"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
turned a radio faceoff Wednesday with conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh into a lengthy explanation of his own proposals, asserting that his plans to extend health care to the uninsured and raise the minimum wage improve people's lives," reports Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"The Republican governor barely let Limbaugh speak on his own program, a fact the radio host acknowledged after the 15-minute appearance. Limbaugh said that he had previously blamed first lady
Maria Shriver, a Democrat, for influencing the governor's views leftward but noted that 'after this interview I'm not sure Maria gets a word in edgewise.'
"Schwarzenegger called in to Limbaugh's program after calling the host "irrelevant" on NBC's "Today" show one day earlier. The conservative radio icon retorted that Schwarzenegger was "selling out" his Republican principles.
"The two ended their conversation cordially.
"Schwarzenegger said, '
We'll smoke a stogie together and we'll be talking about this from here to eternity. The key thing is that people should know that you and I, we don't have a fight.'
"Limbaugh said, 'I appreciated the time and I'll see you at the Grand Havana Club next time.'"
Capitol Weekly notes, "Arnold Schwarzenegger can't run for president, but
he has injected himself into the 2008 presidential race. The Republican governor has taken to national airwaves to preach the gospel of 'post-partisanship' around the country. But the events of the last week suggest that the governor could also be a convenient political foil for conservatives seeking votes in closed Republican primaries.
"Tongues wagged after the governor's appearance on the Today show Tuesday, when Schwarzenegger was asked about criticism from Rush Limbaugh, who harshly questioned Schwarzenegger's conservatism. "Rush Limbaugh is irrelevant. I am not his servant," the governor said. The next day, Schwarzenegger appeared on Limbaugh's radio program, clearing the air, staying on his "post-partisan" message and diffusing the vitriol from Limbaugh.
"Last week, former Massachusetts governor
Mitt Romney came to the Capitol. 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."
CW's Cosmo Garvin reports on
which legislators have endorsed in the 2008 presidential race.
"Speaker
Fabian Nuñez sent a message to members of the Democratic Caucus,
asking them to hold off on endorsing candidates. That led some to speculate that Nuñez was trying to put together a bloc of endorsements to deliver to one candidate.
"'Not true,' said
Steve Maviglio, the speaker's Deputy Chief of Staff. Maviglio said Nuñez did ask the Democratic caucus to wait on endorsements until the primary date was moved. 'First things first,' Maviglio said.
"Senator
Sheila Kuehl already has announced her support of
Hillary Clinton. Fiona Ma also has endorsed Clinton, and kicked in the maximum $2,300 allowable by election law into the Clinton campaign.
"Democratic Assembly members
Mervyn Dymally,
Sandre Swanson and
Loni Hancock all attended the
Barack Obama rally in Oakland last weekend, but that's not the same as endorsing.
"
Leland Yee has thrown his weight behind
John Edwards, as he did in the 2004 primary. And Assemblyman
Anthony Portantino is on board the Edwards bandwagon, as well."
"
AT&T has given $500,000 to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pet causes, six months after the governor signed a law lifting barriers to the company's bid to sell pay television service in California.
"The money went to After-School All-Stars, a tax-exempt group founded by Schwarzenegger in the early 1990s to provide tutoring, recreation and other programs to poor children.
"The organization's board includes some of Schwarzenegger's closest friends and aides, including
Bonnie Reiss, a former senior aide in his administration, and
Paul Wachter, his financial advisor.
"Government watchdog groups said the contribution underscores the eagerness of major corporations with business in Sacramento to curry favor with the governor.
"'It's all to the good for low-income kids, but it's also noted on AT&T's balance sheet in more ways than one,' said
Sheila Krumholz, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics in Washington, D.C. 'There is a benefit to [Schwarzenegger] regardless of his technical affiliation with the charity. It's one of the charities he supports, and so [the contribution] is certainly noted by the governor.'"
