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3rd Congressional District gas price watch:
When this man was elected to Congress, gas was $1.43 a gallon!
Recent price:
$4.57 gallon
Ask yourself why?
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Prison Scandal...
Reader reaction...
"Mr.
Kelso belongs in a mental institution himself. He is mentally ill if he
thinks the Taxpayer needs to spend $96,000 annually on each of these
slimeballs. Mr. Kelso is the epitomy of a power-drunk bureaucrat."
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L.A. employers face immigration audits
Federal agency targets hiring practices in a nationwide inquiry
By Anna Gorman, Los Angeles Times
Federal
officials Wednesday notified more than 650 businesses around the
country, including nearly 50 in Los Angeles, that their records will be
audited as part of a widening effort to find companies that hire
illegal immigrants. The number of notices issued is the largest ever in
a single day and exceeds the total sent out in all of fiscal 2008,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said. "Part of the
strategy is to let businesses know we mean business," agency
spokeswoman Pat Reilly said. The Obama administration has made tougher
enforcement aimed at employers a cornerstone of its immigration policy.
In April, the federal government issued new guidelines to immigration
agents instructing them to focus on employers who hire illegal
immigrants rather than just to arrest workers. The government is also
working to improve and expand an employment verification program. The
targeted companies, which include firms in New York, San Antonio,
Seattle and San Diego, were identified through tips and leads,
officials said.
In the Legislature:
Frustration reigns as budget crisis deepens
Assembly Speaker storms out of meeting with state leaders
By BRIAN JOSEPH, Orange County Register
A
day after state lawmakers and the governor missed their budget
deadline, resolution appeared nowhere in sight as the projected deficit
grew to $26.3 billion and a distraught Assembly Speaker Karen Bass
stormed out of a closed-door meeting with state leaders. For weeks,
lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said they had to do something
about the budget by Tuesday, the last day of the 2008-09 fiscal year.
But disputes over how much to cut state spending and whether to solve
the deficit in stages or all at once caused negotiations to collapse.
Without a deal, the state is now running out of cash. State Controller
John Chiang is poised to begin issuing IOUs to cities, counties and
state vendors today. Schwarzenegger met with reporters Wednesday and
blamed the budget crisis on state lawmakers, who he accused of
pandering to special interests and not taking the deficit seriously.
State IOUs loom as foes' battle lines harden
By Michael Rothfeld and Shane Goldmacher, Los Angeles Times
After
trying for weeks to fix a state budget gone out of control, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers stood frozen in conflict Wednesday
with the state at the brink of a meltdown. A day after the state Senate
failed in a late-night bid to close part of a deficit now projected at
$26.3 billion, California Controller John Chiang took steps to begin
issuing IOUs today to tens of thousands of companies and individuals
that are owed millions of dollars by the state. Inside the Capitol,
signs of a resolution grew faint. The governor declared a fiscal
emergency, proposed suspending the education funding requirements of
Proposition 98 and -- as union members protested outside the Capitol --
ordered state workers to take a third unpaid day off each month.
No money, more problems: California prepares to send IOUs Thursday
By Mike Zapler, San Jose Mercury News
In
a move certain to draw national ridicule and exact financial hardship
on business owners and taxpayers across the state, California is slated
today to begin paying billions of dollars in bills with IOUs instead of
cash. Nearly 30,000 IOUs totaling more than $53 million are expected to
be sent out by state Controller John Chiang this afternoon, the day
after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency in the
face of a staggering $24.3 billion deficit. The state Legislature
remained in its familiar state of gridlock, raising the prospect of an
extended standoff that further damages the state's financial
reputation. Barring a last-minute breakthrough, it would be the first
time since 1992 that the state has resorted to IOUs, formally known as
registered warrants, to skirt insolvency. Although the IOUs would be
repaid with interest, they could not be cashed until October unless
banks agree to honor them sooner.
Hetch Hetchy rebuild bill pulled from agenda
By Richard Procter, San Francisco Chronicle
A
controversial bill that would have changed conflict-of-interest rules
to allow a Pasadena firm to work on the $4.5 billion rebuild of San
Francisco's water system was pulled from the agenda of a Senate
committee scheduled to hear it Wednesday. AB746, the focus of a
Chronicle editorial Tuesday, would change existing conflict-of-interest
rules so that Parsons Corp., a private contractor, could work on the
construction of the Hetch Hetchy water system, which delivers water
from Yosemite to San Francisco, despite the fact that the firm helped
plan the project. A state law restricts contractors who plan state
projects from later receiving the construction work.
Calorie counts don't dissuade most diners
By Michael Cabanatuan, San Francisco Chronicle
Despite
her very Berkeley name, and a new state law that requires chain
restaurants to fess up about the caloric and fat load in their food,
Rabbit wasn't nibbling on carrots and lettuce Wednesday. She was
waiting in line at McDonald's in downtown Berkeley to order her
favorite meal out: a Southern Style Crispy Chicken sandwich and a
hazelnut-flavored iced coffee. "We should have the right to know how
many calories are in the food we're eating," said Rabbit, 44, who goes
by just that name and subsists on state disability payments. "But
sometimes you just want junk food, you know?" As of Wednesday,
Californians who dine at chain restaurants - those with more than 20
locations in the state - do have the right to know just how junky, or
healthy, their food may be. Chain restaurants are required by state law
to post charts in plain view or to hand out brochures listing the
calories, fat content and other nutritional values of what's on the
menu.
