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Meg says no to KGO and KTVU/Chronicle debates, launches new Poizner attacks via mail -- GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has for months been carpetbombing state TV airwaves -- and her GOP challenger Steve Poizner -- and now she's taking the campaign to your mailbox. Carla Marinucci Chronicle Politics Weblog -- 3/19/2010 Unions fight to keep lawmakers' pay -- Democrats in the Legislature have spent the last few years fighting to save the pay of members of public employee unions. Now, two of those unions are returning the favor. Capitol Weekly's Anthony York in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 What a real internal memo might say -- Those internal memos “leaked” by campaigns, ostensibly to give a glimpse of strategic discussions among top operatives, are beginning to take on the look of glorified press releases. Steve Harmon Political Blotter weblog -- 3/19/2010 Whitman governor plan needs Democrats' support -- But she's going to need the cooperation of a highly partisan, Democrat-dominated Legislature for many key points in her platform. MARTIN WISCKOL in the Orange County Register -- 3/19/2010 Searching for food in the land of plenty -- The number of Californians fighting to ward off hunger, already at a crisis level, is worsening in the face of the lingering recession and high unemployment. Now, the problem may grow as the state faces a new round of budget cuts. Dianne De Guzman and Sandy Tolan California Watch -- 3/19/2010 Money Watch: Big donations flow to ballot measures, CA GOP -- With the clock ticking for initiatives to qualify for the November ballot and the June primary less than three months away, big donors are dipping into their piggy banks to back their top political causes. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 3/19/2010 Apple CEO Steve Jobs joins Schwarzenegger to push organ donor registry -- Saying a liver transplant saved his life, Apple CEO Steve Jobs convinced California lawmakers to draft organ donation legislation, unveiled at Stanford's Lucile Packard Children's hospital Friday morning. Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury -- 3/19/2010 Report: State rehired bad nursing assistants -- California nursing assistants who had their licenses revoked by the state Department of Public Health later found work caring for the elderly with the Department of Social Services, even though both departments are under the same state agency, a State Senate investigation found. BRIAN JOSEPH in the Orange County Register -- 3/19/2010 Podcast: Survey Says… The chattering class enjoyed this week in California politics: a debate, new polling, and a lot of spin about momentum. John Myers Capitol Notes weblog -- 3/19/2010 Wildermuth: Angelides Versus Arnold, 2006 Revisited -- With San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom running for lieutenant governor, the race is getting way more attention than it probably deserves. It’s also opened the way for a hazy bit of Democratic historical revisionism. John Wildermuth Fox & Hounds weblog -- 3/19/2010 Fox: Stop Hidden Taxes -- One of the concerns of the business community and taxpayers is that the legislature is calling taxes “fees” to get around the constitutional two-thirds vote requirement to pass a tax. Fox & Hounds weblog -- 3/19/2010 Local residents claim tribal casino in San Pablo is illegal, sue federal government -- A group of West Contra Costa residents this week sued the federal government to revoke Indian gaming rights at the former Casino San Pablo card club, claiming the tribe that now runs electronic bingo machines there cannot establish sovereignty on the land without state approval, which never happened. John Simerman in the Contra Costa Times -- 3/19/2010
Flags raised over sponsor of Democratic golf fundraiser -- An association of cable companies that opposes Internet legislation before the California Legislature is footing the bill for an event at Torrey Pines in La Jolla. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Voter-mandated drug treatment program headed for extinction -- The groundbreaking 2000 ballot proposition that mandated drug treatment instead of jail sentences for low-level offenses is barely running and may soon be history, according to testimony during an Assembly hearing. Christina Jewett California Watch -- 3/19/2010 Whitman contradicts eBay on global warming law -- When it comes to California's landmark global warming law, gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman is now at odds with the environmentally conscious company she helped run for nearly a decade. Sarah Terry-Cobo California Watch -- 3/19/2010 Poizner campaign 'just starting,' -- Republican gubernatorial candidate and California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner may be down 49 points in the latest poll, but he says he is far from out of the race. Lisa Vorderbrueggen in the Oakland Tribune -- 3/19/2010 Poizner: Look