It’s been no secret that California puts a heavy tax burden on its residents.
State tax revenue has over shot the estimated monthly tax revenue for over a year. According to the Department of Finance, as reported by the Sacramento Bee, the year-to-date-revenue is now $1.4 billion more that the Brown administration projected.
Just last month alone was $274 million above estimates. However it’s not just the residents that are being over taxed. Corporate tax revenues have also exceeded estimates by $110 million, according to the Department of Finance.
So if you have felt heavily taxed, it’s because you are.
Gov Brown has made no comments about returning the over taxed money back to the residents and corporations that were over taxed. Instead he’s looking at reinvestment options for more social programs.
According to the Sacramento Bee, “If tax revenue remains higher than projected in coming months, Gov. Jerry Brown is likely to face increased pressure from Democratic lawmakers and social service advocates to free up spending.”
The governor will release a revised budget proposal in May.
Just in case you wondering what a billion dollars looks like:
Today is Peet’s Day at Peet’s Coffee! Join them on Monday, 3/10, and receive a free fresh brewed coffee or tea from 12-4pm. Or celebrate early, and save 20% off your purchase on peets.com now through 3/9 using promo code: THANKS. Stock up on everything you need to brew the perfect cup of coffee or tea at home: Click here for Peet’s Website
No coupon required all stores should be participating. Call ahead to grocery store local for their participation details.
Sunday, March 9, ushers in Daylight Savings Time (don’t forget to change your clocks!), and Krispy Kreme wants you to celebrate with free doughnuts. Participating locations in the U.S. and Canada give away one Original Glazed doughnut per guest, no purchase necessary — our favorite kind of freebie!
Nearest Krispy Kream Locations:
1991 Diamond Blvd. Concord, Ca
2530 Sand Creek Rd. Brentwood, CA 94513
2800 Pinole Valley Rd., #E Pinole, CA 94564
32450 Dyer Street Union City, CA 94587
1620 E Monte Vista Ave Ste. 102 Vacaville, CA 95688
43835 Pacific Commons Fremont, CA 94538
121 Curtner Ave., Bldg. 15, Suite 40 San Jose, Ca
Will you head to Krispy Kreme on Sunday for a free doughnut?
Republican candidate for California governor is making headlines for comparing President Barack Obama’s gun control policies with those of dictators such as Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Il.
State Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, posted a Twitter message Tuesday with an image (see below) that compared what he said were figures who have supported gun rights with those who have supported gun control.
The image, what some might call “controversial” was accompanied by the following question, “Which side would you choose?” in his Twitter message.
The Associated Press, has quoted Donnelly as saying he was standing up for the Second Amendment, which he said recognizes an “unalienable right to defend your life.”
“When government becomes the greatest threat to the very rights it was formed to protect, that is tyranny,” he said in the statement. “Tyranny is the daily purpose of dictators, and I will not apologize for pointing out that our current president acts more like a dictator than a leader of a free people in a Constitutional Republic.”
Drivers in California can legally read a map on their hand-held cellphones while behind the wheel, a state appeals court ruled Thursday.
The 5th District Court of Appeal reversed the case of Steven Spriggs, a Fresno man who was ticketed in January 2012 for looking at a map on his iPhone 4 while stuck in traffic. Spriggs challenged the $165 fine.
The incident that entrapped Spriggs happened when he was stopped by roadwork. He was grabbing his cellphone and trying to find an alternate route when a California Highway Patrol officer spotted him and wrote him a ticket.
Spriggs first challenged the case in traffic court, where he lost, and then appealed it himself to a three-judge panel in Fresno County Superior Court, where he lost a second time. Confident the law didn’t apply to him, Spriggs took it to the appellate court, but this time with help of a law firm that stepped in to represent him pro bono.
In the 18-page ruling, the appellate judges said California’s law that prohibits people from talking on their cellphones without a hands-free device could have been written more clearly, but it doesn’t apply to looking at maps on cellphones. The law the CHP officer used to ticket Spriggs applies specifically to people “listening and talking” on cellphones, not using their mobile phone in other ways, the court said.
Spriggs, who is entitled to recoup his $165 fine, said the Superior Court judges who had upheld his violation were guilty of overreaching by applying the spotty law to him.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that officials at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, a suburb of San Jose, acted properly in banning t-shirts and other patriotic, red white and blue clothing on May 5th, aka Cinco de Mayo.
School officials were worried about violence and disruption of school activities stemming from the students wearing patriotic clothing. The clothing and accessories according to Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez is deemed “incendiary” and “it has no place on a day celebrating Mexican heritage”.
