"During a student protest Monday, the Legislature's Democratic leaders
vowed to halt $1 billion in proposed higher education cuts, setting the stage for a lengthy deadlock over how to solve a massive deficit in the state budget," reports Steve Geissinger in the Merc News.
"Senate leader
Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, addressed a crowd of hundreds outside the Capitol that included groups from San Jose State University, California State University-East Bay and University of California-Berkeley.
"Demonstrators, who also included students from Bay Area community colleges, marched from a nearby staging field, then chanted, waved signs and beat drums at the rally.
"Perata told them the dominant Democrats in the Legislature will not allow major higher education funding cuts, drawing loud cheers from the audience.
"'
We need to raise taxes before cutting education,' Perata said, suggesting the battle over Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts would last "all summer" if necessary. The state's fiscal year officially begins July 1.
"Nunez lamented that the state spends more each year to imprison a youth than to educate one.
"'We'll fight for you,' Nunez said."
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and some lawmakers
are newly interested in a push to privatize the state lottery as one of the least painful possibilities for addressing the state's financial troubles," writes Judy Lin in the Bee.
"But it's become clear that in order to make the business enticing to private investors, voters would have to agree to authorize bigger jackpots and allow games that are currently banned.
"An analysis prepared by Lehman Bros. for the Schwarzenegger administration revealed private investors would want to target middle-class Californians by installing more terminals and vending machines where they frequently shop, such as Target or Costco. It would boost revenues by running aggressive marketing campaigns and selling ads on lottery tickets.
"Schwarzenegger's finance director,
Michael Genest, said leasing the lottery to an investor like Lehman Bros. would likely require a statewide vote.
"'The more bang for your buck, the more likely it would necessitate a vote of the people,' Genest said."
Hey, why not put the entire budget on the ballot while you're at it?
"With oil and gasoline touching all-time highs again Monday, raging energy-price fever showed no sign of breaking. Before it's over, oil could cost at least $125 a barrel and gasoline more than $4 a gallon in California," reports Ronald White in the Times.
"Even if oil were to stop its frenzied record-a-day pace, gasoline costs would probably keep rising for several weeks as past oil price increases trickled down to the pump and the summer driving season revved up.
"'Every day there is a new irritant' propelling prices higher, said
John Kilduff, head of energy risk management at MF Global in New York, citing the continued weakness of the dollar, violence near oil installations in Nigeria and declining Russian production.
"Another factor lending strength to the surge is the apparent willingness of Americans to put up with runaway prices.
"'We're not hearing the chatter. We're not hearing about boycotts or picket signs at gas stations like we did with earlier price hikes years ago,' said
Jason Toews, co-founder of the Gasbuddy.com website chain, where motorists report the highest and lowest prices they see."
The LAT's Margot Roosevelt
reports on the fight over emissions restrictions on utilities. "On Monday and Tuesday, the state's utilities and energy commissions will hold public workshops in San Francisco on proposals that could make high-carbon polluters such as the DWP, the nation's biggest municipal utility, pay dearly. Investor-owned companies with cleaner nuclear and hydroelectric power could reap windfalls since they might pay proportionately less. And, overall, the money the state collects could be redistributed based on which utility sells the most electricity -- and investor-owned ones such as Southern California Edison are atop that list.
"A decision on how to control greenhouse gases from utilities will be made by the California Air Resources Board at the end of the year. But scenarios under consideration have Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa and DWP chief
H. David Nahai on a lobbying streak in Sacramento. Nahai recently accused the state commissions of promoting 'a scheme to line the pockets of large corporations' and
'shift billions of dollars away from our communities and our customers and into the pockets of for-profit utilities.'
"Los Angeles' customers, who thus far have benefited from some of the lowest rates in the state, could shell out $450 million to $700 million a year -- money that the utility was planning to spend building wind and solar plants. Smaller coal-reliant cities, such as Anaheim, Burbank and Pasadena, also could pay high fees. Customers' bills could soar under such a plan, municipal utility directors, including Nahai, warn."
The LAT's Seema Mehta writes that schools
have turned to panhandling in light of budget cuts. "A free public school education is guaranteed by the state Constitution to every California child. But as districts grapple with proposed state funding cuts that could cause the layoffs of thousands of teachers and inflate class sizes, parents are being asked to dig deeper into their pocketbooks to help.
