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By Charles Postel
$28.00
By Gretchen Morgenson, Joshua Rosner
$17.04
$21
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Flickr / TenSafeFrogs
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The nation’s biggest and richest state has been called ungovernable because, among other reasons, budgets and taxes have to be approved by a two-thirds majority of the Legislature. George Lakoff, the guy who gave us framing, is out to change things. (continued)
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Flickr / Matti Mattila
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On Thursday, the House of Representatives approved a massive spending bill, totaling $447 billion, which includes quite a few earmarks. In fact, 5,224 earmarks made their way into the bill, adding up to about $3.9 billion. This did not please House Republicans, of whom not a single member voted for the measure.
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cironline.org
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By Lance Williams, California Watch —
Wealthy corporate farmer Stewart Resnick (shown above with wife Lynda) has written check after check to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s campaigns, and when he needed her help, he got quick results.
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger apparently isn’t one of those Republicans who believe that growing international concerns about climate change stem from a vast left-wing conspiracy. Here, he takes stock of the climate-related challenges his adopted home state may face and what’s to be done about them.
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Flickr/James Buck
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By Yasha Levine — Student protesters may think they are simply battling a wasteful, callous government bureaucracy that is more concerned about bailing out Wall Street banks than supporting a frivolous thing like education. But really the fight is about something much more basic and widespread: It is a fight between the young and the old, between California’s baby boomer pensioners and everyone under 49.
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Flickr / Epioles
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By Amy Goodman — With President Barack Obama’s Afghanistan war strategy soon to be announced, the juxtaposition of education cuts and military increases is incensing many, and helping to build a movement.
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By Louis Freedberg and Hugo Cabrera, California Watch —
Most of California’s largest school districts are increasing class sizes in kindergarten through third grade, eroding the most expensive education reform in the state’s history.
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gov.ca.gov
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After terminating his second stint as California’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger will be looking for a fourth act in life. The movie-star-turned-politician told reporters in Italy, “I am not going to run for anything else.” So what’s next? Environmental activist? Hummer salesman? Judge on Project Runway? (continued)
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cs.bris.ac.uk
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She admits she hasn’t always been a true believer in our country’s electoral system, but former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is now hoping to become a major player in the U.S. political arena by challenging longtime California Sen. Barbara Boxer for her congressional seat in 2010.
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White House / Pete Souza
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Why did voters in Maine reject a law that would have sanctioned same-sex marriage? Well, according to some marriage equality supporters, one big reason currently resides at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, and another has to do with conservative scare tactics played out via television ad campaigns.
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Angel City Press
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By Bill Boyarsky — The Chandler family’s L.A. Times practically invented one of the great American cities. This is the story of the paper’s fall toward mediocrity.
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Flickr / Caveman 92223
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California was the first to legalize medicinal marijuana and, if three ballot measures and a bill floating around the state legislature have anything to say about it, the Golden State could be the first to legalize and tax adult marijuana use across the board. (continued)
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Flickr / gdcgraphics
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The Church of Scientology counts several high-profile figures from the world of entertainment among its members—Tom Cruise, John Travolta and Kirstie Alley, to name a few—and they sometimes act as public advocates for their religion. However, one of their own, screenwriter and director Paul Haggis, has very publicly left the fold after taking issue with the church’s stance on Proposition 8.
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DEA
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The lousy economy has driven some Californians into the marijuana industry, which is doing a lot better than, say, construction. According to this Miller-McCune profile, California will grow an estimated $15 billion worth of weed in 2009, a good portion of it in the backyards and basements of amateurs and newcomers.
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Flickr / TheTruthAbout
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The Justice Department is officially going to quit harshing the mellow of the 13 states that have medical marijuana laws on the books. Dispensaries and patients will no longer have to worry about federal raids—unless they’re “drug traffickers who hide behind claims of compliance with state law.”
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Score one for irony: A new movement is in the works, complete with its own Web site, to protect the institution of marriage in the Golden State from the unholy scourge of ... divorce. The drive is on for the 2010 California Marriage Protection Act, and this group—which actually intends to poke fun at the Proposition 8 proponents—is circulating its own PSAs to educate the masses about its mission.
