Hospitals are suing the state over Medi-Cal rates;
Bill Lockyer is suing the feds over tree harvesting. Hunters are
fighting with environmentalists in the desert; and later today, a judge is expected to rule whether CalPIRG can join the FPPC as defendants in the suit the governor has filed over
campaign finance reform. Can't we all just get along?
Apparently not.
In another legal blow for the governor, a Sacramento Superior Court judge
backs nurses in their fight for implementation of the nurse-patient ratio law. For the Law and Order crowd,
here's the tentative ruling.
Meanwhile, the threatened special election campaign continues, even amid what Tim Herdt calls
"growing signs" of a compromise on redistricting reform. The Times's Dana Parsons
describes the gov's diner-storming yesterday at the Red Robin in Santa Ana. The key question ... are these people getting an order of Arnold and french fries actually jumping on to the governor's policy proposals?
"
Doug Hutchinson . . . was there with his son, Luke, who's almost 2 years old. 'People ask me if I'm pro or con,' Hutchinson says, referring to Schwarzenegger's pet issues. Hutchinson then taps his son's chest and jokes,
'I tell them he's pro-'Kindergarten Cop.'"Guess not.
Reform 1 will be taking this weekend off, as the governor takes his Gulfstream to Columbus, Ohio for
Arnold Fitness Weekend, with
a side of fundraising.According to documents obtained by The Roundup, the guv will spend Friday night raising money in Cincinnati. That will be followed by fundraisers in New York on Monday, March 7, at a dinner hosted by Gov.
George Pataki and a fundraising lunch on March 8 in Washington D.C.
On the invites, guests are encouraged to
max out with $44,600 in donations -- $22,300 each to the California Recovery Team and Californians for Schwarzenegger. One invite contains a note that "spouses and adult children may each give $22,300 for each committee by separate check or credit card transactions."
Meanwhile, the
Citizens Committee to Save California reported its
first fundraising statements, which included a
$1.5 million check from Jerry Perenchio the developer and head of Univision.
Now that the media isn't even interested in the missing
Kevin Shelley Blackberry, they've finally returned to the
investigation of Senator Perata. The San Mateo County Times reports that the Perata investigation
"has expanded in recent weeks, with at least one new agency ordered to cough up records." According to the paper, the California Department of Transportation received a subpoena last month from the FBI's Oakland office.
The Rap Against Mayor Yawn headlines the Los Angeles Times. According to
Laura Chick, LA "needs a very visible, a very strong visionary, action-oriented, proactive, problem-solving, persevering, hard-working mayor," and apparently she's got enough of the hyphenated adjectives to prove it!
Yet Hahn has shown how to be hard-hitting, if not retro, in his
2001-vintage attack on Bob Hertzberg and Antonio Villaraigosa. For those of you who remember the 2001 race, it's like deja vu all over again.
Shameless self-promotion alert: Watch this Sunday's LA Times opinion section for a little riff on Latinos and the LA Mayor's race. Of course, in case you miss it, we'll reprise it in this space for you on Monday.
Finally,
Dennis Mountjoy won't be joining the
Republican caucus' Spanish lessons. The Bee's Jim Sanders gets the quote "'If I go to Mexico, they're not going to speak my language, I'm going to speak theirs. ... Why is California so unique that we have to learn their language?' Mountjoy asked."
When the caucus starts offering classes in how to speak Mountjoy, please let us know.
