"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's closest Hollywood friends
held a fundraising roast for him Wednesday at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Beverly Hills, just three days after the state's bill-signing period ended," reports Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"Comedian
Tom Arnold led the roast, aided by celebrities
Jamie Lee Curtis,
Kelsey Grammer,
Patricia Heaton and
David Spade, as well as former legislative leaders
John Burton and
Jim Brulte, according to Burton, a former Democratic Senate president pro tem.
"The Republican governor signed and vetoed the last of the 964 bills on his desk Sunday. His fundraising event raised approximately $800,000.
"
Kathay Feng, director of California Common Cause, lamented that the governor raised so much money right after the bill-signing period. Schwarzenegger previously has advocated for a fundraising ban during the bill-signing period, though the latest fundraiser would have been legal under his proposal.
"Schwarzenegger spokeswoman
Julie Soderlund said the governor's fundraising efforts were directed largely at repaying his re-election campaign debt from last year. The governor had about $1.5 million in debt in his personal 2006 campaign account as of June 30."
The AP's Michael Blood
reports on some of the donors. "At least 11 benefactors signed on to donate or raise at least $50,000, including developer
Rick Caruso; computer entrepreneur
Beny Alagem; American Sterling Co. CEO
Larry Dodge; former Univision chief
Jerry Perenchio; and
Paul Folino, chairman of computer-components maker Emulex Corp.
"Under law, maximum donations from individuals or businesses to the governor's committee are limited to $22,300. If that limit has been reached, the invitation urged donors to "please call us for alternatives."
"Among those listed on the 'roast committee' was
Dennis Mangers, a former Democratic assemblyman who is president of the California Cable & Telecommunications Association. According to government records, the trade group was involved with two dozen bills in this year's legislative session in Sacramento."
"Next week, state officials
are prepared to go to federal court to force the Environmental Protection Agency's hand so that California and 14 other states can enact restrictions that would, by 2016, reduce carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles by 30 percent," reports Frank Davies in the Merc News.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger "believes we can't afford to wait any longer," spokesman
Bill Maile said Thursday.
"California and the other states need a waiver from the EPA under the Clean Air Act to enforce their own regulations. EPA Administrator
Stephen Johnson has promised a decision by the end of the year.
"The state filed its request 22 months ago, and waiting two more months for that decision is not an option, state officials say. Citing Clean Air Act rules, Schwarzenegger notified Johnson in April that the state would sue after 180 days if there was no EPA decision. The deadline runs out Monday."
"A
state program that collects millions of dollars a year in lost or abandoned personal property is set to resume after a federal judge on Thursday approved a new system for notifying owners before their assets are transferred to the state," reports Tom Chorneau in the Chron.
"California Controller
John Chiang, who oversees the unclaimed property program, had been prohibited since June from accepting lost or forgotten property after the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco found that the state routinely seized and liquidated unclaimed assets without properly notifying the owners before taking action.
"Laws approved by the Legislature and the governor as part of the budget process in August require the controller's office to notify property owners by mail before the state can take possession of property.
"The Legislature has also provided $8 million to reestablish a unit inside the controller's office dedicated to reuniting owners with their lost property."
"The
autumns of odd-numbered years are supposed to be political lulls in California; the Legislature has departed Sacramento for the year, there are no elections on tap, and those in and around the Capitol can relax for a few weeks, waiting for the games to resume in January," writes Dan Walters in the Bee.
"It hasn't worked out that way for quite a while. California was treated – if that's the right word – to a circuslike recall campaign that unseated then-Gov.
Gray Davis in 2003. Two years later, his successor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, was getting his clock cleaned in a special ballot measure election that consumed tens of millions of dollars in television ads.
"This had promised to be the first autumnal respite from political squabbling since 2001, but as it's shaping up, it's more like politics as usual."
Walters cites the move of the presidential primary to February 5.
"That's just a minor distraction, however. The bigger one is that Schwarzenegger decided to call special legislative sessions on health care and water after the regular session ended in September without resolution of either long-standing conundrum.
"The special sessions aren't progressing any further on either issue, it would appear. But their existence has generated some
off-season Sturm und Drang, including a big flap over Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez's personal lifestyle and finances. The Los Angeles Times revealed that Núñez has been spending lavishly from his campaign accounts for travel and gifts, and The Bee reported that as the health care debate heated up, an adjunct of the California Hospital Association gave Núñez's wife a job that apparently carries a six-figure salary."
The State Office of the Patient Advocate (OPA) has released its
seventh annual Health Care Quality Report Card with ratings of HMOs and medical groups that serve almost half of all Californians.
LAT's Lisa Girion reports, "
Many Californians enrolled in healthcare plans are receiving inadequate preventive care.
"
The eight largest plans in the state fail to ensure that their 12 million members are sufficiently tested and treated to prevent and detect major diseases and reduce unnecessary expenses, according to the California Office of the Patient Advocate's report, called the Health Care Quality Report Card.
"
Rick Rodriguez resigned Thursday as The Bee's executive editor following a disagreement with the publisher over the paper's long-term direction," reports Dale Kasler in the Bee.
"Bee Publisher and President
Janis Heaphy, addressing a somber newsroom, said "we have agreed to part ways" but praised Rodriguez, 53, as a relentless journalist whose nine-year tenure saw the paper win nearly every major journalism prize, including the Pulitzer Prize.
"Rodriguez served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and has been one of the nation's most prominent Latino newsroom executives. Like editors across the country, he also faced increasing financial pressures in recent months – and the accompanying management challenges – as newspaper revenues declined."
The AP looks at the scene in Washington, where people "spend hours in line, sometimes for pay, just
to hold a place so someone else – a lobbyist – can get a prime seat when the doors open and a congressional hearing begins.
"For one Missouri senator, this practice of paying professional “line-standers” reinforces the culture of buying access to Congress and often prevents the public from getting into crammed hearing rooms.
"Sen.
Claire McCaskill, a freshman Democrat,
proposed legislation Wednesday that would require lobbyists to certify twice a year that they have not paid anyone to save a seat for them at hearings.
"'We need to make sure this place is available to the people who own it, and that's the people of this country, not the lobbyists,' she said."
Meanwhile, LA Observed reports that
Chicken Boy has made his triumphant return to the rooftops of Los Angeles. "The statue salvaged from the roof of a closed Chicken Boy restaurant on Broadway downtown has sat under tarps behind the studio where Inouye and her husband, artist
Stuart Rapeport, work and live. They've been nurturing Chicken Boy back to life, raising funds and gathering permits. The crane showed up yesterday, and now he roosts above the studio, keeping an eye on La Fuente #6.
And you through your child could sleep through anything. We bring you the story of a man who
slept off a crocodile attack.
"A tourist who had drunk 12 cans of beers before being attacked by a crocodile while swimming in a Queensland river fell asleep at his campsite before going to hospital for treatment.
"
Matt Martin was camping in an area of the northeastern state of Queensland known to be inhabited by crocodiles when he drank what he later described as half a slab - or 12 cans of beer. When he dived into the river at Cow Bay in the topical far north of the state,
he landed on a crocodile.
"After a brief wrestling match with the reptile, Martin emerged with gashes on his face requiring 40 stitches, The Australian newspaper reported. Admitting his face was "pretty messed up'' when he went back to his campsite, Mr Martin, 35, from Newcastle north of Sydney, then slept for seven hours before seeking medical help."
