Free Republic

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a controversial bill to include the contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans in California's public school textbooks. After the governor signed the bill introduced by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, he released a statement that said, "History should be honest. This bill revises existing laws that prohibit discrimination in education and ensures that the important contributions of Americans from all backgrounds and walks of life are included in our history books. It represents an important step forward for our state, and I thank Sen. Leno for his hard work on this historic legislation."

California lawmakers on Tuesday sent the governor a bill that would make the state the first requiring public schools to include the contributions of gays and lesbians in social studies curriculum. The bill, passed on a party-line vote, adds lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as well as people with disabilities to the list of groups that schools must include in the lessons. It also would prohibit material that reflects adversely on gays. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco says SB48 is crucial because of the bullying that happens to gay students. Republicans called it a well-intentioned but ill-conceived...

Don’t look now, but Gov. Jerry Brown is morphing into Arnold Schwarzenegger before our very eyes. Once again, a governor has come into Sacramento promising to change the way things work in the Capitol, to make the tough decisions to make state government fiscally solvent. And once again, we are stuck with a state budget based on unrealistic revenue assumptions that avoid necessary spending cuts. You could call this the Wimpy Budget, in homage to the Popeye character who repeatedly conned everyone by saying, “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.” Brown and the Democratic legislators have cobbled...

Less than six weeks after Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled his budget proposal, a nearly identical plan passed key committees in both houses of the Legislature on Friday. The plan to close what is now a $26.6 billion budget deficit includes deep cuts to the state's education, health and welfare programs and a proposal to place $14 billion in tax extensions and increases before voters in June. Lawmakers in the Democratic-controlled Assembly and state Senate budget committees spared some social programs that were on Brown's chopping block, including medical care for the elderly and poor, and welfare for impoverished families.Brown praised...