Posted on Oct 13, 2009
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Wikimedia Commons / Daniel Nicoletta
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California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has changed his tune about Harvey Milk Day, signing a bill on Monday to make May 22, Milk’s birthday, a day of official commemoration for the slain San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist.
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fulldisclosure.net
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The chief justice of the California Supreme Court has a choice word for the state’s method of operation: dysfunctional. At a speech in Massachusetts, Ronald M. George chastised the referendum process that prohibits amending or repealing of laws without voter approval.
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White House / Pete Souza
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The California governor and rare Hollywood Republican released a statement Tuesday in support of health care reform, in which he praised the president and urged his “colleagues on both sides of the political aisle at the national level to move forward and accomplish these vital goals for the American people.”
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AP / Jae C. Hong
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By Bill Boyarsky — One way to give people a good deal on their health care is the so-called public option. A better way is the kind of strong regulation that isn’t even being discussed.
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Kevin Starr’s newest volume in his magisterial series on California examines the dream of endless prosperity that was, for a time, synonymous with the American dream.
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AP / Jeff Chiu
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The former president has thrown his considerable political and fundraising heft behind San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in the race to succeed Arnold Schwarzenegger. Newsom is up against California institution and former Gov. Jerry Brown.
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California Emergency Management Agency
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By G.W. Schulz, California Watch —
Records show that communities across California had difficulty managing millions in anti-terrorism grants handed out by Congress after Sept. 11.
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ocregister.com
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We all know the drill by now: Conservative legislator, predominantly of the male variety, gets elected on pro-family-values platform, is accused of engaging in some kind of sexual activity that goes against said platform, and then resigns after some attempt to deny or reframe the offending sexual scenario. California’s Mike Duvall, however, gets some points for originality.
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Flickr/slasher-fun
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It’s been over a week since the latest and biggest fire to scorch large parts of the Greater Los Angeles region began, and according to U.S. Forest Service officials it’s now known that the blaze was caused by deliberate human intervention—otherwise known as arson.
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Flickr/Ambidanze
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Here’s a, um, creative way to funnel some money into a broke state’s coffers: Hold a California-themed garage sale, starring actor-turned-Gubernator Arnold Schwarzenegger. The governor has added a personal touch to some bigger-ticket items, such as automobiles, by signing them in an effort to clear out the state’s storage sheds and bring in the cash. What’s next, a Golden State bake sale?
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wfxl.com
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Talk of an economic rejuvenation in recent weeks got a sobering smack in the face Friday as California’s jobless figures were released. The Golden State’s unemployment rolls reached 11.9 percent in July, a post-World War II high.
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Flickr / ProComKelly
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Equality California, possibly the biggest gay rights group in California, will wait until the 2012 election to attempt to overturn the state’s gay marriage ban. The organization’s director says “we think we have one shot” and that it will take time to marshal the necessary forces. Other groups have their sights set on 2010. Update
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Flickr / Kiwi Flickr
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Soon California can stop being the butt of jokes—although seriously, Alabama, let’s not point fingers. Party elders in Sacramento have reached an agreement that should balance the budget with $15.5 billion in cuts that will hurt students, the poor, children and the elderly. Republicans, who make up only about a third of the state Legislature, managed to thwart any new taxes.
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L.A. Times / Alana Semuels
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More bad news on the economy front. California reported Friday that its statewide unemployment rate increased in June, leaving 11.6 percent of Californians without work while shedding 66,500 jobs in only 30 days.
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Flickr / Franco Folini
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Looks like Republicans are going to win out in California’s seemingly endless budget battle, despite holding a minority in the state Legislature. The deal lawmakers are inching toward favors Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desire to make the poor, the elderly and schoolchildren pay for the state’s financial crisis.
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U.S. Army / Staff Sgt. Jim Greenhill
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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a Democratic proposal to cut $11.4 billion in spending, saying that “the Legislature must solve the entire [$27 billion] deficit ... and must not push the problem off to tomorrow.” With IOUs now a certainty and the state in financial ruin, a prominent Democrat called the governor’s stance “the most irresponsible thing that I’ve seen in my 15 years of public service.”
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Flickr / denn
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Unable to agree whether to raise taxes or cut spending, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state’s lawmakers will instead rely on time travel. Sacramento hopes to “save” somewhere around $10 billion by shifting costs to next year’s budget and resorting to other accounting tricks.
