Okay, time to shake it off.
As the Legislature returns to hold a bunch of informational
hearings, we'll try to give you the Cliff's Notes version of what you missed.
Here it is: Not much. Still interested? Well, by all means, read
on...
Could the Adams recall be coming back? Martin Wiscol reports, "While the effort to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was pronounced dead by Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Nov. 20, recall advocates have launched an effort they hope
will land the issue on the ballot anyway.
"Recall leader Mike Schroeder of Corona del Mar was among
activists who started going through rejected petition
signatures this
past Tuesday and said some may indeed be valid. However,
elections
officials stood by their finding that insufficient
valid signatures
were submitted.
"A sample of petition signatures for the recall found
unusually large
numbers of invalid signatures, and elections officials
projected that
only 24,579 of the 58,384 signatures were good. A total of 35,825 valid
signatures were needed to qualify a recall in Adams' district, which
straddles Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.
Schroeder on Tuesday began examining the 678 signatures disqualified
in San Bernardino County, where the invalid rate was
projected at 65
percent. Among the 40 or so ballots he went through, he said, were some
that were wrongly thrown out because the voter had
registered after
signing the petition when in fact the registration
card and the
petition were both signed at the same time. He said
others were wrongly
tossed because there was no address."
The LAT's Eric Bailey profiles Senate staffer Kip Lipper.
His fingerprints are on the California Clean Air Act,
the state
Safe Drinking Water Act and the landmark 2006 curbs on greenhouse gas
emissions. Legislation that boosted recycling, reduced
landfill
dumping, saved redwoods and cleaned up power plants
are also part of
his highlight reel.
Most recently, he aided negotiations that
helped break a quarter-century deadlock and produce an $11-billion plan
to fix the state's balky water system and revive the flagging
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
His boss, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
(D-Sacramento), calls him "a force of nature."
Lipper,
55, is as renowned inside the Capitol as he is anonymous
outside. He
may not hold an elected post, but friends and foes
alike call him the
"41st senator."
So what did Lipper have to say about the piece?
"I'm not interesting, hate attention and like to hide
in my office," he said.
There was the Schwarzenegger tax brouhaha, which the gov blamed on paperwork.
The Merc's Denis THierault reports:
"Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was having a feel-good Thanksgiving week, passing
out turkeys in East Los Angeles and giving thanks for
"the blessings of
freedom and democracy." But then came the heartburn.
"A
gossip Web site Friday morning revealed that the IRS
filed a federal
tax lien against the governor last spring seeking $79,000 — a discovery
Schwarzenegger's office blames on "a minor paperwork tracking
discrepancy."
A copy of the tax lien, submitted in Los Angeles County,
was first posted by TMZ.com. A search of public records databases shows the lien
was filed May 11 and that it lists the governor's home address."
Who needs foundation-sponsored investigative journalism when TMZ is on the
case. Right?
And this Thanksgiving the turkeys had their own podcast.
As for the rest, well, the Sac Bee offers a quick run-down.
And finally,
when a lobbyist is heading off to jail, they'll try just about anything. Take
the case of Richard Vitale. The Boston Globe reports, "Suffolk Superior Court Judge
Frank Gaziano on Wednesday denied a
motion to suppress all evidence seized in a search
of Vitale’s former
accounting office including the e-mails, which detail Vitale’s alleged
secret lobbying efforts on behalf of a group of ticket
brokers.
It is the second major setback in recent weeks for
Vitale, who is
accused of using his friendship with DiMasi and other
lawmakers to help
the ticket brokers, who were looking to legalize ticket
scalping in
Massachusetts. Last month, Gaziano turned down multiple
motions to
dismiss the case, including one that claimed Vitale
was being
selectively prosecuted, the only person criminally
charged under the
state’s lobbying law.
"Vitale’s lawyer, Martin Weinberg, has called the charges minor “regulatory offenses’’ and argued his client did nothing wrong.
“Although we believe strongly that people should be
able to send and
receive e-mails in confidence, without the threat of the government’s
seizure of these ultimately private communications,
we remain confident
that the content of the e-mails will exonerate Mr. Vitale of each and
every allegation against him,’’ Weinberg said yesterday."
So much for lobbyist-client privledge...
