Capitol Weekly's John Howard reports
the end of this year's budget season may also be the end of Dick Ackerman's tenure as GOP Senate Leader. "The unofficial campaign to replace Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman is under way. Senate GOP sources expect Ackerman to step aside after this year's budget is settled. Among the front-runners to replace him are Sen. George Runner, R-Lancaster, and Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Fresno. Caucus insiders say both have privately expressed an interest in the position, although neither is commenting publicly.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
plans to meet with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London early next week to discuss their mutual efforts to fight global warming."
"Last summer in California, Blair signed an unusual agreement with Schwarzenegger that committed California and Britain to work together to reduce greenhouse gases – vehicle and factory emissions widely viewed as a major contributor to global warming.
"Schwarzenegger's visit will come just before Blair, one of Britain's longest-serving prime ministers, plans to step down from his post next week. The governor will leave Sunday and will meet with Blair on Monday or Tuesday, Schwarzenegger's spokesman said."
Aside from fixing the planet, is Arnold
interested in fixing the presidential race? The Chron's Carla Marinucci reports: "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Tuesday that he would welcome New York Mayor
Michael Bloomberg -- who has hinted he may spend $1 billion to run as an independent candidate for the White House -- into the 2008 contest because the mayor's message is 'all about fixing problems and creating a great vision for the future.'
"'
I think he would make an excellent candidate,' said Schwarzenegger, speaking to reporters following his keynote address at a conference exploring the values of bipartisan politics sponsored by the Center on Communication Leadership at the University of Southern California's Annenberg School.
""
I've never seen anyone that quick with the action. I mean, a problem comes: solve it. A problem comes, solve it,' Schwarzenegger said as he stood with Bloomberg at the Creative Artists Agency in Century City, where the two addressed an audience of about 200 politicians, academics, pundits and civic leaders."
"Hundreds of red-clad protesters Tuesday
decried a lack of worker protections in pending agreements to allow major casino expansions for some of California's richest Indian gambling tribes," reports the Bee's Peter Hecht.
"The spirited Capitol demonstration came as state lawmakers were laboring behind the scenes on a political compromise that may facilitate legislative approval of gambling agreements to allow five Southern California tribes to add up to 22,500 new slot machines.
"As demonstrators waived a banner, 'Billions for tribes. Nothing for workers,' UNITE-HERE political director
Jack Gribbon charged that '
a gambling cartel in Southern California' is exploiting employees by refusing to allow workers to organize by collecting signatures on union cards."
And we understand a lot of those protesters found their way to Fabian Nunez's fundraiser last night...
LADN's Harrison Sheppard
profiles Lloyd Levine. "Now in his third term and eyeing a state Senate run, Levine has gained a reputation as a passionate but oddball lawmaker - an energetic liberal who bounces from topic to topic and proposes out-of-the-box ideas that spark sharp reactions ranging from outrage to admiration.
"Barbara 'O'Connor has known Levine for about a decade, ever since she taught him in a graduate class on public opinion. She describes him as a policy wonk and a techno-geek who often multitasks with his multiple electronic gadgets -
text messaging or surfing the Internet while jogging."
Wasn't there a Levine bill banning texting while jogging?
"A budget committee
approved an $8 million plan yesterday to do more to notify owners before the state takes unclaimed stock, cash and other property," reports Ed Mendel in the Union-Tribune.
"The action is aimed at lifting a court order halting the state's controversial practice, which had been allowed by a law enacted a half-century ago.
"Over the years, the state had taken $5.1 billion in unclaimed property before a federal judge ordered a halt this month. The judge ruled that more must be done to locate owners before their property is seized."
Meanwhile, things are going from bad to worse for Paris Hilton's prosecutor. "Los Angeles City Atty.
Rocky Delgadillo's wife
wife has an outstanding warrant for her arrest for failing to appear in court nearly nine years ago on charges of driving without insurance, with a suspended license and in an unregistered car, court records and officials confirmed Tuesday," writes the LAT's Matt Lait.
"In addition, documents obtained by The Times show that in the last three years the Delgadillos were chronically late in paying fines for at least five parking tickets."
