Capitol Alert

After another round of heated debate, a slimmed-down version of the Senate-passed prisons cuts bill squeaked by in the Assembly. The bill, which you can read here, was approved 41-35.

The Assembly's version of the bill lacks several key and controversial components included in the Senate's plan. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, issued a statement saying the Assembly, "took a good first step today but it's not a complete package."

"In the coming weeks, I look forward to working with Speaker Karen Bass and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on further reforms that will strengthen our criminal justice system," he said.

Read more on the bill from The Bee's Jim Sanders here.

Photo: Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, listen as lawmakers debate the corrections cuts plan Monday afternoon. (Hector Amezcua/Sacramento Bee)

The state's political watchdog agency announced today that it will post on its Web site warning letters issued in cases where the subject is found to have violated state campaign laws, but is not issued a fine.

The Fair Political Practices Commission has posted "warning letters" issued between July 1 and Aug. 24. Starting Sept. 1, it will also post advisory letters, which are issued in cases where commission does not have enough evidence to prove a violation, and 'no violation' findings one week after those letters are issued.

The letters have been available in the past through public records requests, but this is the first time the commission's Enforcement Division has decided to automatically make the documents public, FPPC Executive Director Roman Porter said.

"The issuance of these letters by our Enforcement Division is a function that many just don't know about," FPPC Chairman Ross Johnson said in a statement. "The public and media should have access to this information, which details not only those that have violated the Political Reform Act and not received a fine, but instances where the FPPC has found no evidence of wrongdoing."

Porter said the majority of complaints investigated by the FPPC are resolved by issuing a warning letter, which also informs the subject that repeated or future violations will result in a fine.

Read the letters here.

The Assembly, which is expected to take up its version of the prisons cuts plan today, has convened for its scheduled floor session. Tune in for a video feed of the action here.

Click here for an updated summary of the bill and how it differs from the Senate-passed plan.

You can read the bill language here.

After the jump, read a list of organizations that have taken a "support," "neutral" or "no position" stance on the Assembly's pared-down plan.

The Great California Garage Sale netted more than $1.6 million over the weekend, according to the Department of General Services Web site. The bulk of that cash -- $1.2 million --came from car sales, but "warehouse items," ranging from BlackBerries to bobblehead figurines, raked in $398,000.

At least 5,000 shoppers flocked to the sale Friday to snatch up the best deals. Missed the action? Check out this video by The Bee's Hector Amezcua:

California has one of the nation's highest proportion of residents without medical insurance, about 20 percent, but many of those with insurance have found themselves with debts from medical care, according to a new study by UCLA's Center for Health Policy Research.

More than 2.2 million adults Californians report medical debt, with two-thirds of them incurring debt while insured, according to "The State of Health Insurance in California." Overall, 13 percent of Californians have some kind of medical debt and about a third of those have more than $2,000 in medical debt.

Not surprisingly, residents of relatively low-income rural areas have the greatest levels of medical debt, as high as 39 percent in Humboldt County, while those in affluent urban areas have few such problems, just 7.1 percent in San Mateo County.

"That even insured people are forced to take on medical debt to pay for their health care is another glaring inadequacy in our current system of health insurance," said E. Richard Brown, director of the UCLA center. "Current policies either do not offer enough coverage or offer full-coverage at a cost that is too expensive for many people to bear. The result is that too many people have health insurance plans that leave them financially vulnerable and force them to delay the care they need."

The full report on Californians' health insurance, or lack thereof, is available here.

From Rob Hotakainen in Washington:

Rep. Tom McClintock has raised $635,914 for the 2010 election cycle, more than any other California Republican on Capitol Hill.

Among Democrats, Sen. Barbara Boxer leads the pack, with $8.3 million.

That's according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which has assembled a list showing how much candidates have raised so far in each of the state's congressional districts and in the Senate race.

Boxer is seeking a fourth term, while McClintock is running for a second term.

Read the breakdown here.

The Assembly and the Senate both have floor sessions scheduled for today.

Expect a flurry of bills to flow through both houses in the coming days. Lawmakers have just two weeks left to pass or reject measures before the regular session wraps up for the year.

The Assembly is expected to vote on its version of the prisons cuts plan today.

The lower house's version of the Senate-passed plan eliminates several key and controversial elements, including the creation of a sentencing commission and a plan to release some inmates to electronic monitoring or alternative custody arrangements.

A group of health care professionals turned puppeteers touring Northern California with a message-driven musical will push for single-payer health care at the Capitol today.

The Single Payer Players perform "The Sound of Moolah," on the north steps at noon.

The show, fashioned after summer-stock theater favorite "The Sound of Music," includes such tunes as "All that Dough, Where Does It Go?" (a rewrite of "Do-Re-Mi").

The cast of characters includes an underinsured Massachusetts family, insurance and drug company CEOs and lobbyists.

After "community talks" fail to deliver a solution for the Von Trapped family's health dilemmas, they run off to seek better care in ... well, we wouldn't want to ruin it for you.

The group supports Senate Bill 810, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, which stalled in the Senate earlier this year.

Attorney General Jerry Brown, who is widely expected to announce his candidacy for governor, said Friday that his office's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement has launched an independent investigation into physicians implicated in police investigations of pop star Michael Jackson's death.

Brown said in a news release: "Responding to a request from the (Los Angeles Police Department), agents from my office will investigate several physicians whose names have come up in the course of the Michael Jackson death inquiry. This investigation is at its earliest stages, and no conclusions can be drawn at this point."

The attorney general's office had already been assisting the LAPD with the investigation.

The Los Angeles County coroner declared Jackson's death a homicide Friday, according to news reports, and investigators have looked into whether Jackson's personal physician Conrad Murray caused the death by administering excess anti-anxiety and sleep medication to the singer.

"The drugs propofol and lorazepam were found to be the primary drugs responsible for Mr. Jackson's death," the coroner's office was quoted as saying.

Photo credits: Jerry Brown (Chris Pizzello/File Photo); Michael Jackson (Michael Mariant/AP)

The ghost of Willie Horton has haunted the debate over the plan to cut prison costs by reducing the inmate population and relying more heavily on parole.

Now, the case of Jaycee Lee Dugard, who was rescued this week after being kept in captivity by a convicted rapist for 18 years, is expected to spark a fresh round of attacks from critics of the plan.

Phillip Garrido, who is charged along with his wife Nancy with kidnapping Dugard when she was 11 years old, was able to conceal her and two daughters he fathered with her, despite being a registered sex offender subject to home visits and monitoring by a parole officer.

Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach, lashed out at the prisons plan in this piece by The Bee's Sam Stanton:

"This demonstrates the problems that we're going to have if we release thousands of prisoners into our local communities," said Harman, who is running for Attorney General and voted against the plan. "Here was a prisoner who was a very great danger to the community. The parole people knew it, he was supposedly being checked three times a month, and still he was able to perpetrate this crime that lasted over 18 years."

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg shot back, saying Garrido would not have been released early under the Senate-passed plan and highlighting a provision that would lower the caseload for parole officers from about 70 to 45 parolees.

"The parole reforms passed by the Senate increase parole agents' ability to more effectively monitor this kind of sex offender," Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said in a statement. "Our resources must be marshaled to crack down on offenders like Phillip Garrido. He is the poster child for the need to reduce parole officer caseloads and increase parolee monitoring like the Senate voted to do last week."

The Assembly is expected to vote on a pared-down version of the Senate-passed prisons bill on Monday.

Photo: A file photo of Jaycee Lee Dugard as a young girl.

Brandon Shoemaker, a Republican running for the 31st Assembly District seat in 2010, is offering a Delta delicacy of sorts for supporters at an upcoming fundraiser.

An invite for the Oct. 3 event promises that Delta smelt appetizers will be served (Yes, we're serious!), alongside a robust meal of BBQ beef, rice pilaf, green beans and rolls.

We asked earlier how the campaign intended to cook the bite-sized fish, which were added to an endangered species list by the California Fish and Game Commission earlier this year.

Shoemaker responded this afternoon with a clarification that he doesn't intend to cook the endangered breed -- smelt fished in other locales is available for sale at his local grocer.

The store-bought smelt will be grilled or deep fried whole and served with a variety of dipping sauces, he said.

"It may not be appealing for some people to eat a fish, eyes, bones and gills and all, so there will be another decent appetizer for those people,' he added.

The inclusion of smelt on the menu is a reference to federal water pumping restrictions meant to protect the rare fish. Conservative groups have rallied against the limits, saying the feds have chosen fish over farmers.

"When we say fish are more important than the survival of human beings, that's a problem," Shoemaker said.

The event's tagline: "Sometimes the fish eats you, but in the end you get to eat the fish."

Thanks to our colleague Matt Weiser for pointing out the invite.

This post was updated at 4:30 p.m. with Shoemaker's response.
Photo credit: Randy Pench/Sacramento Bee.

As reported in today's Bee, legislation aimed at preventing hundreds of thousands of children from losing health care coverage provided by the Healthy Families program appears to be on track for approval.

Members of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which runs the low-cost insurance program for low-income children and teens whose families aren't poor enough to qualify for MediCal, decided yesterday to put off plans to begin cutting coverage as they continue efforts to raise cash and keep kids on the rolls.

Ginny Puddefoot, MRMIB deputy director for health policy legislation, said program officials found they had sufficient funds to wait one more month before beginning the disenrollment process.

"The board is still hopeful that the efforts of the governor's office, legislative leaders, health plans and children's advocates will be successful in identifying alternative funding, therefore allowing the board to make a finding of sufficient funding and avoid disenrollment," she said.

The board also continued to chip away at a $112 million funding shortfall yesterday, passing several structural changes to the program. Approved changes included slight increases in co-pays and subscriber premiums.

But even with the estimated $12 million in savings approved yesterday and an $81.4 million funding pledge from the First 5 Commission, Healthy Families officials say the program faces a lingering $100 million state funding gap. The program's operating budget was slashed by $178 million in the recent budget revision, and in late July administrators announced they would have to begin cutting coverage because of insufficient operating funds.

AB 1422, a gut-and-amend bill that passed through Senate Appropriations yesterday and is headed to the Senate floor for a vote, could fill that gap by replacing an existing tax on insurance companies that manage Medi-Cal set to expire with a new, lower fee to raise money for Heathy Families. Several Republicans on Senate Appropriations voted for the bill and no industry opposition has been filed.

The board had planned to notify the first wave of subscribers to lose coverage, those whose one-year anniversary in the program falls in October, next week. If the board is unable to find another solution to fix the program's cash shortage, subscribers set to lose coverage will be given 30 days' notice of disenrollment starting Oct. 1.

Here are the changes approved by the board:

• Change dental coverage plans to align with the approach used for state employees. Where available, subscribers would enroll in a managed care plan instead of a preferred provider plan for the first two years. (Estimated savings: $2.3 million)
• Increase program co-pays for health, dental and vision services from $5 to $10 for non-preventative services (Estimated savings: $5.9 to $6.7 million)
• Increase co-payment for brand-name prescription drugs from $5 to $15. Generic drugs co-pays will go up from $5 to $10. (Estimated savings: between $3.3 and $4 million)
• Increase co-pay for emergency visits from $5 to $15 unless hospitalized. (Estimated savings: $1 to $1.2 million).
• Increase subscriber premiums for some families. Families with incomes under 150 percent of the Federal Poverty Line will see no change in premiums. Other subscribers will see premiums increase between $4 and $21 a month, depending on income and the number of children enrolled. (Estimated savings of $5.5 million)*

*This change requires legislative approval and would be enacted by AB 1422. AB 1422 also gives MRMIB the authority to enact these changes in the coming months, instead of waiting until the next fiscal year.

This post was updated to correctly describe eligibility for the Healthy Families program.

If you sense that California's highways and streets are in worse repair and more congested than those of other states, you're probably correct, a new nationwide compilation of transportation data indicates.

Transportation for America, a Washington-based coalition of business, labor, environmental and governmental groups that lobbies for "a national transportation program that will take America into the 21st century by modernizing our infrastructure and building healthy communities where all people can live, work and play," has constructed an interactive website that provides state-by-state data, with comparisons to national averages.

It reveals, for instance, that 17.2 percent of California's roadways are considered to be in "poor condition," compared to the national average of just 5.8 percent, and traffic delays are considerably worse than those in other states. Only 2.9 percent of Texas roads are considered to be in poor condition, and the percentages in Nevada and Arizona are slightly lower at 2.8 percent. New York's number is 13 percent.

California is, however, slightly below the national average in metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from transportation per capita, perhaps reflecting its tough smog rules, but also slightly above the average in the proportion of its population (37 percent) without access to a car. The state's record of pedestrian fatalities, 1.97 per 100,000 people, is 56 percent above the national average.

The interactive website can be found here.

Looking for a surefire way to start your weekend off right? Whether you're single and ready to mingle, in the market for a new ride (or ceramic cat) or a liberty-loving Tea Party Patriot, there's an event on tap to fire up your Friday.

Thousands are expected to convene at the Capitol at noon for a Tea Party rally. The demonstrators, who will be bussed in from all corners of California, plan to "protest the growing oppressive government over-regulation and eco-tyranny foisted upon the public by an overzealous government," according to a press release. Hot topics include climate-change legislation, government restrictions on the Delta water pumps and, of course, taxes.

This round is expected to draw an even larger crowd than the 5,000 demonstrators "partied like it was 1773" at the April 15 Tax Day Tea Party on the Capitol steps.

Expecting a high turnout, the Joint Legislative Rules Committee sent out an e-mail yesterday alerting Capitol types to the action.

But the e-mail description didn't exactly capture the plan for the "party" -- it swapped "Tea Party" with "Tea Bag," a term perhaps better suited for a high school locker room than Capitol halls.

The message drew ire from supporters, including Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, who Twitter messaged Capitol Alert: "It's a Tea PARTY & it's important!"

Moments later, Gaines, the committee's vice chair, tweeted that he had asked the Rules staff to send out a corrected e-mail. The committee quickly complied, recalling the first message and sending out an error-free announcement.

Tax revolts not your cup of tea? Head over to the Great California Garage Sale. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger plans to be there.

The two-day sale of government-owned loot kicks off at 8 a.m. today.

The stars of the sale are the government-owned cars (some signed by the guv). But the state is selling all sorts of gems to ease its cash crunch. Some highlights on the list of items include one ceramic cat, two hole punches (in fair condition), a pair of Porsche tires and rims, 10 Kings bobbleheads and a Macy's gift card (of unspecified value).

Sadly, there are no hamsters or legwarmers (that we've seen) up for grabs.

Hungry after that shopping spree?

"Top Chef: Legislative Edition" debuts in San Francisco today. Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, Master Chef Martin Yan and Chef Kam Chiu Leung of Koi Palace gather for a press conference about preserving the production of Asian rice noodles.

Health regulations require some foods to be kept either below 41 degrees or above 140 degrees at all times. But rice noodles, a staple in many Asian dishes, are meant to stay at room temperature for up to 8 hours, and some manufacturers of the noodles have been cited for violations recently. Yee said he plans to introduce legislation to change the regulations for rice noodles. And yes, there will be a live cooking demonstration at the event.

And finally, not for the faint of heart:

Head down to Palo Alto this evening for the National Single Cougars Convention. The event is sponsored by the Society of Single Professionals' Rich Gosse, who some might recognize as the man who ran on the "fairness for singles" platform in the 2003 recall election.

Now that sounds like a party.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass released the Assembly's version of the prisons cuts bill today. The Assembly is expected to take up the plan Monday, spokeswoman Shannon Murphy wrote in an e-mail.

As expected, several key elements of the Senate-passed plan have been eliminated, including the creation of a sentencing commission, the release of some inmates to electronic surveillance or alternative custody and changes to the prosecution standards for "wobbler" crimes, which can currently prosecuted either as misdemeanors or felonies.

Read a summary of the bill and changes here or the bill language here.

Today is judgment day for more than 100 bills sitting in the suspense file. Appropriations committees in both houses are expected to decide which of them will advance to the floor for a vote before the end of the session.

