"A Superior Court judge Thursday
struck down legislation that gave Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa substantial authority over the Los Angeles Unified School District, a stunning setback to his plans for assuming direct control of dozens of Los Angeles schools," write Howard Blume and Joel Rubin in the Times.
"Judge
Dzintra Janavs said the law, which would have taken effect Jan. 1, violated multiple provisions of the state Constitution and the Los Angeles City Charter. She ordered public officials "to refrain from enforcing or implementing" any part of Assembly Bill 1381, which codified Villaraigosa's powers."
If the judge's name sounds familiar, she's the one that
lost re-election ostensibly because of her name, but was reappointed by the governor.
"In a late afternoon news conference, the mayor vowed to seek an expedited appeal."
"'I believe we have the law on our side. I believe we have the Constitution on our side,' Villaraigosa said. 'More than that, I believe we have the people on our side.'"
Stick with the law. History is littered with unfortunate things that were popular but unconstitutional...
"Trying to avert a possible court takeover of the state prison system, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday
proposed a multibillion-dollar expansion of state and local correctional facilities and opened the door to sentence reductions for some crimes," report Evan Halper and Jenifer Warren in the Times.
"Schwarzenegger's $10.9-billion plan would add 78,000 beds to state prisons and county jails."
"The expansions, which would be paid for largely through borrowing at a time when California is already heavily in debt, could bring relief to Los Angeles County's badly overcrowded jails. But the county would be required to use about half its new beds to take in low-level offenders and juveniles currently in state facilities."
"'We are at the point where, if we don't clean up the mess, the federal court is going to do the job for us,' Schwarzenegger said. He warned that the courts could 'order the immediate release of criminals' and 'dig into our general fund' if the state fails to act."
Schwarzenegger was joined at the press conference by Democratic Sen.
Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles,
who was supposed to be named chair of Senate Public Safety yesterday. But when the rest of the committee chairs were announced by Sen. Don Perata,
the public safety announcement was conspicuously absent. Senate sources have confirmed that
Romero was explicitly told by Perata not to attend the governor's press conference.
It remains to be seen whether Romero's actions have just delayed, or perhaps derailed, her chairmanship and her caucus leadership position...Here's the full list of Senate committee chairs:
Agriculture Senator Abel Maldonado
Appropriations Senator Tom Torlakson
Banking, Finance, Insurance Senator Mike Machado
Budget Senator Denise Ducheny
Sub 1 on Education Senator Jack Scott
Sub 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection and Energy Senator Alan Lowenthal
Sub 3 on Health and Human Services Senator Elaine Alquist
Sub 4 on State Administration, General Government, Judicial, and TransSenator Mike Machado
Business, Professions and Economic Development Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas
Education Senator Jack Scott
Elections, Reapportionment, and Constitutional Amendments Senator Ron Calderon
Energy, Utilities and Communications Senator Christine Kehoe
Environmental Quality Senator Joe Simitian
Ethics Senator Alan Lowenthal
Government Organization Senator Dean Florez
Health Senator Sheila Kuehl
Human Services Senator Elaine Alquist
Judiciary Senator Ellen Corbett
Labor and Industrial Relations Senator Carole Migden
Local Government Senator Gloria Negrete-McLeod
Natural Resources and Water Senator Darrell Steinberg
Public Employment and Retirement Senator Pat Wiggins
Revenue and Taxation Senator Jenny Oropeza
Rules Senator Don Perata
Democratic Members of Rules Committee Gilbert Cedillo, Alex Padilla
Transportation and Housing- Senator Alan Lowenthal
Veterans Affairs- Senator Mark Wyland
Meanwhile, "The estimated cost to build a new death row at San Quentin State Prison
has shot up $116.5 million to $336.5 million - an increase of nearly 53 percent - a spokesman for Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday," reports Richard Halstead in the Marin Independent-Journal.
"Schwarzenegger will ask the Legislature to approve the extra spending as part of his $5 billion plan to upgrade the state's prison system, said
H.D. Palmer, a deputy director in the state Department of Finance and Schwarzenegger's chief spokesman on budget matters. Schwarzenegger unveiled his prison plan Thursday."
"Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez on Thursday
outlined a proposal to provide health insurance to all children in the state and to ask employers and employees to pay their 'fair share' of coverage."
"'We're going to enact the children's coverage and the reforms of the shared employee-employer responsibility by 2008,' Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said at a news conference at UC Davis Medical Center. 'That is a clear-cut objective of this proposal.'"
"Nunez's broad plan to insure all Californians comes on the heels of a similar proposal from Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, last week. The two plans would require employers to either provide insurance or pay into a state pool to purchase insurance for workers. The workers would then be required to buy that insurance."
"It's unclear how much either plan will cost. Both lawmakers have asked the California HealthCare Foundation to determine the costs."
"A Palm Springs Indian tribe that has become one of the biggest players in financing California political campaigns can be sued over alleged failures to disclose contributions and lobbying,
the state Supreme Court ruled Thursday," reports the Bee's Claire Cooper.
"On a 4-to-3 vote the justices rejected arguments by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians that the 1919 legal doctrine of tribal sovereign immunity bars the Fair Political Practices Commission from taking the tribe to court."
"On one side, attorney
Michael Robinson of Sacramento lamented that Thursday's ruling 'cuts against at least 150 years of precedent.'"
"But
Howard Dickstein, also of Sacramento, said the vast majority of California tribes don't view the state's political disclosure laws as a violation of their sovereignty."
And good news for Deadheads.
Could shrooms be the new Ritilin? "A preliminary study of the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms has found it is effective in relieving the symptoms of people suffering from severe obsessive compulsive disorder, a University of Arizona psychiatrist reports."