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Gov. Jerry Brown: 'We're not there yet' on budget -- In his first official response this week, Gov. Jerry Brown said the budget proposed by legislative Democrats includes tough cuts but is "not structurally balanced and puts us into a hole in succeeding years." Kevin Yamamura SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 L.A. school board approves shorter school year, employee pay cuts -- The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday approved a labor deal that could preserve thousands of jobs but would shorten the school year by up to a week and reduce teacher salaries as much as 5%. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Internet poker bill faces long odds, Sen. lawmaker says -- State Sen. Roderick Wright (D-Inglewood) said late Tuesday that he would continue negotiations to try and reach a compromise on legalizing Internet poker in California, but he estimated the odds of success this year are "less than 50-50." Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Democrats continue talks amid protests over cuts -- Democrats in the state Legislature said Tuesday that they are less than $500 million apart from Gov. Jerry Brown in negotiations over proposed cuts to help close California's $15.7 billion deficit, even as advocates for the poor protested at the state Capitol. JUDY LIN Associated Press -- 6/12/12 State labor negotiations could extend past budget deadline -- Even though Friday is the deadline for lawmakers to pass the state budget, critical negotiations with state workers may not be finished by then. Nonetheless, Gov. Jerry Brown plans to include a 5% cut in compensation to state workers in the final budget, even as administration officials continue talks with union officials. Chris Megerian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Michael Ward tops redistricting commission in per diem pay -- It was an honor system: California's redistricting commissioners received $300 for each day they reported working, often from home. The result was that some commissioners were paid far more than others in the redrawing of legislative and congressional districts, records show. Jim Sanders SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 Ten arrested in protest outside Jerry Brown's office -- Ten protesters were detained outside Gov. Jerry Brown's office Tuesday, injecting some drama into a day of hearings and closed-door meetings on the state budget. Chris Megerian in the Los Angeles Times$ Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 California Internet poker bill pulled from Senate committee -- Sen. Rod Wright folded on today's round of Internet poker debate under the dome, pulling his legalization legislation from a committee agenda before it could come up for a vote. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 SEIU Local 1000 pushes for trade: furloughs for tougher outsourcing rules -- SEIU Local 1000 negotiators resumed bargaining with Gov. Jerry Brown's administration this morning, and are seeking cuts in outsourcing and ending the use of retired annuitants and student employees as conditions to accept a pay reduction. Jon Ortiz in the Sacramento Bee -- 6/12/12 L.A. Unified parcel tax postponed, board set to vote on furlough days -- The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday voted to postpone putting a local tax increase for schools before voters until after the November election. Howard Blume in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Report sees 4.5 million more potential Latino voters in California -- California election officials estimate that 23.7 million Californians could potentially vote - i.e. they are citizens over the age of 18 -- and know that 17.2 million of them are registered to vote. Dan Walters SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 Jerry Brown meets with top Democrats again; still no budget deal -- The Legislature’s top Democrats have just wrapped up another closed-door meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown, but failed to reach an accord on a state budget. Anthony York LA Times PolitiCal$ -- 6/12/12 Tobacco tax vote count continues, gap almost cut in half -- The vote count for the tobacco tax on last week’s primary ballot narrowed again Tuesday as elections officials across California tallied hundreds of thousands of uncounted ballots. Phil Willon LA Times PolitiCal$ -- 6/12/12 Group launches campaign against Jerry Brown's tax measure -- The campaign against Gov. Jerry Brown's November ballot measure to raise taxes took shape this morning, with a group of conservative interests announcing a new website and name, "Californians for Reforms and Jobs, Not Taxes." David Siders SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 Fox: Campaign to Oppose Brown Tax Increase Launched -- There will be a campaign opposing Gov. Jerry Brown’s $50-billion tax initiative and I will be part of it. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 6/12/12 Dueling San Francisco tax plans focus on receipts, not payroll -- The next heated political fight at San Francisco's City Hall will center on whether businesses pay more local taxes - or just pay them differently. