Capitol Weekly reports on
Mitt Romney's visit to Sacramento -- and
the reason why he was in the Capitol, but didn't meet with Arnold Schwarzenegger.
"When Sen.
John McCain came to California in February, he and Arnold Schwarzenegger made a joint appearance before television cameras to discuss low-carbon fuel. When
Rudy Giuliani came out west earlier this month, he and the governor appeared in public together to discuss ways to reduce gang violence.
"But last week, when former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney came to Sacramento, Schwarzenegger sat in his office preparing for a press conference while Romney met GOP members of the Legislature upstairs in Sen.
Dick Ackerman's office.
"Both camps blamed 'scheduling conflicts.' 'Scheduling conflicts do occur,' says
Dan Schnur, who served as communications director for John McCain's 2000 campaign but is not working for any candidate seeking the White House in 2008.
But, he says, 'the bigger priority something is, the easier it is to overcome those conflicts.'"
"Declaring that California cannot meet federal soot reduction standards by a 2015 deadline, the state air board
has asked for a five-year extension that critics say will cut short lives and aggravate asthma and other health problems," writes Janet Wilson in the Times.
"'California's problem is unique in the nation,' with greater Los Angeles facing "the biggest challenge" in meeting the deadline with annual average measurements for soot exceeding national limits by 50%,
Katherine Witherspoon, executive director of the state Air Resources Board, wrote in a March 12 letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
"In her letter, Witherspoon blamed the timing of the EPA's new diesel engine standards, which were announced in draft form on March 3 after years of delay. She said the phase-in period for the rules between 2010 and 2017 "comes too late" to meet the 2015 soot-reduction deadline."
Meanwhile, while the state seeks a delay in complying with federal mandates, "California's two giant public pension funds
joined a coalition of institutional investors and corporate executives Monday to urge the White House and Congress to enact tough national curbs on greenhouse gas emissions," writes the Bee's Gilbert Chan.
Now, Alanis Morissette,
that's ironic.
"The group, asserting that global warming threatens the financial health of the U.S. economy and companies, called for legislation aimed at reducing greenhouse emissions by 60 to 90 percent below 1990 levels over the next five decades.
"Officials also urged the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to require that publicly traded companies disclose the potential financial threats and their strategies to reduce emissions.
"'Environmental risk is a tremendous business and investment risk. Without national policies the competitiveness of American business will be threatened,' said
Fred Buenrostro, chief executive officer of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest public fund with more than $230 billion in assets."
"Now that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill moving California's presidential primary election forward to February,
local officials must figure out how to pay for the change," reports Shaun Bishop in the Mercury News.
"And because the state will still hold its regular June primary for congressional, local and state legislative races, counties will have to cover the cost of the special presidential primary until the state can reimburse them - which could take years.
"The extra election will cost Santa Clara County an estimated $5.5 million and San Mateo County an estimated $1.5 million, officials said.
"Under the legislation, Senate Bill 113, which moves the primary to Feb. 5, 2008, the state is required to reimburse local governments for the cost of the election. But it took years for the state to repay counties for running the 2003 recall election that brought Schwarzenegger into office.
"'Obviously, from our standpoint, the sooner we can get reimbursed the better,' said
Elma Rosas, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters."
Well, if nothing else, moving the primary up improved the guest list at one party. Next month's state Democratic Party convention features an impressive list of headliners, including
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Barack Obama and Bill Richardson. Oh yeah,
Chris Dodd and
Dennis Kucinich will be there, too.
Dan Walters
criticizes the plan for a new law school at UC Irvine, which is being considered this week by the state's postsecondary education commission. "California does have critical infrastructure needs, and last year's bond issues were just a down payment. The politicians promised that the money would be spent on need, not by pull, but the initial allocation of highway funds hinged on political muscle, and a new law school at Irvine would be an even more obvious roll of the pork barrel."
Frank Russo reports on
some changes in the education world hierarchy. "On Sunday there was a bit of a surprise at the three day convention of the California Federation of Teachers.
In a contested election, the CFT elected, Marty Hittelman, a Professor of Mathematics at Los Angeles Valley College, over President Mary Bergan."Bergan has led the CFT since 1991, and is a revered and well liked figure in Sacramento and throughout the state. She has extensive political experience and personal relationships with elected officials earned by hard work in the vineyards of many campaigns."
And
Willie Brown was among the new members elected to the
national Board of Directors of the NAACP. ACcording to a press release, "was elected to represent Region I. Brown has been at the center of California politics, government and civic life for 40 years. From civil rights to education reform, tax policy, health care and affirmative action, Brown has left his mark. He currently heads the Willie L. Brown Jr. Institute on Politics and Public Service where he imparts knowledge and skills with a new generation of California leaders."
And finally, we have our answer to the age-old question, "
What does a girl have to do to get a first-class upgrade?"
The answer comes courtesy of the Associated Press. "A first-class passenger on a flight from Delhi to London awoke find the corpse of a woman who had died in the economy cabin being placed in a seat next to him, British Airways said Monday. The economy section of the flight was full, and the cabin crew needed to move the woman and her grieving family out of that compartment to give them some privacy, the airline said."
