Today's Bee details Democratic Assemblyman Jerry Hill's effort to get motorists who rack up three or more DUI convictions off the road for life.

In explaining why he decided to introduce the measure, Hill emphasized the safety threat of allowing repeat DUI offenders back behind the wheel.

"Today you need to hurt or kill someone before your license is revoked, and that's ridiculous," he said. "We have to wait for tragedy to strike for us to do something."

So how many repeat DUI offenders kill or injure someone when they get back behind the wheel under the influence?

Here's the answer to that question, using the most recent data available from the state Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Highway Patrol.

In 2006, 323 of the 1,420 alcohol-involved fatal crashes were caused by a motorist with at least one DUI on his or her record for the previous 10 years. Prior DUI offenders driving under the influence caused 10,855 of the 20,912 injury-related DUI crashes that year.

Altogether, there were 3,793 fatal crashes on state roads that year.

A New Year's gift just landed for Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman.

The Financial Times of London has named her among a group of 50 prominent people from around the world who helped shape the decade ending today.

She's got some interesting company: TV personality and media mogul Oprah Winfrey, President Barack Obama, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, and fellow billionaire and investing legend Warren Buffett.

To see the entry for Whitman and the other faces, click here.

A vocal critic of the federal prison health care receiver's plan to construct a medical facility in Stockton is charging that a Sacramento law firm hired to build support for the project violated legal ethics standards by sending the son of Rep. John Garamendi to "pump" him for information about a lawsuit he has filed against the project.

The complaint, filed by Greater Stockton Chamber of Commerce CEO Douglass Wilhoit, alleges that a series of conversations he had with John Garamendi Jr. violated the State Bar of California's Rule of Professional Conduct, which prohibits attorneys representing one side of a case to communicate directly or indirectly about the subject of the representation with the opposing party without the consent of that party's lawyer.

The receiver hired Garamendi in November to conduct community outreach for the project as part of a contract with Ochoa and Moore law firm.

Garamendi is not registered as an attorney by the bar and the firm does not represent the receivership in the lawsuit, which the chamber, the city of Stockton and San Joaquin County filed to challenge the accuracy of the project's environmental impact report.

CalPIRG released today its annual scorecard grading state lawmakers on their votes on consumer issues.

Thirty-eight legislators, all Democrats, received perfect scores from the left-leaning public interest group.

The rankings were based on votes on a series of successful and failed bills, including measures aimed at preventing foreclosures and loan modification scams, expanding health insurance coverage and informing shoppers about recalled products.

"Despite the difficulties in Sacramento this year, there were plenty of opportunities for legislators to stand up for California's consumers," CalPIRG Consumer Advocate Pedro Morillas said in a statement.

Click here to download the scorecard.

Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn officially threw her hat in the ring for the lieutenant governor's race today.

Hahn, a Democrat, opened in September a committee to explore a run for the seat.

She will face Sen. Dean Florez and possibly Sen. Alan Lowenthal in the June Democratic primary. Sen. Sam Aanestad and Sen. Abel Maldonado, the governor's nominee to fill the currently vacant spot, are running on the Republican side.

In a release announcing the run, Hahn also named key members of her campaign leadership team. The line-up includes veteran Democratic strategist Garry South and new media consultant Joe Trippi. Read the full statement from Hahn's campaign after the jump.

The developer of a proposed National Football League stadium in the City of Industry has pumped $300,000 into a campaign fund for a proposed ballot measure to change state term limits.

The committee, "Californians for a Fresh Start," reported a $300,000 donation from Majestic Realty Co. on Dec. 23.

The term limits fund also reported this month a $100,000 contribution from the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, Issues & Initiatives and $10,000 from a committee run by the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce.

Current term limit law, approved by voters in 1990, limit the total time someone can serve in the Legislature to 14 years -- three two-year terms in the Assembly and two four-year terms in the Senate. The proposed ballot measure would limit the total time an individual could serve in the Legislature to 12 years, but would allow all of that time to be served in one house. The new rules would not apply to current members of the Legislature.

Update: Citing a desire to spend more time with his ailing wife, Radanovich formally announced that he would retire at the end of the term. He also endorsed Republican Sen. Jeff Denham, who is now expected to swap his 25th Assembly District campaign to run for the open congressional seat. The move comes just weeks after Denham announced he was dropping his lieutenant governor campaign for an Assembly bid. Click here for more from The Fresno Bee or read the full statement after the jump.

Central Valley Republican Rep. George Radanovich is expected to announce this morning that he will not seek re-election.

Ted Maness, Radanovich's chief of staff, would not confirm the retirement, but said the congressman will be issuing a statement at around 11 a.m. PST.

Radanovich's wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer several years ago. As The Fresno Bee has reported, he cited her illness as a cause for missing a string of votes earlier this month.

He was also facing a possible primary challenge from former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson.

Radanovich, who lives in Mariposa, was first elected to the 19th Congressional District seat in 1994.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sat down with CBS' Lesley Stahl to talk about the water fights that have dominated California politics for decades.

The interview aired last night as part of a "60 Minutes" segment called "California: Running Dry."

Here's the video:

Watch CBS News Videos Online

Update: Fresno Bee colleague E.J. Schultz rounded up the not-so-rave reviews environmental groups had for the segment. Click here to read that post.

Editor's note: Initial reports said Cavala died on Christmas Eve. His brother John Cavala said he passed away on Saturday, Dec. 26.

Update: Click here for a full obiturary, published in Tuesday's Bee.

Bill Cavala, a longtime Democratic political strategist at the Capitol, died on Saturday. He was 66.

Cavala spent decades advising Assembly Democrats, including former speaker Willie Brown, before becoming a private campaign consultant. He oversaw redistricting efforts, recruited Assembly candidates and devised political strategy at the Speaker's Office of Member Services.

He taught political science at UC-Berkeley in the 1970s before leaving to join Brown's staff in 1981.

From Dan Walters

Federal and state demographers have conducted a polite argument over California's population for nearly a decade and now are more than 1.5 million persons apart - a dispute that may be settled by the 2010 census.

Last week, the state Department of Finance estimated that California had gained 353,000 residents during the 12-month period that ended on June 30 and that its population stood at 38.5 million. On Wednesday, the Census Bureau said the state gained 381,000 residents during that same period but had just under 37 million residents.

The dispute centers on how many people moved from California to other states during the decade. The Census Bureau says it detected a large out-migration while the state's demographers believe that the outflow was much smaller. Both agencies use indirect indicators, such as driver's licenses, income tax filings, to make their estimates.

Next year's census may settle the debate, and the political and financial stakes for California are huge. The difference between the two numbers would be the equivalent of two seats in Congress, for example, and many federal payments to the state are based on population data. Pre-census estimates by outside experts believe that the state's largest-in-the-nation congressional delegation, now 53 seats, could wind up losing one, gaining one or remaining the same, depending on how the census turns out.

The Census Bureau said that only Texas outgained California numerically during the 2008-09 period, adding 478,000 residents to end at 24.8 million, The full state-by-state report is available here.

What sort of cost-saving measures will lawmakers consider when they return next month to tackle that projected $20.7 billion budget hole?

Furloughs, layoffs and reviving a plan to drill for oil off the coast of Santa Barbara are all expected to make it into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget proposal, Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura reports this morning.

His formal proposal is expected to be released Jan. 8.

Schwarzenegger is also turning the federal government for more help filling the gap.

In a letter to members of California's congressional delegation, Schwarzenegger asked lawmakers to push for more federal dollars for the cash-strapped state and lighten spending mandates for health programs that receive stimulus cash.

Yamamura also has that story in today's Bee. Read the full letter after the jump.

Following gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina and secretary of state candidate Damon Dunn, all California Republicans, another prominent Republican political newcomer with a scant voting record is seeking public office - this time in Oregon.

Former NBA player Chris Dudley is running for governor there and is facing the same voting controversy that has plagued his California colleagues. According to a story in The Oregonian, Dudley didn't vote in seven of the last 13 elections since 2004. That rate comes close to his abysmal career free throw percentage - below 50 percent - which made him one of the league's all-time worst free throw shooters.

In the Oregonian interview, Dudley also admitted to having a "terrible" voting record during his NBA career, from 1987 to 2003, and offered a mea culpa that's become familiar this election cycle.

"It's a mistake I made and I will never make again," he said. "Voting is something that we should never take for granted...It's something that I wish I had been more engaged in."

Nevertheless, Dudley said he didn't believe that voting record meant he couldn't do a good job as governor.

Asked whether that record reflected on his governing abilities, Dudley told The Oregonian, "Every person has to make their own judgment on that. Personally I don't (think it does)."

Former LA Times Capitol Bureau standout Dan Morain is moving to The Sacramento Bee editorial board as senior editor, Editorial Page Editor Stuart Leavenworth announced this afternoon.

Morain left the Times after 27 years in February to become communications director for the Consumer Attorneys of California.

"We take special pride in bringing a journalist of this caliber back to newspapers," Leavenworth said in a statement.

Morain will write editorials and opinion columns, with a focus on the Capitol and state politics.

"I know The Bee is committed to high-quality journalism," Morain said in a statement, "and I cannot wait to get back to the news business and into the Capitol fray."

He rejoins the fray on Jan. 4.

The Harvard Business Review ranked Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman eighth in its listing of 200 best-performing CEOs, applauding her 1998-2008 tenure at the online auction firm eBay.

Harvard analyzed nearly 2,000 CEOs of large public companies who started between January 1995 and December 2007, regardless of whether they were still at the companies. The school then ranked the CEOs according to how the companies performed while they were on the job.

At the top of the list was Apple CEO Steve Jobs.

Whitman has made her leadership of eBay a focus of her campaign, although that history has also come back to haunt her. Last week, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster said in court testimony that he was warned he could encounter Whitman's "evil" side in his negotiations with eBay.

From Susan Ferriss and Torey Van Oot

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 first place to look for cost savings is in the prisons.

Senate Budget Committee Staff Director Danny Alvarez is shifting gears and picking up a top staff spot on the Senate Education Committee.

Alvarez, who worked as a consultant for the Assembly Ways and Means, Appropriations, and Budget committees before spending the last seven years as Senate Budget Committee director, will start his new job. Jan. 1, according to a press release announcing the hire. He'll take over for committee staff director James Wilson, who is retiring.

"Danny is one of the state's foremost experts on education policy and budget matters," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. "The Senate will greatly miss Jim Wilson, a person whose passion for education and good public policy is unrivaled. But we are fortunate that Danny will bring his knowledge and expertise to the Education Committee, joining the rest of the talented consultants in that office to help shape education policy for California."

State Sen. Roy Ashburn, R-Bakersfield, is reportedly mulling another run for the 20th Congressional District seat.

Ashburn, who is planning a bid for the Board of Equalization, told the Bakersfield Californian that he is being urged to run against Democratic Rep. Jim Costa in the 20th Congressional District.

Costa defeated Ashburn by about 6 percentage points in 2004.

Click here to read the full story.

Business is quiet at the Capitol this week, but holiday music will continue to fill the halls for the next few days.

The annual holiday music program runs through Wednesday. All performances are in the Capitol Rotunda.

Here is the schedule:

TODAY: The Davis Chorale and the Davis Children's Chorale. 12 noon to 1 p.m.

TUESDAY: Davis High School String Quartet. 12 noon to 1 p.m.