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 6/12/12 One-third of small firms in California offer benefits, survey finds -- One in three small businesses in California say they offer health coverage to workers, a new survey shows, and 44% say they are likely to provide benefits once a California insurance exchange opens in January 2014. Chad Terhune in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Frail seniors program's launch brings confusion, delays for Californians -- Trinidad Contreras enjoys gardening and playing dominoes at his adult day health care center, but a state ruling has the 79-year-old fearfully anticipating an isolated existence. Sandy Kleffman in the San Jose Mercury -- 6/12/12 The Water That Fuels California’s Power Grid -- We hear a lot about how green our energy is in California. Instead of using coal, the state runs on natural gas and increasingly, renewable power. But there’s a hidden cost to our energy supply: water use. Lauren Sommer KQED Climate Watch -- 6/12/12 Starbucks introduces new products to boost U.S. job creation effort -- Starbucks Corp. has a new line of merchandise that, in line with the conscientious capitalism efforts at several major companies, it said will be used to help support American jobs. The coffee giant will sell a limited-edition mug, tumbler and bag of coffee – all made domestically – to raise money for its Create Jobs for USA fund. Tiffany Hsu in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Bay Area foreclosures rise in May, but are still in short supply -- Foreclosures increased from April to May across the Bay Area, but far fewer homes are for sale on the courthouse steps this year than last, according to a report Tuesday. Investors paying cash are snapping up what the banks are selling, driving up prices, ForeclosureRadar said. Pete Carey in the San Jose Mercury -- 6/12/12 CSU, UC pushed to cut programs with low graduation rates -- A new report from a non-profit group that seeks to boost academic standards zeroes in on wasteful spending at California public universities, pointing to hundreds of degree programs from which only a handful of students graduate each year. Kasia Hall in the Orange County Register -- 6/12/12
California Democrats show their unwillingness to cut programs for the poor -- As budget negotiations continued Monday, legislative Democrats gave the clearest indication yet they will not cut as deeply into programs for the poor as Gov. Jerry Brown wants. Kevin Yamamura in the Sacramento Bee -- 6/12/12 lawmakers will start moving budget plan through Legislature -- Legislators, at risk of having their pay docked if they fail to pass a budget this week, say they'll begin moving a spending plan on Tuesday, no matter if they agree what should be in it. Chris Megerian and Anthony York in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Democrats unveil cloudy state budget document -- Democrats in the state Assembly are poised to formally reject some of Governor Jerry Brown's social services cuts and instead create a smaller cash cushion, while directing more local property tax dollars to help fund public schools. John Myers News10 -- 6/12/12 Democrats seek to reduce California budget's welfare cuts by using proposed reserve fund money -- Legislative Democrats are seeking fewer cuts to programs that help the poor, elderly and disabled by scaling back a $1 billion reserve that Gov. Jerry Brown has proposed, setting up a possible confrontation as Friday's budget deadline looms. Steven Harmon in the San Jose Mercury -- 6/12/12 California budget set to pass legislative panels -- Lawmakers are expected to approve a framework for a state budget Tuesday, retaining most of Gov. Jerry Brown's plan but significantly reducing his proposed cuts to welfare, child care and other services that help the poor. Wyatt Buchanan, Marisa Lagos in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 6/12/12 Walters: Brown tax plan looks very shaky -- The state budget that the Legislature will enact this week will assume that half of its deficit will be covered by voter approval of new income and sales taxes next November. Dan Walters in the Sacramento Bee -- 6/12/12 Tech whisper campaign dogs Dianne Feinstein -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein taps out messages on a BlackBerry, reads books on her iPad and is well-known in Washington for detailed command of policies from fracking to farming to patent law. Yet here in her home state, there are some rumblings in tech circles about whether Feinstein truly is one of them. MICHELLE QUINN Politico -- 6/12/12 State Senate panel to consider online poker bill -- Almost four months after it was introduced, legislation to license online gambling in California will finally get its first airing. JIM MILLER in the Riverside Press -- 6/12/12 Measures on 'three strikes,' GMO food labels qualify for ballot -- California's November ballot will include questions on modifying the state's "three strikes" sentencing laws and requiring labels for genetically modified foods. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 Sen. Sharon Runner returns to Capitol after lung transplant -- Sen. Sharon Runner thought getting a new set of lungs signaled the end of the worst of her battle with a rare auto-immune disorder. Then came recovery. Torey Van Oot SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12 CalBuzz: Why Conservatives Discarded Conservatism -- Our old friend Eugene Joseph Dionne has just published the first must-read opus of the campaign season, a brisk stroll through the history of American political ideas that shows just how radical mainstream conservatism has become. Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine CalBuzz -- 6/12/12 Prepaid utility programs put consumers at risk, report finds -- As state regulators consider a proposal from San Diego Gas & Electric Co. for a program that would allow customers to prepay their utility bills, a new report suggests that prepaid utility service programs risk the health and safety of low- and moderate-income households. Kendall Taggart California Watch -- 6/12/12 California Death Row suicide highlights executions' delays -- When James Lee Crummel hanged himself in his San Quentin Prison cell last month, he had been living on Death Row for almost eight years -- and he was still years away from facing the executioner. PAUL ELIAS Associated Press -- 6/12/12
Average U.S. family's wealth plunged 40% in recession, Fed says -- The typical American family lost nearly 40% of its wealth from 2007 to 2010 as the Great Recession reduced household net worth to a level not seen since the early 1990s. Don Lee in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne about to be sold to private-investor group -- United Technologies Corp. is now in negotiations with one buyer to sell storied rocket engine maker Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and a deal may soon be announced, sources said Monday. Gregory J. Wilcox in the Los Angeles Daily News -- 6/12/12
