"California's green governor will again go boldly where few politicians have gone: He
plans to buy carbon credits to offset the greenhouse gas emissions from his extensive air travel," writes Matt Weiser in the Bee.
"Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is working with Pacific Forest Trust, a San Francisco group, to offset the emissions. The trust manages a carbon credit program at the Fred M. van Eck Forest near Arcata in Humboldt County. In short, the trust sells the trees' ability to absorb carbon dioxide released when people burn fossil fuels.
"The 2,100-acre forest is owned by a foundation affiliated with Purdue University in Indiana. It is the only entity certified to sell carbon credits by the California Climate Action Registry.
"'Protecting the environment is a top priority for Gov. Schwarzenegger,' said
Aaron McLear, the governor's press secretary. 'A carbon credit program makes sense as a way to offset emissions from his air travel and serve as an example for others to do their part to protect the environment.'"
"Two appointees tapped by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to study ways to rein in public pension costs
receive income from firms that invest $750 million annually for the California Public Employees' Retirement System, business ties that some say could call the panel's independence into doubt," writes the Chron's Greg Lucas.
"
Gerald Parsky, the former head of the state Republican Party, is a partner in a Los Angeles firm, Aurora Capital Partners, which invests $150 million for CalPERS. Schwarzenegger appointed him chairman of a 12-member commission responsible for recommending ways to overhaul public pension systems, whose future obligations have become an increasing worry for state budget writers and Wall Street.
"Commission member
Matt Barger is a senior adviser at San Francisco-based Hellman & Friedman, which invests $600 million of the giant pension fund's $230 billion in assets.
"The debate over changing public pension systems has focused recently on whether to shift from a defined benefit plan in which the pension administrator is responsible for investing retirees' money to a defined contribution plan -- or 401(k)-style plan -- in which employees would assume responsibility for investing their money.
"Changes to the current system could have broad impacts on CalPERS and its hired investment companies, like the ones Parsky and Barger are involved with.
"'I'm not sure the chairman of the commission should be someone who has business dealings to this extent, even though it's a minor part of CalPERS and his business,' said
Bob Stern, president of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. 'There are a lot of smart people in California who don't do business with CalPERS who could serve on this board.'"
Meanwhile, "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has handed control of the obscure Board of Chiropractic Examiners to appointees, including two friends from his bodybuilding days,
who fired the executive director, ejected a deputy attorney general from a meeting and took other controversial actions in what a critic described as a 'coup,' reports John Hill in the Bee.
"The board, created in 1922 to protect consumers from incompetence and fraud, has become so mired in controversy that at a meeting last week, five California Highway Patrol officers were called in to keep the peace.
"'It was a coup,' said former board member
Barbara Stanfield, who attended the March 1 meeting. 'They said, 'This is what we're going to do,' and they did it.'
"Stanfield said Schwarzenegger appointees to the board, including two-time Mr. Olympia
Franco Columbu, have made clear in public meetings that they want to rein in what they see as excessive regulation of chiropractors.
Capitol Weekly's Malcolm Maclachlan previews the
Mark Leno vs. Carole Migden showdown. "The point comes where you can't get yelled at anymore.
"If you had to pick a sentence that described why incumbent state Senator Carole Migden is facing a serious primary challenge from fellow San Francisco Democrat Assemblyman Mark Leno, this could be it. These words were used specifically to describe Migden's relationship with other Bay Area Democrats--and they came from the person who may have done the most try to fend off a run by Leno, San Francisco supervisor
Aaron Peskin.
"Last week, Peskin was the invited speaker before a meeting of the Harvey Milk Democratic Club in San Francisco, one of two powerful San Francisco-based gay Democratic clubs. The race could cause angry divisions in the gay and progressive communities and distract people from important political issues within the city, Peskin warned, all over a choice between two politicians who will push similar legislation.
"'Carole's never yelled at me,' Peskin said later. 'She's yelled at other people. She got a tough style.'Capitol Weekly reports on
a new education study expected next week that
could carry a hefty price tag. "California schools are woefully under-funded--one estimate of the shortage hovered at an astonishing $1 trillion--according to a massive new study due next week that is believed to be the most comprehensive evaluation ever of California's education system.
"The omnibus document, a collection of nearly two-dozen reports, is all but certain to set off a new policy debate in the education community and yet another political battle in the Legislature over education funding.
"The reports are not simply designed to place a dollar figure on what is needed in the schools. They are expected to take a much deeper look at California's maze of education funding, and how the state might make better use of the dollars it is already spending on public schools."
CW's Cosmo Garvin
takes a look at the term limit dominoes. "Changing the state term-limits law may give comfort to some termed-out legislators, but it's unsettling to political hopefuls who already have plans to take those seats.
"In many parts of the state, whole domino chains of political aspiration are dependent on voters rejecting a bid to give incumbents more time in office.
"'It creates a quandary for everybody--candidates, contributors and endorsers,' said political consultant
Jeff Raimundo.
"'
The prevailing problem with the Board can be summarized in one word: lawless,' Deputy Attorney General
Jana Tuton wrote in a Feb. 8 letter to Hayes obtained by The Bee."