WEDNESDAY: Golden State Accordion Club. 12 noon to 1 p.m.

Video: Musicians entertain the public at the Rotunda in the State Capitol during the annual Holiday Music at the Capitol. Credit: Hector Amezcua/SacBee.

Tapping Fresno fundraising circles appears to have been a slam dunk for a Nevada Republican looking to unseat U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

That candidate, Danny Tarkanian, happens to be the son of famed former Fresno State basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

The Fresno Bee's Michael Doyle reports:

"All told, Tarkanian reported raising $24,000 from Fresno-area residents this year, according to the most recent Federal Election Commission filings. Only Tarkanian's hometown of Las Vegas exceeded the Fresno contributions, chipping in $41,300 to his campaign, data compiled by the nonpartisan CQ Moneyline reveals. Jerry Tarkanian gave his son's campaign $2,000 on Sept. 30, records show. ...

"The Fresno contributions amounted to nearly 10% of the total Tarkanian has reported raising for his 2010 bid -- $271,331."

Click here to read the full story.

Sen. George Runner , R-Lancaster, decided to drop a lawsuit to force Attorney General Jerry Brown to rewrite the title and summary for a proposed ballot measure he has authored.

The suit, filed in October, alleged that Brown deliberately tried to mislead the public by writing a slanted summary and title for the Runner measure, which would require voters to show ID when they vote.

Runner had claimed the initial title and summary provided for the "Vote SAFE" initiative was and "factually wrong."

But after receiving a new title and summary for a revised draft of the initiative language, Runner has decided to drop his lawsuit.

"Brown's latest attempt at the title and summary for the Vote SAFE initiative is materially more accurate than the prior version," he said in a statement. "It's not perfect, but we believe we can move forward with the language in all but one respect."

Runner said he plans to resubmit one more revised version of the initiative to clarify a provision giving the county registrar of voters more time to count absentee ballots from military personnel stationed outside California.

That move gives Runner less time to gather the signatures he needs to qualify the measure for the 2010 ballot.

"[Qualifying] for the 2012 election may not be a bad alternative when you consider how crowded the ballot might be in November 2010 with initiatives - as it is there are more than 40 initiatives on the streets now for signatures," he said.

Bee colleague Andy Furillo wrote about the suit earlier this year. Click here to read that story.

With just a week until Christmas, Santa's making his list and checking it twice -- a lump of coal's throw from the Capitol.

Yup, a jolly old Saint Nicholas has posted up in the window of the Citizen Hotel with his list of who's been naughty and who's been nice.

You might think the entire state Legislature, with its dismal job performance marks, would be a contender for the "bad" list. But only a few familiar faces around the Capitol made the cut for coal.

Snickering about spanking and eye-patch panties might have helped ex-Assemblyman Mike Duvall land a spot near the top of the naughty roll. Talking on your cell while driving, not one, not two, but three times? That means no presents for first lady Maria Shriver (though maybe Santa will make an exception and leave a bow-topped Bluetooth beneath her tree).

Whatever political fundraiser Dan Weitzman was up to, he got bumped off the "bad" list in place of Tiger Woods.

Click here to see a close up of the scroll.

On to happier holiday news.... Senators gave a gift to staffers yesterday; they went home.

The floor session on Race to the Top adjourned at about 3:30 p.m. yesterday, with no plans for the chamber to reconvene until Jan. 4.

SEEING STARS: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is in Los Angeles today to honor director James Cameron, who's getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Cameron fueled Schwarzenegger's rise to stardom with flicks such as the "Terminator" series and "True Lies."

LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER: Capitol Weekly released yesterday its legislative scorecard, which used a series of big votes to rank lawmakers' ideological leanings. Eight senators and nine Assembly members scored a "perfect 100" on the liberal scale. Republican Assemblyman Mike Villines was the only member whose votes added up to a "perfect conservative" score of zero. Click here to see the scorecard.

From court reporter Andy Furillo:

A lobbyist group's lawsuit to kill a ballot measure that wants the influence industry pay for an experiment in public campaign financing has been kicked out of Sacramento Superior Court.

Judge Michael P. Kenny, in a ruling last month, said the Institute of Governmental Advocates and other plaintiffs can't pursue the action until and unless voters approve the measure.

The lobbyist plaintiffs, meanwhile, have filed a writ in the California 3rd District Court of Appeal to try to knock the measure off the June 2010 ballot.

The proposal, which the Legislature placed on the ballot, would require lobbyists, lobbying firms and lobbyist employers to pay $700 each to fund California's campaigns for the Secretary of State elections in 2014 and 2018.

Lobbyists say the move unfairly burdens their industry and restricts their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech.

"We're hopeful the appellate court will see the wisdom of our constitutional argument," said Jackson Gualco, Institute of Governmental Advocates president.

Derek Cressman, the Western states regional director for Common Cause, said the demurrer granted by Kenny on Nov. 20 and the vacating of Friday's court date on what was supposed to be a hearing on the merits of the suit, effectively terminates the lobbyists' effort. A federal judge also had previously dismissed an identical measure that the lobbyists had filed in U.S. District Court in Sacramento.

"I think it's extremely unlikely they'll prevail on appeal," Cressman said. "If lobbyists had any shame, they'd be ashamed of filing a frivolous lawsuit of this sort to avoid paying a modest fee to fund a good government program. It's outlandish."

With more than six long months to go until the 2010 primary election, the California Professional Firefighters has rolled out a list of statewide officeholder hopefuls who have snagged the organization's support.

Here are the endorsement announced today by the organization, which represents 30,000 first responders throughout the state:

• GOVERNOR: Attorney General Jerry Brown
• LT. GOVERNOR: Los Angeles City Councilwoman Janice Hahn (D), Sen. Abel Maldonado (R)
• ATTORNEY GENERAL: Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D)
• TREASURER: Treasurer Bill Lockyer (D)
• SECRETARY OF STATE: Secretary of State Debra Bowen (D)
• CONTROLLER: Controller John Chiang (D)
• INSURANCE COMMISSIONER: Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D), Assemblyman Mike Villines (R)
• SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION: Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D)

Employment Development Department Director Patrick Henning e-mailed today a simple, haiku-like farewell as his tenure winds down:

Resigned. Quit. Gone. Freed. Vacated. Left. Stopped. Ceased.

Nowhere. Somewhere. Happy.

Not Here. No more. Don't guess.

Recession-wracked California saw one of the lowest population growth levels in history during the fiscal year that ended June 30, the state Department of Finance reported today.

California's population grew by less than one percent, adding an estimated 353,000 new residents, during the 12-month period, the department's demographers believe. The only years of lower growth since 1900 were during another period of deep recession, 1994 to 1996, when an estimated million-plus Californians left the state.

A sharply decreased level of foreign immigration, both legal and illegal, was apparently the major reason for the dropoff in population growth. The department says net migration - those moving into the state minus those that moved out - was just 37,000. It estimates that 179,000 foreign immigrants came to California during the year while 142,000 residents left for elsewhere. But the state's production of babies, its primary source of growth, remained high at 547,000, offset by 231,000 deaths.

Overall growth since the 2000 census is 4.6 million, the department says, and now stands at 38.5 million. The new estimates continue, however, a dispute between the state and the U.S. Census Bureau, which believes there are a million fewer Californians, primarily because the feds calculate that there's been far more outward migration than the state counts. The 2010 census apparently will resolve the issue, which affects the state's subventions from the federal government and how many congressional seats it will have.

The full Department of Finance report is available here.

After marathon talks, a compromise bill to compete for federal Race to the Top funds will be unveiled today in the Senate education committee.

The measure, Senate Bill X5 4, is expected to be acted upon by the Senate today but not by the Assembly until lawmakers reconvene in early January.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass are preparing a joint statement, said Alicia Trost, Steinberg's spokeswoman.

The new Senate bill will address numerous education-reform priorities of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and target the issues demanded by the federal government in its $4.35 billion Race to the Top competition, Trost said.

The new bill represents a compromise between competing Senate and Assembly bills in key areas involving charter schools and the ability of parents served by persistently failing schools to force major campus change or to enroll their students in other districts, according to Trost.

Today's game plan includes a final push from the Senate to take up the "Race to the Top"bill approved by the Assembly last week.

What's at stake? Up to $700 million in federal stimulus funds that the state's schools could win through the Obama administration's "Race to the Top" competitive grants.

A rival Senate-passed bill was killed in the Assembly Education Committee last week.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who backed the Senate version, has said he'll veto the Assembly's bill.

Despite a week of negotiations, official were still stuck Wednesday on policy differences surrounding charter schools, parental power and allowing students from low-performing schools to enroll in schools in other districts.

Stakeholders were set to continue trying to hammer out a compromise last night.

The Senate Education Committee is scheduled to meet at 8:30 a.m. to take up the Assembly bill. If the committee OK's the measure, the proposal will have to make its way through the Appropriations Committee before heading to the floor for a full vote.

UPDATE: The Senate Education Committee is now set to meet at 10 a.m.

PPIC POLL: The latest Public Policy Institute of California poll is out. The poll covers public opinion on a wide range of issues, including the gubernatorial race, the economy and job performance of state officials. Read the entire poll results at the Capitol Alert blog.

HEARINGS: The Assembly Committee on Arts, Entertainment Sports, Tourism and Internet Media meets in Los Angeles at noon to look at what the entertainment industry is doing to increase diversity.

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale, turns 43 today.

California, which has the nation's worst traffic congestion and its second worst pavement conditions, is falling nearly $11 billion a year short of adequate spending on streets, highways, bridges and public transportation, a Washington-based transportation advocacy group says.

The report was issued by The Road Information Program (TRIP), which lobbies for more federal, state and local spending on transportation infrastructure, and is called "Future Mobility in California."

It notes that the state Department of Transportation (Caltrans) has declared a need for spending $5.5 billion a year for the next decade on highways, but only $1.5 billion a year is projected to be available. Meanwhile, the report estimates that public transportation systems need another $8.6 billion a year, but only $1.7 billion will be available annually. The cumulative shortfall, therefore, is $10.9 billion a year.

In addition to the statewide shortfall in transportation funding, TRIP's report contains detailed data on the state's six largest urban areas - Los Angeles-Orange counties, Riverside-San Bernardino counties, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco-Oakland and Sacramento.

"Even with the efforts of the governor and the Legislature over the past several years, we still have a huge gap -- which this report clearly shows -- and it's hitting the public where it hurts," Mark Watts, executive director of Transportation California, an affiliated advocacy group, said in a statement.

"We are short nearly $11 billion annually to meet our transportation needs," Watts said. "This report shows that our failure to close this transportation investment deficit is costing us nearly four times that much."

Former eBay honcho Meg Whitman continues to lead the two other Republican candidates for governor next year and trails presumptive Democratic nominee Jerry Brown by only a few points, a new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California has found.

Whitman's 32 percent support level among Republican voters is a big lead over either former Rep. Tom Campbell at 12 percent and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner at 8 percent, but the highest proportion, 44 percent, are the undecided Republicans.

While Brown, a former two-term governor who is now state attorney general, leads all three Republicans among all voters in the survey, his support remains well below 50 percent. In a theoretical matchup with Whitman, Brown leads 43 percent to 37 percent. His margins against Campbell and Poizner are considerably wider.

While all that is interesting to political junkies, however, most Californians still haven't focused on who they may want to succeed Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger next year.