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artofmanliness.com
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As the national unemployment rate in May rose to 9.4 percent, jobless rates jumped in 48 states and hit record highs for some, reaching double digits in many cases. The winners in this depressing race are Michigan (think GM and Chrsyler), Oregon and California, which is registering its highest unemployment rate to date, 11.5 percent.
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gov.ca.gov
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As if delivering the tagline of his latest movie, California’s governor announced to the state Legislature Tuesday that the “day of reckoning is here.” But Democrats are fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger’s plan to cut funding for schools, the poor and sick children while refusing to raise taxes.
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By Matt Welch —
Instead of making the positive case for big government, or at least beginning to explain, let alone defend, what Sacramento does with all that money, California’s political class has instead opted for a four-pronged strategy: deny, scare, attack, then call for higher taxes.
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Flickr / CarbonNYC
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Theodore B. Olson and David Boies were Supreme Court adversaries in the landmark Bush v. Gore case, but the two lawyers have joined forces to take the fight for gay marriage into federal court. Fearing an unfriendly Supreme Court, some prominent gay rights groups are criticizing the shift in strategy.
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AP photo / Rich Pedroncelli
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By Robert Scheer — I expected a federal government that has spent trillions salvaging the banks that got us into this mess to find the relatively minor sums needed to bail out California and other states that have been the victims of Wall Street’s dangerous games. But I didn’t count on the tough-love steeliness of the Obama administration.
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The “Real Time” host laments the ballot initiative, which, he says, has made his home state ungovernable: “This is why America’s founders wanted a representative democracy, because they knew if you gave the average guy the chance, he’d vote for a fantasy world with no taxes, free beer and vagina trees.”
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Former Vice President Dick Cheney has been reasserting himself, for good or ill, in the public sphere this week. President Obama was ready with his own take on torture, aka “extreme interrogation” methods. Is this a media-enabled setup or a legitimate face-off between executive powers past and present?
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Wikimedia Commons / Daniel Nicoletta
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Friends and admirers of the late San Francisco supervisor and gay rights activist have been rallying to establish an annual commemorative day in his honor, and on Thursday, the California Senate approved a bill that would officially make Milk’s birthday, May 22, Harvey Milk Day in the Golden State.
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Wikimedia Commons / USDHS
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This will come as no surprise to Ron Paul (remember him?), but it looks like swine flu may be no worse than your garden-variety influenza virus, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
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Flickr/The Pug Father
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After infecting perhaps hundreds of people and killing scores in Mexico, eight cases of swine flu have been diagnosed in the U.S.—six in California and two in Texas.
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Flickr / Ken Lund
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More than 2 million acres in nine states will be set aside as protected wilderness as soon as President Obama signs a bill just passed by Congress. Land in California, Colorado, Idaho, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia will be off-limits to development.
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AP photo / Andy Wong
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By Chris Hedges — All efforts to save the planet will be useless if we do not cut population growth. By 2050, the planet will have between 8 billion and 10 billion people, according to a recent U.N. forecast. And yet studies, books and documentaries that deal with various crises fail to discuss the danger of all those billions of hungry people looking for a better life.
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By William Pfaff — Justice Department documents that demonstrate the Bush administration’s view of the president’s constitutional power in a “state of war” tell us things we suspected but didn’t want to know.
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AP photo / Marcio Jose Sanchez
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Bad news for anti-Proposition 8 activists: As of Thursday afternoon, it appeared that the California Supreme Court was hesitant to overturn the gay marriage ban. However, it might be the case that the court will allow existing marriages to remain legally valid.
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White House / Eric Draper
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Arnold Schwarzenegger’s biographer has revealed that the California governor recently thought about leaving the Republican Party, but decided he wouldn’t gain much by doing so, politically. Camp Schwarzenegger has yet to respond, but the news fits, given the governor’s problems working with his own party.
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White House / Paul Morse / Pete Souza
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By Robert Scheer — Congressional Republicans, with the exception of that embarrassingly shrunken contingent of three moderates, will rue their legacy of deep indifference at a time of true national emergency, one that makes George W. Bush’s far more costly war on terror now seem an absurdly irrelevant exercise.
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Real American Boy: How Our Byzantine Immigration System and Failed Economy May Have Made a Terrorist
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