Not Sleeping Enough Can Make You Fat

Maintaining a normal metabolism requires a certain amount of sleep. Less sleep affects metabolism, which can contribute to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and obesity. In one study, those sleeping five hours instead of eight had higher levels of ghrelin, a hormone the stomach releases to signal hunger.

(See “Childhood Obesity from Lack of Sleep?”    Read more »

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Fevered Tail-Wagging and Lolling of Tongues

A bill its author says will help open more dog parks around the state by protecting cities and counties from liability for any “injury or death suffered by any person or pet” occurring at those parks won unanimous approval April 3 by the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

The bipartisan agreement on the measure might stem from its subject matter.    Read more »

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Thorough and Deliberative Policy Committee Hearings?

 “California lawmakers hurriedly pass hundreds of bills with little or no discussion.”

Words like those will appear in various media reports during the week ending May 31 when Assembly bills must move to the Senate and vice versa.

Even though this feverish several-day flurry of seemingly indiscriminate bill passage occurs annually, it’s a spectacle worth spotlighting.    Read more »

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Slow Out of the Blocks

The Assembly Daily File printed before it went on vacation March 22, shows 14 policy committees scheduled to meet the week of April 1.

There are 176 bills calendared of which 82 were eligible to be heard before spring break.

Half of those committees are adopting their rules, an annual action required before approving or torpedoing any legislation.    Read more »

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Of Small and Large…

“If you let yourself be undisciplined on the small things, you will probably be undisciplined on the large things as well.”

–Warren Buffett    Read more »

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“Quality Verse”

(From the Sacramento News & Review, March 21, 2013)

If CEQA stood for “Challenge Everything, Question Authority” instead of California Environmental Quality Act, there probably wouldn’t be all this political drama. CEQA would be celebrated. Like YOLO. The Lonely Island might even follow up its “YOLO” tune with a CEQA number:

Don’t take no guff or calcified static.    Read more »

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“Legislature of 1,000 Drinks”

California’s first legislative session in 1849 has become known as “the Legislature of 1,ooo Drinks, thanks to the famous sh0uted urgings of Sen. Thomas Jefferson Green, a Texas transplant, who upon recess would say:

“Well boys, let’s go and take a drink, 1,000 drinks.”

History is silent as to how close his colleagues got to goal set by Green, who carried the bill creating the University of California.    Read more »

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On March 21, Say Thanks to California Strawberries — And Baguettes

March 21 is National California Strawberry Day.

Not National Strawberry Day – that’s February 27.

Nor is it National Strawberry Shortcake Day. That’s June 14.

National Strawberry Picking Day looms closer on the horizon. It’s May 20.

July 7 is National Strawberry Sundae Day.

The nation celebrates strawberry parfait on June 25.    Read more »

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Don’t Forget to Wish Willie Brown a Happy 79th Birthday

March 20 is the former Mayor of San Francisco and Assembly Speaker’s birthday. It’s also the birthday of Ozzie Nelson, Carl Reiner, Ray Goulding of “Bob & Ray” fame and Mr. Rogers, one of Brown’s mentors in keeping the Assembly’s membership and San Francisco Board of Supervisors in order. 

Brown talks about his life in some depth in this Academy of Achievement interview from 1996.    Read more »

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Ask About the Jellyfish

It’s bound to happen, just given the odds. This year’s class of legislative freshmen is the largest since 1966 when the Supreme Court’s one-man, one-vote ruling changed how state lawmakers were elected. One-third of the 120 members of the Legislature are new.

Given that volume – and California’s unique diversity – there must be some legislators with interesting backgrounds.    Read more »

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