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Last-minute deal averts government shutdown -- Congressional negotiators strike a deal to fund the government for the rest of the year. The agreement includes $39 billion in cuts and does not include provisions on Planned Parenthood or the Environmental Protection Agency. Michael A. Memoli in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Pérez asks sergeant to revoke members' gun permission -- Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez has asked the lower house's chief sergeant-at-arms to revoke authorization several members were given to carry concealed firearms in the Capitol "pending a full review of safety and security measures. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/8/11 Jerry Brown mulling tax extension before public vote -- Gov. Jerry Brown said this afternoon that he would consider signing a budget in which the Legislature extends temporary tax increases - subject to a later vote. David Siders SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/8/11 California Democrats tap independent for convention -- Apparently Democrats need a break from themselves every once in a while. Kevin Yamamura SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/8/11 Assembly OKS concealed guns for four legislators -- Assembly Chief Sergeant-at-Arms Ronald Pane has given four legislators permission to carry concealed weapons in the state Capitol, according to two senior Senate staff members who have been informed of the decision. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/8/11 surprise March boost in income tax revenues -- State Controller John Chiang and the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office reported this week that California enjoyed a surprise boost in income tax revenues for March, more than $1.2 billion above projections. Kevin Yamamura SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/8/11 Schools Scramble to Come Up with More Cuts -- They thought the worst was over, but now San Francisco Unified School District officials and other educators across the state are grappling with what to cut next. Jennifer Gollan Bay Citizen -- 4/8/11 Cal baseball reinstated -- Although fund-raising efforts spearheaded by former players and other alumni fell short of getting commitments for the university's goal of $10 million, school officials decided the $9 million that was committed was close enough. Tom FitzGerald in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/8/11 Friends, Lobbyists Shape BART Development Deal -- A two-year effort by BART to transform a key transit hub has stalled as rival board members champion their favored developers. Zusha Elinson Bay Citizen -- 4/8/11 Podcast: The Big Picture -- Our Capital Notes Podcast was recorded midweek at a panel event in downtown Sacramento where Anthony York of the Los Angeles Times and I were asked to speak about the state of things. John Myers Capitol Notes weblog -- 4/8/11 GOP dares Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer to close Yosemite over women's health -- Visibly enraged, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer and seven other Democratic women Senators said they have drawn a line in the sand over funding for poor women's health -- not just Planned Parenthood but 4,500 women's health clinics -- in the budget showdown with Republicans. They said spending numbers are resolved and that the whole fight has come down a standoff over women's health. Carolyn Lochhead Chronicle Politics -- 4/8/11 Bay Area braces for government shutdown -- If the Big One rocks the Bay Area during a federal government shutdown, scientists in Menlo Park will still analyze the earthquake data, but no one will be around to share it with the public. Justin Berton in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/8/11 State GOP chief vows to move party beyond its 'comfort zone' -- The new chairman of the California Republican Party set out on his 20-city tour this week, pledging to reverse his party’s course by attempting to reach out to voters beyond the party’s “comfort zone.” Maeve Reston LA Times PolitiCal -- 4/8/11 Marines, families at Camp Pendleton brace for possible government shutdown -- The immediate concern is whether the next scheduled paycheck includes only one week's pay instead of two. 'If this goes on too long, I'm going to be hurting big time,' one Marine says. 'So are a lot of guys.' Tony Perry in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Funds to abortion provider Planned Parenthood called main hurdle in budget talks -- Democrats complain that Republicans want to let states redirect federal money away from abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood and eliminate $317 million from the funding program. Republicans insist spending levels, not policy issues, are the sticking point. James Oliphant and Lisa Mascaro in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 4 L.A. councilmen fined $13,300 for taking free tickets to Hollywood events -- Four members of the Los Angeles City Council have agreed to pay a combined $13,300 in fines for receiving free tickets to various Hollywood award shows and dinners over the last four years, according to agreements reached with the city's Ethics Commission. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 San Francisco Mayor Lee unveils pension reform proposal -- San Francisco's generous public employee benefits would become notably less so under a draft plan Mayor Ed Lee rolled out Thursday in an attempt to rein in the city's spiraling retirement costs. Heather Knight, John Coté in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/8/11
