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The battle for Barbara Boxer’s Senate seat, not to mention the position of Governor, is now in full swing. The Republicans held their convention this week in San Diego, at which nominees Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina laid out their vision for the future of California, and (equally important) explained why their opponents are incapable of seeing the right one. Prior to the convention, Whitman and Fiorina had previously been running in seemingly segregated races, with little to no overlap between

This week, California became the first state to be provided with resources to deploy National Guard troops to its southern border with Mexico.  The move is a part of a promise from the Obama administration to secure the border.  Gov. Schwarzenegger said he was proud to be the first state to have troops get to work. “I take great pride in serving as Commander-in-Chief of the California National Guard. Our soldiers and airmen are true action heroes who respond to disasters at home and overseas. T

An L.A. Times editorial recently challenged the prospect of modifying the 14th amendment’s birthright citizenship provision, categorizing those who support repealing it as part of a fringe element. “The 14th Amendment to the Constitution speaks in unusually emphatic language...Not most persons or only those who are white or who are born to citizens. All persons,” the editorial staff writes of the phrase “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction there

According to new guidelines from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), director John Morton says his agency will use limited resources from Congress to focus on removing only those illegal aliens threatening U.S. national security and posing a public safety hazard. The finding comes from a lengthy story by The Washington Times, which reported Morton as saying that ICE only has enough resources to remove 400,000 aliens a year.  In all likelihood, this concentrated policy is a harbinger of a

If you live in California, Oregon, Arizona, or Texas, and have ground beef in your freezer, you might want to give it a look to make sure that it's safe to eat. A Modesto-based beef company has recalled one million pounds of its ground beef product after seven people have fallen ill with a rare strain of the E. coli bacterium. At NPR's website, Scott Hensley calculated that the recall of so much beef amounted to over 2,300 cows. The recall was voluntarily initiated by the Valley Meat Company

As Meg Whitman aggressively steps up her Latino outreach efforts, some of the state’s Latinos aren’t merely letting her slip by in capturing one of the most influential and powerful voting blocs. This week, Whitman made the unprecedented move of opening up a campaign office in East Los Angeles where she was met with a group of raucous protestors, the Los Angeles Times reported.  "There has not been a Republican candidate for governor that has had an office in East L.A. for 30 years. So we are g

More than 20 percent of California’s registered voters are designated Hispanic or Latino.  Based on recent voting history, the Barbara Boxer campaign expects to win two-thirds or more of these voters in November, and the Republican Party seems to be doing everything in its power to put this important voting block in the Democrats’ hands. Republicans have dug a deep hole with many Latinos by taking a hard line on immigration reform, supporting Arizona’s controversial (and now largely nullified)

Meg Whitman had been surging the past few weeks and Democratic politicos were getting nervous. Was Jerry Brown going to do anything or just get steamrolled by eMeg? What a difference a week makes. A poll released July 28 by the Public Policy Institute of California shows that Whitman has stalled and is still a few points behind Brown.  Environmental issues, the poll shows, are becoming a primary concern. The BP Gulf oil well blowout has unquestionably been a factor. California voters now oppos

Time Magazine’s Tim Padgett writes that Arizona’s immigration law, parts of which were struck down by a federal judge, is unjustifiable on statistical grounds. In Immigration Debate: Border Cities See Less Violent Crime, he labels the law “draconian” because border violence, from San Diego to Brownsville, is actually down.  Citing FBI figures in numerous Arizona border cities, Padgett writes: “Consider Arizona itself — whose illegal-immigrant population is believed to be second only to Califor

With a federal judge striking key provisions of Arizona’s immigration law, the Obama administration proclaimed victory along with labor union allies.  Labor unions have been some of the staunchest opponents of the Arizona law and strongest advocates of a fast track legalization process. Among these unions would be the UFCW and SEIU.  And their strong opposition to the Arizona law would seem to make sense from a political perspective.  Slower influxes of immigrants to the states would stunt memb