Capitol Alert

One of the year's fiercest lobbying battles - pitting ocean freighter companies against San Francisco Bay harbor pilots - has been postponed, at least for the time being.

San Francisco Bar Pilots, the union-like organization that represents men and women who direct ships in and out of San Francisco and other Northern California ports, announced Tuesday that it would delay legislation to require additional pilots on some large ships, characterizing it as a safety issue.

Shippers had stoutly opposed Assembly Bill 2287 by Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, D-Oakland, saying it was aimed at raising pilots' incomes, already averaging more than $400,000 a year. Current practice is that some ships require two pilots, but without additional pilot fees, which are assessed on a ship based on its size and other factors.

This year's battle was an echo of a duel last year over raising overall pilot fees between the pilots and the Pacific Merchant Shipping Association.

AB 2287 cleared the Assembly Transportation Committee but has been stalled in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

PHOTO CREDIT: The MSC Fabiola is guided by a tugboat on Wednesday, March 21, 2012, in San Francisco. Jane Tyska/ Oakland Tribune

The Senate Monday approved a bill to limit pay for California State University employees making more than $200,000 a year.

Senate Bill 952, by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, prohibits CSU workers making more than $200,000 from receiving a raise until June 30, 2014. Annual raises for those workers would be limited to 10 percent from 2014 to 2018

"It is wrong to give large pay increases to CSU campus executives when student fees are increasing dramatically and students are facing enrollment increases and courses are not being offered and when many CSU campuses are weakening their local preference policies," Alquist said.

Four months after a California assemblyman was cited and released for carrying a gun into an airport, the Assembly passed legislation today that would require offenders to be taken into custody in such situations.

Democratic Assemblywoman Norma Torres said her Assembly Bill 2182 did not stem from the January incident involving Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, which occurred at an Ontario airport on the first day of this year's legislative session.

"This issue is about protecting the public," Torres said of her bill.

With Republicans opposed, the Assembly voted 46-25 to approve Torres' bill. Donnelly voted no on the bill but did not speak during floor debate today. AB 2182 now goes to the Senate.

Peace officers currently make the decision to take an offender into custody or to issue a citation based on an evaluation of risk to the public, such as prior criminal record and whether the suspect is a gang member.

Republican Assemblyman Steve Knight suggested that the bill was a shot by the Democratic assemblywoman at Donnelly. He also argued that peace officers should have discretion to cite and release offenders in cases where there is no public threat.

"Cite and release means (an officer) might be able to get back on the street in 45 minutes rather than three and a half hours," Knight said.

Supporters characterized AB 2182 as legislation meant to ensure that all cases are treated equally, eliminating any chance of preferential treatment based on status.

"I think fairness is what it's all about," said Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada-Flintridge.

California would adopt rules of the road for self-driving vehicles under legislation approved by the state Senate today.

Senate Bill 1298, by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, targets "autonomous vehicles" that can navigate the roads without a human driver. Google has been working on one prototype and already taken to the streets for testing, including demonstrations here in Sacramento.

"We're excited about the potential of the new technology and its benefits, but it's not quite here yet," Padilla said.

While current state law does not specify that a car must be driven by a human, the bill requires a licensed motorist to occupy the driver's seat of an autonomous car on public roads until the technology meets National Highway Traffic Safety Administration requirements. It also allows the California Highway Patrol and Department of Motor Vehicles to make recommendations for safety or other requirements.

Padilla's office says similar legislation was approved in Nevada and is under consideration in Arizona, Hawaii, Florida and Oklahoma.

The bill, which was approved unanimously in the upper house, now heads to the Assembly for consideration.

PHOTO CREDIT: A Google car, 2010, Ramin Rahimian/The New York Times

The California Senate approved today legislation that would ban the use of hounds or other dogs to hunt bears and bobcats.

Senate Bill 1221, by Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu, would make California the 15th state to ban the practice, which critics contend is cruel both for the targeted animals and the dogs involved, which can get injured or killed.

Lieu said dispatching dogs to chase a bear into a tree where the hunter can get a clear shot of the animal "violates the principals of fair chase." 

"It's been likened to shooting a bear in the zoo," Lieu said.

About 45 percent of the bears and 11 percent of the bobcats killed in California last year were hunted using dogs, according to a Senate analysis of the bill.

California lawmakers took a major step Thursday toward carving an exception in public records law they said would enhance the safety of peace officers, judges, probation officers and other law enforcement personnel.

Without a dissenting vote, the Assembly passed legislation that would allow counties to create a program allowing law enforcement personnel to redact names from property records available to the public.

Assembly Bill 2299 passed the lower house, 65-0. It now goes to the Senate.

"Let's make the protection of officers' families meaningful," Assemblyman Mike Feuer said in floor debate on his bill.

California motorists caught violating the state's rules on using cell phones behind the wheel could face bigger fines under legislation approved by the state Senate today.

Senate Bill 1310 would slap drivers caught texting or chatting without a hands-free device with a base fine of $30 for a first offense, up from the current fine of $20. That increase would bring the total fee faced by first-time offenders to about $199. Multiple offenses could carry a base fine of $60, which amounts to $319 in fees, and a one-point penalty on the driver's license. The additional revenues would be used to educate California drivers about the laws and the dangers of distracted driving.

The bill would also prohibit bicyclists from talking or texting on a cell phone.

Without a dissenting vote, the California Assembly passed legislation Thursday that would bar employers from requiring their workers or job seekers to provide access to passwords for Facebook or other social media.

Assemblywoman Nora Campos, a Democrat who crafted the bill, Assembly Bill 1844, said that information posted in social media accounts does not necessarily reflect a person's job competence.

"AB 1844 makes clear that job seekers and employees have a right to privacy in the social media," she said.

Nobody spoke against AB 1844 on the Assembly floor

The bill passed by a vote of 69-0, with three members absent and eight members abstaining.

Campos' bill now goes to the California Senate.

The California Assembly approved legislation Thursday requiring parents to receive counseling about the risks and potential benefits of vaccinations to prevent communicable diseases before opting out of their children receiving the medicine.

The measure, Assembly Bill 2109, was approved by a vote of 44-19.

Democratic Assemblyman Richard Pan of Sacramento, who crafted the measure, said it ensures that parents will make an informed decision without eliminating their right to opt out of immunizations for their children.

Pan, a pediatrician, characterized AB 2109 as a public safety measure that could reduce the spread of measles, mumps and pertussis.

If signed into law, Pan's bill would take effect in July 2013.

Assemblyman Dan Logue, R-Marysville, criticized the bill as placing a new obstacle between parents and the right to opt out of immunizations.

"We have enough of a nanny state as it is," Logue said.

Under AB 2109, parents who exclude their children from immunization requirements would have to submit a statement, signed by themselves and their health care practitioner, that they received information about risks and benefits of the medicine.

Republican Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, a Fresno physician, said she could not support AB 2109 because it does not include Christian Science practitioners in its list of health-care professionals that can provide parents with the immunization information the bill requires.

AB 2109 now goes to the California Senate.

* Updated at 2:05 p.m. to add Assemblywoman Linda Halderman's opposition. PHOTO CREDIT: Cristian Vargas, 10, of Sacramento's Oak Park neighborhood braces himself for an immunization shot at the Oak Park Neighborhood Multiservice Center on Tuesday, May 10, 2005. Sacramento Bee file, 2005 / Randall Benton.

The Assembly passed legislation Thursday stemming from an investigation into Sacramento-area peace officers suspected of using their positions to buy weapons not available to the public, then selling them for profit.

The federal probe continues, but the legislation designed to guard against such incidents in the future cleared the Assembly by a vote of 47-25.

Democratic Assemblyman Roger Dickinson of Sacramento proposed the legislation, Assembly Bill 2460, which would bar peace officers from selling weapons classified as "unsafe handguns" to the general public.

The bill targets weapons on California's "unsafe handgun roster," such as firearms that do not have a chamber load indicator or that fail a firing or drop-safety test.

Legislation that bans carrying unloaded rifles in public was passed Thursday by the Assembly.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1527, cleared the lower house 44-28 with no Republican support.

