Their swearing-in ceremonies just completed and a new legislative
session beginning, lawmakers appeared to give a thumbs-down to lame-duck Gov. Schwarzeenegger's budget-balancing proposals. Instead, they'd rather wait for Jerry Brown, reports Jim Miller at the Riverside Press-Enterprise has the story.
"It also contains an oft-rejected surcharge on
insurance policies to generate $350 million for fire protection and other
emergency services. And it would reshuffle pots of
transportation money to try
to comply with new voter-approved limits on taking local government revenue.
"But as they gathered with friends and family at Monday's
swearing-in, lawmakers from both parties appeared ready to wait
for Gov.-elect
Jerry Brown to
take office in four weeks to begin tackling the state's
fiscal mess. "Unless I'm surprised, nothing's going to
happen," Assemblyman Paul Cook, R-Yucca Valley, said of Schwarzenegger's
proposal.
And the governor's budget plan contained an array of items that already have been
rejected, reports the Bee's Kevin Yamamura.
"The governor offered no political pathway to a
balanced budget. Instead, there was a stream of Schwarzenegger
proposals that
died in the Legislature, from eliminating welfare-to-work to shifting prisoners
to local jails. And there was one last accounting maneuver
to avoid a budget
handcuff passed by voters in November."
"But with Democratic Gov.-elect Jerry Brown
taking over in 27 days, most of Schwarzenegger's budget ideas seem to
be headed
nowhere."
Meanwhile, Brown himself was in Las Vegas. No, not
to cover
the state deficit at the Venetian. He was there to talk to a major supporter -- the California Correctional Peace Officers Association.
From the L.A. Times' Ashley Powers and Anthony York: "On Monday he could be found at a major resort in
Las Vegas, addressing the
prison guards’ union, which spent more than $1.8 million on Brown's behalf
during the campaign. Just don’t ask us what he said. The Times was barred from
covering the brief speech. A reporter who traveled to the Rio All Suites to catch
the Brown address was initially told that the governor's
staff had vetoed her
presence there."
"However, union officials later said it was their policy
to keep the media out of the event. Even spouses of
convention delegates were
blocked from listening to Brown's remarks, they said,
for which the ballroom's
doors were closed."
A federal appeals court in San Francisco conducted a nationally televised hearing on the challenge
to voter-approved Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage.
From the Chronicle's Bob Egelko: "The federal appeals court in the Proposition 8 case
hinted Monday at a ruling that would allow gays and
lesbians to marry in
California while leaving other states' laws intact
- a restrained approach seemingly
designed to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court."
"Lawyers challenging the 2008 initiative urged the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to
uphold a federal judge's ruling in August that Prop.
8 violated the U.S.
Constitution because its definition of marriage as the union of
a man and a woman discriminated on the basis of gender
and sexual orientation."
Both Capitol Weekly and the Los Angeles Times are reporting
new developments in the high-stakes fight over online poker.
First, from CW's Malcolm Maclachlan: "U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is circulating
a
draft of his long-rumored plan to regulate internet gaming and legalize
online
poker on the federal level. The ultimate fate of the bill, which has drawn opposition
from gaming tribes, is uncertain at best. If it if
did pass, it would supersede
any state regulations allowing online poker."
Second, from the Times' Patrick McGreevy: "A lawmaker and a group of California Indian tribes
are
racing to have the state Legislature consider legalizing
Internet poker here
before they are preempted by the federal government adopting its own
plan. Sen. Louis Correa (D-Santa Ana) said he introduced Senate
Bill 40 on Monday. The measure would allow select tribes and
others to run
state-sanctioned Internet poker games, with a cut of the
action going to state
coffers."
Finally, we turn to our "Heavy Pot" file, in which we find the case of a man who is arrested
for stealing pot -- with a tree in it.
"Police arrested an Attleboro man Friday night when
detectives spotted him and another man in the middle
of Derby Street struggling
to carry a large planter from a Derby Street business.
Enson M. Ibanez, 25, is charged with disorderly conduct,
malicious destruction, and larceny, but police offered
the man a reprieve: Put
the planter back where you found it and we won't arrest
you."
"No, it's too heavy," Ibanez told police,
according to the report. Ibanez later put both his
hands in front of him
insinuating he wanted the police to put handcuffs on
him and arrest him, the
report said."
Time to call in Perry Mason...
