No shocker here: according to a new report from Forward Observer, ballot campaigns with the bigger bank accounts won every race in 2014. What is a surprise is that “No” costs so much more than “Yes.” John Myers has the story at KQED.
“A new analysis shows that the side that spent the most got its way all four times last year with the passage of Proposition 47 and the defeat of Propositions 45, 46 and 48.
“That’s a 100 percent success rate for big money, far better than just 50 percent in 2012 and 57 percent for those who spent the most in 2010….
“The report, using data from the past three election cycles, predicts that a winning ‘Yes’ vote on a 2016 proposition will cost $17.2 million, while a successful ‘No’ campaign against an initiative will cost $38.1 million.”
Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) filed a brief in support of Federal District Court Judge Cormac Carney’s decision ruling the state's death penalty unconstitutional. From the Bay Area New Group:
"’After reviewing many in-depth studies, I have come to the conclusion that California's death penalty is not more effective in deterring crime than a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole,’ Hancock said in a statement. The senator said since 1978 California's have spent $4 billion in tax revenue on the death penalty and she believes the money would have served residents better if it went toward reducing crime…
State Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, and former assembly member Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, joined Hancock in filing the brief.”
State Sen. Carol Liu’s (D- La Cañada Flintridge) SB192 would make bicycling without a helmet a crime in California. Bicycle advocates are not happy. From Laura Nelson in the Los Angeles Times:
“The proposal has spurred a backlash from California's bicycle advocacy groups, which say a mandatory-helmet law would do more harm than good. Helmet laws could make cycling appear more dangerous, they say, at a time when elected officials are working to draw drivers onto alternative forms of transportation.”
Republicans at the state capitol are outraged over a failed proposal to ban the flying of national flags – including Old Glory - at UC Irvine. In response, Senate Minority Leader Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar) and others have proposed a constitutional amendment barring a ban on flying the US flag.
From Jeremy White at the Sacramento Bee: “Republican lawmakers are seeking a constitutional amendment saying American flags cannot be prohibited on school property at state-funded universities. Supported by GOP party leadership, the measure would need to secure a two-thirds vote in the Democratic-controlled Legislature and then win voter approval….
“Student government members at the University of California, Irvine provoked a heated debate last week by passing a resolution barring flags – including American flags – from being displayed at campus buildings. The resolution called the American flag a potentially exclusionary symbol with connotations of ‘colonialism and imperialism.’ The student body president and the administration quickly rejected the action, and the student government executive cabinet vetoed it.”
Capital Public Radio’s Amy Quinton has a quick rundown of enviro bills before the legislature.
And a spot of good news for California’s legislative bodies: their approval ratings are at the highest they’ve been since 2004. Chuck McFadden has the story at Capitol Weekly:
“What accounts for the improving job rating for lawmakers? It’s probably because most voters finally seem to believe that things across the state are getting better. The Field Poll tells us that ‘For the first time in over thirteen years, a significantly larger proportion of California voters believes that the state is moving in the right direction (50%) than feel is is off on the wrong track (41%).’ That’s not sensational, but it’s better than it has been for a long time, and the sentiment may have rubbed off on the legislature.”
Senators will hold a hearing today on “problems in California's protection of drinking-water aquifers from the state oil and gas industry” with a focus on the use of high-pressure steam in oil wells. From Judy Lin at AP:
“State oil and gas regulators have acknowledged ‘routinely’ allowing oil and gas producers to inject steam underground at pressure so high that it cracks open underground rock formations, in violation of state and federal regulation, according to a state Senate report prepared for Tuesday's joint hearing by the Senate's environmental quality and natural resources and water committees.”
Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) is demanding that regulators close and begin cleanup of a toxic battery recycling plant in Vernon.
“In a letter sent Friday, Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) urged the state Department of Toxic Substances Control ‘in the strongest terms’ to deny a full permit to Exide Technologies.
“The state has allowed the plant — which has been idle since March 2014 because it could not comply with air quality rules — to operate for more than three decades under ‘interim status.’ The toxic substances department is now deciding whether to issue Exide a full permit. A new state law requires the department to either grant the company a permit or shut the facility down by the end of the year. “
It’s peeback time.
City leaders in Hamburg, Germany have come up with a novel solution to the growing problem of “Wildpinkler” (public urination): walls that pee back. (With video)
“The St. Pauli Interest Community released a YouTube video explaining the most frequently-soiled walls in the district are being covered in a super-hydrophobic paint that causes sprayed liquid to bounce back in the opposite direction -- causing public urinators to make a mess of their own pants and shoes.
“The walls treated with the paint are labeled with signs reading, ‘Don't pee here! We'll pee back!’
"’It was a real annoyance that was growing and growing,’ St Pauli Interest Community board member Uwe Christiansen, who owns several local bars, told The Local. ‘We wanted to bring people to reason.’"
