"A consumer advocacy group is
demanding full disclosure of the details of an all-expenses-paid trip to Japan undertaken this week by three state legislators and two state regulators," reports Shane Goldmacher in the Bee.
"The state officials are accompanied by top executives from the industries -- energy and telecommunications -- they are charged with overseeing and regulating.
"The weeklong trip, detailed by The Bee on Tuesday, is underwritten by the California Foundation on the Environment and the Economy, a San Francisco nonprofit group not required by law to disclose its donors.
"'It was with great concern that we learned of your participation in a 'study trip' to a foreign country with the very companies you are charged with overseeing,' wrote
Carmen Balber of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, in letters to Assemblyman
Lloyd Levine, D-Van Nuys, and Sen.
Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego.
"Balber said her organization made similar requests of two other trip-goers,
Timothy Simon and
Rachelle Chong, members of the Public Utilities Commission, the state agency charged with regulating California's multibillion-dollar telecom and energy industries. A third lawmaker, Sen.
Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, is also on the trip.
"Lawmakers and regulators have defended the trip as worthwhile policy education. In letters justifying their participation, Chong and Simon wrote that 'a firsthand understanding of how other policymakers are addressing these issues is critical.'"
The LAT's Peter Nicholas
recaps the Japan and Europe trips.
Dan Weintraub
looks at the state's latest economic reports and warns "Schwarzenegger's January budget proposal counted on revenues to grow by almost $7 billion in the year that begins July 1. That money was going to support budget increases for the public schools, higher education and prisons. If revenues fall short, one or more of those programs is likely to suffer. Other possible options: run only a razor-thin reserve rather than the $2 billion the governor was counting on, or dip into a pool of borrowed money still available from a $15 billion deficit bond the voters approved in 2004.
"All of it is likely to add up to the worst economic news for Schwarzenegger since he took office."
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan looks into the
clean-up efforts at the chiropractic board. "The Department of Consumer Affairs has assigned a manager with a long history of fixing troubled bureaucracies to begin the task of cleaning up the Board of Chiropractic Examiners. The board has been roiled by disclosures of impropriety and infighting for several weeks."
"Capitol Weekly also has learned that the former chairwoman of the board, Dr.
Sharon Ufberg, was accused of practicing without a license while sitting on the board during 2001. The allegations were among those detailed in one of two lawsuits pending against board managers by current and former staff members. Reached by phone in New York, Ufberg refused to reply to questions on the matter.
"In the Legislature, meanwhile, political lines are being drawn: Assemblyman
Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, called on the resignation or dismissal of three board members, all Republicans.
"The once-obscure state board has been in the news since a contentious March 1 board meeting in which several members appointed by Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger attempted to fire the board's executive director,
Catherine Hayes. The board includes two close friends from the governor's bodybuilding days,
Richard Tyler and
Franco Columbu."
"On the eve of the government's final review of BHP Billiton's proposed $800 million liquefied-natural-gas project off the Southern California coast,
questions are being raised about the extent of the A-list connections between the Schwarzenegger administration and the LNG industry," reports John Howard in Capitol Weekly.
"Current and former members of the administration dismiss the possibility that the BHP Billiton project will be decided on anything other than the merits of the case. The governor's office notes that Schwarzenegger is carefully weighing the pros and cons of the project. But critics, led by local governments and coastal environmentalists, are skeptical.
"'There is a tremendous amount of overlap here,' said
Susan Jordan of the California Coastal Protection Network. Her Santa Barbara-based group opposes the proposal, which calls for a floating LNG terminal located 13.8 miles off the coast between Malibu and Oxnard. The plant would heat frozen LNG brought in from overseas, turn it into gas, then pump the gas through a pair of submerged pipelines to land."
"A number of top officials and advisers--including at least one former state senator--who specialize in energy have migrated to the gas industry.
"Last year,
Joe Desmond, once the governor's top energy adviser and chairman of the California Energy Commission, left to join NorthernStar Natural Gas after he was unable to win Senate confirmation.
David Maul, a ranking state natural-gas expert who ran the CEC's Natural Gas and Projects office, left to join Esperanza Energy, which is proposing an LNG facility off Long Beach.
