"More than 5 million Californians with moderate incomes would receive substantial discounts on prescription medicines under a deal that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic leaders
reached over the opposition of the drug industry, negotiators said Tuesday," reports Jordan Rau in the Times.
"The price-reduction effort, a showpiece for Schwarzenegger's reelection campaign, is an approach he rejected last year and one opposed by the drug industry and advocates for the poor and disabled."
"The deal appears to end a three-year battle that produced two competing ballot initiatives that were rejected by voters in last November's special election. One was sponsored by consumer advocates, the other by the drug industry."
"'This is a huge victory for the needy,' said Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles). "This goes a long way toward correcting the wrong that was done at the ballot box in November."
"Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata (D-Oakland) concurred: 'The governor's basically done everything the sponsors asked.'"
With the minimum wage and prescription drugs now non-issues, the candidates for governor
clashed over the tractor tax near Bakersfield. Michael Finnegan reports in the Times: "With Schwarzenegger in cowboy boots, Angelides in loafers, the two clashed over taxes on competing campaign swings through the San Joaquin Valley on Tuesday. The day's topic, the governor's favorite, underscored the edge that Schwarzenegger has gained in the summer warm-up to the fall campaign.
"'
Angelides represents more taxes and punishing the people of California,' Schwarzenegger told farmers and other supporters as they shooed flies under a blazing sun at Bolthouse Farms in Buttonwillow."
"In remarks echoed by leaders of the state Farm Bureau Federation and other agriculture groups, Schwarzenegger said his rival would increase taxes 'on farm equipment and on diesel fuel used by farmers and by ranchers just like you.'"
"
The other side has called even a tax-relief for tractors and farm equipment, and I quote, a tax loophole — a corporate tax loophole,' Schwarzenegger said, adding that farm owners and workers 'deserve good policy, not cheap politics.'"
"To drive home the point,
his campaign dispatched two green and yellow John Deere tractors to the quiet residential street where Angelides spoke from a stool to supporters on folding chairs. Signs on the front of each tractor read: 'Don't Tax Me.'"
Angelides pointed to the tractors and called them props to hide Schwarzenegger's 'real agenda of standing up for the special interests.'"
"'
He's the one who's defending every corporate interest loophole around,' Angelides said."
Angelides stayed out of Sacramento yesterday, missing the launch party for the
California Majority Report.
Carla Marinucci reports in the Chron: "Though the California Majority Report intends to showcase Democratic politics, some questioned the absence of Angelides, the party's top-of-the-ticket candidate, from Tuesday's event which was attended by many party insiders."
"'The treasurer was invited,' said
Nick Pappas, Angelides' spokesman. 'He will be in Southern California ... and he is unable to attend."
"'But he's been invited to post on the blog and he has every intention of doing so,' Pappas added. 'And he looks forward to reading it.'"
Speaking of the Majority Report, it launched at midnight last night, but is still working out glitches. One of the headline articles today is
"This Week: How Phil Wins."However, at the time of our writing, upon clicking on the story, readers are getting a
"Sorry, no posts matched your criteria" message.
Ouch.
Hank Shaw reports on
the death of a package of flood control bills at the hands of
Don Perata. "Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata gave last rites to a package of flood-control bills Tuesday, effectively killing them for the year.
"It's not a chess move. It is done," Perata said. He said he plans to resurrect the legislation this winter."
"
The move pits Perata, D-Oakland, against the Assembly and the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; representatives of both said they still hope comprehensive flood-control legislation could emerge in the Legislature's final seven days."
Some LA Legislators are also
running into some hard times as session winds down, reports Mike Gardner. "There is no shortage of conspiracy theories fueled by intrigue in the Capitol over the past few days as lawmakers continue to cut deals and scuttle measures before their Aug. 31 adjournment."
"The chairwoman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee has abruptly shelved Sen.
Alan Lowenthal's measure to impose a container fee at the port to pay for security and anti-pollution efforts."
"The Assembly is angry that Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, pushed ahead with legislation that would limit the ability of lawmakers to draw their own political boundary lines."
But we thought they all
wanted a redistricting deal...
"A federal court monitor still wants to investigate his own allegation that the Schwarzenegger administration has
stifled prison reform in California by cozying up to the state's correctional officers union," reports the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Special Master
John Hagar, in a final report that he submitted Tuesday to U.S. District Judge
Thelton Henderson in San Francisco, maintained his recommendation that he be allowed to investigate the contacts between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff,
Susan Kennedy, and the California Correctional Peace Officers Association."
"In asking for the authority to conduct the investigation, Hagar said in the report that the Schwarzenegger administration reversed its commitment to fixing an assortment of prison ills. The change in policy, Hagar said, threatens to thwart the administration's overhaul of the prison system's internal affairs operation and could pose difficulties in the ongoing contract talks with the CCPOA."
"The Legislature moved Tuesday to
double to 60 days the amount of notice landlords must give before evicting problem-free tenants — a necessary safeguard, proponents say, to keep working families from homelessness," writes Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"Against opposition from the California Apartment Assn. and Realtors, Democrats passed
AB 1169 by Assemblyman
Alberto Torrico (D-Newark) to require landlords to give 60 days' eviction notice to tenants who have been renting for at least a year and are being evicted through no fault of their own."
"The state Senate on Tuesday approved an Assembly bill that seeks to
bypass the Electoral College system and institute a national popular vote to elect the president of the United States."
"
AB2948, which received a 23-14 vote in the Senate, calls for an interstate compact where states would commit all of their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote regardless of which candidate wins in each state. The compact would kick in when enough states join that the sum of their electoral votes would represent at least 270. If the largest states join in the agreement, only 11 would be needed."
And now, "children up to
8 years old would have to ride in child safety seats -- unless they're 4 feet 9 inches or taller -- under legislation the Senate approved Tuesday."
"Under current law, children 6 and younger and weighing less than 60 pounds are required to sit in car seats. Supporters say children up to 8 are vulnerable to injury and death because adult seat belts don't fit well."
Dan Walters writes that, since it's August in the Legislature, it's
time to tinker with workers' compensation and looks at four major bills that change the compromise agreed to in 2004.
Meanwhile, the Orange County Board of Supervisors
withdrew its ballot proposal to ease term limits, recognizing that there would be no statewide coattails to ride.
"Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously agreed to pull the measure off November's ballot, saying they preferred to wait for a statewide term-limits measure to come out of Sacramento," reports the Register's Norberto Santana, Jr.
"In addition to extending terms, Measure N would have replaced a two-term consecutive limit with a three-term lifetime one."
Matier and Ross say they've
seen Batman at Sacramento fundraisers. "Summer in Sacramento, a time when hundreds of bills are up for passage -- and hundreds of thousands of dollars flow into legislators' campaigns from an endless stream of end-of-session fundraisers.
"But this year -- with the pols raising cash in chunks of anywhere from $1,000 to $5,300 a head at more than 135 breakfasts, lunches, dinners and cocktail parties -- there's an uninvited guest:
Batman"The caped crusader -- a.k.a.
Kevin Baker of the California Nurses Association -- took up his post Thursday outside Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's big-bucks bash at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento, attended by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. As the lobbyists and other donors arrived, the Batman-costumed Baker asked over and over, 'I sense much power here -- can you tell me the source of that power?'"
