"California's largest labor organization has
demanded that Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez return $4 million the speaker received from the state Democratic Party--money that the labor leaders said should go to help Democratic candidates," reports Capitol Weekly.
"The executive council of the California Labor Federation, meeting privately at the Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles, unanimously approved the resolution Monday night urging Nunez to return the money “for the purpose for which it was originally intended,” according to three ranking officials familiar with the action.
"Nunez, who is leaving office this year, has more than $5.1 million in his personal campaign account. Labor leaders cited concerns that Nunez might use those funds for his own political purposes -- a future political race or Nunez-backed ballot initiative campaign -- instead of being used to benefit the Assembly Democratic Caucus.
"
'When the speaker asked for the money, it was for one purpose -- to help elect Assembly Democratic candidates. It was not for a slush fund for the speaker. If he does the moral thing, he will return the money,' said Robert Balgenorth, president of the State Building and Construction Trades Council, and a member of the Federation's executive committee.
"
Steven Maviglio, a spokesman for the speaker, said the funds had indeed been directed to political activities to assist candidates.
"'The speaker has been the largest fundraiser of the Democratic Party in recent memory. He fully funded all the legislative races. We had 48 Democrats in '04 and '06, and he raised money in the '05 special election,' he said. 'He has sided with labor on all those issues.
We don't question how labor runs its operations. It's unfortunate they don't offer the same consideration to the speaker.'"
But spending reports from the Secretary of State's office show Nunez has only spent about $1.4 million out of his campaign account since 2005. In those four years, only $153,000 has been spent on candidate contributions, the records indicate. The largest benefactor was Kevin Shelly's legal defense fund, which received $15,000 from Nunez in 2005, before the $4 million from the party was received. Others who received donations from the committee include
Phil Angelides ($6,600), Darrell Steinberg ($6,600) Mark Leno ($3,600) and Gavin Newsom ($500)."
The LAT's Nancy Vogel reports, "State law does not allow Nuñez to use the money for non-governmental or non-political purposes. But
union officials said they feared he could use the money to ingratiate himself with other political leaders to get another job,
such as chairmanship of the state Democratic Party.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
said Tuesday he believes the state can't solve its current budget problem through cuts alone and called on lawmakers to 'get very creative' in finding new revenues that don't qualify as taxes," writes Kevin Yamamura in the Bee.
"Schwarzenegger, speaking at a town hall-style meeting in Modesto, said the state must rein in spending but added,
'We have to find revenues this year, because I don't think that we can do everything through cuts. So I think that the legislators have to get very creative, because I dislike raising taxes.'"The Republican governor did not specify ways the state could raise more revenues without increasing taxes. He previously has discussed leasing the California Lottery to a private firm and reducing tax credits and incentives, said Department of Finance spokesman
H.D. Palmer."
"Assemblyman
Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, vice chairman of the Assembly Budget Committee, questioned why the governor put the burden on lawmakers to find creative solutions for new revenues and was skeptical that any such ideas could be realized without raising taxes.
"'The fact of the matter is, the budget proposals are the governor's,' Niello said. 'I'd be very interested in seeing what creative ideas the governor has to navigate that rather tricky course of raising new revenues without increasing taxes.'"Niello said Republicans consider one of the governor's ideas – the closure of tax breaks – the equivalent of a tax hike because it ultimately results in higher taxes."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
threw his political heft Tuesday behind a new proposal to open the California Public Employees' Retirement System to private sector businesses and workers to encourage Californians to save more for retirement," writes John Hill in the Bee.
"'Having a financially secure retirement is part of the American Dream and this bill will help that dream come true for millions of hardworking Californians and their families,' Schwarzenegger said in a prepared statement.
"The proposal to open CalPERS to the private sector is contained in Assembly Bill 2940 by Assemblyman
Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles.
"AB 2940 would allow Californians whose employers don't offer retirement savings plans to put money into the California Employee Savings Program.
"Employers without retirement plans could also participate.
"The retirement plan, unlike 401(k) plans, could be taken by the worker from job to job. If the plan is approved by the Internal Revenue Service, CalPERS would administer it with fees paid by the account holders, at no expense to taxpayers."
Meanwhile,
what's next for Condi?
"'There has been renewed speculation about Rice's future since Sunday when
Dan Senor, the former spokesman for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, was a panelist on ABC's "This Week with George Stephanopolous."
"Senor claimed that Rice wants to be McCain's vice president and 'has been actively, actually in recent weeks, campaigning' to be on the ticket.
"Not so, Rice said Tuesday.
