"Setting the stage for a special session, the California Legislature on Monday
approved a bill by Democrats that would overhaul the state's health care system but that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"Hours before the Senate and Assembly voted on AB 8, the governor
announced during a public appearance in Los Angeles that he would call a special session to try to reach a compromise."
Mmmm...per diem.
"Monday's chain of events was expected; the Republican governor's own health care proposal has scant support in the Legislature, and with the regular legislative session ending this week, there's no solution in sight.
"That did not stop Democratic and Republican lawmakers from engaging in lengthy debates on the merits of AB 8, which passed the Senate on 22-17 vote and the Assembly by a 45-31 margin."
The LAT's Jordan Rau
reports: "An agreement would be likely to include a requirement that employers provide health coverage for workers or pay a fee to the state, which would then arrange for insurance for those workers. That proposal forms the heart of the Democratic bill.
"The deal probably would also incorporate a tax on hospitals that would help California capture an extra $2 billion in federal aid. The California Hospital Assn. endorsed such a tax last week after Schwarzenegger lobbied hospital executives.
"An accord may also include a state sales tax increase, an idea put forth last month by some business groups.
"Democratic leaders have been engaged in talks with Schwarzenegger about their disagreements, including ways to make insurance affordable to all Californians.
"'
We have made tremendous progress on this issue during the past session and have found considerable common ground,' Schwarzenegger said in a statement Monday announcing his plan to veto the Democratic bill, before it had passed the full Legislature. 'That is why I intend to call a special session of the Legislature so that we can finish the job of truly reforming our healthcare system.'"
"Facing hundreds of bills in the waning days of this year's legislative session,
lawmakers sent to the governor Monday measures targeting issues from firearm microstamping to child booster seats," writes the Bee's Aurelio Rojas.
"Other proposals that cleared their final legislative hurdle are designed to tighten security of electronic databases, restrict the state's investments in Iran and create an energy-efficiency standard for common light bulbs.
"The microstamping measure, Assembly Bill 1471, would make California the first state to require makers of new models of semiautomatic pistols, after January 2010, to etch the gun make, model and serial number on each cartridge fired."
And, the Register's Brian Joseph writes that, shockingly, language that was dropped from budget trailer bills over objection from Senate Republicans
has reappeared at the end of session.
"Last month, Senate Republicans ended their blockade of the state budget after the governor promised to veto $700 million in spending and Democrats agreed to limit greenhouse gas lawsuits and delete several provisions from budget trailer bills.
"But now, just three weeks later, deleted language to benefit trial lawyers has suddenly reappeared in a bill Democrats could push through this week before the Legislature adjourns for the year.
"'
We think that basically violates the negotiations we've had during the budget hearing,' said Senate Republican Leader
Dick Ackerman of Irvine. 'I wouldn't call it negotiate in good faith. Nobody can control all of their members, but that certainly violates the overall negotiations that we had.'"
Hmm, sounds like the shoe's on the other foot now, doesn't it?
"The trial lawyer clause, which allows attorneys to seek damages in excess of Medi-Cal costs, originally appeared in Senate Bill 83, a budget trailer bill dealing with health issues."
"An Assembly bill that could speed the return of governing authority to the state-run Oakland Unified School District met strong opposition Monday from Republicans in the state Assembly, but it
passed with a 45-28 vote," report Katy Murphy and Steve Geissinger in the Oakland Tribune.
"The legislation now heads to the governor, who has until mid-October to sign or veto it. A spokeswoman at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's press office said Monday that the governor had yet to take a position.
"Oakland Democrat
Sandre Swanson, who introduced the bill last December, said he planned to meet with Schwarzenegger's staff again this morning.
"'I'm optimistic and hopeful the governor will sign the bill into law,' Swanson said.
"More than four years have passed since the state took over management of Oakland public schools. The School District went into state receivership in mid-2003 after a huge deficit came to light and the state issued a multimillion-dollar emergency loan."
"San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom on Monday
asked hundreds of high-ranking San Francisco officials, including the chief of police and the mayor's chief of staff, to hand in their resignation letters, signaling a major City Hall shakeup," write Cecilia Vega and Heather Knight in the Chron.
"During his regular Monday morning meeting with department heads, Newsom asked all city department leaders to hand in their letters of resignation and later in the day sent a letter to all mayoral-appointed city commissioners asking them to do the same. On Friday, he also told senior staffers in his inner circle to submit their resignation letters.
"Newsom, who is running for re-election in November but faces no serious political threat in the race, told department heads and commissioners in letters Monday that the request signals his desire to "make bold changes in the coming term."
"'The ability to make organizational and personnel changes is essential to lead with the creativity and accountability I desire ...
I want us all to act as innovators and agents of change, rather than as caretakers of the status quo,' he wrote.
"While Newsom is not expected to accept resignations from all the department leaders,
City Hall observers said Monday the mayor probably is targeting a handful of individuals he wants to get rid of, but whom he doesn't want to have to fire."
"UC Berkeley
will ask a judge Tuesday for a court-order to remove about a half-dozen tree-sitting protesters from Memorial Stadium's oak grove, an attorney for the tree-sitters said Monday," reports Carolyn Jones in the Chron.
"The protesters have been residing in seven tree houses in the grove since December, protesting the University's plan to remove bout two-thirds of the grove to build a state-of-the-art athletic training center for football and 13 other varsity sports.
"The California Oak Foundation, city of Berkeley and a neighborhood group have sued to stop the project on public safety grounds because the stadium straddles the Hayward Fault. The cases will be heard in Alameda County Superior Court on Sept. 19.
"If an injunction is granted, the Alameda County Sheriff's department would have the authority to arrest the tree-sitters for being in contempt of court, said Dennis Cunningham, an attorney for the protesters."
And, it's time to
poison Lake Davis again!.
"The aim is to kill the invasive fish -- and, collaterally, all other fish in the lake -- and then restock the reservoir with native trout," reports the Bee's Dorothy Korber.
"'If we don't get them this time, we will have to weigh whether it's humanly possible to eradicate pike in Lake Davis,' said
Ed Pert, manager of the $16.7 million project for California Department of Fish and Game.
"As television news cameras rolled Monday morning, Pert's crew began dripping and spraying 300 gallons of rotenone on the creeks and other tributaries feeding the lake. An additional 16,000 gallons of the naturally occurring poison -- deadly to gilled creatures -- will be placed in the lake itself beginning Sept. 25.
"Meanwhile, Lake Davis and its watershed in Plumas National Forest will be closed to the public until the water is free of rotenone."
And finally, from out
Choking the Chicken Files, "Think a bottle of mineral water might have poisoned you? Then test it on a chicken.
"One Chinese family on the southern island province of Hainan had just that idea when one of their number started vomiting blood after drinking a bottle of water, a newspaper said.
"They fed the luckless chicken the rest of the water to see what would happen, the Beijing News said, citing a report in a local paper. 'The result was the chicken died within a minute,' it said, showing a picture of a man holding a plastic bottle squatting over the crumpled body of the bird."
So, uh, washing all those lead-filled Chinese toys with Chinese bottled water is probably not a good idea.
