What they hope will happen versus what we know will happen.  There is a difference between the two when it comes to the results of Prop 14 possibly passing.

Proponents will paint a picture, looking forward, of a reformed and well functioning Sacramento.  "Party bosses" will be no more, and enlightened "moderates" will rule the day.  There is an irony that the Governor and Lieutenant Governor-those in the best ‘insider’ positions to run a party under normal circumstances, i.e., the ultimate party bosses-are the prime pushers of this measure. 

Not to mention that the pushers are themselves self-described moderates and are the people who have run the state (or cast critical votes in the very budgets that have nearly destroyed the state) lately.  One must wonder whether the theoretical moderates produced by Prop 14 will rule us any better than the actual moderates who are promoting Prop 14.

As District Attorneys, we are driven by evidence, justice and the need to protect the public.  When we look at who is best qualified to protect the people of California as our Attorney General, the evidence is clear: Steve Cooley is the right choice.  

His opponents?  According to their filings with the Secretary of State, one says he is qualified to be Attorney General because he filed a brief on kosher foods in South Dakota prisons and the other because he was part of a program where he observed some cases as a courtroom volunteer – a program he did not complete. 

During his 10 years as District Attorney of Los Angeles County, Steve Cooley has overseen a staff of over 1,000 attorneys that have handled more than 500,000 felony cases.  He has fought for the rights of victims, locked up thousands of dangerous criminals and been a leader in aggressively prosecuting public corruption.

Total government employment in California has not changed significantly over the past few years.

But this total employment number masks a sharp difference between federal government employment in California, which has actually grown during the Recession, and local and state employment, which has shrunk, as shown on the chart below.

Cross posted at www.cala.com

The CA Commission on Disability Access (CCDA) was established through legislation (SB 1608)
signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in the fall of 2008. It is a
17-member commission with a budget of $80,000 and six committees. One
of the committees is the Civil Enforcement Committee, which is designed
to look at the whole issue of litigation in California related to the
Americans with Disability Act.

Has this committee met since January 1st, 2009? No. Was it supposed
to meet? Yes. On May 27th it was supposed to have its first
meeting. However it was cancelled due to lack of quorum. It will likely
be rescheduled in July sometime. In the meantime ADA lawsuits are being
filed left and right throughout the state.

I think it is fair to say that most people in the business community
supported SB 1608, not because it was the model legislation that would
rid us of these predatory lawsuits, but because it is a compromise that
has the potential to end the the rampage of lawsuits being filed by a
bunch of trial lawyers in this state. Has it done that?  No. Not even
close. And the CCDA is doing nothing about it.

Will the roiling debate over the Arizona immigration law produce an unintended consequence of sinking a Los Angeles school tax proposal?

In response to the Arizona law, the Los Angeles Unified School District voted unanimously to condemn the Arizona law. At the same time, the school board ordered that the Arizona immigration law be taught in the classroom.

While LAUSD Superintendant, Ramon Cortinez, said the classroom instruction would present both sides of the controversy, citing an LAUSD spokesperson, the L.A. Times said, "The issue would, in essence, be dealt with in a manner similar to the way other broadly accepted episodes of racial and cultural intolerance and discrimination are discussed."

For all the
handwringing about the initiative process, this November will certainly
confirm its intent as a balancing mechanism to the California
Legislature. From the left and the right, from business and labor and
citizens, measures are being placed on the ballot that specifically
address failure by the Legislature.

Voters will have a meaty ballot in
November, with real choices not just among candidates but also among
ballot measures. (The hyperlinked numbers refer to the Attorney
General’s identification system.)

• 09-0024.Changes California law to legalize marijuana and allow it to be regulated and taxed.

   

Prop 15 opens the door to public campaign financing by setting up an experiment with the Secretary of State’s office in the next two statewide elections.

That’s intriguing, but not the place where public finance might be most useful. (There haven’t been a lot of secretaries of state buying the office). No, where California needs public finance most is in ballot measure elections.

Prop 16, which is wonderful because it serves as a good example for so many things that plague California, is instructive here as well. Its sole corporate backer is spending $40 million – plus to support the measure. The no campaign will spend peanuts. That’s not a fair fight.

The truth is often only told in politics once a politician has given up
all hopes of winning the White House or stepped away-voluntarily but
especially involuntarily-from public life.  Pre-2008 John McCain and
then Senate President pro Tem John Burton were notable exceptions but
former San Francisco Mayor and California Assembly Speaker Willie Brown proved this rule recently during a Pat Brown Institute awards acceptance speech:  

"We don’t have people who actually sought elections; went
door-to-door, rang the doorbells, presented their case-made their case,
suggested solutions to problems, and allowed for debate on those
proposed solutions.  What we have are people who are just skilled at
getting elected-they are not skilled at serving."

If there is a reformist Poseidon among us to protect from the beast of
partisanship, then surely his or her three-pronged trident includes
modifying term limits, implementing redistricting reform and voting for
open primaries.  Let us invoke the spirit of that mythological civic
God of Athens at the polls this Tuesday and reshape our body politic.

Today, the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics announced the addition of new jobs "at the fastest pace in a decade" with "the largest gain since March 2000".  

The reality is that the May jobs figure was only boosted by hiring 411,000 temporary public sector government workers for the 10-year count of the U.S. population by the U.S. Census Bureau. The private sector added only 41,000 jobs.  

From 2002 to 2006, I served as the U.S. Labor Department’s Regional Representative for California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii and Guam, and learned a lot about labor laws and high growth sectors of the economy in our state as well as our neighbors.