"State Sen.
Carole Migden revealed for the first time Wednesday that she has been battling leukemia for nearly 10 years and said the medication she takes could have been a factor in her erratic freeway driving last week that the California Highway Patrol is investigating," reports Greg Lucas in the Chron.
"Migden was involved in as many as three accidents on Friday, twice hitting the center divider on Interstate 80 and then rear-ending a car that was slowing to make a stop near Fairfield, according to the CHP. The driver of the car Migden collided with suffered minor injuries.
"In an interview with The Chronicle, Migden said she remembers being distracted while using her cell phone immediately before the rear-end collision, but she said she does not remember hitting the freeway median.
"'
My only explanation is that it is medically related in some way,' said Migden, 56, who represents San Francisco and Marin County.
"Migden's announcement about the illness she had concealed for nearly a decade comes as CHP officials are widening their investigation into her driving. Officials have been reviewing 911 calls of motorists who saw Migden driving Friday and described her state-leased Toyota SUV as traveling erratically.
"Migden said that over the course of battling her illness, she has not experienced a similar sense of disorientation while driving. The medication Migden is taking, Gleevec, has not been associated with the kind of behavioral problems she described, but the disease itself can cause neurological symptoms, according to an independent oncologist interviewed by The Chronicle."
Capitol Weekly previews
next week's suspense file hearings in both Appropriations committees.
"Both the Senate and Assembly will hold hearings next week to determine the fate of hundreds of millions of dollars of legislators' pet projects.
Hundreds of bills will be heard in a matter of hours. Votes will be taken without testimony from a single witness. It is a highly-choreographed event, as much a part of the ritual of state government as the May Revise or the State of the State address."Assembly Appropriations Chairman
Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, says he will be "working through the weekend" to determine which bills will come off the suspense file in his committee. Leno will huddle with Appropriations staff, including chief consultant Geoff Long, and key members of the speaker's staff to help coordinate next week's hearing.
"Assembly Republican Leader
Mike Villines, R-Fresno,
says the suspense file is also a tool used by the majority party to remind everyone who's in charge. "It is much more political than it is policy. For Republicans, there's no rhyme or reason as to which bills make it to the floor and which ones don't," he says.
"'
A lot of times the suspense calendar is used as a reminder of who's the majority and who's not,' says Villines.
John Howard reports on
a defeated measure from Nicole Parra that could turn into a ballot initiative.
"The battleground, a familiar one in the Capitol, pits business and corporate interests on one side against lawyers, organized labor and consumer activists on the other. Like Proposition 64 of 2004, the proposal would limit access to the courts by plaintiffs' attorneys and their allies. But unlike the earlier plan, the latest proposal would reduce the ability of attorneys to file class actions, the lawsuits that represent large numbers of people alleging corporate wrongdoing.
"The bill, AB 1505 by Assemblywoman
Nicole Parra, was summarily defeated this month in the Assembly Judiciary Committee. The death of the bill, which
would have made it more difficult to file class actions, came as little surprise in the Democrat-controlled Legislature."
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan on a
battle between advocates for the blind and Sen. Tom Torlakson.
"For years, Senator
Tom Torlakson has been trying to get healthier snacks into vending machines on state property. And for years, groups representing the blind have been fighting to stop him.
"This may sound like a highly unusual battle, but there's a simple explanation: Since 1937, blind vendors in California have had the right to operate thousands of snack-vending machines on state property.
"This law, passed in 1936 as the nation was seeking to grow jobs and recover from the Great Depression, gave blind people preferences in running vending machines on public property. Most states in the country now have blind vendors, said
Michael Hatch, chairman of the California Vendors Policy Committee, a state government agency that governs California's blind vendors.
"
The law also created a nationwide interest group. Hatch and others say that mandates to stock healthy snacks cut into their income while doing little to promote public health, for the simple reason that healthy snacks don't sell.
"'You can't force the public to buy healthier choice items,' Hatch said. 'We can't create the demand.'"
Dan Morain writes that
the fight over tribal compacts has entered the presidential race, as Democratic candidates are balking over a proposed debate at Morongo.
"Only two presidential candidates -- New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson and former Alaska Sen.
Mike Gravel -- have agreed to take part in the "Prez on the Rez" event planned for Aug. 23 at the Morongo casino-resort near Banning.
Tribal leaders suspect that labor unions are discouraging candidates from appearing until more worker concessions are incorporated into the compacts.
"
Kalyn Free of the Indigenous Democratic Network, which is sponsoring the debate, said candidates' failure to attend could determine who Native Americans supported and how much the deep-pocket tribes spent in the campaign.
"'
Tribal leaders are going to remember who came to 'Prez on the Rez' and, more importantly, who didn't,' Free said.
"In proposing a forum at Morongo, Free stepped into the middle of a years-long fight over efforts to organize casino workers. It comes as Morongo and four other Southern California tribes seek legislative approval to more than double the size of their casinos, an effort stalled in part because of labor opposition.
"Free said the top candidates had not responded because of pressure by a union, Unite Here, which is trying to organize casino workers at Morongo and elsewhere. The union denies seeking a boycott.
"'I'm aware,' said
Jack Gribbon, the union's California political director, 'that there may be a Democratic presidential candidate or two who is concerned about the ongoing struggle in California over enforceable workers rights.
However, to say that Unite Here has specifically asked that candidates not attend is not true.'"
"If California builds a bullet train system -- and that's a big if --
the first segment would run from Anaheim to San Francisco with stops in Los Angeles and Fresno, but not in Sacramento or San Diego," writes E.J. Schultz in the Bee.
"The High Speed Rail Authority approved the first phase Wednesday on a 5-2 vote, even as serious financing questions remain on the $40 billion-plus project.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to delay public financing until private investors step to the plate, but two Democratic-controlled budget subcommittees voted this week to make a significant commitment in taxpayer dollars next year.
"The authority also is hoping for a big share of federal dollars. But no one knows how much Congress might be willing to spend.
"As envisioned, the rail line would eventually run from San Diego to as far north as Sacramento, with trains reaching top speeds of more than 200 miles per hour. The authority voted to tackle the Anaheim-to-San Francisco line first, saying the route through the fast-growing San Joaquin Valley would produce the highest ridership and revenue."
"California
will face a serious shortage of skilled workers within 20 years if it continues to rely on importing college-educated foreign workers or out-of-state workers, according to a
report issued Wednesday by the Public Policy Institute of California," reports Susan Ferriss in the Bee.
"The report projects that two of every five jobs will require a college degree by 2025 -- up from one in three today. Therefore, the study warns, the state should boost the number of homegrown California college graduates.
"'If education levels in the state don't catch up, the economy will adjust in one way or another,' by downgrading, said economist and study co-author
Deborah Reed."
And finally, we bring you the story of a German man who was pulled over for driving erratically. The cops found him to be at 10-times the legal limit, but didn't impound his vehicle. That's because
the vehicle in questions was a wheelchair.
"Police said that because the man was technically traveling as a pedestrian, he could not be charged with a driving offence.
"'It's not like we can impound his wheelchair,' the spokesman said. 'But he is facing some sort of punishment. It's just not clear yet what exactly that will be.'"
