Third High School

Someone mentioned the difficulties the school district is having with building more schools. Would someone please comment?

A point to ponder...

"Buy land, they don't make it anymore." - Will Rogers

Displacement

I'm back from vacation and have been catching up on the shenanigans taking place in our government. The recent ruling by the Supreme Court in Kelo vs. City of New London especially caught my attention. Though simplifying the eminent domain process for city governments, I think this decision has special ramifications for the state of California.

Soon many Americans could get an opportunity to live like native Americans, circa 1838-39. Thanks to the Supreme Court and extensive lobbying by developer interests, small land owners in this country will soon face having their land taken away and given to those rich enough to get richer. In other states this could be bad, in California this could be worse.

As far as California is concerned, the Supreme Court has managed an end run around proposition 13. Californians have relied on prop 13 for decades to protect them from government piracy. Now if a city is dissatisfied with Ma and Pa Kettle’s relatively unprofitable fixed-income property taxes, they need only use the new relaxed iminent domain laws to steal their land for the so-called good of the many (city governments and developers).

Don’t get me wrong, there are still real cases of urban blight that require imminent domain, but the laws were already in place for these hard cases. So why did the Supreme Court find it neccessary to rule the way they did in (Kelo v. City of New London)?

If you look at the fifth amendment below, it looks to me like the Supreme Court is really pushing the envelope when it comes to opinions regarding constitutionality. When the Bush administration chooses the next Justice, and the Republican-controlled Congress confirm him/her, I'm relatively certain that constitutional opinions will get even more creative.

FIFTH AMENDMENT [U.S. Constitution] - 'No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb, nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation.'

Laura Brandt

Laura Brandt's little house on Jefferson is to be purchased by Murrieta city for $360,000. Congratulations, Laura, and good luck on finding a replacement house.

Embezzler gets second chance.

I was reading about John Blundell being given 1 year to pay back the $265,000 he embezzled from Murrieta. The judge, James T. Warren, supposedly went out on a limb to allow Blundell the opportunity to repay. It seems Blundell has a bit of a gambling problem. Since the city was reimbursed by insurance, why is a judge taking it upon himself to grant lenience to a perpetrator? Do you think that a thief should be treated like one and that the judge overstepped his authority?

Traffic gets an F-

Click on the title, here's an interesting article from Laura Mitchell regarding the traffic around here. Though things are apparently at an impasse regarding highway improvements, permits for large developments can continue to be issued. A developer can build and cash in, and then after the fact upgrade infrastructure. Does this not seem a little backward?

And remember, traffic is only the tip of the infrastructural iceberg.

The open door policy

This from the Californian:

MURRIETA ---- Mayor Warnie Enochs has scheduled open office hours at City Hall to give residents an opportunity for personal contact and one-on-one exchanges.

Enochs, who was selected as mayor in May, will be available starting June 7 from 9 a.m. until noon on the first and third Tuesdays of each month at City Hall, 26442 Beckman Court.

The mayor said he believes the office hours will lead to better contact with the community and provide new ideas for the council.

To schedule an appointment, residents may call the city manager's office at 461-6010. Unscheduled walk-ins are welcome, but may have to wait, officials said.