Former Senate pro tem Darrell Steinberg will announce today that he is in the running for Mayor of Sacramento. John Howard has the story at Capitol Weekly:
“Steinberg, 56, a Sacramento Democrat, served as Senate leader from 2008 to 2014, when he left office because of term limits. He earlier served three terms in the state Assembly, leaving in 2005…
“Steinberg, a liberal Democrat, has advocated for improved social services and environmental protections. He is not well known outside Sacramento, despite his leadership role in the upper house, although in Sacramento he is seen as a major advocate of improved social services and environmental protections. He received statewide attention as the author of a voter-approved, 2004 ballot initiative that raised taxes to provide money for mental health services….
“Steinberg intends to announce his candidacy at an infill project at 5th and Broadway in Sacramento shortly before noon.”
Sacramento’s current mayor, Kevin Johnson, presided over a raucous city council meeting last night, where some protesters opposed to a proposed measure to increase minimum wage were arrested. The measure, which raises the minimum wage to $12.50 by 2020, (with some exceptions) passed. Ryan Lillis at the Bee:
“The Sacramento City Council approved an increase in the city’s minimum wage Tuesday night by a 6-3 vote after a last-minute compromise emerged on the plan and protesters created a tense scene at City Hall.
“The new proposal, released as a City Council hearing started, removed controversial exemptions from the original plan but kept the wage numbers the same. The plan still called for the minimum wage to increase to $12.50 an hour by 2020, with increases after that date linked to the Consumer Price Index.
“While the compromise plan earned the support of some key interest groups, labor groups and low-wage workers blasted the proposal. Two protesters were taken into police custody, including one woman who yelled, ‘I’m pregnant’ as she was led out of the City Council chambers in handcuffs.
Gun rights activists have mobilized in opposition to Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposal, filed yesterday, to tighten gun laws in the Golden State. Josh Richman, Political Blotter:
“The Firearms Policy Coalition and the Firearms Policy Coalition Second Amendment Defense Committee PAC – the latter formed specifically to fight Newsom’s measure – have begun sending out more than 25,000 grassroots activism guides to volunteers and activism hubs throughout the state, with another 75,000 guides expected to ship within the next week.
“’We are committed to building the biggest, most-organized, and highly informed Second Amendment grassroots army ever seen in California to fight and oppose Gavin Newsom’s assault on our civil rights,’ PAC president Brandon Combs said in a news release. ‘We want 100,000 volunteers working on this by the end of the year. This initial deployment is just the beginning of our much larger opposition plan.’”
Another proposed ballot measure would require California legislators to wear stickers or buttons with their top 10 donors. “It’s a very serious proposal,” says the proposition’s author, John Cox of Rancho Santa Fe.
Yesterday we linked to Chuck McFadden’s article about the state’s new Motor Voter law, which will go into effect on January 1. On the othe hand, Dan Walters tells Democrats not to get excited. From the Sacramento Bee:
“[Even] if the 6 million-plus new registered voters that Democratic politicians envision eventually do materialize, that doesn’t mean they will actually vote. Again, these are folks who had already opted out of politics by not registering, so just adding them to the rolls doesn’t change their inclinations.”
The Environmental Protection Agency announced yesterday that it will provide over $30 million in funding to California and Nevada Indian tribes to help them develop programs to protect the environment.
"’They are able to do a lot with a little and their overhead is very low,’ says EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld. ‘And often they're in very remote parts of California and Nevada.’…
“In California, $12.5 million will support water quality projects and water infrastructure for tribes. Approximately $7.3 million will help tribes support a wide variety of water quality projects including watershed protection and restoration, water and energy efficiency, wastewater reclamation, and treatment systems.”
Finally, a bit of good news for Assemblyman Ian Calderon (D-Whittier): California’s Fair Political Practices Commission closed a case involving questionable payments made to Calderon by his father, Charles Calderon, a former legislator. Christopher Cadelago, Sacramento Bee:
“In a letter to the elder Calderon, Fair Political Practices Commission Assistant Chief Dave Bainbridge said the enforcement division was closing the matter without action. The investigation, Bainbridge wrote, ‘did not reveal sufficient evidence to conclude that you violated the’ Political Reform Act.
“The Calderons have a history of paying relatives for campaign work. In this case, the Whittier Daily News reported that the elder Calderon during a 2010 campaign paid his son $40,000 for Web-consulting services, and the newspaper said it found ‘no evidence of a campaign website or social media presence.’”
And finally, the story of “Beavergate,” a thought-to-be-mythic government program that has been proven true: yes, Idaho really did arrange to parachute problem beavers into the countryside back in the 1940s. (With video)
“In 1948, Geronimo the beaver was captured in McCall, Idaho, coaxed into a wooden box, loaded onto a plane, and then dropped midair, parachute attached, landing in Idaho’s backwoods. The beaver emerged from the incident unscathed, but his life would forever be changed. Now, he would reside in the lakes and streams of Idaho’s mountain meadows, building dams and improving his surroundings for the good of all wildlife.
“Geronimo was the first experiment in an unusual wildlife management technique that the Idaho Department of Fish and Game undertook more than 50 years ago. (You might say he was their guinea pig, except he was a beaver.) For years, rumors persisted about the mythical program the department used to relocate “problem beavers” who had been chewing up people’s property in the 1940s and ’50s. But this week, the department released irrefutable video evidence that Beavergate did in fact occur.
“For this charming film footage, titled “Fur of the Future,” we can thank game historian Sharon Clark, who recovered the lost video with help from the Idaho Historical Society…”
