The Roundup

Environmentalists and school officials are headed for a showdown over a newly proposed clean-air rule that could cost school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars, reports Capitol Weekly's John Howard.

"For hundreds of California school districts already facing profound budget problems, the proposed diesel-soot regulations from the Air Resources Board couldn't come at a worse time: The ARB is pondering a new rule that would require schools to buy new buses-they average about $150,000 each--or retrofit older ones at $20,000 or more per vehicle.

"The strapped districts also are crying foul over what they see as a betrayal by the ARB. The original diesel rule excluded school buses; the latest version of the rule includes them. The ARB, conducting hearings around the state, is expected to make a final decision in October in Fresno.

"'We're in a crisis,' said Stephen Rhoads of the School Transportation Coalition, which represents school districts. 'The rule says if you can't put diesel traps on the buses, you've got to replace them. It says replace the engine, but you can't replace the engine on these old buses, you've got to replace the bus.'

"California lawmakers routinely violate their own law and cast votes for colleagues who aren't there ," reports Seth Rosenfeld in the Chron.

"Although the practice of "ghost voting" in the state Assembly is usually harmless, experts say it is fraught with the potential for mischief, and at times ghost votes have decided the outcome of potentially far-reaching legislation.

Hmm, seems to us we've read about this somewhere before...

"In the most recent case to surface, eyewitnesses said that in May, Assemblyman Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, cast a ghost vote for Assemblywoman Mary Hayashi, D-Castro Valley - opposite the way she would have voted. 'I don't recall it, but I don't deny it, either,' de Leon said.

"De Leon's ghost vote on AB 2818, a measure concerning the state's affordable housing crisis, was first disclosed in The Chronicle's Insight section on Sunday. Assembly Democrats will examine the episode Tuesday, said a spokesman for Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista (Los Angleles County).

"Ghost voting occurs when one Assembly member pushes a button on the desk of an absent member, electronically casting the vote. The practice is clearly against the Assembly's long-standing written rule that states, "A member may not operate the voting switch of any other member."

"Nevertheless, lawmakers often violate the rule, acknowledged Jon Waldie, the chief administrative officer for the Assembly Rules Committee. 'It is not uncommon for somebody to be pressing somebody else's button,' he said. 'It's darn near a daily occurrence." Although it is forbidden, there is no explicit penalty for violators, he said."

Like jaywalking. Or embezzling campaign funds. 

If you missed Sunday's article, there's this gem. ""Asked about the ethics of voting for a colleague without specific knowledge of his or her position on a bill, de León noted that a legislator who did not like the way his or her vote was cast could later change it for the record. House rules allow an Assembly member to change his or her vote after a bill has been passed or rejected - up to the end of the day's session - as long as it does not alter the outcome.

"'It's not like it's etched in stone,' de León said. 'It's like you go to your ATM machine - same thing - change your vote.'" 

Of course, ghost voting is usually more lucrative. 

"Rejected in the state Senate, California's prison medical czar now wants to build 10,500 correctional health care beds himself on a contract with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with or without legislative approval," reports Andy Furillo in the Bee.

"Receiver J. Clark Kelso forwarded his $7 billion proposal Monday to the administration, which responded that it would rather work with the Legislature to build the beds.

"Armed with a court order that gives him the authority to bring prison health care up to constitutional standards, Kelso made it clear in an interview Monday that he intends to use that power to get the job done.

"'I have adequate legal authority,' Kelso said.

"Kelso forwarded the idea to Schwarzenegger's legal affairs office a little more than a week after Republicans in the Senate killed their joint plan to pay for the beds with lease revenue bonds.

"Rather than using bonds, he said he would take $500 million out of the deficit-racked 2008-09 budget to get started on construction. He said he'll ask for $2 billion more in 2009-10."

The LAT's Michael Rothfeld reports: "Lisa Page, a spokeswoman for Schwarzenegger, said the governor's office had not decided whether to go along with Kelso's new plan.

"'We think it's much better to work with the Legislature on a solution than go around them,' Page said.

"Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) said the receiver's idea would be "a complete exploitation of the governor's emergency powers."

"Republican senators have said they are open to authorizing the medical beds in conjunction with legislation that would expedite the construction of regular prison beds for inmates under a plan approved last year .

"The lawmakers hope that building all of the beds together will minimize chances that a panel of three federal judges now monitoring state prisons will order a release of inmates due to overcrowding.

"'We think this is unnecessary,' Senate Minority Leader Dave Cogdill (R-Modesto) said of Kelso's effort to go around the legislators. 'We're trying to get a comprehensive solution.'"
 

Shane Goldmacher weighs in on the case of Henry Nicholas. "Before Henry T. Nicholas III donated millions to rewrite California's crime laws, the Republican billionaire was entangled in his own netherworld of prostitution, drug peddling, bribery and death threats, federal prosecutors say," writes Shane Goldmacher in the Bee.

"The salacious charges against Nicholas – made public in two federal grand jury indictments unsealed last Thursday – allege a pattern of criminal behavior by one of the state's richest people and biggest political donors.

