"Secretary of State
Debra Bowen announced Monday that all four referendums seeking to stop four of the Golden State's richest tribes from adding up to 17,000 new slot machines have qualified for the Feb. 5 ballot," writes Peter Hecht in the Bee.
"Now voters will determine the fate of the planned casino expansions for the Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, the Morongo Band of Mission Indians and the Sycuan Band of the Kumeyaay Nation.
"The four Southern California tribes already have anted up $20 million to fight the referendums."
But they have not begun to spend...
"A coalition of horse-racing interests, the UNITE HERE hospitality workers union and two other tribes – the United Auburn Indian Community near Sacramento and the Pala Band of Mission Indians in San Diego County – raised more than $4.6 million to qualify the referendums.
"'We're officially there,' said
Al Lundeen, spokesman for the opponents' coalition, the No on the Unfair Gambling Deals campaign. '
We need to work to get the message out to folks on why these deals are unfair and why they need to be rejected.'"
In more Bowen news, "California's secretary of state on Monday
filed a lawsuit to try to force a voting machine company to pay damages for selling unauthorized systems to five California counties.
"A spokeswoman for Secretary of State
Debra Bowen said the lawsuit seeks about $15 million from Elections Systems & Software Inc. of Omaha.
"Her office contends the company did not get state approval before selling 972 of its AutoMark A200 units to Colusa, Marin, Merced and Solano counties, as well as the city and county of San Francisco.
"'ES&S ignored the law over and over and over again, and it got caught,' Bowen said in a statement. '
California law is very clear on this issue. I am not going to stand on the sidelines and watch a voting system vendor come into this state, ignore the laws, and make millions of dollars from California's taxpayers in the process.'"
"A congressional subcommittee today
grilled the federal and state commanders in charge of handling the oil spill in San Francisco Bay and, unhappy with the responses, announced they would
seek a new probe by the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security," reports the Chron's Peter Fimrite.
"
The subcommittee, which included House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, was particularly upset by National Transportation Safety Board officials, who said their investigation into the disaster could take a year to complete.
"I wasn't satisfied with the answers or the path that we were on," Pelosi said after the three-hour hearing in the Presidio held by the House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation. "I don't think they have the credibility to self-examine or self-investigate."
"A little-known political perk
has offered free online tutoring in mathematics, science, English and social studies to the children of legislators and their staffs for the past two years," writes Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"A hidden link on the California State Library Web site has provided access to the service, which will be discontinued Wednesday, largely because the secret has leaked and soaring usage by students with no connection to the Legislature is forcing the tutoring firm to pay the site's ever-larger tab."
Sounds like the secret legislative DMV office in the LOB building...
"'All of a sudden we're paying for kids who we can tell – (by Web addresses) – don't even live in the state,' said
Jennifer Kohn of New York-based tutor.com, a private vendor that offers the service, 'Live Homework Help,' in 43 states."
Sneaky kids, always trying to learn. Well, we can't have that, now, can we?
"Relatively stable usage of several hundred students per month skyrocketed to nearly 2,000 in October, prompting the vendor to disconnect the legislators' site."
"The California Supreme Court on Monday
called for a constitutional amendment to ease the backlog in the state's death penalty system, which takes an average of 17 years to execute a condemned convict -- twice the national average," reports Henry Weinstein in the Times.
From our
Passing the Buck Files, "The amendment would permit the state's high court, which has had exclusive oversight of capital appeals since California became a state in 1850, to
transfer review of some death penalty cases to lower courts. Chief Justice
Ronald M. George, who announced the proposal, said he wanted the Legislature to put the amendment on the November 2008 ballot."
Sure...the Legislature will get right on that--after health care and water bonds.
"The system's delays and ensuing backlogs are bad for the condemned inmates, prosecutors and the public interest 'in finality and enforcement of the law,' George said in a phone interview Monday.
"Currently, the state's seven Supreme Court justices spend about 20% to 25% of their time and resources on capital cases, he said. The 'ever-increasing backlog . . . threatens to overwhelm the Supreme Court's docket,' George said."
"The legal battle over global warming moved Monday to the Central Valley, where the auto industry tried to convince a federal judge that California's attempt to limit car emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases is beyond its authority.
Meanwhile, in Governor Brown III news, "Attorney General
Jerry Brown on Monday
sued 20 leading toy makers and retailers - including Mattel and Toys R Us -
accusing them of knowingly manufacturing or selling toys with illegal and dangerous levels of lead," reports Steven Harmon in the Merc News.
"The news follows major recalls of toys, lunchboxes, children's jewelry and other goods in the past year by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in Washington. And it comes just as consumers start gearing up for the holiday shopping season.
"Officials with Mattel, the chief defendant in the suit,
said the action was expected and predicted it would lead to more stringent safety standards. Because of the sheer size of the California market, lawsuits and regulations imposed by the state tend to have national repercussions."
Also in the courtroom, "[l]awyers for car manufacturers, dealers and trade associations
said California's 2002 law, the model for statutes in 11 other states, amounted to a requirement for higher gas mileage, a subject that only the federal government can regulate," writes the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"Although federal law allows California to take a lead role in reducing air pollution, Congress never 'intended a single state to have such sweeping authority to unilaterally set national fuel economy policy ... and profoundly affect a vital national industry,' said
Raymond Ludwiszewski, lawyer for a trade group of international automakers.
"But U.S. District Judge
Anthony Ishii suggested that the industry's argument had been undercut by a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in April upholding the federal government's authority to limit emissions of greenhouse gases.
"Ishii noted that the court - rejecting arguments by the Bush administration as well as the auto industry - found no conflict between the Environmental Protection Agency's duty to regulate air pollutants and federal transportation officials' authority to regulate fuel economy."
"
Vallejo's vice mayor, who is locked in a tight race for mayor of the Bay Area city, was arrested Sunday on suspicion of public intoxication in Palm Springs after he allegedly stumbled out of a bar and attempted to drive away," reports the Chron's Marisa Lagos.
"
Gary Cloutier, 45, was arrested about 3:45 a.m. Sunday outside a bar near Arenas Road and Calle El Segundo and held for about five hours until he sobered up, Palm Springs Sgt. Mitch Spike said.
Cloutier, a civil rights attorney and two-term city councilman who was first elected in 1999, tied with former Solano County supervisor Osby Davis on election day on Nov. 6 and holds a nine-vote lead as county elections officials tally the last uncounted ballots today."
That close tally could drive anyone to drink...
And from our
Fight the Power Files, "Six Ripon High School cheerleaders who last week
flashed a message written on their backsides are fighting suspensions they received as result," reports the Stockton Record's Jake Armstrong.
"Each cheerleader was suspended for two days this week after a flap with Vice Principal
Ken Goeken, who ordered the girls off the field when they defied their coach and continued with a routine they planned especially for the last game of the football season. The cheerleaders ended the routine by bending over, lifting their skirts and showing the crowd the words “Indians No. 1” spelled on their bloomers."
A school spokesman assured us it was not meant to be a political statement on the upcoming compact votes.