Proposed by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, the bill is similar to a new state law banning the open carry of handguns that took effect Jan. 1.

AB 1527 takes aim at a movement that encourages people to show up at public places with unloaded weapons. Supporters contend that openly displaying firearms can startle onlookers, scare children and provoke violence.

Sen. Ron Calderon is replacing fellow Democratic Sen. Juan Vargas on a newly created joint conference committee on legislation to tackle mortgage and foreclosure issues.

Democratic leaders moved to create the committee after opposition from banking and business groups threatened to derail a package of bills backed by Attorney General Kamala Harris. The six-member conference committee will consist of two Democrats and one Republican from each house.

The membership change, which must be approved by the Senate Rules Committee, occurred just a week after procedural moves to create the committee.

Mark Hedlund, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, said Vargas "told the pro tem that he was going to respectfully decline to be on the conference committee to attend to other legislative duties."

Vargas' chief of staff did not respond to a request for comment. The San Diego Democrat, who was expected to be a no vote on Harris' bills, is also running for an open congressional seat this year.

Calderon's chief of staff, Rocky Rushing, said his boss' experience chairing a committee that governs banking and finance issues makes the Montebello Democrat a good fit for the post.

"He's legislated in this area, so he's had a keen interest in the foreclosure crisis and he has expertise in that area as well, based on his experience as banking chair," Rushing said.

Also serving on the committee are Sens. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, and Sam Blakeslee, R-San Luis Obispo, as well as Assembly members Mike Eng, D-Monterey Park, Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, and Donald Wagner, R-Irvine.

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California law says voters have up to 10 minutes to mark their ballots -- but it also says they do not.

A conflicting provision of the state elections code sets the limit at five minutes, creating a discrepancy that has sparked legislation, headed to the Assembly floor, to resolve the matter.

The setting of a time limit decades ago was designed to help elections officials keep voters moving on election day, lowering prospects that long lines form and discourage Californians from casting ballots.

The issue potentially could be significant in a presidential election year, such as 2012, in which turnout is expected to be high and perhaps a dozen initiatives will be decided, along with state, federal and local races.

Assembly Bill 1724, by Cupertino Democratic Assemblyman Paul Fong, would repeal the five-minute limit, thus setting the bar at 10 minutes.

Under current law, neither the five- nor the 10-minute limit could be enforced unless necessary to avoid inconveniencing other voters.

AB 1724 takes a different tack, eliminating the mention of inconvenience and simply stating that voters can stay in the booth for longer than 10 minutes if they tell a precinct board member that they need more time.

Concerns were raised this week at a meeting of the Assembly's elections committee, which passed AB 1724 by a vote of 5-1, that such an open-ended provision could enable a group to disrupt an election by occupying voting booths indefinitely. Fong is considering amendments to address that issue, aides said.

Then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation similar to AB 1724 in 2009, saying in his veto message that "there is no evidence that the discrepancy in current law has resulted in a significant problem for voters."

A court fight erupted over the issue of a time limit in 1988, however, when Marin, Sonoma and Santa Clara counties announced that they planned to enforce some measure of the 10-minute limit because of a lengthy ballot that included 27 state propositions. Civil rights activists sued, saying enforcement could hamper voting by people who read English slowly.

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against enforcing the 10-minute limit, but the ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court, which said there was no evidence that the statute would be enforced rigidly or in a manner that unduly restricted any group.

Ten Assembly Democrats have spent nearly $200,000 in state funds sending more than a half-million fliers to constituents touting the benefits of Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez's "middle-class scholarship" legislation, records show.

The fliers ask residents to sign a postcard supporting Pérez's proposal, which needs a two-thirds supermajority vote in the Legislature for passage, requiring Democrats to solicit at least two other votes in each house.

Pérez's legislation would alter corporate tax law to raise about a billion dollars, which would bankroll scholarships intended to cut by 66 percent the cost of attending college for a student from a middle-class family earning less than $150,000 a year.

California Employers Against Higher Taxes, opposing the proposal, contends it would raise taxes on multistate companies by requiring them to calculate total tax liability based on the portion of their sales in California.

By seizing on an issue of statewide concern, the rising cost of a college education, the Assembly's postcards could pay dual political dividends by helping Democrats lobby Republicans and promote themselves in an election year.

One of this year's most hotly contested legislative issues in California, dealing with recovery of medical costs in personal injury lawsuits, appears to be headed underground.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg had introduced Senate Bill 1528 to overturn a 2011 state Supreme Court decision, Howell v. Hamilton Meats.

The decision held that injury victims could recover only the actual payments for medical treatment negotiated by insurers, not the amounts that medical care providers initially seek, which are typically much higher.

It was a big victory for the insurers, who said losing could have cost them and their policyholders $3 billion a year, and a big setback for personal injury attorneys, who typically claim about a third of liability judgements.

As introduced by Steinberg in February for Consumer Attorneys of California, the two-paragraph bill would have declared that injured plaintiffs "shall be entitled to recover the reasonable value of medical services provided without regard to the amount actually paid."

Insurers and business groups were gearing up to oppose the bill as the trial bar's lobbyists were working on passage in anticipation of an initial committee hearing.

However, this week, SB 1528 was amended to declare only "the intent of the Legislature to establish a framework for compensating persons with injuries due to the fault of third parties."

That change means that it's now a "spot bill" -- essentially a blank slate that can move through the process and then be filled in later, perhaps in the crush of the legislative session's final days, with or without a compromise between the warring factions.

The measure also has election year implications because trial lawyers are major contributors to Democratic legislative campaigns while insurers and business groups usually back Republicans or Democrats they consider to be business-friendly.

Legislation to designate lawmakers' member-by-member budgets as public records, thus putting into state law a judge's ruling last year, was shelved quietly Thursday by an Assembly committee.

Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, R-Bakersfield, said she proposed the measure to ensure that future lawmakers would continue to abide by the judge's ruling in a public-records lawsuit filed by The Bee and Los Angeles Times.

"I expected it to die," Grove said after the bill, Assembly Bill 1946, received no Democratic support and lacked the six committee votes necessary to move to the Assembly floor. Five members voted no, four yes, and two members abstained.

The committee killed Grove's bill without comment or discussion.

AB 1946 would have stated that public-records law be interpreted with a "strong presumption in favor of public access to legislative records." It also stipulated that member budgets are not exempt from mandatory disclosure.

Rules Committee Chairwoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, said after Thursday's meeting that AB 1946 was not necessary because the Assembly has not contested the order last year by Sacramento Superior Court Judge Timothy M. Frawley to release member-by-member budgets to the public.

"The Assembly has accepted the court ruling, we did not appeal it, we're practicing it now - and I felt that's sufficient," Skinner said.

A scaled-back version of a bill aimed at expanding access in California to an early abortion procedure stalled today in a key Senate committee.

Senate Bill 1338, by Democratic Sen. Christine Kehoe, originally sought to allow nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and physicians assistants to perform aspiration abortions, a suction technique that under current law only doctors can conduct. The proposal was based on a multiyear pilot program and study run through the UC San Francisco Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health.

A narrowed version of the bill, which would allow only 41 clinicians trained under a pilot program to continue performing the procedure after this year, failed in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee on a 4-4 vote. Democratic Sens. Juan Vargas and Lou Correa joined Republicans in opposing the bill. One member, Republican Sen. Tony Strickland, was absent for the vote.

The bill was amended this week as part of a deal Kehoe reached with the California Nurses Association, which opposed changing the law before the pilot program wraps up later this year and has its study results peer-reviewed. Kehoe said at the committee hearing that she hoped to continue talking with stakeholders about an agreement to restore the bill's original intent.

Supporters say allowing more trained providers to perform the procedure will give women early access to abortions from providers they already know and trust, noting that some women in rural and medically under-served communities must travel hours to receive an abortion. They say results of the multiyear pilot program, which is set to expire in September, show it is safe for non-doctors who are properly trained to do the procedure.

Critics testifying at the committee hearing as well as some committee members questioned the procedure's safety, pressing supporters about what the possible complications are and whether there is enough evidence to expand the pilot program statewide.

