The California Prison Health Care Receivership, Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate and the Fair Political Practices Commission have reached an agreement that will avoid a lawsuit over the federal court-appointed receivership’s compliance with state political finance disclosure laws.
State Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s nominee to fill the vacant lieutenant governor’s office – attended the governor’s appearance this morning at the Alameda County Community Food Bank in Oakland, and spoke with a few reporters outside beforehand.
Asked about ongoing [...]
Some of the more than three dozen Bay Area residents who are headed to Gaza for a New Year’s Eve peace march will gather tonight in San Francisco to make banners and flags.
The Gaza Freedom March is being organized by the International Coalition to End the Illegal Siege of [...]
Tony Amador – the former U.S. Marshal who’s seeking the Republican nomination to take on Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, in the 11th Congressional District next year – clearly is working his law enforcement ties for endorsements.
He sent out a news release today announcing his [...]
Chris Kelly of Palo Alto might not have the name recognition or fundraising prowess of some of his rivals for the Democratic nomination for state Attorney General, but he’s sharp enough to know what people like: CSI.
Assembly Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Nancy Skinner held a committee hearing today in Oakland on implementing California’s climate-change policies as a path to the state’s economic recovery, in advance of her trip at the end of this week to the United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Skinner, D-Berkeley, isn’t using [...]
I listened in on a conference call this morning with U.S. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis and President’s Council of Economic Advisers Chairwoman Christina Romer, a pair of Californians discussing the speech on job creation initiatives that President Barack Obama gave this morning at the Brookings Institution. The [...]
As the jibber-jabber over whether to confirm Abel Maldonado as lieutenant governor continues (the LA Times’s George Skelton says today that it’s a must for Democrats), the Democratic contenders in next year’s election are continuing to raise money full steam ahead.
In fact, Los Angeles [...]
I was on KQED’s “This Week in Northern California” last night to talk about the Machiavellian machinations behind choosing the next Lieutenant Governor and the next Assembly Speaker.
I didn’t have time for a Perez-related anecdote. At least one prominent Democratic strategist shopped around the idea this week that – just [...]
The three daughters of Panda Express cofounders Andrew and Peggy Cherng – Andrea, an attorney; Michelle , an intern at the family’s Chinese fast-food empire; and Nicole, a student – each gave $25,000 last Monday to Republican Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial campaign. The parents gave $51,800 back in [...]
Emeryville-based Amyris Biotechnologies Inc. will get a $25 million grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for a pilot plant producing renewable fuel – a diesel substitute – by fermenting sweet sorghum.
The Energy Department doled out $564 million yesterday to 19 such bio-refinery projects nationwide; Amyris [...]
Former California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres will be pounding the pavement in Hayward tomorrow on behalf of Alameda County Board of Supervisors candidate Nadia Lockyer.
The candidate – executive director of the Alameda County Family Justice Center in Oakland, a Hayward resident, and wife [...]
Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, was among Democrats who characterized today’s jobs report as a good sign:
“Today’s announcement that the unemployment rate dropped in November is welcomed news for the millions of American workers, including tens of thousands of people in my district, struggling to find a job [...]
Assembly Natural Resources Committee Chairwoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, will hold a special informational hearing on climate change Tuesday in Oakland before heading later in the week to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.
California Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols and California EPA Climate Change Program [...]
Democrats are pleased by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ announcement this morning that 11,000 jobs were lost in November – in the prior 3 months, payroll job losses had averaged 135,000 a month – and the unemployment rate fell to 10 percent (down from 10.2 percent in October), [...]
Congressmen Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, and Pete Stark, D-Fremont, were among 26 House Democrats who broke from the party pack today to oppose H.R. 4154, Permanent Estate Tax Relief for Families, Farmers, and Small Businesses Act of 2009.
The bill, which passed on a 225-200 vote, would prevent [...]
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC – one of the nation’s most strident voices against illegal immigration, so much so that it has drawn fire from the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center – said today it’s parting ways with its [...]
Alameda County Supervisors Nate Miley and Scott Haggerty are partnering with the Bay Area Council, Repair California and the Alameda County Citizens for Seniors and Persons with Disabilities to convene the county’s third Constitutional Convention Town Hall from 6 to 9 p.m. this Monday, Dec. 7 [...]