out, Meg, "I've got plenty of time and plenty of money" -- State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, who's being pummelled in the polls by his GOP gubernatorial opponent Meg Whitman, doesn't seem to be breaking a sweat about it. Carla Marinucci Chronicle Politics Weblog -- 3/19/2010 Meg Whitman 'wows away' Latino crowd at San Jose campaign talk -- She didn't mention a touchier topic: immigration. But after her question-and-answer session with the Greater San Jose Hispanic Chamber of Commerce at a Santana Row restaurant, Whitman told the Mercury News she is "100 percent against amnesty," wants to crack down on employers who hire illegal immigrants and will eliminate "sanctuary cities" such as San Francisco that don't enforce federal immigration laws. Julia Prodis Sulek in the San Jose Mercury -- 3/19/2010 Brown wants laser-beam focus on California budget -- As Attorney General Jerry Brown campaigns for governor, balancing the state's budget is his top priority. Duane W. Gang in the Riverside Press -- 3/19/2010 Walters: California's judges play an ever bigger policy role -- As noted in this space countless times, California's government is broken, endemically incapable of addressing the state's most pressing policy issues. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 Field Poll: Obama's popularity declining in California -- The poll found 52 percent of Californians giving Obama good marks, down from 56 percent in January and 65 percent a year ago. Rob Hotakainen in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 San Francisco sues over PG&E-backed ballot measure -- San Francisco and a group of government-owned utilities from around California took their campaign against a Pacific Gas and Electric Co.-sponsored ballot measure to court Thursday, arguing that Proposition 16 is a power grab dressed up as an expansion of taxpayers' rights. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle Denny Walsh in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 Delta democrat denies swapping health care vote for irrigation water -- Did the Obama administration swap the fate of the Delta’s endangered salmon for a couple of votes for the president’s health care overhaul? Probably, says the Republican National Committee. Lance Williams California Watch -- 3/19/2010 Attorney general candidate wants to list South Dakota job title on ballot -- Republican John Eastman has chosen to list his job as 'assistant attorney general' without specifying where. His opponents cry foul. Shane Goldmacher in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Republicans Cook, Smyth to chair Assembly policy committees -- Republican Assemblymen Cameron Smyth and Paul Cook were named to chair policy committees Thursday, marking the first time in years that GOP Assembly members have been handed a committee gavel. Jim Sanders SacBee Capitol Alert Capitol Weekly's Anthony York in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Valero oil firm contributes half-million to suspend AB 32 -- A Texas-based oil company has contributed more than half of the nearly $1 million collected in a drive to suspend California's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions law, documents filed Thursday show. Jim Sanders SacBee Capitol Alert Denis Cuff in the Oakland Tribune -- 3/19/2010 Brown calls anti-police booby traps in Riverside County 'urban terrorism' -- The California attorney general seeks the public's help in solving the attacks, so far without injuries, targeting an anti-gang task force and police officers in Hemet. David Kelly in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Schwarzenegger appoints paralyzed law grad to state post -- Sara Granda, the UC Davis law school graduate who is paralyzed from the neck down and drew national attention last year when State Bar officials nearly prevented her from taking the exam, has been named by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a legal position in the Department of Health Care Services. Kevin Yamamura in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 Undecided California lawmakers get an earful on health bill -- Public and private pressure is building on Central California lawmakers and others who say they're undecided on the big health care bill. That's the price of wait-and-see. Michael Doyle in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 Dems need health bill votes; Sanchez studying -- It’s crunch time on health care reform and Rep. Loretta Sanchez – the Orange County delegation’s only Democrat – was reviewing the final house proposal on Thursday, making sure it saves the money she wants it to and will make a difference for people in her district. Dena Bunis in the Orange County Register -- 3/19/2010
