"A clerk for U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley in Sacramento sent federal authorities and Calderon an order to provide a "joint status report" on the leak allegations and on whether they can be resolved through mediation or settlement talks."
"A sealed FBI affidavit, published recently by a cable television network, accuses Calderon (D-Montebello) of taking $88,000 in bribes to influence legislation on tax breaks for the film industry and on workers' compensation rules."
Calderon has made other allegations, too, including one that brought a quick denial -- that Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg had been targeted in the FBI investigation.
From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "Steinberg and De Leon have said publicly that they were told by federal authorities that they were not targets of the undercover investigation."
“Make no mistake: the assertions made in certain conversations described in this affidavit bear zero resemblance to reality and are a universe apart from how the Legislature that we know and honor every day conducts the people’s business,” Steinberg said in a written statement released by his office."
"The probe came to light after Al Jazeera America, a television network, recently disclosed the contents of a leaked 124-page FBI affidavit. The document detailed a lengthy undercover investigation that included Calderon accepting some $88,000 in bribes for helping a bogus film executive — actually an FBI undercover agent — get tax breaks for his company, among other favors."
The FPPC has approved a number of fines involving lawmakers who used campaign cash for personal spending.
From the Bee's Christopher Cadelago: "The Fair Political Practices Commission, California's political ethics panel, gave its stamp of approval to a number of high-profile settlements Thursday, including a record $60,000 penalty leveled against a former lawmaker for misusing campaign funds on personal airfare, dining and concert tickets."
Former Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter, also failed to refund $247,000 in general election contributions from his 2010 abandoned run for lieutenant governor."
Gary Winuk, chief of the enforcement division for the FPPC, said cases involving elected officials using campaign money to enrich their lifestyles are among the most serious.
"It's a betrayal to donors and to also to the public," Winuk said.
From the Mercury-News' Katy Murphy: "Gov. Jerry Brown handed the University of California and its new president, Janet Napolitano, what he called "a reality sandwich" on Thursday, saying it's unlikely state politicians will give the system the extra funding it wants for next year."
"UC expects $142 million from the state for 2014-15 -- a 5 percent increase over this year -- but is asking for $121 million more, including money for pensions and enrollment expansion."
Brown says don't count on it. "I don't have a Nobel Prize, but I know the political climate in California probably better than anybody else," Brown said. " ... the 5 percent we're going to give you is pretty much all you're going to get."
From the Mercury-News' Paul Rogers: "It estimates the cost to recover key endangered species around the bay and finish wetlands restoration at $1.2 billion between now and 2063. Yet the plan contains no new money or regulations. In fact, the blueprint's proposals for what lands to buy, which scientific projects to complete and what kinds of tactics should be used to restore the bay to conditions not seen since the 1800s are all voluntary."
"Still, federal officials and environmentalists who rolled the plan out said it performs two key roles. First, it offers a clear overview for to politicians to help raise the money that will be needed in the decades ahead to turn old salt evaporation ponds in the South Bay, hay fields in the North Bay and other bay front lands from Richmond to Redwood City back into wetlands for fish, birds and wildlife. And second, it's a hymnal of sorts from which the dozens of groups working on bay projects can all sing in the years to come."
"This is a road map for the future of bay recovery," said Cay Goude, assistant field supervisor in the Sacramento field office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "It provides guidance and information so you can best use your money. It helps coordinate so that people aren't duplicating efforts and are working in a more cohesive way -- everyone, government agencies, nonprofits, scientists."
And from our "Where Were You When ...?" file comes a remembrance of Nov. 22, 1963 -- a day forever etched in the memories of those old enough to recall it.
"On Friday, Nov. 22, 1963, a Dallas pedestrian, upon learning that President John F. Kennedy had been murdered in his town, whooped and threw his Stetson in the air. In a nearby wealthy suburb, students in a fourth-grade class cheered at hearing the news."
"At Walnut Hills High School in Cincinnati, Ohio, principal Philip McDevitt made the announcement over the P.A. system, stunning students, some of whom burst into tears. Nobody knew what it meant or what would happen next."
"Thousands of miles away, a U.S. military officer and future newshound on a 72-hour pass was hunkered down in a swank hotel with a couple fifths of booze and a hooker. He wouldn’t emerge until Monday, perhaps the last person in America to find out about the assassination."
"November 22, like September 11 four decades later and December 7 a quarter-century before, is an iconic signifier in America history, one of those dates when everyone old enough to remember recalls where they were, whom they were with and how they reacted."