"Voters have more immediate concerns than who is going to be the next governor," PPIC's president, Mark Baldassare, said in a statement analyzing the poll results. "Despite all the advertising in this early stage of the campaign, Republican primary voters are more likely to say they are undecided than to favor one of the three GOP candidates. At the same time, the Democrats' likely candidate falls short of majority support when matched up against the Republican contenders."

Whitman has spent heavily from her personal fortune on consulting advice and advertising, but has refused to debate the other two Republicans and almost never talks to California political reporters. Poizner, also a wealthy former Silicon Valley executive, has just committed $15 million more to his campaign while Campbell has scant personal or political resources.

The PPIC poll covered a wide variety of issues, finding that Californians remain very concerned about the state's recession-wracked economy (61 percent say it's the top issue facing the state), that President Barack Obama still enjoys high approval ratings (61 percent), that barely half (52 percent) support Obama's health care plans and that Schwarzenegger and the Legislature continue to have record-low approval ratings.

The full poll, including early takes on 2010 ballot measures, is accessible here.

Former Republican Assemblymembers Bonnie Garcia and George Plescia got the OK from the Senate Rules Committee today to serve on the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board.

The committee voted 4-0 5-0 to confirm the two Schwarzenegger appointees. Both appointments are subject to a full floor vote when the Senate convenes tomorrow.

Garcia, the board's current chairwoman, and Plescia, the vice chairman, were tapped for the posts by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Dec. 31, 2008. Each receives a salary of $128,109.

Garcia, who dropped a state Senate bid earlier this year, told Capitol Alert after the hearing that she still doesn't see another run for any elected office in her future.

"Not even dog catcher," she quipped, noting that she would be plenty busy when her daughter, who's expecting twins, gives her the new job title of "grandmother" later this spring.

The committee is also considering approving California Public Utilities President Michael Peevey for another term on the board. Look for an update on that vote when it happens.

Update 4:23: Peevey's reconfirmation was approved by the committee, 5-0. He also moves on to a full floor vote tomorrow.

The UIAB vote was updated to include the vote from Republican Sen. Bob Dutton, who was not present for the initial vote.

The state Treasurer's Office came down hard this afternoon on a prediction from California Lutheran University economists that the state could default on some of its debt, calling the warning "balderdash" that is "nothing more than irresponsible fear-mongering with no basis in reality, only roots in ignorance."

Here's what Tom Dresslar, spokesman for Treasurer Bill Lockyer, had to say in a statement about the forecast released today by Cal Lutheran's Center for Economic Research and Forecasting.

"Since it issued its first bond, California has never, not once, defaulted on a bond payment. There's good reason for that perfect record. Debt service has second call on General Fund revenues, after schools. After paying for education, the General Fund has tens of billions of dollars left to pay debt service. Even at historically high levels, debt service does not come remotely close to needing all the funds left over after schools get paid. More to the point -- since (CERF Executive Director Bill) Watkins made his ludicrous comment based on his prediction the Governor and Legislature may not be able to solve the budget problem next year -- debt service is subject to continuous appropriation. That means we don't even need a budget to make debt service payments.

"To be crystal clear: The State faces absolutely no danger of defaulting on its bond payments."

Click here to read the original post about the analysis.

Sarah Palin shot back at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger last night for saying that her calls to boycott the UN climate talks were "nonsense" and that she was one of those global warming skeptics still living "in the Stone Age."

"Why is Governor Schwarzenegger pushing for the same sorts of policies in Copenhagen that have helped drive his state into record deficits and unemployment? Perhaps he will recall that I live in our nation's only Arctic state and that I was among the first governors to create a sub-cabinet to deal specifically with climate change. While I and all Alaskans witness the impacts of changes in weather patterns firsthand, I have repeatedly said that we can't primarily blame man's activities for those changes. And while I did look for practical responses to those changes, what I didn't do was hamstring Alaska's job creators with burdensome regulations so that I could act "greener than thou" when talking to reporters."

What forum did she choose to issue her response? Her Facebook page, of course.

"Come April the voters will begin to take great interest in the (2010 gubernatorial) race, and that is where you want to spend the money and connect with the message. Steve is a billionaire, and his (campaign) is willing to spend as he as in the past for Republican causes across the state."

Poizner gubernatorial campaign chairman Jim Brulte recently made the remarks above to conservative blogger Eric Hogue, who reported them in a piece about the 2010 Governor's race.

We've all heard that story, haven't we?

Poizner, the Insurance Commissioner, is a self-made entrepreneur who became a billionaire when he sold his Silicon Valley start-up to Qualcomm Inc. in 2000.

Or did he?

Poizner is a documented multi-millionaire, no doubt about that. But how he slowly became "a billionaire" in the California political landscape and media, is very odd.

Blame it on the Bay area political press, which started calling him the "billionaire GOP candidate" back in 2004 when he ran unsuccessfully for the Assembly. (Full disclosure: The Bee picked up the billionaire moniker in 2006 and has repeated it more than 30 times.)

Or blame it on Poizner's campaign team. ( Step forward, Mr. Brulte.)

The problem is Poizner is not actually a billionaire, according to a review of securities filings and other financial records of his past business dealings.

The Senate Rules Committee meets today to consider approving California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey for another term on the panel.

But it's whose bid the committee won't hear today that's set off a bit of a controversy.

Aides for Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg said last week that the committee would not hold a hearing for PUC Commissioner Rachelle Chong. Without the green light from lawmakers, the Schwarzenegger appointee's time on the panel will come to an end later this month.

Chong, who was first confirmed to the post in 2007, has been criticized by consumer groups who say she votes at the bidding of the telecommunications industry.

Chong's supporters cried foul, saying the Senate should at least give her the consideration of a hearing. They also pointed to her voting record, which is identical to Peevey's.

Those complaints have continued, with groups representing the business and Asian-American communities sending letters in support of Chong.

This morning, representatives from several of those organizations are meeting with Steinberg's office to make their case. UPDATE 7:40 : The meeting with Steinberg's office was cancelled by the advocates, Steinberg's office said.

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.

"We expect California's economy to continue to contract, slowly, through the first three quarters of 2010," the forecast says. "However, the contraction will be a bit less each quarter. By the fourth quarter, the state's gross product growth could be mildly positive. Output is then likely to slowly improve, but at an improving rate, through 2011.

"Job growth will lag economic activity. We don't expect to see California gain jobs until the second half of 2011. Consequently, unemployment will probably remain in double digits through 2011. Wages, by contrast, will likely show some gains almost immediately, but we don't expect to see California's average wage reach its pre-recession levels within the forecast horizon."

Despite the state's chronic fiscal woes and concerns about its mounting debt load, its top economic officials have consistently told investors and the public that the state is in no danger of defaulting on its bond payments, which by law have a high priority claim on the state's revenue streams.

Watkins and other members of the Cal Lutheran economic team migrated this year from the University of California, Santa Barbara's Economic Forecast Project. Data from the Cal Lutheran center can be purchased here.

Looks like Assemblywoman Audra Strickland , R-Moorpark, has been knocked out of the Ventura County treasurer-tax collector race before she even had an official rival running against her for the job.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 this morning to update the eligibility rules for the job. A 1995 law recommended that counties adopt minimum educational and professional job requirements for such positions, but left it up to the counties to decide if and when they would make the change.

The Ventura County Star looked at the proposed change in a piece that ran Saturday.

"If the supervisors adopt the criteria, then candidates for treasurer-tax collector would have to meet at least one of three requirements: experience in a "senior financial management" position at a public agency; a bachelor's or graduate degree in business administration, public administration, finance, accounting or a related field, with at least 16 units in accounting or finance; or certification as an accountant, financial analyst or cash manager.

Strickland does not meet the criteria. Her bachelor's degree is in political science, and she has worked as a schoolteacher, a legislative aide, political consultant and politician."

The supervisor who proposed the motion, a Democrat, told the Star that politics wasn't a motive. Even so, The Ventura County Democratic Central Committee had seized on the proposal, blasting out e-mails urging its members to attend the meeting in support of the change.

An earlier version of this post misstated in one instance the body that passed the change. It was the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, not a local city council.

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislators fashioned the latest version of the state budget in July, they inserted a $3 billion fudge factor on revenues, cutting income expectations by that amount on the assumption that the economy was continuing to decline.

The latest monthly bulletin from the state Department of Finance, however, says that through the first five months of the 2009-10 fiscal year, revenues are running more than a billion dollars under even that lowered expectation.

Personal income, corporate income, sales and vehicle taxes all fellow below forecasts in November, the department said, but the bulletin found "encouraging" news on the employment front, with the first month-to-month increase in jobholders in 17 months. Even so, the unemployment rate increased due to growth in the labor force.

The revenue drop forms one component in the current forecast by the Legislature's budget analyst that the state faces a $6-plus billion deficit in the current budget and a $14-plus billion gap in the 2010-11 budget.

The Department of Finance report is available here.

Monday wasn't a great day for GOP guv-hopeful Meg Whitman.

The former eBay executive has been tied up in a bitter court battle between her former company and the online classifieds company Craigslist. The online auction giant has sued Craigslist, claiming that its officials illegally tried to water down eBay's minority stake in their company.

In the latest twist, Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster told a Delaware court that he was warned by eBay's guys to watch out for the "two Meg Whitmans."

He said eBay's Garret Price warned him of "evil Meg, and [said] that we would best be served if we got with the program, or we're going to meet the evil Meg."

Another description allegedly used by Price was "monster."

Now that's a ringing endorsement if we ever heard one.

Price said in a statement that the testimony was "false and malicious."

Read more from the AP or watch part of Buckmaster's testimony below:

Video h/t to the SF Chron's Joe Garofoli.

The cost of health insurance provided by California employers has risen five times as fast as overall inflation since 2002, according to a new survey by the California HealthCare Foundation.

Health insurance premiums increased by 117.5 percent during the period, says the California Employer Health Benefits Survey, while the state's overall cost of living rate was 23.1 percent, including a 7.5 percent gain in the last year.

The survey also found that employers are shifting some of the added costs to their workers and/or shifting to less extensive coverage. This year, for instance, more than 20 percent of covered workers in small firms had deductibles of $1,000 or more, three times as many as in 2002.

Finally, the survey revealed that six percent of employers say they are "very likely" to drop coverage completely, up from 1 percent in 2008, 27 percent say they are likely to increase employees' co-insurance and co-pay burdens, and 44 percent of large employers and 20 percent of small ones say they are "very likely" to increase employees' share of insurance costs.

The full survey can be found here.

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. Plaintiffs' lawyers have gamed the system to take advantage of procedural rules, and brand-name product manufacturers find themselves on the hook for injuries from competing generic products."

The six worst jurisdictions for defendants in lawsuits, ATRF said, are New York City and New Mexico's appellate courts, both of which are new to the list, and "perennials" South Florida, West Virginia, Illinois' Cook County and Atlantic County, NJ.

Although California made the watch list, the organization added, "Our report also applauds courts in several states that held the line on damages for 'emotional harm,' and we otherwise appreciatively cite recent positive court rulings in California, Maryland, New Jersey, Vermont and Wisconsin."

The full report may be found here.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting Calif. Reps. Dan Lungren and Mary Bono Mack as part of a new nationwide campaign attacking a handful of Republican incumbents who voted against the financial reforms passed by the U.S. House last week.