The Senate Appropriations Committee meets at 9:30 a.m. to consider more than 160 bills and the Assembly Appropriations Committee is scheduled to take up about 90 pieces of legislation today.

The Assembly was expected to take up its version of the prisons plan today, but that vote has been pushed back yet again.

"We are continuing to make progress on this very complicated issue, and we will vote as quickly as is prudent," Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said in a statement last night. "I would expect that the Assembly will vote on a responsible plan in the coming days that reduces prison overcrowding and improves public safety -- and which won't be immediately be challenged by the cops, sheriff's and DA's who Californians entrust with their safety."

A group led by Californians United for a Responsible Budget rallies outside the Attorney General's office to urge Attorney General Jerry Brown not to appeal a federal panel of judges' order that California reduce its prison inmate population by more than 40,000 over two years. Similar events are being staged today across the state. Read the letter the coalition will present to the Attorney General's office here .

Might want to think twice before you hop that turnstile or skip that bus fare. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg holds an 11 a.m. press conference with representatives from the Sacramento Regional Transit District to talk about increased penalties for "nuisance riders." Think: "three strikes" and you're out of a ride.

Moving on to climate-related issues, Environment California representatives gather at 10:30 a.m. on the south Capitol steps to promote SB 14, which would require that California energy providers get 33 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2020. The bill was approved by the Senate earlier this year and is one of the many bills waiting for action in the Assembly suspense file.

Gov2010: Insurance Commissioner and GOP gubernatorial hopeful Steve Poizner is scheduled to stop by El Macero Country Club in Davis tonight for an event sponsored by several Northern California chapters of Republican Women Federated. Poizner will also be stopping by the GOP booth at the California State Fair at 5 p.m.

Update: A copy of the letter CURB is presenting to the Attorney General's office was added to this post at 10:30 a.m.

The state Supreme Court today rejected, without comment, a lawsuit filed by Charles Young, former chancellor of UCLA, challenging the constitutional requirement that new taxes obtain a two-thirds legislative vote.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger talked with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams in a Tweetcast Q&A today. It must have been lunchtime at Twitter's San Francisco headquarters -- judging by the open refrigerator in the background, at least.

*This post was updated at 9:20 p.m. with developments on the expected vote for the prisons package and Murphy's response*

During an otherwise lighthearted "Tweetcast" video interview, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took a swipe at the Assembly, calling members of the lower house gutless for not yet passing the prisons package.

"They don't have the guts to now make these decisions because they're more worried about their safe seats rather than the safe streets," he said.

The plan to cut prisons costs and reduce the overall inmate population by about 27,300 was narrowly approved in the Senate last week, without any Republican votes.

But several key components of the Senate's package, including the creation of a commission to consider changes to sentencing guidelines and a proposal to release as many as 6,300 low-level, nonviolent inmates to electronic monitoring or house arrest, faced resistance in the Assembly. With 11 members possibly running for higher office, Assembly Democrats were not able to secure the 41 votes needed to approve the Senate-passed plan. The Assembly was expected to take up an altered version of the package tomorrow, but Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said late Wednesday that the vote would be put off.

"We are continuing to make progress on this very complicated issue, and we will vote as quickly as is prudent," she said in a statement. "I would expect that the Assembly will vote on a responsible plan in the coming days that reduces prison overcrowding and improves public safety - and which won't be immediately be challenged by the cops, sheriff's and DA's who Californians entrust with their safety."

Bass spokeswoman Shannon Murphy shot back at Schwarzenegger Wednesday evening for criticizing Democrats' efforts to pass his plan, which does not have the support of Republicans.

"The governor, who has vetoed prison reform legislation in the past, should spend less time rattling his rhetorical sword and more time producing Republican votes for his public safety proposals," she wrote in an e-mail.

Schwarzenegger's remarks came toward the end of a Tweetcast Q&A the governor taped with Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams earlier today. Watch the video here or check out some other interview highlights after the jump:

The Fair Political Practices Commission summed up the Sacramento fundraising scene for incumbent candidates in a report yesterday:

If someone went to all 250 fundraisers scheduled in Sacramento so far this year (not counting golf tournaments or district-based events), they could spend a grand total of $1,014,270, FPPC Chairman Ross Johnson said in a release.

As we noted earlier this week, yesterday and today look like two of the biggest cash-collecting days of the month. If your pockets were deep enough (and your support broad enough) you could attended a marathon of 16 fundraisers in the capital today, spending up to $31,500. Here's a map of the events on our calendar. Click on the yellow "$" to see event details for that location.

View Cash Dash Map in a larger map

Have something on tap, but not on the map? E-mail tvanoot@sacbee.com with the details.

California's Legislature, as befits the state's complex cultural makeup, also has one of the nation's more diverse memberships, according to a new survey by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

"Race to the Top" stimulus funds for education and proposed changes to California's school system will be the subject of a 9 a.m. Senate Education Committee hearing.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell, Secretary for Education Glen Thomas, State Board of Education President Ted Mitchell, and representatives from the California Federation of Teachers, the California Teachers Association, United Teachers of Los Angeles, the Legislative Analyst's Office and the Department of Finance are among those scheduled to testify.

Click here to read the hearing agenda.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement Tuesday praising his wife's uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, for his "dedication to health reform, his commitment to social justice and his devotion to a life of public service."

"Teddy taught us all that public service isn't a hobby or even an occupation, but a way of life and his legacy will live on," Schwarzenegger said in the statement.

Kennedy, a longtime Democratic lawmaker and leading figure in national politics, died Tuesday of brain cancer. He was 77.

"He was known to the world as the Lion of the Senate, a champion of social justice, and a political icon. Most importantly, he was the rock of our family: a loving husband, father, brother and uncle. He was a man of great faith and character," Schwarzenegger said in the statement.

No criminal charges will be filed in connection with an incident at a June 26 fundraiser for Democratic congressional candidate Francine Busby, according to the results of a review by the San Diego district attorney.

Supporters of a bill that would create "Harvey Milk Day" to honor the slain San Francisco supervisor are hoping that the gay rights figure's induction into the California Museum's California Hall of Fame will give their efforts a boost.

Milk, who was recently lauded by the White House as "revered nationally and globally as a pioneer of the LGBT civil rights movement for his exceptional leadership and dedication to equal rights," is one of 13 2009 Hall of Fame inductees selected by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and First Lady Maria Shriver.

In announcing the list this morning, Schwarzenegger said the Hall of Fame honors the state's most influential men and women "for their drive, willingness to take risks, dedication and success in touching the lives of millions of people - not just in this state, but around the world."

But the governor vetoed a bill just last year that would create "Harvey Milk Day" to recognize the slain San Francisco supervisor's life and contributions to gay rights, saying it was more appropriate to honor Milk at a local level.

California home sales increased 12 percent in July over July 2008, while the median home price was 19.6 percent lower - reflecting the continued domination of the market by buyers acquiring distressed properties and the effects of a federal tax credit for first-time buyers.

The data were released today by the California Association of Realtors, whose president, James Liptak, credited the tax credit as playing "a critical role in the purchase decision of many buyers. Nearly 40 percent of first-time buyers said they would not have purchased a home if the tax credit was not offered. Because the tax credit has helped so many first-time buyers become homeowners, it is critical that Congress extends the credit beyond the Dec. 1 deadline, and includes all buyers, not just first-timers."

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 553,910 in July at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by CAR from more than 90 local real estate associations. That was 12 percent higher than the revised 494,390 sales pace recorded in July 2008. Sales in July 2009 increased 8.1 percent compared with the previous month.

A region-by-region survey of July median sales prices, contrasting them with the peak market of a few years ago, is available here.

The "high desert" area of Southern California had the steepest decline, 67 percent, while Santa Clara County had the smallest drop, 32.4 percent.

The latest results from California's standardized student tests continue to show incremental improvement in academic achievement, but the state still faces a monumental crisis, Oakland-based Education Trust-West says in its annual report on the status of public education.

The report was issued as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger renews his demands for education reform, calling a special legislative session to align the state with President Barack Obama's new reform program.

While the state is making incremental improvements, "the gaps in achievement separating Latino, African-American, and low-income students from their more advantaged peers are not closing but in some cases, are actually widening," EdTrust-West said as it released its report.

"By nearly every measure, our public schools continue to struggle to serve our most vulnerable children well," it continued. "Unfortunately, the schools profiled in this report remain the exception, rather than the rule. State leaders must seize the opportunity provided by the federal government's unprecedented investment in education and the governor's call for special legislative session to enact the type of change that will forever close gaps in access and achievement. We simply cannot afford to tinker at the edges of reform while another generation of young people-particularly our low-income students and students of color-go underestimated and underserved by our education system."

The full report, highlighting the organization's assessment of what's working and not working in the classroom, is accessible here.

As Jim Sanders reports in today's Bee, the Assembly is still negotiating the details of the prisons package with the goal of voting on some variation of the Senate-passed plan later this week.

One of the central functions of the Senate plan is to reduce the overall prison inmate population by about 27,300, while upping parole supervision for more violent criminals.

To get a sense of how the inmate and parolee populations are spread out across the state, check out this interactive map from SacBee.com.

The Senate Local Government Committee, taking what it calls the "Dragnet approach," has updated its fact sheets on California's cities, counties, special districts and redevelopment agencies.

The two-page "just the facts" sheets summarize the latest demographic and financial data about local governments and are included in the committee's on-line reference library, available here.

The Assembly's still wrestling with the prisons package, but the issue du jour is education.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special session last week and asked legislators to make sweeping changes to the school system, including repealing a controversial state law that prohibits tying teacher evaluations to student test scores without agreement from local teacher unions.

The governor visits Fresno today to meet with schoolchildren and promote his proposals, which are aimed at ensuring California can compete for federal "Race to the Top" funds and future education funding that could be tied to educational reform requirements set by the Obama administration.

Back at the Capitol, there will be an 11 a.m. press conference by a group of Oxnard educators who just finished a seven-day hunger strike to protest funding cuts to education over the last two years. Representatives from the California Teacher's Association and the PTA will be in attendance, as well as Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antioch, Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, and Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles. (Romero and Torlakson are both running for superintendent of public instruction).

Another schools chief candidate, Larry Aceves, will talk to the Victorville Rotary about the need to update California curriculum to produce students who can compete in the 21st century economy.

And current Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell and Education Secretary Glen Thomas join California State PTA President Jo Loss at Bannon Creek Elementary School to launch a new campaign to get parents involved in their children's education.

Looking ahead to 2010 (and beyond): Hope you didn't forget your checkbook... We've got 19 fundraisers for current lawmakers on tap tonight. According to our count, there are 18 more scheduled for Wednesday.

Here's a roundup of some stories you might have missed today:

Democratic Assemblywoman Noreen Evans isn't wasting any time launching her bid to replace Sen. Pat Wiggins, who announced yesterday that she won't run for re-election in 2010. Evans has already secured the support of Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger sent a letter today appealing the Obama administration's decision to deny California's request to declare a federal disaster over severe drought conditions. Read the letter here.

Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, sent a letter urging the governor not to close the
Marshall Gold Discovery State Historical Park. The Parks Department announced last week that the site, which was home to the discovery of gold that triggered the California Gold Rush, would close because of budget cuts.

A group of 28 legislators has signed a letter protesting the Department of Public Health's effort to retroactively cut off payments as far back as July 1 for non-profit organizations that provide assistance to domestic violence victims through the Domestic Violence Program. The program was eliminated in the recent round of budget cuts.

Insurance Commissioner and Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner is calling for a part-time Legislature that he says will force representatives to spend more time in their districts and learn more about people's needs.

Poizner raised the issue at a speech in San Diego on Thursday.

The candidate expanded on the idea Monday while talking to Sacramento radio station KTKZ.

According to a transcript sent by Poizner's camp, the candidate said: "We have to wrestle control out of the hands of these career politicians and instead elect people that actually come from the trenches: teachers and bus drivers and business people who have a career, that have income coming from having to make a payroll some place, or getting a paycheck."

On Saturday, former Assembly Speaker Willie Brown rejected the idea in his column in the San Francisco Chronicle, writing:

"Basically, it would put part-timers in charge of a $100 billion corporation. All it would do is give the governor even more power.

"Think about it. The legislators would all have to get outside jobs. Anytime the governor wanted something, he could just call a special session, force them up to Sacramento for weeks on end and starve them into submission."

The California Chamber of Commerce and 33 other business groups are telling the state's tax reform commission it should back away from three major tax system changes now under consideration as it nears a deadline for submitting its report to the Legislature.

The coalition doesn't like removing Proposition 13's property tax limits from business property and a proposed new "carbon tax," both of which have been promoted by the tax commission's liberal bloc. But it also is warning about the potentially negative effects of a "net business receipts tax," similar to a European-style value-added tax, that commission chairman Gerald Parsky champions.

The commission was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders to propose major changes in the tax system to reduce revenue volatility, believed to be a big factor in the state's chronic budget problems. It was originally supposed to make its recommendations in April but has extended the deadline twice and is now due to make its proposal in late September. Schwarzenegger has said he will call a special legislative session to consider its proposals.

"The California business community has consistently stated that the solution to California's revenue problems will only come from robust economic growth and job creation," said today's letter to Parsky. "We believe the proposed split roll property tax and the energy tax would be extremely detrimental to California's economy. As for the business net receipts tax, we believe it is risky and inappropriate to move forward with dramatic changes to the tax structure without first fully vetting their impact on California jobs and the economy."

Parsky and several other commission members were pushing the net receipts tax as a substitute for the sales tax, coupled with a flattening of personal income tax rates and perhaps elimination of the corporate income tax. Then the commission's liberal bloc balked and insisted that the split roll, the carbon tax and other changes be placed on the agenda.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is hitting strong headwinds in his gubernatorial bid - even in his home base, according to poll results reported by the San Francisco Chronicle today.

A poll conducted from Aug. 15 to 18 by David Binder Research found Newsom trailed Attorney General Jerry Brown by 17 percentage points among San Francisco respondents who had made up their minds in the race or were leaning toward a candidate in the race, the poll found. Brown won 51 percent of respondents' support in San Francisco, while Newsom won 34 percent, according to the poll of 423 likely Democratic voters.

Brown hasn't yet declared his candidacy but is widely expected to do so. Various polls have shown Brown leading Newsom among Democratic voters statewide.

With closed-door talks continuing, the Assembly will not vote on a prison budget-cutting plan today after all.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has been meeting with Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and advocacy groups, including law enforcement, in an attempt to reach consensus, said Shannon Murphy, Bass' spokeswoman.

"There were a number of calls and meetings throughout the weekend with various stakeholders, including law enforcement," Bass said in a written statement today. "Those conversations are continuing.

"When we arrive at a responsible plan that can earn the support of the majority of the Assembly and makes sense to the people of California, we will take that bill up on the Assembly floor."

The Senate narrowly passed a wide-ranging prison plan Thursday, 21-19, but the Assembly balked at supporting it after spending much of that afternoon and evening crafting amendments.

Unable to reach consensus on either the Senate plan or Assembly amendments, the lower house adjourned at midnight without taking a vote. Passage requires a majority vote, 41 of 80 members. Republicans oppose both versions.

In a Friday morning news conference minutes after adjournment of last week's marathon session, Bass said she was not sure that either the Senate or Assembly version had majority support in her house.

"The caucus was exhausted," she said at the time. "There are still several members that have issues with various parts of the bill."

Bass initially said she planned to tackle the prison budget-cutting legislation when lawmakers reconvene today, but that plan ultimately changed. Murphy said talks will continue but no vote will be taken.

California is under judicial and budgetary pressure to overhaul its prison system, which has nearly twice the number of inmates it was designed to house.

Schwarzenegger and legislators last month committed to a $1.2 billion reduction, but left unresolved how that cut would be implemented, prompting this week's wrangling over the issue.

Assemblyman Jose Solorio doesn't want California's Golden reputation to be tarnished by a string of new ads seeking to lure businesses to the Silver State.

