"Private donors have paid for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's presidential suite at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento ever since he became governor in 2003, but his office
has not documented the gifts for years," reports Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"The absence of such record-keeping has made it difficult to track $100,000 in annual donations and could invite scrutiny from the Fair Political Practices Commission, which – under new chairman
Ross Johnson – is trying to force politicians to disclose more information about gifts.
"'The commission may wish to take a closer look at this issue in the future,' said FPPC spokesman
Roman Porter."
...probably around the time Schwarzenegger leaves office.
"The governor's backers formed the Governor's Residence Foundation of California as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 2004 after the FPPC determined Schwarzenegger could not use campaign funds to pay for his room at the Hyatt after his first year in office.
"The Governor's Office considers the foundation payments as gifts to the state and believes it is in compliance with FPPC regulations, said Schwarzenegger spokesman
Aaron McLear. The Governor's Office is relying on a 1984 FPPC advice letter that says a governor does not have to report the contribution on his personal gift form."
"A national environmental group on Saturday
called for a legislative investigation into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's removal of his brother-in-law, Bobby Shriver, and actor-director Clint Eastwood from a state parks panel," reports the AP's Samantha Young.
"The Natural Resources Defense Council had initially called on Schwarzenegger to reinstate Shriver and Eastwood to the State Park and Recreation Commission. But the group said Saturday it wants the state Senate to investigate the move after learning that state law does not allow the governor to reappoint them for at least a year.
"The governor told Shriver and Eastwood on Monday they would not be reappointed to the parks commission, where they had opposed a Schwarzenegger-backed plan to build a toll road through a popular state beach in Southern California.
"'For them to be essentially dismissed from the commission based on their actions to defend San Onofre is unacceptable,' said NRDC attorney
Joel Reynolds. 'We believe the Senate should conduct an investigation into the circumstances and that investigation should be completed before the Senate confirms any replacements.'
"Schwarzenegger spokesman
Aaron McLear said Saturday the governor had made his decision and the case was closed."
The Bee's Andy Furillo reports on the
tough times ahead for some state workers. "For the state public employee unions whose contracts come up this year, the timing couldn't be worse.
"It's a bargaining season where an $8 billion budget deficit provides the economic backdrop, and just about all the parties agree the atmosphere surrounding the talks is going to be dismal.
"'
It's sort of like having Christmas during the Depression,' said
Terry McHale, a lobbyist who represents the California Department of Forestry Firefighters."
Hey, if all else fails, they could always just
picket The Bee...The Merc's Steve Harmon reports on the
Democrats chances of picking up Assembly seats this fall.
"If a wave does crash down on California, Democrats hope it sweeps through at least six Assembly and two Senate districts, which is what they'd need to capture a two-thirds majority in both houses. That would give them the power to pass budgets and taxes without Republican help."
Six Assembly seats? That wouldn't be a wave. That would be a melting of a polar ice cap...
"'As demographics shift, more Democrats are moving into districts that had been slidly Republican, and old district boundaries are becoming moot, said
Bill Carrick, a Democratic consultant and veteran of presidential campaigns.
"'
I think there will be seats in play that people will be surprised about,' Carrick said. 'A big partisan surge usually works everywhere and you see pickups in places you didn't think would happen.'"
If Democrats pick up six seats in November, the Roundup will be written in Pig Latin for the week following the elections.
The Bee's John Hill
looks at the opposition to the other Proposition 98, which is billed as a crackdown on cities' use of eminent domain.
"
But a major secondary effect of the initiative – opponents say the true motive – is to ban rent control. About a million Californians currently live in rent-controlled apartments or mobile homes. A competing measure on the June ballot, Proposition 99, would put fewer restrictions on eminent domain, and does not address the question of rent control at all.
"More than a dozen cities have some form of rent control for apartments, mostly in pricey coastal areas such as Berkeley, San Francisco, San Jose and Santa Monica.
"Rent control plays out differently in mobile home parks, where tenants own the home but not the land beneath it and would have to pay a considerable amount – more than $10,000 – to move their property.
"'People who live in mobile home parks are not all destitute,' said
Sheila Dey, executive director of the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, a park owner association and major financial backer of Proposition 98.
"Initiative supporters add that rents would still be constrained by the market, as well as long-term lease agreements between the owners and tenants."
Meanwhile, in other housing news, the LAT's Patrick McGreevy reports that Southern California officials
claim they're not getting their fare share of Prop 1C affordable housing funds.
"'
Southern California is being deprived of its fair share of funding under Prop. 1C despite the fact that this region is home to a majority of the state's population,' Villaraigosa said in a recent interview. 'The city of Los Angeles expressed serious concern at the state's funding guidelines because they seem to favor Northern California projects.'"
In the first round of funding, Northern California won a majority of the dough, largely because of funds targeted for areas convenient to public transportation.
"Protests have poured in from Los Angeles city officials to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, which helped devise the funding formulas and is overseeing distribution of funds.
"'We remain steadfast in our assertion that the current allocation . . . is not equitable,'
Mercedes Marquez, general manager of the Los Angeles Housing Department, wrote in a Feb. 4 letter. She believes Southern California should get at least 55% of the infill housing money."
The LAT's Evan Halper looks at
doctors' exodus from Medi-Cal.
"After San Diego ear, nose and throat physician
Ted Mazer recently billed the state's medical insurance program for the poor for a tonsillectomy, he got a check for $168, too little to cover surgical costs. The balance came out of his pocket.
"Now legislators have cut the rates even further, leaving Mazer resolved to shut his doors to new Medi-Cal patients. Almost every other specialist in his field countywide has already done the same, he said.
"Statewide, many other doctors report that they too are abandoning Medi-Cal, even those who had stuck with it for years out of a sense of professional responsibility.
"In response, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to announce in Sacramento on Tuesday that a coalition of local governments and healthcare providers plans to file suit to force a rollback of the 10% cut in fees paid to doctors that was approved by legislators in February.
George Skelton
has high hopes for California Forward--the new commission looking at the effectiveness of state government, which is co-chaired by
Leon Panetta and
Thomas McKernan.
"As the state Supreme Court considers the validity of California's sex-offender statute, known as Jessica's Law,
San Diego and other cities are passing tougher versions of it," writes Tony Manolatos in the Union-Tribune.
"Jessica's Law says registered sex offenders can't live within 2,000 feet of a school or park where children gather. This month, the San Diego City Council and Mayor Jerry Sanders approved an ordinance that adopts the residency restriction and adds another limitation.
"Under the city ordinance, registered sex offenders can't be within 300 feet of an amusement center, arcade, day care facility, library, playground, park or school.
"The residency restriction applies to sex offenders convicted of crimes after the ordinance was signed, but the 300-foot rule covers all registered sex offenders."
And in his Los Angeles Times blog,
Kareem Abdul-Jabaar takes umbrage with the notion that he was motivated by anger as a player.
"
What’s weird about it is that every morning when I get out of bed, bluebirds, squirrels, and deer help me get dressed while we sing 'We Are the World.' By the way, squirrels really suck at tying shoes. And deer often mumble the lyrics.
"Even that doesn’t make me angry."
Davidson destroying his NCAA bracket? Now
that makes him angry.
Kareem says typically it was white people who thought of him as "angry." "What’s interesting about the question is that the person who asked the question is white. In fact, no black person has ever asked that question. That's because they already know the answer."