"I just think we don't know enough about it," said Sen. Mark Wyland, R-Solana Beach.

The bill was granted reconsideration and is set to come up for another vote in early May.

Although a new law to govern bankruptcy filings by local governments is just four months old, Democratic legislators and labor unions are lining up behind a major revision that local officials say would tilt the playing field.

In the aftermath of Vallejo's bankruptcy, unions had pushed legislation that would require local governments to get permission from a union-friendly state commission before filing bankruptcy.

The issue was stalemated for several years, but in 2010, the Legislature passed a delicately negotiated compromise that would essentially require a locality contemplating bankruptcy to first go through a "neutral evaluation process" and seek relief from creditors before taking that step, unless it declared a fiscal emergency.

Two cities, Stockton and Mammoth Lakes, are now going through that process. But Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont, and union groups are pushing a new measure, Assembly Bill 1692, that would change the "neutral evaluation" of a locality's fiscal condition to "alternative dispute resolution" and would grant the mediator in the process more power.

The League of California Cities and other local government groups are crying foul, saying it undoes major portions of last year's compromise and gives unions a leg up in pre-bankruptcy negotiations. The City of Stockton is one opponent, telling the Assembly Local Government Committee in a letter that "these changes would dramatically increase the likelihood that mediations will be prolonged with no settlements reached."

Union officials have worried aloud that labor contracts and perhaps retirement benefits could be undone in a bankruptcy proceeding. Wieckowski told the committee that last year's compromise contained "concessions I made reluctantly."

On Wednesday, by a 5-3 vote, the Democrat-dominated committee approved the bill.

Assemblyman Anthony Portantino has struck out in his push for legislation to protect Capitol whistleblowers.

For the second time this year, a whistleblower bill proposed by Portantino has been killed by an Assembly committee.

The latest defeat occurred this week in the Assembly Judiciary Committee, which rejected Portantino's Assembly Bill 2256 by a vote of 3 yes, 7 no, with most Democrats voting against the measure.

Current California law protects most state employees for whistleblowing -- including executive branch employees, California State University workers, and legislative appointees to boards and commissions.

AB 2256 would have expanded the list to include current and former legislative employees.

"I'm highly disappointed," Portantino, D-La Cañada-Flintridge, said after his bill died. "I think it begs the question, 'What is the agency hiding?'"

The judiciary committee's analysis of AB 2256 noted numerous questions, however, including the possibility that large numbers of anonymous complaints could be filed and that some could be politically motivated.

AB 2256 went further than Portantino's previous whistleblower proposal by imposing on legislative staff an "affirmative duty to disclose or report improper governmental activity," the analysis said.

"This provision has no known precedent in California law, and the bill does not state how this apparently novel duty would be carried out in light of the amorphous and arguably subjective nature of 'improper governmental activity,'" the analysis said.

AB 2256 would have authorized the Fair Political Practices Commission to investigate complaints or refer them to the attorney general, district attorneys, or the Assembly or Senate Rules Committees for consideration.

The FPPC opposed AB 2256, saying it is concerned about any legislation that would expand its duties but not its budget.

Portantino's previous whistleblower bill, Assembly Bill 1378, was derailed in January by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

A state Senate committee voted Wednesday to change how members of the California Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board are paid -- but nobody, including the author of the bill, knows what that change will be.

The seven-member board -- appointed by the governor and legislative leaders -- hear appeals when applications for unemployment insurance are denied. Those appointees are often legislators who have been forced out of office by term limits.

Two former Assembly members, Republican Bonnie Garcia and Democrat Alberto Torrico, are serving on the board now. Former Republican Sen. Roy Ashburn announced recently that he would resign to run for the Kern County Board of Supervisors.

Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, introduced Senate Bill 1263 to abolish the board members' $79,122 salaries.

Vargas cited the public perception that board appointments are rewards for "termed-out lawmakers" and noted that members of other state boards with equal or more important duties, such as the Coastal Commission, receive only token per diem payments and expenses.

However, it appeared that members of the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee were not willing to abolish the board's salaries. So Vargas agreed to make some still-unwritten changes in the measure as it moves further through the legislative process to mollify opponents. The precise nature of those amendments are to be worked out privately, and they may -- or may not -- bar ex-legislators from serving on the board.

With that pledge, the committee voted to keep SB 1263 alive.

A proposal aimed at expanding access to a first trimester abortion procedure in California advanced today after being stripped of its key provisions, signaling that lawmakers could punt on the issue amid opposition from the California Nurses Association.

The original version of Senate Bill 1338, (originally Senate Bill 1501) by Democratic Sen. Christine Kehoe, would allow trained nurse practitioners, physicians assistants and certified nurse midwives to perform aspiration abortions. Only doctors can conduct the procedure, which uses a suction method to remove a fetus from a patient's uterus, under current law.

The Senate Public Safety Committee approved today a scaled-back version of the bill that would allow only clinicians trained under a UC San Francisco Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health pilot program to continue performing aspiration abortions after the program sunsets in September. That pool is now at 41 individuals, Kehoe's office says, though the bill covers clinicians trained through the end of 2012.

Sponsors of the bill, including Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, say Kehoe's original measure would ensure that women in rural and medically under-served communities have access to early abortions. They argue that results of the multi-year study, which served as a model for the bill, have shown that it is safe for trained clinicians identified in the bill to perform the procedure with proper training.

But opposition from the California Nurses Association, which contends the change would be premature because the program is not complete and the study has not been peer reviewed, threatened to derail the proposal. The association has also raised concerns about how earlier language would affect nurses' ability to assist with other kinds of abortions and procedures.

Compromise language to authorize only the study participants to perform the procedure after the pilot program wraps up emerged late last week, as the bill faces a Friday deadline for winning approval in two policy committees.

Kehoe told the committee that she and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg will meet with stakeholders in the coming weeks to "resolve still outstanding issues" in hopes of restoring the bill to its original intent.

The bill, which was approved on a vote of 4-2, is scheduled to be heard by the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee later this week.

Gov. Jerry Brown's Yale Law School classmate and close friend, Appellate Justice J. Anthony Kline, is mediating a judicial summit conference today that will attempt to heal the years-long political war that has divided the state's judiciary.

Kline served as Brown's legal adviser during his first governorship three decades ago, and Brown appointed him to the San Francisco-based 1st District Court of Appeal, where he is now presiding justice.

Today's meeting will involve Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye and a number of prominent judges, including two representatives of the California Alliance of Judges, which has been highly critical of the State Judicial Council and the Administrative Office of the Courts, which the chief justice heads.

The breakaway group has sponsored legislation to shift financial power from the AOC and the Judicial Council to local judges, alleging that local courts are being starved for funds while the two central agencies waste money on bureaucracy and an unworkable computer system.

The Judicial Council recently stopped work on the computerized case management system and Cantil-Sakauye is pressing the Legislature for more money, citing $653 million in state support reduction in recent years. But she has bitterly opposed the Alliance's legislation as a breach of the court system's independence.

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California has launched a new radio ad to generate support for legislation that would allow non-doctors to perform an early-term abortion procedure, as opposition from the California Nurses Association threatens to derail the bill.

The spot, which is running in San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles and San Diego, asks listeners to call specific legislators and ask them to "guarantee women access to the health care we need and deserve."

While the ads, posted at this link, does not directly mention Senate Bill 1338, a press release says that is one of two bills that the ads seek to support. All three Democratic senators targeted by the campaign serve on a committee set to hear the measure in the coming weeks.

The Senate moved forward today with plans to direct mortgage reform proposals sponsored by Attorney General Kamala Harris to a joint legislative conference committee, passing placeholder legislation over objections from Republican lawmakers who said the upper house was manipulating the legislative process.

The move would allow a six-member committee to hammer out the details of the proposals to apply terms of the major foreclosure settlement reached between 49 states and five major banks to apply to all California lenders outside the normal committee process.

The package of bills on the topic sponsored by Harris, which includes proposals addressing problems stemming from "dual tracking" and "robo signings," was pulled from committee agendas in the Senate and the Assembly this week.

