Despite having an estimated $40 MILLION dollar deficit for the SECOND year ina row, The City of Sacramento (and the State of California)continue to hire unionized public employees in positions that could be outsourced to private companies for much less money to the tax payers. Link   They will never lear.

For many of Sacramento's neo-liberals and die hard union supporters, proof,  based on research,  that charter schools can do a much better job at educating our children than public schools, creates an uncomfortable dichotomy.  They publicly wring their hands over the issue of the "achievement gap" while at the same time they rabidly attack those who support charter schools.  These attacks on charter school supporters appears to boil down to one issue and one issue alone, their fanatical support for unionized public teachers.  It appears on the face of their argument that having teachers in public employee unions is more important that the education of our children. Sunday nights 60 Minute

I attended the District 1 candidates meet and greet tonight at the Natomas Community Center, which was sponsored by the Natomas Community Association.  Three candidates are currently vying for the Council seat which is currently held by Ray Tretheway. The candidates are Angelique Ashby, Lisa Kaplan and incumbent Ray Tretheway. Each of the candidates gave a five minute presentation and then split up and answered individual questions from community members. I asked each of the three candidate’s the following three questions. 1. Do you support the City’s plan to annex thousands of acres of farm land to the North of North Natomas? (This is known as the Natomas Joint Vision, some simply call

District One Candidates for City Council Do you know who is running for District One City Council? Join your neighbors and other community members 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Oct. 21 at the South Natomas Community Center to meet and greet the four candidates: •Angelique Ashby; Creekside Neighborhood Assoc. •John Dahilig; Navy Veteran, Corpsman •Lisa Kaplan; Natomas Unified School District Board Member •Ray Tretheway; Incumbent The community center is located at 2921 Truxel Road.

 The problems with K Street will never be solved by government subsidies to wealthy developers.  The philosophy that there can be no economic development without government intervention ignores the reality of our nation’s history and the fundamentals of what America was founded upon. The unsolved problems with K Street can almost entirely be blamed on our past and present City Council. They allow housing to be destroyed to be replaced by businesses that only draw day time patrons. They put light rail down the middle of the street.  They approved and subsidized that monstrosity currently called the Westfield Mall, which is a dark dreary barrier to Old Sacramento and the waterfront.  They h

Great yet another would be politician cying about "the children" to get elected. California spends enough on our education system already. The average teacher makes 50K per year for a 9 month school year, while the average Sacramentan makes 42K per year for a full year of work. Not to mention their FAT benefits and pension plans, that no one in the private sector has. 40% of school spending is going to administration, this is nuts. The problem with our education system is overpopulation (dont get me started on educating illegal aliens) and a lack of focus on strict discipline, critical thinking and teaching the fundamentals of education. Instead we focus on teaching children how to feel good about themselves, the environment, and how America is the cause of the worlds ills. California schools have become indoctrination camps for anti-Americanism and socialism. Many other very poor nations do a far better job at educating their children for far less money. The problems in our schools have nothing to do with the levels of funding, the problems stem from the liberal education culture. And for all of you Democrats and Lefties, the funding problems and drastic cut backs are a direct result of out of control spending by the DEOMCRATIC controlled legislature, you can’t blame ANY of the funding problems on Republicans. Our state and school districts are broke for two reasons; first, the elected morons can’t balance a budget, second, the collapse of Wall Street because the Democrats REFUSED to regulate banking, the selling of credit default swaps and derivatives. The collapse of the housing market led to drastic losses in the housing industry which led to lower property taxes being collected. And despite the collapse of Wall Street and the banking industry, and the Democrats controlling the US Congress, Senate and presidency, and yet they STILL have DONE NOTHING to regulate the banking industry, and the NEXT collapse, coming in a year or two, will make the last two years look like the roaring 20's.

I detest every council member currently but especially the duplicitous Ray Tretheway, Ashby's opponent. - He is the quintessential lying politician. We need to elect ANYONE but Tretheway, the Council needs new blood. Tretheway sells himself as the soft spoken environmentalist, yet he spearheaded the destruction of tens of thousands of acres of irreplaceable farmland. He fought the Army Corps on building tens of thousands of stucco crap boxes. He is involved with environmental groups - yet he takes almost all of his money from wealthy developers who want to rape the land and annex tens of thousands of more acres of farm land all the way up to Sutter County line. He allowed developers to dump all of the storm water from the roadways from their new developments into the Sacramento river without any mitigation or filtration, dumping millions of gallons of contaminated water into the ecosystem further harming the Sacramento Delta and the fish population. I think that there is any doubt that Ashby will be in the pocket of the police and fire unions; but at least she is up front and honest about it, she is not trying to hide it. Natomas needs a councilmember to fight for Natomas; Ashby will definitely fight for Natomas, hopefully not just for North Natomas.

The developers are clapping

Everyone else who seems to read and respond to Sac Press seems to think that more government is the answer to everything.

I dont belive you for one second that you had better benefits, helath care and vacation pay than this position. I call bull crap