"'Public education is free, but an excellent public education is not free at this point,' said
Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, which recently launched the Dollar-a-Day campaign, urging citizens of the city near Sacramento to donate $365 per child, grandchild or student acquaintance.
"But 'we never really imagined the magnitude of the problem, the budget cuts, would be this great.'
"Educators must finalize their budgets for the next school year before Sacramento votes on the state's spending plan. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget would cut about $4.8 billion in education funding this year and next. As a result, potential layoff notices have been issued to 20,000 teachers, librarians, nurses and others.
"'It's gone beyond frills at this point,' said
David Wagman, president of the Peninsula Education Foundation, which is asking Palos Verdes parents for $200 per child to save the jobs of 59 teachers. PTAs and students are also holding fundraisers.
"Education officials acknowledge that these fundraising groups are more successful in wealthier areas, increasing the divide between the haves and the have-nots. And they can make financially strapped parents in affluent districts feel like second-class citizens."
"If you tell senior citizens that you're a big shot, you'd better be one,
under legislation passed Monday by the Assembly," reports Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"The measure, Assembly Bill 2149, is designed to curb the use of specialty titles, such as 'senior investment adviser,' by sales personnel with little or no special training.
"'Con artists often prey on older adults by instilling a false sense of trust and security by flaunting bogus credentials,' said Assemblywoman
Patty Berg, a Eureka Democrat who proposed the bill. 'If you want to use a title, you have to earn it.'
"Assembly passage of the bill, 61-7, sends the measure to the Senate.
"Berg's bill targets classroom or online programs that provide designations such as 'certified retirement financial adviser' for participants who undergo only cursory instruction."
Breaking news...the Legislature
has done something worthy of Dan Walters's praise, and it relates to the bill for the City of Industry's NFL dreams.
"Once in a while, almost by accident, the California Legislature sets aside pettiness and venality and does the right thing.
"It happened last week, although you won't find any official record, when legislation that would have changed a city's redevelopment powers in ways that could lead to widespread abuse was quietly killed without a committee hearing.
"Sen.
Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, dropped the bill that the City of Industry was promoting after getting an earful of complaints from other local governments, especially Los Angeles County, and redevelopment reformers."
As if the indignity of a middle seat wasn't enough, now
airport screeners can search the contents of your laptop, reports the Chron's Bob Egelko.
"Reinstating child pornography evidence against a passenger at Los Angeles International Airport, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said a computer is no different from a suitcase, a car or any other piece of property subject to search at an international border.
"Although police need probable cause - specific evidence of criminal activity - to search someone on the street, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that no such evidence is necessary for a border search. Courts have also ruled that an international airport is the equivalent of a border.
"Border agents would need grounds for suspicion before conducting a body search, but a 'piece of property simply does not implicate the same dignity and privacy concerns as highly intrusive searches of the person,' the court said. Judge Diarmuid O'Scannlain wrote the 3-0 decision."
And it's not just about the Dodgers vs. Giants or Gavin vs. Antonio anymore. The LAT's Margot Roosevelt reports on
the war between LA and San Francisco for the title of Greenest City.
"Los Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa has a plan to slash his city's planet-warming greenhouse gases to 35% below the 1990 level by 2030, and make L.A. the "cleanest and greenest city in the country."
"San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom has a blueprint to cut his city's greenhouse gases to 20% below the 1990 level by 2012, creating "the greenest large city in the United States of America."
"Which is stricter? San Francisco's, by a long shot.
"Which will remove more carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, from the atmosphere? Los Angeles' -- but only because it's a bigger city, with a population approaching 4 million; San Francisco's population is under 800,000."
And finally, a Kentucky man may have found the solution to the woes of poor gas mileage and rising gasoline prices. "A Frankfort man was arrested on drug trafficking charges early Sunday morning after he was reportedly
pumping gas into an imaginary vehicle. According to the arrest report, Metro Police arrived at a gas station at First and Jefferson streets in Louisville and immediately smelled marijuana coming from
Joshua L. Moore, who station clerks contend was filling up an imaginary vehicle," AP reports.
"Officers searched Moore and found "two large baggies" of marijuana and a large amount of Ecstasy. Police said Moore also had a cell phone and a large amount of money, which they said was indicative of trafficking."
Moore's imaginary vehicle was also impounded.