Doug Elmets, a Sacramento public affairs consultant who worked in Ronald Reagan's White House, thinks it's about time to erect a statue of his old boss at the state Capitol - and more than a few lawmakers agree.

Assembly Bill 2358, coauthored by just about every Republican in the Assembly, would authorize a statue of the late president and California governor on the Capitol grounds. Its construction and maintenance would be paid for by private donations.

"The reality is this," said Elmets, who plans to raise money for the effort. "He is one of the only presidents who has also served as governor of a state that does not have a statue at the state Capitol."

The bill is scheduled to be heard in committee next week.

Elmets said supporters of the project haven't decided where to put the statue, or who will make it. He estimated the cost at anywhere from $80,000 to $200,000.

The Legislature has some history with Reagan memorials. Two years after Reagan's death, lawmakers elected in 2006 to put a bronze statue of him in the U.S. Capitol's National Statuary Hall.

The statue displaced one of Thomas Starr King, the abolitionist who died in 1864. King's statue was moved to the state Capitol and dedicated there in 2009.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Thomas Starr King.

Republican Assemblywoman Shannon Grove, who is spearheading an initiative drive for a part-time Legislature, accused Democrats of hijacking one of her "good government" bills at a committee hearing Wednesday.

Grove said the intent of her Assembly Bill 1948 was to require the Legislature to live under labor rules it imposes on private industry. She characterized Democrats who oppose that notion as cowards, saying the incident shows why a part-time Legislature is needed.

"It's just another key to me, and it should be to the citizens of California, that we all need to be part time," the Bakersfield Republican said.

The Democrat who heads the Labor and Employment Committee, Sandré Swanson of Alameda, disagreed with both Grove's characterization of what happened and her contention that it backed up her push to make the Legislature part-time.

A Senate committee gave the green light today to legislation that would block public and private universities and employers from seeking access to applicants' social media accounts.

Senate Bill 1349, by Democratic Sen. Leland Yee, bans employers and educational institutions from asking prospective or current employees and students to hand over their user names and passwords or provide access to the account.

The bill was approved by the Senate Education Committee 7-0. It now heads for consideration in the Senate Labor and Industrial Relations Committee.

Yee announced plans to pursue the legislation after an Associated Press report cited examples of such practices happening in other states, though the San Francisco Democrat said the issue had come up before in conversations with Silicon Valley interests. While California's public universities and colleges say they do not currently request such information, a legislative committee analysis says some private institutions have sought access to student athletes' accounts.

"While social media have provided a useful avenue for socialization and expression, the author contends that it has also put employees, job applicants, and students at risk of having their privacy blatantly violated by employers and schools," the committee analysis reads.

Assemblywoman Nora Campos, D-San Jose, introduced a similar proposal earlier this year. That bill, A.B. 1844, is scheduled to be heard by the Assembly Labor and Employment Committee next week.

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PHOTO CREDIT: Matt, 17, and Bob Florian showcasing a Facebook page. Washington Post photo by Susan Biddle.

The television show about nothing has become something of an argument for an Assembly bill to change California's beverage container recycling program.

A reader passed along the Appropriations Committee analysis for Assembly Bill 1933, noting that "Seinfield" antagonist Newman makes a cameo in the three-page bill report:

As the author notes, a 1996 episode television's Seinfeld featured the efforts of supporting character, Newman, to smuggle a mail truck loaded with beverage cans out of New York, which did not offer a beverage container redemption, and into Michigan, where the cans could be turned in for a five-cent redemption value.

Calrecycle does not know how much beverage container material is imported into the state in attempts to fraudulently receive CRV for the material, a la Newman. However, the department has evidence to suspect the practice happens large scale.

The bill's author -- Democratic Assemblyman and apparent Seinfield fan Richard Gordon of Menlo Park -- is likely hoping his legislation enjoys a better outcome than Newman's scheme.

The reoccurring nemesis to the fictional Jerry Seinfield lost both the bottles and his seat in the truck by the end of the two-part episode.

For the record, the episode's math actually involved a 10-cent redemption in Michigan. New York's deposit was then and still is a nickel. Watch a clip from the episode at this link.

PHOTO CREDIT: Actors Jerry Seinfeld, left, as "Seinfeld" and Wayne Knight as "Newman," file photo, 1998.

Legislation to create a "Ban List" prohibiting violent fans from attending professional sports events anywhere in California was shelved Tuesday by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

Democratic Assemblyman Mike Gatto, of Los Angeles, hopes to revive his Assembly Bill 2464 by talking with critics about potential amendments in coming days, an aide said.

Gatto's bill was a response to senseless fan violence such as the nearly fatal beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow outside Dodger Stadium last year.

Committee concerns ranged from the planned publicizing of offenders' names on the Internet to a provision to assess professional sports teams $10,000 initially to launch the program and to provide witness rewards.

Legislation touted by supporters as a way to increase lawmakers' transparency and accountability, partly by publishing member-by-member monthly spending reports, died Tuesday in the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee.

Modesto Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen proposed the measure, Assembly Bill 1730.

Olsen's bill called for members of the Assembly and Senate to:

• Post their monthly budget allocations and expenditures online, including any caucus allocations, travel expenses, office rent and staff salaries.

• Identify committee spending separately from office spending.

• Withhold votes on legislation until a bill has been available publicly for at least 72 hours.

• Report within 24 hours any campaign contribution over $100 that is received during deadline weeks for the state budget, end of the legislative session, and for moving bills out of their house of origin.

Olsen introduced AB 1730 after the Assembly balked last year at releasing member-by-member office budgets, sparking a lawsuit by The Bee and Los Angeles Times that led to a judge's ruling that they are public records and must be disclosed.

Republicans on the committee supported AB 1730 Tuesday, but Democrats voted against the bill, were absent, or did not vote.

The bill received only two of the four affirmative votes required for passage.

Legislation that would allow pet groomers to brush the teeth of dogs, cats and other pets died in the Assembly Business, Professions and Consumer Committee Tuesday without a single "aye" vote.

It was the latest skirmish in a decades-long political war between the groomers and veterinarians, who now have the exclusive legal right to brush teeth and perform other dental procedures on animals.

Proponents of Assembly Bill 2304, including its author, Assemblyman Martin Garrick, R-Carlsbad, said allowing groomers to do cosmetic brushing would encourage better dental care because of lower cost. But veterinarians contended that loosening the regulation could imperil pets.

No members of the committee voted for the bill while three voted against it.

Should wealthy Californians serving time as inmates head directly to jail AND pay the tab of their incarceration costs?

A state Senate committee today decided the answer to that question is no -- for now, at least.

Senate Bill 1124, by Sen. Anthony Cannella,would require the courts to order prisoners who can afford to pay for part of their state prison or county jail stay to do so.

While current law allows a judge order someone sentenced to state prison to pay all or part of the "reasonable costs of the imprisonment," Cannella says that his proposal would result in more so-called "pay-to-stay" orders and alleviate financial burdens for the correctional system.

"I'm just suggesting that the one percenters that we talk about who have the ability to pay for their incarceration do just that," the Ceres Republican told members of the Senate Public Safety Committee.

The bill failed by a vote of 2-3. Critics complained that it would put an undue burden on families and inmates readjusting to life after bars, but Democrats voting no pointed to potential costs for the court system, which would have been required to set a hearing to determine whether the inmate would be able to reimburse the state.

"This is not a time to be imposing any additional requirements on our courts in my view," said Public Safety Chair Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley.

Still, several Democrats sitting on the committee endorsed the concept of the proposal. Sen. Ron Calderon, D-Montebello, suggested commissioning a report on how often the current option to force repayment is exercised and looking into a pilot program.

'I think it's a great bill, and I think in a different time and a different place it would be very effective," Calderon said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Inmates wait in the Roger Bauman Facility for assessment at the Rio Cosumnes Correctional Center on March 5, 2012. Renée C. Byer, Sacramento Bee.

Legislation to make it a felony for teachers to engage in sexual activities with a student at their school was killed today by the Assembly Public Safety Committee.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1861, was sparked by a recent Modesto incident in which 18-year-old Jordan Powers moved in with 41-year-old James Hooker, who had been a teacher at her Enochs High School.

