Free Republic

Another holiday. Another sweep of smoke scofflaws. Bay Area air pollution inspectors found 47 homes where wood fires were on Christmas Day during a Spare the Air alert when cold, unhealthy air was forecast. The tally was more than double the 22 violators detected on Thanksgiving Day when the Bay Area Air Quality Management District also called a Spare the Air alert. Violators get written warnings for a first offense and $400 fines for a second offense. While critics have bashed the air district for intruding on a holiday burning tradition, a spokesman for the agency on Monday defended the...

During his first year in office, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger railed against state lawmakers, calling them "girlie men" and "obstructionists." As he enters his final year, Schwarzenegger is targeting a different branch of government: judges who "are going absolutely crazy." The Republican governor openly complains about the judiciary these days for blocking budget decisions and forcing California to find billions of dollars elsewhere. Recent judgments have contributed to the state's $20.7 billion projected deficit. Courts have ruled that California's attempts to divert transit and redevelopment money are illegal. They have found in some cases that the state cannot furlough workers. They...

Frustration with a dysfunctional California government has spurred a movement to have the people, by initiative, call a state constitutional convention to rewrite the state's basic laws. But not all the laws. Advocates of the constitutional convention initiative hope to reduce opposition to the measure by declaring Proposition 13 off-limits from convention delegates' deliberations. Prop. 13 should not be taken off the table if and when a constitutional convention is called. How can it be, when the groundbreaking property tax reform measure is the central piece of the whole state and local governmental budget discussion? How many times has Prop....

California's budget coffers are emptier than a politician's promise, but there may be a silver lining to the state's dark financial clouds: Fewer new laws. Legislators approved only 872 bills in their 2009 regular session, and just 632 have become or will become law by Jan. 1. While that may seem like a lot more new laws than we need, it's actually the fewest bills passed, and the fewest signed into law, in more than 40 years. In fact, according to legislative consultants, it's 131 fewer to become laws than last year; 393 fewer than 10 years ago, and a...

RICHMOND -- In a blow to financially strapped Richmond and a $20 million victory for Chevron Corp., a Contra Costa County judge has struck down a tax approved by local voters last year that assessed the company for the value of the crude oil it refines in the city. Measure T is unconstitutional because the tax is out of proportion to the business Chevron does in Richmond and the services it receives there, said Superior Court Judge David Flinn. He said the tax also violates state law because it is based on the value of materials that Chevron uses in...

So now it's out: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to whack $1.6 billion from the state's payroll to help close a $14.4 billion budget gap in fiscal 2010-11. Although he's said the furloughs would expire on June 30, the end of the 2009-10 fiscal year, The Bee has reported that the governor will push back the expiration date. What might change that? The state's economy roars back. Forget it. The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office said last month that the state is already down $6.3 billion this year, plus the $14.4 billion next year. California will be strapped for several more years,...

Chairmen of two California legislative committees, responding to a recent Bee investigation, said this week that they would probe prison health care staffing as managed by receiver J. Clark Kelso, who operates under a federal court order. The Bee reported that the prisons last year spent more than $152 million on temporary clinical employees, such as doctors and nurses. Another $170 million went to overtime for clinicians and guards who accompany inmates to appointments. Some nurses work such long hours that they fall asleep on the job, workers and executives said. Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, who chairs...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has made one last plea to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider the legality of a federal court's unprecedented order requiring California to shed nearly 40,000 inmates from its prison system over the next two years. In court papers filed Tuesday night, state officials urged the Supreme Court to intervene in the case, following up on an appeal filed this past fall seeking to overturn a three-judge panel's orders requiring swift action to relieve prison overcrowding. The Supreme Court will consider the request at its Jan. 15 conference. The three-judge panel found California's 33 prisons are...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to save $1.6 billion in state employee costs by maintaining monthly furloughs past next June, instituting layoffs or shifting general fund workers into positions financed by other revenues, according to sources familiar with the governor's forthcoming budget proposal. California faces a $20.7 billion general fund budget deficit through June 2011, according to an estimate by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District is asking residents to check before burning any wood fires on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day since predicted light winds and cool air may create unhealthy air conditions across the region. . . . The district has already issued two winter Spare the Air alerts, its first one falling on Thanksgiving Day. On these days, Bay Area residents are prohibited from burning wood or manufactured fire logs in fireplaces, wood stoves, fire pits or in any other place. The ban extends to both indoor and outdoor fires.

