A bill signed by President Obama Tuesday will mean $2.5 billion for California.
"According to Department of Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer, the bill will save the state's general fund $1.28 billion in MediCal costs. Another $1.2 billion in federal funds would go to local school districts in California, but that money will not save the state's general fund any money, Palmer said.
"Schwarzenegger and Legislative Democrats were hoping to get $1.8 billion in MediCal assistance."
"Federal aid is a linchpin of state budget plans put forth by Democrats and Republicans alike. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is counting on more than $3.5 billion in federal aid to help balance the state's books. Democrats are hoping for even more largess from Washington. Their budget calls for more than $4 billion in federal assistance."
Imperial County has asked an appeals court to reinstate Proposition 8, less than a week after the ban on gay marriage was overturned.
"The County of Imperial filed an appeal Tuesday with the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals challenging U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's ruling that deemed Proposition 8's ban of same-sex marriage unconstitutional.
"The County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 earlier in the day to approve the appeal, according to the Imperial Valley Press. Close to 70% of Imperial County voters approved Prop. 8, which enshrined a definition of marriage as between one man and one woman in the state Constitution.
"Walker last week deemed the ballot initiative in violation of the U.S. Constitution in a case that is likely to wind its way to the U.S. Supreme Court."
Jerry Brownreceived $20,000 from GOP mega-donor Alex Spanos.
David Siders reports, "
"Alex Spanos, one of the nation's foremost Republican benefactors, has contributed $20,000 to Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown's gubernatorial campaign – two years after Brown immersed himself in land-use policies in Spanos' hometown.
"Brown opposed Spanos in a dispute in 2008 that caused the developer to alter plans for a massive subdivision in Stockton. Through a settlement, Brown's office continues to monitor environmental policies affecting Spanos and other developers in that city."
Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown continued their sparring over pay increases to Oakland city workers while Brown was mayor of Oakland.
Michael Mishak reports, "In an interview that aired on Fox 11 (KTTV), Whitman reiterated claims she makes in a new radio ad, accusing Brown, the state attorney general, of presiding over his own Bell-style salary scandal when he was mayor of Oakland.
“The hypocrisy that Jerry Brown is exhibiting by grandstanding on Bell is remarkable,” she said. Among other things, Whitman’s ad says that the number of workers making $200,000 a year increased by “700 percent” while Brown was mayor.
"Brown touted his role in the investigation and fired back at Whitman.
“We’re doing stuff in Bell that is very, very important, which is my job as attorney general, and I’m doing it with the collaboration of the Los Angeles County district attorney,” he said.
“So I hope Ms. Whitman takes a little more interest in the facts of this case than she did in voting most of her life.”
Marisa Lagos reports the state will start looking at what it pays for maintenance.
"Lawmakers will ask state court officials today to justify the more than $40 million they spend annually in maintenance costs for courthouses around California, including charges such as $150 to change lightbulbs and $8,000 to remove gum.
"Legislators on the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review said they want to make sure that the Administrative Office of the Courts - the state agency created in 2002 to manage and maintain the 450 facilities used by trial courts around the state - is using public resources as efficiently as possible."
In the wake of the Bell salary scandal, Steve Lopez casts an eye toward the city of Indio.
"Since I began writing about public employee pensions,
lots of employees
have pummeled me with complaints, arguing that public
pensions aren't
the major cause of the state's $20-billion budget deficit (true) and
that at lower-level jobs, retirement packages aren't as outrageous
as
they are for the golden parachute club (also true).
"But by many assessments, we're in trouble if retirement
benefits aren't
scaled back for new hires, at the very least. And in
Sacramento,
Assembly Bill 1987, which was initially offered up as a way to derail
the practice of pension-spiking, is now being targeted by critics who
say that it will do the exact opposite in some cases
because of
loopholes.
And finally, did you know that there was a World Sauna Championship? And did you know that the competition can be fatal? Hey, we read it on the Internet, so it must be true. Reuters reports, "A Russian man died in the finals of the world sauna championships in Finland after spending some six minutes sweltering in temperatures of 110 degrees Celsius, organizers said Sunday.
"After this incident we decided that this game is over and done," Saija Jappinen, cultural secretary at Heinola city told Reuters, announcing the end of the event.
"The world sauna championships, where competitors try to outlast others in the heat and steam, have been held 12 times in Heinola, some 138 km (86 miles) northeast of Finland's capital Helsinki."