State Politics

As California's legislators stare at a forced 18 percent pay cut next month, one legislator who volunteered for a 5 percent reduction last July rescinded her decision.

California teamed with Sacramento County officials Thursday to launch a first-in-the-state multi-agency task force to investigate fraud in In-Home Supportive Services.

Governor Current: $212,179 / Effective Dec. 7: $173,987

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.

CalPERS' chief financial officer delivered a pep talk of sorts Thursday on the pension fund's portfolio, disputing consultants who've cast doubt on its ability to recoup its losses.

LOS ANGELES – The governing board of the University of California approved a $2,500 student fee increase Thursday after two days of tense campus protests across the state.

Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina must be sharing speechwriters, maybe someone from their tech pasts.

When Mac Taylor, the Legislature's chief budget adviser, declared this week that the state budget enacted just four months ago is already billions of dollars upside down, no one in the Capitol should have been surprised.

Alex Kozinski, chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Thursday ordered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to quit interfering with health care benefits for federal judicial employees just because they are married to a person of the same sex.

California once again will look under sofa cushions and scour every sector of state government to find another $20.7 billion to balance its budget over the next 19 months.

More grim news for state workers: California's general fund faces a $21 billion deficit through the middle of 2011. The red ink could flow for years, according to a forecast by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, with friends Franz Hoermann and Peter Urdl, visits his former home in Thal, Austria, on Wednesday.

CalPERS' president, promising to clean up an influence-peddling scandal at the big pension fund, raised the prospect Wednesday of publicly reprimanding board members and employees who violate ethical standards.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, is planning to bring the lower house back into session next month to vote on legislation she hopes will allow California schools to compete for a piece of $4.3 billion in federal “Race to the Top” stimulus funds.

A big chunk of the money that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger collected last year to finance a redistricting ballot measure came from a Florida man now being accused of running a massive Ponzi-style fraud in Florida.

Despite revenue projections that are holding relatively firm, California faces a $21 billion state budget shortfall over the next year and half, according to sources who have been briefed on a projection from the Legislature's budget analyst.

Sylvia Zedlar's left leg was nearly severed when a car struck her in south Sacramento County in 2002. Now, because of state budget cuts, she is among about 9,000 frail and mostly elderly Californians who must pay, on average, $200 to $250 more each month for care.

When California's political consultants share war stories, 1988's immensely expensive, multifront battle between insurance companies and lawyer-backed consumer groups takes center stage.

Lawyers representing unions and a few government agencies pounded away at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough policy for nearly five hours in Alameda Superior Court on Monday.

CalPERS, responding to growing concerns about influence peddling, Monday tweaked its policy on disclosure of fees paid to placement agents.

As America's trade with the Far East – principally China – expanded massively during the 1980s and 1990s, California reaped the benefits as the gateway for both exports and imports.

The momentous reform of California's water system signed into law last week is largely toothless where it matters most: Action to reverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta's environmental decline.

WASHINGTON – Leaders of a congressional commission investigating the causes of the recent financial crisis are threatening to publicly identify any company or government agency that stalls in voluntarily producing requested documents.

A competing union has accused the Service Employees International Union of changing ballots and threatening to report workers to immigration officials in a contentious battle to represent more than 10,000 home health care workers in Fresno County.

Assemblyman (and attorney general candidate) Alberto Torrico has scheduled a legislative hearing in Ontario next week to explore "Gangs 2.0: The Emerging Threat of Cyberthugs."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday defended $11.1 billion in new borrowing as a critical investment in the state's water future while at the same time insisting California must cut its way toward a balanced budget in the short term.

Race to the Top, the nation's largest competition for school grants, quieted some critics by adding flexibility to final rules released by the Obama administration this week – but the fighting is far from over in California.

California Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate announced late Thursday that the state has a plan to reduce the prison population that will satisfy a judicial panel of judges, but the three federal judges have to be willing to issue orders the state sees as illegal.

Advocates of overhauling California's troubled pension system for public employees couldn't have chosen a more providential moment to launch their reform campaign.

WASHINGTON – Reps. Doris Matsui and Dan Lungren are polar opposites on Capitol Hill, but they agree on one point: House approval of a trillion-dollar health care overhaul marked a victory for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

Former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, now a newspaper columnist, suggested recently that California first lady Maria Shriver might run to replace her husband as governor next year.

Here's one more thing the Legislature's two houses can't agree on: Veterans Day.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will travel to Iraq early next week to visit U.S. troops for the first time as governor.

Long hours near the end of a legislative session are becoming more common, but it doesn't mean the work getting done is high quality.

Using blunt language to address a growing scandal, CalPERS' president Wednesday urged his board to support legislation designed to curb the role of placement agents – marketing representatives who seek investment dollars from CalPERS and other public pension funds.

A California bank that received $298.7 million in federal bank bailout money last year has been seized and closed by state regulators.

WASHINGTON – Some of the nation's most esteemed scientists will review recent environmental decisions curtailing California irrigation water deliveries, officials affirmed Tuesday.

Attorney General Jerry Brown's office has sparked debate about its interpretation of state privacy laws after it determined that a spokesman had not done anything illegal by secretly taping conversations with news reporters.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday signs a water conservation law at the Santa Clara Valley Water District headquarters in San Jose with local politicians as a backdrop.

In his long and controversial career pitching investment deals to CalPERS, former board member Alfred J. Villalobos repeatedly has spun gold from a web of important business associates.

California now has a California State Advisory Council on Early Childhood Education and a better chance at a share of $100 million in Head Start stimulus funds.

Republican state Sen. Dave Cogdill of Modesto announced he would not seek a second term next year – a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Cogdill "absolutely" was on his short list for the open lieutenant governor's job.

The decades-long battle over abortion has emerged as a mini-drama in the larger debate on a health care overhaul, and Central Valley lawmakers are divided.

With Millerton Lake as a backdrop, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an $11.1 billion water bond Monday that proponents acknowledged will be a tough sell with voters.

In California, the word "sanctuary" prompts talk of Edwin Ramos, a 22-year-old Salvadoran accused of a brutal triple murder last year.

San Francisco Bay was once home port to some of the mightiest warships the world has ever known, but the U.S. Navy's presence now is largely just a memory.

Near Mark Oldfield's desk at the California Department of Conservation sits a ream of copy paper that is more than a routine office commodity.

Don't expect Assemblyman Tom Ammiano to celebrate by puffing a joint if he succeeds in legalizing marijuana for recreational use in California.

Pot physicians, touting marijuana as a healthier alternative to pharmaceuticals, are writing medical cannabis recommendations for a far wider range of ills, from restless leg syndrome to psoriasis, from sleep apnea to menopause.