Author: Lance Howland

Environmentalists felt a progressive bill was in the bag to make California the first state to ban "urban tumbleweeds" – those ubiquitous plastic shopping sacks.

But the advocates were wrong.

On
Aug. 31, in its end-of-session flurry of horse trading and law making,
the Senate rejected a statewide ban on retailers’ use of throwaway
plastic bags. That came after an end-of-session flurry of lobbying and
advertising by the plastics industry against such a ban.

Cross posted at PublicCEO.com

For
generations, gubernatorial candidates have been eager to gain
endorsements from local elected officials and tap their experience at
the retail level of politics.

The same is true in this year’s
election cycle, motoring into high gear with the statewide primary June
8. On their Web sites, Republican front-runners Meg Whitman and Steve
Poizner proudly cite hefty lists of local endorsements.

One
prominent county supervisor had the Poizner and Whitman campaigns
"aggressively" soliciting his endorsement, with initial interest
followed by personal calls from both candidates. From both campaigns,
Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe was impressed by the
responsiveness and attention to detail compared to the past.