Crossposted at OC Progressive

Los Alamitos mayor resigns from City Council over racial e-mail

Dean Grose announced his resignation from the City Council in a letter this morning to the city manager.

Last week he said he would step down as mayor after coming under fire for sending an e-mail depicting the White House lawn planted with watermelons and the title "No Easter egg hunt this year." But city officials had said he would retain his seat on the council.

LA Times Email Alert

Here is the update at the LA Times.  Police will be patrolling Grose's home since a decimated watermelon was found outside his place of business.

I can tell you that this will make many happy to know that he will not try to hold his City Council seat.  His behavior and reaction were completely unacceptable and we can no longer tolerate the, I didn't know crowd.

Yes, Ahnold believes the answer to the gridlock in our State Legislature is laying off 10,000 State Workers.  That's right, lets use the people who servie our State as pawns in what continues to be more of a battle of ideologies rather than doing what's best for the State of California.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will move to lay off as many as 10,000 state workers if lawmakers fail to pass a plan to close California's nearly $42-billion deficit by the end of the week, an administration spokesman said this morning.

Schwarzenegger's press secretary, Aaron McLear, said at a media briefing that the administration would send out pink slips Friday, absent a budget deal. The layoff process generally takes about six months for state employees due to union rules and other legal considerations, and bureaucratic procedures the state must follow. The move would save the state $150 million annually if the jobs are eliminated by July 1, according to McLear.

LA Times

Crossposted from OC Progressive

This has been another eventful week for me and I wanted to share something I wrote for our new local blog, I think it's universal and true for many here so that is why I share it.

Orange County, California is still a solidly red County but those of us living in "The OC", who are proud progressives, want to find a public space to voice our ideas and to push our agenda locally and eventually on the state and federal levels.  Not only that but we want to encourage our fellow progressives to run in local elections and support them up that harrowing climb to higher office.

As we all know, none of this can happen though until many things are fixed about our election financing process and so on, but the progressive blogosphere has somewhat leveled the playing field but supporting such candidates and generously funding their runs for office.

I was at work yesterday, working.  This has been a very big week on many fronts but the elation of a shiny new President Obama was going to end quickly.  I just gave notice that I would finally be cutting back my hours (And it scares the hell out of me, because I just kissed 25% of my income away) due to chronic illness.  It was time.

And my Mother has been dealing with issues related to my Grandmother's health.  My Grandmother can no longer care for herself and it was a very tough time for my Mom, to know her Mother can never go back home again.

And then what?  I get a phone call from my Mother that she'd just been laid off.  She had been working at the same company for over ten years, underpaid and overworked and taken for granted.  And to top things off, they escorted her from the building, letting her know she could clear up her desk after working hours.

This was an ordinary weekend for me, or at least it felt that way.  My husband and I took our daughter and a friend of hers to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Her class had been involved in "Art Masters" and she had been learning about different painters, so I thought, why not go?

We'd had a busy weekend all around, from some yoga to house cleaning, watching movies and making cookies.  I just didn't bother paying attention to all the brouhaha with the inauguration.

Sure, I saw the updates on Facebook and the diaries here but I felt so very disconnected from it all and I even made such a comment in a diary about not being able to stop the tears.  What was I missing here?

I'm very excited to announce a new online community for those living with any kind of Chronic Illness.  Chronic Share is my new baby and I'm so grateful to have a platform in order to create such a community.  

Right now, I have the help of DizzyQueen who knows much more about html and programming than I do.  It's not a venture for someone with as little computer knowledge as I have but because of such platforms as Sopablox it makes it far easier to do than it would be without it.

It's still in its infancy but I do hope if you are struggling with any chronic condition or even know or love someone who is, that you will create an account and share your story with us.  

After the cut is the inaugural post at Chronic Tonic, which just happens to be something I posted here.  I've been struggling with coming to terms with my diagnosis and finding some balance in my life.  It's something that we all attempt regardless if we are healthy or unwell.

Cross Posted at Daily Kos

Yes, it's that important to me and I think some in my life have doubted my commitment to this issue, so let it be clear, that if one of the two following things happens, I will file for divorce from my husband.  

First, if Ken Starr is successful in divorcing those 18,000 plus same sex couples that married during the short amount of time that marriage equality was legal in the State of California

Secondly, if the Supreme Court fails to over turn Prop 8 in March and the State of California continues to make same sex marriage illegal.

I've been struggling for a few years now with health issues, it's been ever since I had my daughter in 2003 but I was always a frail girl, lots of allergies as a child, always hated to run, just wasn't tip top.  Damn, if I had been born just a couple of hundreds of years ago, I highly doubt I would have made it out of childhood, but alas, I did.

My struggle with myself is the idea that this thing I'm dealing with may just be all in my head.  I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia but I can't help but think that it might just be some figment of my imagination.  Maybe it's not as bad as it seems, maybe I've just wallowed a bit too long.