"The California State University faculty union announced this morning that its membership
overwhelmingly authorized labor leaders to call a strike if needed to pressure [CSU Chancellor
Charles] Reed and CSU's other top executives into end a stalemate over a new labor contract," writes Jim Doyle in the Chron.
"And at about the same time, state senators in Sacramento scolded Reed at an education subcommittee hearing for what they claimed were misleading statements last year from CSU executives over executive compensation issues.
"Sen.
Jack Scott, chairman of the Senate Education Committee, said lawmakers were assured by CSU executives last year that there were no executive compensation "irregularities" in the CSU system.
"'They said 'no.' However, just a few months later, in a series in the San Francisco Chronicle, we learned that various outgoing executives were entitled to rather unusual or questionable perks,' Scott said. 'Maybe we had a little difference as far as what irregularities means.'
"'We are committed, the CSU and the board, to as much accountability as we can possibly provide the Legislature and the people of California,' Reed said. 'We also want to have as much visibility as possible and we want the public to know what our business is.'
"Meanwhile, ninety-four percent of the union members who participated in the election voted to permit a strike, union President
John Travis said during a news conference at CSU Dominguez Hills. He said that 81 percent of the California Faculty Association's membership voted in the strike election on the university's 23 campuses.
"Union leaders said a strike could begin as early as the first week of April,
with a series of two-day rolling strikes on select campuses so as not to interfere significantly with students' preparation for exams."
The Chron's Greg Lucas looks at
the politics and style of Don Perata, in the wake of his Fred Flinstone-style lockout of three legislators. "Senate leader Don Perata's decision last week to lock three fellow Democratic senators out of their offices was viewed by critics as a heavy handed, and very public, way of disciplining lawmakers who disobeyed one of his edicts.
"But the tactic used by Perata came as no surprise to those who have watched the Oakland lawmaker's ascendancy. In nearly three years as Senate president pro tempore, Perata has developed a reputation for punishing political enemies -- not unlike television's Tony Soprano, whose show logo Perata once used on a fundraising invitation.
"'Sen. Perata is a former civics teacher who knows both policy and politics well,' said
Alicia Trost, Perata's press secretary. "He knows that being an effective public servant means wading into controversial issues and not shying away from tough decisions."
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan tells
the wild story of the Gabrielena Tongva tribe, and their quest for recognition, and a casino, in Los Angeles County.
"The Gabrielino/Tongva Tribe wants to build a casino in Los Angeles. So does the Gabrielino-Tongva Tribe. Both the "slash" and "hyphen" groups claim to be the legitimate tribal government of one of the oldest Indian bands in Southern California, and both are fighting each other in possibly one of the most complex legal disputes of the tribal-gaming era.
"'What's important is the success of the tribe,' said
Sam Dunlap, tribal secretary of the Gabrielino/Tongva Tribal Council. 'When you have colorful personalities involved, it clouds the issues.'
"On the "slash" side is Dunlap, 46, an experienced archeological technician, ex-Marine and ex-bounty hunter who converted to Islam three years ago. He said he served almost three years in prison for blowing up the Communist Party headquarters in Los Angeles in 1980. He and the other originally elected representatives are the only legitimate tribal leaders, Dunlap said, as shown in an October election certified by Talley and Company, the tribe's longtime accountants.
"On the "hyphen" side is
Jonathan Stein, 50, the Jewish attorney who spent six years trying to get a casino for the tribe. He is the group's CEO, working with a new set of tribal officers. The group lists his Santa Monica law offices as their headquarters.
"The two groups split after a September 9 confrontation between Dunlap and Stein. In a February 3 letter to Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti protesting a decision to allow Dunlap's group to use City Council chambers for a tribal membership meeting, Stein detailed several charges against Dunlap.
Stein wrote that Dunlap had made anti-Semitic comments and admitted visits to "Hezbollah-affiliated individuals." He went on to say Dunlap had tried to misappropriate $18,000 and that he had "Patriot Act concerns" over Dunlap's behavior."
Now that's politics...
