"A federal judge
declined to take the first step Monday toward imposing a population cap on the state's overcrowded prison system, but warned lawyers for the state that he will consider a limit next summer if prison conditions do not improve," reports Mark Martin in the Chron.
"U.S. District Judge
Lawrence Karlton delayed for six months a request by lawyers representing inmates, as he noted that a court-ordered cap on the number of inmates that could be sent to prison is 'a very radical step.'"
"While Karlton agreed that overcrowding is probably hindering mental health care, he said he is not yet willing to consider a cap."
"'What is suggested by the plaintiffs is a very big step,' he said, and 'the consequences are very serious.'"
"The prison system now houses more than 172,000 inmates, with many prisons packed at more than 200 percent capacity. Inmates have been forced to sleep outside and on floors in some prisons."
"Labor's long-running feud with Sutter Health spilled into the bond financing arena as a key state panel
dealt the hospital chain a setback to issue nearly $1 billion in tax-exempt bonds," writes Gilbert Chan in the Bee.
"Sutter officials Monday were weighing their options to finance a series of hospital seismic upgrades and construction projects, including a $69 million expansion at Sutter Roseville Medical Center."
"'We're not certain what happens next. If we don't have access to these tax-exempt bonds, our costs ... would be higher,' said
Bill Gleeson, spokesman for the Sacramento-based hospital chain and medical provider."
"The setback surfaced last Thursday after the California Health Facilities Financing Authority postponed a decision on Sutter's $958 million bond issue until next year."
"After heavy lobbying by labor leaders, board representatives for Democratic Treasurer
Phil Angelides, Controller
Steve Westly and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez voted 4-3 for the delay. The panel also called for beefing up state rules to ensure hospitals pass onto consumers any savings generated through tax-exempt funding. Authority officials said the review could be completed by mid-2007."
"Two prominent candidates for the Los Angeles City Council's 7th District seat
dropped out of the race Monday and both said they would support their former opponent, Assemblyman
Richard Alarcon (D-Panorama City)."
"
Felipe Fuentes, the chief of staff to former Councilman
Alex Padilla, personally distributed a statement in City Hall saying that he was quitting the race. Two hours later, former Assemblywoman
Cindy Montañez sent an e-mail saying that she, too, would not run."
"In 1993, Alarcon was the first Latino elected to the City Council in decades. But he left midway through his second term in 1999 after his election to the state Senate."
"Returning to the council would mean a pay raise: Alarcon makes $110,880 in the Assembly and
would make $171,168 if he were elected to the council. He moved into the district in November from Sun Valley in order to be eligible for the race."
"Both cited the same reason: they did not want to participate in a race against Alarcon -- a former councilman and state senator -- that Fuentes and Montañez said would fracture the 7th District in the northeast San Fernando Valley."
Now, let's see if they can agree on who is best to serve the 38th Assembly District after Alarcon leaves. Fuentes wants to run, and Montanez has one more term left to serve...
The LAT resume its
investigation of GOP congressman Gary Miller. "Miller has made [many moves] over the years in which he
brought his congressional muscle to bear on personal business matters, according to the former staff members and the correspondence from Miller's congressional office — handwritten notes, letters on Miller's congressional letterhead and e-mails," reports William Heisel.
"All four former staff members requested anonymity to protect their current jobs in politics. 'There was never a clear line in the office between what was congressional business and what was just business," one former aide said. "The expectation was that you would do both.'
"A real estate developer and
one of the wealthiest members of Congress, Miller, 58, routinely asked his staff to handle personal errands, such as helping his children with schoolwork, searching for rock concert tickets and sending flowers to family members and friends, according to documents reviewed by The Times."
"California Treasurer-elect
Bill Lockyer on Monday
chose a former De La Rosa & Co. investment banker to take charge of handling bond sales for the state, which is the largest issuer of tax-free municipal bonds in the U.S."
"
Paul Rosenstiel, 56, was picked by Lockyer to direct the treasurer's public finance unit. Rosenstiel managed the San Francisco office of De La Rosa, a Los Angeles-based municipal bond underwriter, until last year, when he left to become the policy director for
Steve Westly's unsuccessful Democratic primary campaign for governor."
"Lockyer's decision places Rosenstiel in charge of selling the record $43 billion of bonds approved by California voters last month to raise funds for construction on roads, waterways and other projects. The bonds were approved as voters also elected Lockyer, currently the state's attorney general, to replace fellow Democrat
Phil Angelides as treasurer."
Meanwhile, let the spending begin! "Caltrans on Monday recommended that several Southern California counties
receive more than $2.2 billion from part of the governor's infrastructure bond to widen freeways and ease congestion," report the LAT's David Reyes and Jean Guccione.
"Orange County had sought $618 million from the state to help pay for projects on the 405, 22 and 91 freeways. the California Department of Transportation recommended $405 million in state funds. As expected,
Los Angeles County headed the list of Caltrans recommendations, with $1.5 billion in requests, down from 1.7 billion sought by the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority for various projects.
From our
Don't Let There Be Light Files: "Officials at the University of California Los Angeles
alerted about 800,000 current and former students, faculty and staff on Tuesday that their names and certain personal information were exposed after a hacker broke into a campus computer system," writes Brooke Donald for the AP.
If only UC could be so forthcoming with compensation information.
"The attacks on the database began in October 2005 and ended Nov. 21 of this year, when computer security technicians noticed suspicious database queries, according to a news release posted on a school Web site set up to answer questions about the theft."
"Acting Chancellor
Norman Abrams said in a letter to those affected, posted on the site, that while the database includes Social Security numbers, home addresses and birth dates, there is no evidence any data have been misused."
And from our
He will say many bad things, but that is because he is a liar Files, it's now official:
Borat, 1; Frat Boys, 0. "Two college fraternity buddies shown guzzling alcohol and making racist remarks in the "Borat" movie have lost their bid for a court order to cut the scene they claim has tarnished their reputations, court papers revealed on Monday."
"The students sued the movie's distributor and producers last month, saying filmmakers had duped them into appearing in "Borat" by getting them drunk and falsely promising the film would never be shown in the United States."
To celebrate the verdict, and since the members are still not around, we've included
this link to help kill some time.
