California

This month, the Los Angeles city council is expected to ban single-use plastic bags. “[T]he ban is an attempt by the city to reduce litter,” says the Los Angeles Daily News. But it is likely to reduce something else: jobs.

In order to make sure gays and lesbians are adequately represented on the judicial bench, the state of California is requiring all judges and justices to reveal their sexual orientation. The announcement was made in an internal memo sent to all California judges and justices.

National Journal: "McConnell Breaks With Boehner, Says House Should Pass Payroll Extension"

Dave Weigel: "PolitiFact Weirdly Unable to Discuss Facts"

iWatchNews: Solyndra and "Bundlers on the inside"

Kevin Williamson: Herman Cain and "Nein! Nein! Nein!"

Jonathan Last: "So the RomneyBot is going to address the flip-flopping charge. By flip-flopping."

Even as the rest of the country focuses on the economy, the inventor of the scratch-off lottery ticket continues his push to all but eliminate the Electoral College. John Koza’s National Popular Vote (NPV) effort is making unfortunate progress. Just last week, Governor Jerry Brown’s signature ensured that the elector-rich state of California will participate in NPV.

On Monday, August 8, Governor Jerry Brown finally signed a bill the California state legislature had passed in July—a bill that binds California to “National Popular Vote” (NPV). Which is to say, to the committing of all its electoral college votes in a presidential election to the winner of the nation’s popular vote. In other words, regardless of which candidate carried California, the electors are directed to vote for the candidate who carries the nation.

Residents of California do not have nearly enough insurance to cover rebuilding costs following a big earthquake. One proposal to deal with this problem, a bill before Congress called the Earthquake Insurance Affordability Act, would not make things better and would drain billions from federal coffers. The proposal—a Democratic plan that has received positive attention from California conservatives like Rep.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Ending a bitter special congressional election for the South Bay area, Democrat Janice Hahn defeated Republican Craig Huey on Tuesday.

Unofficial election night returns showed the Los Angeles city councilwoman with 54.6% of the vote, compared with the businessman's 45.4%

In tomorrow's special election in California’s 36^th Congressional District, Los Angeles city council member Janice Hahn, a well-known Democrat, leads Craig Huey, a Tea Party-backed Republican and businessman. The race, long considered a sure bet for Democrats, seems now to be a little closer than expected. Huey has surged in this heavily Democratic southern California district, according to a Daily Kos-SEIU poll released today, and now trails Hahn by only eight points.

Two months ago, I wrote about the plight of a private, Tocquevillian-style civil association in the small town of Orcutt, California. That group, the Old Town Orcutt Revitalization Association (OTORA), has raised $60,000 in private donations to build a flagpole — from which the American flag would fly — encircled by a memorial to the U.S. armed forces. The flagpole and monument would be located between a highway exit and an adjacent park-and-ride lot, at the entrance to the community’s Old Town section. But the California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) refused to grant approval for the project. Finally, citing a 9th Circuit Court ruling, CalTrans declared that hanging an American flag on public land constitutes an impermissible act of “public expression.”

Hmm: "Group Launches Effort To Draft Ryan For WH Bid"

Yikes: "A growing shortage of medications for a host of illnesses - from cancer to cystic fibrosis to cardiac arrest - has hospitals scrambling for substitutes to avoid patient harm, and sometimes even delaying treatment."

Last week the Supreme Court reentered the business of dubious liberal policymaking with its decision in a case from California, Plata v. Brown. With Justice Kennedy writing for himself and four colleagues, the Court sustained a lower court’s order requiring the state to reduce the number of convicted criminals in its correctional facilities by as many as 46,000.