CSUS dean, professor take heat for global warming study -- The latest criticism came Thursday from the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. In response to an inquiry by Democratic Assemblyman Kevin de León, the LAO dismissed as "highly unreliable" the professors' claim that California's global warming law would wipe out 1 million jobs and $183 million in economic output. Dale Kasler in the Sacramento Bee -- 3/19/2010 DWP board imposes first of four electricity rate hikes -- The increases over the next year are planned to help the nation's largest municipal utility cover its financial commitments and continue Mayor Villaraigosa's plan for securing more renewable power. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Pension fund fees fight: state vs. Wall Street? -- A proposed ban on fees paid to middlemen for investments from public pension funds, prompted in part by about $60 million collected by the small firm of former CalPERS board member Al Villalobos, may turn into a fight with big Wall Street firms. Ed Mendel Calpensions.com -- 3/19/2010
Small Changes Made a Big Difference at One School -- It reversed the tide with a long list of seemingly small changes: It carved out uninterrupted blocks of teaching time. It gave teachers time to work together, diagnosing what kids needed. And it zeroed in on vocabulary for English learners. Small changes, stable staffing and a sense of trust -- not a shakeup -- helped it blossom over the past five years. EMILY ALPERT Voiceofsandiego.org -- 3/19/2010 Schools still bad after 20 years -- The lowest performing schools in California in 1989 were still the lowest performing schools 20 years later, despite a slew of school reforms, a battery of new standardized tests, punishments for bad schools, incentives for them to become better and experiments in curriculums and programs. John Fensterwald educatedguess.org -- 3/19/2010 California's Latino students graduate college at higher rates than Latino national average -- California's Latino college students graduate from college at a higher rate than the national average; 58 percent earn a bachelor's degree, compared to 51 percent nationally. Lisa M. Krieger in the San Jose Mercury -- 3/19/2010 Satirical video on UC Merced doesn't have everyone smiling -- A label attached to a YouTube video about University of California at Merced students' recent push for a Chicano studies minor warned students that watching it might cause uncontrollable laughter. But some UC Merced students aren't laughing. Jamie Oppenheim in the Modesto Bee -- 3/19/2010
Bill to ban smoking in California state parks and beaches falls short -- Californians who grumble about cigarette butts in the parks and on beaches may have to wait before their wish for a ban comes true — if it happens at all. Kurtis Alexander in the San Jose Mercury -- 3/19/2010 Discovery of rare wildflower in Ballona Wetlands could halt recreation project -- Environmental groups ask the city of L.A. to cease construction of a walkway after thousands of nearly extinct Orcutt's yellow pincushions are found. Louis Sahagun in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010 Scientists side with smelt, salmon protections -- A panel with the National Academy of Sciences says measures taken to save the fish that have also curbed water supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta are scientifically justified. Bettina Boxall in the Los Angeles Times Mike Taugher in the Contra Costa Times -- 3/19/2010
UC could oversee prison health -- A proposal by the Schwarzenegger administration to overhaul the troubled medical care system for inmates could save $12 billion over a decade, officials say. But it would also cost jobs. Michael Rothfeld in the Los Angeles Times -- 3/19/2010
Senators announce framework for bipartisan immigration bill -- Charles Schumer, a Democrat, and Lindsey Graham, a Republican, propose increasing resources for border enforcement and legalizing millions of illegal immigrants. President Obama praises the proposal. Anna Gorman in the Los Angeles Times Spencer S. Hsu in the Washington Post -- 3/19/2010 Thousands expected at immigration rally -- Thousands of Sonoma County immigrants, their children and their supporters are expected to participate in what has become a perennial springtime cry for a new federal law that would give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at legal residency. MARTIN ESPINOZA in the Santa Rosa Press -- 3/19/2010
President Obama's pitch: Fate of presidency on the line -- President Barack Obama had exhausted most of his health care reform arguments with members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus during a White House meeting last Thursday when he made a more personal pitch that resonated with many skeptics in the room. GLENN THRUSH Politico -- 3/19/2010
Reconciliation bill posted -- Read the bill via Politico -- 3/19/2010 Republicans plot ways to block health reform in Senate -- Democrats might like to think that health care reform is all but a done deal if it clears the House, but the Senate is where Republicans have been plotting for months to sentence it to a painful procedural death. CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN & MANU RAJU Politico -- 3/19/2010 |
