The state Republican Convention is over and, believe it or not, there was some serious political discussion -- behind the scenes.
From the CalBuzz team of Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine: ""Lady Gaga and Ann Coulter were separated at birth. The Northwest Ordinance is one of the nation’s founding documents. Michele Bachmann believes chains are the key to freedom. Pat Boone knows for a fact Barack Obama was born in Africa. Ron Paul thinks life was better before World War I."
"Those are a few highlights from the CRP’s weekend convention in Los Angeles, where a dozen TV cameras focused on public events featuring the stylings of the GOP’s No. 3 and 4 presidential wannabes and their Tea Party faithful."
"At the same time, however, there were more serious and rational conversations, many behind-the-scenes, about issues like the electability of a Republican president, how the state party might begin to reverse its recent movement towards irrelevance and its troubled relationship with Latinos."
“The word ‘Republican,’ unfortunately,” observed one participant in a crowded discussion about the latter topic, “is repugnant to Latinos.”
Meanwhile, California's counties are losing the battle to keep confidential details of their retirees' names and their pensions amounts, reports Ed Mendel in CalPensions.
"The Sonoma County retirement board voted last week to release retiree names and their pension amounts, becoming the latest loser in seven separate superior court decisions since 2009 upheld by three different appeals courts."
"When asked by a pension reform group, the three big state public pension systems — CalPERS, CalSTRS and UC Retirement — all released the names and pension amounts of retirees receiving $100,000 or more, needing no prodding from the courts...."
Bt as pensions eat up more of state and local government budgets, a number of the 20 independent county retirement systems that operate under a 1937 act have refused to reveal how pension funds are being spent..."
"Superior courts have ordered disclosures by retirement systems in Contra Costa, Stanislaus, Orange, Ventura, San Diego, Sacramento and Sonoma counties, upheld by appeals court decisions in San Diego, Sacramento and Sonoma."
San Francisco Bay is getting cleaner, far cleaner than it was in the1950s and 1960s, but it still has a long way to go, according to a new study released on the eve of the "State oif the Estuary 2011" conference.
From Paul Rogers in the Mercury News: "Among its key findings this year: The bay is far less polluted now than in the 1950s and 1960s. After Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, billions of dollars were spent, and continue to be spent, upgrading the sewage treatment plants that filter the wastewater of 7 million Bay Area residents and release it into the bay. Modern technology removes up to 99 percent of the pollutants in that wastewater."
"Meanwhile, toxic substances like DDT and PCBs have been banned, no significant filling of the bay has happened in decades, and in the past two years state regulators have imposed strict new rules requiring Bay Area cities to dramatically reduce the amount of trash that flows down storm drains and creeks into bay waters."
"Wetland restoration also is a major bright spot. In the past decade, roughly 10,000 acres of wetlands have been restored, much of it at the former Cargill salt ponds in the South Bay. The bay has roughly 50,000 acres of tidal marsh, up from about 40,000 in 1999, and researchers are working toward a long-term goal of 100,000 acres. Most encouraging, biologists already are seeing increases in birds, and a wide variety of fish, from anchovies to leopard sharks, are turning up in the newly restored wetlands."
Rep. Elton Gallegly, a Simi County Republican who has represented much of Ventura County for the past 25 years, is in a dilemma. What’s he going to do in 2012? The long-anticipated, newly drawn districts don’t leave him with a whole lot of wiggle room. From Timm Herdt in the Ventura County Star News.
“Gallegly, 67, did not fare well in redistricting. His home base of Simi Valley, the city in which he got his start in politics and once served as mayor, was severed from the rest of Ventura County and placed in a new district that sprawls eastward into Santa Clarita, the home turf of a fellow Republican incumbent, Rep. Buck McKeon.”
“Next door, just a few blocks to the west of Gallegly's home, lies a new district that is home to no incumbent. That district, the 26th, covers all the rest of Ventura County except for a tiny coastal slice of the city of Ventura. It isn't the safe Republican territory that Gallegly has become accustomed to; instead, it has a slight Democratic voter registration advantage and has been classified by analysts as a true "swing district," which is to say it's a tossup.”
“Given the new terrain, Gallegly has two realistic choices: He can retire, or he can gear up for a tough campaign and run for re-election in the 26th. What Gallegly decides to do will have ripple effects throughout Ventura County politics.”
"It's a row of dominoes," California Lutheran University political science professor Herb Gooch said recently of the county political landscape. "The key to it is Gallegly."
Amid much hoopla, Gov. Jerry Brown imposed a hiring freeze on state workers, but he’s given exemption to about three out of every four hires. The Bee’s Jon Ortiz tells the tale.
“In the seven months since imposing a hiring freeze to deal with the state's fiscal woes, Gov. Jerry Brown has greenlighted nearly three-fourths of all requests for exemptions to hire state workers.”
“Most of those jobs were low-paying positions without benefits, a Bee analysis of state data from March through May shows. Exclude those approvals, and Brown turned down more hiring requests than he allowed.”
“State officials asked to hire 3,642 workers in the months following the governor's Feb. 15 order that departments freeze hiring unless authorized by the administration. The total cost to fill all the jobs would have been $15 million a month, according to the departments' estimates.”
And from our "Long John Silver" file comes the biggest day on the calendar: Sept. 19 is "Talk Like a Pirate" Day! Ayy, matey!