The two claimed that Powers was 18 before their relationship became romantic. AB 1861 would encompass relationships in which both student and teacher are adults, but it would not apply to past cases, including the Modesto relationship.

AB 1861 by Modesto Republican Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen targets employees of elementary, middle and high schools, but not colleges. It would outlaw not only sexual relations but sexual communications with students.

Democrats torpedoed the measure at today's committee hearing after questions arose about its constitutionality and other issues, such as why a ban should apply only to school employees and whether it could chill communications about sex-related issues in "The Great Gatsby" or other novels.

Olsen argued that teachers abuse their position of authority if they engage in sexual activities with a student, regardless of age. Parents should have confidence that the state is doing everything possible to ensure its public schools are safe environments for learning, she said.

Tammie Powers, mother of the Modesto student who moved in with her former teacher, urged lawmakers to pass AB 1861 at today's hearing.

Besides criminal penalties, AB 1861 would expel from the public pension system any school employee convicted of having sex or engaging in sex-related communications - such as sexting or lewd e-mails - with a student. Offenders would be refunded any retirement contributions they made to the pension system.

Opponents of AB 1861 note that state law already makes it a crime for adults to have sex or attempt to seduce a minor. By targeting conduct between consenting adults -- 18-year-old high school students -- the bill could violate constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly, opponents say.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, chairman of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, said he was upset by the Modesto incident but felt that too many too many questions surround AB 1861. "I feel it's not fully baked," he said.

"We have to protect free speech even when we don't like it," Ammiano said.

After today's hearing, Olsen said she will continue working on legislation to crack down on predatory behavior by unethical teachers. She conceded, however, that the issue is probably dead for this year.

The Modesto couple whose case sparked the bill reportedly ended their relationship this month after Hooker was arrested by Modesto police on charges of engaging in a sex act with another teenage girl 14 years ago. That case is pending.

PHOTO CREDIT: Enochs High School student Jordan Powers, 18, and James Hooker, 41, talk about their relationship during an interview on Feb. 28, 2012 in Modesto, AP Photo/The Modesto Bee, Debbie Noda

* Updated at 10:45 a.m. to add additional information about developments and comments in today's committee hearing.

Five out-of-state corporations are banding together to fight efforts by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez to hike taxes on some out-of-state firms to fund a billion-dollar relief plan for college students.

Chrysler, General Motors, International Paper, Kimberly-Clark and Procter & Gamble all stand to lose under Pérez's Assembly Bill 1500 and have formed a coalition called California Employers Against Higher Taxes, spokesman Peter DeMarco said today.

The corporations are speaking jointly through a Sacramento consulting firm, Randle Communications, and they have launched a website, www.cajobsnottaxes.com. But the coalition has not hired lobbyists or made political contributions DeMarco said.

Pérez's AB 1500 would raise taxes on various corporations by requiring that companies operating in multiple states calculate tax liability based on the portion of sales in California.

The tax portion of Pérez's package would eliminate a component of a 2009 state budget deal that allowed firms to pick the more advantageous of two formulas for calculating tax liability. Pérez's plan would force use of one formula, called the "single sales factor."

Touting AB 1500 as a middle-class scholarship, Pérez said that funds generated by it would cut by two-thirds the cost of attending state universities for families earning less than $150,000 per year.

The bill also would augment community college funding statewide by $150 million statewide, Pérez said.

DeMarco said that AB 1500 would have a chilling effect on job creation in a time of economic distress. What good is a middle-class college scholarship plan if its ultimate effect is to reduce middle-class jobs, he asks.

"It's a billion dollar tax increase," DeMarco said.

John Vigna, spokesman for Pérez, said that AB 1500's benefits to middle-class families are enormous.

"Every member of the Legislature will have a choice: Will they stand with major out-of-state corporations or with working families?" Vigna said. "We believe that the Legislature will stand with California's middle-class families."

* Updated at 3:40 p.m. to add comment by John Vigna, spokesman for Assembly Speaker's Office.

Now that California's legislative and congressional districts have been drawn for the first time ever by an independent citizens commission, the 14-member panel is recommending ways to smooth the process in years to come.

The commission's recommendations are contained in gut-and-amended legislation, Senate Bill 1096, proposed by the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee.

The redistricting commission, created by voter passage of Proposition 11 in 2008, drew Assembly, Senate, Board of Equalization and state congressional districts last year that will be used in this year's statewide election.

By law, the panel consisted of five Democrats, five Republicans and four independent or minor-party voters. Three votes from each bloc were required to pass new district maps.

Proposed changes have bipartisan support and focus on timing and technical issues, including:

• Requiring the state auditor's office, not the secretary of state's office, to provide support functions when a new redistricting commission is formed every 10 years, until it hires staff and becomes fully functional.

• Revising deadlines to provide more than four additional months to select commission members.

• Requiring that only veteran auditors employed by the Bureau of State Audits can be chosen, by random drawing, to serve on a three-member panel that screens redistricting commission applicants and helps to create a pool of finalists.

• Mandating that the commission publicly display its first preliminary statewide maps no later than July 1 of the year it plans to vote on them. The public would have 14 days to comment on those initial maps, then seven days for any other preliminary maps and three days for final statewide maps

• Specifying that any bill proposing legislative amendments to the redistricting process be in print for 12 days, rather than 10. It would prohibit lawmakers from altering the redistricting process in any year ending in 9, expanding upon current law, which bans procedural changes in years ending in 0 or 1.

One of the Capitol's spring rituals is publication of a list of "job killer" bills by the state Chamber of Commerce.

The newest list was published this week, 23 bills that the chamber and other business groups say will discourage investment and hiring by private employers. And not surprisingly, every one of the targeted measures is carried by a Democrat, including the majority party's two leaders, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg.

Pérez's Assembly Bill 1532 is one of four on the list that would tap into revenues from the state's new "cap-and-trade" program of marketing carbon emissions, which the chamber calls an "illegal tax increase."

Steinberg's Senate Bill 1528, meanwhile, is sponsored by personal injury attorneys to overturn a state Supreme Court decision limiting recovery of medical costs in liability lawsuits.

Other measures on the list deal with regulatory costs, fuel price increases and workplace mandates.

Publication of the list, history indicates, is more than a rhetorical exercise. In past years, despite Democrats' control of the Legislature and their close ties to labor unions, environmental groups, attorneys and other sponsors of the bills, few of those labeled as "job killers" have reached the governor's desk and most of those that do are vetoed.

Last year, just five of 30 job-killers reached Gov. Jerry Brown's desk, and he vetoed four of them.

Legislation aimed at compelling the state's four major sports universities to improve treatment of their "student athletes" stalled, at least temporarily, in the state Senate Education Committee Wednesday.

While committee members appeared to favor the thrust of the legislation, they wanted to see proposed amendments in print before moving the bill.

Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, is carrying Senate Bill 1525, dubbing it the "Student Athlete Bill of Rights," contending that while big sports schools reap tens of millions of dollars in revenue from tickets and broadcast rights, they cast aside athletes if they don't perform as expected or become injured.

As written, SB 1525 would require the University of California, Berkeley, UCLA, Stanford University and the University of Southern California to continue athletes' educations if they lose their athletic scholarships and also provide continuing medical care for any sports injuries.

Lobbyists for the UC system and the two private universities opposed the bill. Committee chairman Alan Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, said the bill has "so many unanswered questions" and contains "loose ends" that must be tightened up before the bill can receive approval. But he and other committee members said they support its thrust.

Legislative Republicans rolled out a budget plan Thursday that relies on cutting state worker pay, eliminating affordable housing funds and using pots of money dedicated for mental health and childhood development.

Republicans believe their plan eliminates the state's $9.2 billion deficit without new taxes and preserves the same amount of funding for education that existed last year. They say it undercuts Gov. Jerry Brown's argument that voters must pass higher taxes in November to spare schools from deep reductions.

