Lt. Gov. John Garamendi got to play governor yesterday, filling in on the Tahoe fire disaster while the real governor was off playing president in Europe. Team Schwarzenegger even sent out a photo of Garamendi looking downright gubernatorial, surrounded by administration officials and briefing reporters on the latest news from the fire.
Meanwhile, LADN's Harrison Sheppard
takes a look at the governor's globetrotting. "Since taking office in 2003, Schwarzenegger has also traveled to Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Japan and Mexico, mostly to promote trade and tourism.
"He is also planning a trip to India later this year and a trade mission to Europe next year. He has also signed agreements on climate change with leaders of foreign nations and provinces.
"
Some critics think the governor ought to spend more time in California, focused on the state's problems — especially when there is a wildfire burning near Lake Tahoe and a constitutional deadline for the state budget approaching in less than a week — and less time running around the globe as if he is a world leader himself.
But aides to the governor and business allies said the trips
have been valuable to California, bringing increased trade and tourism, and generally boosting the state's profile around the globe."
"'Gov. Schwarzenegger has sold California abroad,' said
Adam Mendelsohn, the governor's communications director. 'He has increased trade as a result of his trips. He has increased jobs as result of his trips and he has put California back at the forefront of America.'"
And taken Mendelsohn on a summer vacation!
"Mendelsohn, one of two aides traveling with the governor in Europe, said in a telephone interview Monday that the governor has negotiated agreements on climate change with world leaders himself in part because 'this is an area where the federal government has chosen not to lead.'"
A small group from California Young Democrats protested the governor's trip on the grounds of the Capitol on Monday, releasing a statement headlined "Schwarzenegger Fiddles in France While Tahoe Burns" and delivering "Wish You Were Here" postcards to his office.
Yes, they may be young, but it's good to see they're not afraid to play politics with the fire. Nice touch, CYD...
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas reports
Gil Cedillo's patient dumping bill may get dumped for good today.
"Legislation by Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, would bar hospitals from transporting a patient to a location other than the person's residence, unless they have the patient's informed consent.
"
Senate Bill 275 cleared the Senate, but it failed last week to muster the necessary votes in the Assembly Health Committee and could meet its end today when it comes up for reconsideration before the panel.
"Under the legislation, hospital administrators could be subject to a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of up to $2,000 and up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $10,000 for a hospital."
From our
The End is Nehring Files, the Chron's Carla Marinucci reports, "California Republican Party Chairman
Ron Nehring faced sharp criticism Monday in the wake of the state GOP's immigration scandal involving its former top financial officer who resigned Sunday after news surfaced of his battle with U.S. immigration authorities to remain in the country.
"
The party's board of directors hired Bill Christensen, a former statewide executive director of Victory 2006 -- a committee that aids Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's fundraising efforts -- on Monday to fill the top GOP financial post temporarily."
"Despite a strike authorization vote by Southern California grocery workers, both the union and the supermarket chains said yesterday that they were
committed to hammering out their differences at the bargaining table and not on the picket line," reports the U-T's Jennifer Davies.
"
The United Food and Commercial Workers union voted Sunday and yesterday to give its leadership the authority to call a strike and to reject preliminary contract proposals from the three grocery store chains – Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons.
"The union did not publicly announce the final tally, but a union official involved with the balloting said close to 95 percent of those who voted approved the measure. To pass, it needed more than a two-thirds vote. The union said more than 50 percent of its 65,000 Southern California members voted."
Meanwhile, the Daily News checks in on
the return of Keith Richman's pension plans. "Hoping to eliminate the need for hundreds of billions of dollars in new taxes to bail out state pensions and health care benefits, former Assemblyman Keith Richman will ask voters to raise retirement ages for teachers, police officers, firefighters and other public employees.
Warning that continued inaction will bankrupt the state, Richman said Monday his plan would save $500 billion over 30 years.
"'If we just keep going the way we are going, not only are some government entities going to go bankrupt and cut services, but in all likelihood there will be the need for billions of dollars in new taxes throughout the state of California,' he said."
"Cellphones, nearly as common as toothbrushes or televisions in normal society, are ringing alarm bells among authorities in the California prison system, where the phones are a growing form of contraband," writes the LAT's Patrick McGreevey.
"More than 1,000 cellphones and BlackBerrys have been confiscated during the last year after being smuggled into California prisons in a security breach that has authorities scrambling to stop illicit communication.
"The problem was first noticed about seven years ago as the devices became tinier, but smuggling of the items in the 33-prison system has exploded in the last few years."
"State Sen.
Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) sent a letter last week to
James Tilton, director of the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, calling for an investigation of the scope and cause of the problem.
"'Cellphones in the hands of maximum-security inmates pose a clear and present threat to the safety of the general public and the security of correctional officers and staff within our correctional facilities,' Padilla wrote."
Today is homecoming Tuesday for Paris Hilton, and LA is getting ready, reports LAT's Richard Winton,.
"They've tried reining in the paparazzi before — with little success.
There was the time Los Angeles County prosecutors vowed to use criminal conspiracy charges against photographers who drove recklessly while chasing celebrities around.
And remember when the California Legislature passed a law making it easier for celebrities to sue aggressive paparazzi?"
But now, authorities are bringing in the big guns: L.A.'s much-feared parking enforcement division."The Los Angeles Police Department and Department of Transportation have converted streets around Paris Hilton's Hollywood Hills home to "Tow Away/No Stopping" zones in preparation for the hotel heiress' release from jail. The goal was to prevent a repeat of the internationally televised chaos of June 1, when hundreds of reporters essentially closed down Hilton's narrow canyon road to traffic in anticipation of her first trip to jail.
"'We put up the signs Saturday. We gave verbal warnings [Monday] and expect to be out there in full regalia' today, said Bruce Gillman, a spokesman for the L.A. Department of Transportation. 'We will have a legion of tow trucks at the bottom of the hill gathered like vultures.'"
Looking forward to a little vulture-on-vuture action, we are...
