Free Republic

Something big just blew up in baytown texas

Twelve years ago, the idea of a giant mudslide barreling down the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena was considered only a distant possibility. Nevertheless, the Devil's Gate Dam underwent a major enhancement that took two years to complete and enabled one of the oldest dams in Los Angeles County to withstand a potential massive debris flow. At the time, engineers thought the improvements might be overkill because conditions would never be extreme enough to test the dam's strength, at least not in their lifetimes. "Not a chance," recalled Brad Boman, engineering manager of water services at Pasadena Water and Power. But...

Imagine your city is located next door to a valley water district with enough surplus water to meet your needs but instead your city imports about two-thirds of its water hundreds of miles from the Colorado River and the Sacramento Delta, and pays a premium price for it, resulting in environmental degradation in the process. Do you think this is wise policy for water rate payers in a city that praises itself for its Green City Action Plan? Moreover, as your city conserves more water due to a purported drought, municipal water rates go up because of a decline in...

The Pasadena Star News reports on a religious "vigil" held Monday night at the Pasadena City Hall by a group of about 100 health care reform advocates reportedly from various churches in the area (All Saints, Cavalry Chapel, Altadena Baptist, Jewish synagogue, etc.) propounding a big lie that there are medical "uninsured" in California who do not receive medical treatment. Read here: http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_13594645 This propaganda should not go unchecked. For the record, there are no people living in California who are denied medical treatment. Everyone is potentially eligible for Medi-Cal, which is partially subsidized by the Federal government. We already...

Below read a post by Hans von Spakovsky at "The Corner" blog at NationalReviewOnline about how the Eric Holder-run U.S. Department of Justice has reportedly established a disinformation unit at DOJ. The Most Transparent Administration Ever? Not at DOJ [Hans von Spakovsky] Is the Department of Justice engaging in fraud, or is it simply trying to hide its propaganda? Those of you wondering how DOJ uses your tax dollars to enforce our nation’s laws might be interested to learn that Eric Holder has apparently hired former Democratic campaign bloggers to work at the department in what appears to be a...

The great Roman ruler Caesar Augustus (63 BC to 14 AD) was quoted by historian Suetonius as saying "I found Rome a city of bricks and left it a city of marble." Tim Brick, the Chairman of the Board of The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and Pasadena's representative on the MWD Board, seems determined to reverse Augustus's statement to "I found Pasadena a city of marble fountains and left it a city of bricks." According to the Orange County Register, MWD is poised to use a recent mandated 20% regional water rate hike to increase MWD employee pensions...

A Pasadena police officer was killed this morning in a shootout in which the suspect also was seriously wounded. Officer Jesse Hamilton, 29, was flown to Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center, where he died of a head wound. Four Pasadena police officers responded to a disturbance call made at 6:09 a.m. from a trailer park near the intersection of Shaver and Queens before 6:30 a.m., Assistant Police Chief Bud Corbett said. Hamilton was the first officer to arrive. The suspect, 24-year-old Sergio Robles, arrived at his mother's trailer home around 5 a.m. after his wife and child spent the night...

The online Urban Dictionary humorously defines "stimulus bill" as "the money owed to a hooker." Joke: Robbie: Hey can i borrow some money? Joe: Why? Robbie: I have to pay my stimulus bill from last night. But it's no joke that the Obama Administration has allocated "another" $6 million to "cash-strapped" Pasadena according to the Pasadena Star News. Read: "Cash-Strapped City of Pasadena Receives Another $6 Million in Stimulus Funding" - here http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/ci_12581182 However, the reportage of the Pasadena Star News, which has been making a comeback of late, is disappointing to say the least on this topic. First of...

PASADENA - Dozens of people gathered on the steps of Pasadena City Hall Friday to advocate for lower taxes, government spending, and stand up against what they view as a burgeoning socialist threat. There was also a local bent to the protest, with protestors focusing on Proposition 1A, the state proposition that would add $16 billion in new taxes over the next two years. It would also put in a spending cap designed to keep expenditures low. Ventura County Supervisor Peter Foy, who attended the rally, claimed the spending cap is a sham. "It's not a real cap. All they...

How might the following seemingly unrelated events have anything to do with the City of Pasadena becoming poorer, and doing so faster? * City acquisition of 20-acres of open lands zoned for 24 housing units in Annandale Canyon for open space preservation * State Assemblyman Anthony Portantino's usurpation of local single family zoning by cto re-designating the homes along the future surface route of the Long Beach Freeway Extension to low income multi-family housing * The continued decrease in enrollment in Pasadena's public schools and continued failure rate * The closure of new car dealerships along Colorado Boulevard * The...