A host of medical services that insurers must pay for in California — from cancer screenings to diabetes treatment to two-day hospital stays for delivering mothers — could be weakened or lost if the health care measures pending in Congress become law. Currently, any health insurer selling policies in California must comply with the state's extensive consumer protections. The reform measures would allow insurance firms to sell policies across state lines if certain conditions were met, bypassing California's rules in favor of the requirements in the state where the policy is issued. The result, critics warn, would be a "race...

HE ASKS CONGRESS FOR BILLIONS OF DOLLARS, LAW RELAXATION - As the U.S. Senate finalized its health care proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger asked Congress on Tuesday to add billions of dollars for California and relax existing laws, warning that the state otherwise may have to slash Medi-Cal benefits or eliminate its in-home care program.The Republican governor connected the long-term health care plan to California's current budget deficit, estimated to be $20.7 billion by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office. He suggested in a letter to Congress that the health care plan would lock in current federal reimbursement and eligibility policies that...

State officials and advocates for the rights of the disabled are hailing a $1.1 billion settlement of a suit regarding access to sidewalks and facilities owned or maintained by the state's Department of Transportation. "This settlement is a win-win," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in a statement released by Caltrans today. . . .

Sonoma County's top official on Monday ordered the removal of stars, angels and other religious symbols from Christmas trees in county buildings after a complaint that the decorations violate constitutional protections. “I understand the concern about government endorsing religion or a doctrine, and I respect that is not our role,” Acting County Administrator Chris Thomas said. The complaint was lodged by Irv Sutley of Santa Rosa, a 65-year-old disabled veteran who has a long history of protesting the use of religious symbols in government settings. One of the offending trees was in the lobby of Thomas' office. He said he...

SACRAMENTO — A brutal economy has put Democrats at an even worse cash disadvantage than they could have expected in seeking to win back the governorship against a potential Republican candidate with unlimited means to finance a campaign. Big-money donors gave cash less freely in 2009, resulting in a relatively lackluster year of fundraising, Democrats acknowledged. "It's tough out there, no question," said Democratic fundraiser Dan Weitzman, who helps raise cash for the state Democratic Party, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and a handful of legislative candidates. "Because of (fundraising) limits and because of how hard it is out there, I'm...

Under fire for mismanaging its vehicle fleet, Caltrans was rapped anew on Monday for grossly overstating the number of jobs it created or preserved with federal stimulus money. The criticism came from state Auditor Elaine Howle, who revealed the department's inflated numbers in a report. In October, Caltrans told the federal government that it created or preserved 1,590 jobs with $26.7 million the department received earlier this year under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The stimulus bill requires all recipients of federal money to file quarterly job updates, reporting numbers of jobs created or saved by projects. Howle's auditors...

For state lawmakers, ringing in the New Year also means getting ready for what's shaping up to be another painful budget season. They'll return to the Capitol Jan. 4 to tackle a deficit that is expected to swell to $6.3 billion by the end of the fiscal year. Filling that hole -- and the $21 billion deficit projected for the next 18 months --tops Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's list of priorities for the new year. Steinberg said in an interview with The Bee that while further cuts and new revenues will be needed to close that gap, the...

Shedding jobs that once reliably attracted new residents, California grew at a slower pace this year than all but two other years since 1900, according to state Department of Finance figures released Thursday. The number of new births dropped. The number of new immigrants dropped. And more residents left California for other states than came here. The end result: Statewide growth from July 2008 to July 2009 was 350,000 people, or less than 1 percent. During the rest of the decade, California averaged 525,000 new residents each year. The four-county Sacramento region posted even more striking numbers, adding just 21,000...

You have to string together a series of seemingly unrelated events to see it, but this week painted a powerful picture of California's chronic inability to govern itself. As the week began, a legislative committee heard state Treasurer Bill Lockyer describe, in blunt terms, why the state finds it increasingly difficult to market its bonds. Briefly, its budget is chronically unbalanced, it has floated too much debt, and it's now forced to pay higher interest rates on its debts than many Third World nations. Counterintuitively, state schools chief Jack O'Connell a day later urged the Legislature to approve a big...

Last Friday, the state's biggest public employee union came up short. Again. This time Service Employees International Union Local 1000 backed the loser in a runoff board election for CalPERS, the mammoth government worker pension provider. The board signs off on annual payments that the state and local governments must make to their employee retirement funds. It also sets how the $200 billion system spreads its investments on behalf of CalPERS' 1.6 million members. Local 1000's handpicked candidate, Cathy Hackett, lost to J.J. Jelincic, who was backed by several other unions, 49 percent to 51 percent. It's the latest in...