Program aims to put Ph.D.’s in legislative offices
By Malcolm Maclachlan, Capitol Weekly
If
a bill by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, keeps moving
forward, 10 legislative offices will be hosting science Ph.D.’s by this
fall. His AB 573 would allow these “science fellows” to be paid out of
a fund managed by the California Council on Science and Technology
(CCST). Current law requires that legislative employees be paid by the
state. The Senate and Assembly Fellows program satisfies this
requirement by paying fellows through Sacramento State University. The
goal, said CCST director Susan Hackwood, is to provide a professional
development program for the fellows who would then benefit state
policymakers with their expertise. “The state is already so far ahead
of other states in dealing with complex scientific and technical
issues,” Hackwood said. “There was a realization that having extra feet
on the ground would be helpful.”
Campaign and election news:
Hopefuls in 2010 governor's race raising millions
By Andrew McIntosh, Sacramento Bee
Meg
Whitman, the Republican candidate for governor, said that her committee
has raised more than $6.5 million since her campaign began earlier this
year, while her top Democratic rival, Attorney General Jerry Brown,
says he's banked a cool $7.3 million. Whitman boasted that though she
was the last Republican candidate to form an exploratory committee,
she's ahead of her rivals and also claimed she has attracted
contributions from every corner of California. The $6.5 million raised
by Whitman's team is in addition to the $4 million of her own money
that she has pumped into her campaign. Trailing though still successful
were the campaigns of Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner and San
Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Law and the courts:
Medical pot users, growers can sue over raids
By Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
Medical
marijuana patients and growers can sue police for illegally raiding
their property and destroying their plants, a state appeals court ruled
Wednesday. The 2-1 decision by the Third District Court of Appeal in
Sacramento was the first in the state to allow a patient or grower to
sue claiming that their rights to cultivate and use medical marijuana
have been violated. Those rights are protected by state law but banned
by federal law. Officials in Butte County, where the case arose, argued
that patients and suppliers can invoke the medical marijuana law only
as a defense to criminal charges, not to sue for damages. The court's
dissenting justice said no one is entitled to compensation for the
destruction of a drug banned under federal law.
State cannot divert gas tax revenue from transit, court rules
By Gary Richards, San Jose Mercury News
A
California court ruled Wednesday that the state's attempt to divert $1
billion in gas tax revenue from transit agencies to the general fund is
illegal — a dose of good news for beleaguered bus and rail lines that
have been cutting service, raising fares and laying off workers. But
the ruling by the California Court of Appeal, 3rd District, could
deepen the state's budget woes, as it loses funds being counted on to
close the $24 billion budget deficit. "This ruling is a significant
victory for all Californians, and especially for low-income
communities," said Guillermo Mayer, an attorney with Public Advocates.
"Transit operators expected to lose this money every single year for as
long as the state needed it."
Around the state:
Villaraigosa says he will focus on economy, environment in second term
By Phil Willon, David Zahniser and Maeve Reston, Los Angeles Times
Los
Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Wednesday unveiled a second-term
agenda dominated by plans for shoring up the economy and cleaning the
environment as he vowed to complete the work he started four years ago.
Speaking to an audience of more than 3,000 on the steps of City Hall,
Villaraigosa vowed to focus on "deadlines over headlines," a sober tone
for a mayor sometimes criticized for being too enamored with the
majesty of his office. Villaraigosa, who last week ended months of
speculation by announcing he will not run for California governor in
2010, promised to give the public measurable results in his final term
and said he had been enlightened and chastened by the successes and
failures of his first four years.
"I’m not going to hide my love”
Gay Tustin officer renews fight against ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’
By Martin Wisckol, Orange County Register
National
Guard Lt. Dan Choi of Tustin just issued a statement in which he
acknowledged yesterday’s military panel recommendation that he be
discharged for being openly gay - and that the decision makes it likely
he’ll be fired. "I’m not going to hide my love,” he writes. Recalling
the Cadet Prayer he recited while at West Point, Choi said he learned
to “choose the harder right over the easier wrong and to never be
content with a half truth when the whole can be won.” “That’s why I
can’t give up now,” he writes. “I’ve got to keep on fighting…. The only
way we can win this fight for truth is if the political cost of
discrimination eventually becomes too great for the system to operate
successfully.” To that end, he is gathering signatures on a petition he
plans to deliver to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on July Fourth. |
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Plenty of blame in budget games
By the Sacramento Bee
All
sides in this battle have legitimate concerns. The Republicans are
right to want a comprehensive fix. The Democrats are right to want to
save programs that help the poor. That still does not excuse the kind
of irresponsible behavior that reigned Tuesday night. This was a game
of political chicken. Once the collision happened, however, the injured
parties weren't the reckless lawmakers but the people of California.
IOUs? Yes, you owe us
By the Los Angeles Times
In
trotting it out as a brand-new, never-before-proposed ultimatum in the
waning hours of the fiscal year, the governor didn't simply thumb his
nose at Democrats. He thumbed his nose at the entire notion of public
lawmaking. It's the same process that makes a mockery of democracy at
the end of each session, when bills are gutted and new laws, which were
never heard in committee or discussed in public, slink their way onto
the books. Some veteran Sacramento watchers object, throwing away money
and blaming the other side for itis the only way to get things done.
That's another way of saying that abusing Californians is the only way
to serve them.
Governor's right to scale back pensions
By the Orange County Register
The
Legislature's difficulty closing the current $24 billion budget
shortfall will be minuscule by comparison if lawmakers don't come to
grips with a looming and far more devastating fiscal catastrophe:
hundreds of billions of dollars in unfunded retirement benefits for
government employees. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in recent weeks
has sounded like the fiscal conservative he once claimed to be,
proposes a reasonable solution. He calls on the Legislature to
prudently scale back pension and retiree health benefits for new hires.
Existing and retired state employees would be unaffected, except that
his plan might ensure there's enough money to pay them, too.
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