Jerry Brown signed 28 bills yesterday, clearing a small percentage of the bills awaiting executive action. Just over 600 to go. Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times:
“Following complaints against the Los Angeles and Beverly Hills school districts, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed legislation that would set clear guidelines for when student representatives are appointed to and removed from school boards.
“In all, the governor acted on 28 bills on Monday, also signing measures regulating car seats and seeking to curb bandit tow trucks taking advantage of California motorists.”
The California Hospital Association, the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West and Common Sense Kids Action are leading a new push to extend Proposition 30 taxes – making them the second group to submit a ballot measure that would keep the 2012 tax increase in place. Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee:
“Similar to Proposition 30, the latest measure would increase taxes on couples earning at least $580,000 annually. Those taxes were set to expire at the end of 2018. It also would impose even higher income tax rates for so-called ‘super-earner’ couples that make more than $2 million a year.
“Half of the estimated $10 billion a year in annual revenues would go to K-14 education; 40 percent to California’s Medi-Cal program for low-income people; and the remainder to prekindergarten and early childhood development programs. And it calls for a ‘rainy day’ budget reserve modeled on last fall’s Proposition 2….
“Last week, the coalition including the California Teachers Association, Service Employees International Union, and other public safety and public employees’ unions, introduced their version of a Proposition 30 income-tax extension that would run through 2030. The estimated $7 billion to $9 billion in annual proceeds would be deposited into an account for K-14 schools.”
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones Monday lauded a new website that allows consumers to look up prices for common medical procedures. Chad Terhune, Los Angeles Times:
“The California Healthcare Compare website is a collaboration among the state Department of Insurance, UC San Francisco and Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports. Those groups built the site using $3.9 million in federal grant money made available through the Affordable Care Act.
“The information can be found at www.cahealthcarecompare.org.
“’The time for greater transparency for healthcare costs is long overdue,’ Jones said. ‘Consumers have been in the dark about the price of medical services from one medical provider and facility to the next and certainly haven’t had cost information paired with quality measures.’”
Two of the state’s largest water districts have explored buying islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. (Cue soundtrack to “Chinatown.”) Dale Kasler and Ryan Sabalow in the Bee:
“Westlands Water District and Metropolitan Water District of Southern California have considered buying a collection of islands known as the Delta Wetlands Properties, according to recent meeting agendas for the two agencies. However, a Westlands spokesman said Monday the big Fresno-area agricultural district doesn’t expect to make a purchase offer.
“Control of the islands could yield significant advantages as water agencies both south and north of the Delta continue to wrestle over limited water supplies in the fourth year of drought. Buying the islands would not automatically give the new owners control of the associated water rights. But they could apply to the state for the right to take more water in wet years.”
Political Blotter’s Josh Richman took one of his periodic looks at the campaign stores of presidential candidates and was amazed to find (among other things) a $50 Ted Cruz “Blacklisted & Loving It Poster,” representing the Texas senator shirtless, smoking and covered in tattoos. Really.
File under: #BaeofPigs: The internet is atwitter (pun intended) following claims that former UK Prime Minister David Cameron put “a private part of his anatomy into a dead pig’s mouth.” Yeesh.
“The gossip that launched a bevy of hashtags and an ongoing flood of hilarious tweets comes from an unauthorized biography of Cameron by Lord Ashcroft, a wealthy Conservative party member. In a House of Cards-worthy move, Ashcroft felt slighted when Cameron did not offer him an important job after Cameron came to power in 2010, and the biography is his revenge.
“The book makes various juicy Cameron claims, including allegations that the PM took drugs at Oxford, where Cameron belonged to a notoriously debauched dining club. And it was a club initiation ritual that supposedly saw the future Prime Minister perform a sex act with a dead pig’s head….”
Somewhere, Lyndon Johnson must be smiling.