"Victories by Sen.
Barack Obama and former Arkansas Gov.
Mike Huckabee in the Iowa caucuses mean there's a better chance that Californians
will cast a ballot that matters in their Feb. 5 primary - and they could see campaign TV commercials and mailers within days," reports Joe Garofoli in the Chron.
"What's helping to keep California relevant among two dozen other states holding Feb. 5 elections is that upward of 44 percent of its 16 million registered voters are expected to cast ballots by mail, which are scheduled to arrive in voters mailboxes early next week.
"
Most mail-in voters submit their ballots in either the first week after they receive them or the week before the election, analysts say, so a victory in Iowa and the next few days of media buzz will be a boon in California too."
Given the large lead that Clinton has in many California polls, don't be surprised to see Obama's campaign air a campaign commercial 'within 48 hours,' said
Sam Rodriguez, the former political director of the California Democratic Party. "It might be something as simple as them airing their victory speech in Iowa. Something to remind voters that Hillary Clinton's victory (in California) is not inevitable."
"The good news for the state's TV watchers: California is unlikely to see widespread campaign commercials until mid-January. And even then, the campaigns won't be able to afford to air many, as its major media markets are among the most expensive to buy time in the country. Even the best funded campaigns will have to spread their wealth around to the other 21 states holding primaries on Feb. 5."
But, that doesn't mean the airwaves will be free of political commercials...
"In television ads that began running statewide Thursday, Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger urges voters to endorse gambling expansion deals he struck with four Southern California Indian tribes," reports the LAT's Nancy Vogel.
"The deals were approved by the Legislature last summer and were to take effect this week. But competing gambling interests and other opponents gathered enough signatures to ask voters to repeal them by rejecting Propositions 94, 95, 96 and 97 on the Feb. 5 ballot."
The U-T reports that Schwarzenegger education secretary
Alan Bersin is eyeing a run for San Diego City Attorney.
"A Bersin candidacy would instantly change the dynamics of an election that, given Aguirre's controversial tenure, is expected to be one of the most closely followed local races in San Diego County history.
"At the moment, four candidates have announced plans to challenge Aguirre in the June 3 primary: Superior Court Judge
Jan Goldsmith, Deputy District Attorney
William Gentry and private attorneys
Dan Coffey and
Lee Burdick. City Council President
Scott Peters is also reportedly mulling a run.
"A Harvard-educated former U.S. Attorney with ties to former President
Bill Clinton, Bersin, 61, would become the highest-profile challenger in the race."
Meanwhile, "the state's top election official
approved the use of two previously banned voting devices in Los Angeles County on Thursday, a decision that allows next month's presidential primary to proceed as scheduled," writes the LAT's Susannah Rosenblatt.
"After months of uncertainty over the largest county election operation in the nation, California Secretary of State
Debra Bowen recertified a privately manufactured polling booth for disabled and non-English-speaking voters.
"But she said the county's InkaVote Plus audio voting machines could be used in the Feb. 5 primary only after tough technical and physical security measures were put in place. Ballot readers, which allow all voters to check the accuracy of their ballots -- but do not count votes -- are also subject to the security requirements, she said."
"A federal appeals court
boosted San Francisco's hopes Thursday of reviving its plan to extend health coverage to all uninsured residents and make employers share the cost," reports the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"Members of a three-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals made it clear they thought U.S. District Judge
Jeffrey White was on shaky ground last week when he struck down a key funding provision of the health program, which would require medium and large companies to offer insurance to their workers or pay a fee to the city."
The case is particularly significant because opponents of the
Schwarzenegger/Nunez health care package were counting on the San Francisco ruling to derail the state deal.
"Ruling in a lawsuit filed by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, White said San Francisco was trying to require employers to provide a specific level of health benefits. That violates a 1974 law prohibiting state and local governments from regulating employee benefit plans, White said.
"But San Francisco's lawyers argued - and the appeals court judges appeared to agree - that White had misread the law. The city says the law provides only that employers must spend a certain amount on health care, either in coverage for their workers or in payments to the city."
Also in the courtroom, "[a] federal judge in Los Angeles on Thursday ordered
the toughest set of restrictions ever imposed on the U.S. Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar off the Southern California coast as part of a protracted court battle to protect whales and other marine mammals from underwater sonic blasts," reports the LAT's Kenneth Weiss.
"The order was the first time the judge has spelled out specific rules the Navy must follow to avoid a court-imposed ban on training missions with a type of sonar that has been linked to the death and panicked behavior of whales and dolphins."
The Chron's Bob Egelko reports:
domestic partners in California won the right to the same property tax breaks as husbands and wives under state law Thursday when the state Supreme Court turned down an appeal by county assessors.
"The justices left intact an October ruling by an appeals court in Sacramento that allowed registered domestic partners - same-sex couples, or unmarried heterosexual couples in which one partner is at least 62 - to accept or inherit real estate from one another without new tax assessments."
The Stockton Record's Bruce Spence reports that
the state's economy should turn around by the end of 2008. "The state's home construction market will see some improvement in the last half of this year, after a rugged 2007.
"So said the California Building Industry Association, with a forecast for this year that is slightly more optimistic than other economic seers who don't see a real-estate sector recovery starting until 2009."
From our
What's In You Wallet Files, the OC Register reports "A Los Angeles Superior Court judge
ordered billionaire Donald Bren to produce his 2006 tax returns as a step toward
deciding how much the chairman of the Irvine Co. could owe in a case filed by his two out of wedlock children.
"Bren’s attorney,
Daniel Petrocelli, described the tentative order as 'very limited evidence on gross income' and said that the submission would be kept confidential, protecting Bren’s right to financial privacy."
Speaking of The OC, despite the outstanding case against him,
America's Sheriff is heading back to work.
The LAT's Stuart Pfeifer reports: "Orange County Sheriff
Michael S. Carona intends to return to work Monday, ending a 60-day paid leave of absence initiated after he was charged with corruption in a federal grand jury indictment.
"It remained unclear how much time Carona would spend in the sheriff's Santa Ana headquarters when he returns to work.
"
In a statement, the department said Undersheriff Jo Ann Galisky would continue to handle day-to-day operations after Carona's return."
Carona, after all, has a
love triangle to balance.
"Federal prosecutors allege that Carona sold access to his office in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars in cash and gifts -- including World Series and Las Vegas boxing tickets -- and failed to report them on state conflict-of-interest disclosure forms."
Finally, some cocktail chatter for this weekend. "Selling sex is said to be humankind's oldest profession but it may have deep evolutionary roots, according to a study into our primate cousins
which found that male macaques pay for intercourse by using grooming as a currency.
"
Michael Gumert of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore made the discovery in a 20-month investigation into 50 long-tailed macaques in Kalimantan Tengah, Indonesia, New Scientist reports on Saturday.
"On average, females had sex 1.5 times per hour.
"But this rate jumped to 3.5 times per hour immediately after the female had been groomed by a male -- and her partner of choice was likely to be the hunky monkey that did the grooming.
"Market forces also acted on the value of the transaction.
"If there were several females in the area, the cost of buying sex would drop dramatically -- a male could "buy" a female for just eight minutes of nit-picking.
"But if there were no females around, he would have to groom for up to 16 minutes before sex was offered."