The Santa Ana Democrat launched a new advertisement and Web site this weekend to counter the Nevada Development Authority's attacks on California's business climate. Here's a video of the spot, which was paid for by his 2010 Assembly re-election committee and will air on cable channels in Southern California as well as online:

In addition to striking back at what he called "over the top and offensive" campaign from Nevadans, Solorio invited Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons and Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman to join him for a beer and dinner to discuss opportunities for cross-border collaboration. With its fantastical (albeit family-friendly) facade, Solorio's suggestion of dining at Disneyland seems like a choice that will put the Sin City pols right at home.

Controversial legislation to cut $1.2 billion from California's prison spending will return today to the Assembly, which will convene at noon.

The lower house balked Thursday at approving a Senate-passed prisons bill that is supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass ultimately adjourned her house at midnight without settling on a plan.

California is under judicial and budgetary pressure to overhaul its prison system, which is accommodating far more inmates than it was designed to house.

Negotiations reportedly continue on a compromise plan between the two houses, but meanwhile, Assembly members were expected over the weekend to consider amendments crafted their leaders.

Key changes proposed by the Assembly would:

• Eliminate a proposal that would allow the release of up to 6,300 "lower-risk" inmates -- under house arrest with electronic monitoring -- who are medically infirm, aged, or serving the final 12 months of their sentence.
• Retain the ability for prosecutors to charge suspects with felonies for committing any of three crimes: writing bad checks, receiving stolen property, or petty theft with a prior conviction.
• Require theft of property valued at about $950 or more to support a felony charge of grand theft. The Senate version would have raised the current $400 threshold much higher - to $2,500.
• Allow inmates to earn up to four months in additional sentencing credits for completion of rehabilitation, education or vocation programs in prison. The Senate version called for up to six weeks of credits.
• Alter the structure of a proposed sentencing commission that would have broad powers to rewrite sentencing guidelines.

The Assembly version would raise the commission's voting members from 13 to 14. It also would grant law enforcement more clout both by adding a representative from rank-and-file and by requiring that any actions of the commission by approved by two law enforcement members. A requirement that an ex-felon receive a nonvoting seat would be eliminated.

The Assembly's changes to the sentencing commission proposal angered California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, representing public defenders and criminal defense attorneys in private practice.

"This amendment will eliminate any independence of the proposed sentencing commission," said Ted Cassman, president of the group, in a written statement. "A single interest group should not be able to hold sentencing reform hostage in California."

Here's Bee political cartoonist Rex Babin's take on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signing car visors in hopes of boosting sales at the upcoming auction of government-owned cars. Will this weekend's auction draw cash or leave a lot full of celeb-signed clunkers? Let us know what you think in the comments forum below.

To see more cartoons from the Babin files, click here.

This post was updated at 1 p.m. to include a statement from Sen. Wiggins.

Sen. Pat Wiggins, D-Santa Rosa, announced yesterday that she has decided not to run for another four-year term.

The 69-year-old lawmaker has been dogged with questions about her health in the wake of outbursts and increasingly odd behavior, documented most recently in a Friday piece in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.

Wiggins and supporters referenced health issues in Sunday's announcement, but did not cite a specific reason for taking her hat out of the ring. Wiggins said in a written statement that she has long battled heath-related issues, such as a hearing impairment that requires her to wear a headset during hearings and floor debates.

"My commitment to fight for the people of the North Coast has not diminished a bit. But, the physical demands of representing a district that stretches from San Francisco Bay to Humboldt Bay, have become progressively more challenging for me," she said in a statement. "I am proud of my legislative accomplishments. I know I have made a difference with my votes and the measures I have carried for my district. I am equally proud of the message I have been able to send to everyone who is physically-challenged."

Wiggins was first voted into the Assembly in 1998. She had more bills signed into law than any other senator in 2008 and was a leading proponent of the smart growth movement. (Click here to see a list of her legislative accomplishments, distributed by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's office.).

Her announcement creates an opening for candidates seeking to run to in the strongly Democrat 2nd District in 2010. David Rosas, a Roseland School District Trustee, was already challenging Wiggins in the Democratic primary. A spokesman for Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat that she will likely run for the seat in 2010 as well.

Steinberg, who also served with Wiggins in the Assembly, issued a statement praising the lawmaker "as a thoughtful and humorous colleague, as a lawmaker willing to take on big issues and as a trusted and reliable friend."

"I am thankful for her service, better for her friendship and hopeful that she will continue to work in her community with the same love and dedication that she showed in Sacramento," he said.

Add pensions to the list of issues sparking controversy at the Capitol as the end of the regular legislative session nears.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who has pledged to push sweeping changes to the state's pension system, sees his plan to lower benefits for new hires -- not only state workers but firefighters, police officers, teachers, and other local-government employees -- as a potential fiscal fix for the state.

But the Peace Officers Research Association of California, which represents 62,000 officers and 850 local public safety associations, isn't too pleased about the impact it says a pension overhaul would have on efforts to recruit new officers.

The group, which has also been a vocal opponent of the sentencing commission provision in the prisons plan, is hitting the airwaves starting today with a statewide campaign connecting the dangers of being a police officer to the profession's lucrative retirement plans.

"California peace officers have to wear bullet-proof vests, tasers, and guns to go to work every day," PORAC President Ron Cottingham said in a release about the campaign. "Bottom line, it's not easy, and the fair retirement and benefits that come along with it are earned and necessary to recruit and retain peace officers."

Watch the two 30-second spots, which will air here in Sacramento and across the state in the next two weeks, here and here.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Mike Naples issued the following resposne to the campaign Monday:

"After one minute of debate, the legislature boosted pension benefits to unsustainable levels, and the governor believes they must be engaged in reducing those benefits for new employees back to sustainable levels in order to protect funding for vital programs like public safety, education, and health and human services in future budgets."

Senate Appropriations considers a stack of bills today in advance of Friday's deadline for moving legislation out of fiscal committees for a floor vote in the final weeks of the session. The committee is scheduled to take up more bills on Thursday.

Capitol staffers seemed to be dressed especially summery today? Sen. Rod Wright has decided to revive "White Suits Day" to shed some light on a long-standing fashion edict: Whites are to be worn between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

The Inglewood Democrat shook things up during Thursday's prison debate with a floor speech that caused a bit of chatter around the Capitol. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

Update 6:55 p.m.: Schwarzenegger's response to the PORAC campaign was added to the post.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman jumped into the prison legislation melee Friday in an e-mail in which she called plans to release some 27,000 prisoners over the next fiscal year "an unbelievable violation of the trust Californians put in their leaders to carry out the first duty of government - public safety."

Among other measures, the bill would allow some inmates to be released early and wouldn't automatically send back to prison parole violators. The state Senate approved the plan Thursday, but the Assembly has stalled on the legislation.

In the e-mail, Whitman also criticized another part of the bill appointing a commission to rewrite the state's sentencing laws, saying the commission "is a dangerous and poorly disguised attempt to overturn the will of voters who overwhelming approved the Three Strikes and You're Out Law."

For the record, the commission would have no authority to rewrite Proposition 184.

Whitman spokeswoman Sarah Pompei expanded on the e-mail in a written statement:

"Three Strikes is an initiative but the commission, as passed by the Senate, could pick apart the law by picking and choosing which felonies can be turned into misdemeanors," Pompei wrote.

"Once you open the door and start talking about downgrading felonies to misdemeanors, which this commission would have the power to do, you begin to dismantle criminal sentencing in California and weaken 3 strikes and overturn the will of the people."

Newly filed campaign finance records show Lt. Gov. John Garamendi far ahead in the fundraising race to replace Ellen Tauscher in the 10th Congressional District, which sprawls across Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento and Solano counties.

Garamendi raised $517,368 from January to Aug. 12, according to the Federal Election Commission, while state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier came in second with $380,478 in the same period. Iraq war veteran Anthony Woods raised $214,106, and Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan took in $94,165. Buchanan loaned her campaign $250,000, the records show. All are Democrats.

Republican David Harmer, a lawyer and businessman, raised $244,599.28.

A poll by the nonpartisan SurveyUSA firm showed Garamendi ahead of the Democratic pack with DeSaulnier in second, Buchanan in third and Woods in fourth, and Harmer far ahead of Republican candidates. The district leans heavily toward the Democrats, who enjoy an 18 percentage point lead over Republicans in party registration there.

Voters will cast ballots in a Sept. 1 open primary and then in a Nov. 3 election if no candidate wins a majority of votes in the first round.

The state's continuing and perhaps deepening recession - marked by a spike in July's unemployment to 11.9 percent - is hitting retail sales hard, a new Board of Equalization announcement indicates.

The board announced today that it is reducing quarterly allocations of sales taxes to 337 cities and counties, based on estimates that taxable sales dropped 18.74 percent during the second quarter (April-June) of the year. And it said 15 smaller cities would receive no monthly sales tax advance this month because its previous allocations were too high.

The reductions and freezes hit nearly half of the 768 local governments that receive a share of the state-local sales tax. Second quarter payments were reduced by 14.4 percent. This month's reductions are similar to those that the board made in May for the first quarter.

While the 18.74 percent decline hits cities hard, the state's share of the sales tax is being buoyed by a temporary tax rate boost, one cent per $1 of sales, that the governor and Legislature enacted in February.

A spreadsheet showing all of the allocations, including the list of 15 cities whose allocations were reduced to zero is available here.

As Jim Sanders reports in today's Bee, the prisons package stalled last night without enough votes to win approval in the Assembly. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass said lawmakers will take the plan up again on Monday.

Below, watch a video with remarks by Senate Republican Leader Dennis Hollingsworth and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg after the plan squeaked by the Senate, 21-19, yesterday.

Video by The Bee's Hector Amezcua.

Lawmakers (and journalists) were tweeting updates during Thursday's debates and negotiations over the prisons plan. Our favorite came from Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, who shared this with the Twitterverse at 11:20 a.m.:

"I have 2 cups of coffee on my desk. I came prepared."

Chirping his dietary choices during big votes seems to be a theme for the Twitterberrying senator. Those following the feeds during last month's marathon budget votes might remember his late-night snack.

As for sartorial choices, Sen. Rod Wright , D-Inglewood, has called for the revival of "White Suit Day" on Monday. He and former Assemblyman Larry Bowler founded the style-minded day of observance when both were serving in the Assembly in 1998.

"White suits are to be worn after Memorial Day and before Labor Day. After Labor Day white suits should be stored until next year," Wright explained in an e-mail to fashion-challenged Capitol denizens.

Better take your duds to the dry cleaner or run them through the wash if you haven't already -- Wright is offering a free drink to anyone in the Capitol crowd who adheres to his dress request at an after-work event.

CD10 special election candidate Anthony Woods is holding a town hall at the Antioch library Saturday.

Speaking of town halls, Repair California holds a forum in Truckee today to tout the idea of convening a constitutional convention.

Representatives from Repair California, The Bay Area Council, Common Cause and the Sierra Business Council will all be on hand to discuss the proposal.

Legislators, being legislators, just couldn't wait for today's vote to be over on the budget-balancing prison package to start issuing press releases about their anger/pride/confusion about how things turned out.

The best of show in the early running was from Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto. In the third paragraph of his missive, the senator exclaimed he was "outraged that, with less than 24 hours of review, Democrats have pushed through these sweeping changes to public safety."

But in his last paragraph, it's explained that "Last month, Senator Cogdill expressed his strong concerns over the impacts those public safety cuts would have on Californians."

Uh, would those be the same public safety cuts the Democrats "pushed through with less than 24 hours of review"?

P.S. -- Cogdill also urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto the bill. This is an apparent reference to the same Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger who was behind the bill. Well, no harm in trying...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has decided to take the advice of his Twitter followers and autograph visors of automobiles up for sale in the upcoming "garage sale" auction of state-owned vehicles.

The plan, which he described in a much-discussed Twitter video last month, is to use his star-powered signature to raise the cash value of the cars.

Maybe he'll take late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's advice for easing California's cash crunch next.

Photo from the governor's Twitter feed.

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

Administrators of the Healthy Families program will consider a number of structural changes today in hopes of avoiding cutting coverage for children and teens.

"We have been doing analysis internally and with (audit and assurance advisers) PricewaterhouseCoopers to see which ideas would be feasible and when they could be implemented," said Ginny Puddefoot, deputy director for health policy legislation at the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which runs the program.

Healthy Families, which provides low-cost health insurance to 900,000 children and teens whose families are too poor to qualify for MediCal, has been coping with how to cut costs without curtailing coverage since the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger slashed $178 million of its funding in the budget revision package.

The 12-year-old program, which was already under financial strain, had to freeze new enrollments for the first time earlier this summer. More than 55,000 applicants had been added to a waiting list as of Aug. 11.

Even in light of an $81 million pledge from the First 5 Commission, MRMIB members said last week that they would have to begin disenrolling children Oct. 1 because of a remaining funding shortfall.

Staff members have been considering potential changes to the benefits, premium levels and co-payments to minimize the effect of the planned disenrollments, Puddefoot said. Several potential solutions will be presented at the board's 10 a.m. meeting today. (You can see the meeting agenda here.)

Some of the proposed changes could require approval from the Legislature. With notices of disenrollment set to go out starting Sept. 1, Puddefoot said administrators are doing all they can to find savings or additional funding in the coming weeks.

"We're all bumped up against the end of the legislative session in a couple of weeks, so that complicates things," Puddefoot said. "We're still hoping to find some way to avoid (disenrollment)."

As Jack Chang reports in today's Bee, the Legislature is set to take up a package of cost-saving changes to the prison system.

Legislative Republicans, police chiefs and district attorneys have come out swinging against the plan, which includes the creation of an appointed commission with the power to rewrite sentencing guidelines. The package, which requires only a majority vote, is expected to spark heated debate.

You can read the language of the bills here.

State Auditor Elaine Howle's office will audit the Department of General Services' controversial "strategic sourcing" contracts program.

Members of the state's Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted this morning for Howle's office to perform the audit following a brief hearing.

Four Assembly members and a senator asked for the audit.

Legislators argued that strategic sourcing is unfair to job-creating small businesses in California and favors large out-of-state-based multinationals. 

Legislators also questioned the state's oversight of such contracts.

To read an earlier post about the audit request by Assemblyman Warren Furutani, D-Gardena, and others, click here.

General Services denies its buying hurts small businesses, saying it's doing a lot to boost contracts awarded to small and disabled veteran-owned businesses.

It now spends over $2 billion a year on goods and services bought from such companies, DGS spokesman Eric Lamoureux said.

The department welcomes the audit and will cooperate fully, Lamoureux added.

To read more about the scope of the audit that committee members approved today, click on the document below.

Proponents of lifting pumping restrictions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta aimed at protecting Delta smelt convened at the Capitol today to call for the so-called "God Squad" to intervene in the fight over the water needs of fish, farmers and others.

State Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, (pictured above at microphone) and Republican Rep. George Radanovich joined Rob Rivett, president of the conservative legal group Pacific Legal Foundation, at a press conference this morning where they said the economic impact of the drought should compel President Barack Obama to convene the Endangered Species Committee (a.k.a. "The God Squad") to consider overruling water-pumping restrictions in the Delta.

The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz has more on the press conference and the impact the pumps and the drought have had on water supply here.

Photo credit: Torey Van Oot

A set of money-saving prison reforms to be taken up by the Legislature tomorrow includes the creation of a sentencing commission that will draft new sentencing and parole rules, according to a spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Such a commission had not been part of reforms proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to account for $1.2 billion in cuts to the state's prison system.

Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the rules drawn up by the commission will automatically take effect unless the governor and legislators reject them.

Schwarzenegger spokesman, Aaron McLear, said the governor has been supportive of a sentencing commission that allows him to appoint the members, that has a majority of public safety members and "has teeth" -- meaning its recommendations will take effect unless rejected by the Legislature.

"It's important that the commission would have real authority," McLear said. We've been debating this for two years. It's time to act."

Click here to read an analysis, and here to read the language.

