Senate Republicans Block Schwarzenegger appointee over illegal immigration vote

Republican opposition to financial aid to children of illegal immigrants cost Kay Albiani her seat on the California Community Colleges Board of Governors Monday.

 A long-time Elk Grove educator, Albiani voted along with the rest of the board of governors to endorse legislation that would allow fee waivers and student loans for the children of illegal immigrants.    Read more »

More

Jerry Waldie – Former Congressman, Gubernatorial Candidate

Jerry Waldie was elected to the state Assembly in 1958 – a liberal Democrat swept into a Republican-leaning East Bay district by Pat Brown’s big coattails.

The Legislature met only one year for seven months and three the next to put together a budget. Lawmakers were paid around $500 for their trouble.    Read more »

More

Budget Schmudget

There isn’t going to be a whole lot of reporting here on the governor’s budget proposal until it starts being dissected by the Legislature, a process that will stretch out for – just a shot in the dark – at least six months. 

The governor said in his speech he was submitting his $101 billion general fund spending blueprint to the Legislature whose responsibility is to muck with it.    Read more »

More

Three More Foul Phrases

Slippery Slope — The condition arising from the level playing field being tilted to a 45-degree angle. A legislator used the phrse twice in tow consecutive sentences the other day. Two times too many.

Roll Up My Sleeves — Suggested by a reader who adds that vast amounts of time could be saved if short-sleeved shirts were mandated at the Capitol.    Read more »

More

Shasta Dam Politics

The battle over the future of Shasta Dam surfaced this afternoon in the Assembly Governmental Organization committee in the form of joint resolution urging the federal government to reaffirm recognition of an Indian tribe along the McCloud River. 

The Winnemem Wintu tribe, a dozen of whose members attended the hearing in native garb, opposes raising the dam on Lake Shasta which would inundate more of their holy places along the middle fork of the McCloud River, many of which were lost when the dam was completed in 1945.     Read more »

More

Testy About Testimony

Among the most disturbing trends in the state Legislature is the muzzling of persons who wish to testify.

There is something fundamentally undemocratic about witnesses being limited to two persons at two minutes a throw with the remaining would-be testifiers permitted merely to say their name and that they support or oppose the measure.    Read more »

More

Perfect Timing

This is a great moment that requires a somewhat windy preamble.

When I started at the Chronicle in August 1988, two things happened that made me go, “Whoa, I’m somebody.”

The first was on the Assembly floor when I was asked what was going on by Ruth Ashton Taylor of KCBS, an idol of mine from my youth in Southern California.    Read more »

More

Ten That Should Be Banned

Vet or Vetting — If I hear this one more time I’m going to vet myself. I vet, therefore I am.

Work in Progress — As though one of these pieces of legislative sausage were the Sistine Chapel or something.  Californians would benefit if more works in progress were owrked out before they progress.    Read more »

More

What You’ll Find Here

First and foremost — fun.

Second, some news. And potentially, on rare occasions when the planets are perfectly aligned, a speck of insight. (Not a word commonly used in conjunction with my alleged writing)

Mainly what you’ll find at California’s Capitol is snippets about what is going on in the White Sepulcher:  Committee hearings, floor sessions, press conferences, super secret caucus stuff.    Read more »

More

A Few Good Ones

Willie Brown:

“It’s Better to Be Misquoted than not quoted at all.”  

John Mockler:

“There are more village idiots than villages.”

Kurt Vonnegut: 

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and no one wants to do maintenance.”

Katie Lucas

“One frown gets everybody down.” 

     Read more »

More