"Setting the stage for negotiations to begin in earnest, Democratic legislative leaders announced Thursday they
have combined their proposals to expand health care in California," writes the Bee's Aurelio Rojas.
"Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, D-Los Angeles, previously agreed to require employers to spend 7.5 percent of payroll costs on health care, but differences remained.
"In the biggest compromise,
Perata agreed with Núñez to reject Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal that everyone in the state be required to obtain insurance."
Wait, who are the Republicans and who are the Democrats?
"'This gives us the entire summer to negotiate whatever aspects of the bill need to be negotiated with the governor and the opportunity to reach out to our Republican colleagues,' Núñez said at a Capitol news conference.
"At an earlier news conference at the home of a small-business owner in Sacramento, where he touted his health care plan, Schwarzenegger held firm that employees be required to contribute."
Dan Walters
cautions "Schwarzenegger and the Democrats are to be commended for seeking some solution to the health care conundrum, but they shouldn't be denying that there are serious, and perhaps fatal, legal pitfalls."
Speaking of quality health care, "California
regulators moved Thursday to revoke the license of Martin Luther King Jr.-Harbor Hospital,
an action that, if not reversed, would force its closure," reports the LAT's Charles Ornstein and Rich Connell.
"The move, the boldest thus far by the state, follows recent findings by the federal government that patients at the public hospital are in immediate jeopardy of harm or death despite years of reform efforts.
"A foundation led by former Assemblyman
Keith Richman filed an initiative Thursday that would slash California's state and local government pension costs by offering a less generous retirement allowance to new employees and raising the age at which they qualify for full benefits," reports John Hill in the Bee.
"'It's not fair that people in the private sector are working well into their 60s and 70s to pay for extravagant pensions for public employees who can retire at 50 or 55,' said Richman, a former Republican Assemblyman from Northridge who is now president of the California Foundation for Fiscal Responsibility.
"The initiative, if it qualified for the ballot, would face stiff opposition from deep-pocketed public employee unions, which in 2005 fought off another attempt to scrap the current pension formula.
"'I think it's as serious as a heart attack,' said
J.J. Jelincic, president of the California State Employees Association. '
It's part of a national agenda attacking defined benefit plans and the interests of working folks.'"
The Little Hoover Commision's Mark Martin reports, "State regulators
approved the first new rules in California's landmark effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Thursday, but
environmentalists and some Democratic lawmakers complained that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's appointees were acting too meekly to combat global warming.
"The California Air Resources Board voted to implement three new rules requiring cleaner gasoline, less methane emissions from landfills, and a ban on the sale of refrigerants for air conditioners in cars.
"Democratic lawmakers on Thursday
moved to curb high gas prices as Republicans accused them of exploiting public antipathy toward oil companies," reports Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"The state Assembly passed three bills that would force oil companies to give regulators more information about refinery shutdowns, prices and inventories, and would trigger a study of whether consumers are being overcharged in hot weather when gasoline expands. Legislators said such information could alert authorities that the market was being manipulated.
"Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) said legislators could "take a side and stand with the people, the consumers, or take a side and stand with the oil companies."
"Republican votes were not needed for the legislation to pass, and no Republicans voted for any of the measures. They said Democrats were engaging in political demagoguery."
"
Southern California grocery workers moved a step closer to a walkout yesterday by scheduling a strike authorization vote for Sunday," reports the U-T's Keith Darcé and Jennifer Davies
"
The move came after the region's three biggest supermarket chains – Albertsons, Ralphs and Vons – failed to meet demands by the United Food and Commercial Workers to deliver a comprehensive contract proposal."
The union had set a deadline of noon yesterday for the proposal nearly two weeks ago.
“'They kept saying, "We're close. We're close,"' said
Mickey Kasparian, head of Local 135 in San Diego and Imperial counties. '
Well, that was malarkey.'”
"Investigators from the Los Angeles Ethics Commission and the State Bar of California
have launched separate inquiries related to City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo's use of city resources for personal reasons, authorities and sources said Thursday," report Patrick McGreevy and Matt Lait in the Times.
"The inquiries come amid growing criticism from community and city leaders about Delgadillo's conduct. In recent days, the city's top prosecutor has acknowledged letting his wife drive his city-owned vehicle without a license and enlisting staff members to run personal errands and baby-sit his children.
"'There are certainly concerns about the misuse of public property for private benefit,' said
Kathay Feng, executive director of California Common Cause. 'Particularly because we are talking about a position that must maintain a high level of public integrity … we would want an investigation to make sure that integrity is there.'
"
Nick Velasquez, a spokesman for Delgadillo, said 'the city attorney is fully prepared to cooperate with any investigation.'"
"The association representing the state's 15,000 chiropractors said Thursday it
would support a ban on advertising degrees from unaccredited schools, while board members said they still have to learn more about the issue.
"The board's acting executive director,
Brian Stiger, issued a directive Wednesday explaining that staff, based on a new legal interpretation, can no longer take action against chiropractors who advertise degrees from unaccredited schools.
"The ruling came after board member
Franco Columbu cited a doctorate in nutrition from unaccredited Donsbach University on his Web site this spring despite previously receiving a cease-and-desist letter advising him to stop doing so. In order to continue pursuing such cases, the board would have to add a new regulation.
"The California Chiropractic Association would back a specific prohibition on advertising a degree from an unaccredited university, said its lobbyist,
Christine Shultz. Her group remains opposed to two bills moving through the Legislature that would strip the chiropractic board of its autonomy."
And
San Francisco is prohibiting bottled water for city workers, sort of, reports the Chron's Cecilia Vega. "San Francisco city government will no longer be allowed to use city money to buy bottled water for its employees under an executive order Mayor Gavin Newsom is expected to sign today.
Despite owning a pristine reservoir in the Sierra Nevada that is said to produce some of the country's best-tasting tap water, the city spends nearly $500,000 a year on bottled water.
