The state is in a financial pickle, and the use of welfare money for gambling and cruise ships isn't helping matters.
From the LAT's Jack Dolan: "State-issued aid cards have been used at hotels, shops, restaurants, ATMs and other places in 49 other states, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam, according to data obtained by The Times from the California Department of Social Services. Las Vegas drew $11.8 million of the cash benefits, far more than any other destination. The money was accessed from January 2007 through May 2010."
"Welfare recipients must prove they can't afford life's necessities without government aid: A single parent with two children generally must earn less than $14,436 a year to qualify for the cash assistance and becomes ineligible once his or her income exceeds about $20,000, said Lizelda Lopez, spokeswoman for the Department of Social Services."
Speaking of state money, Capitol Weekly's Jennifer Chaussee takes a look at a flawed, $34 million program to track pupil achievement -- and a new contract waiting in the wings.
"After already receiving $34 million to implement CalPADS, the database that houses
student statistics, the computer hardware company IBM
tentatively won the $9.1 million state contract bid to construct the online
database that would catalog
"The new teacher data program, called CalTIDES, will build upon the existing student tracking system, CalPADS. But as IBM begins work on the new program, the original $34 million program has yet to be perfected. After a history of on-going repairs, CalPADS is still fraught with flaws over a year after its original release."
Meanwhile, tea and oil appear to mix -- as in Proposition 23, which would abolish California's anti-greenhouse gas law.
"The Yes on 23 campaign is financed primarily by Valero Energy and Tesoro, two Texas-based oil refiners. The campaign also received a $1 million donation from Flint Hill Resources, a Kansas petrochemical company that is a subsidiary of Koch Industries. Brothers Charles and David Koch fund a complex web of tea party organizations, detailed in a recent article in The New Yorker magazine," reports the Mercury News' Dana Hull.
"The tea party is an amorphous movement with many offshoots and splinter groups whose efforts nationally have had surprising success, but the scope of its support for Proposition 23 is hard to quantify."
Remember the budget imbroglio? Here's a headline that could be saved and trotted out annually in Sacramento. This time, it's the Wall Street Journal's turn: California budget plan draws skepticism.
"'The budget is on shaky legs," said Jim Beall, a Democratic assemblyman," reports Vauhini Vara.
"While it looks like we have a deal close to being finished, last-minute problems always arise, and I would be really surprised if at one o'clock on Thursday we're really casting a vote for the budget," said Republican Assemblyman Anthony Adams."
Looking for Mr. Chipmunk: The Inyo chipmunk has disappeared, apparently, and the Bee's Tom Knudson wants to know why.
"No one knows why – or when – the species vanished. There is talk about air pollution and competition from other chipmunk species. But most of the speculation centers on climate change, which has brought warming temperatures, earlier snowmelt and changing forest conditions to the region over the past century."
"Something is going on," said Patton, whose previous research helped show that the abundance and distribution of other chipmunks in the Sierra has changed, sometimes dramatically, as the range has warmed."
A bill that would have unveiled the finances of college foundations received a veto from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, reports Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle.
"He also disagreed with the idea that private donations would be placed under public scrutiny - although that is already the case at the University of California."
And finally, from our Reptile Dysfunction files, a New York liquor store owner learns the difference between a gator and a lizard.
"The Suffolk County Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals says the 3-foot-long, illegally kept alligator was removed Wednesday from Alpine Wines and Liquors in Wading River."
"Authorities say two employees of the store were issued tickets for possession of an illegal animal. The American alligator will be sent to a sanctuary out of state."
"The store's proprietor told Newsday that an employee had asked her to take care of it while he was apartment hunting and that she believed the animal was a monitor lizard, not an alligator."
Where's Crocodile Dundee when we need him?