Daily Briefing for February 17th, 2012

Dan Walters Column
Sac Bee-  Territorial poaching a symptom of government dysfunction
One symptom of California's political dysfunction is the ceaseless infighting among governmental entities over power and money, which are often synonymous. Cities and counties joust with each other over shares of the property tax, they join forces to battle with the state government over its periodic raids on local government treasuries, while governors spar with the Legislature.

Joel Anderson/Doug La Malfa Column
Sac Bee-  Taxpayers shouldn't foot bill for lawsuits against the state
There's a measure working its way through the Capitol that demonstrates all too well why the Legislature's approval rating among voters is only about 12 percent these days. Senate Bill 730 is authored by Sen. Christine Kehoe, the Democratic chairwoman of the Senate Appropriations Committee. This measure is one of the annual "settlement claims" bills that get little debate but spend tens of millions of dollars every year.

Chip Johnson Column
SF Chronicle- Nadia Lockyer's troubles open door to closer look
Vetting a candidate for elected office is commonplace in American politics, but sometimes the level of scrutiny isn't as thorough as it should be. Consider the recent troubles of Nadia Lockyer, an Alameda County supervisor who on Tuesday announced a leave of absence following an alleged assault two weeks ago.

Don Wagner Column
OC Register- California needs job creators like these
Two firms lauded by magazine for being good places to work; California should encourage more like them.  Like so many Californians, I am disappointed that our state's economy continues to struggle and that so many people remain out of work or underemployed. Disappointed, but not surprised. The ruling party in the Legislature has failed to adopt a single Republican idea to put people back to work. There is some good news, however, from Orange County.

Tim Herdt Column
VC Star- Lawmakers advised to give schools options to make cuts in the fall
California lawmakers on Thursday began to tackle the perplexing problem of how to handle school funding in a year in which no one will know how much money will be available until after the next school year has begun. At the same time, they opened consideration of a proposal by Gov. Jerry Brown to dramatically and permanently change how state funds are allocated to local districts. In his budget proposal, Brown has proposed that $4.8 billion of the $52.5 billion he seeks in Proposition 98 funding be conditional on voters' approval of a tax measure in November.

Budget

LA Times- Brown's budget can't count on cap-and-trade revenue, analyst says
In another blow to the state budget, the state's Legislative Analyst's Office said Gov. Jerry Brown should not count on $500 million in revenue from California's controversial cap-and-trade emissions control program to help balance the budget. Only one-fifth of that sum could be spent without major hurdles, the nonpartisan office concluded in a report issued Thursday. The money, to be generated in an auction of permits allowing major polluters to emit greenhouse gases, can legally be spent only on reducing carbon emissions, the analyst's office said.

Sac Bee- Darrell Steinberg: Time to rally behind Jerry Brown's tax plan
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that it's time to end sparring over competing measures and rally behind Gov. Jerry Brown's tax initiative for the November ballot. The Sacramento Democrat, in what he characterized as a "clarion call," said that Brown's tax initiative appears to be the state's best alternative. Placing competing measures on the ballot could hurt its prospects, he said. "It's time to get behind the governor's tax initiative," Steinberg said.

Business and Labor

Sac Bee-  Back pay for furloughs goes to workers in five state departments
Hundreds of current and former state workers stand to receive millions of dollars in back wages they lost to furloughs. The payments will go to staff forced to take unpaid time off between 2009 and 2011 while working for the California Lottery, First 5 California Commission, Prison Industry Authority, Earthquake Authority or state Housing Finance Agency. The five groups employ a total of 1,500 workers.

OC Register- San Francisco study: Most foreclosures faulty
A stunning 84 percent of foreclosures in San Francisco between 2009 and 2011 violated state law in some respect, according to a study commissioned by San Francisco Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. The study, conducted by Newport Beach-based Aequitas Compliance Solutions, appears to be the first to prove what many suspected: that California’s real estate foreclosure system is badly broken. California is a “non-judicial foreclosure” state. That means the state typically trusts lenders to get it right when they throw homeowners out. In judicial foreclosure states, a lender must convince a judge before it can evict homeowners. That’s why some of the strongest evidence of “robo-signing” and other foreclosure wrongdoing has come from judicial foreclosure states such as Florida.