California faces at least another year of recession, and the state budget is so far upside down that it's now "more likely to default than not," on some of its debt, a new economic forecast from California Lutheran University's economists declares. The director of Cal Lutheran's new Center for Economic Research and Forecasting, Bill Watkins, cites the state's budget problems, its high regulatory and operating costs and its deficit infrastructure as impediments to rapid recovery.

California just missed being labeled a "judicial hellhole" by the American Tort Reform Foundation, a business-backed group that lobbies for changes in the laws and procedures governing lawsuits that allege injuries. Instead, the state was placed on the organization's "watch list" for what the Washington-based organization termed "poorly reasoned California court decisions (that) have placed the state's citizens and business owners in jeopardy." It did not specify what those decisions were, but added, "California businesses are concerned that they will be unfairly hit with consumer and disabled-access lawsuits by those who have chosen litigation as a lifestyle. . . .

Capitol politicians bemoaning the size and cost of the state's bonded debt is something like drunkards arguing over hangover remedies. Members of the Assembly Budget Committee, most of whom voted for tens of billions of dollars in new bonds, including $11-plus billion in new water bonds, convened Monday to worry publicly about how the debts will be repaid from a state budget awash in red ink. "We need to figure out how much borrowing we can realistically and sustainably afford," committee chair Noreen Evans said, terming bond costs "the Pac-Man eating up the general fund." Evans was one of the...

Standard & Poor's, the venerable credit-rating agency, chose an opportune moment to unveil its annual fiscal scorecard for American cities, including those in California. Its release came as local governments were assessing the impact of recession on their current budgets and beginning to look ahead with trepidation to the next fiscal year. Twenty-five California cities received S&P's Triple-A rating for their fiscal situations, the most of any state. Only one of those cities – San Jose – is very large. The others are uniformly smaller, affluent and mostly white enclaves such as Beverly Hills and Mill Valley. Even as S&P's...

There is one consolation for Mayor Gavin Newsom now that he's dropped out of the governor's race - he won't have to take a $72,477-a-year pay cut. Newsom, who earns $246,464 as mayor of San Francisco, would have seen his pay drop to $173,987 if he had won the governor's race, as a result of the salary cuts imposed on state elected officers last week.Under the new pay levels, the governor gets about $25,000 a year less than San Francisco's park and recreation director, Phil Ginsburg.And if District Attorney Kamala Harris wins the race to become the next attorney general,...

Democratic Assemblyman John Pérez emerged as the winner last week after a bruising battle for leadership of the state Assembly, a fight that had no shortage of contestants. But as the state heads into another year of staggering budget deficits and difficult decisions - and because term limits have seriously diluted the Assembly leader's power - some are asking why anyone would even want the job. "The question isn't just, 'Can you be a leader?' but, 'Is there anything left to lead?' " said Bill Bagley, a Republican who served in the Assembly from 1960 to 1974. In recent years,...

Barely a year after the historic election of President Obama, Republicans are talking up 2010 as the "change" election. In blue-leaning California, the dangers for Democrats are becoming evident as the GOP works to fire up voters with issues like budget deficits, health care reform and the costs of curbing global warming. "California is ground zero for many of these debates because the problems are bigger and more outside than just about anywhere else," says Andrew Moylan, director of government affairs for the National Taxpayers Union in Washington, which plans to underscore the conservative message on issues like health care,...

Assemblyman John A. Perez's final opponent has bowed out, setting the stage for the first-term Democrat to be selected Assembly speaker today -- the first openly gay man to hold the post. After behind-closed-door talks this week with Perez and other political leaders, . . .

The California Air Resources Board gave truckers a break Wednesday on the state's tough diesel emissions rules, acknowledging that the bad economy has both improved the state's air quality and made anti-pollution upgrades unaffordable. After a nearly seven-hour public hearing in Sacramento that featured more than 80 speakers including truckers, health and environmental advocates and even high school students from Oakland, the air board ordered modifications to the rules drawn up for consideration in April. Those changes could include significant delays in enforcement of the rules, depending on how quickly the economy recovers. The board also could add new exemptions...

The California Air Resources Board must decide today whether the bad economy justifies giving truckers and construction firms more breathing room on the state's toughest-in-the-nation diesel pollution regulations. By cutting diesel consumption, the recession has likely improved the state's air quality, air board staff say. Fleet owners hope to use that evidence to convince the agency that it should delay mandated retrofits and upgrades they say the recession has made them unable to afford. "They could not have put enough regulations in place to do what this slowdown has done," said Felipe Martin, chief financial officer at Sacramento's Martin Bros....

