The Brown entourage, something of a motley crew, has reached China, gateway to the East, er, West.
From the LAT's Anthony York: " A former college roommate, a one-time campaign foe and a nephew are among Gov.Jerry Brown's 90 traveling companions this week as he leads a state trade mission on a five city swing through China."
"A day when most delegates made a 13-hour flight from California, plus a three-hour ride in Beijing traffic from the airport to the downtown Grand Hyatt, ended with a cocktail-and-appetizer reception in a hotel ballroom, filled with the requisite amount of small talk, welcoming remarks and polite applause."
"Mixed in with the exhaustion that follows a long day of travel, there was a sense of excitement among the dozens gathered in the hotel ballroom Monday night. Many are here to look for new business opportunities in a country that is still experiencing rapid economic growth, and are hoping Brown can help open some doors."
In a rare move focusing on a newspaper, the state's political watchdog is looking into the conduct of the Union-Tribune of San Diego, or San Diego U-T, during last year's election. The question: Did the U-T offer ads on the cheap to foes of local Democrat Bob Filner?
From KPBS' Amita Sharma and Ryann Grochowski: "The probe was prompted by an inewsource/KPBS Investigations Desk analysis, which found that an anti-Bob Filner political action committee paid just over $1,560 per full-page ad in the U-T during the San Diego mayoral race."
"Filner’s campaign consultant Tom Shepard said the U-T quoted him a price more than five times higher for one full-page ad. State law allows newspapers to offer such discounts but they must report them as in-kind political contributions, said Gary Winuk, chief of the Enforcement Division at the FPPC."
"Anyone who receives a benefit, for example, not available to the general public can be a contribution and has to be reported," Winuk said. "We’re not commenting on specific facts here.”
The state Assembly has approved legislation that would curb school districts' practice of borrowing money via interest-rich bonds while delaying the payback for years -- which boosts the interest yet more.
From the Bee's Melody Gutierrez: "Capital Appreciation Bonds came to the spotlight in August when Voice of San Diego outlined a deal in the Poway Unified School District that put taxpayers on the book for almost $1 billion on a loan of $105 million."
"Several stories followed, including two in which The Bee found the Yuba Community College District will pay $59 million to retire $4.6 million in bonds and Folsom Cordova Unified will pay $9.1 million to retire $514,000 in debt."
""This bill would protect taxpayers from terrible bond deals while maintaining school districts' ability to provide their parents and children needed facilities," state Treasurer Bill Lockyer said in a statement. "Today's vote reflects widespread agreement that AB 182 offers a reasoned, balanced approach to addressing this important issue."
From Matt O'Brien in the Contra Costa Times: "Nearly 40,000 skilled foreign workers offered jobs in the United States are out of luck after the U.S. immigration agency received too many applications for H-1B visas."
"After being flooded with about 124,000 applications in five days, but having only 85,000 visas to give each year, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services ran a computer-generated lottery on Sunday to randomly award the available visas."
"The winners and losers have yet to be notified. Sunday was the first time since 2008 that the United States has had such a rush in interest, forcing a random selection. Many companies say the high demand reflects an improving tech economy."
From the Bee's Mark Glover: "The Folsom-based California Independent System Operator, which operates the state's wholesale electricity transmission grid, said wind power turbines onthe grid set a new record of 4,196 megawatts on Sunday."
"The record came at 6:44 p.m. That mark came on the heels of Friday's passing of the 4,000-megawatt threshold. Previously, the Cal-ISO all-time record peak output for wind energy was 3,944 megawatts."
"With these impressive wind-production levels, California is well positioned to meet the 33 percent by 2020 green power goal," said Cal ISO President and CEO Steve Berberich."