Sac Bee- Tahoe resorts making best of ski season
With little Sierra snowfall, resorts count on winter's second halfThe snow in Tahoe is better than you think. It's not the kind of statement that fills marketing materials, but a ski resort industry coping with unusually weak snowfall totals will take it. "It's a lot nicer than it has been," said Heather Hudson, of Truckee, as she took a break this week from the slopes at Squaw Valley. After a January without natural snowfall, resort officials are doing the happy dance over the 18 inches of snow that has fallen in recent days. The fresh snow, coupled with snow-making efforts, made for excellent conditions late this week. Not the conditions offered by the record totals of last year, but soft fluffy snow covering the majority of the mountain.

Education

San Diego UT- UCSD science drives U.S. climate plan
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday issued an international “call to action” on climate and air pollution influenced heavily by research at UC San Diego, launching a new phase in efforts to avoid the worst effects of global warming. Clinton unveiled a fast-attack plan against methane, soot and other atmospheric pollutants that are said to account for 40 percent of climate change and worsen air quality even though they remain in the atmosphere for just a matter or days or years. She was joined Thursday in Washington by international environmental leaders in what some described as a modest but critical six-nation stand against global warming agents that have gotten much less attention than carbon dioxide.

SF Chronicle- UC Davis settles in sex-bias case over athletics
UC Davis will pay $1.35 million to settle a case in which a federal judge found that the school violated sex-discrimination laws by reducing athletic opportunities for women over a six-year period. The settlement, announced Thursday, ends a suit originally filed by three female athletes who were cut from the Davis wrestling team in 2001.

SF Chronicle- Bill would let school districts deny charters
Over the past 10 years, Oakland has become the charter school capital of California. The city has 34 charters educating 1 of every 6 of its 48,000 public schoolchildren. San Francisco, by comparison, has 11 charter schools serving about 3,500 children in a city with 57,000 public school students.

Energy, Utilities, and the Environment

SF Chronicle- PG&E expects San Bruno fines to hit $200 million
PG&E Corp. expects to pay at least $200 million in fines tied to the deadly 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, company executives said Thursday. The figure is PG&E's first public estimate of the amount that state regulators could fine the company and its utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in response to the blast, which killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes.

SF Chronicle- Central Valley reps bill would upend water rights
Representatives from the Central Valley pushed legislation through a House committee Thursday that would upend the state's system of water rights, deploying the federal government to extract water from Northern California farms, fisheries and cities to send to farmers in the valley.

Sac Bee- Key House panel approves Sacramento water bill
San Joaquin Valley farmers would secure more water and an ambitious river restoration plan would be curtailed under a far-reaching California bill approved by a key House panel Thursday night. Opposed by the Brown administration in Sacramento and by the state's two senators, the water bill faces serious political turbulence. But following months of negotiations designed to ease Sacramento Valley concerns, bill supporters insist they're on the right course.

OC Register-  Gasoline pushes SoCal prices higher
The cost of getting around is beginning to hit Southern Californians in the wallet as consumer prices rose 0.8% in January, with gasoline being the primary contributor, according to the government’s monthly report released today. Overall, consumers in the Orange County-Los Angeles-Riverside area were paying 2.1% more in January for goods and services than a year ago. Nationwide, the consumer price index increased 0.2% last month and was up 2.9% year over year.

North County Times- Fall into pool at nuclear plant raises questions about what's in the water.
A worker who recently fell into the Unit 2 reactor pool at San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station received only a small dose of radiation, according to plant officials, but the incident has focused questions on what exactly was in the water when he fell. David Lochbaum, who worked in nuclear plants for 17 years before joining the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, said he believes small particles of uranium fuel ---- sometimes called "fuel fleas" or "hot particles" ---- could have been in the pool when the worker fell in Jan. 27.

