OK, I know that I shouldn’t be doing this…
But I just can’t help it! Total Buzz made me do it! ; )

Got a press release today saying that Assemblyman Van Tran, R-Garden Grove, will be in Santa Ana on Friday to promote the Earned Income Tax Credit — an income-tax benefit for the poor. Among those on hand will be Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamante — who was among those running for supervisor this year against Tran’s candidate, Trung Nguyen — and the Legal Aid Society of Orange County, which is often finds Democrats more sympathetic to their causes. Former U.S. Treasurer and currently — take a breath — California State and Consumer Services Agency Secretary Rosario Marin will also be there.

Oh, great! So Lord Van Tran can now count the “Independent Democrat Republican” as his new best friend! And oh yes, how lovely that Rosario Marin will be coming to their aid.

For more on Van Tran, his new best friends, and what this all might mean, follow me after the flip…

Here’s some more from Martin Wisckol at Total Buzz:

More interesting to me was the new district representative for Tran who listed as the contact on the press release. Saulo Londono lead Lynn Daucher’s absentee ballot drive, which nearly led to an upset of Lou Correa in last year’s central county state Senate race. He then was campaign manager for Trung, and nearly pulled off an upset there after one of the most relentless and well-researched absentee voter drive I’ve seen. I’m not surprised Tran wants to keep Londono close at hand.

Hmmm… So one of the same guys who engineered Lynn Daucher’s near-win in SD 34 last year is now cozying up with Van Tran? I wonder why. Is he worried about something… Like possibly the next election, and the possibility that people might start to find out more about all the delicious dirt that’s been hidden in his closet? Well, I guess there’s nothing like currying favor from other politicos to solidify your standing in time for the next election.

Well, I guess at the very least, Trung Nguyen shouldn’t have to worry. Van Tran always knows how to help his proteges.

Hmmm… I nearly missed this in today’s LA Times:

Santa Ana Unified School District administrators created false class rosters and misused substitute teachers to qualify for state funding earmarked for small classes for elementary students, according to eight teachers, school documents and state officials.

At Washington Elementary School, for instance, documents reveal that school officials created a second-grade roster showing students in a class that didn’t exist. The phantom classroom diluted the number of second-graders in existing classrooms – allowing the average class size to fall below 20.5 and giving the district an additional $1,024 per student per year.

So what exactly is happening in Santa Ana? Is the school district lying about classes? Are they desperate for money… And if so, why? Follow me after the flip for more…

So what is the latest problem that the SAUSD is experiencing?

A substitute teacher at Washington Elementary was assigned to the nonexistent class. Several teachers at the school said she only spent a few hours over the past month in each classroom instructing students on her roster. Since then, school officials said, she has been assigned to cover full time for a teacher on medical leave and no longer visits the classes.

State officials said the district’s actions appeared illegal – even if substitute teachers were used for part of the day – and plan to launch an investigation.

“That would clearly be a blatant attempt to violate the intent of the law,” said Jack O’Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction who wrote the class-size reduction legislation in 1996 while a member of the state Senate. “We make it real clear to schools that they need to make sure they have 20 students to a class.”

I guess this shouldn’t come as such a great surprise to me. I mean, they did not want to divulge the names of who would replace School Board Member Sal Tinajero once he was elected to City Council. And oh yes, they have to be so secretive… ABOUT THEIR TOTAL INCOMPETENCY…
Well, I guess this really shouldn’t come as a surprise to me.

But anyways, I digress. Here’s more from The LA Times story:

At Washington Elementary, eight teachers said in interviews that school administrators asked them to sign class rosters that show they had significantly fewer students than were assigned to their classrooms. Second-grade teachers Alma Olivares, Sahara Green, Donna Araujo, Christina Moreno and Rose Copes, third-grade teachers Eugenia Pedraza and Olga Escobar, and first-grade teacher Eva Zamarripa said students’ names were deleted from their rosters, but they have continued to teach these children, sign their report cards and meet with their parents.

“I’m teaching them,” said Olivares, who had four children removed from her roster. “They’re in my class. They’re my responsibility.”

Since the new district policy was enacted about a month ago, several Washington teachers said they had refused to sign the new rosters.

“If I sign it, I’m agreeing to the lie,” Araujo said.

A teachers union official, who has heard concerns about the altered rosters from teachers at four schools, said he requested legal justification from the district two weeks ago and had yet to receive an answer.

“When [teachers] are asked to sign rosters that aren’t accurate, it makes them nervous, and justifiably so,” said David Barton, president of the Santa Ana Educators Assn.

Despite the teachers’ objections at Washington Elementary, four students were removed from Olivares’ roster, five from Araujo’s, one from Green’s, three from Moreno’s and two from Copes’.

So is what my school district has come to??!!