The campaign will include radio ads, automated calls, live calls and more than four million e-mails, according to a press release.

DCCC Western Regional Press Secretary Andrew Stone wouldn't disclose how much the organization was spending on the California buys, but said it was a "significant" amount.

Here's the audio for the Lungren ad:

And the Mack spot:

Transcript of the spot is after the jump.

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. Click here for a collection of his work.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took the stage in Copenhagen today to deliver his speech on combating climate change, but he also created buzz with a series of shots at 2008 GOP VP nominee Sarah Palin's global warming skepticism.

"You have to ask: what was she trying to accomplish?" he told the Financial Times. "Is she really interested in this subject or is she interested in her career and in winning the (Republican) nomination (for president)? You have to take all these things with a grain of salt."

On ABC's "Good Morning America," he dismissed Palin's calls for President Barack Obama to boycott the climate talks.

"I think there are people that just don't believe in fixing and working on the environment. They don't believe there is such a thing as global warming, they're still living in the Stone Age, which is OK, we need people like that, too," he said.

Click here for the video.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a slew of other California officials are in Copenhagen this week for the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The governor, who has been meeting with leaders from other nations to promote California's environmental policies, was scheduled to give his remarks at 1:30 p.m. local time.

In case you weren't up in the wee hours of the morning to watch, you can click here for a transcript of the governor's prepared remarks.

Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, and Sen. Fran Pavely, are also overseas for the climate talks.

Skinner's been busy documenting the blow by blow of the trip on her blog. And by blow by blow, we mean a really detailed account of her days, including stories of her flight seatmate and a special souvenir she picked up.

"I look like a wookie but my head and ears are warm as the temperature has dropped to about 30 degrees!" she blogged about a new fur hat she was talked into buying.

(RE)DRAWING THE DISTRICTS: Today marks the start of the application period for serving on the 14-member Citizens Redistricting Commission. The panel, established by the voter-approved Proposition 11, will be tasked with redrawing the state Assembly, Senate and Board of Equalization districts after the 2010 census. For application guidelines and information, click here. Jim Sanders has more on the process in today's Bee.

HEARINGS: The Senate Transportation and Housing Committee and the Select Committee on State School Facilities hold an informational hearing on future schools construction at 9:30 a.m. in Room 112. The Select Committee on Improving State Government meets in Room 437 for another informational hearing on proposals to overhaul state government. The focus of the 12:30 p.m. hearing is the relationship between state and local government.

BIRTHDAY: Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, turns 67 today. We're guessing the governor's office already has its acrostic birthday greeting prepared.

Now here's one way to measure the public's faith in their elected officials.

Californians would just as soon allow the meltdown-prone pop princess Britney Spears to run their family budget as they would leave their finances in the hands of their state legislators, according to a new poll.

Thirty-five percent of respondents said they would opt to have the Legislature manage their money, with 31 percent preferring to put Ms. Spears in charge. Thirty-four percent of those surveyed either didn't know or refused to answer the question.

"Instead of solving real problems, the Legislature seems to say Oops! We Did It Again and continues producing Chaotic budgets that rely on more gimmicks than a Circus," a press release sprinkled with Spears' song titles declares.

The poll, conducted by Wilson Research, was commissioned by Philip Tirone, a Los Angeles-based mortgage broker. Tirone has launched a campaign dubbed "No to Sacramento" to try to get lawmakers to repeal the temporary 10 percent increase in personal income tax withholding that was approved as part of the July budget revision (taxpayers who want to opt out of the extra withholding increase can do so by adjusting their withholding schedule themselves).

Tirone wrote on his personal Web site that he and his wife planned to invest $10,000 of their own money to ask Californians the Spears vs. state lawmakers question.

Photo: 2008 Associated Press file photo.

The state's biggest business lobbying group has taken a stance on 14 of the nearly 90 proposed initiatives that are vying for voter approval in 2010.

Among the measures that have snagged the support of the California Chamber of Commerce are proposals to create an open primary system, extend the responsibilities of the Citizens Redistricting Commission to redraw Congressional district lines and approve a $11.1 billion bond to fund water infrastructure projects.

Measures the Chamber won't support, according to today's announcement: a California Teachers Association-backed initiative that would generate cash for schools by altering Proposition 13 to increase taxes on commercial properties, a measure that would create a pilot program for public funding of the Secretary of State race and several additional tax-related initiatives.

View the full list after the jump. Click on the initiative title to see Chamber CEO Allen Zaremburg's comments on the measure.

The Washington Post is searching for meaning in the failed recall attempt against Assemblyman Anthony Adams.

A 2,551-word piece published today frames Adams, R-Hesperia, as "latest straw dog in a fight much larger than anything about himself, an unlikely proxy in a broadening war for the heart of the Republican Party."

The Post's Michael Leahy writes on what the fracture might portend for the future of the GOP in the Golden State and beyond.

"For now, all the two warring sides can agree on is that the Adams clash represents another firefight in an ongoing battle for the soul of the party in the state and around the country. But, in California especially, the brawl also serves as the latest evidence of a troubled party, one with a governor spurned by his fellow Republicans, and a conservative wing that, even in targeting its own, cannot seem to impose its will. It is a party adrift in California for the moment, its leaders acknowledge, rudderless."

Click here to read the piece.

Backers of a proposed initiative that would change the rate-setting rules for auto insurance carriers said today that they have gathered 720,000 signatures to qualify the measure for the 2010 ballot.

"The Continuous Coverage Auto Insurance Discount Act" would extend companies' ability to use a driver's insurance coverage history to calculate rates. Current law allows companies offer a loyalty or "persistency" discount to drivers who have held continuous auto insurance coverage under their plan, but prohibits carriers from extending the premium to new customers who were previously covered by competing companies.

Proponents say the change would make the market more competitive by encouraging consumers to shop around and lower rates for responsible drivers who maintain coverage.

"All this measure does is allows people to take that discount that they're already getting and transfer that to a different company," said Kathy Fairbanks, a spokeswoman for the coalition backing the measure. "When you have all insurers able to offer all the same discounts, now you have more competition in the market. ... Competition is always a benefit for consumers."

The discount extension would not necessarily apply to drivers who had a lapse in coverage. That provision has prompted some consumer advocates to slam the measure as a "wolf in sheep's clothing" that would give companies more leeway in raising rates.

Workers' compensation insurance costs continued to decline in California this year but could be pushed upward by two landmark decisions by the Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, a new report indicates.

California's current year state budget deficit, $6.3 billion, is by far the largest of any state, according to a new report by the National Conference of State Legislatures, but in relative terms many other state budgets are in worse condition.

California's 2009-10 deficit, as projected by the Legislature's budget analyst, is 7.1 percent of spending, but other states range as high as 18.5 percent in Oklahoma and 18 percent in Arizona, the NCSL survey of states found.

The Legislative Analyst's Office has predicted California faces a $20.7 billion deficit over the next 18 months.

Don Peterson, a Capitol fixture for more than a quarter century as a legislative staffer and lobbyist for local governments, died of pancreatic cancer Friday.

Peterson, a one-time political science professor and Humboldt County supervisor, came to the Capitol in 1983 as the top aide to then-Sen. Barry Keene, who had defeated Peterson in an Assembly race nine years earlier. In 1986, he founded a lobbying firm that eventually represented 22 of the state's 58 counties.

Peterson, 71, had been confined to a wheelchair after an auto accident but continued to lobby for his clients. Survivors include his wife, Marge. Services will be Friday at 10 a.m. at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Sacramento.

Photo credit: Strategic Local Government Services, LCC.

Wes Bannister, a longtime public official and three-time insurance commissioner candidate, died late Thursday of spine cancer. He was 73.

Bannister, a 40-year veteran of the insurance industry, was known as an expert on insurance and water policies. He fought for greater water recycling as chair of the Metropolitan Water District. In the last 1980s, he was appointed to the
Governing Committee of the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements plan. His work there was focused on protecting claims for Californians who lost belongings in wildfires.

Bannister, who served four years as mayor of Huntington Beach, ran unsuccessful bids for insurance commissioner in 1990,1994 and 2002. Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner said Bannister "broke new ground and helped to set the standard for all future campaigns for Insurance Commissioner."

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. You can see a collection of his work here.

The Assembly Budget Committee takes a look at managing the state's rising debt burden today.

Over the years, voters have approved bonds to fund proposals ranging from road construction to stem cell research. Soon legislators are expected to ask voters to give the green light for another $11.1 billion in bonds to pay for water projects.

All those projects have added up to a hefty sum. Current general obligation bond debt comes in at $58.5 billion, with another $53.2 billion in approved general obligation bonds that are still unissued, according to an October report by the Legislative Analyst's Office.

Debt service payments represented about 7 percent of the general fund budget for the current fiscal year. The Legislative Analyst's Office has said the figure could rise to about 10 percent by the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor and state Treasurer Bill Lockyer are scheduled to testify at the hearing, which starts at 2 p.m. in Room 4202.

Click here for Bee colleague Kevin Yamamura's recent story on the impact that bond debt has on the state's economic health.

Happening elsewhere today: The Assembly Select Committee on the Safety and Protection of At-Risk Communities in California meets in Los Angeles for an informational hearing on loan modification programs and new efforts to curb foreclosure rates.

Green thumbs up (and down): The California League of Conservation Voters released late last week its latest scorecard ranking lawmakers on their environmental records. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who's headed to the U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen this week to highlight California's environmental accomplishments, got the lowest score of his career -- 28 percent. Click here to see the full ranking.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner is investing $15 million of his own money in his campaign, boosting a lagging candidacy that has trailed rival Meg Whitman in the polls and fundraising.

Poizner, the former CEO of the Silicon Valley firm SnapTrack, which was purchased for $1 billion by Qualcomm, has been under pressure to raise money or give much of his own fortune, estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars, to his own campaign. Whitman, the former CEO of online auction firm eBay and a billionaire, has contributed $19 million of her own money to her campaign and raised millions more.

Poizner's $15 million donation boosts the amount he's given to his campaign to $19 million, according to communications director Jarrod Agen in an e-mail. Poizner is the state's insurance commissioner.

The third GOP candidate Tom Campbell trails both Poizner and Whitman in fundraising.

Poizner released this statement tonight:

"California is in deep trouble and I truly believe there could be no better time to run for Governor. We have a once in a generation opportunity to really fix and reform our state. As we look towards 2010, I know the Republican primary will be won based on which candidate presents clear, specific, and conservative solutions for solving California's economic problems. I will communicate my message of bold 10% tax cuts, 10% reduction in state spending, creating a $10 billion rainy day fund, and I will bring our welfare spending into line with the national average or better. We have 30% of welfare recipients and only 12% of population. That's change for the better and a message that I am confident will resonate with Republican voters."

A former state senator and the son of newly elected Rep. John Garamendi have been hired by the federal prison health care receiver to build support for a proposed facility in San Joaquin County.

Former Sen. Mike Machado, D-Linden, and John Garamendi, Jr. are part of a contract Receiver Clark Kelso inked with the Ochoa & Moore law firm. The contract, which involves five employees at the firm, is capped at $400,000. Machado said he was making $300 an hour. Garamendi's father, a Walnut Grove Democrat, was elected to Congress Nov. 3.

Machado, who represented San Joaquin County in the state Legislature for 14 years, has been contracted to conduct "community outreach" efforts for the project, receiver spokesman Luis Patino said. His contract begins Monday.

The Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institution released a report today detailing how Americans -- including Californians -- are opting to stay in the state they live in at the highest rate since World War II.

"Migration away from areas stretching from San Francisco to San Diego, where high housing prices fueled 'middle-class flight' to the interior West, has now retrenched as home foreclosures rise and job opportunities diminish in states like Nevada and Arizona," according to the report, called The Great American Migration Slowdown: Regional and Metropolitan Dimensions.

"During the middle part of the decade," the report said, "younger couples and singles with moderate education levels dominated the groups leaving California for lower-cost housing and job opportunities in surrounding states. Now, the state seems to be retaining many of these same groups, particularly younger whites and Hispanics who are married couples or singles, as housing cost pressures ease."

"College graduates flipped from considerable net out-migration to modest
net in-migration, as the housing market and job opportunities dried up in other parts of the country," the report also found.

The study crunched data from various sources, including the Current Population Survey, the American Community Survey and other Census estimates as well as migration flows estimated by the Internal Revenue Service.

Click here for the full report, with a California-specific section on page 9.

Sen. Gil Cedillo is not backing down on his vow to run against Assemblyman John A. Pérez next year, despite the latter's selection by Democratic colleagues Thursday to be Assembly speaker.

Before Pérez's decision to keep his Assembly seat, he had been exploring the possibility of running for the Senate seat of Cedillo, who is termed out of office next year. Both represent portions of Los Angeles.

Now the two appear to be on a collision course.

From Rob Hotakainen in Washington

Congress usually clears out of Washington for the holidays, but members could be working a little overtime this year.

Speaking at her weekly press conference on Thursday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said she's willing to do "almost anything" to get a health-care bill passed this year, even if it means keeping the House in session during Christmas week.

"I think we would do almost anything if it meant that we would pass health care for all Americans before the Christmas holidays," she said. "It may be that we can't, that we have to do it for a New Year's present to the American people. But as soon as we can, we will."

Pelosi is feeling very good about the work Congress did this year.

"We are very proud of the work of this legislative session," she said. "We are not sad that it is coming to an end. I think people are ready to go home and be with their families, and as we do so, I want them to do so with great pride because we had a plan, we had an agenda that we set out to do, and we accomplished it."

The Los Angeles suburb of Acadia is the best city in California for raising children, BusinessWeek magazine says, "because of its low crime and excellent schools."

It was the second straight year that Arcadia won top marks among California cities of 50,000 or more in the BusinessWeek rankings. "The population of Arcadia includes a number of peacocks that hang out in the neighborhood near the Los Angeles County Arboretum & Botanical Garden," the magazine said. Two other LA suburbs, Monterey Park and Diamond Bar, were California runners-up.

Here's Bee cartoonist Rex Babin's take on the Air Resources Board's recent decision to delay the enforcement of new diesel emissions rules.

The speaker showdown was resolved yesterday, but the battle over "Race to the Top" ain't over yet.

As Susan Ferriss reports in today's Bee, the Assembly bucked a veto threat from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and approved its own education reform package.

Schwarzenegger and some education advocates say the bill is too weak and won't allow California to successfully compete for its chunk of the $4.3 billion in "Race to the Top" federal education funds up for grabs. They prefer a Senate-approved bill that was blocked by the Assembly Education Committee.

The Senate will be back in action to take up the issue next week.

All the debate got you down? Sacramento plays host this weekend to an event that's sure to be a crowd-pleaser among campaign junkies.

The Northern California chapter of the American Political Items Collectors is holding its annual Political Collectibles Show & Sale at the Sierra 2 Center on Sunday.

The show will feature political paraphernalia from the last 100 years, including bumper stickers from President Richard Nixon's 1962 failed gubernatorial campaign, rare antique ribbon celebrating the visit from President James Garfield's 1880 visit to Sacramento and an exhibition of vintage Jerry Brown buttons.

Click here for more information on the expo.

CELEBRATION OF LIGHTS: Chanukah begins at sundown today. The Capitol is starting the celebration early with a Menorah lighting ceremony at 10 a.m. Schwarzenegger is scheduled to attend.

UPDATE 9:49 a.m.: The event will now be held in the Capitol Rotunda.

Photo courtesy of Adam Gottlieb.

The Modesto Bee is reporting that Republican Sen. Jeff Denham is dropping his lieutenant governor bid to run for the 25th Assembly District seat.

"At a time when you have term limits and very little experience in the Assembly, it's going to give me an opportunity to come in and finish a lot of things I've been working on for our community," he told the Modesto paper.

Denham plans to move so he can run for the seat currently occupied by Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, who is seeking the Senate seat that is being vacated by Sen. Dave Cogdill, who is eyeing a run for Stanislaus County assessor.

Talk about legislative musical chairs...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has set the special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Republican Sen. John Benoit.

Benoit gave up his Senate seat for a spot on the Riverside County Board of Supervisors.

The special election will be rolled into the June 8 statewide primary, meaning voters in the 37th Senate District will go to the polls for a special primary on April 13, according to the Secretary of State's online election calendar.

Republican Assemblyman Bill Emmerson recently moved from his home in Redlands to Hemet so he would be eligible to run for the seat. Russ Bogh, a former Republican assemblyman, is also expected to run. Click here for a roundup of other candidates considering a bid.

Former state Democratic Party head Art Torres got a $150,000 pay boost today for his work as co vice chair of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

Torres, a former state legislator, was hired in March to head the stem cell agency on a half-time basis, with a salary of $75,000. His co vice-chair, Duane Roth, declined to take a salary.

CIRM directors unanimously approved this afternoon upping Torres' workload to 80 percent and increasing his pay to $225,000 a year. In addition to continuing his work as vice chairman, Torres will serve as CIRM's director of government relations, a role he has been filling unofficially for several months.

"We clearly don't need a government relations director with him here," CIRM spokesman Don Gibbons said. "It really is a situation where he's doing double what he was originally hired to do."

But even with the high praises, one spending watchdog said the raise was unnecessary.

"At a time when California is in a severe economic crisis, state workers'
salaries are being cut and they are facing mandatory furloughs, this raise is highly inappropriate," said John Simpson, stem cell project director for Consumer Watchdog, wrote in an e-mail. "Art Torres knew the terms of the job when he took it. He should have been happy simply not to face the cuts endured by other state employees."

David Jensen first reported on the decision over at the California Stem Cell Report blog.

UPDATE 4:46 p.m.: This post was updated with a quote from CIRM spokesman Don Gibbons.

Former Assemblyman and Board of Equalization member Bill Leonard has been rumored as a candidate to become Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's next Department of Finance director, but he said Thursday he has never been contacted for the post.

Schwarzenegger is looking for a replacement for outgoing Finance head Mike Genest, who recently announced plans to leave before next year's budget battle. Genest remains in charge of the department and has been briefing the governor this week on projections for next year, according to Finance spokesman H.D. Palmer.

Leonard is a conservative Republican whose Board of Equalization term ends next year. Hiring Leonard or another fiscal conservative would help set a spending-cuts tone for the governor's final budget, which faces a $21 billion deficit, according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.

Leonard said he has yet to talk to anyone in the Governor's Office about the job.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's only a rumor," Leonard said. "I like what I'm doing. If the governor called, I'd listen to what he had to say."

Another potential candidate to fill Genest's job is Ana Matosantos, the Department of Finance chief deputy director. Palmer said no decision has been made.

PHOTO: Assemblyman John Pérez, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assemblyman Kevin de León leave today's Democratic caucus at the Stanford Mansion. Randall Benton/Sacramento Bee

Assembly Democrats united behind Assemblyman John Pérez as their pick to lead the lower house. Click here to read the full story. Read full statements from Pérez, Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Assemblyman Kevin de León, who also vied for the job, after the jump.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has threatened to veto the Assembly's "Race to the Top" bill if it is sent to his desk.

"This is Race to the Top -- not race to the status quo. We must make the necessary reforms to improve our schools and make California highly competitive for this federal education funding. The Assembly bill is a step backwards and if it reaches my desk -- it will be vetoed," he said in a statement.

Schwarzenegger's threat comes a day after the Assembly Education Committee blocked the Senate's version of the legislation, which was based on his plan for ensuring California can cash in on hundreds of millions of dollars in "Race to the Top" federal education funds. The Assembly bill, which has the support of the California Teachers Association, passed out of the committee on a 10-6 vote.

Schwarzenegger and his backers say the Assembly bill falls short of the Obama administration's eligibility guidelines for states seeking the funds.

The Assembly Appropriations Committee was scheduled to consider the Assembly bill this morning, with a floor vote expected to follow this afternoon.

That hearing has been delayed, as negotiations on the bill language continue and Assembly Democrats continued talks to finalize their speaker selection.

If passed by the Assembly, the bill will still need Senate approval. The Senate has scheduled a floor session for next Thursday.

State Controller John Chiang released California's latest cash balance numbers today, and the good news is that tax and other receipts were only $40.8 million (0.7 percent) below what had been estimated for the month of November.

As is his wont, Chiang tempered the mildly good news with a somber warning for California budget fans not to get overly giddy about the figures.

"While revenues largely held up for two months, the next eight weeks will be far more telling of the State's fiscal health," Chiang said in a news release. "Record unemployment, at levels not seen for three decades, continues to aggravate California's structural budget deficit."

For the fiscal year that began July 1, Chiang says revenues are running about $835 million below estimates. But that's been offset by lower-than-expected expenses, plus an additional $1 billion in borrowing, to give us $610 million more in cash on hand than we figured.

In other words, things might get better, if they don't get worse...

Chalk up another first for California. EBossWatch, a website devoted to publicizing bad workplace managers in public and private employment, has placed three Californians on its list of the 25 worst bosses in the U.S. and Canada, more than any other state.

As rated by a panel of experts, based on news accounts and other data, Tom Cable, head coach of the Oakland Raiders, was designated as the seventh worst boss in North America due to his much-publicized altercation with an assistant coach that left the latter with a broken jaw.

No. 11 on the list is Maria Olvera, human resources director of the Tracy city government. Two city workers have filed a complaint alleging that they were fired after complaining of Olvera's "obscenities and loud and abusive language."

No. 13 is Andy Lee, a supervisor at California Pizza Kitchen in Palo Alto, who was sued by a former underling for harassment. The former employee was fired when she complained about abusive behavior, the website says.

The full list of bad bosses is available here.

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. Click here for a collection of his work.

Exports through California's sea and airports during October increased from the previous month but remain well under those of October 2008, a University of California analysis of monthly trade data concludes.

"While still in serious condition, the patient's health is gradually improving," Jock O'Connell, a trade advisor to UC's Sacramento Center, said. "During the spring and early summer of this year, California's export trade had been off as much as twenty-five percent from the preceding year."

The state's merchandise exports in October totaled just over $11.08 billion, up 7 percent from September but still 10.9 percent below the $12.44 billion in goods the state shipped abroad in October 2010.

October was the 12th consecutive month in which California posted lower year-to-year export totals. It was also the lowest October total since 2005.

More "Race to the Top" action is on tap for this morning.

We started yesterday with two rival "Race to the Top" bills in play. Both versions are aimed at ensuring California schools can cash in on up to $700 million in federal education dollars up for grabs through the competitive grant program.

During a full day of tension-filled testimony and debate, the Assembly Education Committee passed its bill and blocked the Senate's plan.

