"A closed-door retreat in Newport Beach for Senate Republicans has
turned into a leadership battle, with state Sen.
Jim Battin challenging Minority Leader Dick Ackerman for the top job - again," reports Capitol Weekly's John Howard.
"Battin has collected seven votes, one shy of the eight votes needed to assume the leadership of the 15-member Senate Republican Caucus, sources told Capitol Weekly. Several senators did not attend the retreat, and another closed-door vote was planned Monday morning in the Capitol--on the same day that new members of the 2006-07 Legislature are scheduled to be formally sworn in."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
will attend the inauguration of Mexican President-elect Felipe Calderon on Friday, his second visit in four weeks to the country that is California's largest trading partner," reports AP.
"Calderon has vowed to appear before the Mexican Congress for his swearing-in ceremony, despite a group of leftist lawmakers who have camped out on the congressional stage, vowing to block him."
Hey, last time the gov was in Mexico,
Assembly Republicans changed leaders? Coincidence? Only The Shadow knows...
"Encouraged that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has made health care his top priority, a coalition of community and religious groups
urged the governor Thursday to provide universal coverage for children in California," writes the Bee's Aurelio Rojas.
"
Deena Lahn, policy director for the Children's Defense Fund in California, called on Schwarzenegger to fulfill a pledge he made three years ago -- and noted that there are still more than 700,000 children without insurance."
"But
Kim Belshé, Schwarzenegger's secretary for health and human services, said 300,000 previously uninsured children have enrolled in state programs since the governor was elected in 2003."
CC Times' Martin Sapp catches up with
Berkeley's first political family,
Tom Bates and Loni Hancock. "Back in the 1980s and '90s, she held his job and he held hers. She was mayor from 1986 to 1994, when she left to work for the Clinton administration.
"He held the same Assembly seat representing Albany, Berkeley, El Cerrito, Lamorinda, Pleasant Hill, Richmond and San Pablo from 1976 until 1996, when he was termed out. In 2002 they ran for each other's old jobs and won.
Having held both offices, they agree that the mayor's job is harder by far.
"'It's more in-your-face,' Bates said. 'What a politician hates most is when people judge you solely by one single issue, like an off-leash dog law. I've had four different office managers in four years because it's so difficult with people calling and yelling and being upset because the garbage wasn't picked up.'
"Hancock added, '
I have it a lot easier as an Assembly member because my constituents and I are in sync on most of the issues I'm dealing with at the state level, like education, global warming and gambling casinos. But when I was mayor, I made somebody mad every time I made a decision.'"
"A top-ranking Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation official has
resigned over a flap that resulted from his altering disciplinary documents on a number of Salinas Valley State Prison officers," writes Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"
John Dovey, director of the department's division of adult institutions, issued his notice of resignation on Wednesday. He will be replaced by Scott Kernan, who had been the division's deputy director, according to a memo distributed by the corrections agency Thursday."
"According to testimony in a State Personnel Board hearing in August, Dovey changed the disciplinary actions against "four or five" of nine officers accused in an excessive force case at Salinas Valley to have them fired instead of suspended."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who says parents should be able to scrutinize schools on the Internet like they are 'shopping for a car,' received a political boost Thursday with a
new poll showing widespread support for opening the financial books at public schools," writes Robert Salladay for the Times.
"With the Legislature beginning its new session Monday, the survey, sponsored by the nonprofit group Children Now, was designed to give Schwarzenegger and lawmakers ammunition next year as they attempt to put more information about the state's 9,500 public schools on the Web."
"Schwarzenegger wants large amounts of data — from enrollment numbers and school test scores to reports on the quality of textbooks and individual school budgets — to be posted online in a user-friendly way."
"'Let the sun shine in on everything,' the governor said recently at a news briefing, describing how the state should 'make it easier for parents to shop for the best schools,' as he put it, and shame poor-performing schools so "they'll be getting their act together.'"
The Bee's Peter Hecht writes that California's
math and science teacher program is falling short. "Five years ago, California lawmakers pushed through an ambitious program to improve mathematics and reading instruction by training teachers to introduce more rigorous academic content and inspire improved student performance."
"But a state audit released Thursday, based on a survey of 100 school districts, estimates that only 7,230 of the state's 252,000 public school math and reading instructors have completed the voluntary 120-hour training program."
"The report submitted to Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger by state Auditor
Elaine Howle blames lawmakers for cutting $98 million out of the $143 million appropriated for the program over its first two years. State education officials say annual funding was later cut by more than two-thirds, from $110 million to $31.7 million a year."
"The audit also faults the state Department of Education for failing to effectively promote the initiative and criticizes both teachers and school districts as lacking motivation to take advantage of the training program."
Would-be publisher
Eli Broad talks to the Associated Press about his bid to buy the Los Angeles Times.
Broad "described newspapers Thursday as a 'civic trust' and said a locally owned paper is vital to the health of the world-class city he considers Los Angeles to be."
"I do believe there is a role for local ownership,' Broad said in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press.'"
And, he took some shots at the Times' current owner, the Chicago Tribune.
"'Can a newspaper do a good job being owned by someone at a distance? You know what the record is as well as I do,' he said."
From our
Beyond the Political Grave Files: Rialto city councilman-elect
Joe Baca is
mad as hell, and he's not going to take it any more.
"During this year's Democratic primary for the state Senate district that covers most of western San Bernardino County, then-Assemblyman
Joe Baca Jr. was criticized in attack mailers for taking a $990-a-month raise, which his opponent had turned down."
"But weeks after beating Baca, D-Rialto, then-Assemblywoman
Gloria Negrete McLeod accepted the salary increase herself, state records show. Baca, whose last day in office was Thursday,
said Negrete McLeod is a hypocrite."
"'They used (the raise) and distorted it and made it negative. You have to look at the integrity of that person,' he said."