Women Still Under-Represented in California Boardrooms

Women comprise just 10.9 percent of the directors and executive officers of the 400 largest companies in the state, up slightly from 10.4 percent last year, according to a fourth annual study of California women business leaders by the University of California at Davis Graduate School of Management.

 “There is only one woman for every nine men in the executive suites and boardrooms of these high-profile companies,” Nicole Woolsey Biggart, the graduate school’s dean writes in the study’s preface.    Read more »

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Some Local Election Results

California localities approved seven of nine general obligation bonds totaling $2.4 billion, according to a preliminary count by the California Taxpayer Association.

Among the successful bonds — $500 million to improve parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. 

San Francisco approved an $887.4 million bond to retrofit San Francisco General hospital.    Read more »

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Ouch

Governor Schwarzenegger has now told California how bad its economy is and, as a consequence, how ugly the state budget is going to be.

In the current budget year, which ends June 30, 2009, revenues are $11.2 billion short of spending commitments. For the following fiscal year beginning July 1, 2009, revenues are expected to be $13 billion short.    Read more »

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Welcome to the White House

On April 12th, 1945, Vice President Harry Truman was told to come to the White House. He was ushered into Eleanor Roosevelt’s sitting room and informed that President Roosevelt had died making Truman the 33rd president of the United States.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” Truman asked Eleanor Roosevelt.    Read more »

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More From the Campaign Mail Bag…

Digging back into the campaign mailbag: 

Supporters of Proposition 8, which would prevent same sex couples from marrying, show a grainy photo of California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell from a television ad in which O’Connell says that Proposition 8 has nothing to do with schools or children. 

“He’s Lying,” the mailer says in large red letters.    Read more »

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Digging Through the Dross of the Campaign Mail Bag

This time of year they are more common than a foreclosure in Sacramento, Stockton or the Inland Empire.

They purport to educate voters and “guide” them to the correct ballot choices.

What they actually do is attack, exaggerate, inflame and obfuscate. 

They are the pieces of mail sent to voters by candidates, ballot measures and interest groups.    Read more »

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Obama with 305 Electoral Votes

So predicts former Assembly Speaker, mayor of San Francisco and master politician, Willie Brown. The Democratic presidential nominee takes Ohio, Colorado, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and maybe even Arizona, Brown believes. Potentially North Carolina but not Florida.

Obama receives around 50 more electoral votes than Massachusetts Senator John Kerry did in 2004, Brown says.    Read more »

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At Least They’re Good at Something

One would think after their abysmal performance this year that California’s lawmakers would slink away in shame, spend long hours in self-flagellation, donate generously to a domestic violence center, hand out groceries at a food bank or scour bedpans with Mother Teresa’s nuns in Calcutta – some repentant act to atone for their 2008 sins against the People of California.     Read more »

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Budget Badness Postscript — The Face of California’s Economy

To put a more human face on the October 27 posting on the state budget:

The landlord of California’s Capitol, is an education lobbying firm. It is in the process of hiring a new receptionist. An ad was placed on Craigslist. 

They stopped counting after 298 applicants. Of the 298, 200 were logged in just 24 hours.     Read more »

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On Gumbo…

“Its a little like religion and a lot like sex — You should never know when youre gonna get it next.”

                                                        — Jimmy Buffett, “I Will Play for Gumbo”

(The song is the final track on Little Feat’s rousing new CD, Join the Band, coincidentally produced by Mr. Buffett.)     Read more »

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