"Nicholas, the 48-year-old co-founder of Broadcom, a computer chip-making company, has donated more than $9.4 million to various California candidates and causes in the past four years. He is a top donor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"This year, the indicted Republican billionaire is the financial force behind two crime initiatives voters will consider in November – one to stiffen anti-gang statutes and another to bolster victims' rights. Combined, he has given the measures $5.9 million – critical seed money used to collect signatures to qualify for the ballot.

"Proponents are furiously backpedaling away from Nicholas' involvement – even though he is the largest donor to both campaigns.

"Some Democrats are demanding the campaigns return all his "tainted" money.

"'Anything less than that is pure hypocrisy that voters will see through,' said Sen. Gloria Romero, chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee and a Los Angeles Democrat."

"Voters would rather cut spending than raise taxes to close the state's giant budget deficit, but they flinch when it comes to deciding which programs to shrink , according to a new poll," reports Mike Zapler in the Merc News.

We could have told you that, and saved the pollsters all that trouble.

"The results of the California Field Poll conducted in late May highlight the conundrum Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators find themselves in this summer as they grapple with a $15.2 billion deficit. No matter what they do, it's likely to stir anger from their constituents.

"'If the governor and lawmakers expect a road map out of the deficit from the public, they're sorely mistaken,' said Field Poll director Mark DiCamillo. 'The public wants it both ways.'

"As much as voters dislike the notion of higher taxes, the poll suggests they are resigned to some type of tax hike. More than four in five respondents said they expect the Capitol to raise taxes as part of the solution to the budget shortfall; only 14 percent said they don't think higher taxes are in the works.

"Cutting spending is more popular in theory than in practice. Nearly two-thirds of voters said the deficit should be closed with "mostly spending cuts," while about one in four said higher taxes should be the primary tool. But voters have a much harder time deciding which government programs to trim."

Dan Walters writes about the the hypocritical approach to the budget taken by of voters.

"Recent opinion polls tend to bolster the school lobby's position. A May poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 62 percent of voters want to protect school financing as Schwarzenegger and lawmakers wrestle with the deficit, and an even newer poll by Field Research found that 80 percent of voters oppose cutting school aid.

"Those trends, however, conflict with other Field Poll findings – that voters really don't want to cut any major spending category, even though 63 percent want the budget crisis to be resolved with "mostly spending cuts" and just 26 percent say "mostly tax increases."

"If politicians are looking to the voting public for a way out of the dilemma, it's not obvious. Voters evidently reject both big spending cuts and new taxes."

Just goes to show: the weak link in any democracy is the people... 

"When same-sex marriages start at 5 p.m. June 16, San Francisco will stage a repeat of the ceremony that started the 2004 Winter of Love, when thousands of gay and lesbian couples married at City Hall," writes the Chron's Wyatt Buchanan.

"This time, though, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon's wedding will be legal.

"Mayor Gavin Newsom said Monday that the ceremony, which he will officiate, will be the only one held in City Hall that day. Martin and Lyon have been together more than five decades, and they were the first couple to marry four years ago.

"Marriages will begin en masse the next morning. So far, 128 same-sex couples have made appointments to obtain marriage license on Tuesday, June 17.

"'What we want, the narrative coming out of it, is about them and what they represent - their story, their history. This is really where it all started,' Newsom said of the couple."

The Bee's Dale Kessler reports on how the real estate downturn has hurt the nation's largest pension fund.

"CalPERS stands to lose a chunk of its $947 million investment in a Los Angeles land development that's filed for bankruptcy protection.

"But the giant pension fund said any potential loss would represent a tiny sliver of its overall portfolio and would pose no threat to retirement or health benefits.

"'It's a small investment,' said Pat Macht, spokeswoman for the $245.4 billion California Public Employees' Retirement System. 'We have lots of investments here.'

"Legal advocacy groups and six general assistance recipients filed a lawsuit Monday against Alameda County's Social Service Agency claiming the department's plan to cut the benefit to some is illegal ," reports the Oakland Tribune's Chris Metinko.

"The agency is imposing a six-month time limit on residents receiving general assistance who are considered employable. The new time limit took effect in January, meaning some general assistance recipients will lose their benefits at the end of June. Social Services does not currently impose a limit on payments.

"However, on Monday the Public Interest Law Project, the firm Heller Ehrman and Bay Area Legal Aid filed a suit in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of six general assistance recipients, claiming the plan violates state law and will cost thousands their homes.

"'The county agency is acting illegally and arbitrarily,' said Steve Ronfeldt, a lawyer with the Public Interest Law Project.

"The lawsuit's petitioners claim the county is failing to live up to its state-mandated responsibility to support indigent people and offer subsistence income to the destitute. The group also says the county agency is using an inaccurate definition of "employable," not taking into consideration skills, age, education level or whether job openings exist.

And from our Driver's Ed files, "[d]rivers in Cyprus have been told not to abandon their car in motion, or wave their hands and legs out of car windows.

"This prudent piece of advice is given in a new road safety code in the first major revamp of guidelines on driving practices in decades.

"With many known for driving with one hand, children bouncing about unrestrained in the back of vehicles and parking on pavements, the new code also sets out guidelines on how to use the much-loved horn. Beeping will be prohibited in residential areas."

Well, then, we guess they won't be using this video as an instructional tool...