"After repeatedly being asked about his conservative critics, including talk show host
Rush Limbaugh, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dropped his diplomatic veneer Tuesday and
declared their views irrelevant to his work in California," reports Robert Salladay in the Times.
"'
All irrelevant. Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant,' the governor said on NBC's 'Today' show.
"Limbaugh then declared on his radio program that Schwarzenegger, lacking the communications skills to persuade Californians of his Republican values, had sold them out.
"'
If he had the leadership skills to articulate conservative principles and win over the public as [former President] Reagan did, then he would have stayed conservative,' said Limbaugh, who is often seen as the embodiment of all conservative viewpoints.
"In the NBC interview, Schwarzenegger said he was 'the people's servant of California. What they call me — Democrat or Republican or in the center, this and that — that is not my bottom line. This is for them to talk about.'"
Now, it appears that
Schwarzenegger will appear on Limbaugh's radio show today, presumably to make peace...
Bob Salladay has the lowdown on
Tom Arnold's appearance on Conan O'Brien last night And the subject of teh gov's broken leg came up...
"'I can't say what he really did. He was getting ready to ski,' said Arnold. '
Maria brought him some really hot chocolate - she's a great wife - and it was so hot that he thought that she was trying to kill him. He got mad ... and he fell down.'
"Arnold then poked fun at Schwarzenegger's claims of refusing heavy medication. (The governor said he was cutting down on pain killers.) 'He went to the (inauguration) dance - he wasn't supposed to go - and he gets up on stage with the band and sings and dances and throws his crutched down. He was hurting the next day because the thing about Vicodin that he doesn't know, is you can't dance, you have to take it every day.'
"Arnold stopped and said: 'He's not on it now, he's gonna take aspirins. ... Oh my God, I'm gonna get calls tomorrow.'"
Capitol Weekly's John Howard reports on
the Air Resources Board's abrupt about-face on rules pertaining to soot.
"The ranking staff executive of California's Air Resources Board, under intense pressure from others in Gov. Schwarzenegger's administration and environmentalists, abruptly reversed position and withdrew a request that the Bush administration ease federal pollution rules.
"
Catherine Witherspoon, the ARB's executive officer, on March 12 asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a five-year delay to meet federal soot-reduction rules. The federal government had ordered the soot cutbacks by 2015, but Witherspoon said California needed more time, until 2020.
"But on Tuesday, Witherspoon told the U.S. EPA that she wanted to 'withdraw my letter.'
"'That letter was misinterpreted by several stakeholders in California as an official petition for a five-year delay to the current 2015 deadline…which was not my intent,' Witherspoon said.
"The sharpest criticism of the March 12 letter had come from
Dean Florez, D-Shafter, who heads the Senate Governmental Organization Committee."
"For the first time in five years, a bipartisan group of California Assembly members - 24 Democrats and eight Republicans -
lobbied Congress and the Bush administration this week, with more equitable federal funding as their chief goal," reports Frank Davies in the Mercury News.
"'It's more effective to work together and step up the fight to get California its fair share of federal dollars,' said Speaker
Fabian Nuñez, a Los Angeles Democrat, who was joined by seven other members at a news conference Tuesday during their three-day trip.
"Nuñez and
Mike Villines of Fresno, the Republican leader in the Assembly, said one prime topic with members of Congress was to increase funding for the incarceration of illegal immigrants, which costs the state about $750 million a year. Currently, federal reimbursement covers about a third of that.
"'Delivering for California on this is something we can all agree on,' Villines said. 'We hope some of the bipartisan spirit in Sacramento rubs off on Washington.'"
Dems are also meeting with the Democrats' "big three" presidential candidates, oh, and
this guy.
Meanwhile, "[l]egislative Republicans called Tuesday for quick action to resolve the state's prison overcrowding crisis, but they suggested
they're ready to throw up a fairly substantial roadblock to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to add more than 16,000 beds to the system," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Appearing at a news conference with his GOP colleagues, state Sen.
Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, said he could not support any expansion plan unless it also included a method to mitigate the effects that inmate population growth would have on surrounding prison towns.
