"Democratic state lawmakers
are questioning Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's commitment to fight global warming after the governor's top deputies thwarted an attempt by the state's air quality regulators to enact their own measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions," report Greg Lucas and Matthew Yi in the Chron.
"The executive director of the California Air Resources Board,
Catherine Witherspoon, resigned Monday -- three days after Schwarzenegger fired the board's chairman,
Robert Sawyer, who had said he wanted to be more aggressive in curbing pollution that causes global warming than does the Republican governor, who signed the state's landmark bill last year.
"Sawyer, a 72-year-old engineer, made public on Monday a transcript of a voice mail, left on his phone by one of Schwarzenegger's aides before the air board's meeting last month, urging the chairman to adopt only the three rules acceptable to the governor.
"Democratic legislative leaders also criticized Schwarzenegger for his office's apparent role in determining the list of emissions-reducing rules that the 11-member air board approved on June 21."
The LAT's Evan Halper
continues: "It is not the first time the governor has made bold promises on the environment while his administration dragged its feet behind the scenes. Schwarzenegger has vetoed bills that would put new taxes on polluters, spur the development of alternative fuels and help clean the air. He has accepted $1 million in campaign cash from the oil industry, and he had threatened to veto the global warming bill unless it was made more business-friendly."
Is this a new narrative forming?
"Although the governor says he wants to hold polluters more accountable, administration officials recently signaled lawmakers that Schwarzenegger may not support a separate legislative crackdown. Lawmakers are proposing to prohibit the dirtiest equipment from being used on public works projects bankrolled with state bond money approved by voters last year."
"As the California Senate adjourned Monday, and many members got an early jump on the Fourth of July holiday, Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata offered a monetary warning as he called for 21 volunteers."
"That's how many members in the 40-member body need to check in with a sergeant-at-arms Thursday to establish a quorum so everyone will get paid the Legislature's $162 tax-free per diem.
"Not just for Thursday, but for Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well -- a total of $648 per member.
"This year, the July Fourth holiday falls on a Wednesday, splitting the week in half. But if a quorum is recorded Thursday, the senators who are absent will still get their four-day per diem pay."
"'
Those of you who are in Northern California should be the first ones to volunteer,' Perata, D-Oakland, told the senators. '
If we don't get to 21, we're just going to collapse the whole thing because I know a lot of you believe that serving your constituents is more important than anything else.'"
"After months of dodging questions about the breakup of his marriage, Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa acknowledged Monday that he is involved in a romantic relationship with television newswoman Mirthala Salinas," reports the Daily News's Beth Barrett.
"Unlike when the low-key James Hahn's marriage fell apart during the second year of his term as mayor and the press discretely gave him a pass, the break-up of the charismatic Villaraigosa's marriage sent dozens of newspaper and television reporters and paparazzi scurrying for the story behind the story.
"That had a lot to do with Villaraigosa's high-profile visibility and his reputation as something of a womanizer."
Hmmm, first we've heard of it...
"In a climate-controlled third-story room, a team of high-tech professors, computer security experts and ex-hackers
is trying to pick apart three electronic voting machine systems that will be used in the state's first-ever February presidential primary," writes Jim Herron Zamora in the Chron.
"It's all part of an effort by Secretary of State
Debra Bowen to pre-empt any problems, controversies or possible lawsuits that might mar the election results and add California to the list of voting snafus such as Florida's in 2000 and Ohio's in 2004.
"'The stakes are too high,' Bowen said. 'The voters need to feel confident that their votes are being counted.'
"Bowen and her staff guided reporters Monday on a tour of her building in which she is trying juggle security concerns with a desire to be "as transparent as possible" to the general public.
"The room where the Secretary of State's so-called red team is working has access so limited that even Bowen cannot enter without an escort. Every piece of equipment reviewed by the red team's members is kept in locked cage when they are not working and all the documents and source code files are stored in a special safe at night. Their every move is monitored by four closed-circuit video cameras."
"Despite convincing state lawmakers last week that permitting public access to police disciplinary files would endanger lives,
law enforcement advocacy groups have been unable to identify a single case in which an officer actually had been harmed because of the release of such information," report Matt Lait and Scott Glover in the Times.
"Police officers from all over California lined up to warn a key Assembly committee that releasing the names of those accused of misconduct would put their lives in jeopardy.
"'Keep our families safe,' speaker after speaker said.
"The argument resonated with lawmakers and essentially killed a bill that would have provided access to disciplinary records, such as when officers use excessive force, lie in court or make racial slurs.
"Assemblyman
Jose Solorio (D-Santa Ana), the Public Safety Committee chairman, said he was convinced that identifying officers involved in misconduct was "a real threat" to their safety. In an interview with The Times, he said he had been told of "numerous examples" where the release of an officer's identity in a discipline case directly led to officers and their families being harmed.
"When asked to cite one such case, however, Solorio could not."
"A proposal
to allow state public health officials to mandate new vaccines for children without legislative tinkering is picking up steam among California lawmakers," writes Dorsey Griffith in the Bee.
"Assembly Bill 16, the bill that originally would have required the cervical cancer vaccine for girls, now addresses how vaccines are included on the state's list of required childhood immunizations, authorizing the state public health officer to make the final call. The bill is being touted by supporters as an effort to strip politics from a process that has long been subject to legislative debate.
"'The way we determine what immunizations we will require of children is a mess,' said
Teresa Stark, a lobbyist for the California Medical Association. 'We want the decisions to be made based on science and what's best for the public health.'
"Opponents counter that the bill's new version would rubber-stamp potentially controversial immunizations such as the vaccine against the cancer-causing human papillomavirus."
"One day after California shut down an agency charged with screening out diploma mills, the state of Oregon
warned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that a lack of oversight will affect graduates who try to use their degrees in other states," reports the Bee's Judy Lin.
"
Alan Contreras, administrator for Oregon's Office of Degree Authorization, said Oregon is one of 10 states that don't recognize degrees issued by unaccredited schools unless those institutions are approved by the state in which they are located.
"Use of such degrees in Oregon can carry a civil and criminal fine of up to $1,000, he said.
"Oregon's law applies to degrees earned after Saturday -- the last day of the Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, California's consumer protection body charged with regulating approximately 1,500 for-profit schools with more than 400,000 students."
And
layoffs continued to ravage the Capitol press corps yesterday. The San Jose Mercury News released 40 employees Monday, including Sacramento reporter Kate Folmar.
Steve Maviglio writes in the California Majority Report:
"I've been on the receiving end of Kate's daily probe for Capitol gossip and info. Try as I often might, I sometimes was stopped in my spin tracks with Kate's no-nonsense-get-to-the-point-you're-full-of-it comebacks. And just about every conservation has a patented "ok, what else do you have," as she tried to get a unique angle to the many straightforward stories that eminate from the capitol on a daily basis. I'll miss those calls -- unless, I hope, another big city major newspaper adds her to their staff."
Hear, hear.
