Jane Harman is leaving her congressional seat, Debra Bowen and Janice Hahn want Harman's seat -- and who wants Bowen's and Hahn's positions? Harman's announcement kicked off a scramble.
From Jean Merl and Richard Simon in the LAT: "Within hours, Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahnsaid she would be a candidate. California Secretary
of State Debra Bowen, who represented much of the district
in the Legislature, let it be known that she was "seriously
considering" the idea. Activist Marcy Winograd, who
mounted a strong but unsuccessful challenge to the
moderate Harman from the left in last year's primary,
said she was "exploring the possibility."
"And Republican Mattie Fein, who lost to Harman in
November, 60% to 35%, said she might run again."
Also on Harman: John Howard in Capitol Weekly, Torey Van Oot in the Bee and Joe Garofoli in the Chronicle.
The debate over enterprise zones -- should they be abolished or not? -- continued Monday.
First up, Jean Ross and the California Budget Project, which says the EZs promise a lot, deliver little and siphon hundreds of millions of dollars annually from state coffers.
From Aaron Glantz in the Bay Citizen: "“At a time when we’re raising community college tuition, throwing 250,000 kids off welfare, and dramatically cutting funding for the University of California and California State University” it makes sense to examine the effectiveness of enterprise zones, the budget project’s director Jean Ross said in an interview."
"Gov. Jerry Brown has called for the elimination of tax breaks provided through California’s enterprise zone program as he attempts to balance the state’s $25 billion budget deficit."
And then, defenders of the EZs launched a public relations drive to tout the benefits of the program.
From Jim Miller in the Press-Enterprise: "Zone proponents, after a muted response last month, are rallying to save the program. Monday, dozens of city officials, business representatives and others spoke at an Assembly budget hearing. The program's defenders have hired well-connected capital firms to lead a public-relations push."
"Not only are we getting jobs from out of state, but we're getting significant amount of taxes for the city and the state," said Colin Strange of the San Bernardino Valley Enterprise Zone, which extends from Bloomington to northern San Bernardino."
Ironically, the top executive at Caltrain, which just announced it was closing nearly half its stations because of budget cuts, is the highest-paid transit boss in the state, notes Mike Rosenberg at the San Jose Mercury News.
"Scanlon's pay topped the list even though the three agencies he oversees -- Caltrain, SamTrans and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority -- are average in size when combined and are on far shakier ground financially than most other transit operators. And he's not the only one who has seen a hefty bump in pay at Caltrain, where both administrators and train workers have enjoyed pay raises in recent years."
"Good personnel come at a high price," said Mike Nevin, a former Caltrain and SamTrans board chairman who led the search committee that found Scanlon. "I realize it's expensive, but I feel he's the best."
And finally, we turn to our "Notes from the Underground" file to see what appear to be caves covered with paintings, sculptures, childhood scrawls and new-wave placards. Actually, it's the Swedish subway system.
No text, just look at the photos.
You betcha!