"As oil spill cleanup continued Monday on the San Francisco Bay, state Senate Leader
Don Perata rebuked Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for undermining the state agency charged with spill response," report Kevin Yamamura and Matt Weiser in the Bee.
"Perata, D-Oakland, seized upon a 2005 state audit that determined the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, or OSPR, was understaffed despite having a funding surplus. He said the situation has hindered the agency's ability to deter oil spills in advance and react quickly when disasters arise.
"'
The tragedy we're seeing in the San Francisco Bay right now is the price we pay when the governor lets critical jobs stand empty – and lets polluters off the hook,' Perata said in a statement.
"Schwarzenegger spokesman
Aaron McLear disputed that charge. He said Schwarzenegger has added $7.3 million and 9.2 positions to OSPR since 2003.
"'If Senator Perata can identify ways in which the state response could have been better or was lacking in any way, we'd like to hear those suggestions,' McLear said. 'This is the first we've heard of concerns that OSPR was not executing exactly how it needed to in response to this oil spill.'"
"A
top Democrat in the state Senate is being investigated for allegedly using credit cards to charge $397,000 in political expenses without disclosing who was initially paid and for what, as required by campaign finance laws," reports Patrick McGreevy in the Times.
"State Sen.
Carole Migden (D-San Francisco), chairwoman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said Friday that she was cooperating with the state Fair Political Practices Commission, which confirmed its investigation of her in a letter obtained by The Times.
"
Investigators are looking at the last seven years of credit card expenses. If found in violation, Migden could face up to $60,000 in administrative fines."
And a couple hundred thousand worth of bad publicity in the run-up to a contested primary election...
"Campaign finance experts say the failure to itemize expenses hides from the public whether the money received from campaign contributors is being spent on lavish meals, gifts or travel that improperly benefit the politician without meeting a legitimate campaign purpose.
"
The Fair Political Practices Commission launched an investigation of Migden's expenses after receiving a formal complaint from Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who is a candidate to unseat her in the June 2008 election."
The LAT's Marc Lifsher and Richard Verrier report: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responding to calls that he get involved in the Hollywood writers' strike, which had reached its eighth day,
held a private meeting with union officials Monday, a spokesman said.
"The governor was scheduled to have a similar, informal sit-down with unidentified studio executives today, said his press secretary,
Aaron McLear. Several studio representatives said they were unaware of any such meeting.
"'The purpose is so he can talk to both sides and see what they are after and try to see how the state can be helpful,' McLear said of Schwarzenegger's peacemaking initiative."
Dan Walters
challenges the governor's claim that his $14 billion health plan would help California's economy.
"At least two-thirds of that $14 billion would come from California employers, hospitals or, if Schwarzenegger has his way, patrons of the state lottery – in other words, money that's already circulating in the economy but that he wants to divert into health care. The rest would come from the federal government, but it's simply ludicrous that a relatively tiny number of federal bucks would have any material effect on the $1.5 trillion-plus California economy.
"The governor's second rationale is that by shoring up health care, it would relieve pressure on the state budget, and there's a tiny kernel of truth in that, but what he's really saying is that he wants to raise taxes to close the budget deficit – something he's always said he wouldn't do. Even so, health care is a relatively small portion of the state budget. The big ticket items are schools, prisons and higher education.
"Voodoo economics indeed."
"
John J. Moores, one of the most outspoken and controversial figures of the University of California's governing board of regents,
resigned abruptly yesterday," reports Eleanor Yang Siu in the Union-Tribune.
"Moores, the owner of the San Diego Padres and chairman of the board of the Carter Center, a health and peace organization, gave no reason for stepping down from the UC board. He sent a one-sentence letter yesterday morning to the chairman of the regents, asking that his resignation be effective immediately.
"Moores, 63, declined additional comment.
"
Several colleagues said yesterday that although they were surprised by the resignation, Moores had grown increasingly frustrated with UC's leadership and its inability to secure more funding for the universities.
"His announcement came more than a year before the end of his 10-year term, and appeared to catch UC President
Robert Dynes off guard. In a statement yesterday, Dynes said he did not know what prompted the resignation."
From our
Look Dad, No Hands Files, "One of the tree-sitting protesters in a grove of oaks next to UC Berkeley's Memorial Stadium was
in the hospital Monday after taking a bone-breaking fall," reports the Chron's Charles Burress.
"
Nathaniel Hill, who fell at least 30 feet on Sunday night, was in stable condition at Highland Hospital in Oakland, a nursing supervisor at the hospital said.
"His father, who had come from New York to see his son, was waiting outside a double line of fences erected by the campus around the protest site when Hill fell shortly before 8:30 p.m., the younger Hill said."
Paging Dr. Freud...