Tee times, spa sessions to raise money for Black Caucus charity -- Nothing eases the pain of California's economic woes quite like golf and luxury. The California Legislative Black Caucus has scheduled three fundraising golf events with four- to five-figure price tags this year. Jim Sanders SacBee Capitol Alert -- 6/12/12
Judge orders LAUSD to use student test scores in teacher evaluations -- Los Angeles Unified must begin using student test scores as a factor in evaluating teacher performance in order to bring the school district into compliance with state law, a judge said Monday in a tentative ruling. Barbara Jones in the Los Angeles Daily News Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Fensterwald: Student scores must be factored in evaluations -- In a decision with statewide implications, a Superior Court judge ruled that Los Angeles Unified must include measures of student progress, including scores on state standardized tests, when evaluating teachers and principals. John Fensterwald educatedguess -- 6/12/12 Vargo: Consider a new equity meter to measure closing the achievement gap -- So here’s a question: If the No Child Left Behind law really does go away, and if we really do adopt a whole new set of tests, are we still “closing the achievement gap”? Merrill Vargo TopEd -- 6/12/12 Audit: Seismic regulator must improve building plan oversight -- The office that oversees the seismic safety of California's public schools can't show that it has approved all building plan changes, heightening the risk that some schools don't meet standards and are unsafe, according to a state auditor's report. Corey G. Johnson California Watch -- 6/12/12 Assembly Dems release budget plan, committee vote expected today -- Assembly Democrats released a budget plan Monday that rejects the governor's sweeping school finance restructuring proposal while restoring money to the transitional kindergarten program. Tom Chorneau SI&A Cabinet Report -- 6/12/12
UnitedHealth pledges to keep some reforms in place -- For all the angst over the federal health reform that has come to be known as “ObamaCare,” many of its provisions are hardly controversial, and some are quite popular. Daniel Weintraub HealthyCal.org -- 6/12/12
UCI: Heating soil could worsen warming -- Warming forest soil in mid to high latitudes could speed the release of its carbon, worsening global warming and creating a “vicious cycle,” according to newly published research by scientists at UC Irvine. Pat Brennan in the Orange County Register -- 6/12/12 New Study Projects More Frequent Fires for the Western U.S. -- Large fires in the western U.S. — such as those currently raging in Colorado and New Mexico – may be part of a shifting pattern of wildfire risk brought on by climate change, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley. Jeremy Miller KQED Climate Watch -- 6/12/12
Arizona governor brings battle with Obama to Irvine -- Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer brought her battle with President Barack Obama to Orange County on Monday, relentlessly attacking him in her 15-minute speech at the county Republican Party's annual Flag Day fundraising dinner. MARTIN WISCKOL in the Orange County Register -- 6/12/12
Mayors worry about potential security changes at CIM -- Mayors of Chino and Chino Hills have expressed alarm over recent security cutbacks at California Institution for Men in Chino. Neil Nisperos in the Inland Daily Bulletin -- 6/12/12 Sacramento County sheriff warns of early jail releases if budget is cut -- If Sacramento County supervisors approve a proposed $10.7 million budget cut, Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones said Monday that he would release 540 inmates early from local jails. Brad Branan in the Sacramento Bee -- 6/12/12 Grand jury says inmate shift strains Yolo jails -- State law moving nonviolent state prisoners into local custody will place even greater strain on a Yolo County jail system struggling with inmate overcrowding, re-offending criminals, and budget and staffing cuts, the Yolo County grand jury said in its new report. Darrell Smith in the Sacramento Bee -- 6/12/12 Analysis disputes Quan's 100-block Oakland plan -- An Oakland nonprofit analyzed the city's crime data and found flaws in Mayor Jean Quan's signature crime-fighting plan, which focuses resources on what the mayor says are the most dangerous 100 blocks. Matthai Kuruvila in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 6/12/12
Obama says he was too busy to campaign in Wisconsin recall election -- President Obama suggested Monday that he was too busy to campaign in Wisconsin ahead of the recall election that targeted Republican Gov. Scott Walker, whose victory last week has raised questions about whether there are broader implications for the president in the fall. David Nakamura in the Washington Post -- 6/12/12
FEC allows campaign contributions via text message -- The Federal Election Commission gave the go-ahead Monday evening to using text messages to donate money to federal candidates and committees, a move advocates hope will boost the participation of small contributors and counterbalance the influx of massive donations. Matea Gold in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 6/12/12 Saunders: Out of touch? Not so much. Out of gas? Definitely -- "The private sector is doing fine," President Obama declared Friday at a news conference that was supposed to show that the administration knows how to make the economy stronger. Debra J. Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle -- 6/12/12 Win for losing? Mitt Romney and health care -- Republicans are cheerleading for the Supreme Court to strike down President Barack Obama’s health care law.But there’s one Republican who might be sorry: Mitt Romney. JONATHAN ALLEN Politico -- 6/12/12 Mitt Romney to launch swing-state bus tour -- Mitt Romney is this week launching a five-day bus tour that will put him on the ground in battleground states like Michigan, Iowa and Pennsylvania. JUANA SUMMERS Politico -- 6/12/12 |
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