Now in our 12th year of publication -- Thank you readers!

Send us an anonymous news tip,
your privacy will be assured! 

Click Here 

Send us your press release

E-mail: editor@calnews.com

Sacramento Update || Washington D.C. Update || Columnists & Editorials

Schwarzenegger hopes IOUs sway budget debate
By Kevin Yamamura, Sacramento Bee
If the stigma of issuing IOUs triggers a budget deal in the coming days, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger might find redemption in his strategy of quashing a stopgap solution that would have avoided those non-cash payments. But if no budget deal emerges soon, Schwarzenegger will have helped saddle the state with a lower credit rating and have nothing to show for it. As a negotiating strategy, Schwarzenegger is counting on public pressure to mount against the Legislature as California issues IOUs today for only the second time since the Great Depression. The Republican governor could have backed legislation to avert IOUs this week, but he demanded that lawmakers solve the entire budget problem, which grew Wednesday to $26.3 billion.

NEW

Visit CalNews.com's
Facebook Page


On line now


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?

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."



Hi!

We're running
the GOP now....











More taxes,
 more
regulations,
more
spending.


Get used to it!

Welcome to the
New Republican
Party



That's
OK by me!




Yeah.
Absolutely!

Tax -- Tax -- Tax!

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.



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.

 
Sacramento Update || Washington D.C. Update || Columnists & Editorials

CalNews.com Special Project

CalNews.com  Special Project

CalNews.com  Special Project