Capitol Weekly's John Howard reports a major new water bond propsal has been introduced in the Capitol.
The proposal was made by Democratic Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, one of the ten lawmakers expected to be named to a new water conference committee Monday.
"A plan to get voter approval on $11.7 billion in new water projects that include reservoirs, Delta environmental protections and even a massive canal is under consideration in the Capitol, the latest in a series of proposals targeting California's water problems.
The plan - not yet in the form of a bill - would place a bond issue before voters in November 2010. It is being pushed by Assemblymember Anna Caballero, D-Salinas.
Lawmakers in both parties and the governor have been attempting to negotiate a water package that includes new storage and greater deliveries of water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta east of San Francisco and to the San Joaquin Valley and Central California. They also are considering the construction of a canal to carry water from the Sacramento River in the north around the Delta to the California Aqueduct, which would move the water southward."
After lots of haggling and negotiating among what the governor called "gutless" members of the Assembly, it looks like a scaled-back prisons plan is finally ready for a Monday vote.
Matthew Yi reports,"A controversial prison bill that would have reduced California's inmate population by 27,000 has been significantly watered down by state Assembly lawmakers who pushed aside a plan to allow some prisoners to finish their sentences at home.
The changes would reduce the state's prison population by about 16,000 inmates instead of 27,000, and would save the state about $325 million instead of $525 million."
Maybe they can make up the other $200 million at the state's garage sale...
"The fate of the factory has been in question since June, when General Motors withdrew from the partnership with Toyota that created Nummi in 1984. Toyota on Thursday confirmed rumors that had been swirling for weeks that it will close the plant, regardless of financial incentives offered by the state.
"Today is a sad day in the history of Fremont as California joins the ranks of states adversely affected by the bankruptcy of General Motors and the worldwide collapse in demand for automobiles," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adding that the state will now focus on retraining workers and finding alternative uses for the roughly 5 million-square-foot plant."
The LAT's Marc Lifsher reports Steve Poizner is suing to stop the sale off the state's workers compensation fund.
"California's top insurance regulator is expected today to file
a
lawsuit to try to stop the governor from selling $1 billion worth of
business at a state-run workers' compensation insurance company.
"Last month, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature
approved the
proposed sale to raise money to partially plug a $24-billion hole in
the state budget.
But Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner vowed to fight
it. "This is
bad politics; it's illegal, and I'm going to stop it," said the wealthy
former tech entrepreneur from Silicon Valley, who is
seeking the
Republican nomination for governor in 2010. And he warned that a sale
could increase the price of workers' comp insurance for millions of
workers."
Good thing, too, because we were all totally convinced that the sale was going to happen. Really.
Jack Chang says it's part of Poizner's effort to step up his gubernatorial game.
"Poizner said in an interview later that he wasn't worried about the slow start and that his campaign was "ramping up aggressively now" despite poll numbers showing him running a distant third for the Republican nomination behind former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and former Rep. Tom Campbell.
Poizner trails even though his largely self-financed campaign spent $1.4 million in the first six months of the year to Campbell's $161,274.
Whitman spent about $6.2 million, with much of the money coming from her own pocket. Primary voters will cast ballots in June 2010.
"The early polls are interesting," Poizner said, "but they just reflect the fact that my opponents have higher name ID. We haven't even started our advertising campaign yet.
"I can guarantee you this: Every single Republican primary voter will know all about me as we get closer to Election Day."
Send in the dancing girls!
Finally, the Joint Legislative Rules Committee sent a memo to all Capitol staff that has some conservatives riled up.
Capitol Weekly reports, "An e-mail from the joint Legislative Rules Committee warned Capitol staff about large crowds expected at a conservative rally Friday. But instead of using the term "tea party" to describe the rally (the term preferred by rally organizers), the Rules Committee memo uses the pejorative term 'tea bag rally' to describe the gathering.
The sexually explicit "tea-bagging" terminology has been adopted by liberal opponents of the rally. CNN anchor Anderson Cooper apologized for making a joke about tea-bagging to descibe the April 15 anti-tax rallies."
The Rules Committee later sent out a "corrected" e-mail to warn of the "tea party" rally.