Bill Restricting State Regulation of Internet Phone Service Advances

Silicon Valley companies, cable providers and phone companies won a victory over  consumer groups and labor unions August 8 when the Assembly Appropriations Committee sent a bill to the floor that would restrict the ability of the California Public Utilities Commission to regulate Internet phone service.

Supporters of the heavily lobbied bill say state regulation of Internet phone service, which is increasingly supplanting traditional landline, would thwart innovation of technologies like Skype and create a hodge-podge of state regulation.    Read more »

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Misprision

Noun: “The deliberate concealment of one’s knowledge of a treasonable act or a felony.” “Neglect or wrong performance of official duty.” “Seditious Conduct.”  Or: “Erroneous judgment particuarly of the value or identity of something.” 

Used in a Sentence: “Perhaps misprision is too strong a word, Assemblyman, but one hopes there’s a day job you can fall back on.”     Read more »

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Bill Restricting State Regulation of Internet Phone Service

 Silicon Valley companies, cable providers and phone companies are squaring off with consumer groups and labor unions over a bill that would restrict the ability of the California Public Utilities Commission to regulate Internet phone service – although the commission has not moved to do so and the federal government says they can’t even if they want to.    Read more »

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State-Imposed Fire Fees – A Bad Approach For All Californians

By Diane Dillon 

California’s rural county residents will soon be receiving bills from the State of California for fire services under a 2011 legislative scheme known as State Responsibility Area Fees. These new fees are unfair, costly and do not reflect that rural residents — much like urban dwellers — are already paying for local fire services.      Read more »

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“To Strive , To Seek, To Find And Not to Yield”

August 6 is the birthday of English poet Alfred Tennyson whose ending line from Ulysess, the favorite poem of California’s Capitol, won a competition last year in England called, “Winning Words.”

The phrase is engraved on a wall in Olympic Village.

Tennyson also provided President Harry Truman with his favorite poem, several stanzas of “Locksley Hall,” a handwritten copy of which Truman kept in his wallet from the time he graduated from high school.    Read more »

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Welcome to the Final Weeks of the Legislative Session: Please Send Money

Lawmakers return to Sacramento August 6 for a final 20 days to weigh the fate of hundreds of bills.

That’s the policy part. There’s also the politics.

On August 6, four legislative fundraisers are scheduled with a total tab of $4,300. On August 7, there are nine fundraisers scheduled in downtown at a cost of $10,800.    Read more »

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Facebook Floundering

On August 3, Facebook shares closed at $21.09.

Depending who you listen to, the projections anchoring the current state budget say in November Facebook stock will trade at $35 – Gov. Jerry Brown’s Department of Finance’s view — or $45, the Legislative Analyst says.

If those estimates are true then the state will pocket $1.2 billion according to the Department of Finance and $2.1 billion the way the Legislative Analyst sees it.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Johnson!

Although at times it can seem a more common occurrence, the “Know-Nothings” only held California’s statehouse form 1856 to 1858.

The Know-Nothings – officially the American Party — rose from the ashes of the Whigs and the growing division in the Democratic Party between what were known as the Lecomptons and Anti-Lecomptons after a proposed constitution for the new state of Kansas drafted in that city to allow slavery.    Read more »

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Culver City

This west Los Angeles city boasting the ‘smallest Main Street in the world” is named for its creator, Harry H. Culver, a Nebraska native who moved to California in 1910 after stints as a customs agent and reporter in the Philippines following enlisting in the Spanish-American War.

Culver took a job in real estate with developer Isaac Newton Van Nuys — yes, that Van Nuys —  then went out on his own.    Read more »

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BIll Lockyer for CSU Chancellor

California’s Capitol left this comment at the bottom of  a column by the Sacramento Bee’s Dan Morain about State Treasurer Bill Lockyer and his qualifications to be California State University Chancellor:

The 427,000 students and 44,000 faculty and staff of the California State University system would be terrifically lucky to have State Treasurer Bill Lockyer as their next chancellor.    Read more »

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