"For only the fifth time in the past 90 years, voters will have a chance to recall a sitting state lawmaker, after
the effort to unseat Sen. Jeff Denham qualified for the ballot on Tuesday," writes the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.
"Denham, a Central Valley Republican, angered top Democrats, particularly Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, for his role in prolonging last summer's 52-day budget standoff.
"The state Democratic Party and a committee tied to Perata spent nearly $300,000 to gather more than 61,000 signatures to qualify the recall, which the secretary of state certified Tuesday.
"The recall is likely to appear on the June 3 ballot, though Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has not officially set the election date.
"The campaign is expected to be expensive, with Denham already raising $625,000 to fight the recall and holding another $1 million in a separate campaign account."
Also on the red carpet, "State Sen.
Carole Migden has been fined $350,000 by the California Fair Political Practices Commission, the largest penalty ever levied against a candidate for state office, for dozens of violations ranging from taking campaign funds for personal use to failing to itemize political expenses, the watchdog agency said Tuesday," reports Matthew Yi in the Chronicle.
"Migden has agreed to pay the fine, but at least three of the five commissioners still need to approve the agreement. They are scheduled to meet Thursday to take up the matter.
"The agency's investigation was prompted in part by a complaint filed last fall by fellow San Francisco Democrat
Mark Leno, an assemblyman who is one of two Democrats trying to oust Migden in the June primary. The other challenger for the Third District Senate seat, which stretches from San Francisco to Sonoma County, is former San Rafael Assemblyman
Joe Nation.
"The FPPC's initial probe concerned $397,000 in campaign credit card expenses that the senator failed to itemize. State law requires candidates to list the names and addresses of vendors being paid with a credit card for expenditures of more than $100.
"But commission investigators found other violations, 89 in all, as well, the agency said. They included receiving contributions for her first Senate run before filing official papers to declare her candidacy, inaccurate disclosures of cash payments and taking $16,317 of campaign funds for the personal use of herself and an aide."
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's "staff notified his brother-in-law
Bobby Shriver and actor
Clint Eastwood on Monday that
they were no longer needed as state park commissioners," reports Terry Rodgers in the Union-Tribune.
"Shriver, 53, a Democrat and brother of first lady
Maria Shriver, and Eastwood, 77, a Republican and former mayor of Carmel, were appointed to the advisory commission by Gov. Gray Davis in 2001. Three years later, Schwarzenegger reappointed both to four-year terms.
"Yesterday, Shriver said he and Eastwood had requested to serve another four-year term. Eastwood couldn't be reached for comment."
But he was apparently seen loading his .357, and getting his horse ready to ride to Sacramento for "a meeting with the governor."
"As commissioners, the two men voted to oppose a 16-mile extension of state Route 241 that would connect southern Orange County to Interstate 5 at San Onofre. The toll road would cut across a nature reserve in Orange County and San Onofre State Beach, a site considered sacred by American Indians and cherished by surfers and campers."
Meanwhile, the administration's Green Crusader image continues in the pages of Forbes Magazine, which
gives some ink to ARB chairwoman Mary Nichols.
"Nichols spends some time criticizing the auto industry for their reluctance to reduce greenhouse gasses. '
Industry has fought us on most all of our major regulations, decrying that the economic impacts of our rules outweigh the projected benefits to public health. Over the long haul, however, we have consistently found that claim false. A 2004 report to Congress found benefits of air pollution control between 1993 and 2003 exceeded its costs by two to six times, or by an average of four times.'"
"Seeking to capitalize on its TV fame as America's quintessential suburb,
Orange County moved to rename its government functions Tuesday with slicked-up, simplified names to remind everyone of exactly where they are: The OC!," reports Christian Berthelson in the Times.
"County supervisors voted to rename 11 departments and agencies and create two new ones, all with the "OC" brand made famous by the now-defunct television show of the same name, thus jettisoning the clunky bureaucratic nomenclature of the past. Example: the Integrated Waste Management Department -- it processes trash -- will become OC Waste and Recycling!
"In its thirst for hipster cred, the county has apparently chosen to eschew punctuation: There will be no periods after the O or the C. (For the record, the title of the TV show, which went off the air a year ago, had them.)"
You know it's bad when Fox has better grammar than you do.
And
it looks like Barak Obama is toast -- literally. Oh sure, his campaign is doing fine. But in a parody of the messianic reception Obama has gotten, one eBay seller is trying to hauk a piece of bread complete with an Obama aberration.
The current high bid for the bread is $44. But some bidders want to know more before shelling out the big bucks.
Among the questions asked:"It looks like whole wheat. Does it come in white?
The answer: "Sorry. Wheat toast it is."
Geraldine Ferraro was unavailable for comment.
