Three Democratic senators
were locked out of their offices Monday on orders of Senate Leader Don Perata, who punished them for attending a fund-raising event for the Legislature's business-friendly moderates," reports Capitol Weekly.
"Perata declined to discuss the issue. 'I never talk about the politics of the caucus,' he said.
"But Senate sources said Perata was outraged by the attendance of the three lawmakers at the fundraising event last Thursday at The Kitchen restaurant in Sacramento on behalf of the so-called 'Mod Squad.'"
The Chron's Greg Lucas reports, Perata's action
highlights the rift in Democratic politics between liberals who hold leadership roles and more moderate members who tend to adopt more pro-business stands. It also illustrates how concerned Perata is about the leverage a handful of lawmakers could wield.
"The three senators locked out of their offices were Gloria
Negrete-McLeod of Chino (San Bernardino County),
Lou Correa of Santa Ana and
Ron Calderon of Montebello (Los Angeles County). All are newly elected senators who were active in the Assembly's Moderate Democrat caucus during their tenure there.
"Negrete-McLeod discovered that her office lock had been changed Sunday. When she asked the Senate sergeant-at-arms what the problem was, she was told to go to Perata's office.
"'You have to be careful when you exercise that kind of discipline because you're guaranteeing you have an enemy. You could be planting the seeds of your own demise,' said [
Willie] Brown the self-proclaimed ayatollah of the Assembly from 1980 to 1995. '
If I were the Republican leader, I'd be the first person calling those three members who were locked out and inviting them to dinner.'"
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
has forced Board of Chiropractic Examiners Chairman Richard Tyler to give up his second role as executive director after lawyers said holding the two titles simultaneously was probably illegal," report Kevin Yamamura and John Hill in the Bee.
"Tyler, one of Schwarzenegger's earliest friends in bodybuilding, led the board March 1 as it fired Executive Director
Catherine Hayes without warning in a controversial meeting.
"The board replaced her with Tyler, giving him the unorthodox dual title of board chairman and staff executive director."
"A series of accounting blunders in a state program that provides mental health services to children
has resulted in a $300-million blow to the California budget, the administration of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged Monday," reports the LAT's Evan Halper.
"Officials at the Department of Mental Health told a state Senate panel that they thought they had money to cover their bills when in fact it had been appropriated for other uses under a new accounting practice.
"The department also drastically underestimated the number of families it would serve this year — leaving it short tens of millions of dollars — and double-billed the federal government for some services and now must repay those funds.
"'We are committed to doing a better job,' said
Stephen Mayberg, director of the Mental Health Department."
"Another meeting between legislative leaders and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on the state's prison crisis produced optimism Monday that
a deal to try to fix the problem could arrive sooner rather than later.
"'Very soon,' Assembly Speaker
Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, said in passing while hustling out of the second "big five" meeting on prisons in less than three weeks, when asked about the timing of a prison agreement between his party and the Republicans.
"The speaker's comments came after he told reporters outside the governor's office that he is willing to accept an unspecified level of new corrections construction. Additional prison and jail space is a key part of Schwarzenegger's plan to head off two federal judges who are on the verge of taking over the California correctional system.
"'We're all concerned about California's growing prison population, and we want to do something to create some bed capacity so we can really do rehabilitation in our jails,' Núñez said."
Man, the Speaker really wants this term limits deal
bad..."With faculty labor unrest nearing the boiling point, the California State University system's governing board
is expected to push two financial hot buttons this week:
increases in student fees and a six-figure going-away payment to a campus president," reports the Chron's Jim Doyle.
"The two issues go to the heart of faculty members' anger at CSU's top executives, whom they criticize as being quick to reward themselves with perks and higher pay but slow to recognize the concerns of the state university's professors and lecturers, who last saw a salary increase -- 3.5 percent -- in 2003.
"As the union representing 23,000 faculty members threatens to go on strike, students have voiced their own angst over a proposed 10 percent tuition hike that the university's Board of Trustees plans to consider today in Long Beach, raising the possibility that the trustees' meeting could melt down like the one in November, when student and faculty protests forced an early adjournment.
"In addition, the issue of executive pay will play center stage when trustees consider a $103,000 retirement settlement with
James Lyons, who is leaving as president of the Dominguez Hills campus.
"
Clara Potes-Fellow, a spokeswoman for the chancellor, said the CSU fee increase is needed to make up for an expected shortfall in revenue of $97 million. She also said that one third of the fee increase will be used for student financial aid so that the most disadvantaged students will not be hit with the fee increase."
From our
Bringing Out The Dead Files: California's private ambulance operators are
calling on legislators to adopt a statewide licensing system and mandatory background checks for all emergency medical technicians along with a new program to help substance-abusing EMTs and paramedics," writes the Bee's Andrew McIntosh.
"California Ambulance Association President
David A. Nivens said The Bee's recent investigation uncovering flaws in the state's fragmented emergency medical services system should prompt a concerted statewide response.
"'California has always been ahead of the rest of the country in providing emergency medical services,' Nivens said. 'Now, it's behind in not having statewide licensing and requiring mandatory background checks.'
"'There's a problem, and our people must not stick their heads in the sand,' Nivens added. 'We provide a public safety service and the public has to trust us."
And for all our lobbyists out there who complain about fundraisier food, look at the bright side:
At least you don't live in Hibernia, Indiana.
"After a four-year absence,
raccoon is back on the menu for the Hibernia Community Building's annual fundraiser.
LaVeran Lorenz, 86, has agreed to resume cooking duties for the March 24 event — with a little help with the cleaning. "
It's not like cleaning a chicken, I'll tell you that," said Dina Woods, one of Lorenz's neighbors who agreed to learn how to clean raccoons for cooking.
"
Allus Franklin and other hunters in the town on Hibernia Road off Indiana 62 about 20 miles north of Louisville, Ky., have bagged 103 raccoons for the event. 'When they told us, we'd already caught 40,' he said.
And
that's good eats...
