A fight over power plants has turned into one
of the major environmental battles at the end of the legislative
session.
John Howard reports, "A sharp
dispute is brewing in the Capitol over a plan
pushed by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
to ease new state rules over the way power plants use
ocean water to cool their engines. Three plants affected
by the new rules – Harbor, Haynes and Scattergood – provide nearly 40
percent of Los Angeles’ available power generation and are critical to
the
stability of the grid, according to the DW
"Environmentalists say a hastily amended
proposal – it was written Friday – would unravel regulations that took
the state water
board five years to develop and would violate established
state and federal policy. The debate is one of several
related to environmental protections that are emerging
in the Capitol as the final days of the legislative
session get under way."
This is the time for legislative vampires. Bills that were presumed dead or abandoned suddenly
spring back to life. Take, for example, the local government bankruptcy bill...
"The bill, AB 155 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia) will be heard
in the Senate Local Government Committee Wednesday.
The measure would require local governments to obtain
approval from the
California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission
before they can file
for bankruptcy.The bill is supported by a host of labor
groups,
who say the bill is a needed protection against cities
or counties who
will opt to declare bankruptcy to get out of contract
agreements with
their employees.
"The measure is opposed by the California League of
Cities, the
California State Assn. of Counties and the California
Chamber of
Commerce."
With only one week left in the legislative session,
Dan Walters writes the sprint
to the finish is going to be chaotic.
"Just a week remains in the session with at least 600 bills waiting to
be passed or rejected.
"Lobbyists who want bills passed and those who want
them killed are
packing the Capitol's back hallways as both legislative
houses conduct
marathon sessions, typically giving each measure no
more than a minute
or two. Many are minutia, but even the most obscure
ones are important
to someone – lobster fishermen in the case of AB 291, for instance.
"While
the end of any biennial session is a pressure-cooker, the current
version is more frenzied than most because of election
year uncertainty.
Lobbyists know that whatever happens now, the Legislature
that convenes in December will have dozens of new
members, due to term limits,
and a month after that, a new governor will take office.
It's also delay the budget season. The state's prolonged budget standoff cost schools $2.5 billion -- money they are due but will not receive until the
budget is passed.
Shane Goldmacher reports, "California's top fiscal
officials Monday ordered the deferral of $2.5
billion in payments to the state's public schools next
month to conserve
cash and stave off the need to begin issuing IOUs.
"The state's budget is 54 days late, and that delay has stretched the
state's depleted treasury to the breaking point. Issuance
of scrip could
come within weeks.
"The deferral announced Monday "was not taken lightly,"
state Controller
John Chiang, Treasurer Bill
Lockyer and Department of Finance Director Ana Matosantos
wrote in a
joint letter to the Legislature."
Maeve Reston reports Barbara Boxer was in Los Angeles
Monday, where she rejected Carly Fiorina's call for congressional term limits as a campaign ploy.
"The chances of passage of the proposal are slim considering
that it
would require a constitutional amendment. But don't
expect political
realities to keep Fiorina from bringing it up on the
campaign trail
since she already seizes every opportunity she can
to remind voters how
long Boxer has been in office.
"Fiorina
has pledged to serve a maximum of two six-year terms in the
Senate if she is elected.
"After a discussion on transportation policy with Los
Angeles Mayor
Antonio Villaraigosa at City Hall on Monday, Boxer
said she believed the
“founders had faith in the voters" to make decisions
about how long a
politician should stick around."
And finally, from our I Need This Budget Stalemate
Like I need a Hole in the Head Files, "A Polish man
living in Germany went about his business for about
five
years without noticing he had been shot in the head
because he was
drunk when it happened. Police in the western city
of Bochum said
Tuesday doctors found a .22 calibre bullet in the back of his head after
the 35-year-old went to have what he thought was a cyst removed.
"Presented with the 5.6mm projectile, the man recalled he had received a
blow to the head around midnight at a New Year's party
"in 2004 or
2005," but had forgotten about it because he had been "very
drunk," a
police spokesman said.
"He told us he remembered having a sore head, but that
he wasn't really
one for going to the doctor," the spokesman said.