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- California officials plan to suspend new enrollments for a program that tests low-income women for breast cancer and to tighten eligibility standards when the program reopens. The Every Woman Counts program won't enroll new clients from Jan. 1 until July 2, 2010, and will restrict enrollment to women over the age of 50 thereafter. Previously, women had to be 40 years old to be eligible for the program. California Department of Public Health director Dr. Mark Horton said in a statement that declining state tobacco tax revenues and increased demand were to blame for cutbacks.

California: While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger worries about rising seas, his state sinks below the waves. Don't mess with Texas, they say. But California and the nation could follow its lead. Last Wednesday, Gov. Schwarzenegger released a new report based on research compiled by the California Energy Commission claiming that by 2100 San Francisco Bay would be more bay than San Francisco, with Fisherman's Wharf and Treasure Island under the rising waters of climate change. His show-and-tell, which included a new Google Earth application the commission spent $150,000 to help develop, goes a long way toward explaining the once-Golden State's slide...

State Sen. Abel Maldonado will run for lieutenant governor in 2010 whether or not the Legislature confirms his nomination to fill the vacant post. The Santa Maria moderate Republican confirmed his decision during a 45-minute meeting Wednesday with the Contra Costa Times editorial board. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger recently named Maldonado as his choice to succeed Democrat John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress in a special election in November. Since the announcement, Maldonado has been on the road pitching his qualifications for a job that many Californians, if they think about it at all, view as superfluous in a high-tech...

The behind-the-scenes battle over who will be the next speaker of the Assembly is heating up this week, with sources saying a vote on who will succeed Speaker Karen Bass could be coming up soon. A handful of members were said to be jockeying for the spot, but it appears the pool of contenders has been whittled down to two Democrats from Los Angeles. Those left standing are Assemblyman Kevin de León of the 45th District, a friend from way back of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez. De Leon's chief rival is Assemblyman John Pérez, the rookie from the 46th...

A year ago, high officials of the California Air Resources Board learned that the author of a statistical study on diesel soot effects had falsified his academic credentials. The CARB researcher, Hien Tran, acknowledged the deception and agreed to be demoted, but after his data were given another peer review, they remained the basis of highly controversial regulations that will cost owners of trucks, buses and other diesel-powered machinery millions of dollars to upgrade their engines. The Tran study concluded that diesel "particulate matter" was responsible for about 1,000 additional deaths each year. Only recently, with the rules on the...

Supporters collecting signatures in an effort to recall Republican Sen. Bob Huff fell short today... by about 65,535 names. Recall proponents had until Nov. 16 to turn in the 65,535 valid voter signatures from the 29th Senate District needed to spark a recall election. But, according to counts confirmed today by election officials in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, they turned in zero signatures

Let's dispose of one thing right off the bat: Whether the Democratic-controlled Legislature confirms Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado as lieutenant governor will have nothing to do with fitness, or lack thereof, for the job. It will be purely political. Insiders don't call the office's holder the "light governor" for nothing. He or she has only one real official job: Filling the governorship if the governor dies, resigns or is impeached. The last time that happened was nearly 60 years ago, when President Dwight Eisenhower appointed Gov. Earl Warren as U.S. chief justice and Lt. Gov. Goodwin Knight became governor. Otherwise,...

The effort to get same sex marriage on the California ballot in 2010 took a hit Monday. Rick Jacbos, the leader of the 700,000-member Courage Campaign just told us that after spending more than $200,000 on "qualitative research" into the issue in California that "We do not see a path to victory." So, the Courage Campaign sent a note to its supporters Monday calling for "for more research and time to change hearts and minds before returning to the ballot." Lambda Legal, a LGBT legal organization, said largely the same thing Monday. Jacobs told us that the research -- led...

One of the many contentious issues in the national health care debate is something that began 34 years ago in California when Jerry Brown, in the first year of his first governorship, signed legislation imposing a $250,000 limit on pain and suffering damages in medical malpractice cases. The version of a national health care bill that Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed through the House contains a provision that would push – but not quite compel – California and other states with malpractice damage caps to repeal them.

Just days before Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators finalized a water package, including an $11.1 billion bond issue, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer warned them not to do it. California is already deeply in debt, Lockyer warned, has huge budget deficits and can't afford another big bond issue. "The days of blithely heaping more and more debt burden on the general fund are over – at least they should be," Lockyer said. The earmark-laden bond issue, the package's single most controversial element, raises an interesting question: Just how deeply in debt are our state and local governments? The answer: No one...