Court documents said, a large group of students carrying Mexican flags had clashed with students who hung an American flag from a tree on May 5th, 2010.
The case started when the principal of Live Oak High School asked a group of students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn their shirts inside out or take them off.
Live Oak High School students from left, Daniel Galli, Austin Carvalho, Matt Dariano and Dominic Maciel were sent home from school on Cinco de Mayo because they were wearing American flag T-shirts.
Dariano’s mother, Diana, told FoxNews.com she and parents of the other four students have been demanding an apology from officials. “We want an apology,” Diana Dariano said Thursday. “Who in the United States of America would have an issue with that? It’s a sad, sad day.”
“I’m more hurt than anything,” she said. “It is so hurtful and disrespectful the way this has turned. These are American kids.” The boys told Rodriguez and Principal Nick Boden that turning their shirts inside-out was disrespectful, so their parents decided to take them home.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Julie Fagerstrom, Maciel’s mother, told the Morgan Hill Times. “I’m an open-minded parent, but it’s got to be on both sides. It can’t be five kids singled out.” Galli told NBC Bay Area, “They said we could wear it on any other day, but today is sensitive to Mexican-Americans because it’s supposed to be their holiday so we were not allowed to wear it.
The day of the incident more than 100 students were spotted wearing the colors of the Mexican flag — red, white and green — as they left school, including some who had the flag painted on their faces or arms, according to the Morgan Hill times.
Eugene Volokh, a professor of law at the University of California-Los Angeles, said the students are protected under California Education Code 48950, which prohibits schools from enforcing a rule subjecting a high school student to disciplinary sanctions solely on the basis of conduct, that when engaged outside of campus, is protected by the First Amendment.
Check out the initial news report below:
Judges said the civil rights case forced them to weigh the difficult question of what takes precedence: students’ free speech rights or school safety concerns?
Opponents say it’s a slippery slope and could set precedent for safety to out weigh individual rights. They also point out that the school in question is a public school paid for by tax payers, stating that if the school was a private school it would be acceptable to ban the patriotic clothing but since it’s a publicly funded school, the oppressive ruling violates the student’s rights and goes against the First Amendment.
This ruling is reminiscent of another issue lurking around Concord. For the past few years the public has boycotted the City of Concord’s Fourth of July Parade because one of its yearly performers, a Mexican group with dancing horses, waves the Mexican flag throughout the entire Concord Fourth of July Parade. It was citizen out cry and protest that provoked the group in 2010 to add the American flag to its performance. Every year protesters have boycotted the parade in its entirety and instead opting for hosting their own private Fourth of July parties in homes and backyards across the East Bay.
What do you think? Do you support the courts ruling? Should the boys stop wearing the American Flag on May 5th? Do you think a Fourth of July Parade should wave a flag from another country?
IHOP restaurants in the bay area will offer each guest a free short stack of its buttermilk pancakes on Tuesday in observance of National Pancake Day from 7 a.m. – 10 p.m.
For every short stack of buttermilk pancakes served on National Pancake Day, IHOP guests are encouraged to make a donation to Shriners Hospitals for Children. IHOP hopes to raise $3 million this year, with a goal to bring the total amount of funds raised to nearly $16 million for Shriners and other local charities.
Here are some facts about National Pancake Day:
– IHOP served 4.5 million free pancakes on National Pancake Day 2013 and pancake lovers donated nearly $3 million to children’s charities.
– All of the free pancakes served on National Pancake Day 2013 would create a stack nearly 13 miles high.
– Since the inception of National Pancake Day in 2006, IHOP has raised nearly $13 million and given away more than 22 million pancakes to support charities in the communities where it operates.
Local Locations for IHOP include:
IHOP 4619 Clayton Road CONCORD, CA 94521-2932
IHOP 2910 North Main Street WALNUT CREEK, CA 94597-2003
IHOP 2290 Loveridge Road PITTSBURG, CA 94565-5022
IHOP 1190 Arnold Drive MARTINEZ, CA 94553-4133
For more information on National Pancake Day and to learn more about Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals, go to IHOPPancakeDAY.com.
What’s your favorite way to eat pancakes? Flavored Syrup? Add fruit?
Live Oak High School students from left, Daniel Galli, Austin Carvalho, Matt Dariano and Dominic Maciel were sent home from school on Cinco de Mayo because they were wearing American flag T-shirts.
Diablo Reporter 