"The state budget is a reflection of priorities and there is no reason to hold our schools hostage to the uncertainties of the proposed tax increase initiative that may not benefit our students," GOP legislative and budget leaders wrote in a joint letter. "With political will, we can work together in a bipartisan manner to ensure that our schools are protected from trigger cuts, whether the Governor's tax initiative is ultimately accepted or rejected by the voters."

Democrats have all but written off Republicans in this year's budget process because they have majority-vote budget authority and are going directly to voters for a tax hike on sales and upper-income earners. Brown has said that if voters reject the tax hike, the state will need to cut about $2.4 billion in K-14 classroom funds, equal to three weeks of school, as well as cut $200 million each from the state's university systems.

A Fresno Republican has joined forces with a Coachella Democrat to push legislation aimed at granting worker permits for undocumented immigrants who have been living for years in California.

Republican Linda Halderman and Democrat V. Manuel Perez are co-authors of the measure, Assembly Bill 1544. They jointly shared their views in an opinion article in today's Bee.

The two Assembly members said it's time to end the predictable chorus of "Deport them all!" from the political right wing, and "Amnesty for all!" from liberal Democrats.

"We're tired of waiting for a federal solution," they wrote. "We're tired of politics as usual. And so we are taking a risk."

Legislation to ban food trucks from selling near school campuses was shelved Wednesday.

Assemblyman Bill Monning said he lacked the votes to pass his measure, Assembly Bill 1678, but he remains committed to a crackdown on the sale of non-nutritious foods to children.

Monning's proposal would have banned food trucks from selling within 500 feet of a campus from breakfast until dinner time on any day that students are attending classes. Some exceptions would have been allowed, such as if the food truck were on private property or was operating through a formal agreement with a school district.

"For years, Californians have worked to remove sodas and unhealthful snacks from school grounds," Monning said. "Vendors are bringing these very items back to the school gate using the mobility of ice cream trucks, pushcarts, and other portable units. This undermines the statewide nutrition improvements that we have established."

Monning said he will continue meeting with supporters of his bill to craft a different legislative solution.

"It wasn't ready for prime time," he said of AB 1678.

* Amended at 5:26 p.m. to reflect an amendment that would have allowed mobile sales no closer than 500 feet from a school, not 500 yards.

A lengthy hearing in the California Assembly on Wednesday indicated that one of the Capitol's longest-running political wars is being reignited.

It's over the rules governing workers compensation, the multibillion-dollar system that provides medical care, rehabilitation and financial support to those with work-related injuries and illnesses, what those in the Capitol call "work comp."

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez is drumming up public support for legislation touted as a billion-dollar relief plan for college students that is sure to be a Democratic centerpiece this year.

"This addresses the challenge of the middle class getting squeezed out," Pérez said today of his push to alter corporate tax law and divert money generated to students at colleges and universities.

While saving students money, Pérez's plan would raise taxes on out-of-state companies like Detroit automakers and cigarette-maker Altria by requiring that multistate companies calculate tax liability based on the portion of sales in California.

Pérez pitched his "middle-class scholarship" plan to The Bee's editorial board today, accompanied by three students who described the toll that soaring college fees are taking on their education, prospects and pocketbook.

The Assembly leader said his billion-dollar plan would cut fees by two-thirds for families earning under $150,000 per year - from $5,970 to $1,970 at California State Universities, and from $12,192 to $4,023 a the University of California.

Community colleges would receive $150 million statewide. Districts would decide how to spend it, in ways that could range from expanding the use of fee waivers to providing grants for buying books or other educational materials.

Pérez's package is designed to ease costs to students, primarily through scholarships, but it would not force colleges and universities to lower their fees or prevent them from increasing in the future.

A Republican lawmaker announced legislation Tuesday to make it a felony for a K-12 teacher to date a student regardless of age, responding to a high-profile case at a Modesto high school in which the student is an adult.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, introduced Assembly Bill 1861 after news broke that Enochs High School teacher James Hooker, 41, had started a relationship with 18-year-old student Jordan Powers. Hooker left his wife, resigned from his job and moved in with Powers.

"I believe this bill will serve as a deterrent, as a preventative measure," said Tammie Powers, Jordan's mother, at a Capitol press conference. "As parents, we send our children to school with the expectation that they're going to be safe, they're going to receive a good education. Not that they're going to be pursued."

AB 1861 would have no impact on Hooker, whose case is under investigation and has resulted in no charges thus far. Hooker and Powers have denied that they had a relationship before she was an adult.

But in the future, the bill would create a felony for any public school employee who begins a sexual relationship or has "excess and inappropriate communication" with a student of any age. The bill's inclusion of inappropriate communication, described in broad terms, is meant to deter teachers from starting down a path that could lead to an intimate relationship, Olsen said.

AB 1861 also would expel the school employee from the public pension system, though it would return employee retirement contributions back to the worker.

About $1.4 billion in redevelopment funds for low- and moderate-income housing would continue to be spent for those purposes under legislation approved today by the Assembly.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez crafted the legislation, Assembly Bill 1585, to help ease the transition in the wake of last year's decision to dissolve local redevelopment agencies in capturing funding for state coffers.

AB 1585 was approved by the Assembly, 56-7, receiving two more votes than the supermajority required for passage as an urgency measure.

Five Republicans bucked their GOP colleagues to vote yes: Cameron Smyth of Santa Clarita, Nathan Fletcher of San Diego, Katcho Achadjian of San Luis Obispo, Jeff Miller of Corona, and Kevin Jeffries of Lake Elsinore.

Perez's bill would take effect immediately if passed by the Senate and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

A key element of AB 1585 would transfer balances in redevelopment low- and moderate-income housing funds to local housing agencies to be spent for affordable housing.

The bill provides an incentive for local government to allocate the housing funds relatively quickly: 80 percent of the money must be committed within two years and spent within four years.

Funds that remain uncommitted after four years must be transferred to the state Department of Housing and Community Development for use on low-income housing programs in the county from which they came.

Absent AB 1585 - or similar legislation -- the $1.4 billion would be spent on other local government services as redevelopment agencies dissolve, according to a legislative analysis of the bill.

Pérez's measure now goes to the Senate.

* Corrected at 5:10 p.m. to show that five Republicans voted yes, not four. The fifth was Kevin Jeffries of Lake Elsinore.

Crystal Harris was ordered by a judge to pay her rapist. Now the San Diego County woman is fighting to pass legislation in California to ensure that never happens to anyone else.

"You wouldn't have to pay your abuser, basically," said Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, who has taken up Harris' cause by crafting new legislation, Assembly Bill 1522.

"This seems like something that would be a no-brainer," said Atkins, D-San Diego.

Crystal Harris' problem stems from the fact that her rapist was her husband, Shawn Michael Harris, who attacked and forced her to commit a sex act during an argument in their Carlsbad home in March 2008, records show.

Shawn Harris was convicted of the rape and sentenced to six years in prison, but separately, Crystal said that he was awarded $1,000-a-month in spousal support and a judge ordered her to pay his $47,000 in family court legal fees.

Crystal Harris, now 39, said she earned a six-figure salary as a financial adviser. Shawn had been a "stay-at-home" father for five years. The couple had two children, at the time ages 5 and 7.

"I wanted to break down," she said of the judge's payment order. "I left the courtroom crying. I was incredulous about it. I couldn't believe it happened to me. I thought I'd find justice in the courts."

Crystal Harris said she paid the $1,000-a-month spousal support for about four months before her husband was imprisoned, after which a judge halted the payments -- at least temporarily -- because his financial need had changed. She continues to make monthly payments on his legal fees, she said.

Shawn Harris currently is incarcerated at a medium-security prison in Norco. Records show a trail of threats, arguments and altercations involving the couple during their 12-year marriage, which Crystal Harris said ended after the rape.

Atkins' AB 1522 would bar a spouse convicted of rape or other violent sexual felonies from collecting spousal support, attorney fees, insurance benefits or other payments from the victim.

State law currently carves out a similar exception to spousal payments only in cases of attempted murder or solicitation for murder.

Crystal Harris said that AB 1522 is meant to benefit other spousal rape victims. It could benefit her only if Shawn Harris seeks a court order restoring spousal support once he leaves prison, she said.

