The powerful Democratic forces of organized labor that helped Jerry Brown get elected may get involved in next year's GOP primaries, reports Steve Harmon in the Contra Costa Times.
"They are also considering ramping up direct mail efforts or door-to-door canvassing within the next several weeks in the districts of potentially vulnerable Republicans who continue to threaten to block a vote on Brown's tax plan."
"The strategy hinges on two coming political changes that could rock California's political landscape: new district lines being drawn up this spring by an independent committee and top-two primaries, in which the top two finishers in primaries will move onto the general election, regardless of party, beginning in 2012."
The flow of tax dollars in and out of redevelopment agencies is the subject of a lengthy report by the state controller. Bottom line: The agencies -- which Brown wants to abolish -- took about 12 percent of the money and kept most of it. The Bee's Dan Walters tells the tale.
"It reveals, for instance, that redevelopment agencies captured about 12 percent of all the property taxes collected in the state, $5.7 billion. It shared $1.2 billion of those revenues with schools and other local governments, but retained the other $4.5 billion."
"That $5.7 billion is well over three times as much tax money as redevelopment agencies captured 10 years earlier, an examination of the 1998-99 controller's report shows. And the debt incurred by redevelopment agencies also has grown sharply. In 1998-99 they had $42.7 billion in debt. By 2008-09, that had more than doubled to $87.5 billion, most of it in the form of bonds."
Meanwhile, Brown says that if Republicans don't like his budget, they should come up with their own alternative. But they don't like that idea.
From the Chronicle's Wyatt Buchanan: "A day after Gov. Jerry Brown challenged Republicans to put tax measures on the ballot and chided them for not having an alternative plan, GOP leaders said that proposing a balanced budget is the governor's job, not theirs..."
"But Republicans said they have for years put out ideas for changing the state that have been summarily rejected by the majority Democratic Legislature, and they have no reason to expect something different. The challenge from Brown is a red herring, they said, and an attempt to knock Republicans off their message."
An unusual fight involving dietary habits and Asian-American traditions is emerging over live-animal markets. Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan has the story.
"This is the latest round in an obscure but hard-fought battle that combines ethnic politics and the animal rights movement. When members of the commission attempted to ban the importation of turtles and frogs for food last year, a half-dozen Asian-American legislators joined together to block the idea, noting that the animals were traditional to the Asian diet."
"The de facto leader of that group, Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is now viewed as the front-runner to replace Gavin Newsom as mayor of San Francisco. The heavily Asian city, with its famed Chinatown, is ground zero of the live-animal market fight."
Meanwhile, PG&E has launched a massive search for records in the wake of September's natural-gas explosion in San Bruno that killed eight people and injured dozens.
From the Mercury News' Steve Johnson and Pete Carey: "Acting under orders from the California Public Utilities Commission, PG&E reported that it has nearly 300 people poring over the records 24 hours a day, seven days a week, has leased space for the search effort and has initially identified 1.25 million documents it is scanning into an electronic database. But the company's initial report on the document search didn't say how many miles of pipes may lack adequate paperwork."
"Regulators ordered the utility to find the files after learning its records for the San Bruno pipeline were inaccurate. Depending on what PG&E finds by March 15, when its final report is due to the commission, some experts have said the company may have to conduct extensive new tests on hundreds of miles of its urban gas lines at a cost well into the hundreds of millions of dollars."
And from our "Goofy Trend Stories" file, the Wall Street Journal has finally scooped the New York Times on those stories that purport to reveal deeply-rooted sociological trends, but actually rely on a few quotes from a few people. This one is about exercise.
"Newlyweds have long recognized the risks of potential sickness, infidelity and ill fortune. But few foresee themselves becoming an exercise widow. After all, the idea that one's beloved will take the occasional jog sounds appealing—until two miles a day becomes 10 miles, not counting the 20-mile runs on weekends. "His dream of doing marathons happened just when I got pregnant with our third child," Stephanie Beagley of Colorado Springs says of her husband, Michael, a purchaser for the U.S. Olympic Committee. "Now we don't have tons of time with him."
"The exercise widow often wakes to an empty bed—a sure sign of a morning workout—and may find dinner plans spoiled by a sudden avoidance of anything heavy before a night run. Hoping for an hour of television or catching-up before bedtime? Forget it: All that early-morning exercise takes its toll. Mr. Waxman arrives home from the office after his children, ages 11, 10 and 8, have eaten dinner, and he hits the sack before they do. "I'm out of gas by nine o'clock," Mr. Waxman says."
Flabby abs are the sign of a happy marriage...