive damages award could reach as high as ten times the compensatory award.
Highland Attorney Frank Peterson is representing Epps. San Bernardino Attorney Joseph Arias represents the defense.
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By Ryan Hagen, The Sun
POSTED: 05/16/15 – 8:35 PM PDT |
SAN BERNARDINO >> The deep cuts and extensive restructuring proposed in the city’s bankruptcy exit plan got a unanimous thumbs-up from its strategic planning core team on Saturday, as the City Council prepares to vote on the plan Monday.
That decision came after a sober — although at times optimistic for the long term — presentation on the city’s current situation and possible future that was led mostly by the city’s consultants.
“Hoping that we’re going to get an economic development miracle is not credible and is not something we can put our name on in a document that’s going to be scrutinized by the court and creditors,” said Andrew Belknap, regional vice president of Management Partners.
Although the city is focusing on economic development, Belknap said, that can’t make up for a $20 million structural deficit and years of deferred maintenance that he estimates will cost about another $200 million.
The meeting at a San Bernardino City Unified School District building at 1257 Northpark Blvd. was attended by 15 members of the 17-member strategic planning team — representatives of business, education, religious and other fields appointed by Mayor Carey Davis to decide on a long-term strategic plan for the city that must be approved by the council before it goes into effect — and by about 20 other people, many of them connected to the city.
The vote was advisory, part of an effort to gather public input on the city’s plans.
It continues a strategic planning process intended to extend long beyond the Plan of Adjustment that must be presented to U.S. Bankruptcy Court by May 30.
To read entire story, click here.
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Capitol Alert
May 15, 2015
By Christopher Cadelago
ccadelago@sacbee.com
Anaheim — Rep. Xavier Becerra, mulling a run for the U.S. Senate, urged the media to more aggressively question Attorney General Kamala Harris, the Democratic frontrunner in the race.
Harris, who has been in the contest for four months, has yet to subject herself to extensive questioning from news reporters. She is scheduled to address delegates at the California Democratic Party convention Saturday.
“I think it’s important to give the people a chance to know now what the candidates are thinking – not just a month before the elections,” Becerra, D-Los Angeles, said in an hour-long interview with reporters here.
Becerra, the fourth-ranking House Democrat, said veteran Rep. Loretta Sanchez, who launched her Senate campaign Thursday, is likely to play up her nearly two decades in Congress.
“You could check Loretta’s record. You could check my record, and you could certainly ask us about federal issues that are pending, or upcoming. But you can have a pretty good sense of our track record,” he said.
To read entire story, click here.
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Orange County Superior Court Judge M. Marc Kelly. (Los Angeles Times) By Emily Foxhall May 13, 2015 An Orange County judge who is being threatened with recall for giving a child molester a lenient prison sentence contends he is a respected jurist who is the victim of a “misleading” campaign. Judge M. Marc Kelly’s response […]
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