Susan Ferriss reports in today's Bee on the tainted drinking water plaguing some Central Valley communities. Watch a video by The Bee's Hector Amezcua or read Susan's story here.

With a week and a half left until the CD10 special election primary, three candidates hoping to fill the seat vacated by former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher are hitting the airwaves. For those who don't live in the CD10 cable realm, here are the spots:

Lieutenant Gov. John Garamendi, a Democrat, courts voters with cowboy charm (and health care talk):

Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, thinks there's no place like a home (district) when it comes to where Garamendi should run:

Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, sets herself apart as "not one of the boys."

"Not One of the Boys" TV Ad from Buchanan for Congress on Vimeo.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tours the site of the Chino prison riot today. Schwarzenegger's visit comes just one day before the Legislature is expected to take up his plan to cut $1.2 billion from the prisons system by reducing the inmate population.

Republican Assemblyman Curt Hagman, who happens to be from the neighboring Chino Hills, has been tapped as the Republican Floor Leader by GOP Assembly Leader Sam Blakeslee.

"I am humbled by the confidence that has been placed in me. I look forward to working with Assemblyman Blakeslee and the rest of the Republican Caucus in making our state more safe and prosperous for our children," Hagman said in a statement.

That means one less job for Assemblyman Ted Gaines. The Roseville Republican had been serving as both floor leader and vice chair of the Assembly Rules Committee. Blakeslee spokeswoman Jennifer Gibbons said Gaines will remain a part of Republican leadership as vice chair of that committee.

In other committee leadership news, Assemblymember Connie Conway, R-Tulare, was appointed vice chair of Assembly Appropriations earlier in the week.

Conway and her 15 fellow committee members have a lot on their plate today. The committee faces a lengthy list of more than 100 bills, much like the Senate did earlier this week, at a hearing this morning.

On Friday, the Capitol served as a TV set for filming of "The Mentalist," but today might feel more like a multiplex, with two film screenings scheduled.

The Latino Caucus and the Asian Pacific Islander Caucus will show "IMMERSION" at 4:00 p.m. in Room 447. Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, Sen. Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, and Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance will give welcoming remarks before the screening of the 14-minute film, which is about the struggles of a young immigrant student who doesn't speak English.

Sad that Shark Week has come and gone? Assemblymembers Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego, and Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, host a screening of "Island of the Great White Shark," a documentary about efforts to research and protect the endangered shark population of Isla Guadalupe, at 5:30 p.m. in Room 126.

Corrections: The Appropriations hearing and movie screenings are today, not tomorrow as stated in an earlier version of this post.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina announced today that she has taken another step toward launching a U.S. Senate bid.

Fiorina, a the first woman to lead a Fortune 20 company and a former economic adviser to 2008 Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain, of Arizona, registered the name "Carly for California" with the Internal Revenue Service. The move is the first formal step to exploring the possibility of challenging Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in 2010.

"The people of California have serious concerns about job creation, economic growth and the role of government in solving problems that touch each of our lives," Fiorina said in a statement. "I have received a great deal of encouragement to make a run for the Senate in 2010 from people across the political spectrum because these are all issues that need focused attention in Washington, D.C. Today's filing with the IRS is a logical next step in the process of evaluating running for this office."

If she runs, Fiorna and Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, of Irvine, will go head to head in the June 2010 Republican primary to determine which candidate goes up against Boxer in the general election.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee fired shots at Fiorina this afternoon, criticizing her performance on the McCain campaign and calling her "one of the twenty worst CEOs in the country."

Standard & Poor's on Tuesday kept California at an 'A' rating for its long-term debt and eliminated its immediate threat of a downgrade because it said the July budget revision reduced pressure on the state's fiscal condition for the time being.

S&P was the only rating house of the three major agencies not to downgrade California's credit rating in July to near-junk bond status after the state began paying bills with IOUs. The agency placed California on a "CreditWatch with negative implications" in June, which carries an imminent threat of a rating downgrade. S&P removed that status Tuesday, though it said California's long-term outlook remains negative.

Despite inherent risks in the budget revision, S&P analysts said they "nonetheless believe the effects of the budget revision agreement help to dampen the imminent downward pressure on the state's rating."

S&P called a Department of Finance estimate that the state will face a $7.4 billion structural deficit next fiscal year "optimistic." Instead, S&P said "the longer-term structural deficit is likely higher at $15 billion on an annualized basis."

State Controller John Chiang and State Treasurer Bill Lockyer said last week that California would seek a $10.5 billion short-term loan to resolve its cash needs in the fall. But the S&P report says California instead plans to seek a $7.8 billion short-term cash loan in September, while fiscal leaders are asking lawmakers for bills to defer $2.67 billion in payments.

Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar said the latest long-term debt rating has no direct impact on what rating will be assigned to the short-term cash loan, known as a Revenue Anticipation Note.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg met with reporters today to talk about his top priorities as the Legislature makes its final push to the end of the session. Water, prison cuts, restoring the recent round of budget cuts to health and welfare services and reforms dominated the conversation. After the jump, see what Steinberg had to say on several key issues.

As lobbyists for card clubs and Indian gambling tribes push to legalize online poker in California, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said today he's open to the idea but doesn't believe there is enough time in the Legislature's remaining four weeks to make a decision.

Tribes and card clubs are joining forces to propose an online poker consortium that would take advantage of the lucrative Internet poker boom that largely has been run by offshore operators.

With the state hurting for cash -- and Democrats desperate for revenues to soften cuts to social service programs and schools -- Steinberg said he essentially has one thing to say to proponents of online poker: Show me the money.

"I think it is a legitimate idea for consideration," Steinberg said today in a press conference. "I only have one question when I hear a proposal like that: how much money for the state General Fund? It's all I want to know. You know, is it two, three hundred million dollars? If it is, I'd consider it. But I think it's going to take more than four weeks to analyze that kind of proposal and the potential economic benefits."

For more background, read Peter Hecht's story from last week.

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

Lawmakers will consider a Constitutional Convention and several other proposals for remaking California politics at a 10 a.m. joint hearing of the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee and Select Committee on Constitutional Reform today. After the jump, a roundup of related news and notes.

It's day two of the end-of-session stretch, and there's no shortage of action at the Capitol.

Water, water everywhere, as lawmakers begin to consider a package of water and Delta-related bills at a 9 a.m. informational hearing held by the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks and Wildlife and the Senate Committee on Natural Resources.

The California Latino Water Coalition follows the lead of the angry boaters who set sail in Sacramento over the weekend, holding a noon press conference on the East Side Steps of the Capitol to urge legislators to take greater action to fix the state's failing waterways.

Expect to be flooded with H20 info until the end of the session, as lawmakers attempt to strike a deal on the Delta issues. Up this week: the Public Policy Institute of California will hold a lunchtime talk Wednesday titled "Fixing the Delta: How Will We Pay For it?" Click here for more information or to RSVP.

Kevin Yamamura reports in today's Bee that Democratic legislators plan to take up Thursday Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal to move about 27,000 inmates out of state prisons to help cut $1.2 billion in corrections costs.

A coalition of human rights and civil liberties groups will rally on the Capitol South Steps at 11 a.m. to urge lawmakers to take a different approach to prison reform.

The group will tout what it calls the "People's Budget Fix," which includes closing youth prisons, reforming three strikes laws, cutting back on state incarceration for drug possession and converting death sentences to permanent imprisonment. Recently tapped Assembly Public Safety Committee Chairman Tom Ammiano, State Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, Assemblymember Jim Beall, D-San Jose and Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, are scheduled to speak.

Also on the schedule today: a joint hearing on constitutional and budget reforms by the Senate Elections, Reapportionment and Constitutional Amendments Committee and the Select Committee on Constitutional Reform.

Members of the Assembly Judiciary Committee will also look at several measures, including AJR 15, a resolution urging Congress to pass a bill that would eliminate immigration restrictions for same-sex couples.

It's ladies' night at Mix Downtown. California Women Lead holds a reception at the Capitol-area haunt to celebrate several women running statewide in 2010. Honorees include Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman, Secretary of State Debra Bowen, Attorney General candidate Kamala Harris and Superintendent for Public Instruction candidate State Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles.

Four legislators today called for an audit of the Department of General Services, saying unfair state purchasing practices favor big companies over small businesses.

DGS procurement boss Jim Butler immediately rejected the allegations, saying the state is meeting goals set by the governor to boost government buying from small businesses and disabled veteran businesses to 28% of its statewide purchasing.

Assemblymen Warren Furutani, D-South Los Angeles, Ira Ruskin, D-Redwood City, Jerry Hill, D-South San Francisco, and Juan Arambula, I-Fresno, joined Sen. Curren Price, D-Los Angeles, to urge the Joint Legislative Audit Committee to have state Auditor Elaine Howle audit DGS procurement practices.

The legislators said in a letter that the department's strategic sourcing initiative --squeezing major suppliers for big discounts on volume purchases -- is shutting many small businesses out of more government deals.

The committee will consider the request at a Wednesday meeting.

Butler said he welcomes all audits, but noted that DGS issued a report last month that offered findings that are rather at odds with what legislators are saying. The report by California State University, Sacramento business dean Sanjay Varshney said the state was injecting billions into small and disabled business coffers through its efforts to reach out to small and disabled businesses.

To read that DGS report, click here.

State Sen. Elaine Alquist is sporting something new these days:

An engagement ring.

The Santa Clara Democrat introduced J. Duncan Benas on the floor of the Senate Monday as the love of her life and "the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."

The two plan to marry in September 2010.

Alquist and Benas began e-mailing each other at the behest of a manicurist they both knew. They finally went on a blind date several months ago.

Love blossomed quickly.

Alquist, who will turn 65 this month, was widowed by the death of former Democratic state Sen. Alfred Alquist in March 2006.

A veteran lawmaker, Elaine Alquist served in the Assembly from 1996-2002, then was elected to the Senate in 2004.

Benas is a 70-year-old retired telecommunications worker and golfing enthusiast who resides in Pacifica.

Sure, Californians (and the state) are cutting back to cope with ongoing economic hardship.

But it doesn't appear that pinching pennies has curtailed contributions to potential candidates' campaign coffers.

The Fair Political Practices Commission released an analysis today showing that close to $61 million was raised in the first six months of 2009 by candidates considering a run for office in 2010, 2012 and as far out as 2014.

As FPPC Chairman Ross Johnson noted in a statement, many candidates who are current officeholders spread the wealth across several committees, legally raising money for multiple possible bids at once.

"California's tough economic times haven't slowed the flow of campaign contributions. Millions of dollars have been raised for races to be held one, three, or even five years in the future," he said.

FPPC Executive Director Roman Porter said because this is the first off-year analysis report of this nature compiled by the commission, it's hard to say whether fundraising figures are higher or lower than this point in the cycle in past years, but FPPC's Billion Dollar Money Train report shows fundraising totals for past cycles to give a sense of the total cash being raised for campaigns.

You can see a list of candidates and what they have raised in their various accounts here.

Although Democrats enjoy strong majorities in both legislative houses and California's congressional delegation - and hold all but two statewide offices - the left wing of the party is quite displeased, especially about cuts in health, welfare and education services to close a state budget deficit.

So what does the left want? A more aggressive legislative leadership and big changes in the state constitution, eliminating two-thirds votes for taxes and the budget are big on the agenda. Those and other goals were spelled out during a California-oriented panel discussion at the Netroots Nation convention in Pittsburgh, which featured several bloggers and policy wonks from the state.

Dante Atkins posted a rough transcript of the discussion by Dave Daye, Jean Ross, Robert Cruickshank and Kai Stinchcombe on the Calitics website, available here.

It's not just legislators making the flight to return to the Capitol on this fine Monday morning. Two Inglewood teenagers are flying themselves to Sacramento today, where Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, will present them with resolutions on the Senate floor.

Sisters Kimberly Anyadike, 15, and Kelly Anyadike, 17, both learned to fly through Compton's Tomorrow's Aeronautical Museum. The museum, which sponsor an after-school aviation program for Los Angeles youth in low-income families, will also be honored with a resolution.

In addition to defying heights, both girls have broken flight-related records.

Earlier this summer, Kimberly earned the title of youngest African-American female to pilot an airplane across the country and back, and Kelly snagged a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records last year for youngest African-American female to fly solo in four different fixed-wing aircraft on the same day.

The teens will be accompanied on their flight by the museum's founder, Robin Petgrave, and 87-year-old Tuskegee Airmen pilot Levi Thornhill.

Photo: Kimberly Anyadike on her cross-country flight earlier this year. Via her Facebook fan page.

It's back to work for legislators returning from recess today. And is there a lot to be done.

As Jim Sanders reports, lawmakers are expected to act on hundreds of issues over the next four weeks.

Some of the biggest items on the agenda include bills aimed at tackling the state's water woes as well as the task of cutting $1.2 billion from the prison systems.

Democrats have also vowed to restore nearly $500 million in line-item veto cuts to the budget, whether through the Legislature or the courts.

The Senate has 550 Assembly bills to act on before the end of the session, according to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's spokesperson Alicia Trost.

Senate Appropriations will kick start that process at 10 a.m. today, considering more than 100 bills. See the whole list here.

The Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee meets at 9 a.m. for an informational hearing on creating enforcement programs for consumer boards.

Stakeholders opposed to creating a "peripheral canal" in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta will hold an 11 a.m. rally on the west steps of the Capitol. State Sen. and CD10 candidate Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, and Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, D-El Dorado Hills, are expected to be in attendance.

Boat owners and other canal critics took to the waterways Sunday, leading a boat brigade on the Sacramento River.

Delta and water issues, including the five-bill package of water-related legislation introduced by Democrats, will be on tap Tuesday at a joint hearing of the Senate Natural Resources and Water and the Assembly Water Parks and Wildlife committees.

Small mobs of star-struck Sacramentans have been forming around the Capitol today as the cast of "The Mentalist" wraps up a second day of shooting an upcoming episode of the CBS police drama. The crew was spotted shooting on the Capitol steps early this morning, and by midday had blocked off the outdoor patio of Chicory's Coffee & Tea for a scene featuring star Simon Baker.

We hear they were looking for extras -- wonder if any Capitol staffers made it into the shots?

PHOTO CREDIT: Simon Baker, wearing a light blue shirt and dark vest, tapes a scene today for "The Mentalist" outside Chicory's across the street from the state Capitol. Taken by Torey Van Oot, via Blackberry.

Declining home prices in California have a bright side - an increase in the state's traditionally low affordability.

The California Association of Realtors says that 67 percent of California families could afford at least an entry-level home in the second quarter of 2009, up from 49 percent a year earlier.

"The minimum household income needed to purchase an entry-level home at $224,180 in California in the second quarter of 2009 was $39,930, based on an adjustable interest rate of 4.92 percent and assuming a 10 percent down payment.," CAR said. "First-time buyers typically purchase a home equal to 85 percent of the prevailing median price. The monthly payment including taxes and insurance was $1,330 for the second quarter of 2009."

At 86 percent, the High Desert region was the most affordable area in the state. The San Luis Obispo County region was the least affordable in the state at 50 percent, followed by the Orange County region at 53 percent. Merced County was the most affordable county at 84 percent.

California isn't alone in feeling the fiscal pinch and it's also not alone in seeking to trim its prison and parole costs, a new nationwide survey finds.

"The Fiscal Crisis in Corrections," issued by the New York-based VERA Institute of Justice, a criminal justice reform foundation, says that 37 states (not including California) responded to its survey and that at least 26 of them have reduced penal spending in response to budget problems.

California, with a $10-plus billion prison expense, is seeking a $1.2 billion reduction in its latest state budget, but there's a political stalemate on how to achieve it. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed a plan to shrink the state's prison population, now nearly 170,000, by 27,000 through a variety of strategies, including early release of some low-risk inmates.

Schwarzenegger's fellow Republicans have balked, but in the meantime a panel of federal judges has ordered the state to drop its inmate population by more than 40,000. The issue will be rejoined Monday when the Legislature returns from its summer recess.

