May Day"Surprisingly robust collections of personal income taxes this month
have brightened the state's budget picture by $1.3 billion -- easing concerns over a big shortfall next year," report Greg Lucas and Tom Chorneau in the Chron.
"Following a slowdown in the state's housing market and disappointing tax collections during the first two months this year, state fiscal officials had been bracing for a multi-billion dollar budget deficit.
"But a surge in personal tax payments processed by the state in the last week
pushed April collections to almost $12 billion -- far ahead of the $10.5 billion that had been predicted for the month.
"Administration officials warned Monday that personal tax collection is just one component of the budget picture and that concerns about a general slowdown in the economy remain."
"Worried about a potential disruption in bus services, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday
ordered the investigation of a wage dispute between the Orange County Transportation Authority and its bus drivers," reports Ellyn Pak in the Register.
"By stepping in, the governor ensured that it would be illegal for a strike to occur for one week.
"Union members of Teamsters Local 952 say the OCTA failed to meet demands over a new contract. The old one expired at midnight Monday.
"The OCTA had asked the Governor's Office to create a cooling-off period and appoint a board to investigate the dispute.
"'Our mission is to keep (passengers) moving, and that's how we're approaching this,' said OCTA chairwoman
Carolyn Cavecche. 'We're looking forward to this period and hopefully will get to work with the (coach operators).'"
"Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland,
suffered minor injuries in a traffic accident Friday, his staff said," writes Tom Chorneau in the Chron.
"Staff members could provide few details Monday about the incident, but a spokeswoman said Perata
was sore enough to cancel a lobbying trip this week to Washington, D.C."
Alicia Trost, Perata's press deputy, said he was driving by himself on Interstate 880 about 3:45 p.m. to a meeting when he was hit while stopped in traffic."
"California's top law officer -- Attorney General
Jerry Brown --
has raised $86,500 since January to fight an election-year lawsuit accusing him of failing to qualify for the statewide office he now holds," writes the Bee's Judy Lin.
"According to state disclosure forms filed Monday, Brown tapped three wealthy business executives -- including the president of Whole Foods -- who gave a combined $45,000 to Brown's Public Integrity Legal Defense Fund. The remaining cash was raised from various interest groups such as dentists, correctional officers and the Indian tribe that owns Thunder Valley Casino near Lincoln.
"Brown, a Democrat, is the latest politician to open a legal defense fund, which allows him to exceed campaign contribution limits without having to officially disclose the nature of his legal trouble.
"Brown's spokesman,
Gareth Lacy, said all contributions to the fund were used to defend Brown against "an election-year political trick" in which the Republican Party tried to have Brown declared ineligible to run for office."
Republican consultant
Tom Ross prepares for a post-Doolittle congress and
sees Sacramento Congressman Tom McClintock?
"An elected official that is rumored to be eyeing this seat is someone that represents an area more than 300 miles away. California conservative icon State Senator
Tom McClintock is rumored to be considering a run here from his Sacramento home even though he represents a district that covers Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties. McClintock is probably thinking that if
Dan Lungren can re-invent himself as a Sacramento-area Congressman then he can too."
Dan Walters writes that
Lou Papan's legacy extends beyond the chair of rules that saw through the Capitol remodel. "Papan's true legacy is not the refurbished Capitol, nor his reputation as a bare-knuckle political warrior, as colorful as it may have been, but rather as
a flesh-and-blood symbol of the Capitol's cultural evolution.
"Papan gave up his Assembly seat in 1986 to run for the state Senate but lost to a politician who was every bit as tough and irascible,
Quentin Kopp, an independent with Republican backing. A decade later, however, he returned to the Assembly with billboards and placards describing him as a "New Lou." Papan believed that as a battle-hardened political veteran, he could easily achieve power in a term-limited Assembly, only to learn that the newcomers -- especially the young Latinos and women -- didn't care. He was just another obscure backbencher for a few years before trying again, and failing again, to win a Senate seat.
"
It's questionable whether term-limited legislators are any more effective than their predecessors. There's no question, however, that they are neither as individualistic nor as interesting as Papan and other politicians of his political generation."
The AP's Don Thompson reports, "A private investigator who worked to get condemned inmates off death row
pleaded guilty Monday to forging documents to support their appeals.Kathleen Culhane, 40, admitted that she forged documents to try to stop the executions of four condemned inmates since 2002, including Michael Morales, who was sentenced to death for the 1981 rape and murder of a Central Valley teenager.
The plea agreement by the San Francisco-based investigator was entered in Sacramento County Superior Court and settles a case that the state attorney general called
the largest fraud ever against the state's criminal justice system.And it's time for some classic Roundup Rewind with the
return of Reggie the Alligator.
Stunned visitors at Lake Machado near the Harbor Freeway watched as Reggie resurfaced after an 18-month absence to spend 90 minutes leisurely gliding near a park observation deck.
"He looked back at us with a bewildered look in his eye," said eyewitness Mike Molina, an aide to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn.
"He showed himself for a couple of hours. I don't think any of us thought he was dead. I guess we'll have to call the gator-wrangling teams back," Hahn said as she inspected photos taken Monday of Reggie by park maintenance worker Todd Wales.
Professional alligator hunters, including a self-proclaimed gator expert uprooted from the swamps of Louisiana by Hurricane Katrina, and a team from Gatorland in Florida, spent months in 2005 unsuccessfully searching for Reggie after the creature was allegedly dumped in the lake by owners who considered him too big to keep.
The hurricane refugee,
Thomas "T-Bone" Quinn, had angered the Floridians by calling their use of a pontoon boat in the lake "retarded." Insulted, they piled ashore and headed for home, with Gatorland team leader Ted Williams sniffing: "I will not allow some swamp rat to walk into a situation and make comments…. I am not going to allow Gatorland to be referred to as 'retarded.' "