VC Star- House passes legislation to mandate oil drilling off Ventura County coast
Legislation that would mandate new oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties has passed its first significant test in Congress. The House of Representatives voted 237-187 on Thursday to pass the bill, which is part of a five-year, $260 billion transportation and energy package. The measure now heads to the Senate, where its fate is less certain. House Republicans linked new drilling to the transportation bill because, arguing it would lower energy prices and provide the funds necessary to help pay for repairs to roads and bridges.

San Diego UT- SDG&E contracts more solar, wind power
The electric utility serving San Diego has signed contracts to purchase energy from a solar installation planned in the Imperial Valley and a wind farm under construction in the Tehachapi region near Rosamond. State regulators still must evaluate and approve the purchase agreements outlined by San Diego Gas & Electric in a news release on Thursday.

Riverside PE-  Del Mar Fairgrounds offers $5m coastal settlement
A San Diego County fairground has agreed to make $5 million in environmental improvements through 2015 to settle claims that it violated state coastal laws for more than a decade. U-T San Diego (http://bit.ly/xOxgrj ) says the board of the Del Mar Fairgrounds agreed this week to a 28-page cease-and-desist order from the California Coastal Commission. The commission will consider the agreement next month. The fairground borders a wetlands. State regulators claimed that among other things, the fairgrounds improperly placed a concert stage and a dirt parking lot in the area.

SJ Mercury News- Sea otters face a growing threat: shark attacks
California's sea otters have struggled for years with diseases, parasites and even the occasional collision with boats. But now the fuzzy coastal mascots are increasingly facing another threat: shark attacks. For reasons still a mystery to scientists, the number of sea otters killed by sharks has soared in recent years, with great whites as the leading suspects. "It's been very dramatic," said Tim Tinker, a Santa Cruz-based wildlife biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. "It's having the biggest impact on population growth of any factor."




Health and Welfare

Bakersfield Californian- State launches mail-order condom program for teens
In an attempt to address Kern County's alarmingly high rates of sexually transmitted disease and teen births, a new health initiative will let local teenagers order condoms online and receive the free shipment in the mail. The program, supported by the California Department of Public Health's STD Control Branch and the nonprofit California Family Health Council, will also be reaching out to teen-friendly clinics and organizations and providing them with free condoms.




Public Safety

Co Co Times- Contra Costa feeling impact from state prison shift
More than four months after California transferred responsibility for low-level offenders to counties, law enforcement officials in Contra Costa County are seeing far more inmates than projected.Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bills 109 and 117, which shifted the responsibility for monitoring, tracking and imprisoning low-level offenders previously bound for state prison to county jails. The unprecedented move stemmed from an October 2010 U.S. Supreme Court order that deemed overcrowded conditions in California's 33 prisons unconstitutional.The court mandate requires the state's prison population to drop to 137.5 percent of design capacity by 2013.

Bakersfield Californian- Highway trash piling up following loss of inmate crews
Lifelong Bakersfield resident Russ Johnson said that on a recent drive along Highway 58, he was shocked by the amount of trash along the road. "It looks like a dump -- literally," Johnson said, describing cups, plastics and bags of trash strewn on either side between Highway 99 and Oswell Street.

AP- Pot plane enters Obama L.A. airspace
 Two Air Force F-16 fighters intercepted a privately owned Cessna airplane that entered the same Los Angeles airspace as Marine One on Thursday as the helicopter was ferrying President Barack Obama. Police discovered about 40 pounds of marijuana inside the plane after it landed at Long Beach Airport, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to comment publicly on the drug investigation and spoke under condition of anonymity. The Secret Service said the president was never in any danger.

State Politics

Sac Bee- $2 million boost for campaign to require two-year state budget
A signature-gathering drive received a $2 million boost today in its bid to place before voters a constitutional amendment that would require the state to transition to a two-year, performance-based budget cycle and make numerous other changes. The initiative campaign reported a $1.2 million contribution from an institute of billionaire investor Nicolas Berggruen and an $883,567 donation from California Forward, a nonprofit government reform group, secretary of state records show.

SF Chronicle- President Barack Obama's big-money day in S.F.
President Obama wrapped up a day of California fundraisers Thursday with a speech at the Nob Hill Masonic Center on elevating the middle class, as hundreds of demonstrators - from the Tea Party to Occupy - railed outside against his policies on the economy, the environment and contraception.

