"Californians are happy with the way Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and lawmakers are working together in Sacramento,
giving the politicians the highest approval ratings they have had in two years, a
new Public Policy Institute of California poll shows," reports Lynda Gledhill in the Chron.
"While Schwarzenegger also is enjoying support for many of the policy proposals he's pushing this year, the poll reveals that voters are not embracing his plans to provide health insurance for children who are in the country illegally or infuse the state's prison system with money.
"Schwarzenegger and lawmakers' success working together on public works bonds, raising the minimum wage and passing legislation to combat global warming has people encouraged that they will continue to cooperate in 2007, with 60 percent of voters believing the trend will continue. Majorities across political, racial, age and gender lines all believe the bipartisan work will carry on."
On that note, let the fighting begin...
"Senate Democrats on Thursday
cast doubt on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to build a pair of dams, saying they have a cheaper and easier way to maintain the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta," writes Judy Lin in the Bee.
"'We want more water supply and we want better flood protection as cheaply and as quickly as possible,' Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, said during a Capitol news conference to unveil his party's flood-protection plan.
"He added: '
We don't believe new dams at this point are needed. They cost billions of dollars and they take years, in fact decades, to build.'
"The Schwarzenegger administration has proposed building two dams, most likely in Temperance Flat just above Friant Dam near Fresno, on the San Joaquin River, and on Sites reservoir in Colusa and Glenn counties. The waterways are part of the Delta, which provides water to 23 million Californians and quenches the Central Valley's thirsty farmlands.
"In proposing four water-protection bills, Democrats say they favor a mix of conservation, groundwater storage and better floodplain management to provide twice the amount of water that the dams could provide. Senators estimated the state can secure over 1 million additional acre-feet of water from new groundwater storage for about $1.5 billion -- one-fourth the projected cost of two new dams."
CW's Malcolm Maclachlan reports,
a group of men who say they were battered and threatened by their wives get their day in court today. The plaintiffs in Woods vs. California say they were denied their constitutionally-mandated equal protection as they sought shelter services and police safeguards.
"Their case is scheduled for Sacramento Superior Court today at 10 a.m. The suit names the state's Department of Health Services, the Department of Corrections and the Office of Emergency Services. It does not seek any damages, but instead is meant to force gender neutral law enforcement and services across key sections of the state's government, health and penal codes."
Speaking of battered, the LAT's Robert Salladay
looks at the governor's aging physique.
"Ordinarily, a politician's body would not be noteworthy. But California is witnessing a singular moment: the deconstruction of one of the greatest bodies of all time.
"At 15, Schwarzenegger began pounding, pressing and transforming himself into a symbol of physical perfection. Now, a few months from his 60th birthday, he has been photographed in a hospital bed, hobbling around on crutches and publicly lamenting his anger at being in constant pain.
"Referring to himself last week as the 'bionic man,' he finds himself with an artificial hip, reconstructed heart valves, surgically repaired shoulder and a badly broken femur, an injury common among the elderly. And in perhaps an even bigger blow to his ego, photos from a vacation in Maui a few years ago showed him in a swimsuit with a sagging chest, robust stomach and ashen chest hair.
"Over the last few weeks, Schwarzenegger has perhaps become more 'accessible and endearing to people,' said
Marty Kaplan, director of the Normal Lear Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication.
"'There is a way in which the governor's previous perfection, though awesome, was always a little bit unapproachable and a little threatening maybe,' Kaplan said, '
and it's kind of reassuring for us regular folks and fellow boomers to see that he has the same mortal coil as the rest of us.'"
"Three decades of tough-on-crime lawmaking
has sent California's prison system into a 'tailspin,' creating the most pressing crisis facing the state, the government's own watchdog panel declared Thursday," reports Jenifer Warren in the Times.
"In a
blistering 84-page report, the nonpartisan Little Hoover Commission linked the problems plaguing the correctional system to political cowardice among governors and lawmakers fearful of being labeled soft on crime.
