Capitol Alert

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is scheduled to spend Friday morning in Vancouver, B.C. participating in the last leg of the torch relay that leads up to the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympic games.

The former body-building champ will pass the torch off to runner Sebastian Coe, a two-time gold medalist.

Click here for more from the Associated Press.

The California Teachers Association has pitched half a million dollars into a campaign account for its proposed ballot initiative to repeal tax benefits for corporations approved over the last two years.

The donation from the CTA's Issues PAC, reported to the Secretary of State today, comes several days after the CTA began gathering signaturesto qualify the measure for the November ballot. The CTA has also transferred $86,882 from a separate campaign account to fund the effort.

Another proposed ballot measure that got a cash boost today: the effort to raise funds for state parks by adding $18 to the annual vehicle registration fees.

The California State Parks Foundation reported giving $100,000 to a committee created to back the measure, which would give motorists free admission to the state's 278 beaches and parks In exchange for paying higher registration fees.

The committee, which reported having $233,000 in cash on hand at the end of the last filing period, has raised more than $500,000 since the start of the New Year.

The plot thickens around Santa Maria Republican state Sen. Abel Maldonado's appointment to fill in for 10 months as lieutenant governor.

Three Democratic members of the Assembly held a press conference today to announce they'll oppose Maldonado for various reasons.

Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, said Maldonado has voted against bills to increase access to health care, protect the environment and help farm laborers and other low-wage workers.

"He's voted no over and over and over again. So it's my turn to vote no," Nava said.

Nava also said, "What's the rush?" Voters have a chance to elect candidates in the primary in a matter of months. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants to put Maldonado into the job now to fill in for John Garamendi, the Democrat who was elected to Congress last November.

All three Assembly members mounting the public case against Maldonado belong to the Legislature's all-Democratic Latino Caucus.

The trio weren't speaking for the caucus at their press event. But Assemblyman Jose Solorio, D-Anaheim, told the Bee that caucus members - faced with opposing a Latino from the other party - have held various discussions, "formal and informal" to debate the pros and cons of Maldonado's appointment.

The Department of Health Care Services said today it may have breached the privacy of 49,352 state residents who receive adult day health care services from the state.

In a terse news release, the department said that letters it mailed a week ago to 49,352 beneficiaries wrongly included those patients' Social Security Number on address labels.

The Department said the incident took place Feb. 1. It was notified of the error on Feb. 4. It started to notify the 49,352 beneficiaries about the problem on Sunday.

"At this point, there is no evidence that unauthorized parties have acquired or accessed beneficiary personal information," the department said in a prepared statement. Officials said they regretted the incident.

On Saturday 6, the department said it began sending notification letters to beneficiaries alerting them to the security breach. The letter also advised beneficiaries how to protect themselves from identity theft by contacting the three credit reporting agencies and placing a fraud alert on their files.

The deadline for submitting applications to serve on the Citizen's Redistricting Commission has been extended four days -- to Feb.16 at 5 p.m.

To date, more than 19,900 Californians have applied to be one of the 14 members on an independent panel tasked with redrawing the state legislative and Board of Equalization districts after the 2010 census. The panel, established by the 2008 voter-approved Proposition 11, shifts that responsibility from legislators to citizens.

State Auditor Elaine Howle said in a statement that a "recent surge in applications leads me to believe that many more Californians who may want to take advantage of the opportunity are just now tuning into the opportunity."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has released a partial list of guests to his closed-door lunch with legislators last month, and revealed who picked up the tab for their steak-or-salmon feeding.

Public notices filed Friday by the governor's office show the California State Protocol Foundation, overseen by the state Chamber of Commerce, contributed $5,000, while the governor himself kicked in $3,036. The foundation, a private nonprofit financed by business interests, has paid for numerous overseas trips taken by the governor.

You can see the list here.

The lunch, held by Schwarzenegger at the private Sutter Club after his State of the State Speech on Jan. 6, kicked up a fuss when questions were raised by the Associated Press as to whether it violated state open-meeting laws if a quorum of lawmakers were in attendance.

The list of 98 attendees included 19 of the state Senate's 40 members, and 41 of the 79 then serving in the Assembly. The rest of the guests on the released list - which did not include non-government individuals -- were administration and legislative officials and staff, and California Community Colleges Chancellor Jack Scott.

UPDATE: A $5,000 donation to the Poizner campaign dated Feb. 3 from Donald Beall of Corona del Mar was just posted on the Secretary of State's page, after the body of this blog item was posted.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner was already badly lagging rival Meg Whitman in the polls. Now comes another piece of bad news: he has yet to receive any contributions this year over $5,000, according to the Secretary of State's Web site.

State law requires candidates to report contributions of $5,000 or more within 10 days. Whitman has already received $225,800 since Jan. 1, other than the $20,055,806 she gave herself in January.

Whitman had $10.5 million of cash on hand at the end of last year, not counting the more than $20 million she gave herself. Poizner had $17.7 million in cash on hand, which accounts for the roughly $19 million he's given his own campaign before the first of the year.

Poizner's campaign has yet to respond to a request today for comment about the numbers.

The only California Assembly member currently a member of the military, Democrat Ted Lieu, was promoted from major to lieutenant colonel of the U.S. Air Force Reserves in a 30-minute Capitol ceremony today.

Lieu, 40, is a 15-year member of the military, including four years on active duty. He currently serves as a military prosecutor in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, known as JAG.

The Torrance resident said he always has been proud to serve in the military, recalling how his parents had immigrated from Taiwan, unable to speak English and making ends meet initially by selling in swap meets. They ultimately achieved the American Dream by opening a half-dozen stores, Lieu said.

"I believe I can never give back to this country what it has given my family," he told the assembled crowd, which included his wife, Betty Chim-Lieu, his two young sons and about a half-dozen legislative colleagues.

Lieu, who is running for attorney general, said the promotion will not alter his ballot designation, which he said will be either "Judge Advocate General;" "JAG/legislator;" or "military prosecutor/legislator."

His new title of lieutenant colonel could be mentioned, however, in biographical information sent to voters, said Lieu, who obtained his law degree from Georgetown University.

Sen. Abel Maldonado will be forwarded to the floor by the Assembly Rules Committee on Tuesday and a vote on his nomination to the vacant lieutenant governor's post will be held later this week, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said in an e-mail she sent to her Democratic Caucus.

Bass, in the message sent Saturday, announced that the Rules Committee confirmation hearing initially planned for today had been postponed for one day, but that Maldonado. R-Santa Maria, ultimately would get moved to the floor by the committee.

Bass' e-mail read:

"The Assembly Rules Committee had originally scheduled the Lieutenant Governor confirmation hearing of Sen. Abel Maldonado for Monday, February 8th. However, in order to give Committee members and the nominee more time to prepare, the confirmation hearing will be held Tuesday, February 9th.

"At the hearing, the Rules Committee will consider testimony from the nominee and then forward the name on to the full Assembly. A confirmation vote by the full Assembly on the Senator Maldonado nomination will take place later in the week.

"If members have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact my office."

California's legislators looking to trim their houses' spending might want to take a page out of the Hawaiian state Senate's book.

Lawmakers in the Aloha State have dramatically cut paper use in an attempt to curb costs. Proponents say the move will spare about 8 million pieces of paper and $1.2 million over two years.

Click here to read more from the Associated Press.