An anti-union organization
filed a lawsuit against the California Teachers Association yesterday, arguing that CTA's $60 per year dues increase for the special election and next year's elections is illegal. "Attorneys, supporters and plaintiffs represented by the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation of Springfield, Va., tried to announce the filing of the suit at a sidewalk press conference in front of the CTA's headquarters in downtown Sacramento.
They were drowned out, however, by more than 100 union activists shouting, 'Shame on you!'"
Under "irony" in the dictionary, CTA's new slogan against Proposition 75 is "Don't Silence Our Voices."
With perfect timing,
CTA added $2 million to the No on Proposition 75 campaign yesterday.
As expected,
Warren Beatty continued to romance liberals yesterday during his appearance at the convention of the California Nurses Association, but wouldn't say that he would, or that he definitely wouldn't, run for governor. "'
I've always preferred not to run for public office, and I still prefer not to run for public office. I have a day job,' he said. 'I believe if a private citizen is able to affect public opinion in a constructive way, he doesn't have to be an elected public servant to perform a public service.'"
If he ever decides to run, however, he gave potential opponents the tagline for their commercials, when he described himself as
"an old-time, unrepentant, unreconstructed, tax-and-wisely spend, bleeding heart, die-hard, liberal Democrat who grew up a Southern Baptist from Virginia and believes in the Golden Rule, social programs, a safety net, regulation and an active government."This was also the man who believed Ishtar was going to be a good movie.
"Schwarzenegger spokeswoman
Margita Thompson told the Associated Press, 'We don't care that much about Warren Beatty, and based on his ticket sales from the past generation, I doubt anyone else does either.'"
While Beatty was wooing the governor's nemesis, the governor's strategists announced a
seven-figure outreach campaign targeted at the state's Spanish-speaking population. "In an interview,
Todd Harris, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's special election campaign team, said the Spanish-language advertising campaign's themes would be much the same as those appearing in English media, but he declined to discuss specifics."
Meanwhile,
counties are raising the issue of reimbursement for special election costs again, shortly after their state association jumped on the governor's Live Within Our Means bandwagon.
George Will chimes in on
the governor's "rookie mistakes," but says Schwarzenegger may yet still prevail. "Politics is a learned craft, and Schwarzenegger has made a raft of rookie mistakes, from rhetorical combativeness incompatible with his appeal as a non-party nonconformist, to enriching an army of consultants who are doing well out of his attempt to do good. Still,
California's political system is dysfunctional, Schwarzenegger's opponents have no program other than to stall until he wearies of disturbing their peace, and
his proposals, however artlessly pursued, are a start on creative disturbance."
The SF Chronicle reports
a "showdown" is imminent at the next UC Regents meeting after the university sought to augment their top execs' salaries with privately-raised money. "'It's complex, it's difficult and it's controversial,' Regent
Judith Hopkinson, an architect of the proposal, said after the brief and brusque debate. 'I expected to take more heat than we got.'"
The governor
signed and vetoed a flurry of bills yesterday. Significant bills signed include the
"Baxter Dunn" bill stripping some pension benefits from convicted public officials (
AB 1044) and a bill to
permit the California State University to offer education doctorate degrees (
SB 724).
Providing more material for the writers of Fox's "Prison Break" show,
inmates at the state prison in Chino rioted yesterday. "The riot at the California Institution for Men broke out about 7 p.m. when inmates in the prison's reception center began fighting, according to
Todd Slosek, spokesman for the California Department of Corrections."
"The situation appeared to be largely under control by 10 p.m., but guards in riot gear were still working at restoring full order, officials said. '
The situation is very fluid,' Slosek said. No guards were seriously injured, he said."
"Fluid" is not exactly the confidence we're looking for when talking about a subdued prison riot.
And as Hurricane Rita prepares to bear down on Texas, there are signs that life is
returning to normal in New Orleans."Erotic dancers and strippers are entertaining crowds of police, firefighters and military personnel instead of the usual audiences of drunken conventioneers and tourists in Bourbon Street's Deja Vu club, which reopened this week."
Gotta love the indefatigable human spirit.
