Tag: law

Fabulous!

Today is the second annual Queer Youth Advocacy Day at the State Capitol.  “Representatives from the more than 600 Gay Student Alliances (which are at 45% of public high schools), and other youth under the age of 24, are meeting in Sacramento to lobby for Senate Bill 777 (Kuehl).”  This bill will standardize the anti-discrimination policies in all schools receiving public funds to give all students equal protection from harassment, bullying and discrimination.

The students attended a lobbying training at the Crest Theater before meeting with legislators this afternoon.  A handful of protesters were on hand to inform the youth than they were sinners, but were scared off by the inclement weather (maybe God was trying to tell them something about tolerance, loving thy neighbor, and casting the first stone).

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Sac State and other CSU faculties authorize strike

The Sacramento Bee reports today that the California State University faculty has voted to strike. Statewide, 82% of the more than 11,000 members of the California Faculty Association voted, with 94% of them authorizing the strike. Tensions have centered upon the lack of a contract and extreme disparity in the salaries of various faculty members. A possible strike will take the form of a rolling walkout, with individual campuses striking for two days at a time.

Here at home, the faculty of Sac State met as a body for the first time in 30 years. Among the budget discussions, a vote of no confidence in University President Alex Gonzalez was proposed. As next week is Spring Break, the vote will not occur until the next Faculty Senate meeting on April 5.

The skinny on the fat

News10.net reports that California is moving to ban the use of trans fats in restaurant menu items.

The bill is being challenged by restaurant owners across California who worry the trans fat ban will force them to use more expensive alternative oils that could change the flavor of their food for the worse.

Why is it that I can hear sac-eats’ stomach grumbling now as it ponders a world without artery clogging, heart attack creating, yet oh so creamy industrially created as a side effect of partial hydrogenation of plant oils – a process developed in the early 1900s and first commercialized as Crisco in 1911, trans fatty acids?

“It’s going to be a big fight,” said Terri Mead, manager of Sacramento’s Pancake Circus Restaurant. “We don’t want them telling us what we can and can’t use in the restaurant.”

You tell’em Terri (a nay sayer from the Pancake Circus? Get out…). We don’t want those health freaks telling us what to do. Next thing you know we’ll have the government telling us that we have to maintain a certain level of “cleanliness” and “freshness” in order to “pass” a random “inspection” or face being “shut down”.

As someone who just threw back 3 or 8 zero trans fats per serving Tagalongs, let me just say that I don’t miss the trans fats at all.  And if it is good enough for our Girl Scouts of the USA, it’s good enough for me.

More fun with CC&R

Following up on this discussion from 2005 regarding CC&R, it appears the bill (AB 394) that went to the Governor’s desk was put into law last year. From cbs13.com:

County clerk recorder Craig Kramer said residents can buy the official CC&R and strike the clause, making it good for all properties in the subdivision. The Morris’s plan to do that, as a happy 21st century family, they say some sometimes history needs a little rewriting.

As discussed in the earlier post, this law went into effect on January 1, 2006. So why is it only getting press in 2007? And can one person “buy” the official CC&R and strike the clause for the whole neighborhood? And if so, how?

Well, loyal reader, you’ve come to the right place.

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Should that star spangled banner yet wave?

Now that the dust as settled on last week’s MySpace debate, I figured we could take a few swings at this situation in Orangevale:

An Orangevale man is being fined $2,500 for flying five American flags on county streetlight poles.

The best part of this story is that the man being fined, Ed Andrews, took up a collection last summer in his neighborhood and raised $400 for the flags and brackets. Well done, Ed.

Now the lawyers are involved as well as the Sacramento County supervisors:

At an impromptu meeting on a neighbor’s driveway Wednesday evening, Sacramento County’s Director of Transportation Tom Zlotkowski explained that allowing American flags on light poles around Acer Way and Ortiz Court would mean any other flags could be put up.

Hmmm, I wonder about that, but, sure, OK.

“But yet people could go out and burn the flag if they wanted to, but yet we’re having a problem flying the flag and showing our patriotism,” said Michele Turner, whose future stepson is due back from Iraq in a few days.

There’s the issue, Sacramento. Where do you draw the line? If a gal has to pay to have repairs made to her sidewalk, why can’t folks fly old glory in their neighborhood?