When the make-love-not-war generation finally got around to having kids, they were so proud of their accomplishment that they fawned over the little darlings and protectively adorned their minivans with yellow caution signs that warned of precious cargo: "Baby on Board." Now, after many years of being told they were special and entitled to endless conveniences and a life without turmoil, the children are grown up. And the University of California system, which has recently endured student protests and arrests over a fee hike, has to contend with the byproduct: Brats at the Gates. The protests erupted after UC regents...

Now the infighting begins. Democrats fired back only minutes after Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to fill the vacant office of lieutenant governor. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg questioned the cost: Wouldn't California be better served spending $2 million to defray college tuition rather than for a special election to fill Maldonado's Senate seat should lawmakers confirm him? "It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this statewide office next year and avoid the expense of a costly special election," Steinberg said...

Dozens of students at the University of California, Davis, ended a standoff at the main administration building Tuesday night after administrators agreed to some of their demands, officials said. No one was arrested and students left Mrak Hall at about 11:15 p.m., said Sylvia Wright, a university spokeswoman. About 150 students packed the building's lobby at the height of Tuesday's protest, which began about 5 p.m. when students were asked to leave and refused. The number dropped to about 90 later in the night. Last week, authorities at UC Davis arrested 52 people - including 47 students - who protested...

Even as Sen. Abel Maldonado was being nominated Tuesday to serve as lieutenant governor, Democratic leaders expressed doubts about confirming him. "It may be both fiscally and politically prudent to permit the people to make their own selection for this state office next year to avoid the expense of a costly special election," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in a written statement. Steinberg's reaction signals that the appointment of Maldonado, who angered members of his own party this year by voting to raise taxes, is no slam-dunk to be confirmed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who...

Amid complaints of police brutality and heavy criticism about the university's handling of a massive protest and takeover of a campus building Friday, the university announced it will ask for an independent investigation of police actions that could bring about changes to the way officers handle protest crowds. The announcement came on a day when about 75 protesters, a few of them wearing casts and splints on their arms and fingers, gathered outside an Oakland courthouse to denounce what many say was abusive behavior by police at a UC Berkeley protest Friday. "The police broke my hand Friday," organizer and...

Before the economy went bust, California voters authorized multibillion-dollar charges on the state's infrastructure credit card. They approved generational investments in roads, schools and levees, as well as hospitals and stem-cell research. At the time, fiscal experts projected that California at most would have to spend roughly 6 percent of its annual budget on payments. But after an economic collapse, estimates now show that debt service could consume as much as 10 percent of the annual general fund budget by 2014-15 – an "unprecedented" ratio, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office. The latest debt warning comes weeks after lawmakers and...

Sacramento -- The number of public safety jobs created or saved with federal stimulus dollars has been vastly overstated in California, according to the state auditor. In a letter sent to leaders at the Capitol on Monday, State Auditor Elaine Howle said that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has overstated by as many as 13,000 the number of jobs saved by federal stimulus dollars. That represents more than 10 percent of the jobs California reported saving with the federal funds. Howle said the department appears to have counted employees who were not at risk of losing their jobs. The...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger spilled the beans to late-night host Jay Leno that he's nominating Republican Sen. Abel Maldonado to fill the vacant lieutenant governor seat. Here's how Schwarzenegger described his pick, according to the show's transcript: "He's a terrific, loyal man that has worked very hard in public service. But he's also into bipartisanship and postpartisanship, so he can cross the aisle. He makes decisions based on what's best for the people rather than what's best for the party. He has helped us, many times, pass a budget, which was very important. And he comes from an immigrant family. They...

Sacramento -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Senator Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria (Santa Barbara County) as his pick for lieutenant governor Monday, making the announcement on a late night show. Maldonado, a Latino and moderate Republican, gave the governor a crucial vote on the budget this year - which included tax hikes- angering the party's base. It's not the first time he's stuck his neck out for the governor.

For years California has courted a reputation as an eco-friendly, green-minded leader, but the state now finds its most basic program of recycling beverage bottles and cans mired in debt and litigation. Dozens of supermarket recycling sites have shut down recently as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state legislators spar over how to close a massive gap in the program's budget. California's 23-year-old recycling program, managed by the Department of Conservation through fees charged to beverage buyers, has been hurt this year by recession, rising redemption rates and raids of its coffers to help ease the state's budget woes. Schwarzenegger and...