Co Co Times- President Obama in Bay Area on fundraising trip
President Barack Obama was cheered by a packed auditorium Thursday night, capping a lucrative day of fundraising in California.  "I'm here not just because I need your help, San Francisco. I'm here because this country needs your help," the president exhorted the crowd, citing the support he had in 2008. "The campaign was not about me -- the campaign was about you."Speaking to a crowd of 2,500 at the Nob Hill Masonic Center, Obama said it's important to believe in free markets and entrepreneurship and to ensure that anyone who works hard should have the chance to get ahead, so everyone should do their fair share and play by the same set of rules.

LA Times- Obama starts 2012 with a $29 million fundraising haul
President Obama raised $29.1 million in the first month of 2012 for his reelection campaign and the Democratic National Committee, kicking off what is expected to be a record-setting fundraising year. His campaign announced the haul in a tweet Friday morning, saying that 98% of the donations in January were in increments of $250 or less.In all, Obama has raised nearly $250 million from more 1.3 million donors since launching his reelection bid last April. In the final quarter of 2011, he pulled in an average of $22.67 million a month.

LA Times- Newt Gingrich speaks to Asian American and Jewish groups in L.A.
The Republican presidential candidate, whose campaign has faltered, emphasizes U.S. military strength and support for Israel. Wilshire Boulevard, which collides with many enclaves as it wends through Los Angeles, is the perfect thoroughfare for a presidential aspirant looking to woo niche voters. Newt Gingrich made his pitch Thursday to two distinctly different groups along Wilshire: Asian American business leaders in Koreatown, and Jewish voters who paid to lunch and pose for photos with the former House speaker in an Italian restaurant in Beverly Hills.

Transportation

LA Times- Massive traffic jam on 10 Freeway becomes Caltrans scandal
A routine road project west of Palm Springs went awry Sunday, backing up traffic about 25 miles and forcing drivers to endure delays of five hours or longer. Caltrans says that a series of errors were to blame. Even in a region where gridlock is a daily fact of life, what happened Sunday on the 10 Freeway west of Palm Springs has morphed from traffic jam to full-fledged scandal. A routine California Department of Transportation road repair project gone awry backed up traffic for about 25 miles Sunday, forcing drivers to endure delays of five hours or more and sparking a furious political backlash that has put Caltrans on the defensive. On Thursday, Caltrans offered its most detailed account yet of what went wrong, saying that a series of errors ranging from a delay in getting concrete shipments to removing too much worn pavement contributed to what they admit was a "horrible situation."

Desert sun- Tribe sues to halt road work in burial ground
A Native American tribe in San Diego County is suing to stop construction of a road it says will run through an ancient burial ground. The North County Times (http://bit.ly/vZMhJL ) says the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians sued the county and Pardee Homes last week. They want to stop Horse Ranch Creek Road, which is in the grading stage and will serve four housing developments. Tribal remains were found at the road site last year and removed in compliance with state law but the tribe says 19 other sites containing remains and artifacts have been found in Fallbrook.

Bakersfield Californian Editorial
Assembly leaders were wrong on two counts
In a year of extreme state budget cuts, the California Assembly apparently saw nothing wrong with unloading $200,000 on a legal fight to prevent the release of its members' budgets, which the Assembly has long claimed to be off-limits to the public. Is it any wonder there's a movement afoot to make the Legislature part-time? Last year, The Sacramento Bee and the Los Angeles Times sued to gain access to Assembly member budgets, arguing for the public's right to see how the body spends $147 million. Assembly leaders claimed the documents were exempt from public records laws because they were drafts and contained confidential information, and they hired a $300-an-hour legal firm to defend this position. It lost, and as a result, on top of its own legal bill of $124,000, must also pay the $74,000 legal tab for the two newspapers. To their credit, some individual members bucked the Assembly leaders and released their own budgets.