The VERA report indicated that other states are implementing what California is still considering. It said a few states cut prison spending in anticipation that the hole would be filled by federal economic stimulus funds but at least 31 states are reducing prison staffs, imposing hiring freezes, reducing salaries and benefits and/or eliminating pay increases. At least 22 states are closing penal facilities, otherwise reducing their prison beds and/or delaying construction of new prisons.

"High rates of failure among people on probation and parole are a significant driver of prison populations and costs in most states," the report said. "To cut down on new offenses and the incarceration of rule violators, several states are strengthening their community corrections systems. Many states began these efforts in the past few years as part of the national emphasis on helping people successfully return to the community following their release from prison. States are now bolstering both their reentry programs and community supervision programs and working to improve outcomes for people on supervision.

"The biggest budget savings come from policy changes that impact how many people
come into prison and how long they stay. Staffing typically accounts for 75 to 80 percent of corrections budgets, so substantial cost reductions can be achieved only when the prison population shrinks enough to shutter a facility - whether a single cellblock or an entire prison. In FY2010, states looking for large cuts have turned to release policies and found that they can identify some groups of people who can be safely released after serving shorter terms behind bars."

The report includes a rundown on prison budgets of the states that responded. Texas, second only to California in the size of its prison system with about 150,000 inmates, spends $2.8 billion a year, less than a third of California's costs.

The full VERA report is available here.

It's Furlough Friday (and the last weekday off before the Legislature reconvenes).

Have the day off? Let us know how you're spending it.

Upload photos and read the plans of other furloughed workers at The Bee's Capitol and California online forum.

Assemblymember Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, and Latino leaders gather for a roundtable discussion on the California Fair Elections Act in Los Angeles.

The measure, which will be on the June 2010 ballot, would create public financing for Secretary of State campaigns by imposing higher fees on registered lobbyists.

Looking to stock up on some politically themed trinkets?

What's being billed as "the largest convention of political Americana in the country," sponsored by the American Political Items Collectors, kicks off in Reno today.

For more information on the two-day exposition, click here.

Up this weekend: The Assembly Select Committee on Child/Adolescent Health and Safety will hold a field hearing in Paramount on addressing childhood diabetes in schools. Education and health care officials are scheduled to testify Saturday at the 9 a.m. hearing.

Children's health care advocates got both a boost and a blow today, as the California First 5 Commission announced it would contribute $81.4 million to the state's Healthy Families health insurance program.

But members of the Managed Risk Medical Insurance Board, which runs Healthy Families, still had to tell the program's administrators to begin disenrolling children Oct. 1 to help close a funding shortfall.

"It was a day of very good news and very bad news for kids," said Wendy Lazarus, founder of Children's Partnership, a nonprofit child advocacy organization. "I think the First 5 contribution shows tremendous leadership."

"(But) this is a really dark, grim situation for kids in California," Lazarus said. "I don't think anyone living here ever thought we would see a day where kids with very low income can't get heath care."

The 12-year-old program provides low-cost insurance to about 900,000 children and teens in low-income families that aren't poor enough to qualify for Medi-Cal. Adults in many of the families are working, but their jobs don't provide health coverage or don't cover dependents.

The Legislature reduced the Healthy Families budget by $128.6 million in its budget revision last month, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger used his line-item veto to cut $50 million more.

A new poll by the political blog Daily Kos shows the early gubernatorial match-up between Attorney General Jerry Brown and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom as relatively close, with Brown leading Newsom by nine percentage points among 600 likely voters polled.

Brown enjoyed 29 percent of respondents' support while Newsom had 20 percent, the poll found. Brown hasn't yet declared himself a candidate but is widely expected to run.

Among declared Republican candidates, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman drew the support of 24 percent of respondents in a three-way match-up against former U.S. Rep. Tom Campbell, at 19 percent, and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner at 9 percent.

The poll, which was conducted by the firm Research 2000 from Aug. 9 to 12, also found Californians almost evenly split about same-sex marriage, with 47 percent of respondents saying they would vote for an initiative legalizing such marriages and 48 percent saying they would oppose it if a vote was held immediately on the issue.

The race remains competitive among Democratic candidates to replace Democrat Ellen Tauscher in the 10th Congressional District, according to a poll released Wednesday by the nonpartisan research firm SurveyUSA.

According to the poll, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi had the support of 26 percent of respondents, followed by state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier at 15 percent and Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan at 12 percent.

Among the Republicans, businessman David Harmer, who's the son of a former California lieutenant governor, enjoyed a clear lead with the support of 18 percent of respondents. David Peterson, who identifies himself as an accountability system owner, came in second with 4 percent.

The three minor party candidates drew a total of 4 percent of voter support, the poll found.

The district sprawls across Alameda, Contra Costa, Sacramento and Solano counties. Voters will choose among five Democrats, six Republicans and three minor party candidates in a Sept. 1 open primary.

If no candidate wins a majority of votes, the leading vote-getter of each party will advance to a Nov. 3 general election.

Television station KPIX of San Francisco sponsored the poll, which surveyed 552 likely voters and people who had already voted on Aug. 10 and 11.

Find the poll here.

An Assembly member who recently quit the Democratic Party to re-register as an Independent has been stripped of his chairmanship of the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Juan Arambula, of Fresno, will remain on the committee but be replaced as chair by Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco when the Legislature returns Monday from its annual summer recess.

Ammiano announced the move in a two-paragraph press release. Arambula later confirmed the action, which comes less than one month before legislators adjourn for the year.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass' office could not be reached immediately for comment.

Arambula left the Democratic Party in late June while the Legislature was fighting over how to close a multibillion-dollar budget gap. He voted with Democratic colleagues on many, but not all, of the budget bills that ended the crisis.

Arambula declined Thursday to discuss Bass' decision to name a new public safety chairman.

"I serve at the will of the speaker," he said simply. "I had only been on the committee a short time. It was interesting work, but I will serve wherever I am assigned."

The seven-member Public Safety Committee oversees criminal penalties, gun control, prisons, juvenile justice, illicit drug and other issues.

Arambula, who is termed out of the Assembly next year, said he will chair a budget subcommittee on state administration.

The legal buzz this week might be about the lawsuits filed againt Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the line-item vetoes to the budget revision, but State Worker columnist/blogger Jon Ortiz has a column today about another war being fought in the courts:

SEIU and several other state worker unions together and separately have launched at least a dozen furlough lawsuits in San Francisco, Alameda and Sacramento courts. All contend that Schwarzenegger's furloughs are either illegal pay cuts or are misapplied.

Read his entire column here.

Got big plans for Furlough Friday? Share them with us at our Capitol & California forum. Check out how other furloughed workers plan to spend their day off and upload a picture of what you did here .

California's projected cash flow is now strong enough that state Controller John Chiang says he will be able to stop issuing IOUs on Sept. 4, a month earlier than expected.

Read the story here.

Today's Bee reports that the state's Fair Political Practices Commission has three new faces as it gears up for its fall meetings.

What will they have to deal with when they arrive for the independent political watchdog's public meetings next month?

Elizabeth Garrett, a University of Southern California law professor, Chapman University law professor Ronald Rotunda, and Lynn Montgomery, a veteran Sacramento political hand and ex-FPPC spokeswoman, join a watchdog that has been hampered in its efforts to bring more criminal prosecutions over the years though it remains the envy of other states, said Robert Stern, president of the Center For Governmental Studies in Los Angeles.

Stern says that since its creation following a ballot initiative in 1974, the commission has been stretched by its heavy dual burden of handling both local and state government cases. It has racked up a hefty backlog.

The latest Department of Finance bulletin says California received $65 million more in revenues in July than forecast in the newly enacted budget revision.

For once, California is above a revenue forecast rather than below.

But don't celebrate too much. July is a low revenue month, unlike April, June or September. Out of $5.2 billion in revenues, the $65 million represents 1.3 percent above forecast. And the state only beat its forecast thanks to a $148 million cut in its July projection that was included in the budget revision enacted last month.

For categorical breakouts, Finance compared actual revenues against those forecast in May. Finance said personal income (-$74 million) and sales tax revenues (-$76 million) were below the May Revise forecast, while corporate taxes (+$104 million) were up. Those trends were different from the controller's report earlier this week because the controller's numbers didn't include updated cash received by state agencies.

The controller's report said one reason corporate taxes may be higher is that the governor signed legislation last year increasing penalties on corporations who understate their tax liability.

Updated at 11:50 a.m. with the governor's response

A coalition of advocates representing the disabled and disadvantaged has filed a second lawsuit against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the nearly $500 million in cuts he made to the budget revision using his line-item veto authority.

The move follows a decision by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to personally sue the governor on the grounds that he overstepped his constitutional authority by vetoing provisions in the package that were revisions to past appropriations, not appropriations themselves. St. John's Well Child and Family Center et al. v. Schwarzenegger et al,, which was set to be announced today at a 10 a.m. press conference in Los Angeles, also argues an abuse of power by Schwarzenegger.

Read the writ, filed yesterday, here.

California's landmark, 34-year-old law that limits noneconomic damages in medical malpractice cases to $250,000 has survived an effort to overturn it in the state Supreme Court.

The court refused to hear an appeal from a 5th District Court of Appeal ruling that the 1975 law, known as MICRA, does not violate state and federal constitutional guarantees, as plaintiff James Van Buren alleged in a case from Merced County.

Van Buren had sued Dr. Sian Evans and Yosemite Surgery Associates, alleging that Evans had "breached her duty to meet the applicable standard of care in her treatment of Van Buren's perianal cyst." The trial jury, on a 9-3 vote, agreed with that contention and awarded Van Buren $2.5 million in noneconomic damages, but the trial judge reduced it to $250,000 in accordance with MICRA.

The state Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case returns the decades-long controversy over the $250,000 limit to the political arena, where the Consumer Attorneys of California, the lobby for personal injury attorneys, has tried for years to repeal or change MICRA, to no avail. There were several clashes over MICRA changes in the 1990s, pitting trial lawyers against a coalition of insurers and medical care providers.

The Legislature passed and then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed the law in 1975 after a series of noisy protests by physicians, especially obstetricians, who said they were being driven out of medicine by skyrocketing malpractice verdicts and insurance premiums. Those premiums declined after it MICRA was enacted.

It was the first such law in the nation. Its passage touched off efforts by "tort reform" groups to enact similar limits in other states and in Congress. It's a major issue in the current congressional wrangling over President Barack Obama's effort to crate a national health insurance system.

The 5th District Court of Appeal decision is accessible here.

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

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and representatives from organizations affected by the blue-pencil budget cuts will hold a news conference this afternoon to discuss his lawsuit against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, will also attend the 2 p.m. presser, which is at the Mission Neighborhood Health Center in San Francisco.

A coalition of low-income groups, health-care clinics and disability support centers will announce a second lawsuit over the cuts in Los Angeles today.

Equality California holds a virtual town hall at 5 p.m. to discuss its decision to wait until 2012 to ask California voters to legalize gay marriage. To join the town hall, click here.

Gov 2010 candidate Gavin Newsom will be in Sacramento for a not-so-virtual town hall. The event is at 6 p.m. at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria, 828 I St. We've got our "ticket."

Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office is holding a randomized drawing to determine ballot order for candidates in the Nov. 3 local elections. The 11 a.m. drawing is at the Elections Division of the Secretary of State's Office, 1500 11th St.

A public wake for Schwarzenegger's mother-in-law Eunice Kennedy Shriver will be held at a Cape Cod church today.

You can share your memories of the Special Olympics founder here.

Sighted in a Capitol-area garage: "citations" to appear at Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom's Thursday town hall in Sacramento. "Tickets" were slipped under the windshield wipers of cars parked in a garage at 10th and L streets. We're guessing the campaign will accept contributions in lieu of a traffic fine.

Equality California, which bills itself as the state's largest gay advocacy group, announced today that it will wait until 2012 to try to reverse Proposition 8 through the ballot initiative process.

Officials from the group said that after seeking advice from political consultants, pollsters and stakeholders, the group decided to focus its energy on putting the issue on the ballot during the next presidential election, when more young voters, who are more likely to support same-sex marraige, are expected to hit the polls.

The announcement follows a 100-day research, fundraising and advocacy campaign that gathered data and feedback about several proposed timelines.

Read Equality California's report on its recommendation here.

A new battle over premiums charged by insurers for workers' compensation coverage is looming with Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican candidate for governor, in the middle.

Poizner has steadily rejected, or severely downscaled, proposals by the Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau for increases in the premiums, which fell sharply in the aftermath of a 2004 overhaul of the system that pays support and medical bills for workers with job-related injuries and illnesses.

The newest proposal by the bureau is for a 22.8 percent boost in the "cost claims benchmark," the basis for insurance premiums, effective next January, due to reduced profit margins and/or losses among insurers due largely to rising medical costs.

"Last month, I rejected WCIRB's request to increase the cost claims benchmark, in part because I found that insurers were inefficient and were not fully using available tools to control costs," Poizner said. "Instead of striving to control medical costs, I found that insurers were attempting to pass unsupported costs along to employers in the form of rate increases. They must work to be as efficient as their self-insured counterparts."

Poizner promised to "closely scrutinize" the latest proposal. Under state law, Poizner can approve, reject or amend proposed changes in the benchmark, but has no direct authority over workers' compensation insurance rates. The benchmark has fallen 63.4 percent since 2003, thanks largely to the reforms that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and business groups pushed through the Legislature. That translates into roughly a $15 billion per year savings to employers.

Those reforms have been under fire from labor groups and lawyers who handle workers' comp cases. Employers have defended them just as fiercely, saying that workers' comp costs are among the most important measures of business climate. And now insurers have joined the critics.

Poizner rejected WCIRB's application for a 23.7 percent benchmark increases last month and scaled back a proposed 16 percent boost last October to 5 percent. That stance has endeared him to employers as he seeks the governorship, but has created a rift between him and insurers who say they're losing money on workers' compensation policies in California.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes and California Water Resources Director Lester Snow hosted a public meeting on water issues and the Delta earlier this afternoon.

Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, got a head start on the conversation last night. He and actor Paul Rodriguez, a member of the Latino Water Coalition, joined Fox News' Sean Hannity to talk about the state's water woes.

The Latino Water Coalition claims that environmental pumping restrictions have resulted in a loss of jobs in the San Joaquin Valley. The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz has more on that angle here.

Updated at 3 p.m. with DCA Board reform proposals

Department of Consumer Affairs Director Brian Stiger announced today a series of proposed reforms for the department's boards, bureaus and commissions.

The proposed reforms are in response to an internal review by the State and Consumer Services Agency and Department of Consumer Affairs that determined that many of the healing arts boards face complaint investigation backlogs similar to the ones documented in a Los Angeles Times/ProPublica investigation of the Board of Registered Nursing.

Stiger echoed an earlier statement from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger calling the backlogs before the state's consumer boards "unacceptable."

"It is clear many boards and bureaus under the Department of Consumer Affairs are struggling with significant backlogs. ... Consumer protection will remain our number one priority and I will work closely with the governor and his staff, the boards and all other interested parties to enact reforms with rigorous standards for accountability and efficiency," said Stiger, who was named DCA's new director yesterday.

Proposed changes, which were introduced at a Board of Registered Nursing meeting today, include:

• Creating an Enforcement and Compliance Officer to monitor and conduct performance audits of board enforcement program.
• Giving board executive officers the authority to suspend a license or refuse a renewal for licensees who fail to produce documents or be interviewed without providing proper notice. Similar action could be taken against any person who is incarcerated or imprisoned for a felony.
• Establishing performance standards for executive officers.

One proposal also includes hiring more investigative and legal personnel, if deemed necessary to help address large workloads and improve public safety. The department could mitigate any added cost of new hires by increasing licensing fees, according to the statement.

"This process will not be fixed by throwing staff and money at the problem -- it will require targeted and thoughtful policy reforms that will strengthen and expedite the enforcement process," Stiger said in a statement.

Earlier in the day, Schwarzenegger called investigation backlogs "absolutely unacceptable" and said the boards' enforcement process must be overhauled.