California tax debate goes on the road -- With the budget stuck in neutral, Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers are leaving Sacramento to bolster their case for and against taxes. Kevin Yamamura in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/8/11 Lawmakers consider what to cut next in budget debate -- Cut teachers' pay by 5%. Close a public university or two. Fire the entire state workforce. Those were among the proposals bandied about by state lawmakers in a budget hearing Thursday that at times had a touch of the surreal. Shane Goldmacher LA Times PolitiCal Wyatt Buchanan in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/8/11 Dutton lectures Brown on the Inland Empire -- With talks at a standstill in Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown is taking the budget show on the road this weekend, beginning Friday at a meeting with education officials in Riverside. Shane Goldmacher LA Times PolitiCal -- 4/7/11 Walters: San Jose Democrats dress up corporate tax dodges -- San Jose's John Vasconcellos presided over the Assembly's budget committee for many years in the 1970s and 1980s and, liberal Democrat that he was, frequently railed about a lack of money for what he considered to be vital public services. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/8/11 Press Clips: Fox (Mis)Fires, Oligarchs on the March -- Joel Fox is a temperate and thoughtful guy whose online opinings usually skip the fact-free cant and bombast that mark so many offerings from elsewhere in California’s conservative blogosphere. Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine CalBuzz -- 4/8/11 Meg Whitman to keynote George W. Bush forum on growing economy -- Meg Whitman is back! And in a big way, as part of Double-Republican Comeback Tour. She's one of only two keynoters at a conference Tuesday in Dallas that's sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute on how to grow the economy. Joe Garofoli Chronicle Politics Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 4/7/11 Tax system relies on wealthy -- California is the nation’s most populous state, the owner of the world’s eighth largest economy, the home of Silicon Valley and Hollywood, and the global leader in biotechnology. And yet, the fortunes of its state government depend on a small group people. Brian Joseph of the Orange County Register via HealthyCal.org -- 4/7/11 Jerry Brown turns 73, will soon be the state's oldest governor -- Gov. Jerry Brown turned 73 on Thursday, and in less than two weeks he will become the state's oldest-ever sitting governor. David Siders in the Sacramento Bee -- 4/8/11 PG&E threatens to pull out of deal with state -- PG&E is hinting it will pull out of a $3 million settlement with the state Public Utilities Commission over allegations of flawed record keeping if commissioners are allowed to ask about its past practices at a public hearing on Monday. Jaxon Van Derbeken in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 4/8/11
Governments continued to enhance pensions amid economic collapse -- Scores of California government agencies continued to sweeten employee pension plans even after the state's economy began collapsing into recession in 2008, a decision that is now haunting them as they struggle with deficits and deep budget cuts. Evan Halper and Catherine Saillant in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 San Bernardino County pension board votes to end special benefits for retirees -- Thousands of retired government workers will have to get by with less starting later this year, after the leaders of San Bernardino County's retirement fund voted Thursday to end an account that has paid special benefits to retirees for more than a decade. James Rufus Koren in the Inland Daily Bulletin -- 4/8/11 Business groups say fewer regulations would spur growth -- Half of the slightly more than 400 businesses responding to a recent poll cited California's thicket of environmental, financial and other regulations as a disincentive to retaining or hiring workers or making new investments, the California Manufacturers & Technology Assn. says in survey results to be released Friday. Marc Lifsher in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11
