Well, now that Springfield's bad hair drama is over, we can return our focus to
Sacramento and hopefully get a budget deal.
The Bee's Jon Ortiz reports "State employee unions suffered two losses Thursday.
"The first was in court, when a Sacramento judge ruled
that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger can furlough state
workers starting next week.
"The second came at the bargaining table, as the court
ruling increased the Schwarzenegger administration's leverage in ongoing contract talks.
"Union officials said they'll continue to negotiate contract terms with Schwarzenegger's Department of Personnel Administration.
"But after Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette rejected arguments that the governor's plan to save $1.3 billion with unpaid time off was illegal and unconstitutional,
it was clear that the balance of bargaining power had
shifted away from the unions. Labor experts said it
now may be easier for Schwarzenegger to demand labor
concessions, including fewer holidays or changes to
overtime pay."
The Merc News's Mike Zapler reports "And in another key development regarding the state's yawning budget shortfall, news emerged from the nation's capital that a federal stimulus package passed by the House this week
would slice the projected $40 billion deficit almost in half. The plan would deliver nearly $19 billion in additional funds for Medi-Cal, the state's health insurance program for the poor, education
and other state programs.
"The Senate is considering a slightly different version
of the $819 billion stimulus bill, which if passed will have to
be reconciled with the House bill. It would have to
be signed by President Obama before California would
see the money. If the $19 billion figure holds up, it would significantly reduce
the size of California's problem. But that could be a mixed blessing because
it might relieve pressure on lawmakers to broker a
budget deal."
"Proposition 8 proponents' complaint that a California campaign-finance disclosure law has led to harassment of same-sex marriage opponents failed to sway a federal judge,
who refused Thursday to throw out the law or shield
donors' names," reports Bob Egelko in the Chron.
Just in time for the semi-annual report . . .
"'If there ever needs to be sunshine on a particular
issue, it's a ballot measure,' U.S. District Judge Morrison England said after a one-hour hearing in his Sacramento courtroom.
"A lawyer for the Prop. 8 campaign said it would ask an appeals court to modify
or overturn the law, which requires disclosure of all
contributors of $100 or more.
"The federal lawsuit, unrelated to the validity of Prop.
8, was filed Jan. 8 by the ballot measure's sponsoring committee, Protect Marriage. The suit
said Internet disclosure of donors' names and other identifying information in state-mandated reports has led to consumer boycotts, picketing
and even death threats.
"By requiring disclosure, 'The government is getting in the middle (of the issue) and saying, 'Here are the people to go after,'
' Richard Coleson, a lawyer for the committee, told England.
And in more good news, "California teeters on the edge of the worst drought in the state's history, officials said Thursday after reporting that the
Sierra Nevada snowpack - the backbone of the state's water supply - is only 61 percent of normal," writes Kelly Zito in the Chron.
"January usually douses California with about 20 percent of the state's annual precipitation, but instead it delivered a
string of dry, sunny days this year, almost certainly
pushing the state into a third year of drought.
"The arid weather is occurring as the state's water system is under pressure from a growing population,
an aging infrastructure and court-ordered reductions in water pumped through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta - problems that didn't exist or were less severe during similar dry spells
in the late 1970s and late 1980s.
"'We're definitely in really bad shape,' said Elissa Lynn, chief meteorologist with the state Department of
Water Resources. 'People can expect to pay higher prices for produce
... and more agencies may be rationing ... some raising
fees. We just don't have enough water.'"
"Staff members with the California prison health care
receiver ignored state contract rules and court edicts as they
awarded more than $28 million in technology deals in 2007 and 2008, the state auditor said Thursday," reports Andrew McIntosh in the Bee.
"But State Auditor Elaine Howle said in her report that it was impossible to identify
all the technology contracts because the relevant databases
– which the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
keeps for the receiver – often "contain inaccurate and incomplete data."
"Though receiver J. Clark Kelso himself asked for the audit and praised its findings,
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also used the report to
ratchet up his fight to get rid of the court-appointed receiver.
