Republican Andy Vidak was headed toward victory in the 16th Senate District to replace Democrat Michael Rubio, who earlier resigned to work for Chevron. In the 52nd Assembly District, meanwhile, nobody among a flurry of candidates had reached the 50 percent vote benchmark, which means a runoff looms between the top contenders.
From the AP's Laura Olson: "The hotly contested race for an open state Senate seat in the southern San Joaquin Valley was leaning Republican after a heated, high-dollar contest, while a Southern California Assembly race was headed for a runoff."
"With 100 percent of precincts reporting in the 16th Senate District, Republican Andy Vidak had about 54 percent Tuesday to Democrat Leticia Perez's 46 percent. The district spans Kings, Fresno, Kern and Tulare counties. Even though all precincts had reported, thousands of late absentee and provisional ballots will have to be counted, meaning a final result may not be known for days. County officials did not have an estimate for the number of outstanding ballots..."
"With 100 percent of precincts reporting, no candidate in the Assembly race was close to garnering more than 50 percent of the vote, the threshold needed for outright victory."
A special period to sign up for health-care coverage has been scheduled by Calpers for married same-sex couples.
From the Bee's Dale Kasler: "With the federal Defense of Marriage Act struck down by the Supreme Court, CalPERS' health insurance plan this week declared a special open-enrollment period for same-sex couples who are already married."
"The enrollment is aimed at gay couples who had been married previously but shied away from CalPERS' health plan because employees had to pay taxes on their spouses' health benefits."
"Since DOMA was declared unconstitutional on June 26, those tax consequences have gone away. But gay public employees who were already married - including those who wed in 2008, the brief window when same-sex marriage was first legal in California - didn't have a way to enroll their spouses. That's because newlywed employees normally have just 60 days to enroll their spouses in CalPERS' health plan."
"Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington asked the Office of Congressional Ethics to launch a probe into whether the Republican lawmaker "abused his position … to benefit his and his family’s financial interests."
"Valadao said in a statement that he has been "both consistent and clear on his opposition to high-speed rail since entering public life, regardless of the potential route." He did not specifically address the watchdog group’s allegation."
The era of black lists and anti-communist allegations, so strongly identified in Washington with Joe McCarthy and congressional witch hunts, had its counterpart in California, where a state panel targeted "un-Americans."
From Jonathan Lerner in Capitol Weekly: "The California Legislature also was into that game through an entity known as the California Committee on Un-American Affairs. The California State Archives recently released records kept by that joint committee, which existed under various names from 1940 to1968. The files reveal the extent to which California tracked its citizens’ political activity, detailed in more than 125,000 index cards on approximately 20,000 organizations and individuals."
"According to archivist Jeff Crawford, the focus shifted according to events of the day, from labor unrest and fascist movements in the early ‘40s to communist influence in the ‘50s to racial unrest, Vietnam War protests and California’s over-heated counter-culture movement in the 1960s."
"At a time when concern over federal intrusion into personal privacy has been super-sized by the exploits of Edward Snowden, these archives indicate that even state government has a long history of snooping. Every person or organization that was a subject of discussion for the committee was methodically listed in on the cards, which cross-reference other files that contain newspaper clips, mailing order and subscription lists, posters, correspondences and even Dictaphone tapes that connect people and organizations with elements deemed subversive by the committee. The documents span the entirety of the committee’s 30-year history."
A wad of dough is headed to school districts at the end of the month, but with the money comes words of caution.
From the Cabinet Report's Tom Chorneau: "A total of $26.7 billion is going out from the controller’s office by July 31, which represents the first regular installment for the fiscal year as well as about $2.1 billion for LCFF activities."
"But with the money, districts are also being warned that adjustments in entitlements are likely. Officials at the California Department of Education said they didn’t have enough time to perform all the necessary recalculations needed to fully implement the system – so the money is going out based on last year’s allotments."
"Elizabeth Dearstyne, an administrator at CDE’s fiscal division who helps oversee apportionments, said the process for updating LEA entitlements is not scheduled to be completed until the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year. Thus, administrators may find that after the final calibrations are made – state payments may go up or they may go down."
And from our "Great Escape" file comes the tale of the late actor Steve McQueen, known for his penchant for fast cars, who also drove an old Chevy pickup with a camper shell -- the last vehicle he drove in before he died, in fact. McQueen 's ride, and other Hollywood memorabilia, are up for auction.
"The Chevy has an inline-six mated to four-speed transmission and a one-off aluminum sleeper section, with a double-sided bed and plenty of storage. It isn’t much to look at, but the real story is where it figures into McQueen’s history."
"The truck carried McQueen to the airport for a flight to Mexico for what proved to be his final surgery before dying of cancer. He shared the ride with the Rev. Billy Graham, who answered McQueen’s questions about the afterlife as the two rode to Ventura County Airport on November 3, 1980. McQueen died four days later."
"For a guy that owned both the green Porsche 911 and the Ford GT40 from his movie Le Mans, along with a Chrysler Imperial, Hudson Hornet, and a Willys Jeep, the Chevy camper fit in nicely with his eclectic tastes."
I liked that dune buggy he drove on the beach in Thomas Crown Affair....