Co Co Times Editorial
Stark contrast is handling of two serious sex cases
Accusations of workplace sexual assault must be promptly, thoroughly and independently investigated.Alameda County officials understand that; Contra Costa officials do not. That's why Alameda County's chief probation officer was placed on administrative leave Tuesday after accusations that he sexually assaulted and harassed a subordinate. On the same day, the case against a Contra Costa prosecutor was dropped without resolution of whether he raped a junior colleague.

LA Times Editorial
The many faces of marriage in America
The same shift that occurred in opinions about interracial marriage — from disapproval to approval — is happening in attitudes about same-sex marriage. A quarter-century ago, 65% of Americans thought interracial marriage was unacceptable for themselves or for other people. Yet in the span of a generation, as intermarriage has become more common and the United States has grown more racially diverse, a dramatic change in attitudes has taken place. Today, according to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 87% of Americans say that the rise in interracial marriage has either been good for society or made no difference, while only 11% think it's a change for the worse.

OC Register Editorial
Golden State on road to Greece, by way of Detroit
Others embraced the same litany of progressive policies and have gone where California is headed.
California's tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation, is heavy. The Register reported that per-person state and local taxes, fees, licenses and "intergovernmental revenue" amount to $8,634, ranking California 13th-highest among the states. California businesses fare worse, the Tax Foundation said, ranking 48th in tax climate, based on corporate, income, sales, property and unemployment insurance taxes. What's unsaid is the effect on individuals of extremely high corporate taxes. Companies not driven out of state or out of business are less likely to hire or expand, more likely to contract and struggle to provide for current employees.

San Bernardino Sun Editorial
911 calls should remain public
We can certainly understand the impulse behind Assemblywoman Norma Torres' proposal to restrict public access to 911 emergency calls. But that doesn't mean we agree with it. Quite the contrary. As a former 911 dispatcher who worked 18 years in that stressful position, Torres wants to protect those who make the calls - or are the subjects of them - from having details of their health emergencies released. She was prompted to put forth legislation after 911 calls involving actress Demi Moore's medical emergency were made public.

San Diego UT Editorial
‘Public employee bill of rights’? Really?  
Public employees in California are facing a rough patch in terms of public opinion, and for several reasons. One is the stories about incredible abuses of taxpayers, such as the looting of the town of Bell by a handful of officials who awarded themselves staggering salaries. Another reason is the continuing reports about the near-inability of school districts to fire incompetent or erratic teachers. But the biggest of all is public disbelief at the extraordinary retirement benefits enjoyed by some high-paid government workers, which allow many to retire in their 50s and receive annual pensions for decades that are equal to 60 percent, 75 percent or more of their last, highest salary.

SJ Mercury News Editorials
Citizen commission got the job done on redistricting
California's grand experiment to let a nonpartisan citizen commission redraw election maps rather than having self-serving politicians do the job has made us -- and other supporters of the idea -- proud. The voter-approved initiative that made this change is a reminder that we can still put democracy into action. The new maps released in August have survived five legal challenges. Just this past Friday, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit brought by a Republican group that argued the commission improperly considered race as a factor in drawing congressional districts. In the fall, the California Supreme Court unanimously rejected two other Republican challenges to the districts for state Senate and congressional seats.

Political disclosure deserves second act
It's outrageous that state legislators failed last month -- by only two votes -- to pass a bill that would have required political action committees to come clean on who pays for their ads in California. Given the huge number of campaigns gearing up for both candidates and initiatives on the November ballot, we need this legislation now. Supporters aren't giving up. Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Los Angeles, the sponsor of the California DISCLOSE Act, plans to announce Monday that she's reintroducing a similar measure. We'll be watching to see which lawmakers do and don't support this common-sense proposal to bring clarity to the individuals and special-interest groups spending money to influence California voters.

Santa Rosa PD Editorial
A better deal for California homeowners
There’s reason for some satisfaction with the $25 billion settlement addressing robo-signing and other dubious practices by five major mortgage lenders. Yet for millions of people who already lost their homes, and millions more struggling to avoid foreclosure, the much-heralded deal probably seems like too little, too late. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Financial are covered by the settlement, which relieves them of civil liability.