"If policymakers are unwilling to make bold changes, the commission said, they should appoint an independent entity — modeled after the federal Base Closure and Realignment Commission — with the power to do it for them.
"'For decades, governors and lawmakers fearful of appearing soft on crime have failed to muster the political will to address the looming crisis,' the commission said.
"'And now their time has run out.'"
The Bee's Andy Furillo writes: "California's governmental watchdog agency
recommended Thursday that the state get rid of parole for low-risk offenders and empanel a commission to overhaul its sentencing structure for convicted felons.
"Assembly Republicans immediately blasted the 84-page report, saying its provisions would leave thousands of released offenders unsupervised and create an unelected body accountable to no one with the keys to who gets in and who gets out of the state's 33 prisons.
"Assembly GOP leader
Mike Villines of Clovis, meanwhile, is calling for a "bipartisan oversight committee" to monitor the federal court intervention into the system, including the looming threat of the judiciary to exert further control over California's correctional agency if it fails to get a handle on its inmate overpopulation crisis."
Meanwhile, "Court orders mandating drastic pay increases for health personnel in California prisons
have led to an exodus of workers from state mental hospitals and left the facilities struggling to provide adequate patient care," reports Lee Romney in the Times.
"Staff shortages at Atascadero State Hospital, where psychiatrist vacancies stand at 70%, have caused the facility to all but freeze new admissions.
"All the state's mental hospitals, which like the prisons are also under federal scrutiny, report staff departures for prison jobs that now pay about 40% more. And they fear that many more staffers will leave.
"Atascadero State Hospital Executive Director
Mel Hunter said closing the door to most new patients was his only option.
"'We had to limit the number of admissions in order to maintain the treatment, safety and security of the 1,230 patients we already had in treatment,' he said."
"
Steve Westly, the former state controller and eBay executive who used his high-tech fortune to chase his dream of a career in politics,
is back home in Menlo Park coaching his 6-year-old son's basketball team," reports Peter Hecht in the Bee.
"He's out of the political arena but apparently still dreaming big.
"'I want to do something to change the world,' he says.
"Westly, who lost to state Treasurer
Phil Angelides in a bare-knuckled Democratic primary, announced he is forming his own investment company -- the Westly Group -- to bankroll environmentally friendly business ventures 'and make sure California is 'ground zero' for the clean technology revolution.'
"Westly's company will have offices at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, a Silicon Valley venture capital company that has financially backed firms from Google to Amazon and has committed $200 million for investments in 'greentech innovation.'"
"California utility regulators
banned power companies Thursday from buying electricity from high-polluting energy sources, including most out-of-state coal plants, to curb global warming," reports Terence Chea for the Associated Press.
"The Public Utilities Commission voted 4-0 to adopt the 'greenhouse gas emissions performance standard,' which will prohibit utilities and other energy providers from entering long-term contracts with sources that emit more carbon dioxide than a modern natural gas plant.
"'It represents a significant milestone in our ongoing efforts to address the challenge of climate change,' PUC President
Michael Peevey said."
And now for
the news you've all been waiting for, courtesy of the AP's Jim Davenport. "Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter, best known for his advocacy on behalf of the military, launched a long-shot bid for the presidency Thursday.
Frequently citing
Ronald Reagan, Hunter told supporters he wants to pick up on the former president's legacy.'I want to lead that policy of peace through strength,' said Hunter, a strong supporter of the Iraq war. The 14-term lawmaker from California, who has made no secret of his White House aspirations, set up a presidential exploratory committee earlier this month."
And from our
No More Martinizing Files, the AP's Samantha Young reports, "California air regulators on Thursday enacted
the nation's first statewide ban of the most common chemical used by dry cleaners.
"By 2023, no more dry-cleaning machines that use the toxic solvent perchloroethylene will be permitted in the state.
The regulation by the California Air Resources Board begins to phase out the fluid next year, banning dry cleaners from buying machines that rely on the solvent. The state's 3,400 dry cleaners who now use it must get rid of machines that are 15 years or older by July 2010."