Here is Schwarzenegger's statement:

"The enforcement and backlog time found at these boards is absolutely unacceptable. It is clear the current system is broken and the entire enforcement process across all of the boards must be reformed.

Consumers deserve to feel confident about the care and services they receive and that is why I appointed Brian Stiger to head the Department of Consumer Affairs. He shares my strong commitment to protecting consumers and has demonstrated his ability to streamline consumer protection programs, making them more efficient and effective.

I have charged Brian with reforming the entire enforcement process across all of the boards and I am confident he will work with the boards, the legislature, consumer and professional groups, and the public to quickly get it done.

My top priority is the health and safety of Californians and my Administration will aggressively work to reduce enforcement delays to better protect consumers."

Related posts:

Read about Stiger's appointment here.

Elizabeth Garrett, a top law professor and vice-president at the University of Southern California, was today appointed to the state's Fair Political Practices Commission.

Garrett, a vice president of budget at the USC Gould School of Law becomes the third new face to join the five-member FPPC this summer. 

Garrett was selected by Secretary of State Debra Bowen. 

The series of new FPPC appointments began in early June, when  Lynn Montgomery, a former chief of staff to Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, was named a commissioner 

Attorney General Jerry Brown picked Montgomery, who was a political reform consultant and one-time FPPC media director earlier in her government career.

To read our report about that appointment, click here.

The second new face came a few weeks later, when  Orange law professor Ronald D. Rotunda, a Harvard Law School graduate, was appointed to the FPPC.

Rotunda was a pick made by state Controller John Chiang.

Rotunda teaches legal ethics and constitutional law at Chapman University, where he is the Doy and Dee Henley Chair and Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence.

To read our report about him,  click here.

Seats on the commission are part-time jobs, which do not require Senate confirmation. The job pays $100 per day plus travel expenses.

All three appointees will serve on the five-member commission until 2013.

Read more of Garrett's bio after the jump.

Photo courtesy of USC media relations 

The decline in California exports continued into its eighth straight month as the global recession dampened demand for the state's goods and services, new data compiled by the University of California's Sacramento center show.

Although June exports from California, $9.98 billion, were $479 million above those of May, they were nearly 25 percent those of June 2008, UC trade adviser Jock O'Connell said after reviewing data from the U.S. Commerce Department.

"The fact that June's export numbers were higher than May's does not signal an imminent recovery in our foreign trade," said O'Connell. "Historically, June's exports have typically been higher than May's, and these were the lowest California export figures for the month of June since 2005."

California's exports of manufactured products were off by 28.8 percent from the previous June, while shipments of agricultural and other non-manufactured items dropped by 23.6 percent.

California exports are down by 23 percent so far this year, compared to the same period last year, when the state's export trade amounted to $73.22 billion. "Grim as the picture may be, we can perhaps derive some solace from the fact that California has been doing somewhat better than the rest of the nation," O'Connell said. "While our exports are down 23 percent since January, U.S. exports are off by 24.7 percent."

Import traffic fared even worse than exports, with foreign goods entering the U.S. through California down by 33.4 percent. Overall, the the volume of containerized cargos passing through the Ports of Los Angeles, Long Beach and Oakland - California's three largest maritime gateways - has been off by 19.6 percent so far this year.

The Bee political cartoonist Rex Babin sketches his take on the health care town halls going on across the country. What do you think about the town halls and Babin's cartoon? Let us know in the comments forum.

You can see a collection of Babin's work here.

The state's Fair Political Practices Commission will announce today the latest member to join California's political ethics enforcement agency. This slot is appointed by the Secretary of State Debra Bowen. Check the blog later today for an update from The Bee's Andrew McIntosh.

Equality California will announce a recommended timeline for attempting to reverse Proposition 8 through the ballot initiative process. Dan Walters wrote yesterday about the debate among same-sex marriage advocates over whether to aim for 2010 or 2012.

Water's on tap when the Legislature returns next week. Looking to brush up on the state's water woes? U.S. Deputy Secretary of the Interior David J. Hayes and California Water Resources Director Lester Snow will discuss water challenges and Delta issues at a 1 p.m. public meeting. The meeting is at the Capitol Plaza Holiday Inn (300 J Street).

Since we know there's nothing you'd rather do than think about than paying the bills: The State Board of Equalization offers a three-hour workshop on how to prepare sales-and-use tax returns, determine what labor is taxable and more. The 9 a.m. seminar is at the agency's Sacramento district office (3321 Power Inn Road).

Don Draper and his dashing cast of "Mad Men" grace the TV screen this Sunday in the season three premiere of the popular period drama. But today's TV talk is about local business and association leaders who are mad about a proposal to regulate not-so-small "small screens." The California Energy Commission has proposed setting limits on television electricity usage, a move that TV sellers (and perhaps some watchers) say would effectively ban the sale of some big-screen TVs. Groups opposing the plan are holding a 10 a.m. press conference at the California Energy Commission (1516 9th Street).

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Brian J. Stiger as new director of the Department of Consumer Affairs, which has faced growing scrutiny in recent years for lax oversight of its regulated professions.

Stiger, 50, of West Sacramento, will serve as the permanent replacement for former DCA Director Carrie Lopez, who resigned in April after filing questionable travel expense claims.

Stiger, a Democrat, has served as head of three DCA-regulated boards and bureaus, most recently as executive officer for the Board of Chiropractic Examiners. Schwarzenegger appointed Stiger to that position in 2007 after The Bee reported that the chiropractic board had mishandled meetings, provided little enforcement and taken an approach intended to help practitioners more than patients. The board was led at the time by two Schwarzenegger friends from his bodybuilding career who practice as chiropractors.

Stiger will take over as director of the Department of Consumer Affairs as it confronts a regulatory lapse involving another of its entities -- the Board of Registered Nursing. The Los Angeles Times and nonprofit ProPublica this year reported that nurses accused of misconduct continued working years after complaints were filed against them because the board took an average of three years and five months to review claims.

Schwarzenegger swore in six new members of the nursing board last month after the findings were revealed.

The salary for Stiger's new position is $142,965.

"The Colbert Report" host Stephen Colbert doesn't believe that Sen. Barbara Boxer's new novel, "Blind Trust," is fiction, or that the Democratic senator doesn't have a "school-girl crush" on former Vice President Dick Cheney.

Click here to see one reason Colbert is happy about the book.

State Controller John Chiang released yesterday a monthly report comparing the state's financial situation in July 2009 to the same month last year.

Here are some key figures from the report:

• General Fund revenue in July 2009 dropped $365 million (-8.0%) from July 2008.
• Through July, the state had $4.4 billion in receipts and $9.4 billion in disbursements on the books.*
• The state issued $1.493 billion in I.O.U.s in the month of July.
• Personal income taxes came in $335 million below (-11.5%) last July.
• Corporate taxes in July were $18.9 million (9.1%) higher than last July.
• Sales taxes in July were up $185 million (20.8%) from last year.

Chiang said a cash comparison with the budget as revised last month is not yet available.

Read the full report here and the summary analysis here.

Also from the financial files, The Fresno Bee's E.J. Schultz blogged yesterday about a memo from Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor outlining the more than $200 billion in short- and long-term liabilities that the state has on its books. Read about that red ink here.

*Figures are adjusted to account for $362 million in personal income and corporate tax refunds paid for with I.O.U.s

In this April 24, 1968 file photo, Sargent Shriver and his wife Eunice Kennedy Shriver watch a satirical presentation on a day in the life of Shriver by the staff of the Office of Economic Opportunity at night in Washington. Shriver, JFK's sister and Special Olympics founder, has died at age 88. Photo Credit: Charles Harrity, File / AP Photo

Eunice Kennedy Shriver died early this morning at Cape Cod Hospital. She was 88.

Shriver, the mother of First Lady Maria Shriver and sister of President John F. Kennedy, founded the Special Olympics.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a statement calling his mother-in-law "the light of our family."

"She meant so much, not only to us, but to our country and to the world. She was a pioneer who worked tirelessly for social and scientific advances that have changed the lives of millions of developmentally disabled people all over the world.

"Inspired by her faith in God and her love of her sister, Rosemary, she was on a life-long mission to expand opportunities for those with intellectual challenges and to prove that they are capable of great achievements.

"Apart from her family, her greatest legacy is the Special Olympics, which started as a summer camp in her backyard in 1962, and has grown into a global movement and organization that has transformed the lives of hundreds of millions of people.

"Eunice was the devoted mother of five children, including my dear wife, Maria. My mother-in-law changed my life by raising such a fantastic daughter, and by putting me on the path to service, starting with drafting me as a coach for the Special Olympics. I will miss her every day, but I know her spirit endures through her amazing children and grandchildren, and through the many lives she changed."

Time is quickly closing in on the Sept. 1 special election primary to replace former Rep. Ellen Tauscher in the 10th Congressional District.

Candidates gather tonight to hash out the issues at a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Diablo Valley, the Contra Costa Times and Saint Mary's College.

The 7 p.m. forum at the college's Moraga campus will be split into two segments: Democratic candidates will be up first at 7 p.m., followed by Republican candidates at 8:15 p.m. For more information, click here.

One of those candidates, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, is spending the morning in Walnut Creek, where he will kick off a series of town halls on President Obama's health care reform plan.

Another candidate, Democratic Lieutenant Gov. John Garamendi, will spend the morning in Los Angeles, where the California State Lands Commission considers the question: to drill or not to drill?

Part of the commission's Los Angeles meeting is dedicated to an informational hearing on the advantages and disadvantages of offshore drilling. Read the agenda here.

Not in Los Angeles? Watch a livestream of the 10 a.m. hearing here.

Schwarzenegger recently criticized the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board for its backlog of cases and requested that it make some changes in the way its judges do business. The board meets today at 10:30 a.m. to discuss the governor's request. Here's the agenda.

Lawyers representing Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, have filed a lawsuit against Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the line-item veto cuts to the budget revision.

The petition, filed in San Francisco Superior Court today, alleges that the governor overstepped his authority by using his line-item veto power to cut nearly $500 million from the package of bills passed by the legislature. As expected, the suit argues that the provisions in the budget revision are reductions to existing appropriations, not new appropriations:

"Although no one disputes the Governor's authority to reduce a true item of appropriation, that authority does not extend to making further reductions to existing appropriations or to eliminating restrictions that the Legislature placed on other appropriations."

State Controller John Chiang, a Democrat, is also named as a defendant in the suit. Steinberg spokeswoman Alicia Trost wrote in an e-mail that Chiang is named "for remedial purposes only" because he is responsible for allocating funds appropriated by law.

Download the petition here.

Related links:

• Read Susan Ferriss' story on Steinberg's announcement that he planned to sue the governor. Watch the video here.
• Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear responds to the initial announcement of the lawsuit.
• Kevin Yamamura on the Legislative Counsel Bureau's opinion that the cuts are illegal.
• Schwarzenegger's legal affairs secretary and the chief counsel at the Department of Finance argue in the Los Angeles Times that the cuts were legal.

"If the whole society starts getting stoned, we're going to be even less competitive," Democratic Attorney General Jerry Brown, quoted in a San Francisco Chronicle article on leading gubernatorial candidates' positions on legalizing marijuana.

The GOP primary is 10 months away, but it has already piqued the interest of the national media.

The Fix's Chris Cillizza thinks "handicapping [the GOP primary] is next to impossible."

While Cillizza also thinks either of the presumed Democratic candidates would be "riveting" to watch, some expect the primary race to get "nasty" soon.

Former San Francisco Mayor and Assembly Speaker Willie Brown says there's still a chance that former State Controller and 2006 Democratic candidate Steve Westly or Sen. Dianne Feinstein could jump in that race.

The only officially declared candidate, San Francisco Mayor and Dem contender Gavin Newsom, was in the Windy City, courting Millennials at the Young Democrats of America Convention. Today, he'll be in Long Beach for a town hall.

On the GOP side, Meg Whitman followed up Friday events around Ventura County by spending Saturday in San Diego, where she told the audience that she looks to the Lone Star state as an example for jump starting job creation. Sounds like she's got a busy schedule? If her e-mails are any indication, the candidate has the superhuman ability to be two places at once.

Also going on in the Republican field: Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner tweeted the news of his new press secretary this morning.

LAObserved's LA Sketchbook cartoonist Steve Greenberg points out one state officeholder who might still be current in California students' out-of-date textbooks come 2010.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger missed today's National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas and plans instead to fly to Sacramento to meet with top aides, said spokesman Aaron McLear.

Afterward, he will fly to Hyannis, Mass., to be with his family as Eunice Kennedy Shriver remains hospitalized in critical condition. Shriver, the 88-year-old mother of California first lady Maria Shriver and sister of former President John F. Kennedy, has had strokes in recent years.

Schwarzenegger was scheduled to attend the clean energy summit this morning with former President Bill Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, among others. The governor flew home Sunday to Los Angeles, but opted Monday to fly to Sacramento to meet with staff instead.

Team Poizner introduced its new press secretary via Twitter this morning. Bettina Inclan (an avid tweeter herself) joins the campaign from the Citizens in Charge Foundation, a national voting rights group that focuses on protecting the ballot initiative and referendum process.

Inclan has formerly served as spokeswoman and executive director of the Republican National Hispanic Assembly, a member of the White House Bi-Partisan Council for Immigration Reform and a staffer for Republican lawmakers in Congress, according to the Poizner press release. (She also made The Hill's list of top 50 hotties in 2005).

The announcement comes as gubernatorial candidates on both sides of the aisle are looking to court Latino constituents, who make up 21 percent of the state's registered voters, according to a new Field Poll report. When it comes to the GOP, Latinos represent 13 percent of Republican voters in California (up from 4 percent in 1978) and 21 percent of non-partisan/other voters (up from 5 percent in 1978).

Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls have been stepping up their pursuit of their party's share of Latino voters since Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said in June that he wouldn't seek the Democratic nomination, with Gavin Newsom tapping Hispanic politician Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, to chair his statewide campaign. Republican candidate Meg Whitman also lunched last week with the Gold Coast Hispanic Business Council in Ventura County.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg could file a lawsuit against Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the line-item veto budget cuts as early as today, he told reporters Friday.

Time to reach for your wallet. The annual end-of-session cash-grabbing crunch is about to commence. Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, joins in the August fundraising spree today with a golf tournament in Chino Hills.

According to our count, there are 17 fundraisers currently scheduled for August 25, with a baker's dozen more to follow the next day. (Greg Lucas over at the California's Capitol blog, who first alerted us to the back-to-back fundraising bonanza, has on his calendar 16 and 15 fundraisers, respectively, for those days.)

Getting an early start: Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, is on the calendar with a fundraiser Wednesday for his 2012 state Senate run to replace termed-out Sen. Dave Cox, R-Fair Oaks, in the 1st Assembly District. Assemblyman Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, who has also filed papers to seek that spot, has scheduled a fundraiser for his 2010 Assembly re-election committee Aug. 25.

Gov 2010: Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom holds a town hall in Long Beach tonight. The San Francisco mayor also has town halls on tap in Santa Ana and Sacramento this week.

The debate of Democratic candidates for the 10th Congressional District was running well past the two-hour mark Thursday night at the Solano County Government Center when candidate and Fairfield native Anthony Woods stepped up to say there should be an investigation of war crimes in Iraq.

The boisterous crowd of some 100 people listened closely to the provocative statement. Woods wasn't any 29-year-old candidate. He served two tours of duty in Iraq, only to be kicked out of the military after he revealed he was gay.

"I will do what I can to investigate the government and make sure it doesn't happen again," he said.

The crowd burst into applause and cheers. Many were wearing Woods T-shirts and carrying Woods signs. The candidate, sporting a sober black suit and hair trimmed closely to his scalp, returned to his seat beside the other candidates -- state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi and investigator and former journalist Adriel Hampton.

During much of the debate, however, the Woods show took over, and seasoned political pros such as Garamendi and DeSaulnier were left playing the spectators.

