Getting a budget passed by the June 15 constitutional deadline has happened two years in a row now, and while the facade of getting the document done on time is maintained, the reality is that crucial pieces of the budget -- the trailer bills -- are left dangling. Not quite what voters expected.
From the Chronicle's Marisa Lagos and Wyatt Buchanan: "Critics say the change in law has resulted in an opaque, secretive budget process, but one thing is clear: Gone are the days of budget deadlocks dragging into the fall. Majority Democrats no longer have to court a handful of GOP legislators for their votes, votes that were often obtained in exchange for concessions unrelated to the budget."
"The forces of getting a budget through the Legislature and to the governor have changed," said Fred Silva, a government policy expert and longtime observer of state politics."
"Those forces, he said, "are Democrats who want to be able, on the 15th, to get that thing to the governor so the minority party doesn't bang on them for weeks saying, 'Why didn't you get it out?' "
Forget the budget, the real story of the year is a fowl tale: The nation's first ban on foie gras -- a fatty food derived from force feeding ducks and geese -- goes into effect in California on July 1, years after the legislation authoring the ban was signed into law. Capitol Weekly's Greg Lucas tells the story.
"Some chefs support California’s ban including Wolfgang Puck who wrote in a February letter that his restaurants stopped serving foie gras in 2007 as part of a “broader animal welfare program. Prince Charles instructed chefs to remove foie gras from the menus at royal residences. Sir Roger Moore narrates a video condemning the foie gras. Argentina bans its production."
"Earlier this year, a group called CHEFS -- the Coalition for Humane and Ethical Farming Standards – was formed by California chefs to fight the looming ban, which was approved in legislation signed on September 29, 2004."
"Rather than a ban, the chefs proposed changing state law to require foie gras sold or made in California to follow more humane growing practices raising the ducks, who are killed before they reach four months, in a cage-free environment and feeding them no more than what scientists say they should consume each day."
Speaking of food, a fight is afoot over the $1 trillion farm bill and a schism is emerging between growers and food activists.
From the Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead: "The fight is over a new farm bill, now before the Senate, that will spend nearly $1 trillion over the next decade, set national nutrition policy for a country staggering under the rising cost of obesity, and determine environmental policy on the 40 percent of the U.S. land mass, including a quarter of California, that is farmed."
"California growers are not agitating for major changes in the focus or direction of farm policy because the bill preserves their key programs."
"We don't get into the pros and cons of other commodities," said Tom Nassif, president of Western Growers, which represents California's fruit and vegetable growers. "We just try to deal with what's happening to our industry, and let commodities fight their own battles, and we fight ours."
Rodney King, whose infamous 1991 beatdown by four police officers was the first link in a chain that ultimately led to the deadly L.A. riots of 1992, died Sunday.
From the LAT's Steve Lopez: "It seemed from a distance that Rodney King spent much of his adult life on the edge of death, a tragic and symbolic figure unable to cope with life, adversity and fame."
"Beaten nearly to death by police after being pulled over while driving drunk as a young man, and then fighting the tug of alcohol and drugs into middle age, he ultimately died in a backyard drowning that seemed almost metaphorical -- a man who treaded life's treacherous currents at times but seemed often to be sinking, never free from the clutches of his many demons."
"His death comes just two months after the 20th anniversary of what came to be known as the Rodney King riots, a date marked by the release of his book, "The Riot Within: My Journey from Rebellion to Redemption.""
There's been a lot of talk about budget cuts for the court system, but apparently that only applies to the state. At the federal level, things seem to be proceeding just swimmingly, thank you very much, as jurists plan a getaway in Maui. They've also responded to criticism from two Republican senators who are angry about the proposed retreat.
From the Mercury News' Howard Mintz: "In a 21-page letter sent late Friday night, Alex Kozinski, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' chief judge, told Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley and Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions that the conference is a "cost-effective" way to bring federal judges from nine western states together once a year and that the expenses for Maui are in line with other locales used in the past."
"Noting that judges continue to handle court business during the four-day conference, Kozinski said: "They provide real-time opportunities to solve problems, exchange ideas and achieve the human connection that powers the business of the courts."
"Grassley and Sessions earlier this month demanded a response from the 9th Circuit on the decision to hold the annual conference in mid-August in Hawaii at a time when the judiciary is dealing with budget cuts and the economy is wobbling. Based on past events, the conference could cost as much as $1 million, the senators said, suggesting that at the very least the 9th Circuit could have chosen a less ritzy spot to gather."
And from our "LIttle Known Tales of WWII" comes the story of Maureen Dunlop de Popp, a pioneering pilot who has died at the age of 91.
"Initially Maureen Dunlop flew with No 6 Ferry Pool at Ratcliffe near Leicester, but later moved to Hamble near Southampton, which was an all-female pool. It was there that she delivered many Spitfires to squadrons. On one occasion, just after she had taken off, the cockpit canopy blew off – she made a successful landing. On another, the engine of her Argus aircraft failed and she was forced to land in a field where she discovered that a piston had shattered."
"With all ATA pilots flying the same aircraft and facing the same risks, Sir Stafford Cripps arranged that the female pilots should receive equal pay with their male colleagues and this small group of women rightly considered themselves as pioneers of sex equality. Many, including Maureen Dunlop, wished that they could have flown in combat, but this was considered a step too far and was forbidden. “I thought it was the only fair thing,” she remarked. “Why should only men be killed?”
Why indeed....