State Sen. Abel Maldonado will seek the lieutenant governor’s seat whether or not the Legislature confirms him to the vacant post. See my story about Maldonado’s visit to the Contra Costa Times editorial board today at [www.contracostatimes.com]
By Lisa VorderbrueggenThe Democratic congressional delegation loves President Barack Obama but they don’t love his proposal to send 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.
Congress controls the purse strings and Obama he needed to win votes, not friends, with his speech tonight.
None of the Bay Area Democrats in Congress I have heard from since [...]
This just in from the Secretary of State Debra Bowen’s office – a new proposed ballot measure cleared to start gathering petition signatures:
CRIMINALIZES FALSE STATEMENTS ABOUT LEGISLATIVE ACTS, ELECTIONS, OR GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. Amends constitution to hold candidates for public office, government officials and employees, and members [...]
Contra Costa County Administrator David Twa delivered frank and sobering financial news to his board today: The next two years will be brutal, in part, due to a projected 77 percent increase the amount the county must pay for pensions.
If the county cannot cut its pension obligations, it must cut [...]
The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors this morning diverted $703,524 from its rainy day fund into the budget of the District Attorney’s Office, preserving the continued prosecution of misdemeanor cases.
District Attorney Bob Kochly told the board six months ago in a public relations bruhaha that he lacked enough cash to [...]
Many of the millions of laid-off workers and dependents who were getting federal subsidies to help pay for health care coverage are now losing those subsidies and so might end up joining the ranks of the uninsured, according to a report issued today by two health-care advocacy groups supporting [...]
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission will consider this Thursday whether to sue Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matthew Cate, court-appointed prison health care receiver J. Clark Kelso and others to force them to adopt a conflict-of-interest code for receivership workers.
Kelso [...]
California’s Fair Political Practices Commission will consider Thursday whether to sign off on a $104,500 fine paid by former state Controller and 2006 Democratic gubernatorial primary candidate Steve Westly, his campaign committee, and committee treasurer Kinde Durkee.
Documents show the FPPC leveled against Westly, the committee and the [...]
Two Bay Area lawyers who played roles in the Bush Administration’s legal justifications for torture should be disbarred, according to papers filed Friday in Washington, D.C.
Disbar Torture Lawyers, a group of non-governmental organizations with more than a million members, filed complaints with the [...]
Or, at least, Hollywood and casinos seem thankful for Jerry Brown’s gubernatorial candidacy.
In addition to the money on which I reported last week, Brown’s campaign in the past seven days has listed contributions totaling $138,800 from Dreamworks cofounders Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzeneberg and David Geffen, plus [...]
Lee W. Olson of Huntington Beach clearly feels the ballot initiative process is his opportunity to have his vision of government writ large upon California – even if that vision involves a wholesale reworking of large swaths of public policy.
The Secretary of State’s office last week cleared three Olson-authored initiatives [...]
Palo Alto physicist Charles T. Munger Jr., son of Warren Buffett’s billionaire investor partner, yesterday put another $512,167 into his “Voters First Act for Congress” ballot measure, bringing his total so far to $1,515,197. The measure would remove authority for setting California’s 53 Congressional district boundaries [...]
Schroder
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Martinez Mayor Rob Schroder to the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board.
He also reappointed to the board Lafayette resident Shalom Eliahu, 82, who has served on the board since 2000. Eliahu is president of Solo Engineer Consulting and has [...]
No, I’ve not read Palin’s book. Or Plouffe’s.
But I’ve very much enjoyed Thomas Fleming’s “The Intimate Lives of the Founding Fathers” (Smithsonian Books, $27.99), which examines the women behind the men who launched our nation. A young George Washington [...]
Bay Area companies have been awarded more than $49 million in economic-stimulus funds for energy storage projects aimed at improving the efficiency and reliability of the nation’s electrical grid, the U.S. Department of Energy announced this morning.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced $620 million in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [...]
Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg says he has “grave concerns” about Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s decision to nominate GOP Sen. Abel Maldonado as the next lieutenant governor.
