"During his campaign for Congress,
Juan Vargas was harshly criticized for accepting $335,000 in campaign contributions from insurers and frequently taking their side while chairman of the Assembly Insurance Committee," reports Bill Ainsworth in the Union Tribune.
"The San Diego Democrat not only disputed that but
he went further and said he would not take a job in the industry after leaving office."
"Juan Vargas, who headed the Assembly Committee on Insurance,
has been hired by Safeco as vice president."
"Vargas, whose Assembly term ended this week, is the new vice president of California external affairs for Safeco, a Seattle-based company that sells auto, surety and homeowners insurance to 4.3 million customers nationwide."
"'I'm really excited about the job. It's a great opportunity for me and the community,' Vargas said."
"
Doug Heller of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights charged that Vargas put the industry ahead of consumers by blocking bills to aid victims of the Southern California wildfires, including those in San Diego County.
"'We thought it was because they were giving him so much in campaign contributions,' Heller said. '
Now it looks like he's been creating a résumé for this job, while chairing this committee by giving the insurance industry what they wanted.'"
Dan Walters
looks at the impact of term limits on the Legislature. "So did term limits fix the Legislature's systemic shortcomings, as their sponsors promised voters in 1990? Term limits have certainly produced more cultural diversity and, one might argue, less overt corruption. Today's lawmakers have a somewhat better attitude about doing the public's vital work. But they are, at best, only slightly more effective in performing that work."
"The Legislature remains a largely dysfunctional institution, but it's dysfunctional for different reasons, such as gerrymandered legislative districts that create ideological polarization and a fundamental disconnect between the reality of California -- the most complex society in humankind's history -- and a system that gives the myriad interest groups within that social matrix virtual veto power over policy. Chronic state budget deficits reflect that unworkable system."
"
Term limits, in brief, neither restored the Legislature's relevance nor destroyed its effectiveness. Call it a tossup."
"Still staring down a $20.3 billion shortfall, the board of the California teachers' retirement fund is
packing up its lesson plan and heading to the Capitol to educate a large class of new lawmakers about a plan to wipe out the long-term deficit," reports the Bee's Gilbert Chan.
"After spending more than a year crafting a strategy, trustees of the $157 billion California State Teachers' Retirement System said Thursday that they are
ready to sell 120 lawmakers, including 34 first-timers, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the pressing need for teachers, the state and school districts to increase their pension contributions."
"The campaign next year will emerge as schools and the Legislature continue to wrestle with cash-strapped budgets, including a looming $5 billion state budget deficit. The knottiest issue could center on school funding and whether the state should cover the extra cost of employer contributions."
"'We need a thorough education of every interested party. I don't think we have done that yet,' said Trustee
Gary Lynes. 'The taxpayers will also weigh in.'"
"California lawmakers are
considering whether to require young girls to be vaccinated against a virus spread almost exclusively through sex -- but which can be deadly," writes the Bee's Jim Sanders.
"A new legislative proposal would create the state's only immunization requirement targeting a single gender -- girls -- and the only one aimed at a virus contracted solely by genital contact."
"Assemblywoman Sally Lieber's measure,
Assembly Bill 16, would require girls to be vaccinated against the human papilloma virus (HPV) as a condition of entering the sixth grade in public or private schools after July 1, 2008."
"But critics worry about the possibility of sending a mixed message, with parents urging girls not to have sex and AB 16 requiring them to be immunized against a risk that exists only if they do."
"'
What kind of a message is it to tell a young girl that she needs a shot because you expect her to have sex before she's 15?' asked
Randy Thomasson, president of the Campaign for Children and Families, a lobbying group on social issues."
"Students from seven California secondary schools, including Sacramento-area Hiram Johnson, McClatchy and Galt high schools,
packed a Capitol hearing room for an intense town hall-style meeting," reports Peter Hecht in the Bee.
"With thousands of other students throughout California viewing the meeting on cable television, they debated the importance of the exit exam and dilemmas faced by 38,000 students from the 2006 class who failed to graduate because they couldn't pass the exam."
"Responding to comments from some students that the exam puts an unfair burden on students with learning disabilities or others for whom English is a second language, [Dept of Ed rep
Lily] Roberts said the Education Department has included $70 million in its current year budget for 'intensive intervention' to help them pass the test."
"'We want to close the achievement gap,' she said."
Don't expect Hecht's article to be read by members of the prison's guard union.
"The California Correctional Peace Officers Association
has launched a boycott of McClatchy Company advertisers in an effort to fight back against what it calls a 'personal attack' on the association by the Sacramento Bee's editorial board," writes Melanie Turner in the Business Journal.
"The PacoVilla blog, written by CCPOA members, wrote: '
When the Sacramento Bee's editorial board published a mean-spirited, personal attack upon CCPOA members asserting we are 'whiners' who don't do a very dangerous job at all, well, those are fighting words!'"
"The blog entry seems to refer to a Nov. 18 editorial with the headline, '
The cloak of victimhood.' The editorial said the union is 'using its formidable political warchest to run ominous television ads to put pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to do a repeat of the giveaway 2001-2006 prison guard contract.'"
"The PacoVilla blog indicates that guards are planning to picket in front of the McClatchy headquarters and Sacramento Bee offices at 2100 Q St. on Dec. 22. The union wants to pressure McClatchy advertisers, and boycott companies that advertise with McClatchy."
"The overseers of California's taxpayer-backed stem cell program
approved a plan Thursday to let commercial drug companies accept state research grants if they agree to share profits," writes the Chron's Carl Hall.
"The governing board of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine adopted interim rules covering for-profit intellectual property -- one of the most controversial areas of Proposition 71, the stem cell initiative state voters approved in November 2004."
"Consumer advocates complained that the rules don't go far enough in requiring drug companies and other for-profit enterprises to make therapies available at affordable prices for state health programs and people without adequate insurance. Those provisions have yet to be worked out, officials said."
"'It's not sufficient,' said
Susan Fogel, a health policy attorney in Los Angeles and coordinator of a group called the Pro-Choice Alliance for Responsible Stem Cell Research."
San Francisco may have
snubbed its bus shelters that were to smell like chocolate chip cookies, but the Big Apple is moving ahead with a plan to wrap its famous smell in a pine tree. "Move over Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson, and Hillary Duff. There's a new scent this holiday season, and it's just that:
the smell of holiday season. If you're wondering what exactly that means, just take a walk around the city today."
"That's because odoriffic company Marin's USA will be spraying down parts of Manhattan during the day with a custom scent created by ScentAndrea that apparently is a blend of holiday smells, or well, for the most part, the smell of pine.
The Christmas tree-like odor is expected to cover a span of 20 blocks -- from the Javits Center to Times Square to Rockafeller Center."
"The scent is a liquid that is dispersed through a small, keg-like machine from the bed of a red pickup truck that will be traveling around the city. The liquid will be misted into the air to bring some extra holiday cheer to pedestrians.
Or at least get rid of the smell of exhaust and that sporadic blast of sewer waste."
It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas...