Late with paying parking tickets? We recommend immediate execution...
"One violation for parking in a red zone in December 2006 was not paid until The Times inquired about the tickets last month. By then, the $70 infraction had become a $174 fine with penalties.
"
A spokesman for Delgadillo said Michelle Delgadillo was responsible for all the parking tickets and the delinquent payments."
"Michelle Delgadillo's scofflaw status was yet another embarrassing development for the city's top prosecutor, who Monday disclosed that he had periodically let his wife drive his city-owned vehicle on a suspended license for personal errands."
Up in San Francisco, "[i]n the middle of a packed Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday about proposed public health cuts, San Francisco Supervisor
Chris Daly angrily suggested Mayor Gavin Newsom uses cocaine and is hypocritically slashing funding for substance abuse treatment for poor people," reports the Chron's Heather Knight.
"The board was beginning a special hearing on Newsom's proposed $6 million in reductions to the Department of Public Health for the 2007-08 budget.
"Daly, railing against the measures, said it was ironic of Newsom to propose a $200,000 cut to the Stimulant Treatment Outpatient Program, which is used by recovering cocaine and methamphetamine users, 'while the mayor of San Francisco artfully dodges every question about allegations of his own cocaine use.'
"Newsom's press secretary,
Nathan Ballard, said Tuesday Daly's remarks amounted to nothing more than 'sleazy politics of personal destruction' and deserve a censure from the rest of the board.
"'
Daly crossed the line today by making these false allegations against Mayor Newsom,' Ballard said. 'Chris Daly can't beat the mayor in a serious debate about policy so he's trying to drag San Francisco politics to a new low.'"
"More than
$7 million collected from motorists who paid $50 extra for a commemorative 9-11 license plate has gone unspent because of a legislative tug-of-war over how the anti-terrorism fund should be allocated, officials said Tuesday," reports Steve Geissinger in the Daily News.
"Now, lawmakers hope to break the logjam with a bill that would allocate the existing money, as well as the $1.3 million annually expected to flow into the fund in future years.
"'This bill will address the fact that millions of dollars in existing anti-terrorism plate funds have gone unused,' said Assemblywoman
Betty Karnette, D-Long Beach, who authored AB 587.
"The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly, and now heads to the Senate."
"Seeking to free up space for inmate rehabilitation, a state panel reviewing prison school and job-training programs
will recommend that California stop re-incarcerating some low-risk parole violators, the group's chairwoman said Tuesday," writes Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"The panel chairwoman,
Joan Petersilia, a consultant to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration on prison rehabilitation policy, said the proposed change would reduce the state's prison population by as many as 5,000 to 7,000 inmates over the next year and make more room for inmates who would get more out of the programs.
"'
We need to stop systematically sending low-risk parole violators back to prison,' Petersilia said in her testimony at the inaugural meeting of the California Rehabilitation Oversight Board."
The Bee's Phillip Reese writes that
suicide prevention is gaining attention in the Capitol. "A Senate committee will discuss a bill today that would create a California Office of Suicide Prevention. A state-sanctioned advisory group is meeting this summer to come up with a statewide suicide prevention plan. And a state commission recently approved a $60 million, four-year effort to expand suicide- and violence-prevention programs at California's schools and colleges.
"The new focus is due to a flood of cash from the Mental Health Services Act and a years-long push by suicide prevention advocates, nudged forward by public concern over the shootings at Virginia Tech.
"Suicide 'is a preventable death,' said
Stephen Mayberg, director of the California Department of Mental Health. 'Prevention has never really had an opportunity to flourish. This is a wonderful opportunity.'"
And it looks like
Antonio Villaraigosa got a little more national press -- this time on Page Six of the New York Post.
"
Humiliated staffers in Mayor Bloomberg's office were forced to retract invitations to a dinner last night at the home of L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. A tipster says Bloomberg's secretary called guests and disinvited them to the "Bridge the Gap" dinner
because spotlight-loving Villaraigosa, eager to show off his famous guest, asked too many people to come. Bloomberg's rep declined comment."
Hmmm...of all the guests Antonio would want to show off, we're guessing Bloomberg ranks somewhere away from the top of the list...
