Capitol Alert

By Torey Van Oot and Jim Sanders

At least 93 California legislative employees making more than $100,000 received raises this year, a review of newly released payroll records showed.

While six-figure wage earners represent just a fraction of total legislative staff, the Capitol now has more than 300 employees making more than $100,000.

Forty-seven Senate employees with six-figure salaries received raises between Jan. 31 and June 30 of this year. Six additional employees in that pay range received raises but were promoted or assigned to a new job. Records released to The Bee under the Legislative Open Records Act show that at least 189 employees in the upper house now make six figures or more, a net increase of 15 since Jan. 31.

Dan Walters wonders whether Gov. Jerry Brown has just signed a "death warrant" for his November tax measure.

Have a question you'd like Dan to answer? Post it on our Facebook page.

See other Dan Walters Daily clips here.

VIDEO: Dan Walters wonders, in today's report, whether Gov. Jerry Brown signed a "death warrant" for his November tax measure while signing legislation to fund construction on California's high-speed rail project.

The U.S. Navy comes to the Capitol today.

Rear Admiral Dixon Smith, the commander of Navy Region Southwest, joins Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, Sen. Fran Pavley and California Energy Commission Chairman Robert B. Weisenmiller to highlight clean-tech partnerships at California's naval installations.

The Navy recently announced five energy goals, including cutting its power consumption in half by 2020, and started running a Great Green Fleet demonstration Tuesday as part of this year's Rim of the Pacific exercise. Think combat capability as well as energy security untethered to oil prices.

Today, California companies will showcase projects with the Navy that use biofuels, solar power, energy efficiency and waste-to-energy technology to meet the Navy's goals. The event runs from 10 a.m. to noon on the Capitol's west steps.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also coming to Sacramento for the second of its two public hearings nationwide on proposed revisions to its standards on fine particle pollution, also called soot.

The American Lung Association says the proposed standards don't go far enough to protect public health, this Bee editorial notes. Clean air advocates will be holding a rally and news conference during the hearing's lunch break, starting at 12:30 p.m. at Cesar Chavez Park at 10th and I streets.

Listed speakers include Dr. Harry Wang, president of the Sacramento Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility; Vickie Simmons of the Moapa Band of Paiutes, whose tribal lands border a Southern Nevada coal-burning power plant; and representatives of the American Lung Association.

The hearing itself runs from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. at the California Air Resources Board, 1001 I St. Click here to see a list of registered speakers.

Back at the Capitol, the Board of Chiropractic Examiners meets in Room 113 starting at 11 a.m. On the agenda are new regulations on the use of lasers. Alert readers will recall that Republican Sen. Bob Huff dropped his Senate Bill 352 to ban chiropractors from treating allergies with lasers after the board adopted new regulations that barred laser use for that reason.

CARTOON CAPTION CONTEST: "Ahnuld" in a pink tutu? Vote for your favorite reader-suggested caption for Steve Greenberg's cartoon of former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at this link.

CAKE AND CANDLES: State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson turns 63 today.