"'We frankly think it's inherently unfair for the state of California to dump its prisoners into small rural towns and not consider the adverse affect prisons have on nearby communities,' Cox said, citing local issues such as traffic, sewage and schools."
Furillo also reports: "The prison medical czar
blasted the Department of General Services in his quarterly report issued Tuesday, charging that the state contracting agency has hindered a private pharmaceutical provider's efforts to improve the correctional agency's drug-purchasing process.
"To resolve the situation, the federal court-appointed prison medical care receiver,
Robert Sillen, said in the report that he has moved to take over the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation's $192 million-per-year drug contracting operation in its entirety.
"'It is apparent to the Receiver and his staff that DGS has neither the skill nor the interest in effectively managing pharmaceutical purchases in a manner consistent with CDCR prison/patient's best interest,' the receiver's 92-page report said.
"'It is also clear that the CDCR's budget has been adversely impacted by the manner in which DGS approaches contract negotiations and the manner by which DGS has failed to monitor actual purchases.'"
"A controversial
plan to build two large dairy farms near one of the state's most significant monuments to black history was approved today by the Tulare County Board of Supervisors," writes the Chron's Leslie Fulbright.
"After 20 people spoke in opposition to the plan, the board voted 4-0 to approve the proposal for two 160-acre dairies across the road from the Col. Allensworth State Historic Park. One supervisor abstained.
"Park supporters fear that the smell and flies that come with most dairy operations will drive away the thousands of guests who visit the park each year and render its many annual events and reunions unpleasant.
"Busloads of people -- primarily African Americans -- have attended meetings since October to voice opposition to the dairies and offer support for the park, which is a four-hour drive southeast from San Francisco."
"The California Postsecondary Education Commission
voted 8-3 Tuesday against construction of a $70 million law school at the University of California, Irvine," writes Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"The vote apparently deals a severe blow to plans for the proposed 92,000-square-foot facility to accommodate 600 students.
"
Murray Haberman, executive director of the Postsecondary Education Commission, said UC regents conceivably could opt to push the project despite the commission's vote.
"But substantial funding must come from the state, and never before have the Legislature and governor approved a school of that magnitude without the commission's support, Haberman said.
"In rejecting the Irvine project, the commission concluded that existing schools supply more than enough lawyers to meet market demand, he said."
That brings us to our
Roundup Lawyer Joke Intermission! The devil visited a lawyer's office and made him an offer. "I can arrange some things for you," the devil said. "I'll increase your income five-fold. Your partners will love you; your clients will respect you; you'll have four months of vacation each year and live to be a hundred. All I require in return is that your wife's soul, your children's souls, and their children's souls rot in hell for eternity."
The lawyer thought for a moment. "What's the catch?" he asked.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
"The
battle over February's contested Orange County Board of Supervisors election heads to court today, with a judge expected to name a winner by week's end," writes the LAT's Mike Anton.
"At stake is not only whether
Janet Nguyen or
Trung Nguyen will become the next 1st District supervisor representing central Orange County. The case before Orange County Superior Court Judge
Michael Brenner is also likely to set a legal precedent by addressing a contradiction in the state's election code on recounting ballots cast electronically.
"Trung Nguyen won the Feb. 6 election by seven votes, a victory overturned after a recount requested by Janet Nguyen swung the vote to seven in her favor.
"Trung Nguyen sued, contending, in part, that there wasn't a full recount because the paper records of election-day electronic votes weren't counted by hand, as one section of the election code requires. Registrar of Voters
Neal Kelley allowed Janet Nguyen to choose how the electronic vote was counted based on another section of the code that leaves the decision up to the candidate paying for the recount."
And a big Roundup congrats to Utah high schooler
Katherine Tuck, who, it has been determined, has
the smelliest shoes in America/.
"Thirteen-year-old Katharine Tuck's sneakers are equal opportunity offenders. They smell as bad as they look. Now, the Utah seventh grader is $2,500 richer because of it: On Tuesday, she out-ranked six other children to win the 32nd annual National Odor-Eaters Rotten Sneaker Contest, stinking up the joint with a pair of well-worn 1 1/2-year-old Nikes so noxious they had the judges wincing.
"'I'm so proud of the little stinker,' said her mother,
Paula Tuck."
