Campaign donations add luxury to California politics
By Patrick McGreevy and Eric Bailey
latimes.comSome California lawmakers haven’t let the state’s financial calamity keep them from enjoying the good life; they’ve been using campaign cash for first-class travel abroad, expensive dinners, salon makeovers and visits to luxurious spas.
Spending reports filed with the state covering the last three months show:
* Several lawmakers checked into the Fairmont Hotel on Maui on donors’ dimes two days after the start of an emergency session on the budget in November.
* The lead state senator on budget issues joined colleagues who left the fiscal crisis behind to go to India, where they toured the Taj Mahal and stayed at a Four Seasons and other luxury hotels.
* The former state Senate leader used campaign donations to pay $2,163 in membership fees to an exclusive Northern California social club. (more…)
Mind you, our state income tax returns are currently on hold.
Court Orders California to Cut Prison Population
By SOLOMON MOOREThe California prison system must reduce overcrowding by as many as 55,000 inmates within three years to provide a constitutional level of medical and mental health care, a federal three-judge panel tentatively ruled Monday.
Relying on expert testimony, the court ruled that the California prison system, the nation’s largest with more than 150,000 inmates, could reduce its population by shortening sentences, diverting nonviolent felons to county programs, giving inmates good behavior credits toward early release, and reforming parole, which they said would have no adverse impact on public safety. The panel said that without such a plan, conditions would continue to deteriorate and inmates might regularly die of suicide or lack of proper care. (more…)
Notice that NOTHING was mentioned about the thousands of illegals we house in our prisons. According to this article, they make up about 10% of the California prison population.
The irony behind all of this is that liberals have been in full control of the state of California for years, yet they are leaving this state in droves. That is why states like Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico went blue this past election.
