Making Sense Of It

I was very surprised when an early-morning knock at my Mexico City hotel room resulted in a man confiscating all the liquor in the room's mini bar. It turns out it was election day.

The 9-1-1 emergency system has been around since 1981. I know because I was the one who sponsored the notion during the 1977 city council races. I was backed up by: Fred Schnaubelt, Bill Mitchell, Bill Lowery, Tom Gade and eventually the rest of the City Council.

I recently received a call asking for help with overdue child-support payments. During my years in public office, I received thousands of such calls. Most of the time, it was a matter of finding the dad and getting him to pay.

I remember the moment that a man walked into my City Council race campaign headquarters; flashed a badge; identified himself as an investigator for the San Diego County District Attorney; and then proceeded to read me "my" rights under Miranda.

San Diego has been blessed with two very talented women: Connie McCormick, our former registrar of voters, is now the registrar in Los Angeles County. Her replacement here is Sally McPherson, our current registrar of voters.

Although he was somewhat well known back in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was not the national icon that we know him to be today.

Well, I was wrong. I asserted in this space on April 4 that the state of California would waste $5 million on a hare-brained scheme called "The Wave."

Everyone in California is being adversely affected by the fiasco in the state Workers Compensation program. Businesses are leaving the state in droves and taking their employment opportunities with them.

The Associated Press (meaning "associated with leftist causes"), has breathlessly announced, "The incarceration rate is up in spite of the fact that the crime rate is down."

As a long-time Californian, I have felt numerous earthquakes, both big and small. I have also been through earthquakes in Tokyo and Mexico City. I even remember living in Mission Beach the night the San Diego Police evacuated the entire area for fear of a tsunami from a huge quake in Alaska.

The United States Census Bureau recently released the terrible news that once again, the live domestic birth rate remains far below the 2.1 rate per couple necessary for the American population to replenish itself.

The following experience will illustrate the political/budgetary problems we currently face in Sacramento.