CW's John Howard reports on the turf war underway as the governor tries to
merge the Office of Homeland Security and Office of Emergency Services.
"A California security czar responsible for handling floods, fires, quakes and terrorist attacks would be a cabinet-level official with law-enforcement power, answerable directly to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, under a deal that the governor is helping to negotiate.
"Behind the scenes, there is a struggle for primacy: Who will run the new, high-profile office?
"'It causes great anxiety among emergency-response professionals when there is no concise, crisp chain of command,' said Assemblyman
Pedro Nava.
'It's a very simple question that was asked during the Little Hoover Commission hearings: 'Who's in charge?' This sets up a single chain of command.'"
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger moved Wednesday to stem an exodus of psychiatrists and other employees from the Department of Mental Health to more lucrative jobs in the prison system
by ordering up $43 million in pay raises for them over the next two years," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"The pay hikes followed huge increases handed out to prison psychiatrists late last year by U.S. District Court Judge
Lawrence Karlton in the ongoing federal class-action case that covers mental health care in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
"Since the court-ordered pay raises went into effect, prison psychiatrists are now making upward of $252,000 a year. By contrast, DMH psychiatrists are earning only on the order of $144,000, according to figures provided by the agency's director,
Stephen Mayberg.
"'The governor was very concerned, very passionate about what's happening because of the ripple effect of decisions that are made by the courts about salaries,' Mayberg said. 'I think it's really sort of a dramatic commitment by the administration to deal with the impending crisis created by federal court decisions made with little thought about the implications for other parts of the system.'"
"The California Transportation Department
shielded from public view details of at least 290 contracts worth more than $13 million, though there is no record the agency was given authority to strike the information from state records, an Associated Press investigation has found," reports the Associated Press.
"The contracts -- labeled "confidential" and in many cases awarded without competitive bidding -- went out between 2002 and 2006 and ranged from $10,000 to more than $1 million. In some cases, they authorized payments of up to $7,000 per day to experts in various fields for their testimony or legal opinions.
"The General Services Department, which has authority over a huge tracking system of state contracts, requires agencies to seek permission before labeling records confidential.
"DGS said it received a request from the Transportation Department several years ago to withhold details of contracts tied to ongoing litigation. Such exemptions are permissible, but "we have not been able to locate any documents ... that prove conclusively that specific permission was granted," spokesman Bill Branch said in a statement."
"The state and the federal government
are arguing over a million Californians. The state says they exist. The U.S. Census Bureau says they don't," reports Mike Swift in the Merc News.
"The Census Bureau released population estimates today that say California remains the nation's most populous state with 36.5 million residents - including about 1.7 million in Santa Clara County and about 744,000 in the city and county of San Francisco.
"But figures from the state Department of Finance say there are 987,000 more people in 2006 than estimated by the Census Bureau. And some of the largest estimate gaps are in the Bay Area, with the state saying San Francisco, Santa Clara and Alameda counties each have about 60,000 more people than the Census Bureau estimates. That's roughly the population of Palo Alto for each county.
"The growing disparity is not just an arcane debate between demographers but has potentially costly consequences to the regions involved. As much as $200 billion in annual federal aid to the states is parceled out based on population estimates. Local planners and corporations use the numbers to decide where to build new fire stations, hospitals and shopping malls."
And finally, we turn to Moscow where, well, "A scantily clad, 32-year-old man was found dead early Monday
in a pool of blood in an owl cage at the Moscow Zoo.
"A bird keeper at the zoo found the man,
Alexander Luparev at about 10 a.m., lying in the cage, which is home to a Siberina long-tailed tawny owl.
"
Vladimir Zdorenko, deputy prosecutor at the Presnenskaya interdistrict prosecutor's office, said it was not clear what killed the man --‑blood loss from a blow to the head, or freezing to death.
"
Luparev's clothes were strewn across the concrete base of the cage. Also found were his documents, an undisclosed amount of money, and a half-empty, one-liter bottle of vodka."
At least he went out in style...
