California's top elections officer, Secretary of State Alex Padilla, expects a larger-than-usual turnout for the 2016 primary in California.
The Bee's Jim Miller reports: "Warning of a “surge” of higher-than-usual turnout in California’s June primary election and a book-sized November voter information guide, the state’s elections chief this week requested a meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown to press his case for more money."
"In a letter to Brown on Monday, Secretary of State Alex Padilla noted that more than 600,000 people have registered or re-registered to vote online in recent weeks. In addition, he warned that he expects proponents of more than a dozen proposed ballot measures to file piles of petitions with county election offices in the coming weeks, seeking to qualify for the November ballot."
"Among the would-be initiatives racing to gather signatures is a criminal sentencing measure sponsored by Brown, a former secretary of state."
Planned Parenthood's "fetal tissue farming" videos are in hot water after extended, uncut footage reveals coerced testimony.
From "She was subdued and sympathetic on camera. Her recollections of collecting fetal tissue and body parts from abortion clinics in northern California lent emotional force to the anti-abortion videos that provoked a furor in Congress last summer."
"In footage made public last July, Holly O’Donnell said she had been traumatized by her work for a fetal-tissue brokerage. She described feeling “pain...and death and eternity” and said she fainted the first time she touched the remains of an aborted fetus."
"Unreleased footage filed in a civil court case shows that O’Donnell’s apparently spontaneous reflections were carefully rehearsed. David Daleiden, the anti-abortion activist who made the videos, is heard coaching O’Donnell through repeated takes, instructing her to repeat anecdotes, add details, speak “fluidly” and be “very natural.”
Speaking of Planned Parenthood, the state Attorney General on Tuesday afternoon seized the videos in question during a search.
LAT's Paige St. John reports: "Agents from state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris' office searched the apartment of David Daleiden, the antiabortion activist whose controversial hidden camera videos last summer accused Planned Parenthood doctors of selling fetal tissue."
"The Tuesday afternoon search was announced by Daleiden's Center for Medical Progress, which posted a protest on its Facebook page."
"The organization said Harris' officers seized video files from Daleiden's apartment as well as personal information. In the post, Daleiden said his "First Amendment work product" was taken, a reference to his claim that he and his work are protected as an "undercover journalist."
Down in the Valley, Joaquin Arambula has won the 31st assembly district amid Henry Perea's early retirement.
Fresno Bee's John Ellis writes: "In the days leading up to the 31st Assembly District’s 2004 election, then-Assembly Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield made a prediction: “Someday, this will be our seat.”
"That day may never come."
"There was a special election Tuesday to fill the unexpired term of Fresno Democrat Henry T. Perea, who resigned a year early to take a job with the pharmaceutical industry, and it appears all but certain that Kingsburg Democrat Joaquin Arambula will win the race. Just before midnight, his main opponent, Fresno Republican Clint Olivier, conceded."
Apparently, the Porter Ranch gas leak will be responsible for at least 2 weeks of blackout this summer due to a depletion of natural gas.
Alice Walton with LAT writes: "State officials warn that Southern California could face as many as 14 days of scheduled blackouts this summer because of depleted reserves of natural gas caused by the massive leak in Aliso Canyon."
"The canyon in the hills above Porter Ranch is a crucial gas storage facility, supplying 17 power plants in the Los Angeles Basin. But the four-month leak that began in October left the facility at one-fifth of its capacity and new injections of gas have been prohibited until all of its wells have passed comprehensive tests."
"Officials estimate the storage facility won’t be back on line for months, leaving local power plants without a key source of natural gas."
Finally, from our "And the Band Played On" file, comes the tale of Cat's Eyes, a band that got eluded all the security at Buckhingham Palace and played tunes in the Queen's Galley.
"British punk band are reported to have fooled the Queen's security guards after 'sneaking into Buckingham Palace to record a music video'."
"Members of Cat's Eyes apparently slipped into the Palace as part of an audacious publicity stunt to promote their music, including single 'Chameleon Queen'."
"Rachel Zeffira and Faris Badwan, also of The Horrors, told security guards they were performing at a foreign ambassador's private post-art tour dinner in the Queen's Gallery and that they would be playing renaissance and baroque era instruments."
"But once inside the building last month, the musicians set up inside the Queen's Gallery, instead playing their own track, We'll Be Waiting."