“I congratulate Senator Maldonado upon his nomination by the governor,” Steinberg said in a release a few minutes ago. “Senator Maldonado is a fine [...]
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has named state Sen. Abel Maldonado, R-Santa Maria, to serve as Lieutenant Governor, now that Democrat John Garamendi has won election to the House in the 10th Congressional District.
“Senator Maldonado has proven he has the strength and courage it takes to [...]
U.S. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, joined by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, wrote to President Barack Obama today in support of California’s requests for high-speed and intercity rail funding through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Read the full text of the letter, after the jump…
November 23, [...]
Rupf
Contra Costa Country Sheriff Warren Rupf, who considered running for the 11th Congressional District himself, has endorsed Lodi grapegrower Brad Goehring in the 2010 Republican primary.
“Brad Goehring is a candidate that understands the nature of the law enforcement mission and the tools we need to accomplish [...]
Environmentalists will hold a fundraiser next month for the state Attorney General campaign of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, right in one of his chief rivals’ backyards.
The Sunday, Dec. 9 event – for which tickets cost $100 to $500 each – will be held [...]
Former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s district director, Jennifer Barton, has been selected BART’s new executive manager of external affairs.
BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger told her team this morning of her choice of Barton, who has been the face of District 10 for seven years. (See memo below.)
Barton has been working for [...]
A controversial resolution calling for a non-interventionist foreign policy – meaning a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq – was shot down by the Alameda County Republican Central Committee last night, even as the committee’s chair changed hands between the party’s warring factions.
Former chairman Jerry Salcido – among a faction [...]
Rep. John Garamendi
House Democratic leaders have recommended Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, be appointed to the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The House Democratic Steering Committee has also voted to place Garamendi on the Science and Technology Committee.
The full House Democratic caucus [...]
I met with Damon Dunn, the professional athlete-turned-businessman-turned Republican candidate for Secretary of State, this morning at Tully’s Coffee in downtown Oakland’s Frank Ogawa Plaza — but caffeine is the last thing he needed.
Dunn, 33, is a live wire, a mile-a-minute speaker drawing on his energy [...]
Kramer
Nejedly
Contra Costa Community College Director John T. Nejedly has declared his intent to challenge Contra Costa County Assessor Gus Kramer.
Nejedly, son of the late state Sen. John A. Nejedly and sibling to Supervisor Mary Piepho and Central Contra Costa Sanitary District [...]
Expect fireworks at tonight’s Alameda County Republican Central Committee meeting, as there’s a debate and vote on a proposed resolution endorsing a non-interventionist foreign policy – which in the short term means pulling out of Iraq and Afghanistan.
The resolution was introduced by committeemen Jerry Salcido, [...]
A few choice tidbits from today’s rollout of a proposed ballot measure to hike the state’s cigarette tax by a dollar per pack to fund cancer research, for which I didn’t have room in the article I wrote for tomorrow’s editions…
Don Perata, who said he [...]
UC Berkeley cognitive linguistics professor George Lakoff’s ballot initiative calling for the reversal of the two-thirds voting requirement for a state budget and tax increases has been cleared for the signature-gathering process.
Lakoff describes the initiative as the restoration of democracy in California, a return to majority rule and end [...]
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced this morning that five alleged terrorists believed to have taken part in planning the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks will be brought from the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to New York City, where they’ll be tried in federal court.
From House Minority Leader [...]
Miller
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, has been in Pakistan the last few days and he sent this report this morning:
With the excitement of passing the health care reform bill still echoing in my ears, I left Washington on Monday night for Pakistan — my third trip in [...]
Legislators love to complain about how the ballot initiative process costs the state money and ties their hands on the budget.
But a new analysis from the nonprofit Center for Governmental Studies revealed today in Oakland shows that of the $11.85 billion worth of ballot measures voters approved between 1988 [...]
(This post comes courtesy of Steve Harmon, our man in Sacramento…)
The administration is knocking down rumors that Susan Kennedy, the all-powerful and influential chief of staff for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, is preparing to leave the administration for a job with Mercury Public Affairs [...]
Josh Richman, Lisa Vorderbrueggen, jrichman, lvorderbrueggen
