Predatory litigious orgs. Prop 13. School buses. $12.9 MILLION

Leaving aside madman "yougofree.com" Schwartz's attack on Prop 13 (don't you have to have some brains to have gotten a law degree?). He blames Prop. 13 for cuts to school budgets. What a tool.

And, leaving aside the poor school kids who don't get to be bused to school (except now they do, even if it means firing 5 teachers, or losing your band program)...

Define Pro Bono.

It means Done without compensation for the public good. Laudable, no?

Except, predatory litigious orgs don't do anything without compensation, do they? Not really.

◼ Assembly approves EPIC's $5.5 million settlement; bill sent to governor's office for approval

A senate bill approving two payments totaling $5.5 million is awaiting the governor's approval to settle attorneys' costs stemming from lawsuits filed against the state by the Environmental Protection Information Center.

SB 730 appropriates $12.9 million from the State Parks and Recreation fund and the general fund to the Department of Justice to pay five settlements, including EPIC's. The bill is supported by both the DOJ and the Department of Finance.

That's money that could have been used to pay for teachers and buses.

And for what? The California Supreme Court ruled in July 2008 that the California Department of Forestry approved an inadequate 50-year timber management plan as part of the 1999 Headwaters Forest agreement.

"An inadequate 50-year timber management plan."

$5.5 million for EPIC. $12.9 million altogether.

State Sen. Doug LaMalfa, a Butte County resident whose district includes Del Norte and Trinity counties, said the bill is a way to reward plaintiffs for “frivolous lawsuits.”

”It just elicits more and more lawsuits because they know there's going to be a reward; there's no downside if they're out of line,” he said, adding that EPIC's actions to stop timber harvests “put Americans out of work.”

Not just that.

California is supposedly running out of cash in about a week - in March. Maybe you can give these new age con men an I.O.U.

But next time you go protest - REMEMBER - your worthless culls in the legislature passed SB 730 to give away $12.9 million to people who were supposedly working pro bono "for the public good."