The young candidate's supporters said they hoped their energy would help Woods overcome a distinct disadvantage in fundraising and name recognition. Woods mentioned President Barack Obama several times, and the parallels were clear. Like Obama, Woods is a handsome, tall black candidate billing himself as an outsider and placing his bets on young, tech-savvy voters.

By the way, Woods' remarks actually weren't all that provocative. All the candidates said they supported investigating possible abuses and crimes committed by the Bush administration in the ongoing Iraq war, with several saying straight out that war crimes had been committed.

Based on that evidence, it looks like the seat formerly held by Democrat Ellen Tauscher will be moving to the left, at least regarding Iraq, if a Democrat wins. Democrats hold a wide registration lead in the district, and DeSaulnier has won the endorsements of Tauscher and Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

You can also read Bee reporter Susan Ferriss' story on the announcement here.

Video is by The Bee's Hector Amezcua

In announcing his intention to sue Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger over the line-item vetoes in the budget revision, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said there were plenty of options for restoring the budget reserve without making deep cuts to heath and welfare programs. Jimmy Kimmel offered one idea on his late-night show a few weeks ago: expand the upcoming "garage-sale" auction of government-owned cars.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is expected to announce at 1 p.m. today that he is suing the governor over his line-item veto cuts to the budget revision package. Though the news is still (officially) unconfirmed, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's spokesman Aaron McLear has already put out a response, saying the governor's constitutional authority to veto appropriations is "unquestioned and will be upheld by the courts."

"Because the legislature failed to send him a balanced budget after months of debate the Governor was forced to make these difficult cuts. While Democrats are focused on a protracted legal battle to dig the state back into deficit the Governor will continue to focus on moving our state forward and getting Californians back to work," McLear said in the statement, which you can read here.

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

The Silver State is out to convince California businesses that their home turf isn't worth its weight in gold.

The latest ad campaign from the Nevada Development Authority hits the airwaves in Southern California today. The $1 million campaign, aimed at attracting California businesses to Sin City, offers an "I.O.U." for a better (read: less taxed) business climate and warns that if they don't relocate to Nevada they can kiss their "assets" goodbye.

Las Vegas' always colorful Mayor Oscar Goodman gave the campaign a thumbs up, telling the Las Vegas Sun he thought the ad, and its accompanying "guerilla" campaign online, would drive Nevada's neighbors "bonkers."

But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger doesn't think businesses are ready to say "Hasta La Vista" to the Golden State.

"The eight-largest economy in the world, the high-tech and entertainment capital of the world and home to nearly 4 million businesses, California is clearly a great place to do business," Schwarzenegger spokesperson Camille Anderson shot back.

And California Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Allan Zaremberg thinks that, despite the recession, California still has a lot to offer. But he said the ad's focus is a warning that the state should steer clear of raising taxes.

"Nevada is trying to steal businesses based on taxes, so we in California have to be sensitive to that message and make sure we don't increase tax burdens on california businesses," he said in a statement. "Just as is the case in California, Nevada's economy is hurting and that is why they are aggressively trying to lure businesses away. I would match California's higher education system and quality of life against theirs any day."

As for what's going on around the state today:

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass is the keynote speaker at the National Women's Political Caucus Diversity Reception tonight. Bass is one of nine women being honored as a "Woman of Courage" at the organization's Newport Beach convention. Attorney and feminist Gloria Allred, Democratic Rep. Judy Chu , former State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, Green-For-All CEO Phaedra Ellis-Lamkins, activist Lillian Mobley, author and activist Zoe Nicholson, Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and Long Beach Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga are also being lauded by the group.

Assemblyman Sandre Swanson , D-Alameda, will be on hand in Oakland as the California Partnership to End Domestic Violence and Verizon unveil a program aimed at using new technologies to increase safety and spread awareness about domestic violence.

State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and Democratic Rep. Mike Thompson talk clean energy in San Francisco. The pair will discuss legislation introduced by Thompson that would create tax-exempt bond financing for renewable energy projects

Gov 2010: GOP gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman is speaking in Ventura today. The former eBay CEO will appear at an 11:30 a.m. luncheon sponsored by the Hispanic Business Council and the Federated Chambers of Commerce of Ventura County.

Correction; This post was updated to correctly reflect Assemblymember Sandre Swanson's's title. The Bee regrets the error.

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger!

The vacationing governor flew back to California yesterday to consider a boatload of bills awaiting his OK. The end count: 128 pieces of legislation signed into law and nine vetoed. Soon after, he headed back out of the state to continue on with the break.

To see a list of the bills, click here.

Although California home prices have dropped dramatically in the last couple of years as the state experienced a wave of foreclosures and distressed properties flooded the market, coastal regions of the state still have relatively high prices that will discourage renters from buying, a new national housing survey indicates.

However, inland regions, where home prices have dropped more dramatically, have edged into the area of relative affordability.

The report was released by the Washington-based Center for Economic and Policy Research and the National Low Income Housing Coalition. It delves into the interrelationship of rents to purchase costs. It concentrates on what it calls "bubble markets" in which the costs of owning a home far outweigh those of renting, several of which are in California.

The study is based on an assumed "equilibrium level" of 15-to-1 - the ratio being a home's cost and the rental income it could generate. Thus, a $150,000 that could rent for $10,000 a year is said to be in equilibrium. Any ratio above 15-to-1 is deemed inflated. In cities with those higher ratios, the report contends, renters are less likely to take the plunge into ownership.

San Jose is the least attractive market for renters at 29.4-to-1, even though declining home prices have dropped it from 35-to-1 in the past year. The study also lists the San Francisco-Oakland area (23.7-to-1) and Los Angeles-Long Beach (21.5-to-1) among the metropolitan areas with particularly high ratios, as well as San Diego (19.3-to-1), and Ventura (20-to-1).

However, the study also found that several inland regions of California, where home prices have plummeted, have dropped into the theoretically affordable range, including Riverside-San Bernardino (13.7-to-1), Bakersfield (14.7-to-1), Modesto (15-to-1) and Stockton (14.2-to-1). Fresno almost made the cut at 15.8-to-1.

The narrowing of the gap in Stockton, from 24.7-to-1 in 2008, is especially dramatic, reflecting its status as ground zero for the housing market collapse in California. The Sacramento region also dropped dramatically, from 24-to-1 to 18.1, but is still considered to be inflated. The report makes this comment about the capital area:

"In Sacramento, CA, under both sets of assumptions the homebuyer who purchases a home remains in negative territory four years out.... While the situation is bad under the status quo assumptions (a deficit of $22,919) under the alternative assumptions the accumulated liability is $57,446. The day when the homeowner is above water, owning a home that is worth more than the loan balance, is much further off."

Coincidentally, the Census Bureau released a new report on housing, indicating that while California added 1.1 million homes, apartments and other units of housing between 2000 and 2007, the growth of 9 percent was more than a full percentage point lower than the national average of housing expansion, 10.4 percent.

No California county was to be found in the list of the nation's 100 hottest housing growth markets, which were concentrated in Sunbelt states.

The full housing affordability report is available here while the Census Bureau report can be found here.

Just to be clear, Eagles frontman Don Henley does not support Assemblyman Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine, in his bid to unseat Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer.

Need evidence? Just check DeVore's revamped attack ad, "All She Wants to Do Is Tax," a spoof on the energy tax set to the signer/songwriter/Democratic donor's 1984 hit, "All She Wants To Do Is Dance."

A mere nine second into the ad, a disclaimer flashes across the screen: "Don Henley not only didn't approve this message, he doesn't approve of Chuck DeVore or any of Chuck DeVore's message." And in the next shot: "The feeling is mutual."

The disclaimer was added in response to a lawsuit filed by Henley claiming that the tax video and a second riff on "The Boys of Summer," which rips on President Obama, violate the Lanham Act by suggesting that Henley endorses the Republican assemblyman. The singer's attorney and a Henley representative said they would not comment on the pending litigation.

The video, which led to an exchange over the candidates' respective song- and novel-writing skills, was taken offline earlier this spring because of a second objection by Warner Chappell Music, which owns the rights to the song. But the music production and licensing company ultimately decided not to go forward with the suit, and the video was reposted, according to DeVore attorney Chris Arledge.

The state's budget messes are certainly no laughing matter, but one ingredient in the Legislature's latest recipe to balance the budget at least drew a smile from Dave Doerr.

Alert Capitol denizens know Doerr for being 1) the chief tax consultant at the California Taxpayers Association for the past 21 years; 2) a top budget adviser to the Legislature for almost 30 years before that, and 3) the guy who literally wrote the book ("California's Tax Machine") on the the state's tax system.

Anyway, Doerr recently recalled that in 1966, he was called to Palm Springs to meet with Gov. Pat Brown and other Democratic leaders on how to raise revenues without raising taxes, since Brown was then running for re-election against Ronald Reagan.

"And someone suggested, 'well, we could move back the pay of state employees at the end of the fiscal year to the next one,'" Doerr said. "And everybody kind of laughed, and said 'ha-ha,' and I never heard it discussed again, until it came up this year (and was adopted as part of the budget package). So I guess there's just so many ideas out there."

And sooner or later, they'll get to every one of them...

Who said recess is for rest and relaxation? It's been a crazy week in the Capitol.

Legislative leaders put water on tap as one of the first issues to tackle post-recess (read the bills here), an order from a panel of judges that California must cut its prison population by more than 40,000 inmates set off a flurry of responses and the Legislative Counsel Bureau issued a four-page opinion arguing that most of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's line-item vetoes in the budget are illegal.

In Capitol Alert news, we've added our Twitter feed straight to the blog so you'll always have the latest updates from The Bee's Capitol Bureau.

As for what's going on today:

Several CD10 candidates will face off in a forum sponsored by the Solano County Democratic Central Committee. Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, Lieutenant Gov. John Garamendi, Adriel Hampton and Anthony Woods are expected to attend. The forum will be held at the County Government Center (675 West Texas Street) at 7 p.m. Questions can be submitted here.

As we've previously noted, Garamendi will be in Livermore earlier in the day for a
Commission for Economic Development meeting. The meeting is at 10:30 a.m. at Los Positas College (3000 Campus Hill Dr.).

In Gov2010 news, Team Poizner is announcing the endorsement of the California Small Business Association.

The California High-Speed Rail Authority considers a proposal for a ridership and revenue study and gives an update on the Los Angeles-San Diego corridor in a public meeting at 1415 L Street, Suite 300. To download the agenda, click here.

The Legislative Counsel Bureau issued a four-page opinion Wednesday asserting that the bulk of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's $489 million in budget line-item vetoes was illegal.

The Republican governor last week cut various sectors of government to help balance the budget and build a $500 million reserve, focusing many of his line-item vetoes on social services such as state Office of AIDS programs and Healthy Families.

He said he was forced to do so because the Assembly at the last hour rejected $1.1 billion in solutions that would have taken local gas tax money and approved an offshore oil lease.

Democratic leaders immediately cried foul, saying the governor could not use his line-item veto authority in this situation. Their main contention was that the Legislature had passed a budget revision that cut appropriations rather than spent money as in normal budget acts. They feel the governor can only use line-item vetoes in cases where the state is spending more money, not less.

But Department of Finance Director Mike Genest insisted the governor was within his legal right to veto spending in the budget revision Schwarzenegger signed last Tuesday. His office said the state constitution allows the governor to adjust any appropriations bill.

Legislative Counsel Diane Boyer-Vine, whose office provides legal counsel to the Legislature, responded to a request from Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, on the legality of the governor's vetoes. Boyer-Vine, along with Deputy Legislative Counsel Michael P. Beaver, concluded that the constitution only allows the governor to veto "items of appropriation. They said, based on precedent, that term does not apply to previously enacted appropriations.

Bass last week charged that Schwarzenegger had taken "punitive measures against children and AIDS patients."

Assemblyman John A. Perez, D-Los Angeles, said Wednesday that lawmakers won't file suit against the vetoes, but he anticipates that "several groups" who would suffer from the cuts are preparing legal action. Perez said he anticipates that lawmakers would file amicus briefs rather than take action themselves.

Lawmakers may seek other solutions in the Capitol. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said yesterday in a statement that his first priority when lawmakers return later this month will be to restore the governor's cuts.

Genest said last week that Schwarzenegger is open to doing so if lawmakers can find new ways to replace the savings.

Susan Jordan and Das Williams are both running for the Democratic nomination to succeed soon-to-be termed-out Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, in the 35th Assembly District.

Both have claimed to hold a fundraising lead in official statements.

The Ventura County Star's Timm Herdt breaks down who really has the bragging rights.

The mathematical truth is that Jordan took in more money, but included in the total is a $12,500 loan she made to her own campaign. Williams discounts that loan and notes he has taken in more money in actual contributions.

Regardless of how the hairs are split, the reports show a strong start for both candidates as they gear up for what is expected to be the most competitive and expensive partisan primary in Ventura County next June.

It goes to show that knowing who's ahead in the latest cash dash on the campaign trail isn't always as easy as checking the numbers. As we noted in our roundup of some 2010 down-ticket races, candidates often maintain multiple accounts containing cash that can be transferred for a statewide run. For example, Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, has $190,950 in the bank for his bid for lieutenant governor, but an additional $851,000 in his State Senate coffer. And Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, has $845,000 in his Assembly account that he could ultimately transfer to use for his Insurance Commissioner run, which has racked up $257,800.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told MSNBC last month that one key component to fixing the American health care system is getting Americans to slim down.

But in an interview with California Congressman Henry Waxman, D, "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart posits that it's the health care reform bill that's too bulky.

Reactions to court-ordered cuts to the state's prison inmate population started rolling in as soon as a panel of three federal judges issued their ruling yesterday. You can read the 184-page ruling here.

Here is a roundup of responses. We'll update throughout the day.

Senate pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento:

"The case for reform can not be any clearer. We will return in August to produce reform that saves money, protects public safety, and takes back the control of our prison system."

Republican Assembly Leader Sam Blakeslee, San Luis Obispo

"Today's decision by the three judge panel is a nightmare come true for California families. Any fair-minded court will see there is no way to reduce our prison population by nearly 43,000 without letting out some very dangerous criminals onto our streets and into our neighborhoods. We urge the Governor and the Attorney General to appeal this reckless decision without delay."

Sen. John Benoit, R-Palm Desert, Vice Chair of the Senate Public Safety Committee

"As a 31 year law enforcement veteran, I can say from experience that unleashing tens of thousands of prisoners into our communities is a horrible way to accomplish anything except higher crime rates. This ruling by activist federal judges is an egregious and dangerous violation of states' rights that I believe the Supreme Court will overturn."

Assemblyman Curt Hagman, R-Chino Hills, Vice Chair of the Assembly Public Safety Committee

"It is unfair to the law abiding public to have criminals who have not yet served their debt to society released into neighborhoods. Perhaps any prisoner who is released early should be settled in the federal Judges' neighborhood. ... The state needs to overhaul the prison system; just removing a large number of prisoners will not solve the problem it only kicks the can down the road and puts the public in danger."

Sen. Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto

"My top priority as a lawmaker is keeping all Californians safe. Ordering the release of a quarter of the state's prison population may benefit 44,000 inmates who will not pay their full debt to society, but it puts 36 million Californians in jeopardy. I applaud the Governor for immediately appealing this ruling."

Have something to say? Send your statement to tvanoot@sacbee.com

Reactions started rolling in as soon as news broke that a panel of three federal judges has ordered the state to cut back its prison population by more than 40,000 inmates. Check back throughout the day for responses to the action.

As Dan Walters reported yesterday, Democratic Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, has announced he's going to push to keep the NUMMI auto plant in Fremont open... at a Thursday Commission for Economic Development meeting that happens to be scheduled in the heart of the 10th Congressional District, where he is vying to replace former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher in a Sept. 1 special election.

Speaking of campaign-convenient scheduling, Assembly Select Committee on Schools and Community Chairman and Superintendent of Public Instruction hopeful Tom Torlakson is taking his committee on the road to ask Los Angeles educators how they are dealing with budget cuts. The hearing is at 10:30 a.m. at Berrendo Middle School. This is the second stop for the committee; Torlakson, D-Antioch, and Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, held a field hearing on the same matter in San Francisco yesterday.