But of course, I also must wonder that if the school district really was fudging its class rosters for extra cash, then WHAT EXACTLY WAS THE DISTRICT SPENDING THE EXTRA CASH ON? If they still had to cut programs and close schools, then what exactly was all this extra money being spent on? And why should we trust what the district leadership has to say?

Here are today’s wild and wonderful OC stories that you just have to see to believe!

– TABOR for All? In yesterday’s OC Register, Rep. John Ken-doll Campbell offers us an “American Taxpayer Bill of Rights” to fix all the fiscal woes that those “tax and spend Democrats” are already creating:

The road back to fiscal sanity in Washington is likely to be a long slog, unless Republicans are willing to boldly recommit ourselves to the principles that earned us the reputation as the party of lower taxes and less government. Today the Republican Study Committee, a caucus of approximately 100 fiscal and social conservatives in the House, will do just that when we unveil the American Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

Unfortunately for Ken-doll Campbell, Dan Chmielewski ain’t buying any of this “TABOR talk”.

But Republicans are hardly the party of less government. The size of the California government rose under Ronald Reagan. It rose under Pete Wilson. And it’s risen under Arnold Schwarzenegger. The size of the Federal Government grew under Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

The president who actually reduced government: Bill Clinton, under the RE-GO initiative led by then VP Al Gore shrunk the size of the Federal Government to the lowest point since the Kennedy Administration.

Read the rest of what he has to say at The Liberal OC.

– And you say only Iowa and New Hampshire have town hall meetings? Nope, not true… ‘Cuz we’ll be having a series of them in Santa Ana over the next month. OK, OK, we won’t have anyone “famous”… We’ll just be talking with our city leaders about youth issues, business development, neighborhood concerns, and more. Ryan Gene has more about it at Orange Juice.

– Advantage Janet? In case you forgot, our Special Election for County Supervisor is still in court. However, there was an interesting turn of events inside the courthouse yesterday. Peggy Lowe has the latest in Total Buzz. And finally…

– “Do I stay or do I go?” Ellyn Pak talks about that grueling decision that thousands of Anaheim Hills and East Orange residents had to face as the threat of fire loomed over their neighborhoods in today’s OC Register.

Here are today’s wild and wonderful Orange County stories that you just have to see to believe:

– Confessions of a Westside Improver. Claudio Gallegos gets down to the bottom of neo-Nazi Martin Millard and his looming influence over Costa Mesa politics at Orange Juice.

– Anaheim’s Disney Dilemma… Now in Court! The Plaintiff: Disney, who insists that housing in the resort district would not fit in with the hotels and tourist venues planned for the area. The Defendant: The City of Anaheim, who insists that the city has the right to determine what fits in the resort district… And now, residential developer SunCal wants to help pay Anaheim’s legal fees. Stay tuned as the Disney Dilemma erupts in court!

– No Longer Lost in Translation. The City of Santa Ana is finally giving its 45% of primarily Spanish-speaking residents a chance to better participate in city council meetings by offering simultaneous translation of its City Council meetings in Spanish. Es muy bien, porque mas personas en Santa Ana pueden participar en los negocios de su ciudad. : )

And finally…

– Curt. It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words… So I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that Mike Lawson’s one picture at The Liberal OC says more about the wild and crazy special election fallout than all of my updates combined. Way to go, Mike, you artistic genius. ; )

Hmmm… I just saw this at Orange Juice, and it’s making me think…

Presidential candidate John Edwards likes to talk about the “Two Americas” – and here in Orange County we have a great example of this in Santa Ana. My city has some of the poorest people in the county – but we also have an upper crust that loves spending tax money on their pet projects.

For example, the Bowers Museum has been funded, in part, by the City of Santa Ana, for years. In return they have allowed the city residents to enter their facility for free, one day per month. Now they have increased their admission during the week to $17 [No, actually make it $19!!] per person. That effectively shuts out most of the city’s population. And we still get only one free day in return for subsidizing the place.

So the city helps subsidize the Bowers Museum, yet all we get is ONE FREE DAY, and a $19 price tag all the rest of the time… What’s wrong with this picture? Even as the Santa Ana Unified School District is having to close an elementary school and fire ninety-six teachers, and even as the city of Santa Ana still suffers from a severe shortage of parks and open space…
The Bowers Museum doesn’t even have the decency to let the residents of its city see all the fine art that THEY ALREADY PAY FOR without charging them an extra arm and a leg!

And oh yes, Santa Ana “Independent Democrat” Republican Councilmember Carlos Bustamante sits on the Bowers Museum President’s Advisory Council. But I guess as long as Flip-flop Carlos feels good about “supporting the arts” on the backs of the working poor while not even fighting for their right to enjoy the art that THEY PAY FOR, I guess everything is just hunky dory here.