California's never-ending story -- the battle over the state budget -- continues in the Capitol with word of yet another legal attack, this one led by education interests who say the 2011-12 spending plan shortchanged them to the tune of $2 billion.
From Shane Goldmacher at the LA Times: "School officials, including those at the L.A. Unified School District, said they would file suit Wednesday alleging that Gov. Jerry Brown and state legislators illegally manipulated California's voter-approved education funding formula to shortchange them by $2 billion. And a coalition of disability-rights activists said they planned to sue Wednesday as well to block nearly $100 million in cuts to services for the developmentally disabled.
"The new legal challenges add to a growing list of fiscal headaches for Sacramento."
"The state is already in court battling redevelopment agencies over an attempt to take $1.7 billion from them. And California officials are pleading with the Obama administration for permission to reduce Medi-Cal spending by $1.7 billion."
After an emotional hearing and the testimony of hundreds of people, the L.A. Board of Superevisors rejected efforts to put in place a second Latino-majority district.
From the LAT's Rong-Gong Lin II and Jason Song: "Tuesday's 4-to-1 vote sets the stage for a costly legal battle, pitting the county against Latino activists who are expected to accuse the supervisors of protecting white incumbents at the expense of the voting rights of Latinos."
"They and Supervisor Gloria Molina argue that the county is repeating mistakes of the past. Two decades ago, federal courts sided with Latino activists and found white county supervisors for decades had systematically split growing Latino neighborhoods to protect incumbents and prevent the emergence of a Latino challenger. The voting rights lawsuit cost $14 million and the county was forced to adopt new maps, which led to the election of Molina. She was the first nonwhite supervisor elected to the board since the late19th century."
"In the end, Mark Ridley-Thomas, a black supervisor who had been allied with Molina, switched sides and supported a plan by Supervisor Don Knabe. That plan largely preserves the five existing districts. Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky, a possible L.A. mayoral candidate, and Michael D. Antonovich also backed Knabe's plan."
Meanwhile, Sacramento State University is still waiting for the bulk of the $10 million pledge that developer Alex Spanos made in 2004 to help finance a new athletic complex on the campus.
From Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan: "Spanos, a philanthropist and majority owner of the San Diego Chargers football team, pledged the money to help build an Alex G. Spanos sports complex at the university campus named in his honor. The complex includes a refurbished Hornet Stadium for the football team, as well as baseball, soccer, tennis and other facilities."
"But seven years later, only a fraction of the pledged money ever arrived, Capitol Weekly has learned, leaving the school in the position of completing the project with the Spanos funding apparently still uncertain. The school launched the project even though the Spanos funding had not been received."
"Sacramento State officials, without being specific, have confirmed that not all of the money has been received. But they said the agreement with Spanos is confidential because the money came through an auxiliary organization."
The videos of last-year's trial over Proposition 8 are going to stay under wraps for now while a judge considers whether making the tapes public would endanger witnesses and damage the integrity of the judiciary.
From the Chronicle's Bob Egelko: "Chief U.S. District Judge James Ware ruled Sept. 19 that the videos would be released this Friday unless a higher court intervened. On Monday, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco issued a temporary stay, which is likely to be renewed while the appeals court and the U.S. Supreme Court review the dispute."
"Ware's predecessor, Judge Vaughn Walker, presided over the January 2010 trial on Prop. 8, the 2008 initiative that banned same-sex marriage in California. Under a new rule that allowed camera coverage, Walker approved a live telecast to other federal courthouses and proposed recording the trial for the court's website, but the Supreme Court overruled him."
"The court ruled 5-4 that Walker had not allowed enough time for public comment under local court regulations. The justices also indicated they agreed with Prop. 8's sponsors that cameras would intimidate their witnesses."