AB 1522 is scheduled to be heard Tuesday by the Assembly Judiciary Committee. Opposition to the bill has not yet surfaced, Atkins said.

* Updated at 2:30 p.m. to add quote from Crystal Harris.

Angered by a 41-year-old Modesto teacher who moved in with an 18-year-old student, a California lawmaker is crafting legislation that would strip teachers of their retirement benefits in such cases.

Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen called it appalling that current law provides no consequences for a love relationship between a teacher and high school student, if both are adults.

"My point is, whether you're 18, 17 or 14, the fact remains that a teacher is in a position of authority and influence over that student, and therefore, it is highly inappropriate," said Olsen, R-Modesto.

Olsen's legislation was sparked by news last month that Enochs High School teacher James Hooker had resigned his job and moved in with an 18-year-old student, Jordan Powers, who is now taking classes through independent study.

Hooker and Powers have denied dating when the student was a minor, but police are investigating that possibility.

Olsen's bill, to be introduced as Assembly Bill 1861, would strip a teacher of pension and retiree benefits for having an inappropriate relationship with a student at the same school. The bill may be unveiled early next week, she said.

When more than 400 local redevelopment agencies in California went out of business this year, thanks to state legislation and a Supreme Court decision, it stranded as much as $2 billion in funds that had been set aside for low- and moderate-income housing.

The funds had been accumulated from a 20 percent set aside of property taxes that redevelopment agencies had collected in their project areas -- money that housing advocates often complained was being stockpiled rather than spent on housing projects.

What happens to that money -- whether it will spent on housing or join other redevelopment agency funds to be redistributed to schools and local governments -- is one of the issues left over from redevelopment's demise.

Housing advocates want the money retained for their projects, but it's uncertain whether they will prevail.

As Gov. Jerry Brown sought to phase out redevelopment, he originally proposed that the housing money should be kept intact for that purpose. But when the Legislature passed a bill to that effect, Brown vetoed it, saying it was premature because the entire issue was then before the state Supreme Court.

This year, after the Supreme Court ruled that redevelopment agencies could be abolished, the state Senate passed Senate Bill 654, which would keep the housing money intact. The bill, carried by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, is now pending in the Assembly.

The question arose again Wednesday when two Assembly committees staged a lengthy hearing on what, if anything, will be done to replace redevelopment as a local government tool.

Pedro Reyes, the chief deputy director of Brown's Department of Finance, was asked pointedly about the fate of the housing money and he replied, cryptically, "Unencumbered money is supposed to be swept (distributed to other governments)."

That left legislators and housing advocates wondering whether Brown would sign or veto SB 654 if and when it reaches his desk.

Who says things never get better in the Capitol?

One thing just did - the ability to track legislation as it moves through the legislative process, thanks to a newly revised website maintained by the Legislature's legal bureau.

The new site, among other things, makes it easier to see how proposed legislation would change current law, improves search capabilities and bill-tracking subscriptions, and, for the first time, allows the public to search California laws and tie them to legislative measures. The latter function was previously only available to those in the Capitol or from private vendors who charged fees.

Cheap thrill? Forget it. The cost of nude entertainment in California would rise under legislation that seeks a pound of flesh for, well, a pound of flesh.

Assembly Bill 2441 would slap a $10-per-person tax on nightclubs, bars or restaurants that combine booze with live nude entertainment. Costs could be passed on to customers.

Assemblyman Das Williams, D-Santa Barbara, proposed the measure to generate money for sexual assault-related counseling, crisis intervention, rape prevention, community education, victim advocacy. and evidence testing in rape cases.

"There is a clear nexus between alcohol consumption and violence against women," Williams said of targeting what he calls strip bars. "This (bill) only affects those that serve alcohol."

The legislation defines nude entertainment that would be subject to the tax as exhibitions involving a naked body or display of any portion of genitals, buttocks or a woman's nipples.

If signed into law, however, the bill would apply only to live shows featuring partial nudity because state law already prohibits naked employees in businesses serving alcohol.

Williams doubts that AB 2441 would dent demand or hurt profits.

"Men will continue to go to strip bars -- and you know what? They'll feel better about it because they'll be funding a needed service for women," he said.

Prospects for Williams' measure appear dim, however. The bill requires a two-thirds supermajority for passage -- at least two GOP votes in the Assembly. Republicans have pledged not to raise taxes.

Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, a Gerber Republican who serves as the Assembly GOP point man on state budget issues, said that Democrats need to quit pinpointing causes to use as leverage in seeking to extract more money from Californians.

"No means no. ... To me, it's looking for justification to raise taxes," Nielsen said of the proposal.

* Updated at 5:35 p.m. to explain that state law currently prohibits full nudity in businesses serving alcohol.

A California lawmaker is determined to rid the state of mental retardation -- in its law books.

Dozens of references to "mentally retarded" or "mental retardation" would be wiped off state statutes under legislation by Republican Assemblyman Allan Mansoor of Costa Mesa.

"This is not an acceptable way to refer to people with intellectual disabilities," said Saulo Londoño, Mansoor's spokesman.

"People already have an awareness of other slurs that are used, but this is one that kind of flies under the radar, in our opinion," Londoño said.

Assembly Bill 2370 would replace mentally retarded with the term "intellectually disabled," and it would replace mental retardation with "intellectual disability."

Two organizations serving people with disabilities, Best Buddies California and Special Olympics International, are spearheading a national campaign to discourage use of the word "retarded."

Londoño said he knows of no opposition to the measure, which was proposed last Friday. No public hearing has yet been scheduled.

Nearly five years ago, the state adopted legislation similar to Mansoor's that erased from California statutes three other words deemed offensive by many --"idiot," "lunatic" and "imbecile."

"Government officials are supposed to be leaders, and they're supposed to lead by example with these kinds of things," Londoño said.

Concerned that Assemblyman Tim Donnelly was cited and released after carrying a loaded firearm into an airport, a Southern California assemblywoman is proposing a new state law to require that such offenders be arrested and taken into custody.

Assemblywoman Norma Torres contends that bringing a loaded gun into a passenger airport is a serious violation and that the state should treat offenders consistently - with a jail booking, not a ticket.

"People should be on notice that we have zero tolerance for loaded guns at an airport," said Torres, a Pomona Democrat whose district includes the airport where Donnelly was cited.

Torres' Assembly Bill 2182 would require formal arrest for illegally carrying a concealed firearm into an airport. Upon conviction, offenders would be permanently banned from the airport where the crime occurred.

The Capitol's perpetual "tort war" that pits personal injury attorneys against insurance and business groups over the rules governing lawsuits has a new battleground.

Senate President Pro tem Darrell Steinberg has introduced a bill that would overturn one of recent legal history's most closely watched state Supreme Court decisions, dealing with recovery of medical costs by injured parties.

Last August, in a 6-1 ruling, the Supreme Court limited how medical damages could be calculated in auto accidents and other personal injury cases. The issue in the case (Howell v. Hamilton Meats) was whether an injured person could collect the full medical bills imposed by doctors, hospitals and other medical care providers, or would be limited to the amounts actually paid by insurers, which are often pennies on the dollar.

The case, stemming from a 2005 collision in San Diego County, involved $200,000 in medical bills that were whittled down to $60,000 before payment. The trial judge decreed that only the smaller amount need be paid, while an appellate court said it should be the full amount, and the issue landed in the Supreme Court.

Rides to school -- by Campbell's Soup? School funding has gotten so bad that one California lawmaker is proposing to allow commercial advertising outside school buses.

Senate Bill 1295, by Senate Republican leader Bob Huff of Diamond Bar, would allow school districts to decide for themselves whether to sell ads for school buses and how to spend any revenue raised.

"We're looking at a way for districts to find another source of funding without placing additional burdens on taxpayers," said Bill Bird, spokesman for Huff.

SB 1295 comes at a time when many school bus programs are threatened with cuts and Tom Torlakson, state superintendent of public instruction, is warning that one-third of public school districts are in fiscal jeopardy.

Seven states have adopted laws similar to SB 1295, Bird said.

California currently permits advertising inside school buses and on the exterior of campus buildings, lunch tables, in hallways, and in yearbooks or other school-related publications, Bird said.

