The milk man cometh

"Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, has dramatically altered a prison proposal passed by the state Senate , removing some of the most contentious provisions of the Senate bill – including a plan for a new commission to set sentencing guidelines," Capitol Weekly reports. 

"While taking the sentencing commission proposal out of the Assembly prison plan scheduled to be voted on this week, Bass said she has not given up hope of creating such a panel through a separate piece of legislation this year.

"The sentencing commission was among the most controversial provisions of the Senate prison plan. But on Monday, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said “a real sentencing commission, with teeth, is my top priority” for corrections legislation.

"Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Dlugosh said Monday that the Senate leader would like to see any legislation passed by the Assembly “realize the same dollar figure in savings as the Senate bill.”

George Skelton has an update on the water issue.

"Take a good look because you won't see this often: The Legislature's majority party trying to surrender power.

"It's power that Democrats have been incapable or unwilling to exercise anyway. And it's not like they're giving it to Republicans.

"They're attempting to create an independent governing body to decide how to restore the ecosystem and remodel the waterworks of the deteriorating Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a major source of drinking water for Southern Californians and irrigation for San Joaquin Valley farms.

"Wealth, livelihoods and ways of life are at stake. Some of California's most combative interests -- agricultural, business, urban, environmental -- have been battling over the delta for decades. Because these stakeholders can't agree, neither can the politicians whose policies tend to be shaped by their patron interests. That's the system.

"Handing off the decision-making authority to an outside entity was suggested by a special commission -- the Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force -- created by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and headed by attorney Philip Isenberg, a former high-ranking legislator and Sacramento mayor."

Ah, so it's like the coastal commission, but for the Delta... 

And, just in time for the attorney general's race, "A private attorney who represents former Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo said Monday that a federal probe into the business dealings of Delgadillo's wife has ended without charges being filed ," the LAT's David Zanhizer reports.

"Delgadillo's lawyer, John Potter, said the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco, which was handling the matter, informed him personally that the investigation of the couple was over.

"The Times reported a year ago that federal prosecutors, working with the FBI, had sought information regarding two companies that had performed work for the city and also had retained Michelle Delgadillo as a consultant."

Hey, new blood in the White House, and the investigations into Don Perata and Rocky Delgadillo get kicked. Coincidence, right?

Insurance commissioner Steve Poizner has called for a part-time Legislature.

Large check to follow, right?

Capitol Alert's Jack Chang reports, "The candidate expanded on the idea Monday while talking to Sacramento radio station KTKZ.

According to a transcript sent by Poizner's camp, the candidate said: "We have to wrestle control out of the hands of these career politicians and instead elect people that actually come from the trenches: teachers and bus drivers and business people who have a career, that have income coming from having to make a payroll some place, or getting a paycheck."

Meanwhile, surprising noone, Noreen Evans has jumped into the race to succeed Pat WIggins -- with Wiggins' support.

Jessica York reports, "Evans and Wiggins served together on the Santa Rosa City Council. After Wiggins was termed out of the Assembly, Evans ran for her seat in 2004, and won handily. She won re-election in 2006 and last year, and her Assembly seat will term out next year.

"Pat has been a friend, a leader and a colleague for many years and I know I have my work cut out for me to fill her shoes," Evans said in a release Monday.

"Later, in a phone interview, Evans, 54, said that Wiggins' announcement Monday that she will not seek re-election was not the first time she had considered running for the Senate seat.

"It was a decision I had to make very rapidly," said Evans, current chair of the Assembly Budget Committee.

"Of course, there's been speculation about Pat for the past few months. I had other options that I was considering, but decided to run for this seat."

 Wyatt Buchanan, and the governor's Twitter feed, report one of the controversial issues at the end of the session will involve Harvey Milk.

"The bill would designate May 22, Milk's birthday, as a day of special significance. It would require the governor to proclaim that date as Harvey Milk Day every year and encourage public schools to observe the day and conduct classroom exercises or lessons concerning Milk. Individual schools could decide whether to do so.

Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill last year, saying Milk had the most impact locally in San Francisco and commemorations should take place there. Backers of the bill are hoping Obama's actions, along with the Academy Award-winning film "Milk," will convince the governor that Milk deserves the honor.

"There's every reason to have one for Harvey Milk," said state Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, who sponsored the bill last year and this year. "It should be kept in mind that he literally gave his life so I and others can serve in public office and that every generation of LGBT Californians can pursue their every hope, dream and aspiration."

We've got $20 on a re-veto...

And this being fair season, and swine flu season, organizers in Canada have built a special quarantine area for pigs to protect ... the pigs?

"Pigs on display at Ottawa's Super Ex fair and the Museum of Agriculture are being protected from swine flu with a series of extra precautions.

At the SuperEx on Monday, a pen full of piglets was screened by a green mesh.

"It's not as fun," said Ian Hunter, who has been to the annual fair in previous years. "Before, you used to get to pet them."

Recently in Alberta, hundreds of pigs were culled after some were infected by a farm worker."

Please, spare us the details...