"Less than four months after California leaders stitched together a patchwork budget, a projected deficit of nearly $21 billion already looms over Sacramento, according to a report to be released today by the chief budget analyst," reports Shane Goldmacher.
"The new figure -- the nonpartisan analyst's
first projection for the coming budget -- threatens to send Sacramento
back into budgetary gridlock and force more across-the-board cuts in
state programs.
"The grim forecast, described by people who were
briefed on the report by Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor, comes courtesy
of California's recession-wracked economy, unrealistic budgeting
assumptions, spending cuts tied up in the courts and
disappearing
federal stimulus funds."
But President Schwarzenegger was in Italy, touting green jobs to make it all better.
According to a release from the governor's office Wednesday, Schwarenegger "joined Roberto Formigoni, the president of Lombardy Region, Italy, to urge regional and local leaders to take action to fight climate change and help create green jobs while highlighting the World Regions Forum to be held in Milan, Italy from November 19 through November 21."
I feel better already....
Orange County Supervsor Chris Norby appears headed to Sacramento, the OC Register reports.
"Norby, a county supervisor, finished more than 16 percentage points ahead of fellow Republican Linda Ackerman, who outspent him in a vicious campaign battle but could not neutralize the better name recognition he had from the outset of the race for the 72nd Assembly District.
"On Jan. 12, Norby will face off against Democrat John MacMurray, who finished second, and the Green Party's Jane Rands, who was fifth among five candidates. Political novice Richard Faher, a Republican, came in fifth fourth.
Los Angeles has a new chief of police , Joel Rubin reports. "Los Angeles City Council members Tuesday formally appointed Charlie Beck as the city's new police chief, enthusiastically praising the selection of the LAPD veteran for the job, but also acknowledging that the city's ongoing fiscal crisis will inevitably complicate, and perhaps strain, his relationship with elected officials.
"The current size of the force, which hovers just below 10,000 cops,
is the largest it has ever been -- the result of an aggressive push
over the last few years by Villaraigosa and Bratton
to add 1,000
officers. The council backed the effort until last
month when, in the
face of the worsening fiscal crisis, it canceled plans
for a new class
of recruits to begin training this month and ordered
the department to
slow down the rate of hiring officers. The LAPD remains
a few hundred
officers shy of the mayor's goal and is permitted for now to replace
only officers who retire or leave."
The NY Times goes ga-ga over Jerry Brown's Hollywood fundraiser.
Steven Spielberg, J. J. Abrams, Larry Ellison and Magic Johnson are among the co-chairmen of a high-priced fund-raiser to be held Wednesday for Jerry Brown, the state’s attorney general and former governor, who is expected to make a formal declaration of his candidacy for another go-round as chief executive in the coming months. The event is expected to raise more than $1 million for Mr. Brown’s candidacy. Each of the 17 individuals or couples hosting the event has committed to donate or raise at least $50,000.
And apparently J.J Abrams will tell attendees how the final season of Lost is going to end...
Meanwhile, Meg Whitman is being called gasp an environmentalist! Ken McLaughlin reports, "
Already
attacked for her past support of environmental causes,
Republican
gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's conservative credentials took
another blow Tuesday when it was disclosed her charitable
foundation
donated $1.15 million to a Colorado group that supported seizing
private property for open space.
"Tax returns from 2008, filed
this week, also show the Griffith R. Harsh IV and Margaret C. Whitman
Charitable Foundation lost about $27 million, mostly in eBay stock —
more than half its original value of $48 million.
"Nearly all of
her $1.39 million in charitable contributions went to environmental
causes. She gave $200,000 to the Environmental Defense Fund for a
project aimed at rescuing the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but
as a candidate she has sided against environmentalists
in the delta
debate. Another $1.15 million went to the Valley Floor Preservation
Partners, an organization trying to save open space
in Telluride,
Colo., where Whitman owns a vacation condo and a ranch."
Will the ballot box pit Don Perata vs. Rob Reiner? Josh Richman reports, "Fresh out
of the gate, a ballot measure to raise cigarette taxes
for cancer
research proposed by former state Senate President
Pro Tem Don Perata
is taking heat from early childhood education advocates
who rely on
tobacco taxes, too.
"Perata — a 2010 Oakland mayoral candidate —
had hoped this California Cancer Research Act, launched
at a news
conference Monday, would garner good publicity and
widespread public
support as a war on Big Tobacco. Instead, some say, it could end up
facing united opposition from tobacco companies and
the education
advocates who warred with them 11 years ago.
"California law
already called for a cigarette tax of up to 12 cents per pack, paid
into the state's general fund, by the time voters approved Proposition
99 of 1988, which added a 25-cent-per-pack tax to fund tobacco-related
health education and disease research, hospital care
for the indigent,
park and wildlife restoration and other causes."
And finally, from our Headline of the Day Files, AP
reports, "Would-be Seattle ninja impaled on fence."
Let's go to the tape...
"Seattle police say a man who thought he was ninja was
impaled on a
metal fence when he tried to leap over it. An officer
who was looking
for an assault victim nearby Monday night heard the
man screaming for
help. Police supported him to prevent further injuries
until medics
arrived and took him to a hospital, where he was in
serious condition
on Tuesday.
"Police spokeswoman Renee Witt wrote in a department Web site posting that officers thought the man might have been involved in the reported assault, but he insisted he was just a ninja trying to clear a 4- to 5-foot-tall fence.
"Witt says the man was "overconfident in his abilities," and that alcohol likely played a role."
Shocking...