"California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
returned to his Austrian hometown Sunday for the first time since severing official ties with the city two years ago after a flap over the death penalty.
"The actor-turned-governor was welcomed at the airport in the southern city of Graz by friends and current and former local politicians, including Alfred Gerstl, a former leader of the upper house of parliament often described as his mentor, the Austria Press Agency reported.
"APA reported that Schwarzenegger would attend Gerstl's 84th birthday celebration Sunday evening. He will also visit Britain and France as part of his short European tour."
Before heading to Austria, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger received a standing ovation Saturday at a national meeting of mayors in Century City when he
encouraged local governments to take the lead in combating climate change," reports Jia-Rui Chong in the Times.
"The governor, who wore a light-green tie as if to emphasize his environmental message, praised Mayor
Michael Bloomberg's initiative to replace New York's fleet of gasoline-powered taxicabs with hybrids and
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's bid to reduce the Department of Water and Power's reliance on coal-burning power plants for energy.
"Hundreds of mayors also have signed a U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement calling on cities to meet or beat targets set in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an international plan to reduce greenhouse gases.
"'
Just like you mayors are doing, we are applying leverage so that at some point the whole environmental thing will tip,' Schwarzenegger said. '
We are not waiting for Washington.'"
The LAT's John Mitchell reports on
Tuesday's special election to replace Juanita Millender-McDonald, where Jenny Oropeza and Laura Richardson have emerged as the top competitors.
"Meanwhile,
Valerie McDonald, who has strong support from Rep.
Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles), local churches and other political leaders, has struggled to get her message out in the district formerly represented by her mother. She has distributed only a few mailers and has no website."
"In the last two weeks, a Riverside County Indian tribe
has independently spent more than $270,000 on behalf of a Democratic candidate in Tuesday's special election to fill a Long Beach area congressional seat," writes the LAT's Nancy Vogel.
"
The expenditures by the Morongo Band of Mission Indians greatly outweigh other donations in the relatively quiet race to replace Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald, who died in April. Since June 14, Morongo has paid for door hangers, newspaper ads, mailers and phone calls to voters on behalf of Jenny Oropeza, a state senator from Long Beach.
"The amount spent in the Morongo campaign — by law such expenditures cannot be made in consultation with the candidate —
has exceeded the $219,000 Oropeza reported raising in direct donations for the entire campaign as of June 6. It is more than 2 1/2 times the $105,000 that Oropeza's chief competitor, Assemblywoman Laura Richardson (D-Long Beach), reported collecting by the same date."
"The Legislature
is barking up the wrong tree by suggesting that California dogs and cats be spayed and neutered, hundreds of impassioned pet owners told State Sen.
Joe Simitian in Palo Alto on Saturday," reports Carolyn Jones in the Chron.
"Some 300 distraught pet owners packed Palo Alto City Hall, where they gave the Democrat from Palo Alto an earful for more than five hours. They were howling mad about the legislation and wanted Simitian -- who, perhaps wisely, has not said whether he supports the bill -- to know it.
"'I was born and raised here, but I will move if this law passes,' said
Kathryn Blink of San Carlos, whose Dalmatian was deemed the best in the nation in 2004. 'I don't want to be a law-breaker. And I'm tired of being told what I can do with my property.'
"AB 1634 would require all dogs and cats older than 4 months to be spayed or neutered unless the owner obtains a permit. Assemblyman
Lloyd Levine has said he drafted the legislation in an effort to reduce the number of unwanted animals euthanized at shelters."
"The federal medical care receiver
has hired a former top corrections department manager who resigned last year amid a controversy over officer firings," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"
John Dovey will work as a "custody support specialist" for receiver
Robert Sillen, helping to plan and put into practice how correctional officers will transport and escort inmate patients to their medical appointments.
"Receiver's spokeswoman
Rachael Kagan said the circumstances of Dovey's resignation from his job as head of adult institutions for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 'is not a concern at all' and 'not particularly relevant' to his new assignment."
From our
Rich Kids Win Too files: The Bee's Judy Lin reports that
proponents of lottery privatization are looking to middle class Californians to make the scheme work.
"The analysis, which was prepared by Lehman Bros. and obtained by The Bee, offers the first glimpse at how private investors intend to boost profits if the state decided to lease its gambling enterprise, which generates over $1 billion annually for education. It suggests installing terminals and vending machines in places middle-class shoppers frequent the most.
It suggests running a marketing campaign targeting wealthier demographics. And it suggests selling ads printed on tickets to generate additional revenue.
"'While some advocates have recently argued that increasing sales of lottery tickets means increasing sales to lower-income Californians, the opportunity for growth comes from offering lottery tickets in more
retail establishments patronized by middle-class consumers,' wrote Lehman's senior vice president,
Bradley Tusk, former top assistant to Illinois Gov.
Rod Blagojevich who is now pitching the privatization plan to California and various other states.
"As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature explore the merits of leasing the California Lottery, some critics question whether it's socially responsible to expand gambling when the game is disproportionately played by the poor. They expressed skepticism about getting the affluent to play."
The Chron's Carla Marinucci reports on
the latest personnel troubles at the California GOP. "
Michael Kamburowski, an Australian immigrant who served as the California Republican Party's chief operating officer, abruptly resigned Sunday -- less than 24 hours after The Chronicle reported he had been ordered deported in 2001, jailed in connection with the order, and now has a $5 million wrongful arrest lawsuit pending against U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials.
"The move was reported in a terse statement late Sunday by state party chair Ron Nehring, who said the state GOP's Operations Committee accepted Kamburowski's resignation during a teleconference with him.
"The news came as GOP officials and leaders expressed shock and fury at the troubled -- and apparently unknown -- immigration history of the person who handled the multimillion-dollar budget of the nation's largest state Republican Party.
"Former White House adviser
Steve Schmidt, who ran the re-election campaign for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, angrily described the appointment of Kamburowski as '
almost a parody of incompetence and malfeasance.'"
We would never agree with that. We would never say
almost...
And Steve Weigand reports on
the most important bill of the sesion for all you casino concert goers.
"AB 702, by Assemblyman
Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge ... would
make it harder for musicians to advertise themselves as a famous group from the past, unless they had trademarked the name or at least one of the members of the group was an original member.
"The idea is to head off groups promoting themselves as the Drifters or Commodores or Beatles without actually having a Drifter or Commodore or Beatle in the group."
"The bill to ban imposter groups (except, of course, The Imposters) is sponsored by
Jon Bauman, who is chair of the Truth in Music Committee at the Vocal Group Hall of Fame. You might know him better as "
Bowzer," from Sha Na Na. Or not.