Saturday April 11 at 12:30 pm the Pasadena Republican Club, in consort with the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer's Association, sponsored a rousing anti-tax rally on the steps of the citadel of heavy taxation in Pasadena - Pasadena's City Hall which was used in the TV series "Mission Impossible." See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasadena_City_Hall I didn't see one Pasadena public official present at the rally. As of 7 pm tonight no local online major local media coverage of the event has been posted - a possible testament of how superfluous the mainline media has become. The entire rally was organized through the Internet and...

A joke this writer has thought of spreading around town is that Pasadena ’s dependence on imports of so-called *dirty coal* power from Utah and Rose Parade fans from everywhere has now been upstaged by the importing of an economic stimulus from D.C. Which raises the more serious question, *what or which stimulus package would be best for Pasadena ?* The amount, timing, and millstones that will be involved with any Federal stimulus package that might filter down to Pasadena have not been definitively decided upon yet. Hopefully, what will trickle down to Pasadena will be in the form of...

“Momentum for Success or Momentum to Depress?” Synopsis: ●City Budget up whopping 8.5% despite Depression (2008 inflation only 3.5%) ●Mayor fails to report City reserves are equal to 14% of all household income at onset of Depression -- $13,469 per household equal to $1,125 per household per month ●City has failed to post Comprehensive Annual Financial Report for 2008 The theme for the Mayor Bill Bogaard’s State of the City (SOCk) report to be held at the Pasadena Conference Center on Thursday night January 22, 2009, was "Momentum for Success." It might as well have been “momentum to depress.” How...

Former City of Pasadena Development Administrator Marsha Rood, in a recent letter to the local newspaper cited the need for *The Pasadena Way* to resolve local conflicts currently raging in the city. She defines the *Pasadena Way* as *Good Will, the Will to Truth, Respect for Diversity, and Civility.* But does the *Pasadena Way* – the official public culture – in Pasadena include *civility?* To the contrary, the official public culture in Pasadena oozes with incivility and intolerance in its political and theological rhetoric, its public rituals, parades, and art, and its newspaper writers and letters to the editor. It...

As California’s economy falls into a deep recession from the bursting of the global real estate bubble, it would behoove everyone to understand how local policies also contributed to the bubble in the first place. To liberals the recent real estate bubble was caused by Wall Street financial deregulation; to conservatives by over-regulation from anti-red lining lending laws of the Community Reinvestment Act which forced banks to make sub-prime loans to former renters who could not otherwise qualify for conventional loans. Both point fingers at each other over the 1999 bipartisan repeal of the 1933 Glass-Steagall Act II which separated...

June 17, 2008, 3:11AM Grand jury could decide on Horn case this week By BRIAN ROGERS Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle TOOLS Email Get section feed Print Recommend (15) Comments (1065) Yahoo! Buzz Joe Horn, the Pasadena man who shot and killed two burglars after they emerged from his neighbor's home last year, regrets that decision, his attorney said Monday as a Harris County grand jury began hearing evidence in the case. "Was it a mistake from a legal standpoint? No. But a mistake in his life? Yes," said defense lawyer Tom Lambright. "Because it's affected him terribly. And if he...

Activists planning protest at Rose Parade By: North County Times wire services PASADENA - Peace activists said Sunday they plan to protest and unfurl signs during the Rose Parade on Tuesday, and then march down Colorado Boulevard as the parade ends, calling for an end to the Iraq war and for the impeachment of the president and vice president. A group calling itself the White Rose Coalition said its members plan to demonstrate in front of the TV camera platforms at the Norton Simon Museum starting at 6 a.m. New Year's Day. Pasadena police said Sunday they had just heard...

GLENN: Now, in Pasadena, just a suburb outside of Houston, there is a guy named Joe Horn. I've talked about him on the air before and everything I have heard about Joe Horn is that he's a decent human being, that he's a good guy. All of his neighbors say he's like the grandfather of the neighborhood. There is a law in Houston where a guy can protect his own property. You come onto his property; he can shoot you. Well, a friend said, would you watch my house. He was watching the house. Two guys crawl out of a...

Pasadena Doesn't Need Phone/Internet Tax Citizens for Responsible Government - Pasadena, CA Wayne Lusvardi - Chairman The City of Pasadena has the highest General Fund revenues per household of all large cities over 100,000 in population in Southern California according to an informal study conducted by Citizens for Responsible Government who are opposing the City’s Measure D which will impose a Utility Users Tax on phone bills and, for the first time, on the internet. See table at http://www.pasadenapundit.com The General Fund is the common pot of money from which municipal operations are funded, such as police, fire, libraries, parks...

PASADENA, Calif. -- It was a lovely day at the Tournament of Roses House, as the grandstands for the 119th Annual Rose Parade were already being erected nearby while Dodgers vice chairman and president Jamie McCourt helped unveil to the media the design for the organization's first float in this "tradition-rich New Year's Day spectacle." "This will be a great kickoff," said McCourt, referring to the organization's 50th anniversary celebration of its move to Los Angeles... McCourt also listed the various Dodgers players and organization members, past and present, who will ride on the float that day. They include Hall...