The Assembly bill squeaked by with the 10 votes it needed to move out of committee. The Senate's version fell three votes short, with six committee members sitting out the vote.

That outcome was immediately slammed by the Schwarzenegger administration, which supports the Senate bill.

The Assembly bill now heads to the Appropriations Committee for approval. A floor session for a full Assembly vote on the bill is scheduled for 11 a.m.

Bee colleague Diana Lambert has more on the hearing in today's paper.

SPEAKERSHIP WATCH: Assembly Democrats are prepping for a mid-afternoon caucus. One goal is to agree on their pick to succeed Karen Bass. As of last night, no deal had been made in the stand off between Team Pérez and de León loyalists.

Update: Sources say Pérez is poised to snag the caucus' support at today's meeting. Click here for more from Jim Sanders.

The Assembly Education Committee today approved the lower house's version of legislation aimed at ensuring that California can cash in on "Race to the Top" federal education funds.

A rival Senate bill, which the Senate approved last month, failed to make it out of committee.

The Assembly bill, authored by Education Committee Chair Julia Brownley, was approved 10-6.

The Senate's version, which is Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's preferred plan, fell three votes short of the 9 needed to pass. Six committee members, including speaker-hopeful John Pérez, abstained or weren't present for the vote.

Bee colleague Diana Lambert will have more on the hearing and what's to come in tomorrow's Bee. Click here for today's AM Alert on the dueling bills.

This post originally stated that the bills needed 10 votes to pass through the committee. Nine votes were required. The Bee regrets the error.

It was only a matter of time until there was some sort of political connection compelling us to write about golfer Tiger Woods' spiraling sex scandal.

California's own Democratic Rep. Joe Baca is bailing on a bill he had introduced to honor Woods for "promoting excellence and good sportsmanship, and in breaking barriers with grace and dignity by showing that golf is a sport for all people."

The Associated Press has more.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called on the California Recovery Task Force to establish a new formula "that makes sense to the people of California" for counting how many California jobs are created using federal stimulus funds.

"(It) seems the current technical federal formulas for calculating the number of jobs saved or created present challenges regarding accuracy. ...In this case, simple compliance with federal guidelines does not present the people of California with the transparency and accountability that they deserve," he wrote in a letter to California Recovery Task Force Director Cynthia Bryant.

Schwarzenegger wrote that he wants the task force and state departments and agencies that receive federal stimulus funds to keep track of job creation using both the federal reporting guidelines and the new metrics.

The release of the letter coincides with this morning's Assembly Accountability and Administrative Review Committee hearing on the implementation of federal stimulus funds in California.

Read the entire letter after the jump. You can also click here to read a report by Bee colleague Phillip Reese on whether jobs "saved" by stimulus funds were ever at risk.

Sen. Fran Pavley and Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner are headed to Copenhagen later this week for the U.N. climate summit.

Pavley and Skinner will be hopping on for the tail end of the COP 15 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which started Monday and runs until Dec. 18. They will join more than 100 international leaders and 15,000 participants gathering in hopes of hammering out a new agreement aimed at curtailing the effects of climate change.

Both lawmakers are traveling with a delegation organized by Climate Action Reserve, an organization that manages a carbon credits registry for companies that voluntarily report their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Other California officials, including Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols and Cal-EPA Secretary Linda Adams are also set to join the delegation.

Chip Hanlon, CEO of the conservative blog Red County, wrote today he's discovered that one of the blog's writers who had provided positive coverage of GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner was on the payroll of a consultant hired by the Poizner campaign.

Hanlon called the arrangement "sleazy tactics" because he hadn't known the writer, named "Sgt. York," was being paid by the Poizner camp. Hanlon said in an interview that the writer is Placer County resident and California Republican Assembly Sgt. at Arms Aaron Park, who, according to Red County, no longer writes for the blog.

Hanlon went on to write that "any contributor writing on behalf of a paying client must simply disclose that relationship -- not too difficult."

He concludes, "I'm now personally through paying any attention to Steve Poizner and his run for Governor of California."

Poizner communications director Jarrod Agen said his campaign knew the blogger in question "worked for one of our consultants and that he blogged."

"This looks more like an issue between Red County and someone who works for them," Agen said. "There's a lot of consultants who blog on Web sites all over the state."

California's state university system will face a surge of enrollment demand in the next half-decade, according to a new statistical study by the California Postsecondary Education Commission.

Enrollment demand will jump from 362,000 students in 2008 to 420,000 by 2015, then level off as the college-age population hits a plateau, CPEC says in the study, which is to be presented to a commission meeting next week. But that assumes that college fees will be reasonable and the state provides enough support to fully fund all of the classes being sought.

Budget cuts have reduced 2009 enrollment by about 4,000 students and are projected to cut enrollment by another 20,000 next year. The state university system board recently raised fees sharply as well.

The report was prepared in conjunction with the Legislature's review of the 50-year-old Master Plan for Higher Education. "The state is not delivering the promise of the master plan any more," CPEC chair John Perez said in a statement as the report was released. "CSU is limiting access and raising fees in order to keep afloat. We no longer have the open, affordable, state university system that we once had in California."

The full report, the latest in a series called "Ready or Not, Here They Come," is available here.

California was once a national leader among in programs to discourage children from smoking but has dropped to 25th place in its commitment to anti-smoking education, a consortium of health groups said today.

The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids includes such groups as the American Cancer Society, the American Lung Association and the American Heart Association. It says that while California will collect $1.75 billion this year from the 1998 national lawsuit settlement with tobacco companies, it's spending just 4.5 percent of that on programs to prevent tobacco use. And, the organization says, tobacco companies will spend more than $800 million to market products in California this year.

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian won 56 percent of the vote yesterday to defeat former Paramount Pictures executive Christine Essel in a heated Los Angeles City Council race.

The election was noteworthy because of the volume of huge checks written for a non-citywide special election that saw predictably dismal turnout. A record-breaking more than $1 million was spent by independent groups, with Essel's backers pouring about $900,000 in independent expenditures to support her and attack Krekorian.

"Today, the voters of CD2 demanded profound change and soundly rejected the domination of this city by Downtown insiders," Krekorian said in a statement. "This victory is the beginning of a fundamental transformation of the government of Los Angeles, and it sends a strong signal that the people of the San Fernando Valley are not satisifed with business as usual. The task now ahead of us is to build a city government that will work for the people and that is marked by integrity, honesty and accountability"

The Senate is planning to block the re-confirmation of one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's current appointees to the Public Utilities Commission.

The decision stemmed from concerns that the commissioner, Rachelle Chong, voted too often with the telecommunications industry. Chong, a Republican, was first confirmed to the post in 2007.

Kevin Yamamura has more in today's Bee.

We're still waiting and watching as the speakership battle plays out.

Word earlier this week was that Assembly Speaker Karen Bass could call a caucus vote -- most likely the final showdown between speaker hopefuls John Pérez and Kevin de León -- as soon as tonight.

But it looks like it will be at least another day until Democrats vote for their pick to lead the lower house.

Alert readers will recall that Bass tried to put an end to the speakership war last week by announcing that Pérez would be her successor. The basis for that claim was that Pérez had the commitments of at least 29 fellow Democrats. In recent years, members of the ruling party have united behind the candidate who secures the support of the majority of the caucus, though the speaker must ultimately be elected by a majority vote.

But it takes 41 votes to become speaker, and de León's 20-or-so loyalists haven't shown any public signs of giving up the fight just yet. It's still unclear when the two sides will come to an agreement -- or what it will take for them to get there.

The Assembly is expected to convene for floor votes on "Race to the Top" legislation Wednesday, so you can expect Pérez supporters to be pushing hard for a resolution in the next 24 hours.

We'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, a clash over those dueling versions of "Race to the Top" legislation continues today.

African-American women are three times more likely to miscarry if they live near freeways or other heavily traveled roadways, a new state study has found.

Counterintuitively, non-smoking pregnant women are also substantially more likely to miscarry if they live near heavy traffic than are smokers who also live near freeways, the study determined.

The study, co-authored by researchers from the state Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA), the state Department of Public Health and the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, was based on interviews of nearly 5,000 women in the East Bay Area, Santa Clara and San Bernardino counties as they sought pregnancy care at Kaiser Permanente hospitals. It has been published in Environmental Health Perspectives, a scientific journal.

"This study adds weight to the growing body of evidence that constant, heavy exposure to traffic exhaust significantly increases the risk of reproductive harm," Dr. Joan Denton, OEHHA director, said in a statement. The OEHHA research is the first published study of the effect of residential traffic exposure on the risk of miscarriage, according to Dr. Shelley Green, who led the study.

The survey of residential, medical and pregnancy history was limited to volunteers who were no more than 12 weeks pregnant, about 9 percent of whom had miscarried, which is within the normal statistical range. Researchers related the miscarriages in relation to residential proximity to roads whose average traffic was at least 15,200 vehicles per day.

Pregnant women who lived within 55 yards of busy roads showed a higher rate of miscarriage compared with women who lived further away from roads with heavy traffic. While the association with high traffic raised miscarriage rates by 50 percent for nonsmokers, their smoking neighbors had a 10 percent higher risk of miscarriage as well.

The full study report can be found here.

Thirty percent of California's households lack the income to cover "bare bones" living expenses, according to a new statistical study released by United Ways of California, a charitable fundraising consortium.

The study, which relies on Census Bureau data, was conducted by the Center for Women's Welfare at the University of Washington and is entitled "Overlooked and Undercounted 2009." It goes beyond the decades-old federal method of calculating poverty and includes not only the traditional data on housing, food and shelter costs, but costs of transportation, child care and taxes. It does not, however, count money for restaurant food, retirement savings, emergencies or loan payments.

"While the federal poverty level identifies only 10 percent of California residents as poor, this report reveals the extent to which many more Californians are struggling to meet basic needs than most people realize," said Peter Manzo, United Ways of California president. "Because the majority of government and social service programs rely on variations of the federal poverty level, a large and diverse group of California residents are routinely overlooked and undercounted.

"Many of these hidden poor earn too much income to qualify for most social service programs, but they still struggle to meet their most basic needs, especially as the costs of living continue to rise."

Is Republican Sen. Dave Cogdill, eyeing a run for Stanislaus County assessor?

A spokeswoman for Cogdill said the chatter, reported on the conservative FlashReport blog yesterday, had some legs.

"It's something that he's definitely considering," spokeswoman Sabrina Lockhart said. "He's weighing his options at this point."

Lockhart said the job appeals to Cogdill because it would allow him to work close to home and spend more time with his family. She also noted that Codgill, who lives in Modesto, has experience running a real estate appraisal business and working with the Mono County Assessor's Office.

Cogdill, whose name was floated as a possible lieutenant governor pick, announced last month that he planned to return to the private sector instead of running for a second state Senate term in 2010.

As we noted last week, Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, is running to replace Cogdill in the 14th Senate District. He recently filed paperwork to explore a run with the Secretary of State's office.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner's drive to raise $50,000 this month appears to be starting slowly, with only $4,825 collected by Monday, according to his Web site.

A graphic on the site illustrates the fundraising sluggishness.

Poizner sent out an e-mail on Thursday asking for donations while accusing rival Meg Whitman of trying to buy the race. That followed a memo sent out Tuesday by campaign manager Jim Bognet contending that Poizner was on track, although he badly lags Whitman in both the polls and in fundraising.

