The legislative session drew to a close at 3:26 a.m., with the Assembly adjourning after sending the governor 234 bills, but wait, there's more!
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday officially
called special sessions on health care and water storage but
acknowledged that his long-desired changes on how California draws legislative districts are dead for this year," reports Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"The Republican governor and Democratic lawmakers remain at odds over how to pay for a health care solution for the 6.7 million uninsured Californians.
"Schwarzenegger reiterated that he wants the Legislature to approve everything but the funding for a health care agreement and ask voters next year to approve various funding sources to pay for the plan. To be approved in the Legislature alone, most fees would require support from Republican legislators, who have opposed any such new charges on businesses, hospitals or doctors.
"'
I think that if you talk about the funding mechanism, (the ballot) is the only way, except unless someone comes up with some miracle answer,' Schwarzenegger said. "But I mean so far the only way we can create the funding mechanism is by doing that part and taking it to the people.'"
Dan Walters
responds to the abandonment of redistrict reform. "The decision to abandon reform may be good news for those who didn't want it, including Pelosi and most Democratic Party interest groups, but it may also make it more difficult for those same interests to persuade voters to change term limits because it raises the possibility of opposition from the popular governor.
"Schwarzenegger was noncommittal Tuesday about what position he would take on changing term limits but it's highly unlikely that he'll endorse the measure, and he may oppose it. And with polls indicating that voters are somewhat ambivalent on term limit modification, Schwarzenegger's position could be critical to the outcome.
"That said, the biggest losers are the people of California, who are being largely deprived of any real say in who represents them in the Legislature and Congress due to the bipartisan gerrymander of districts in 2001. Without reform, the 2011 redistricting could be even worse."
"Dominating the usual last-minute skirmishes was
an effort by the state correctional officers union to short-circuit the collective bargaining process and get the Legislature to give them a pay raise," write Andy Furillo and Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"The California Correctional Peace Officers Association had been looking for an author for the pay-raise bill since Friday, and Assemblywoman
Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, introduced the bill Tuesday.
But the AP's Don Thompson reports
the bill won't even reach the governor's desk.
"Lawmakers said unexplained technical difficulties abruptly ended their daylong attempt to pre-empt contract negotiations between the governor's administration and the union.
"Attempts by legislators to pass a bill would have extended a lucrative contract negotiated by former Gov. Gray Davis were riddled with difficulties.
"
Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia, R-Cathedral City, said the version of the bill she authored was amended without her knowing it."'There are some pretty amazing things that happen in this building,' Garcia said as she pulled her bill from consideration. 'I'm stunned....Most of all, I'm embarrassed.'"
"Shortly before midnight Tuesday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
vetoed legislation that would have made California the first state to vote on whether President Bush should immediately withdraw troops from Iraq," reports Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"In a veto message, Schwarzenegger called the issue divisive and difficult, and urged Californians to weigh in by casting ballots for president in the February primary election.
"'There is no louder message Californians can send to Washington on the Iraq war than who should lead our nation,' he wrote. 'Placing a non-binding resolution on Iraq on the same ballot, when it carries no weight or authority,
would only further divide voters and shift attention from other critical issues that must be addressed.'"
Wasn't that the point?
"Unless they're unusually tall,
all children will be required to sit in booster seats in cars until they're 8 years old if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signs legislation passed by the state Assembly on Tuesday."
Another bill on his desk would require them to wear diapers until they're 14...
"The governor vetoed a similar bill last year, saying it is more important to educate parents and better enforce current child-safety laws than create new legislation. Existing law requires children to use booster seats until they're 6 years old or weigh 60 pounds or more."
"Schwarzenegger vetoed SB 924 by Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata (D-Oakland). The bill sparked lengthy debate in the Legislature and passed without any Republican votes. It would have asked voters whether Bush should "end the United States occupation of Iraq and immediately begin the safe and orderly withdrawal of United States forces."
"Meanwhile, while battles were being waged in the Capitol, GOP consultant
Kevin Spillane went over his talking points against the term limits measure with the Bee Capitol Bureau.
"'In reality, over 80 percent of (current) legislators will have their terms significantly lengthened," Spillane said. "If it really was a toughening of term limits, would the politicians be supporting it and funding it? Of course not."
"Spillane also cautioned that if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports the term limits measure, 'he actually bargains away his own power' because Núñez and Perata could outlast him in office.
"Every interest group in the state is going to know that," Spillane said. 'Their power will be dramatically increased. His will be diminished. Whereas if (term limits) does not pass ... there will new leaders in both houses.
He will be the old man, there will be new kids on the block. It might give Schwarzenegger an upper hand in the final two years of his term.'"
"A federal appeals court Tuesday
rejected Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's attempt to stop a three-judge panel from considering a cap on the number of inmates in California's overcrowded prisons," writes Bob Egelko in the Chron.
"The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed Schwarzenegger's challenge to orders issued by two federal judges July 23 establishing the panel. There are about 172,000 inmates in 33 state prisons that were designed to hold 100,000.
"U.S. District Judges
Thelton Henderson of San Francisco and
Lawrence Karlton of Sacramento have ruled that the state is providing woefully inadequate health care and mental health services to prisoners. Henderson has also appointed an overseer to bring prison health care up to constitutional standards.
"If the new panel - Henderson, Karlton and Judge
Stephen Reinhardt of the appeals court - finds that overcrowding makes improvements impossible, it could impose a lid that would require the state to release prisoners. Federal law bars a single judge from limiting a state's prison population but allows a three-judge panel to do so.
"Schwarzenegger argues that no limit is necessary and that a $7.4 billion prison expansion plan, passed by the Legislature in May, will ease overcrowding. The governor said last week that a court-imposed population cap could force the state to release dangerous criminals."
"San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom's push to have hundreds of city department heads, mayoral-appointed commissioners and senior staffers in his office submit their resignation letters by the end of the week
was met with pockets of resistance Tuesday, with some city officials vowing to defy the order," writes the Chron's Cecilia Vega.
"The day after Newsom surprised most department leaders and told them to hand in their letters of resignation by Friday because he wants to start his second term with "a clean slate," some city officials bristled at the request and many were downright puzzled.
"Port Commissioner
Mike Hardeman, a longtime Newsom supporter whom the mayor reappointed to the commission that manages the city's waterfront, said publicly what others will only say privately: He does not intend to turn in a resignation letter, let alone step down from his post.
"'
I don't think I'm going to, and I don't know of any other labor person that's going to,' said Hardeman, who is active in local union circles and who has served on the Port Commission since 1994. 'You took an oath to serve. ... There's not supposed to be any outside interference from the supervisors or mayor, and if you resign that means you're being influenced.'"
And from our
Old Habits Die Hard Files, "Edward Magenheimer, 70, was out of Westchester County jail for less than 24 hours when he was arrested Tuesday for allegedly stealing a luxury car left running outside a deli, police said.
"Magenheimer was spotted about 6:20 a.m. driving the white car in the suburbs about 20 miles north of Manhattan and was taken into custody, police Sgt. John Barbelet said.
"
The septuagenarian, who recently underwent heart bypass surgery, had just been released from jail on Monday after a one-year sentence for conning three women out of thousands of dollars. He pleaded guilty to the scam in July and was released early for time served and good behavior, authorities said."
