Just a few days after a Field Poll showed Jerry Brown
and Meg Whitman in a dead heat, a Los Angeles Times/USC survey released this weekend showed Brown up by five percentage points over Whitman,
and Barbara Boxer over Carly Fiorina by eight. And
this morning there was more good polling news for both Democrats: Latino voters are reluctant to embrace Republican candidates.
The LAT's Cathleen Decker reports: "Registered voters who identified themselves as Latino
backed Democrat Jerry Brown by a 19-point margin over Republican Meg Whitman in the race
for governor, despite Whitman's multiple appeals to
Latino voters during the general election campaign.
Registered voters who identified themselves as white
gave Brown a slim 2-point margin."
"In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Democrat Barbara
Boxer held a 38-point lead over Republican Carly Fiorina among registered
Latino voters, five times the lead she held among white
voters."
The fallout from the San Bruno explosion continues: The leak rate for the operator controlling the line
is more than six times the national average, according to the Times' reportorial trifecta of Rich
Connell, Doug Smith and Marc Lifsher.
"Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has reported 38 leaks since 2004 along about 1,000 miles of line it controls near population centers
or environmentally sensitive resources, federal records
show."
"The utility's leak rate was 6.2 annually per 1,000 miles of transmission pipes serving "high consequence"
areas — more than six times the average leak rate for the
nation's six other large operators."
"But will that commission ever actually be impaneled?
Will it ever get a chance to do its work? And, if it
does, how much work will it have to do?"
"All those questions are up in the air — to be answered by California voters on Nov. 2 when they decide the fates of two redistricting initiatives
on the ballot."
"The timing of these decisions is critical: The
U.S. Census Bureau will release the results of its
2010 census early next year, and new districts will have
to be drawn that reflect changes in population in time
for the 2012 elections. Those new districts will then stay in place
for a decade."
Meanwhile, LAT columnist George Skelton eyeballs Proposition 21, which would raise money for the state parks through
a vehicle fee, and finds that there aren't any easy
answers.
"This one is tough. And as with most tough policy issues,
simplistic rhetoric doesn't get to the real crux of
the matter. Yes, we all love parks -- some of us more than others, but no one wants to see
them continue to deteriorate. The issue isn't the glory
of parks. It's who pays to save them. And who decides."
'And yes, ballot box budgeting is a scourge of state
governing. It reduces the flexibility of the governor
and the Legislature to act. But if they're incapable
of acting, should the voters then solve the problem
themselves?"
Few newsies watch the campaigns for CalPERS' board
seats, but CalPensions' Ed Mendel is an exception.
And he finds that one candidate is using the CalPERS headquarters and
an office phone as contact info on a fund raising brochue.
"A CalPERS board member running for re-election, George Diehr, has listed the CalPERS headquarters
address in Sacramento and a CalPERS-funded home telephone as a contact on a campaign brochure
and website. His critics say it’s a violation of state law that prohibits the use of
public resources for political campaigns."
"Diehr, preferring not to list his home address, said
he thought the CalPERS address was acceptable because
he had used it in filing documents, drawing no objections."
Speaking of pensions, six-figure salaries are on the rise in San Diego County, despite the recession and job cuts, according to
the Union-Tribune.
"A growing number of county employees made $100,000 or more last year even as the county cut its ranks
and the economy stalled.
The county had 1,016 employees whose base pay exceeded that threshold in
2009, up 28 percent from 2007, according to an analysis by the Watchdog Institute,
an independent investigative reporting center based
at San Diego State University."
"At the same time, the number of employees making less
than $50,000 went down 15.5 percent."
The Chronicle reports that charter schools are faring better than the public school
system in these times of deep recession and fiscal cutbacks.
"Public charter schools in California are skirting
the worst impact of the state's budget crisis while
traditional public schools shorten the school year,
increase class sizes and lay off teachers and staff
by the thousands."
"Nearly 90 more charter schools could open this fall, helped
in many cases by an infusion of federal government
and philanthropic support. Many of the schools are
cutting costs by hiring less-experienced teachers who earn lower salaries than veteran
teachers."
And finally, from our "Life Down Under" file, the locusts are coming, the locusts are coming! OMG!
"It is impossible to say how many billions of bugs
will take wing, but many experts fear this year's infestation
could be the worst since records began – 75 years ago. All that one locust expert, Greg Sword,
an associate professor at the University of Sydney,
would say was: "South Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria are
all going to get hammered."
"A one-kilometre wide swarm of locusts can chomp through 10 tons of crops – a third of their combined body weight – in a day. The New South Wales Farmers Association
said an area the size of Spain was affected and the
Government of Victoria alone forecasts A$2bn (£1.2bn) of damage."
Time to move to New Zealand...