On to other cut complaints: Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, is staging a San Jose press conference to rally support for the Domestic Violence Program, which was eliminated as part of Schwarzenegger's blue-pencil cuts to the budget revision.

Yee has introduced a bill that would allocate $16.3 million from the victims' compensation fund to the Domestic Violence Program. Yee, Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino and several law enforcement officials from the area are scheduled to attend. The press conference will be at 9:30 a.m. at 401 Halsey Ave. in San Jose.

Also happening today: State workers at the Employment Development Department are picketing their office at 11:30 a.m. to protest salary reductions caused by furlough days. Jon Ortiz at The State Worker has a post about the planned picket.

A previous version of this post mistakenly identified Sen. Leland Yee as an Assemblymember The Bee regrets the error.

As his office scrambled to salvage the state budget deal with Assembly leaders July 24, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a wide-ranging interview to John Harwood of the New York Times and MSNBC.

Many reporters and Senate aides were sound asleep by this point after an overnight session in the Legislature, so the interview went largely unnoticed around the Capitol. But Schwarzenegger had a few choice lines as usual, particularly on health care.

As has been his policy this summer, Schwarzenegger refused to take a position on the health care overhaul plan being negotiated in Washington. The governor told Harwood that "the plan moves around, so there is no specific thing you can support." But he said he supports at least two principles -- requiring that every person carry health insurance and emphasizing preventative care.

The governor seemed most interested on focusing on personal responsibility rather than other parts of the health care system. "You know what is the biggest health reform?" he said. "If people stop eating all this junk food, that's the biggest health care reform."

The former chairman of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports said, "We've got to teach people that you have the power to change whether you go to the hospital or not. Stop eating. Stop smoking. Stop drinking. Reduce your body weight. Reduce your cholesterol. Relax. All of those kinds of things, because people are killing themselves."

Disneyland is dubbed "The Happiest Place on Earth," but Schwarzenegger suggested it might also be the fattest place on earth. In a line sure to make his friends in Anaheim cringe, the governor noted, "Look at the way (people) live. All you have to do is go down to Disneyland, and you see more people over 300 pounds than anywhere in the world. I mean, it's crazy. That's bad for your health."

Harwood asked Schwarzenegger about the recent resignation of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. Schwarzenegger said he didn't know all the facts and didn't want to comment, speculating that "maybe she has some really good reasons." But he added, "Would you ever see me resigning in the middle of my term? Even if it is the 100th term, I will never give up. That's just my style, because I will look at it in a different way."

The state Commission for Economic Development has existed in virtual secrecy for three-plus decades but Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, who chairs the body, is promoting a quarterly commission meeting in Livermore Thursday to showcase efforts to keep the NUMMI auto plant in nearby Fremont from closing.

Why isn't the meeting in Fremont? Well, it might have something to do with the fact that Garamendi is running for Congress in a Sept. 1 special election and Livermore happens to be smack dab in the middle of the 10th Congressional District while Fremont isn't.

The plant has been a long-time joint venture of General Motors and Toyota, but GM has pulled out and Toyota has indicated it will shutter plant, lopping off more than 4,000 jobs.

Garamendi's office says he will push for "an allocation of federal stimulus money to keep Toyota from closing the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) automobile plant in Fremont. Garamendi will present information showing this is a statewide issue because NUMMI works with a vast supplier network of more than 1,000 companies located in 35 California counties employing 20,000. In total, 35,000 jobs are at risk."

The meeting will begin at 10:30 a.m. at Las Positas College.

Still not tired of hearing about last month's deal on the state budget?

Budget junkies can get another fix from the California Budget Project, which has produced a point-by-point comparison of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's May proposals to close the latest budget deficit, the version that Democratic legislators generated and the final deal hammered by the governor and legislative leaders.

The CBP chart isavailable here.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has agreed to pardon and release two American journalists who were detained in mid-March while reporting near the Chinese-North Korean border, according to reports from North Korea's state-run media.

President Clinton had traveled to North Korea to negotiate the release of Current TV correspondents Laura Ling, a Sacramento native, and Euna Lee, who had been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on accusations that they entered the country illegally and engaged in "hostile acts."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger issued the following statement in response to the news:

"Maria and I happily join all Californians in celebrating the pardon of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Both women risked their lives to search for truth in an area of the world where the press is often censored, and I applaud those who worked to negotiate their pardon. Our heartfelt thoughts are with the families of Euna and Laura, and we wish them both a safe return to California."

Update: Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Calif.) also released the following statement:

"The pardoning of Laura Ling and Euna Lee is a welcome development for those in Sacramento and across the world who have fought to secure their freedom. The Ling and Lee families finally have something to celebrate today, and I join with them in expressing joy, relief, and gratitude at this news. I extend my deep appreciation and congratulations to the State Department and to President Clinton for their work and unwavering commitment to bring Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee back from their North Korean prisons. While today's pardon is an encouraging step toward securing their release, what we hope for now is that these two young women will be granted amnesty through the North Korean system, and we remain committed to doing everything we can to ensure that Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee return home to their families as quickly and safely as possible."

You can see a collection of Bee political cartoonist Rex Babin's work here.

President Clinton is on a mission to North Korea to negotiate the release of CurrentTV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Ling, a Sacramento native, and Lee were improsioned after being detained by North Korean security officials March 17 while reporting along the Chinese-North Korean border. In June, they were convicted of illegally crossing the border and sentenced to 12 years in labor camps. Many state legislators, as well as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, have issued statements calling for their release.

Above: Demonstrators march in support of the two journalists at a June 3 rally. The rally included a vigil on the steps of the Capitol. (Carl Costas, Sacramento Bee).

This article was updated to correctly reflect the date Lee and Ling were arrested. It was March 17, not March 13.

Campaign finance reports were due Friday for candidates running for statewide office. The Bee's Peter Hecht broke down how much gubernatorial hopefuls have in the bank in a Saturday story. Capitol Alert takes a look at the dash for cash among leading candidates in other 2010 races.

Speaking of campaigns... The U.S. House of Representatives broke for August break Friday, putting health care reform on hold until September. But don't expect a break from the debate. Seven Republican members of California's congressional delegation are being targeted in a new Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee campaign attacking their position on the issue. Republican Congressman Dan Lungren, who represents the 3rd Congressional District, is one of eight GOP lawmakers being hit in a new series of radio ads.

Bee columnist Dan Walters writes today about the results of the new Field Poll report looking at changes in the California electorate. You can read the poll here.

Around the Capitol: The Bureau of Reclamation is holding a public hearing on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Delta-Mendota Canal (DMC)/California Aqueduct (CA) Intertie (Intertie). The hearing is at 1 p.m. at the Bureau of Reclamation, 2800 Cottage Way, Bureau of Indian Affairs Conference Room, W-2620.

Here's a look at how campaign finances are shaping up in races for constitutional offices in 2010: Note: The figures below are how much each candidate has in his or her account for that specific office. Some candidates also have money in other accounts that is transferrable. You can find the full reports here.

Attorney General

Current Attorney General Jerry Brown leads the pack here with about $3.5 million in contributions and $7.38 million on hand. But assuming Brown takes the plunge into the race for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination,
San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris , D, raked in the most cash, with about $1.2 million in contributions and $750,000 on hand to close out the first half of the year. Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo, D, and Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, D-Newark, also posted big numbers: Delgadillo raised $935,624 and counted more than $909,000 in his campaign coffers as of June 30, while Torrico tallied more than $991,00 in contributions and ended the reporting period with $910,140 on hand. Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, raised about $227,000 with $202,351 on hand.

Lieutenant Governor

Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, has an edge on his opponents, with $872,682 in the bank after raising more than $500,000 in the first six months of the year. Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, raised $335,352 and ended the reporting period with $190,950 on hand. Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Penn Valley, raised $37,550 and finished the money race in the No. 3 spot, with $158,950 in his fund for lieutenant governor.

Insurance Commissioner

Assemblyman Hector De La Torre, D-South Gate, reported about $529,500 in contributions with about $512,300 in cash by the end of June, while Assemblyman Dave Jones, D-Sacramento, reported raising about $293,000, with $257,800 in the bank. GOP gubernatorial hopeful and current Commissioner Steve Poizner still has about $111,000 on hand in his re-election account.

Superintendent of Public Instruction

Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, D-Antoich, reported about $545,800 in contributions, $356,000 of which came in a transfer from his Assembly account, and $349,000 on hand. Political newcomer Larry Aceves reported raising $207,854 since announcing his candidacy in April, and finished up the first financial reporting period with $144,799 on hand. Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, rounded out the top three, raising $134,566 and carrying about $187,000 in her campaign coffers as of late last month.

Updates: Attorney General candidate Assemblyman Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, took in about $638,000 and ended with $725,644.94 in his account for Attorney General. Assemblyman Mike Villines, R-Clovis, reported $185,944 in the bank for his insurance commissioner bid, after taking in $612,399 in contributions.

- Compiled by Torey Van Oot

Get your thumbs ready and your TweetDeck launched: GOP gubernatorial hopefuls might soon be taking 140-character questions from the "tweeple" of California in a Twitter-powered debate hosted by Brandman University.

Brandman professor Mike Moodian tweeted the three leading candidates for the Republican nomination -- @StevePoizner, @TalktoTom and @Whitman2010 - at noon today to ask them to participate in a fall debate on how to fix California's fiscal crisis.

Queries submitted through Twitter and e-mail will make up about half the questions in the 75-minute debate, which is set to be held at the Chapman University affiliate's Irvine campus (The actual debate will be face-to-face, so the candidates won't be limited to 140-character responses).

Moodian said he brought Twitter into the mix to give a greater pool of voters the opportunity to participate in the debate (a similar debate for Democratic candidates is in the works as well). By allowing questions to be tracked through hashtags or other mechanisms, he also hopes that the debate's Twitter feed can serve as a cyber snapshot of what's on the minds of many Californians.

"We believe that this will help engage the younger generation of voters in California," he said. "It is also ensuring the voices of citizens are included in the debates."

Team Poizner was the first to "tweet" back, accepting the invite from the candidate's trusty TwitterBerry at 12:02 p.m. - just 2 minutes after the initial invite hit the Twittersphere.

Whitman2010 later tweeted that she'd look at the dates: "Thanks for the debate invite - I'll consider the dates and respond soon."

Campbell's camp responded that he is "Looking forward to offering & debating specific solutions to California's financial crisis with my fellow candidates at Brandman University."

Moodian said he believes this is the first time a candidate for major office has accepted a debate invitation via a social networking site. He added that he gave all the campaigns a heads-up that the invites would be sent today, just in case they don't have their account alerts on, and that the candidates also had the option of responding via e-mail, phone or snail mail (but those would have been so 2006).

The debate is in part inspired by the YouTube debates of the 2008 presidential elections, which drew attention for some creatively staged questions. While the exact mechanism for choosing questions hasn't been determined, don't expect the entertainment factor to influence selection this time around.

"If we do find some tweets that come in that are creative yet address a serious topic, we will include those. ... (But) to us, this is a very serious debate and a critical time. There's a good possibility we will be looking for common trends in questions," Moodian said.

Bee colleague Daniel Weintraub passed along this photo, which he took while driving on Interstate 5 over the weekend. Click here to zoom in for a close-up view of the license plate.

This photo is also posted over at The State Worker

California, with one of the nation's lowest levels of medical insurance, has a particularly large stake in the outcome of the national health insurance debate underway in Washington, a new Census Bureau data release indicates.

The new data, based on a 2006 survey, indicate that California has the nation's fourth lowest level of medical insurance, with 21.3 percent of its residents under 65 years old lacking coverage - and recent reductions in Healthy Families and other state-sponsored medical care programs will, authorities say, push that number higher.

Two years ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a heavy push to expand health insurance in California to almost everyone, but the effort ran into opposition from those who wanted a single-payer, state-operated system and those who opposed the plan's new taxes and faltered in the Senate after passing the Assembly.

Only Florida, Louisiana and Texas have lower levels of health insurance, with Texas last at 27.6 percent uninsured. The Census Bureau data, which confirm earlier estimates by state officials and health care advocates, found that 6.8 million Californians lacked health insurance in 2006 out of 32 million Californians under 65. (Those over 65 are not counted because it's presumed they have Medicare coverage.)

At the other end of the scale, just 9.4 percent of under-65 residents of Minnesota, 9.6 percent of those in Massachusetts, 9.8 percent of Hawaiians and 9.9 percent of Wisconsinites lack insurance.

Within California, wealthy Santa Barbara County had the lowest level of health insurance, with 26.6 percent of those under 65 uninsured - doubtless reflecting the county's large number of agricultural workers, coupled with a higher-than-average percentage of over-65 residents concentrated in the resort/retirement enclaves of Santa Barbara, Montecito and the Santa Ynez Valley. The state's highest rate of medical insurance was found in Placer County, a high-income suburb of Sacramento, where just 13.7 of residents lacked coverage.

The state-by-state comparisons are available here while the county-by-county breakdown for California may be found here.

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

Campaign materials referencing former Democratic Rep. Ellen Tauscher's endorsement of CD10 candidate Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, D-Concord, do not appear to violate any rules over at her new gig as Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security . But a State Department legal adviser has asked DeSaulnier to stop touting Tauscher's stamp of approval anyway... for appearance's sake.

"Under Secretary Tauscher is committed to the highest standards of ethical conduct. To avoid even the appearance of impropriety, on behalf of Under Secretary Tauscher I have asked Senator DeSaulnier to remove all references in his campaign material of any endorsement she may have made," State Department Deputy Legal Adviser and Ethics Official James Thessin wrote in a July 29 letter to a Lafayette lawyer who has filed several ethical complaints against the DeSaulnier campaign.

Attorney Jason Bezis sent letters to the State Department on July 16 and July 27 complaining that the campaign's use of Tauscher's endorsement violated the Hatch Act as well as Department rules prohibiting Senate-confirmed presidential appointees from endorsing or opposing candidates running for partisan political offices. (Bezis, who describes himself as "anti-DeSaulner" and "leaning toward (Lt. Gov. John) Garamendi," has also filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission over DeSaulnier's mailings about health care.)

"This was just too much of a passing-the-baton-type of deal here, that the voters made no difference, that she had basically anointed her successor," Bezis said in describing his beef with the former congresswoman endorsing one of the candidates vying to fill her vacated seat in the Sept. 1 special election.

But according to the State Department's response, the answer to his complaint lies in the titles and the timing.

"Our guidelines do not restrict political activities of Department employees before they join the Department," Thessin wrote, noting that Tauscher started at the State Department on June 26, long after her March endorsement was made public. "The endorsements you cite in your letter and attachments refer to her by titles such as 'Representative' and 'Congresswomen' and not 'Under Secretary.'"

Bezis conceded that they're technically correct, but thinks the State Department is concerned that its longstanding commitment to bipartisanship could be tarnished because of the endorsement. A State Department press official said no one would be available to comment on the issue until Monday.

DeSaulnier Campaign Manager Katie Merrill, whose response to the initial complaint was, "Seriously?" still thinks Bezis' gripes are bogus.

"We said the complaint was frivolous at the time, and the State Dept. in this letter has confirmed that," she wrote in an e-mail.

Merrill said DeSaulnier is proud to have Tauscher's sole endorsement and said there's not enough time to change most of the materials containing her endorsement before the election. Bezis argued that he gave the campaign two weeks' notice in a "cease and desist" demand sent July 17, but Merrill says the brochures were printed more than a month ago.

"As for things we can change, we have a number of questions for the State Dept. about what qualifies and what doesn't under their request. We will be in contact with them next week to get further clarification," she wrote.

It's week two of recess and not much is going on around the Capitol. If things feel a little tense around the workplace this morning, it could be because members of the Service Employees International Union Local 1000 voted over the weekend to give union officials permission to call a strike. The State Worker columnist Jon Ortiz has the scoop.

Update: Read Ortiz's Sunday piece on the SEIU strike vote here.