"'This is obviously a very busy agenda, and here I sit with my Mexican and Canadian counterparts on hemispheric issues,' she said. 'So, I have a lot of work to do and then I will happily go back to Stanford.'"
From which she can run for governor?
"Legislation that would allow authorities in California to seize property used for dogfighting
dissolved Tuesday into a battle pitting canine lovers against the American Civil Liberties Union and defense attorneys," reports Aurelio Rojas in the Bee.
"The Senate Public Safety Committee put off a vote until next week after the ACLU and the California Public Defenders Association expressed concern the bill would elevate punishment for dogfighting to a level not accorded crimes against humans, including murder.
"Senate Bill 1775 by Sen.
Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, would allow the forfeiture of property used for dogfighting.
"'What makes this measure different from past forfeiture measures this committee has seen is that the proceeds go to animal welfare organizations who rescue and rehabilitate fighting dogs,' Calderon said before the hearing."
Meanwhile,
the fun police are at it again. "[O]n Tuesday, a legislative panel
voted to support a ban on sales of metallic, helium-filled balloons beginning in 2010," reports the LAT's Nancy Vogel.
"When these metallic or mylar balloons get trapped in power lines, they can do a lot of damage -- not just to power lines but to surrounding businesses that lose power," Sen.
Jack Scott (D-Altadena) told the state Senate Public Safety Committee.
"Scott said he introduced the ban, in SB 1499, at the request of Burbank officials concerned that businesses -- including major movie studios -- were losing power too frequently because of balloon-triggered outages.
"Blackouts can cost businesses $220,000 or more a minute, depending on the extent to which industrial production and computers are involved, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, an industry group.
"Mylar balloons have caused 63 outages in Burbank since 1993, representing the third-largest cause of blackouts, city officials said.
"
Barry Broad is battling the balloon ban, which still faces several legislative hurdles. He represents a group of balloon industry firms called the Balloon Council, and says the proposed law is another overreaction by state government to a problem that can be addressed with less drastic results.
"
'It's sort of like trying to kill an ant with an atom bomb,' Broad said."
There's a new undecided superdelegate to start pestering, as
Jackie Speier was easily elected to Congress in a special election yesterday.
The Chron's John Wildermuth reports: "The former state senator took a huge early lead Tuesday night in the race to finish the term of the late Democratic Rep.
Tom Lantos and never looked back, collecting more than the 50 percent plus one vote needed to put her on a flight to Washington this morning.
"With all the San Francisco precincts reporting and only a handful of precincts remaining to be counted in San Mateo County, Speier had captured more than 75 percent of the vote, far more than she needed to avoid a June 3 runoff. Her closest competitor was Republican Greg Conlon, far back with 9 percent of the vote."
Meanwhile,
the State Tomato Board has been dissolved.
"The commission misspent members' dues on lavish conferences in Arizona and Mexico, where its families traveled free, according to the audit. It bought perks for directors and employees -- thousand-dollar dinners, a $653 Hummer stretch limousine ride, $190 bottles of wine -- and made other questionable expenditures."
Steve Peace is going to be pissed...CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports on
a new bill to help cruise ship victims.Cruise ships conjure up happy visions of the Love Boat and the sun-kissed South Pacific. But a crime-victims advocacy group says there's a lot going on that people don't know about--and that passengers often are at risk.
"The state Department of Justice would be required to place a law enforcement officer on any cruise ship that docks in California, under legislation carried by Sen.
Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto. Simitian's SB 1582 easily emerged from the Senate Public Safety Committee on a 5-0 vote on Tuesday, despite objections from the industry-backed Cruise Lines International Association."
And a New York court has
defended our God-given right to scream at cell-phone users.
"A retired police officer who screamed obscenities at a train passenger who was talking on a cell phone and who hit the hand of another passenger who intervened was acquitted Tuesday of misdemeanor charges stemming from the confrontation," AP reports.
"John Clifford, who is also a lawyer, was found not guilty after a two-day nonjury trial at which he acted as his own attorney During trial,
Clifford, 60, admitted cursing at Nicholas Bender, "a 19-year-old nitwit waking up one girlfriend after another," and slapping the hand of Lydia Klein after she slapped his when he reached for a business card she was handing Bender on the train from Long Beach to Manhattan's Pennsylvania Station on March 28, 2007.
"Clifford, who retired as a police sergeant after 10 years on the job, said Tuesday
he had been arrested eight times after being accused of throwing coffee, spewing expletives and getting in the faces of people whom he considered loud and rude on the commuter line. This was the only case that wasn't dismissed."
