The president of California heads to Canada for a trade mission today, and gets this
critical analysis in the Bee from Kevin Yamamura.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will head to Canada today for a three-day trade mission with California business leaders that will be
largely financed by undisclosed private donors.
"The three-city tour will be Schwarzenegger's first official visit to Canada. In Toronto and Vancouver, the governor plans to visit supermarkets to extol California produce, liquor stores to promote California wine and provincial leaders to sign agreements to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He also is scheduled to meet Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Wednesday in Ottawa."
"
The governor's trip will be financed by the California State Protocol Foundation, a tax-exempt organization not required to disclose its donors. California Chamber of Commerce leaders, including President Allan Zaremberg, serve as the group's officers."
The Bee's Jim Sanders reports on
tensions surrounding the convoluted term-limits/redistricting/arms-for-hostages deal being negotiated in the Legislature.
"
In a Capitol where arm-twisting and posturing are sport, this is the Super Bowl.
"Big-time players, massive stakes and layer upon layer of complex strategy are focused on fundamental changes to state politics. Democratic and Republican legislative leaders agree conceptually on asking voters to modify term limits and change how political districts are drawn.
"
Behind the scenes, however, controversy rages.
"Neither party trusts the other, both are wary of a sucker punch, and each fears the other is pushing for partisan advantage."'A couple of days ago, I was saying the odds of reaching agreement were 50-50," Senate Republican leader Dick Ackerman said. "As time goes by, those odds get worse."
"
The goal is to place redistricting and term-limit proposals on the Feb. 5 ballot and have Schwarzenegger and leaders of both parties campaign for them, much as they did for last year's bond measures."Lawmakers concede that any ballot measure must be crafted to avoid big-money opposition, a political necessity that creates
leverage for labor unions, business groups and Indian tribes, among others, in negotiations on separate issues ranging from health care to gambling compacts."
The U-T's Bill Ainsworth
takes a look at the governor's health care plan.
"
The Schwarzenegger plan requires everyone to buy insurance. Although that mandate hasn't received the same amount of attention generated by other parts of Schwarzenegger's proposal, it is a crucial component.
"Schwarzenegger argues that the best way to cut costs is to eliminate what he calls the 'hidden tax' – higher premiums that insurance companies charge to cover the higher fees of hospitals struggling with losses from treating the uninsured, including expensive emergency room visits.
"
At least 15 percent of Californians don't have health insurance."
Dan Walters
focuses in on the notion of the "hidden Tax.""The New America Foundation, an advocate of expanded health coverage, developed the concept and the phrase last year, contending that in California, health insurance premiums are about 10 percent higher than they should be -- nearly $1,200 per year for a typical family -- because hospitals and other health care providers must cover the costs of treating those without insurance."
"
Clearly, the governor and others who advocate some form of state-sponsored health insurance want the notion of a "hidden tax" to become ingrained in the public and media psyche to justify the imposition of unhidden taxes. But there's a fly in the ointment -- a new study by economists at Stanford University's Hoover Institution that proclaims the New America Foundation calculations to be inflated."
Uh oh!
Dueling think tanks!Walters continues" "New America Foundation is not a disinterested party, and it would be foolhardy to base far-reaching policies with multibillion-dollar consequences on its assertions without engaging in truly independent fact-finding -- or we may wind up with one of those expensive, unworkable monstrosities that politicians sometimes foist upon us.
Well, now we know why Herb Wesson isn't running for supervisor. Rick Orlov reports, "Council President
Eric Garcetti, winding up his first two-year term as head of the 15-member body,
is looking over his shoulder for potential challengers.
"Garcetti, who succeeded former Councilman Alex Padilla by promising he'd allow other members to play a greater role, is
particularly concerned at the prospect of a challenge by Councilman Herb Wesson.
"Wesson, a former state Assembly speaker who is no stranger to power politics, demurs on the subject but can't help grinning at the possibility."
"'I haven't decided what I want to do,' Wesson said. '
I'm not unhappy with Eric as president, but I have to say I don't mind people thinking about me as running for mayor or council president. It makes them take you more seriously.'"
From our
Calling Their Bluff Files, the U-T's James Sweeney reports, "To the surprise of many, the Schwarzenegger administration and the chairman of California's gambling commission recently declared that
the state has all the legal authority it needs to step in and restore basic operating standards for Indian casinos.
"
The stance offered a fresh counterargument to Assembly Democrats who say pending gambling agreements for five big Southern California tribes must be reopened to address the loss of federal guidelines tossed out by a federal court."The new gambling agreements, or compacts, are worth billions of dollars to the five tribes, which include Sycuan of El Cajon and Pechanga of Temecula. The state would receive a sizable cut, projected at more than $22 billion over the 23-year life of the deals.
But
echoes from the past, when an angry debate over the state's regulatory reach all but consumed the gambling commission, could undercut the administration's recent assertion and blunt any impact it might have on the stalled compacts."
The LAT's Margot Roosevelt reports on a bill in the Assembly that could move people toward using
solar energy to provide hot water to their houses.
"A bill aimed at making such heating systems widely available is expected to move through the state Assembly's Appropriation Committee on Wednesday and to the full body next week.
"But the bill, which
would offer $250 million in incentives to build 200,000 solar water systems statewide over the next 10 years, is running into opposition from gas and electric companies. They don't want the plan funded through a surcharge on residential and commercial gas bills."
"Studies by KEMA-Xenergy, an energy consulting firm, show that using solar systems in California homes and businesses with access to sunlight could cut the use of residential natural gas by about 24% and reduce total statewide consumption by more than 5%, said Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the bill's author.
"'This is one of the simplest, easiest steps we can take to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels,' Huffman said."
From our
Letting the Gazelle out of the Barn Files, the Times' Carla Hall looks at
what to do in a zoo during a fire.
"As fire raged in Griffith Park, coming as close as half a mile to the southern side of the Los Angeles Zoo, staffers did what their emergency plan instructed them to do: They focused on securing the animals in exhibits near that edge of the facility.
"Zookeepers began shepherding four Speke's gazelles, a diminutive type of antelope, into their off-exhibit barn. But
one of the gazelles apparently didn't get the memo on fire procedures. He balked. So as the park burned, keepers let him be.
"The bottom line is this:
In a conflagration, most animals will neither be evacuated nor let go and allowed to run wild. Their fates will be tied to the weather, firefighters and concrete structures that don't easily burn.
"Zoos create elaborate emergency plans and run drills — they must do both to maintain accreditation — to protect the animals. But zoo directors are loath to speculate about worst-case scenarios.
"'If you can't move the animal, there's not much you can do, and you may lose an animal,' said David Towne, director emeritus of the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle and one of the few zoo professionals who would acknowledge that an animal could die if a fire got out of control."
Who's taking odds on a Lloyd Levine zoo emergency exit enhancement bill?
