According to the Los Angeles Times, President Obama's recently released budget plan will allocate more than $1 billion to California.  Besides going toward healthcare for needy families, funds will also be apportioned to jailing for illegal immigrants convicted of crimes.

In my opinion, climate change is happening. However, the recent spate of well-documented reports of evasions, stonewalling, and sloppy research about global warming has certainly damaged credibility. What was supposed to be impartial science has been shown on at least three occasions to be anything but that.  But, maybe the important thing about renewable energy and cleantech isn’t so much whether climate change is happening, but how it can help us as a country. More on that after these reports of climate change scientists being, ahem, less than objective.

Last week, on his Fox News television show, Glenn Beck hailed former Presidents George Washington and Ronald Reagan as the paragons of conservative ideology and limited, constitutional government.  But, upon further review, perhaps conservatives should take a closer look at these political giants.

California, a Republican bastion?!  Don’t act so shocked, it’s happened before.

It is no secret that California’s budget is an entity whose existence often gets called into question. Given the powerful political incentives to continually send money from the State’s coffers, through legislative session if possible and ballot initiative if necessary, it’s no exaggeration to say that trying to contain spending in California often looks similar to trying to contain water within a sieve.

Driving around Lake Tahoe communities you see snow piled up everywhere.  Ten, twenty foot high mountains of snow that have been pushed off of streets, parking lots and driveways.  Snow is plentiful this season, which has not been the case for the past three winters when disappointing amounts of powder have led to water shortages throughout the state.

You may not know it, but even after George Washington and the Continental Congress had raised an army to fight against the English Crown, the American Colonists weren't exactly sure what they were fighting for. It was for this reason that Thomas Paine published his famous pamphlet, Common Sense, which was at that time, the top selling work in American history.

Since receiving $3 billion in voter authorized bonds in 2004, the state's publicly-funded stem cell research institute has been beset by one controversy after another.  Wranglings with the legislature, potential conflicts of interest in the grant application process, and key questions regarding taxpayer investment have plagued the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

But, that's not all.

Last week, the United States Supreme Court rendered a historic ruling against the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and all laws that seek to limit big corporate money in American politics. The Court affirmed the position argued by Citizens United, a prominent conservative advocacy and lobbying group in Washington DC. The group challenged the legality of an FEC regulation which restricted the ability of corporations and unions to fund political advertisements.