Lax oversight of school construction raises doubts about earthquake safety -- State regulators have routinely failed to enforce California’s landmark earthquake safety law for public schools, allowing children and teachers to occupy buildings with structural flaws and potential safety hazards reported during construction. Corey G. Johnson California Watch -- 4/8/11 Audit finds years-long backlog of investigations into accused teachers -- The California Commission on Teacher Credentialing took years to begin investigations into a teacher accused of showing pornography to children and another one who allegedly kissed a student, according to a new audit. Jason Song in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Kirst: California plunges into the unknown in expanding class sizes -- Even before the negotiations concerning tax extensions collapsed, California’s class sizes were ballooning. Now we are exacerbating class size increases, but there is no research to predict or understand future implications. Michael Kirst TopEd -- 4/8/11 Governor to discuss cuts during school visit -- Gov. Jerry Brown will join teachers and government officials at a Riverside school this morning, his first in a promised series of public appearances to drum up support for extending higher taxes to close a budget gap. JIM MILLER in the Riverside Press -- 4/8/11 Percentage of Latino children in preschool declining -- Reversing a decades-long trend, the percentage of Latino children attending preschool across the U.S. declined between 2005 and 2009, with possible far-reaching consequences for California. Louis Freedberg California Watch -- 4/8/11 LAUSD officials working on 'emergency budget plan' with unions -- In a bid to save thousands of jobs and preserve school programs, Los Angeles Unified officials this week began negotiating an "emergency budget plan" with employee unions that could save the district up to $304 million. Connie Llanos in the Torrance Daily Breeze -- 4/8/11 Baron: A schism on college readiness -- Robert Schwartz, academic dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Kati Haycock, president of the Education Trust, are allies on most aspects of school reform, but fundamentally disagree on whether the mission of high school ought to be to prepare all students for college. Haycock says that’s an absolute; Schwartz says it’s too narrow. Kathryn Baron TopEd -- 4/8/11
Cuts to Anthem's rate hikes are not for everyone -- Oversight of Anthem Blue Cross individual plans is split between two health insurance regulators. One group is getting a break on cost increases. The other is not. Duke Helfand in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare privatization plan increases costs, budget office says -- The Republican congressman's proposal to privatize Medicare would mean a dramatic hike in U.S. healthcare costs for the elderly, an independent analysis finds. Seniors would pay almost double — more than $12,510 a year. Noam N. Levey in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Reform sought for state homes' monitor -- A California watchdog office charged with protecting people in nursing homes too often loses its voice on vital issues ranging from inadequate staffing to the use of antipsychotic drugs, according to a Ventura County seniors advocate who is heading a drive to turn the state-run program into an independent entity. Tom Kisken in the Ventura Star -- 4/8/11
Los Angeles utility lucked into meeting renewable energy goals, audit says -- The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power spent the last four years pushing aggressively toward the adoption of renewable energy without developing a coherent strategy for paying for such fuels, according to an audit released Thursday by City Controller Wendy Greuel. David Zahniser in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11 Facebook to share energy-efficiency technology developed for data centers -- Facebook said it planned to increase the energy efficiency of its data centers around the globe with the launch of the Open Compute Project, an initiative to share the technology it developed for its data center in rural Oregon. Jessica Guynn in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/8/11
Looming government shutdown would hit Inland Southern California -- From its military installations to its recreation areas, Inland Southern California would feel the effect of a looming federal government shutdown and thousands of workers around the region would face indefinite furloughs amid already brutal economic times. BEN GOAD in the Riverside Press -- 4/8/11 Judge keeps solicitors 30 feet from Target -- A San Diego Superior Court judge ruled Thursday that local same-sex marriage advocates must remain 30 feet from the entrances of all Target stores in California and that they may only approach shoppers one entrance at a time. Matthew T. Hall in the San Diego Union-Trib -- 4/8/11
Shutdown threat tests Obama leadership style -- This has been a season of leadership tests for President Obama. From Egypt to Libya and now the budget, he has been called upon to deal with rapidly unfolding events, and the questions about his leadership style have followed a consistent pattern. Dan Balz in the Washington Post -- 4/7/11
Republican policy demands threaten budget talks -- President Obama calls for an agreement by morning as negotiators struggle to address conservatives' nonspending issues. Preparations for a government shutdown after midnight Friday proceed. Lisa Mascaro and Christi Parsons in the Los Angeles Times -- 4/7/11 |
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