A Bustling Month for Initiatives

November has been a banner month for direct democracy in California – Just ask the offices of the Attorney General and the Secretary of State.

Through November 29th, 26 proposed initiatives have been submitted to the Attorney General for title and summary. Some of the submissions are duplicates or revised versions of the same proposal.    Read more »

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How Richard Nixon Became “Tricky Dick”

Former President Richard Nixon was famously labeled “Tricky Dick.”

According to one Internet site, the Yorba Linda native earned the nickname for his actions while president involving the Watergate break-in and subsequent investigations.

Others suggest it was coined by the John Kennedy campaign in 1960, which did incorporate the phrase as well as posters of a devious looking Nixon with the caption, “Would You Buy a Used Car from This Man?”    Read more »

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The Miracle of the Internet: Art Imitates Pepper Spray

In the anything-is-possible world of the Internet it’s inevitable that the pepper spraying incident at the University of California at Davis would quickly be transmogrified. The officer in the November 18 incident now finds himself in works by Michaelangelo, Edouard Manet, Leonardo Da Vinci, Boticelli, Walt Disney, Van Gogh and Delacroix — to name a few.      Read more »

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Municipal Utilities Generating More Power from Renewable Sources

Many of California’s 46 publicly owned utilities, ranging from the mammoth Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to the City of Healdsburg have met the state’s goal of generating 20 percent of their electricity from renewable sources.

Some have already exceeded the state’s 2020 goal of 33 percent, according to statistics from the state Energy Commission.    Read more »

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A November 17 Capitol Housewarming — 211 Years Ago

From The Writers Almanac with Garrison Keillor:

On this date in 1800, the U. S. Congress met in the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., for the first time. Construction had begun in 1793 but it soon fell behind schedule and went over budget. (Nothing new under the sun.)

The cost overruns caused planners in 1796 to elect to build only the Senate wing.    Read more »

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Budget Hole of $13 Billion, Mid-Year Cuts to Public Schools Required, Legislative Analyst Predicts

State revenues will be $3.7 billion less than expected, triggering $2 billion in cuts – more than half to public schools – according to an economic forecast issued by the Legislative Analyst on November 16.

The gloomy assessment of the 44-page California’s Fiscal Outlook includes the state ending this fiscal year with a $3 billion deficit and being an additional $10 billion short of spending commitments in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1, 2012.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Burnett!

November 15, 2011 is the 204th anniversary of the birth of Peter Hardeman Burnett, the state of California’s first – albeit brief-tenured — governor.

A native of Tennessee, Burnett served as California’s governor from December 20, 1849 to January 9, 1851.

California became a state on September 9, 1850 although didn’t learn about until October 18 when the steamer Oregon sailed into San Francisco bay with a banner saying, “California is Now a State” tied to her rigging.    Read more »

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Tax Receipts Down in October But That Doesn’t Necessarily Mean Bigger Budget Cuts

California’s cash collections for October were $608 million below the budget’s forecast of $5.8 billion leaving the state $1.3 billion below its revenue targets for the first four months of the current fiscal year.

As part of the budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown June 30, a series of up to $2.5 billion in cuts – nearly $1.8 billion falling on public schools — will automatically be triggered if revenues for the entire fiscal year are more than $3 billion below budget estimates.    Read more »

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Felix Dies Natalis, Josiah

November 20 is the 156th anniversary of the birth of Josiah Royce, world famous philosopher and Grass Valley native.

He was the “leading American proponent of absolute idealism, the metaphysical view that all aspects of reality, including those we experience as disconnected or contradictory, are ultimately unified in the thought of a single all-encompassing consciousness,” according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Governor Olson!

November 7 is the 135th anniversary of the birth of Culbert Levy Olson, California’s 29th governor from 1939 to 1943.

A supporter of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal and Upton Sinclair’s End Poverty in California, Olson advanced a progressive agenda including mandatory health insurance. The health insurance measure was rejected by the more centrist Legislature along with Olson’s proposals to raise taxes, regulate lobbyists and make the state’s prison system more humane.    Read more »

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