"California's ongoing courtroom battle with the auto industry over environmental issues kicked into higher gear Wednesday when state Attorney General
Bill Lockyer sued the leading automakers, accusing them of contributing to global warming through tailpipe emissions," writes the Bee's Dale Kasler.
"Lockyer's suit said General Motors, Toyota and four other major carmakers share blame for such maladies as the decline of the California snowpack, the increased threat of wildfires and worsened urban air pollution."
Of course, no blame is shared by the state's fleet of sedans and SUVs.
"The suit represented the latest in a series of global-warming lawsuits pitting California and other states against automakers, power generators and other titans of industry."
The next lawsuit will be against the
Happy Cows, which reportedly emit more than tastier cheese.
"With Lockyer running for state treasurer in November, the nonprofit Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., dismissed the suit as an attempt to gain votes. 'I don't think it means anymore than it says. It's California politics,' said center economist
Sean McAlinden."
"But Lockyer spokeswoman
Teresa Schilling denied that charge. 'We are trying to hold them accountable for the damage that has occurred,' she said. 'The industry has had ample opportunity to step up and limit their tailpipe emissions; they have not done so.'"
"After cutting a deal with Democrats on historic legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions in California, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
faces decisions this month on two other bills that could dramatically reduce pollution from the auto and energy industries -- the state's two largest contributors to global warming.
"With much less fanfare than for the global warming bill, which Schwarzenegger is expected to sign next Wednesday, Democratic majorities in the state Senate and Assembly approved legislation that
would require half of the cars sold in the state to run on alternative fuels by 2020 and another bill that
would prohibit California utilities from buying electricity generated by high-polluting power plants in other states."
"Calling public safety government's most important job, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday
signed a package of bills increasing prison terms for many sex offenders and barring them from loitering near schools and parks once they are released," reports Jenifer Warren in the Times.
"The measures, signed seven weeks before voters will decide on a ballot initiative offering similar provisions, also require that sex offenders deemed high-risk by authorities wear electronic tracking devices while on parole."
"Backers said the new laws give California the nation's toughest restrictions on sex offenders, a category of felons facing an expanding national crackdown spawned by several high-profile crimes."
Meanwhile, "Sonoma County authorities say they've
lost the computer belonging to John Mark Karr, the onetime suspect in the
JonBenet Ramsey case, that allegedly held the child pornography images he's charged with possessing. But the missing computer was not expected to jeopardize the case against him."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
said Wednesday that California needs more prison beds before it can run a successful rehabilitation program, which he said should eventually include expanded drug treatment and even four-year college degree programs," writes Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"The Republican governor, in a meeting with The Bee's editorial board, said he is in "total agreement" with a federal court official who indicated Tuesday that the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation will have to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to fix its prison health care system. The federal prison health care receiver,
Robert Sillen, said in a report that 5,000 new medical care beds would be necessary, which could cost at least $600 million."
"Schwarzenegger warned that if lawmakers do not approve revenue bonds next year to pay for improvements, Sillen could raid California's general fund, which pays for schools, medical care and other state needs."
CW's Shane Goldmacher
looks at the employment prospects of former lawmakers. "All told, 35 ex-lawmakers are registered as full-time lobbyists in California, including 11 that have left office since 2000.
"The cohort of legislators-turned-lobbyists varies from
Steve Samuelian, a former Assemblyman who served only two years before bowing out of his re-election bid in 2004, to
Patrick Johnston, a 20-year legislative veteran who nearly became Senate leader in the late 1990s."
"With the turnover because of term limits, if lawmakers really enjoy what they are doing, or can't go back to what they were doing before, lobbying is a good option," says former Assemblywoman
Dion Aroner, who was termed-out of the Assembly in 2002 and opened her own lobbying shop in 2003."
George Skelton would
like the governor to sign the electoral college bill. "He has 10 days to sign or veto the bill by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Anaheim) that would mark the first step in rendering moot the anachronistic Electoral College. The goal is to assure that the candidate most Americans vote for is elected president."
"No more battleground states or spectator states. Every state would be in play. Every vote would count."
"Schwarzenegger's signature on the Umberg bill would make California the first state to ratify an interstate compact obligating each signatory to cast all its electoral votes for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote."
The governor could be warming up his veto pen, however. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
vetoed legislation Wednesday that proposed an instant fix for students failing to meet California's standard for proficiency: redefine proficiency," reports Jim Sanders.
"Schwarzenegger concluded that changing a few words won't solve academic woes."
"'Redefining the level of academic achievement necessary to designate students as 'proficient' does not make the students proficient,' his veto message said."
Malcolm Maclachlan reports in CW about the
help the oil industry got from the Legislature's Mod Caucus.
"The list of oil-industry wins includes four major Senate bills having to do with vehicles, fuel and air pollution. All four of these bills were targeted by such groups as the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) and the California Trucking Association."
"The bills all had something else in common as well: They made the list of bills that concerned members of the Mod Caucus, and they all died in the Assembly on the last day of session. In each case, they suffered narrow defeats after a block of four Mod Caucus Assembly members--
Joe Canciamilla of Pittsburg,
Edward Chavez of La Puente,
Barbara Matthews of Tracy, and
Nicole Parra of Hanford--voted against all of them. Four other Mod Caucus members cast votes against at least two of these bills."
Jim Sanders checks up on the
construction of the security perimeter around the Capitol. "Construction is nearly complete on the Capitol's first permanent barrier since the early 1950s, when a granite and cast-iron fence was removed."
"The new security project comes more than five years after a suicidal trucker,
Mike Bowers, rammed his big-rig truck into the Capitol, sparking a fire that caused more than $16 million in damage."
"The project encloses the Capitol in a rectangle bounded by N, L and 10th streets, and a portion of Capitol Park near 13th Street."
"The goal was to provide a foolproof but visually pleasing barrier of metal cable and posts, largely obscured by hedges, benches and concrete planter boxes about 3 feet tall."
"The only significant work still pending, [
Tony Beard] said, is that
some bollard tops -- consisting of grizzly bear heads and seals of the Senate, Assembly and Governor's Office -- have not yet arrived and their installation may not be completed until late October."
Note to Readers: We understand that some of you have been blessed with multiple copies of The Roundup the last few days. We are working on it and things should be groovy again soon.
