"Days after a controversial organization began collecting voter signatures for a ballot measure to change California's winner-take-all primary,
a founder of the GOP-backed group says its major players are resigning - and the group will fold - due to lack of funding and support," reports Carla Marinucci in the Chron.
"'The levels of support just weren't there,' said
Marty Wilson, the Sacramento-based fundraiser, in a telephone interview Thursday.
"Wilson was among the founding members of Californians for Equal Representation, the group led by Sacramento attorney
Thomas Hiltachk that intended to collect roughly 434,000 signatures to qualify the Presidential Election Reform Act for the June 2008 ballot.
"The measure would have changed the state's winner-take-all means of awarding Electoral College votes to a proportional system that would have awarded 53 of the state's 55 electoral votes - one by one - to the popular vote winner of each of the state's 53 congressional districts. The other two electoral votes would have gone to the statewide popular vote winner.
"The change, Democrats had complained, would benefit the GOP - and perhaps alter the outcome of the 2008 presidential election."
"With two competing water plans already on the table,
Assembly Democrats weighed in Thursday with their own package of bills to fix the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and increase water supplies," reports E.J. Schultz in the Bee.
"The legislation includes few details at this point. But the bills reaffirm the reluctance of Democrats to use state money to pay for dams -- a major part of Gov. Schwarzenegger's $9 billion plan.
"The governor's proposal, carried by Sen.
Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto,
would authorize the state to pay for as much as half the cost of three dams for a total of $5.1 billion. The targeted sites include one east of Fresno, another in Colusa County and expansion of an existing dam in Contra Costa County.
"The legislation by Assembly Democrats
states that local water users should carry 'the strong majority' of water project costs.
"Assembly Member
John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, author of the bills, said the state has typically paid only a small fraction of the cost of new dams.
"'If the governor's bond kept to that historic pattern, it would be almost $5 billion less than it is,' he said.
"
Democrats have emphasized conservation, recycling and groundwater storage to boost water supplies."
"The California Air Resources Board on Thursday
banned popular in-home ozone air purifiers, saying studies have found that they can worsen conditions such as asthma that marketers claim they help to prevent.
"The regulation, which the board said is the first of its kind in the nation, will require testing and certification of all types of air purifiers. Any that emit more than a tiny amount of ozone will have to be pulled from the California market.
"An estimated 2% of the state's households have one of the so-called ozone air purifiers, according to air board staff research, and the staff estimated that more than 500,000 people had been exposed to levels of ozone above federally recognized health standards as a result. More than 2 million California residents have some sort of air purifier, and other types can be safe and effective, the air board staff said.
"'This is a landmark decision,' said
Mary Nichols, chairwoman of the Air Resources Board.
"'State government needed to set up [its] own standards on air purifiers because many [marketers] indeed are deceiving the public,' said former Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, who sponsored a law requiring the board to rein in so-called ozone generators. '
There are reports of ozone being generated in someone's living room . . . at levels equivalent to having a Stage 1 smog alert right in your own house.'"
"Rep.
John Doolittle said Thursday that prosecutors investigating the political corruption scandal of Washington, D.C., lobbyist
Jack Abramoff have issued subpoenas to him and five staff members, seeking office records going back more than a decade," reports David Whitney in the Bee.
"While Doolittle declined to elaborate on the developments, his criminal defense attorney indicated he would fight subpoenas that could allow government prosecutors to comb through "virtually every record including legislative records for the congressman for the past 11 years."
"Attorney
David Barger argued that the U.S. Constitution protects Congress from legal inquiries into legislative acts.
"'These efforts raise serious constitutional issues going to the very core of our separation of powers created by the Founding Fathers,' Barger said in a statement.
"Yet Sacramento lawyer
Donald Heller, a former federal prosecutor, said the U.S. Supreme Court has held that such 'legislative immunity' can be waived in investigations of alleged criminal conduct by office holders.
"'The government has a right to pursue bribery of an elected official, which is an incredibly serious offense, if it has cause to believe he accepted something of value for the exercise of his official position,' Heller said."
And, just in time for weekend football, "federal agents said Thursday they
shut down a factory that made marijuana-laced barbecue sauce, chocolate-covered pretzels and other ''enhanced'' snacks intended for medical users of the drug," reports the AP.
"The Drug Enforcement Administration said it arrested three people Wednesday and was looking for a fourth who operated Oakland-based Tainted Inc.
Tainted Inc. was launched by Michael Martin, 33, of El Sobrante as a small operation that made laced chocolate truffles. When it was raided Wednesday, the company was shipping products to medical marijuana dispensaries throughout California and in Seattle; Vancouver, British Columbia; and Amsterdam."
Southern California Edison may "
lose $160 million in bonuses and pay a $40-million fine as
punishment for rigging safety and customer satisfaction data to collect performance incentives," reports the LAT's Elizabeth Douglass.
"The $200-million tab outlined by Administrative Law Judge Robert Barnett during a public hearing was nearly four times what Edison had proposed and included what may be
a record-high fine by the commission against an electric utility."
And a welcome back to the US Senate to Larry Craig, who
made his first appearance yesterday since announcing his intent to resign. Craig's first vote?
Voting against "the Matthew Shepard Act, which expands federal hate crimes laws to include violence based on a victim's sexual orientation, gender, disability, and other factors.
Does that apply to airport bathrooms?
