"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill Tuesday that will prevent
nearly 700,000 poor children from losing health insurance, reversing
his earlier threat to veto all legislation unless state
lawmakers first
addressed his top priorities," the Chron's Matthew Yi reports.
It was heartening to stand in the Capitol rotunda and
see the govenror getting such good press for stripping
funding for kids health insurance in the first place,
only to restore the money later. Hey, we see a new
strategy for prime photo ops forming here...
But did yesterday's signing amount to a reversal?John Myers gets downright Shakespearian as he contemplates that question
and the fate of the
hundreds of bills on the governor's desk.
"Governor Schwarzenegger's decision this morning to
sign legislation ensuring continued health care coverage
for children
of low-income families was no surprise. AB 1422 was a compromise fix to the dilemma created by a budget
deficit and the governor's decision this summer to line-item veto about $50 million from the Healthy Families program.
The governor's staff had initially planned a formal signing ceremony
two weeks ago tomorrow, just before the end of the
legislative session.
So why the delay?
"Ahh, politics. The ceremony was shelved as Schwarzenegger
and
legislators engaged in a bit of political sniping about
whether the
final days of the legislative session were being spent
productively.
And when the governor threatened to veto all 72 bills on his desk on
September 8 -- because big issues like a state water fix were
unresolved -- legislative leaders yanked the bills back."
The Merc's Paul Rogers reports the guv has also reversed himself on park closure
threats.
"
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger will close far fewer than 100 state parks as his
administration had previously planned, and he has dropped plans to
release a list of targeted parks this month.
"Backing away from an
issue that prompted growing criticism and threatened
the governor's
environmental legacy, Schwarzenegger has asked the
state Department of
Finance to find other cuts in the state parks budget
to minimize the
number of parks closed, the governor's office said Tuesday.
"That
100 number isn't something to hang your hat on," said Jeff Macedo, a
spokesman for Schwarzenegger. "We wanted to find a way to keep as many
parks as possible open."
Well, then where am I supposed to hang my hat exactly,
Mr. Macedo?
Moving on...
"Two prominent East Bay marijuana advocates got clearance
from the state
today to try to put a pot-legalization initiative on the November 2010
California ballot.
Cheech and Chong, you ask? Not exactly.
"Richard Lee, executive director of the medical marijuana dispensary
known as Oaksterdam, and Jeff Jones, former director of the Oakland
Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative, are the sponsors of a measure that would
allow anyone over 21 to possess or grow marijuana for personal use. It
would allow each local government to decide whether
to tax and regulate
marijuana sales."
Paul Krekorian seems heading to a December run-off in his bid for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
The LAT's Maeve Resten reports, "Krekorian and former Paramount Pictures Corp. executive
Christine
Essel were jockeying for the top spot, according to partial
returns
representing a sliver of the nearly 124,000 registered voters in the
2nd Council District. Los Angeles school board member
Tamar Galatzan, a
deputy city attorney based in Van Nuys, was a distant
third.
"If no candidate breaks 50%, the top two candidates will face a runoff Dec. 8."
And in non-news announcements, Meg Whitman declared her formal candidacy for governor.
The Merc's Ken McLaughlin reports, "Nine
months before Californians go to the polls to pick
their party's
nominee for governor, GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg
Whitman on Tuesday
launched a statewide radio campaign.
The ads coincided with a
speech in Orange County saying that she was "officially announcing" her
candidacy for governor, even though the former CEO
of eBay has been
running hard for the position since February.
"As I committed to
in February, if elected I will identify and implement at least $15
billion in permanent spending cuts from the state budget," she said in
a speech in Fullerton.
And not a minute before then...
She also repeated her pledge to reduce
the state work force by at least 40,000 employees — a 17 percent
reduction that she said would "reset the workforce" to 2004-2005 levels
and save the state a projected $3.3 billion each year. The "official"
designation means nothing legally.
The Bee's Jack Chang looks at where all the gubernatorial wannabes stand on prison
reform.
"Schwarzenegger filed a plan last week to ease overcrowding
that
falls well short of a demand by a three-judge panel that he reduce the
population by 40,000 inmates within two years.
That
means the four declared gubernatorial candidates as
well as Attorney
General Jerry Brown, who is widely expected to run,
face questions
about how they would act to fix what everyone acknowledges
is a broken
state corrections system.
In conversations with The Bee, they've laid out two distinct visions:
"Two
of the Republican candidates, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and Insurance
Commissioner Steve Poizner, have rejected proposals that would let
inmates out early or keep some parole violators out
of prison. The two
have also called for building more prisons to relieve
overcrowding and
sending inmates to other states with surplus bed space.
"On the
other side are Democrat Gavin Newsom, mayor of San Francisco, and
Republican Tom Campbell, a former congressman, both of whom support
reworking prison and parole guidelines to divert more
inmates into
parole and keeping some parole violators out of prison."
"Brown, in interviews with The Bee, declined to comment
on specific
reform proposals, saying that as attorney general he
has to enforce
whatever proposals become law."
Meanwhile, Carly Fiorina inched closer to a big
announcement, possibly at this weekend's state GOP convention in Southern California.
Fiorina launched a new Web site, and got some attention
in Washington, where Democrats already have cut an ad attacking her tenure
at HP.
Politico's Glenn Thrush reports, "The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee is message-testing with a web ad
going after former Hewlett Packard boss Carla Fiorina
-- highlighting
her huge severance package and the 18,000 staff reductions she
instituted to bolster profits and HP's stock price.
"The first quote is from Fiorina herself from a recent
TV interview:
"Most people know me as, you now, she was the lady who
got fired at
Hewlett-Packard."
"Then comes footage of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) hitting
a line of attack that will likely be the centerpiece
of Democrats'
strategy: "Carly Fiorina... she left Hewlett-Packard with a $45
million, including a $21.5 million severance package."
And finally, Los Angeles is cracking down on ... roosters?
"Hoping to quell the amount of crowing across the city,
the Los Angeles
City Council passed a law Tuesday limiting the number
of roosters that
each household can own."
In further efforts to reduce crowing, the city also
limited Los Angeles households to one politician per
household.
