"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office
has avoided fully disclosing payments of $1.7 million in nonprofit funds for private jets, hotel suites and support staff for his trips overseas, according to state documents and interviews.
"Record-keeping for many of the governor's luxury-class jaunts has been by word of mouth.
Asked how the staff tracks the costs, subject to public disclosure laws, Schwarzenegger attorney Daniel Maguire said: 'Orally.'"In late 2004, the multimillionaire governor stopped reporting the travel expenses on state disclosure forms that itemize gifts to elected officials. Instead, Schwarzenegger's top aides recorded some of the costs -- and made only general references to others -- in memos they wrote to themselves and filed away in the governor's legal affairs office.
"Several of the memos did not include dollar amounts, even though regulations under the state Political Reform Act require that such figures be disclosed in a written public record within 30 days of payment. After The Times asked for those amounts -- some missing since 2004 -- the governor's office took more than two months to produce them."
"As 2007 draws to a close with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Year of Health Care' for universal coverage on life support,
political pundits say 2008 will likely present too many distractions to be a productive legislative year," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
We californians know something about
cougars in hot tubs, but
not quite like this.
The AP reports, "A relaxing soak in a hot tub came to an abrupt end when Marlene Todd came eye to eye with a mountain lion in her backyard.
"I was kind of hidden, sitting with my back up against the side of the tub, and I heard a little rustling sound in the needles right beside me," she said.
Todd said she thought it might have been her house cat until she saw "this big, tan, hairy body" just 4 inches away.
"I didn't realize what it was until it took a leap and jumped up on the side of my hot tub," Todd said."
"'Major legislation -- global warming, water, health care -- those only get done in the best of legislative times,' said
Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book, which handicaps the state's political races.
"Even the eternally optimistic Schwarzenegger has tamped down expectations. What he previously proclaimed would be 'The Year of Education' is now going to be "a multiyear effort," according to education lobbyists who were briefed on the upcoming year by the governor."
Rojas cites the battles between
Mark Leno and Carole Migden,
Merv Dymally and Mark Ridley-Thomas, and, if Prop. 93 fails, the pro tem fight between
Darrell Steinberg and Alex Padilla.
George Skelton writes, with that gridlock in mind,
interest groups are bypassing the Legislature and going directly to the voters.
"A high-powered coalition of business, agriculture, labor and water leaders decided not to wait [for a deal on water supply]. Last week, they filed four $11.7-billion bond initiatives. They'll poll voters and choose the most popular measure.
"'The status quo is unacceptable,' says
Allan Zaremberg, president of the California Chamber of Commerce who heads the coalition."
Meanwhile, Common Cause and the governor are pushing for redistricing reform.
"Democratic legislative leaders -- Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) -- reneged on a pledge to pass their own redistricting reform.
"'
I don't want to sit here and say Nunez was lying,' says
Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause, one of the initiative sponsors. '
I just don't think he has the political juice to make it happen. His [Democratic] caucus members won't let him.'
"So once again, interest groups will bypass the Capitol and take matters into their own hands."
The Merc News's Steven Harmon writes that the
governor faces a tough sales job on redistrictring reform.
"If the measure, introduced by the governor last week, makes the November 2008 ballot, Democrats and their labor allies likely would come charging out against it, political observers said. And they would employ a tried-and-true message to kill it: that the measure amounts to a Republican power grab that will disenfranchise communities of color.
"'All you have to do is look at the history and know the odds are on their side," said redistricting expert
Tim Hodson, executive director for the Center for California Studies. '
There's a residual feeling that redistricting measures are inherently partisan power grabs, so it's an easy calculation to spend money to defeat it.'"
Dan Walters looks at the
possibility of cuts to education's funding guarantee next year.
"All sorts of steps are being kicked around, including erasing the estimated $400 million overappropriation to schools in the current budget, or reducing next year's Proposition 98 inflation and enrollment growth, about $2 billion, to some lower number.
"Another complicating factor is that the state must make up any deficiencies in property taxes that go to schools, and property taxes have been flattening due to the meltdown in the housing sector.
"Proposition 98 could take a hit, perhaps a billion dollars or more, but having been badly burned in the past, Schwarzenegger is clearly unwilling to do anything that the Ed Coalition doesn't accept in advance."
"Frustrated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his parole board,
more California life-term prisoners are turning to the courts for another shot at freedom -- and winning enough cases to put the state on edge," writes Andy Furillo in the Bee.
"In the past two years, at least seven convicts sentenced to life imprisonment have been freed on court-issued writs of habeas corpus, after the governor or his appointees on the Board of Parole Hearings had denied them release dates. About two dozen more have persuaded judges to order the governor or the board to review their decisions.
"Those numbers pale compared with the thousands of lifers eligible for release dates whose parole applications have been rejected -- 99.5 percent of them last year. But the state believes some judges are overstepping their authority, and the state attorney general's office has appealed three cases, which the state Supreme Court agreed to hear."