Poizner has outraised the third GOP candidate Tom Campbell, although Campbell leads Poizner in the polls.

Poizner communications director Jarrod Agen said in an e-mail that the online fundraising feature began late last week and that "we have a full strategy for the rest of December which we are excited about and confident will put us over our goal."

Another Tuesday, another special election.

Assemblyman Paul Krekorian, D-Burbank, and former Paramount Pictures executive Christine Essel go head to head today for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.

Krekorian, the Assembly's assistant majority leader, edged out Essel by about 800 votes in September's 10-way special primary to fill the 2nd District seat vacated by the now Los Angeles Controller Wendy Greuel.

The ongoing battle between the primary's two top vote-getters has been fueled with cash, especially from interest groups launching independent expenditure campaigns.

From Rob Hotakainen in Washington

WASHINGTON -- California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer said Monday that abortion-rights foes in the U.S. Senate are showing "a lack of respect" for women by promoting legislation that would limit abortions.

"Please don't single out women," Boxer said in a speech on the Senate floor. "What have women done to deserve this? ... Why have such a lack of respect for them?"

Boxer made the remarks as the Senate prepared to vote on an amendment by Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska that would prohibit any insurance company from offering plans to cover abortion services if they receive federal subsidies.

In addition, the amendment would block a new government insurance plan from covering abortions except for cases of rape, incest or danger to the life of the mother.

The House attached a similar amendment to its health-care bill last month, and Boxer has emerged as a leader for a group of Democratic women leading the charge to defeat the measure in the Senate.

California's lawmakers and top elected officials saw their pay slashed Monday for the first time since creation of a full-time Legislature more than four decades ago.

The 18 percent salary cut for state officeholders ranging from governor to legislator to Board of Equalization members was ordered in May by the state's independent compensation commission.

The reductions will appear on officeholders' next paychecks, scheduled for late December.

Separately, statewide elected officials also saw an 18 percent reduction in health and other benefits - including, for legislators, cuts in their car allowances and in the $173 per diem to defray living expenses in Sacramento.

Controller John Chiang does not intend to challenge the pay panel's decisions and will implement the cuts, spokeswoman Hallye Jordan said. Chiang's own pay fell from $169,743 to $139,189.

GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman is in Delaware today, giving testimony in a legal battle between by her former employer, eBay, Inc. and Craigslist.

The former eBay executive told a federal judge that she and other company officials "were very interested in making an acquisition of Craigslist" when they obtained a 28 percent share of the company in 2004, according to news reports.

Whitman is testifying as part of her former company's lawsuit claiming that Craigslist executives illegally issued themselves shares of their company in an attempt to devalue eBay's holdings in the online classifieds service.

Craigslist has filed a counter-suit alleging that eBay used confidential information they learned during the acquisition attempt to launch a competing online classifieds service.

Click here to read more from Bloomberg's wire service.

California, Minnesota and the District of Columbia are the only school systems to receive "A" grades on their receptivity to charter schools from the Washington-based Center for Education Reform, a pro-charter school organization.

The state-by-state evaluation was released in response to Race to the Top, President Barack Obama's education reform initiative that includes more emphasis on charter schools, which are public schools that operate independently of school district administration. Its release also coincides with the state Assembly's debate this week on how to qualify California for Race to the Top grants, in which expansion of charter schools plays a central role.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, among others, favors lifting a state cap on charter schools but teacher unions are generally reluctant. But without loosening or lifting the cap, California may be ineligible for the new federal grants.

"Every state's education law has certain legal components that play key roles in deciding whether that state does what its law's title suggests--to provide all children with access to the highest-quality schooling opportunities possible," said Jeanne Allen, president of the Center for Education Reform. "Some states have been pioneers in this effort, and others are far behind. California's law is excellent and serves as a model for the nation."

The full state-by-state report, including details on California, is available here.

"Aye" or "no" aren't the only options California lawmakers are choosing when casting votes.

An analysis by Bee colleague Phillip Reese found that state lawmakers abstained -- as in opted not to vote -- for 22,000 out of the of 300,000 votes cast this session.

Click here to read Reese's story.

Want to see how individual lawmakers voted or check the final tally for a specific bill? Click here to access a new Bee database of state legislators' votes.

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. This cartoon originally appeared in Sunday's Bee; click here to see a collection of Babin's work.

Veteran actor Peter Strauss, best known for leading roles in television mini-series ("Rich Man, Poor Man" and "Masada," for example) won't be going to Congress next year.

Strauss, who spends much of his time these days growing citrus on his Ventura County ranch, toyed with seeking the Democratic nomination in the 24th Congressional District, which has been represented by Republican Elton Gallegly for the past two decades. But he says that he was turned off by the millions of dollars it would take to mount a serious run.

"Upon closer examination the landscape, that lay before me was dour indeed." Strauss said in a letter published last week in the Ojai Valley News. "In fact, it appeared completely compromised. What first sobered me was the amount of money I would have to raise... And therein was a dilemma: how does one accumulate that much money and not owe someone - somewhere - something? Isn't that the fundamental conflict of democratic principles?"

Strauss' departure doesn't mean Gallegly will go unchallenged. Marta Jorgensen, who lost to Gallegly in 2008, is preparing to run again and several other Democrats have declared interest.

Although the district in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has a comfortable Republican voter registration margin, Democrats have been intrigued by its possibilities. President Barack Obama shaded Republican John McCain there last year, even as Gallegly was winning re-election by a nearly 3-2 margin.

Laree Renda, executive vice president of the Safeway grocery chain, has been elected chairwoman of the California Chamber of Commerce, the state's largest business lobbying organization.

"Never has our business climate been more important to the future of California than now," Renda said in a statement.

S. Shariq Yosutzai, president of global marketing for Chevron Corp., was named first vice-chair of the chamber, which is headquartered in Sacramento.

Bee colleague Andrew McIntosh reported in Sunday's Bee that a former State and Consumer Services Agency head and top Schwarzenegger official approved his own permit authorizing his use of a state vehicle for his weekly 534-mile round-trip commute from Sacramento to his home in Paso Robles.

Fred Aguiar was recently tapped as Schwarzenegger's new deputy chief of staff and senior advisor.

Click here to read McIntosh's story on Aguiar's state car use.

Fellow Capitol Bureau blogger Jon Ortiz has also posted the Vehicle Home Storage Permit that Aguiar signed off on over at the State Worker blog. Click here to see that document.

From Rob Hotakainen in Washington:

Democratic Rep. David Obey is getting lots of attention in D.C. for proposing a 1 percent surtax to pay for the war in Afghanistan.

Obey, of Wisconsin, argues that the United States must start paying for its military efforts instead of pushing them into the future.

But his idea lacks support from a key person: his boss, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco.

"With the highest regard for Mr. Obey, that is his idea," Pelosi told reporters last week. "He is speaking for himself and the considerable reputation he enjoys in the Congress."

So how would Pelosi pay for the war?

"When the president makes a request, we will make a judgment about what support it has, and some of that will relate to how it affects the deficit," she said.

In other words, stay tuned.

California lawmakers begin the process today of updating the long-term goals and strategic blueprint for the state's public colleges and universities.

The Joint Committee on the Master Plan for Higher Education kicks off the discussion with a 9 a.m. hearing that is expected to run all day.

"I think that the system of higher education in California is in peril, and I believe that we need to start the conversation that will allow us to get back on track," said the committee's co-chair, Assemblyman Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City.

The current Master Plan for Education was adopted in 1960 with the goal of providing accessible, affordable and high-quality education at the state's public colleges and universities.

For the last 50 years, that plan has guided the growth of the state's higher education system. It also sets admissions requirements for the state's three tiers of public colleges and universities.

But now officials are looking to give the plan -- and the system itself -- a major facelift.

The Assembly has trimmed its paid holiday calendar to include two fewer days off next year.

Columbus Day and Lincoln's Birthday were officially stripped from the 2010 holiday calendar by the Assembly Rules Committee yesterday.

Those two paid days off were eliminated for state workers as part of the February budget agreement. The change didn't apply to legislative staff, but the Assembly and Senate decided to cut the Columbus Day holiday this year to keep their staffers' holiday schedule in line with the calendar for the state workforce.

My fellow Capitol bureau blogger Jon Ortiz has the full scoop -- as well as the fax from Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Jon Waldie confirming the final calendar -- over at The State Worker blog.

UPDATE 6:45 p.m: Senate President pro tem Darrell Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost says the Senate Rules Committee is set to make the same change when it meets later this month to approve its 2010 holiday calendar.

"The proposed holiday schedule that will be voted on does not include Columbus Day or Lincoln's birthday," Trost wrote in an e-mail.

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. You can see a collection of his work here.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner slammed rival Meg Whitman's campaign spending in a mass e-mail Thursday while asking for donations to his own campaign.

Both Poizner and Whitman are wealthy former Silicon Valley executives ready to invest millions of dollars of their own wealth to get elected. Whitman, however, has raised more money than Poizner from other sources and has spent a lot more too - $6.2 million in the first six months of the year compared to $1.4 million spent by Poizner.

Poizner notes that last fact, writing:

"My opponent in the Republican primary is planning to shatter all campaign spending records. If she continues to spend money at the rate she's doing so today, Meg Whitman will spend over $150 million by the time this election is over.

If you want a good indication of how a candidate will govern, keep an eye on how they campaign and how wisely they spend their money."

California is not just competing with other states to cash in on "Race to the Top" federal stimulus funds for education.

Two rival bills have now been introduced - one in the state Assembly, the other in the state Senate - to ensure California is eligible to apply for grants.

The bills are aimed at changing the state's education system to meet the U.S. Department of Education's application criteria for getting between $300 and $700 million in federal dollars.

The Senate approved one version last month. But Assembly Education Committee Chair Julia Brownley has now introduced her own plan. The Assembly Education Committee is set to take up that bill Wednesday, with a full floor vote expected to follow.

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday that he doesn't think the Brownley bill does enough and urged quick action, citing the Jan. 19 "Race to the Top" application deadline. He supports the Senate version.

Fair Political Practices Commission officials have opened an investigation into the formation of a legal defense fund created by Sen. Rod Wright last month.

FPPC officials had said earlier this week that they were looking into whether Wright, whose residency claims are the subject of an ongoing investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, "accurately and appropriately filed" the paperwork to establish the account.

Legal Defense Funds, which are not subject to contribution limits, can be used to pay for attorneys' fees and other costs that arise from legal challenges. According to current regulations, lawmakers must specify the legal challenge they are facing when they open the account. The Statement of Organization establishing Wright's account does not list why the account is needed, but says that surplus funds will be used for "any lawful purpose."

Wright told The Bee Tuesday that he was unaware of any issues with the filing and would update the paperwork if necessary.

Click here to read our earlier post on Wright's fund catching the eye of the FPPC.

Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, has introduced another version of legislation aimed at ensuring California schools are eligible to receive hundreds of millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds being doled out through "Race to the Top" competitive grants but it was immediately criticized by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as being insuffucient.

ABX5 8, which you can read here, is based on application requirements the Obama administration and the Department of Education have released for states vying for a piece of the $4.35 billion in federal stimulus funds up for grabs.

Assemblyman Tom Berryhill, R-Modesto, is throwing his hat in the ring to replace Republican Sen. Dave Cogdill in the 14th Senate District. the Modesto Bee reports.

