Eight is enough

The state Supreme Court upheld Proposition 8, upholding the voters' choice to ban gay marriage, while allowing 18,000 gay couples who exchanged vows before Prop. 8 was passed to stay married.

The Chron's Bob Egelko reports, "California's voters, not its courts, are the final judges of same-sex couples' right to marry. And even if they're barred from marrying, gays and lesbians are not the victims of unconstitutional discrimination.

The lone dissenter, Justice Carlos Moreno, said the court was accepting the same separate-but-equal status for gays and lesbians that it rejected last year.

"Granting same-sex couples all of the rights enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, except the right to call their officially recognized and protected family relationship a marriage, still denies them equal treatment," Moreno said. He said the ruling "places at risk the state constitutional rights of all disfavored minorities."

So, what's next, you ask?

The LAT's Carol Williams reports, "Two prominent attorneys who argued on opposite sides of Bush vs. Gore, the legal battle over the 2000 presidential election, announced Tuesday that they will challenge Proposition 8 in federal court and seek to restore gay marriage until the case is decided.

"Former U.S. Solicitor General Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who represented then-Vice President Al Gore in the contested election, have joined forces to tackle the same-sex marriage issue, which has deeply divided Californians and left 18,000 gay couples married last year in legal isolation.

"In a project of the American Foundation for Equal Rights, Olson and Boies have united to represent two same-sex couples filing suit after being denied marriage licenses because of Proposition 8."

We're getting the popcorn ready for the Olson vs. Ken Starr smackdown at the U.S. Supreme Court...

Reaction around the state was, not surprisingly, everywhere. But at least one would-be mayor changed his approach slightly.

Matier and Ross note Gavin Newsom's personal touch in responding to the Prop. 8 verdict.

"The mayor offered up a cooler, calmer message delivered over the course of three hours in individual interviews with a string of local, state and national reporters.

"We just feel one-on-one offered the best opportunity to get our message out," said mayoral spokesman Nathan Ballard.

The sit-downs also guaranteed that there would be no repeat of Newsom's infamous, growling declaration in the City Hall rotunda last year after the court legalized same-sex marriages that gay and lesbian weddings were "gonna happen - whether you like it or not."

The crowd cheered that day, but the video clip became the cornerstone of the campaign that passed Proposition 8 - an ad that gubernatorial candidate Newsom would just as soon never see again."

Don't think that's a possibility, Gavin, whether you like it or not...

And with such big news from the courts, the governor, naturally, ran out to do the Tonight Show.  

"He visited "The Tonight Show" host again Tuesday, but it sometimes sounded like a rerun, " AP reports. 

You mean, like this?

Oh, not that kind of rerun...

After nearly six years in office, Schwarzenegger is still promising to repair California's ailing finances.

"The Republican governor said he had "absolute confidence" that Democrats and Republicans will get together in the next few weeks and "fix the problems."  Schwarzenegger placed part of the blame for the state's financial woes on a shrinking global economy -- and himself."

The governor also said he had no doubt that eventually, Proposition 8 would be overturned.

Before he ran off to Burbank, the govenror met with Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa at the Capitol, and sent a formal list of proposed budget cuts to the Legislature.

"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday sent lawmakers his plan to trim more than $5 billion in spending by dismantling or drastically curtailing state programs that provide Californians with healthcare, higher education, welfare, parks, AIDS treatment and counseling, prisoner rehabilitation and other services," reports the LAT's Patrick McGreevy.

"The cuts came atop other severe spending reductions in a separate $16-billion plan that the governor unveiled two weeks ago. His aides said he would propose another $3 billion in cuts by the end of the week to address a projected $24.3-billion budget shortfall.

"Opponents of the proposed reductions mobilized throughout the day around the Capitol, which sprang to life again after a long holiday weekend."

Send in the purple shirts...

The Bee's Kevin Yamamura reports, "Several of the latest cuts were eye-openers , but the largest was the wholesale elimination of the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids Program, which provides grants to parents that people commonly refer to as "welfare."

Nearly 1.3 million Californians received CalWORKs payments in February, almost 1 million of whom were children. The state would save $1.3 billion next year by eliminating CalWORKs but lose three times as much in federal funds.

"It boggles the mind that California would be the only state in the Union  without a CalWORKs-type program," said Frank Mecca executive director of the County Welfare Directors Association  "In fact, we'd be, to our knowledge, the only state in a country in the entire First World not to have subsistence benefits for children."

CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports some of the cuts may soon include cuts to legislators' benefits packages .

"The Commission that cut salaries of state elected officials last week will meet on June 19 to discuss doing the same to their benefit packages.

"The California Citizens Compensation Commission will gather in Sacramento that day to hear a presentation on benefits and then vote on possible changes, according to chairman Charles Murray.

"We have a job to do and we're going to do it," Murray said. "We're not on a witch-hunt, we're just trying to do what's right."

The board has sought a legal opinion from the legal staff at the Department of Personnel Administration (DPA) over which benefits they have control over. The best-known benefit, per diem, legislators receive is definitely out of their control. This is the $40,000 or so a year allowance given to legislators to allow them to travel to and stay in Sacramento for their jobs."

Meanwhile, Timm Herdt is reaching for his pitchfork.  

"I’m not sure what a revolution feels like, but there’s something going on in California in 2009 that feels pretty close to it.

"In this environment, one revolutionary idea that is picking up traction is the movement to call a constitutional convention. The convention would be tasked with blowing up the system we’ve got and it would empower an unspecified group of people to rewrite the rules dictating how California elects its leaders, raises and spends money and organizes its governance.

"It’s a grand idea with one grand problem: It’ll never work.

"If there is a surefire prescription for political failure in a cynical age, it is to ask voters to empower a group of strangers to create a whole new government and to trust that those strangers will do the right thing."

And finally, we turn to the Santa Ana school district for the Roundup's Crime Blotter. 

"A former school board trustee from Southern California has been sentenced to two years of informal probation for stealing a bottle of ketchup from a college dining area.

Orange County Superior Court Judge Jacki Brown on Tuesday also ordered Steve Rocco to pay about $200 in fines and stay 100 yards away from the college.

"Rocco was convicted by a jury last month of misdemeanor petty theft for stealing a 14-ounce bottle of ketchup from a Chapman University dining area.

"The eccentric former Orange Unified School District trustee known for espousing conspiracy theories claims authorities planted the ketchup near his bicycle to make it look like a theft when he was recycling the bottle."