"Legal proceedings involving campaign spending violations in California rarely provoke as much heated language as
the case of state Sen. Carole Migden v. the Fair Political Practices Commission," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"But the fight among three of the Capitol's most combative characters -- Migden, her campaign consultant
Richie Ross and FPPC Chairman
Ross Johnson -- is rapidly becoming the stuff of legend.
"Johnson says the San Francisco Democrat is trying to "bully" the FPPC. Migden has accused Johnson of "Nixonian" behavior. Ross, no stranger to verbal warfare himself, contends a $9 million countersuit the FPPC filed against Migden is "retaliatory."
"
Like all of us, (Johnson) has a dark side, and it has surfaced,' he said."'
Ross Johnson is trying to destroy the credibility of any good progressive candidate trying to run, and he's now proceeding in a Nixonian pace,' Migden said over the weekend during a speech at the California Democratic Party convention."
Where, incidentally, Migden didn't get her party's nomination over the weekend...
"Johnson, nominated last year by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to oversee the FPPC, notes that Migden, fined twice by the FPPC for a total of $110,000 before he became chairman, has a "track record" of complete disdain for the state Political Reform Act."
Dan Walters writes that Sunday's floor vote by the state Democratic Party
overturning Saturday's hard-fought endorsement of local delegates capped off a bad month for Migden.
Beyond Chron takes April Fool's Day to announce that
Migden has dropped out of the race to head the DMV.
Meanwhile, Senator
Jeff Denham asked the governor yesterday to schedule the recall election for the already scheduled June 3 primary date.
"A federal judge has ordered the state's largest public employee union to repay as many as 28,000 non-union state workers who were not given a chance to challenge a 2005 dues increase to fight initiatives backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger," reports John Hill in the Bee.
"Judge
Morrison England, in a decision Thursday, ordered Service Employees International Union Local 1000 to send notices to the workers who opted out of union membership. The union must issue refunds, with interest, to those non-union members who object to the special assessment. The rebate would amount to $135 plus interest for a worker who made $4,500 a month in 2005.
"The special fee raised $12 million to fight Schwarzenegger's agenda, about a quarter of which was paid by state workers who chose not to join the union."
Dan Weintraub writes that the
law that allowed the use of volunteers in government funded programs is sunsetting this year unless the Legislature acts to extend it.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration
has moved to ban physicians and hospitals from billing patients for the cost of services above what their HMOs are willing to pay," reports Jordan Rau in the Times.
"Such bills, which patient advocates call a consumer abuse, are the product of a protracted feud between insurers and healthcare providers, principally emergency room doctors, radiologists and anesthesiologists.
"Those doctors often work in hospitals but don't have contracts with the same health maintenance organizations that serve the hospitals. Believing the reimbursements they receive from insurers are too low, providers send additional bills to patients for the difference. Many patients wrongly assume that bill is the invoice for their co-payment and is authorized by their HMO.
"'Balanced billing,' as the practice is called, is regulated in eight states. But versions of legislation to control it have repeatedly died in Sacramento amid opposition from either providers or insurers.
"In 2006, Schwarzenegger ordered his administration's HMO regulators to ban the practice. The Department of Managed Health Care spent the last two years trying to negotiate a compromise between insurers and providers to work out their payment differences, but couldn't find common ground.
"So the department decided to simply outlaw the practice through new draft regulations issued Friday."
"Motorists in Los Angeles County
could end up paying an extra 9 cents per gallon at the gas pump, or an additional $90 on their vehicle registration, under proposals aimed at getting them to help fight global warming," writes the LAT's Patrick McGreevy.
"Voters would be able to decide whether to approve a "climate change mitigation and adaptation fee" under legislation being considered by state lawmakers and endorsed by the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
"The money would fund improvements to mass transit and programs to relieve traffic congestion at a time when transportation dollars from Washington and Sacramento are hard to come by.
"'At this point the people of the Los Angeles region have just had it when it comes to traffic and air quality,' said Assemblyman
Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), author of the legislation, AB2558.
"But opponents already are rallying against the measure, saying it exploits public concern about climate change to tap taxpayers for the MTA's regular services: providing bus and rail lines."
"A New Zealand man has been sentenced to community service after
telling police he had been raped by a wombat and the experience had caused him to start speaking "Australian".
"
Arthur Cradock, a 48-year-old orchard worker from Motueka on South Island, rang police on February 11 to say he was being raped by the slow moving Australian marsupial at his home, The Nelson Mail reported.
"He rang back soon afterwards to say he was withdrawing his complaint against the wombat, a court was told Wednesday.
"'
Apart from speaking Australian now, I'm pretty all right you know,' he told police in the second call."