Cogdill announced last month that he would not seek reelection for a second term in 2010.

Berryhill, who represents the 25th Assembly District, does not currently live within the 14th District, but hetold the Modesto Bee that he plans to move soon so he is eligible to run for the seat.

Republican Heidi Fuller, a former lawyer and utility consultant who lives in Columbia, Calif., is also vying for the seat, and several current and former local officials are eyeing a run.

Another lawmaker named as a possible candidate, Assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, is passing on a Senate bid to continue his run for insurance commissioner, The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz reported yesterday.

Former Democratic state lawmaker Mike Machado has registered as a lobbyist for Sacramento Advocates.

Machado served three terms in the Assembly before being elected to the Senate in 2000. He represented the 17th Assembly District and the 5th Senate District, which encompass San Joaquin, Yolo, Solano and parts of Sacramento counties.

The former chair of the Senate Committee on Banking, Finance and Insurance worked closely on finance and water policy issues during his 14 years in the Legislature.

Machado, who joined the firm as a consultant in January, also serves on the State Compensation Insurance Fund and runs his own government consulting firm.

Photo credit: Randy Pench/SacBee

The speakership scuffle continued yesterday, with current Assembly leader Karen Bass crowning Assemblyman John Pérez her heir apparent.

Bass said yesterday Pérez has secured the support of at least 29 Democrats. Those numbers would give him the blessing of the majority of the caucus, a move that typically clears the path for a "yes" vote by the full Assembly.

But Pérez's rival for the post, Assemblyman Kevin de León , and de León's supporters didn't appear to be ready to wave a white flag Wednesday.

As de León and Pérez duke it out on the main stage, there's another player who's found himself in the fray:

Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles.

In a move that could signal an end to the brewing battle over who will become the next Assembly speaker, current Speaker Karen Bass threw her support behind Assemblymember John Pérez, saying he has secured enough support within the Democratic caucus to succeed her in the post.

"I really very deeply believe that John will be a speaker that reflects the strong Democratic values that brought us all here," Bass said.

Bass said the caucus could vote as soon as next week and that she plans to immediately start working with Pérez to set a timetable for the transition of power.

She said Pérez had secured commitments from at least 29 fellow Democrats. To become speaker, he must be approved with a majority vote in Assembly -- 41 votes -- though the member who wins the support of the majority caucus has in recent years been confirmed to the post without resistance.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger restocked his cigar supply last month after spending months in his smoking tent negotiating with lawmakers on the state budget and a new water infrastructure deal, according to a new public filing.

Schwarzenegger donated $553 worth of cigars last month to his own office "to be used for recognition of staff service to the People of the State of California, recognition of legislative service to the People of the State of California, or to be given as commemorative gifts to visiting dignitaries."

The governor's spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the governor regularly orders boxes from cigar maker Daniel Marshall. Each cigar comes in a cellophane wrapper embossed with the governor's signature in gold.

Photo credit: AP

California could cover its annual budget deficits by plucking "low-hanging fruit" of tax changes that would increase state revenues by $21.1 billion a year, the California Tax Reform Association declared today.

The liberal organization's reference is a play on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent comment that the state has exhausted the "low-hanging fruit" of spending cuts and bookkeeping gimmicks while still facing stubborn budget deficits.

The Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor, has declared that the state faces annual deficits of about $20 billion even if it closes a $20-plus shortfall in the remainder of this fiscal year and all of the next. The tax reform group says the state's finances could be fixed by eliminating some tax loopholes and raising selective taxes, avoiding general tax increases.

It said that "loopholes, untaxed windfalls, tax breaks with no benefits, taxes on the very rich and sin taxes, the taxes with little or no impact on economic recovery," have not been tapped and lists 10 tax changes that would raise, it says, $21.1 billion a year.

The largest, scored at $4 billion, would be to reinstate an 11 percent tax on incomes of the top 1 percent of income taxpayers. Others include imposing an oil severance tax, increasing liquor and cigarette taxes and closing new corporate tax loopholes.

The full Tax Reform Association paper is available here.

California is a case study in mismanagement of state government finances, a new report from the Pew Center on the States says, but nine other states could be following the same path to virtual insolvency.

The report, released today and entitled "Beyond California: States in Fiscal Peril," cites Arizona, Rhode Island, Michigan, Oregon, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, Illinois and Wisconsin as states with budget problems similar to California. Pew's Web site on the report invites readers to compare their own states to California.

"They share important characteristics with California, but they may not be destined to follow in the Golden State's footsteps," Pew says. "Some states in this report already have responded aggressively to their budget crisis, although it is too soon to tell whether their actions will put them on solid fiscal footing."

Much of the report focuses on how California came to face multi-billion-dollar deficits for much of this decade. " Adding annually to the budget problems," it says, "California lawmakers since the late 1990s have increased spending by more than the rise in state population or inflation. In the meantime, policymakers rarely set aside in the rainy day fund the 5 percent of general funds permitted by law, giving the state less of a cushion during lean times."

Despite enacting billions of dollars in temporary taxes, cutting spending on schools and other programs and enacting a series of bookkeeping gimmicks, the state faces a nearly $21 billion deficit in the remainder of the current fiscal year and all of the next and ongoing annual shortfalls in the $20 billion range after that, according to a recent report by the Legislature's budget analyst, Mac Taylor.

The full Pew report is available here.

Lieutenant governor appointee Abel Maldonado said yesterday he's planning to run for a full term at the post in 2010, even if he isn't confirmed by his fellow lawmakers.

"If I'm good enough to be nominated, I'm good enough to run," the Republican senator told The Fresno Bee editorial board yesterday.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced late last month that Maldonado is his pick to fill the post vacated by former "Lite Guv" John Garamendi, who was elected to Congress in November. Schwarzenegger's Nov. 23 announcement set off a 90-day window for the legislature to approve or reject the nomination.

Democrats have said they wanted the governor to nominate a caretaker to serve out the remainder of Garamendi's term, leaving the post open for the already crowded field of candidates vying for the job in 2010.

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 District, who is Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's cousin.

Pérez's supporters say the rookie from the 46th District may have enough votes already to snag the support of a majority of Assembly Democrats, a first step toward a full Assembly vote.

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 for verification.

Organizers of the effort had said they were targeting Huff for his support of Proposition 1A in the May 2009 special election, though Huff's office had pointed out that he voted against all tax increases in the February budget deal.

"The voters of the 29th recognized that holding a recall election was a bad idea. Recall elections are costly, and recalling a legislator for a vote they did not cast makes no sense," Huff said in a statement.

UPDATE 4:06 p.m.: Click here for the letter from the Secretary of State's office confirming that the proponents failed to gather enough signatures to qualify.

Former Republican Sen. John Benoit was sworn in as the newest member of the Riverside County Board of Supervisors this morning.

Benoit, who was tapped for the spot by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Nov. 4, had delayed his resignation to Nov. 30 so that the district could save money by rolling the special contest to select his Senate successor into an already scheduled election.

Schwarzenegger now has about two weeks to call a special election to fill the vacancy in the 37th Senate District.

Click here to read a previous post rounding up some of the candidates said to be eyeing the seat.

Former state lawmaker and state Democratic Party head Art Torres could be up for a pay raise in his new gig as co-vice chairman of the California Institute of Regenerative Medicine.

David Jensen at the California Stemcell Report blog reported last night that the agency's directors will consider upping Torres' pay when they meet at Stanford University Dec. 9-10.

"CIRM did not specify the amount of the increase proposed for Art Torres, who has served as a vice chairman for eight months. Currently he receives a $75,000 salary for what is supposed to be a half-time job. Our impression, however, is that he putting in considerably more effort than that."

Click here to read the meeting agenda.

A legal defense fund recently opened by Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, has caught the eye of the Fair Political Practices Commission.

Wright, whose residency claims are the subject of an investigation by the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, last month opened a campaign account to cover potential legal costs .

Lawmakers can use such accounts to raise unlimited funds to pay for attorney fees and other legal costs, but are required to identify why the funds are needed and return excess funds once the case or challenge in question is resolved. The statement of organization establishing "Taxpayers for Rod Wright Legal Defense Fund," stops short of listing the reason for opening the account, saying only that surplus funds will be used for "any lawful purpose."

FPPC Executive Director Roman Porter said commission staff is looking into whether Wright "accurately and appropriately filed" the paperwork to establish a legal defense fund.

Wright said he was unaware of any issues with the account paperwork and that he would ask his treasurer to amend the filing if necessary.

"I thought it was done properly," he said.

Wright declined to identify specific legal cases or fees the account would be used for, saying the fund would be used for "any legal fees that I incur in connection with any legal issue." When asked whether he anticipated any legal issues or challenges in addition to the pending LA District Attorney's probe, Wright said, "not that I would discuss in the paper."

One sign the holiday season is here?

Democratic Rep. Loretta Sanchez's annual holiday card has arrived in (e-)mailboxes.

The congressional gossip mavens over at Roll Call newspaper's Heard on the Hill column posted this year's "Dancing With the Stars"-themed e-card.

The card features a glitzy Sanchez gliding across the dance floor as her cat, who's often featured in the annual greetings, says "Tom Delay, eat your heart out" next to a purrfect "10" scorecard.

Click the image at left for a full-size photo.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of thist post misidentified the member who sent the card. It was Loretta, not Linda, Sanchez. The Bee regrets the error.

The Fair Political Practice Commission will consider at its Dec. 10 meeting tightening gift disclosure rules to prevent lobbyists from currying favor by giving freebies and presents to elected officials' spouses and children.

Susan Ferriss has more on the staff recommendation that the commission expands gift disclosure and limit rules to include gifts to elected officials' families in today's Bee:

"What we're looking at is the attempt to influence" state legislators, their aides and certain other local and state officials in California, Roman Porter, executive director of the commission, said Monday ...

The recommendation stems from concerns about "the uses and abuses of gifts," Porter said. It also stems from a staff review of the ethics of a retired Orange County Superior Court judge donating $25,000 in college tuition to the son of a local government employee and a court commissioner.

A Bee analysis conducted earlier this year showed that leaders, their staff and family had accepted more than 12,000 gifts worth more than $833,000. Click here to search The Bee's interactive database of reported gifts.

Related: Click here to read about the FPPC's $12,500 settlement with CalPERS board member Charles Valdes over campaign contribution limit violations. You can read about the commission's recommended fines for Assemblyman Joel Anderson and the Fresno County Republican Central Committee here.

The Assembly is set to take another step toward taking up "Race to the Top" legislation tomorrow, when it will convene for the first reading of its version of legislation aimed at ensuring California schools are eligible for the federal competitive grants.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass informed lower house offices yesterday that a check-in session was scheduled for Wednesday.

The Assembly is set to introduce at the session its version of the "Race to the Top" legislation, spokespersons for Bass and Assembly Education Committee Chairwoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, said Monday.

The Senate passed its own version of the bill, which includes changes to the education system proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger when he called the special session on schools, last month.

The Assembly Health Committee is marking World AIDS Day with a hearing on state funding levels for AIDS treatment and prevention programs.

The hearing, set to begin at 10:30 a.m. in Los Angeles, is a response to deep budget cuts to AIDS programs in the state, which has reported about 154,000 AIDS cases since the epidemic began. State funding for California's Department of Public Health's Office of AIDS was slashed by about $85 million in the 2009-2010 fiscal year.