Richard Costigan, the governor's former legislative-affairs secretary and once the state Chamber of Commerce's chief lobbyist, has gone to Manatt Phelps & Phillips, a well-known national law firm with a client list that includes LNG companies. Also at Manatt Phelps is attorney
George Kieffer, former co-chairman of Schwarzenegger's re-election committee and formerly a personal attorney to
Maria Shriver. Kieffer, too, has represented LNG interests. Another Manatt Phelps attorney is former state Sen.
Martha Escutia, who Capitol sources say has been pushing hard for the BHP project.
"'Everybody's lobbying everybody,' said one person familiar with the inner workings of the administration who is critical of the project. BHP Billiton spent some $2.7 million on lobbying through 2005-06."
Meanwhile, in Oxnard, "[c]ritics outnumbered supporters of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal by more than 2 to 1 during the
first of three final public hearings on the fate of the controversial project," reports Charles Levin in the Ventura County Star.
"At issue is BHP Billiton's floating Cabrillo Port, which would accept supercooled natural gas 13.8 miles off the Ventura County coast and then pipe it ashore.
"Wednesday's hearing was held by the Coast Guard and Federal Maritime Administration, the latter being one of three agencies required to approve the plan.
"Maritime Administrator
Sean Connaughton has until July 3, or 90 days, to approve or reject the project.
"He cannot approve it without Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also giving it a thumbs up. Schwarzenegger has 45 days, or until May 21, to make a decision."
"A Florida medical services company
has filed a motion in federal court accusing prison medical care czar Robert Sillen of withholding $2.6 million in payments from the firm but still ordering it to stay on the job or he would make sure the company 'never works in California again,'" writes the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Medical Development International's lawyers said the company wants to intervene in the class-action case that resulted in Sillen's appointment 'for the sole purpose (of) seeking instructions concerning its dealings with the receiver.'
"'I thought the whole idea was to raise the prison health care system to constitutionally acceptable levels,' MDI President and Chief Executive Officer
Richard R. Willich said in a prepared statement Wednesday. 'MDI is part of that solution and achieves that goal.'
"Sillen's spokeswoman,
Rachael Kagan, declined to comment because the receiver's office hadn't seen the MDI motion."
"The
most likely candidate to win the Senate 25th District seat isn't even in the race," reports CW's Cosmo Garvin. "Yet."
"That's one conclusion you could draw from an early, very early, poll showing that
Karen Bass could steal the election from the crowded field of Democrats already in the race.
"The Senate 25th included several Los Angeles-area communities, including Compton, Inglewood, parts of Long Beach and Palos Verdes Estates. Assemblyman
Mervyn Dymally has declared his candidacy, as have former Assembly members
Rod Wright and
Jerome Horton. Relative newcomer
Kevin Biggers is also in the race.
"Bass, who is beginning her third year in the Assembly and who serves as majority leader of that house, is not a candidate for the 25th. 'I'm surprised. I heard about a poll, but I didn't know much about it,' Bass told Capitol Weekly.
"The poll was commissioned by EdVoice, a nonprofit organization interested in public-school reform, at the suggestion of labor and environmental groups that are watching the race. EdVoice political director
Paul Mitchell said that before he got the poll results, he figured Bass was a long shot."
From our
Two Left Feet Files: "A woman is
suing her dance partner, claiming he dropped her on her head after flipping her into the air at an office party.
"
Lacey Hindman, 22, was a victim of 'negligent dancing,' says her lawyer,
David M. Baum.
"In the suit, Hindman claims that during a party at a Chicago bar and restaurant in April 2006,
David Prange grabbed her by the forearms and tossed her in the air, and then she crashed to the wood floor.
"'I was in the air, over him,' Hindman said. 'I fell hard enough you could hear the impact of me hitting the floor over the sound from the jukebox.'
"Hindman said in the suit, filed in Cook County Circuit Court, that she suffered a fractured skull and brain injuries. She is seeking damages for medical bills and lost wages for time missed from work."
Patrick Swayze is expected as an expert witness.
