"The Senate Budget Committee, meeting late Wednesday,
approved a $1 billion package of emergency cuts to state education and other services aimed at preventing the state from running out of cash," writes the Bee's Judy Lin.
"Republicans, saying they had inadequate time for review, did not vote on the package, which cleared the committee with nine Democratic votes. The full Senate is expected to consider the actions Friday.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency on Jan. 10 and proposed $800 million in cuts in the current year's budget, giving lawmakers 45 days – until Feb. 23 – to act.
"The Democratic package approved Wednesday evening would reduce spending by $1 billion, including $500 million from education. Democrats also proposed freezing spending in an assortment of other state programs until the end of the budget year, rejecting immediate cuts to social service programs that Schwarzenegger had proposed.
"A
second major item the committee approved was a 10 percent reduction in payments to Medi-Cal providers, including doctors and hospitals. The committee agreed to $1.2 billion worth of savings in the 2008-09 budget year by reducing and delaying payments. Health care advocates called it a dark day for low-income families on the state's programs for the uninsured."
Capitol Weekly reports on a new bill aimed at
making it harder for HMOs to deny coverage to existing customers. "California would crack down on HMOs that unfairly cancel or limit their patients' health plans, under new legislation prompted by the recent conduct of Blue Cross and other health plans. The proposal would force health-management organizations to get approval from the state’s top enforcement officials—the Insurance Commissioner or the head of the Department of Managed Health Care—before denying coverage.
"'This bill puts an end to the days where insurance companies served as judge and jury over their policyholders, and ensures public oversight over the cancellation practices of insurance companies,' said CMA President
Richard Frankenstein. 'Insured Californians will no longer have to live in fear that their coverage will be stripped from them by a greedy insurance company at a moment’s notice, just when they need it most.'
"In his first visit to California as president of Mexico,
Felipe Calderon told the California Legislature today that immigration 'carries off the best among us,' and he vowed to create the economic conditions that would allow Mexicans to find well-paid work in their own country," reports Nancy Vogel in the Times.
"Calderon drew applause, particularly from Republican legislators, when he said, '
While my government is committed to protecting the rights of all Mexicans, including those living beyond our borders, we are taking great efforts to ensure that in the future no Mexican needs to leave our country to find job opportunities elsewhere.'
"He also reminded legislators that Mexico was the main destination of California exports, and he cited the bracero program of the 1940s through the 1960s as a system that met both countries' needs."
"'We need to make migration legal, safe and organized,' said Calderon, who also met with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today.
"The two signed an agreement to jointly fight climate change and discussed boosting trade, improving infrastructure and combating drug trafficking."
Meanwhile, the Bee's Dorothy Korber reports that
nearly 1 million ballots are yet to be counted in California.
"'It's not over till all the votes are counted,' said
Robert Stern, head of the nonpartisan Center for Governmental Studies based in Los Angeles. 'To have a million votes not counted a week after the election is extraordinary, especially in an election when people wanted so much for their vote to count.'
"Stern has been keeping a sharp eye on the evolving situation in California. In the great hunt for Democratic Party delegates, he figures,
all those uncounted California ballots probably will translate into a mere handful of the state's 370 delegates that are pledged to primary results – seven at most, in districts that were close to begin with (none of them in the Sacramento region).
"But, with Hillary Rodham Clinton (who garnered 2.3 million votes in California) and Barack Obama (with 1.9 million votes) still battling for their party's nomination, every delegate is hard-fought. On Wednesday, the Associated Press calculated that Obama's delegate total stands at 1,275 to Clinton's 1,220.
"Stern believes the uncounted votes won't change results for state propositions. Nor will they affect Republican primary results in California, since Mitt Romney's decision to drop out made John McCain the clear winner."
CW's John Howard
introduces some of California's superdelegates.
"They aren’t directly elected by anyone to the job, and many of them are unknown to the larger public — who’s Jeremy Bernard? — but this year the so-called superdelegates are likely to determine the fate of the Democratic nominee for president. This may come as a surprise to those who voted for a candidate in the primary election and thought the majority ruled.
"A spate of well-known California politicians are among those superdelegates who have yet to endorse a candidate, including L.A.-area congressmen
Howard Berman and Henry Waxman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, Reps. Mike Honda and Pete Stark, state Sen. Carole Migden of San Francisco and Rep. Jim Costa of Fresno. State Democratic Party chairman
Art Torres also hasn’t endorsed — and isn’t likely to, since professional party staffers like to stay out of the fray.
"While some of the people on the list are well known to political insiders, others are not. And yet these are the people who may hold the Democratic presidential nomination in their hands.
"They are people like
Rachel Binah from Little River and Mary Ellen Early from Sherman Oaks; Steven Alari from Long Beach and Keith Umemoto from Sacramento."
"A new law aimed at protecting children by imposing tough residency restrictions and lifetime electronic monitoring of sex offenders
has failed to deliver on its promise and could be making the state less safe," reports the U-T's Bill Ainsworth.
"Fifteen months after Proposition 83 passed with a tidal wave of voter support, there is no money and no plan to implement one of its main provisions: requiring Global Positioning System monitoring of sex offenders for life.
"Meanwhile, the provision banning sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools and parks has made it so difficult for them to find housing that hundreds are homeless.
"Statistics from the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation show that since officials started enforcing the law six months ago, 572 sex offenders have declared themselves homeless.
"Parolees who sleep in cars, trailers and homeless shelters are less likely to find jobs and seek treatment, and are more likely to commit crimes, parole agents and criminal justice experts say."
"Taking a cue from schools, state Sen.
Christine Kehoe plans to introduce a constitutional amendment to make it easier to pass local parcel taxes for fire protection," reports Michael Gardner in the Union-Tribune.
"The San Diego Democrat also is exploring legislation that would permit local agencies to assess a “fire protection and prevention” fee on new development in wild land areas, modeled after existing charges to connect to sewer and water services.
"'Local jurisdictions need a fighting chance to raise the revenues they need for firefighting,' Kehoe said."
Kehoe's bill would lower the vote required for parcel taxes for fire protection from 66.7% to 55%, like is now allowed for school construction bonds.
"In San Diego, a new city-county fire task led by Mayor
Jerry Sanders has its inaugural meeting today to review needs and financing.
"'What we're trying to do is not work backwards where we say we're going to raise a huge amount of money some way and then go out and spend it,' Sanders said. 'We'd rather find out what we need and then go out and spend it.'"
Reuters reports that "Eight million Americans admit they send themselves Valentine's Day gifts -- they may feel lonely and unloved but at least they will get something nice."
Luckily,
women in the state Assembly don't have that problem, thanks to
Chuck Calderon. "In his quest to be the next speaker, the Whittier Democrat dropped off a bouquet of a dozen yellow roses to all the Democratic ladies of the lower house on Wednesday, the eve of Valentine’s Day," reports the Bee's Shane Goldmacher.
"'If I can’t have your heart, I’ll settle for your vote,' said the note accompanying the flowers. 'Please be mine, Chuck Calderon.'"
