And After Fixing That Pesky Budget Thing, How About the Unemployment Insurance Fund?

The awful economy that has contributed to the state’s record budget gap of $42 billion and, now $24 billion, has also driven the state’s unemployment insurance fund deeper into insolvency.

A new report by the state Employment Development Department estimates that the fund will end 2009 $6.2 billion in the hole and $17.8 billion in the hole if no action is taken to change the way it’s financed.    Read more »

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Safe Surrender of Infants — Again

Give Assemblyman Alberto Torrico an “A” for effort: His fourth attempt to increase beyond 72 hours California’s safe surrender of children was approved June 3 by the lower house on a bipartisan vote.

The three previous attempts by the Fremont Democrat to increase the amount of time in which parents can give up their children without penalty have been vetoed by GOP Gov.    Read more »

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Spay and Neuter Redux

Nothing seems to inflame political passions more than pets.

Even though heavy on exemptions, a measure by Sen. Dean Florez aimed at encouraging more spaying and neutering of dogs and cats faced a rocky hearing on the Senate floor.

On nearly every other issue, Florez, a Hanford Democrat, would have had the unflinching support of at least 21 of his fellow Democrats, assuring passage in the 40-member house.    Read more »

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Hello? Rome Is Burning

As a special two-house conference committee met to consider ways to close a $24 billion budget gap, the Assembly spent the first hour of its June 1 session approving 12 pieces of legislation.

Among them, AB 21. 

The measure orders the Department of Pesticide Regulation to “conduct a review” of the “assessment undertaken pursuant to the 8th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the 20th meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel regarding methyl bromide.”    Read more »

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