As the state's budget deadline looms this week, Evan
Halper and Patrick McGreevy look at the relationship between Speaker John Pérez (D-Los Angeles) and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento).
"
Organized-labor leaders, who hold considerable sway over the
Legislature, are working to sideline Steinberg (D-Sacramento) in budget
negotiations. They complain that his efforts to compromise
too often
result in capitulation. They question his loyalty.
They wonder if his
crusade for a lasting solution to the state's accounting
mess is just a
liability.
They see an alternative
in Democrat
John A. Pérez, the rookie Assembly speaker from Los Angeles whose
spending proposal would generously fund programs these
labor leaders
value without piling onerous new taxes onto Californians
— mostly
through massive borrowing of dubious legality. Pérez is approaching the
budget as a rigid partisan, vowing to boycott talks
with the governor if
Democratic demands are not immediately met."
Pérez's cousin, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa,
will be in Sacramento today adding his voice to those
who support Pérez's budget plan.
Ballot counting continues today in San Diego county,
where former Assemblyman Juan Vargas holds a 6-vote lead over Assemblywoman Mary Salas (D-San Diego) in a Democratic primary for state senate.
Democrats hope the recent oil spill in the Gulf of
Mexico may make it easier to pass a new tax on oil production.
Shane Goldmacher reports, "A proposed levy on oil production is at the core of
both Democratic
budget plans circulating in Sacramento, and thus will be on the table in
upcoming budget talks with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
And though the
Republican governor has emphatically said he is opposed
to new taxes
this year, he has supported the oil tax in the past.
Perhaps more
importantly, his relations with the oil companies — some of which are
trying to dismantle his signature environmental achievement
— are at an
all-time low."
Cathleen Decker looks at Meg Whitman's efforts to evoke the 1960 and her "dredging up the turbulent past in hopes of
gaining political advantage."
Who knew this rae would be decided by ... Vietnam?
Decker explains.
"More than 40 years down the road, the '60s still reverberate politically
and culturally. Whitman's effort is an echo of Richard
Nixon's 1968
rallying of "forgotten Americans," the silent but "decent
people" who
didn't shout or protest but worked and saved and paid
taxes while others
were in the streets or on the dole. This year's forgotten
Americans
just happen to be the same sort of people, those who
feel left behind at
worst — or threatened at best — by an economic recovery that has seen
institutions rebound while families founder.
"The most heralded of them are the Republican-allied tea partiers, but if
Whitman is to win in November she must also attract
independents and
Democrats worried about the state and nation's direction
— and their
own.
Republican attorney Ken Khachigian worked in the Nixon White House and
sees sharp similarities between then and now.
"It's not much different today," he said. "Folks go
to work, do their
jobs … and it's all the others who seem to have the time
to be cultural
renegades." Whitman was smart, he said, to bring up Vietnam.
Sarah Palin made a controversial visit to California State University Stanislaus Friday.
"She called out state Atty. Gen.
Jerry Brown for investigating the finances of the campus foundation
that
invited her, including whether the university illegally
sought to
discard documents pertaining to her contract.
"Come on, this is California. Don't you have anything
better to do?"
Palin said to applause. "There's not a whole lot of
controversy here.
There's no 'there' there. I'm just happy you stuck
with me and didn't
cancel on me."
"Palin also addressed the topic of teaching the next
generation the civic
lessons of protecting freedom and defending the American
idea of
liberty.
"We're not educating our youth about the exceptional
nature of America,"
she said. "For America to survive, we've got to pass
that on to the
next generation."
Torey Van Oot runs down the measures on the November ballot.
"Attention California voters: Are you looking to buy and smoke
weed without running afoul of the law? Wild about water
infrastructure?
Think it's a good idea to lower the threshold for passing
a budget, but
still want to raise the bar for approving fees?
"The Nov. 2 ballot
has something for you.Ten measures had qualified for
the fall ballot by Thursday's deadline."
And finally, from our Scotland files, looks like the
Google Street View team has been pranked again -- this time by Horseboy.
The Daily Mail reports, "The bizarre sight, dubbed
'Horseboy',
has become an unlikely internet sensation after being
snapped by one of
Google's cars on an otherwise unremarkable Aberdeen
street. Now, the search is on to
unmask the mystery prankster."
Among the others who have pranked Google in the past
include Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne, who was seen bathing on his front lawn in anticipation of the Google
cameras.
