"Legislators
learned by accident this week that construction of the [new San Quentin execution] chamber was well underway when a couple of legislative policy analysts visited the prison for research and happened upon the new facility," write Evan Halper and Jordan Rau in the Times.
"'
It is an insult to the Legislature. It is an insult to the public,' Sen.
Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles) said. 'It really is outrageous what they have done.'"
"Administration officials say that they did everything by the book. Legislative approval, they note, is required for projects costing $400,000. The administration priced the new chamber at $399,000."
Funny, we at the Roundup have never been able to build a death chamber with less than 401,000. Guess we've been overpaying for ours..."Department of Corrections spokesman
Seth Unger said the administration has been racing to make progress on the chamber by a May 15 deadline. That's when it must report to U.S. District Judge
Jeremy D. Fogel on how the state proposes to fix an execution system after a December ruling in which he said it was broken.
"'We wanted to meet the May 15 deadline,' Unger said. 'Our facilities management team took a look and judged they can do it using the minor capital outlay system' -- the provision of state law that allows departments to make expenditures of less than $400,000 without legislative approval."
Speaking of the pokey, things
are heating up between the governor and CCPOA over contract negotiations, which is stalling the governor's prison construction plan. The U-T's Ed Mendel writes: "
With a face painted a lurid red and horns sprouting from his forehead, Schwarzenegger is depicted on a big mobile billboard parked at union headquarters that says: 'The devil's in the details.'"Schwarzenegger said last month he thought legislative leaders were only a couple of weeks away from a $10 billion bond deal to relieve prison overcrowding and avoid a court-ordered early release of inmates.
"Many believe Schwarzenegger first may have to give a new labor contract to the prison guards, who have battled him with lawsuits and arbitration, rejected an offer that could give them an 18 percent raise over four years, and formed coalitions to push their own proposals on overcrowding.
"'The more that (the contract) gets ratcheted up, the more tension that we don't need enters into it,' said Senate President Pro Tempore
Don Perata, D-Oakland. 'We would like to see that settled and then we would like to move on and take care of everything else.'
"Senate Minority Leader
Dick Ackerman, R-Tustin, also said that a new contract for the California Correctional Peace Officers, whose five-year pact expired in July, would aid negotiations on a package to overhaul the prison system.
"'I'm not saying a (new contract) would cause all of this to fall into place,' Ackerman said. 'But it would certainly unmuddy the water.'"
"Despite publicly denouncing the secrecy surrounding police misconduct, Los Angeles Police Chief
William J. Bratton and Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa have withheld their full support for a bill that would ensure public access to disciplinary records and hearings," reports Matt Lait in the Times.
"State Senate Majority
Leader Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), who sponsored the bill on behalf of Bratton and Villaraigosa, said she was disappointed that the city's leaders have failed to fully commit to greater transparency of officer discipline. The bill is scheduled for a hearing Tuesday.
"'It feels like there has been some hedging of support and some abdication of leadership on this issue,' Romero said last week.
"Amid much public fanfare three months ago, Bratton and Villaraigosa declared that they wanted to find a legislative remedy to state laws restricting public disclosure of officer misconduct. Romero offered her help and consulted with aides to Bratton and Villaraigosa on the final language of the bill. Now, Romero says, the mayor and chief are advocating language that would make the bill weaker.
"Convicted drug users in California
are more likely to be arrested on new drug charges since Proposition 36 took effect than before voters approved the landmark law mandating drug treatment rather than incarceration, according a long-awaited study released Friday," write the LAT's Megan Garvey and Jack Leonard.
"The state-funded study, conducted by UCLA researchers who have pored over four years of drug-related court cases, raises new questions about the effectiveness of Proposition 36 at a time when lawmakers and courts are discussing stricter requirements for defendants.
"UCLA researchers tracking drug offenders found high levels of new drug arrests among those eligible in the first year of Proposition 36, which took effect in 2001. About 50% of those offenders were picked up by police within 30 months, compared with 38% of similar offenders convicted before Proposition 36.
"The report notes that some increases in arrests were expected because Proposition 36 left offenders on the street who would have previously served time."
"New
legislation could team California and MySpace, the nation's largest state and the popular Internet portal, in an innovative but controversial way to fight sex offenders who prowl chat rooms for child victims," writes the Bee's Jim Sanders.
"The proposal calls for California to require registered sex offenders to report their e-mail addresses and Internet identities to the state, which would make them available to MySpace and other social networks to block participation.
"'It is not a divine right that someone who is a registered sex offender should have access to a chat room of 15-year-olds,' said Assemblyman
Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge.
"Portantino and Republican Assemblywoman
Shirley Horton of San Diego are pushing Assembly Bill 841 in conjunction with MySpace, a massive, virtual community that enables users to share profiles, photos and e-mail.
"Opponents argue that the state should not distribute personal identifying information to a profit-making firm, and that AB 841 would infringe upon free-speech rights of many convicts who have not acted suspiciously. The legislation also raises questions about whether the state would be contributing to a new form of punishment for the 88,000 sex offenders who have been freed from prison to resume private lives."
"For more than four years, state Sen.
Sheila Kuehl has been trying to sell California officials on the idea that a universal, Medicare-like system would cure the state's health care woes," reports the AP's Steve Lawrence.
"Her latest attempt -- probably her last before she leaves office in 2008 -- will face its first test Wednesday, when it will be taken up by the Senate Health Committee, which Kuehl chairs."
Isn't that kinda cheating on the litmus test, just a little bit?"A Southern California legislator is proposing a lucrative deal for debt-ridden college students:
four years of tuition and fees in exchange for two years of civic service," reports Jim Sanders in the Bee.
"Assemblyman
Mike Feuer said his goal is to ease the financial burden of obtaining a degree at a California public university while boosting community services from tutoring to homeless shelters to emergency response.
"'People who devote their life to performing some form of public service are, to my way of thinking, doing the most honorable work one can think of,' said Feuer, D-Los Angeles.
"Four years of tuition and fees would total about $29,500 for University of California students and $13,800 for California State University students, based on rates in the proposed state budget for the next fiscal year.
"AB 1267 would approve the debt-assistance program contingent upon funding. Participation could be capped, if necessary."
In an interview with an Australian television station, former Schwarzenegger aide
Terry Tamminen opines on the guv's greenness. When asked about Schwarzenegger's environmental stance, Tamminen says, "Well
I think, first of all it comes from his European background. He's got a much broader perspective than many American leaders or politicians."Secondly, he's got four kids of his own so he tends to think about things in longer terms and the future. And he wants to leave them a sustainable California.
"And I think the last point I'd make is that he sees tremendous opportunity here. This is the chance of solving climate change by developing our renewable energy sources like wind and solar and new technologies."
Finally, our governor went to New York, and landed on Page Six. The NY Post's gossip column reports on
the guv's dining, and chewing, habits.
"The California governator stopped for lunch at Fred's at Barneys with a squad of security men last Thursday, and they were immediately ushered to the back of the restaurant, next to a table where maternity de signer Liz Lange was noshing.. Lange was forced to move to make way for two of the guards. Another security man stood at the bar, and two more took their posts outside the front door.
Schwarzenegger, who chewed with his mouth open, our spy said, didn't say much to another agent sitting with him while he ate."
