That softball pitched to Jerry Brown by the Legislature was hammered out of the park Thursday,
as Brown got an opportunity to spank state lawmakers in
public. Jim Sanders reports, "Pay for
California's top elected officials will be slashed by 18 percent next
month, one year earlier than expected, to abide by an opinion
issued
Thursday from Attorney General Jerry Brown.
"Just
in time for the holiday season, lawmakers will have
their salaries cut
by $20,917 annually while California's 12 top state officials will see
reductions of at least $28,644 apiece.
"There are legal scholars
that might quibble, but I think the vast majority of
Californians would
give Jerry Brown a standing ovation," said John J. Pitney Jr.,
professor of politics at Claremont McKenna College.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, through a spokesman, applauded the cuts.
"The
governor doesn't take a salary, and everyone in his administration
has
taken a 14 percent pay cut," said press secretary Aaron McLear. "He
believes the Legislature, just like everyone else in
state government,
ought to be cutting back."
It looks like PERS isn't the only pension fund with problems.
"
Elliott Broidy, chairman of Markstone Capital Partners,
served until May on the Fire and Police Pensions board,
which provides
benefits to the city's retired police officers and firefighters.
"Real
estate company CIM Group invested $500,000 in Markstone's private
equity fund in 2004, according to an e-mail to the city's pension
agency. Three years later, Broidy voted with his colleagues
on the
pension board to commit up to $30 million to CIM's Fund III, which
focuses on real estate.
"The Securities and Exchange Commission
asked Broidy in May if he had done business with any
of the companies
that have come before his board. In court documents
filed two months
ago, two SEC lawyers said they were trying to determine
whether Broidy
or others "engaged in a fraudulent scheme to extract kickbacks
from
investment advisors and/or their intermediaries in exchange for
supporting proposed California public pension fund
investments."
Now that the dust has settled a bit, it sounds like
Lois Wolk is still pretty miffed at her leader . Kevin Parrish reports, "Wolk remains
dumbfounded by the role of Sacramento Democrat Darrell
Steinberg,
president pro tem of the state Senate. Despite representing
a county
bordering the Delta, Steinberg pushed Schwarzenegger's water package
through the Legislature. She called his role "disturbing."
Steinberg threw Northern California Democrats "under the bus," Wolk said.
In the end, Wolk believes the bills, including an $11.1 billion bond requiring voter approval, were a step
backward."
Tell us how you really feel, Senator...
Danielle Gaines reports on the vote to boost student fees at the University of California. "Amid scenes that resembled 1960s
antiwar and civil rights demonstrations, the University of California
Regents approved a two-step 32 percent increase in student fees
Thursday.
"The increase will first hit students over winter
break, with a 15 percent hike for undergraduate students and a 2.6
percent increase for graduate academic students. The second
increase, also 15 percent, will come at the start of the summer
semester and will apply to all the system's students."
Regents also approved a plan that will reopen a major hospital in Los Angeles .
"In a unanimous vote that sparked cheers of "thank you" from the
audience, University of California regents on Thursday
approved a
partnership with Los Angeles County that clears the
way to reopen the
Martin Luther King Jr. medical facility in Willowbrook,
possibly by
2013."
On the student fee vote, there were also cheers of
a two-word phrase that ends in "you," but with a slightly different meaning...
"The regents, some expressing concern about potential
pitfalls,
said they acted out of a moral imperative to aid the
South L.A.
community for which the hospital was once a point of
pride. But many
hurdles remain."
Hugo Martin looks at how the recession is affecting tribal casinos . "This is what a recession looks like at Southern California's tribal
casinos: Nearly every seat at the 25-cent slot machines is filled.
Gamblers wait three deep around the cheapest blackjack
tables. The
reels on the penny slot machines spin almost without
interruption.
"The
Saturday night crowd at the San Manuel Indian Bingo
and Casino in San
Bernardino County reflects what gaming operators say
is the new reality
of tribal casinos: The visitors are still streaming in, but they have
cut way back on spending.
"We have the same amount of people and
they come in as frequently, but they are just spending
less," said Mike
Hiles, a tribal information officer for the Soboba
Band of Luiseño
Indians, which operates a casino with 2,000 slot machines, 20 gaming
tables and two restaurants in San Jacinto."
And there's finally a verdict in the case of cop versus clown.
"A federal jury has ruled that New York City police didn't use excessive force when they arrested a professional clown who left a
suspicious device that turned out to be a balloon inflator
inside a coffee shop.
"Alexander
Alhovsky sued following his 2006 arrest, which stemmed from an
investigation of a report of a suspicious package with
tubes and wiring
at a Manhattan Starbucks. The bomb squad determined it was harmless, but set up surveillance.
"Alhovsky
went to the Starbucks the next day and was arrested
after officers saw
he had a similar device. He said he was a clown and
used it to inflate
balloons. The arrest was voided when a police
search of Alhovsky's home found nothing suspicious, but he claimed that
he suffered physical and mental injuries."
Of that we have little doubt, clown, but those injuries
happened long before the cops were involved...