"California's second largest correctional workers union
issued a report Wednesday criticizing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $10.9 billion prison and jail construction plan, saying the administration is going too heavy on new buildings while falling short on new rehabilitation programs," writes the Bee's Andy Furillo.
"Service Employees International Union Local 1000, in a 35-page report, offered a counterstrategy that focuses more on academic and vocational programs for inmates and parolees, as well as changes in the state's parole and sentencing structure. The report also calls for filling 1,000 vacancies in the ranks of SEIU 1000's prison bargaining units, getting better training for non-custody correctional workers and paying them more money.
"The report said the governor's $41 million plan to reduce inmate recidivism is dwarfed by his construction proposals. They seek to add 16,238 beds at existing prison sites, 5,000 to 7,000 beds in new community re-entry facilities, 45,000 county jail beds for state and local inmates, 10,000 additional prison hospital beds to satisfy the federal courts and 5,000 juvenile beds.
"'You cannot solve this problem just by building another prison,' said SEIU 1000 representation and organizing Vice President
Marc Bautista of the state's prison overcrowding crisis. 'Something else has to be done now, and sentencing reform and parole reform are the first steps. If you're successful, you won't have to build a new prison.'"
"Support for same-sex marriage in California
has increased by nearly 50 percent in the past two decades, largely because of views held by a new, younger generation of residents, an analysis of Field Polls during that period has found," reports the Bee's Aurelio Rojas.
"About half of Californians still disapprove of same-sex marriage, but 43 percent approve, according to the survey. In 1985, only 30 percent of people surveyed by the Field Poll approved.
"Age is one of the strongest predicters of attitudes on same-sex marriages. Currently, acceptance ranges from 25 percent among those born before 1940 to 58 percent among those born in the 1980s, according to the report.
"'The movement toward being more favorable on same-sex marriage can be explained simply by new generations of voters coming into the voter mix," said
Charles Gossett, a political scientist at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona."
Meanwhile, the Merc News's Kate Folmar
looks more closely at the governor's opposition to a law allowing same-sex marriage. "Some observers think his actions are aimed at safeguarding his conservative base.
"But the governor's confidants say the stance isn't calculated to duck political shrapnel. In fact, even the governor's close gay advisers disagree on the marriage debate. His allies believe his stance makes perfect sense for a man who cares more for the tangible - say, allowing domestic partners to file joint state tax returns - than the symbolic, even if it makes history. `No discrimination'
"'His sort of feeling is, '
What's the big deal? If you're gay, you're gay. There should be no discrimination,' ' said a former aide, one of several who spoke on condition of anonymity because the subject is politically fraught.
Schwarzenegger is 'not a cause kind of guy.'"
"The governor 'does not calculate the political balancing act of the gay-marriage issue,' said
Adam Mendelsohn, his communications director. He tries to represent 'the position of the people of California.'
"So, while the governor backs domestic-partnership rights, he also abides by a 2000 ballot measure, Proposition 22, that defines marriage as the union of one man and one woman."
Republicans are
taking on Democratic legislation aimed at regulating behavior, writes Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"'
Could you imagine the founding fathers dealing with — I don't know — wearing a helmet when you're in the buggy?' said the Assembly's Republican leader,
Mike Villines of Clovis.
"'We all know you can't mandate behavior; it just does not work,' he said. 'It creates criminals of people for things that are not criminal behavior….
You can't legislate for stupidity.'
"Political scientists say legislative paternalism can be taken as a sign of economic success. It's "post materialist," said Bruce Cain, director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley, because such measures are about quality of life, not survival.
"'These post-materialist concerns may be ahead of the curve,' Cain said. 'Some of the things we did that seemed kooky 20 years ago are now widely accepted.'"
The LAT's Carla Hall looks at
Lloyd Levine's
affinity for animal legislation. "Why did the chair of the Assembly Committee on Utilities and Commerce become such an animal advocate?
"'My parents just taught me an appreciation for animals,' Levine said.
"But the real religion at home in the San Fernando Valley was politics, not animal rights. The son of political consultant Larry Levine, the assemblyman saw the inside of his first campaign headquarters at age 4.
"And that may be why Levine, whether he's talking elephants or house pets — or the energy-wasting of incandescent lightbulbs — seems to know where to draw the line.
"'
I'm not an extreme animal legislator,' said Levine, now in his third term in the Assembly and planning a run for the Senate.
"In general, animal bills can set up legislators for a tough ride. 'You get labeled, you get seen as a little different,' said Democratic state Sen.
Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach, who last year had success with a bill that outlawed prolonged tethering of dogs — but not before legislators greeted him with barks. Lowenthal said Levine seems to have escaped the labeling. 'Lloyd has a broad range of issues that he's interested in.'"
George Skelton
responds to the legislation moving the primary to February.
"California clout in determining nominees and influencing federal policy may be illusionary. But the voters' meaningful participation in the nominating process will be real.
"Because the process is running amok, the national parties finally could be prodded into doing in 2012 what they should have long ago: Junk this illogical system and set up a series of rotating, regional primaries.
"Meanwhile, proclaimed Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) during Tuesday's floor debate: 'Gone will be the day when California voters are sideliners…. We are putting California squarely in the front center stage of the national political debate.'
"It'll be a very congested stage. But at least California will be on it. And by June, it will be dismantled."
