Leading off our news tonight, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom was abducted by aliens. Carla Marinucci explains, "Jerry Brown supporters have been promoting the line that Newsom may have set his ambitions too high in taking on Brown, who has logged four decades in state politics. Newsom insiders, though, counter that this all started when Brown himself showed up to a 75th birthday party for the Mayor's dad -- and reportedly told the elder Newsom that Gavin should be running for Lite Gov instead.
"So could party leaders urge Newsom to make peace with Brown and settle for next-best-thing if it looks like he can't get the brass ring?Newsom's consultant, Garry South responded, ""I've run a campaign for California lieutenant governor, and served as the lieutenant governor's chief of staff,'' he said. "I would have Newsom kidnapped by one-eyed aliens from Pluto if I ever thought he would make that decision."
Dan Walters looks at a new Field Poll that compares today's California with pre-Prop 13 California.
"How else does one explain that California, with about 12 percent of the nation's population, is home to more than 30 percent of its welfare recipients? Or that it spends more of its budget than any other state on prisons? Or that its academic achievement scores and its traffic congestion are at or near the bottom among the states while its unemployment rate is near the top?
"Underlying those and many other vexing political and economic issues is, almost everyone now agrees, dysfunctional governance. And no small factor, as well as an illustration of the state's fragmentation, is the evolution in the body politic over the last several decades.
"Dentists, hospitals and other interest groups have contributed $288,000 to a campaign committee created by Assembly GOP leadership to defend Adams, R-Hesperia, according to campaign filings due Friday.
"Supporters of ousting Adams, meanwhile, raised about $81,000. Adams' anti-recall committee collected $46,000. And Adams raised another $224,000 for his main campaign account, which also could be spent to fight any recall.
"Adams faces the most serious recall threat of any of the six GOP lawmakers who voted for February budget legislation that temporarily raised taxes. Critics, including the hosts of the "John and Ken" talk-radio show, contend that Adams violated a no-tax pledge.
"Along
with California's efforts to crack down on its own greenhouse gas
emissions, state officials have begun preparing for the worst : heat
waves, a rising sea level, flooding, wildlife die-offs and other
expected consequences from what scientists predict
will be a dramatic
temperature increase by the end of this century," reports the LAT's Margot Roosevelt.
"California's Natural Resources Agency on Monday issued the nation's first statewide plan to "adapt" to climate change.
It offers strategies to cope with threats in seven sectors from firefighting to public health and water conservation. Resources Secretary Mike Chrisman called the plan an effort to acknowledge the problem and suggested that Californians "recognize their role in solving that problem and alter their behavior so that the change lasts."
There are unconfirmed reports that part of the plan calls for each type of animal to board the Queen Mary, two by two, in the event of a massive flood.
"The state Senate will hold hearings later this month to determine if legislators need to change a California law governing the use of student test scores in order to qualify for competitive federal education reform dollars," reports teh LAT's Jason Song.
"At issue is a 2006 law that bars the state from using student test
score data for measuring teacher performance. That law is at the center
of a dispute between the Obama administration, which
is urging states
to more effectively determine teacher quality, and
state education
leaders, who insist that federal officials are misinterpreting
the law."
Pay cuts are coming to San Francisco, too. The Chron's Heather Knight reports, "San Francisco's elected officials might want to start clipping coupons - their paychecks throughout this fiscal year will be 2.45 percent smaller. The city's Civil Service Commission voted Monday to cut the pay of the 18 officials, including the mayor and the Board of Supervisors.
"But the court noted that a parent whose child is killed by medical negligence can't sue the doctor for emotional distress or loss of the child's companionship. By the same token, California law allows a pet owner, in some cases, to seek compensation for loss of the animal's "unique economic value" but not for its "sentimental or emotional value," the court said."
And finally, from our Patheptic People files, you know it's bad when you hit on your own daughter at your girlfriend's funeral. But that is the mess known as Ryan O'Neal.
"Ryan O'Neal admits that he was so frazzled at Farrah Fawcett's funeral that he hit on his own daughter, Tatum O'Neal.
“They had just put the casket in the hearse and I was watching it drive away when a beautiful blonde woman comes up and embraces me," Ryan tells Vanity Fair. "I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me -- Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick."
For once, we're actually speechless...