"'This audit underscores what the governor, other administration
officials and the attorney general said Wednesday – that the receiver has now become a separate government
unto itself, and one that is too costly and not accountable
to taxpayers,' Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Lisa Page said.
"Howle launched the audit last year after a federal
judge appointed Kelso to oversee prison health care."
"On the cusp of a new era in stem cell science, Democratic
heavyweights are pushing to install the outgoing California Democratic
Party chief in a leadership post at the state's $3-billion research program," reports Eric Bailey in the Times.
"Art Torres, who served two decades as a state lawmaker before
assuming the party chairmanship a dozen years ago,
is being backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer of California and Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, among others.
"Torres' opponent for vice chairman on the governing board
of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine
is Republican biotech executive Duane Roth, supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Roth, a
member of the stem cell board for more than two years,
has spent three decades in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology
industries.
"The push for Torres comes as embryonic stem cell research
hits some key milestones. With the ascent of President
Obama, a longtime ban on federal funding is expected
to be reversed."
Did we mention the $300,000 salary?
The Chron's Carla Marinucci reports Republican Carly Fiorina is moving toward a 2010 run for U.S. Senate.
Fiorina "making some moves that strongly suggest she's got her eye on a
political future in California -- and the buzz is that it may even have
something to do with that 2010 race against Democratic U.S. Senator
Barbara Boxer.
"Last week, Fiorina -- the former leader of the Republican National
Committee's 2008 Victory drive and chief adviser to presidential
candidate John McCain -- emerged, after months out of the presidential 2008 campaign spotlight.
This time, she was the new political analyst -- and a good one, we may
add -- on George Stephanopolous' ''This Week'' show, talking up the
economy and the Obama stiumulus package.
"Now, we hear she's
been added as a scheduled speaker at the California
Republican Party
Convention in Sacramento later this month.
"Other speakers: Meg Whitman, former Ebay CEO, as the lunch keynote
and Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner as the dinner
keynote. We all
know what those two have in common: they're very wealthy and very
connected Silicon Valley insiders, both eyeing the
2010 governor's
slot. With former Rep. Tom Campbell of San Jose also expressing
interest, the betting is that Fiorina may want to avoid a competition
already crowded with moderate Silicon Valley GOPers."
Meanwhile, her potential opponent, Chuck DeVore, gets some love in the Wall Street Journal. "Few have internalized that message more than a little-known California assemblyman named Chuck DeVore. The
46-year-old former aerospace-company executive has already begun
contesting the U.S. Senate seat held by Democrat Barbara
Boxer, who
faces re-election in 2010, by putting much of his daily routine online.
"He regularly updates his Facebook status on
his BlackBerry, which automatically appears on his
Twitter account, as
well as on the site devoted to getting Republicans
on Twitter, called topconservativesontwitter.org. (His 924 followers rank him 389th on that site.)
Mr. DeVore says his campaign, with little funding and
facing a
well-known incumbent, depends on steadily building word
of mouth. He
says he has modeled his campaign on that of President
Barack Obama, who
is often referred to as the first "Internet president."
And LA Observed reports the LA Times has killed its state news section . "Publisher Eddy
Hartenstein has ordered the California section killed,
leaving the L.A.
Times without a separate local news front for the first
time since the
paper's early decades. The publisher decided to fold local
news inside
the front section — which will be reconfigured to downplay national and
foreign news — despite what an official of the paper confirmed for
me
was the unanimous and vocal objections of senior editors."
And finally, from our You Can't Take It With You Files, prosecutors in Victorville say "a spurned lover ambushed his ex-girlfriend and tried
to cut out the breast implants he paid for by stabbing
her. San Bernardino County prosecutor David Foy says 28-year-old Thomas Lee Rowley attacked his ex in July 2006 outside her mother's home in Hesperia, some 70 miles northeast of Los Angeles in the Mojave Desert.
"Rowley is on trial in Superior Court in Victorville
for attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon,
stalking, burglary, and false imprisonment.
"The 26-year-old woman survived six stab wounds and the punctured
breast implants were repaired.