Advertising outside school buses would get maximum exposure because the vehicles travel throughout the district every weekday, Bird said.

No estimate is available of how much revenue could be raised under the measure.

"The senator considers every additional dime to be positive," Bird said.

PHOTO CREDIT: Jake Ames of Rio Linda High School washes a school bus shortly after the Twin Rivers Unified School District logo was applied on June 26, 2008. Sacramento Bee file / Renée C. Byer

The death of a 3-year-old Oceanside boy last year has prompted legislation to ban push pins in California kindergarten classrooms, preschools and daycare centers.

Assemblyman Marty Block, D-San Diego, said the brightly colored pins used to tack items onto bulletin board or office partitions can be extremely hazardous if swallowed by young children.

Block said the various colors of push pins can attract children, and if they are swallowed and get stuck in the throat, the Heimlich maneuver commonly is not always effective in extracting them because of their shape.

Assembly Bill 1820 stemmed from the death of 3-year-old Tyler Howell last year, Block said.

Newspaper reports at the time, by U-T San Diego, reported that the Oceanside toddler choked to death at a private Montessori school after he swallowed a push pin.

Block said that alternative products exist to hang items onto bulletin boards and he knows of no opposition to AB 1820. The bill, introduced this week, has not yet been scheduled for public hearing.

PHOTO CREDIT: A teacher leads a song with the children at Carmichael Parent Participation Preschool on Sept. 12, 2007. Sacramento Bee file / Florence Low

The first test of California's new law on municipal bankruptcies may come in Stockton, whose city council is on the verge of seeking bankruptcy protection from its creditors.

Last year, the Legislature decreed in Assembly Bill 506 that local governments could file bankruptcy only after either declaring a fiscal emergency or participating in a "neutral evaluation process."

It was a modified version of legislation that public employees unions had sponsored to require local governments to gain state permission before filing bankruptcy, stemming from Vallejo's insolvency.

Stockton, which was hard-hit by the housing industry meltdown, is now contemplating bankruptcy, according to an article in the Stockton Record. If it happens, it would be the largest city bankruptcy in American history.

The Stockton City Council is expected to take the first step next week and, among other things, must decide which of the two options in the new law it would take.

Sugary sports drinks would be banned during the school day at middle and high school campuses under legislation proposed this month in the Assembly.

Assembly Bill 1746 would restrict middle and high school sales of sports drinks - called "electrolyte replacement beverages" in the bill - to before and after each school day.

Sports drinks already are prohibited at elementary school campuses, according to Assemblyman Das Williams, a Santa Barbara Democrat who proposed AB 1746. The California Medical Association is among the sponsors of the bill.

Dr. James T. Hay, CMA president, said that there is a common misperception that sports drinks are healthy but many contain high-fructose corn syrup or other calorie-laden sweeteners linked to childhood obesity, the primary cause of type 2 diabetes.

AB 1746, if signed into law, would take effect in July 2013.

Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani is proposing legislation that would require California taxpayers to pick up the tab for a gruesome multicounty search for victims of the "Speed Freak Killers."

Searches have been under way in Calaveras and San Joaquin counties. The tab in the latter hit $90,000 last Friday, said Galgiani, whose bill also will seek reimbursement for any DNA testing done.

At separate San Andreas sites, bone or other remnants have been found of victims Cyndi Vanderheiden, 25, who disappeared in 1998, and of Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, 16, who was reported missing in 1985.

Officials also have uncovered hundreds of human bones at one San Joaquin County well site and have been told of two other well locations by convicted killer Wesley Shermantine of the "Speed Freak Killers."

Shermantine and his partner, Loren Herzog, are suspected of serial murders in decades past.

Shermantine, who remains on death row, was convicted of four murders. Herzog was found guilty of three killings, but his conviction was overturned on appeal and he later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. Paroled last year, Herzog hanged himself inside his trailer last month.

"Certainly no one could have anticipated this happening," said Galgiani, D-Livingston, said of the wide-ranging search for bodies.

The tab is particularly onerous to Calaveras and San Joaquin counties because it comes at a time when California's economy has been weak, said Galgiani, who said total costs could reach $500,000.

State taxpayers have an interest in the case because nobody yet knows how many murder victims there are, where their families are located, or how many counties will be affected, Galgiani said.

Elected to serve portions of San Joaquin County, Galgiani said she will amend an existing bill in the Senate to contain the reimbursement language. She has not yet finished crafting the measure, she said.

PHOTO CREDIT: San Joaquin Sheriff detectives Paul Hoskins, left, and Lindsay Smith sift on Feb. 12 for remains excavated from the abandoned well in the background that is believed to be a burial site of "Speed Freak Killers" Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog. Craig Sanders / The (Stockton) Record.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced today that he has signed legislation reconstituting the California Board of Registered Nursing, whose legal authority expired on Jan. 1 after Brown vetoed a bill last year to extend its existence.

The Democratic governor signed Senate Bill 98 without comment, reinstating the board through 2015.

When he vetoed legislation last year to extend the nursing board's existence, Brown said he objected to language that would have expanded pension benefits for board investigators -- language not included in the bill that Brown signed today.

The nursing board regulates nearly 380,000 registered nurses in California. It is responsible for enforcing laws and regulations regarding nursing education and licensing, among other duties.

Gov. Jerry Brown today signed legislation restoring $248 million for school buses after rural and urban districts complained that the midyear cut would sink their budgets.

Senate Bill 81 replaces the $248 million bus cut with an across-the-board reduction of roughly $42 per student that affects all K-12 districts. Under the previous plan, the isolated Death Valley Unified School District would have lost $1,734 per student, while Davis Joint Unified would have lost less than $8 per student, according to the California School Boards Association.

The state's coalition of education groups, including teachers, school boards and administrators, supported the change, as did lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. The only opponents were charter schools and some suburban districts that stand to lose more under SB 81 than they did under the bus cut.

The bus reduction was triggered in December when fiscal forecasters determined California would fall $2.2 billion short of the optimistic revenue projections that Brown and lawmakers used last June.

Brown has proposed eliminating bus funding next school year and launching a new block grant for school districts that could pay for some of those costs. But lawmakers seem intent on trying to preserve earmarked school bus money next year.

PHOTO CREDIT: Marlee Redwolf-Rave, 14, left, and another student get off a school bus at Timbisha Shoshone Tribe Reservation in Death Valley on Jan. 10, 2012, after a long drive from Death Valley High school in Shoshone. (Irfan Khan/ Los Angeles Times.)

Our story this morning on California Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye's complaints about the Assembly's process in approving Assembly Bill 1208 referenced a list of 16 statements from the floor debate she said were "meritless, false claims."

Cantil-Sakauye sent the list to Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, and the Administrative Office of the Courts has published the list on its website. Read them here.

Click here to download video of Cantil-Sakauye's speech to presiding judges. Requires a Windows Media file player.

A Republican assemblyman announced Thursday that he will propose a constitutional amendment to require a supermajority vote by the Legislature to pass budget bills and to require the state controller to withhold lawmakers' pay if an approved budget is not balanced.

The measure by Assemblyman Allan Mansoor, R-Costa Mesa, responds to a provision in voter-approved Proposition 25 that allows Democrats to pass a majority-vote budget needing no Republican support.

Proposition 25 also called for docking legislative pay when a budget is not passed by the June 15th deadline. But state Controller John Chiang sparked controversy last year when he withheld pay after concluding that the spending plan initially passed by lawmakers was not balanced.

Democratic legislative leaders, who contend that Chiang illegally intervened in legislative matters, filed suit last month asking a judge to decide whether the controller can punish lawmakers again this summer and in the future for budgets he deems unconstitutional.

Mansoor's constitutional amendment, if placed on the ballot by lawmakers and approved by voters, would settle the matter by requiring the controller to dock pay until the Legislative Analyst's Office certifies that a budget is balanced.

The ballot measure also would make Republicans more relevant in budget negotiations by requiring a two-thirds supermajority in each legislative house to pass a spending plan. Currently, that would require two GOP votes apiece in the Senate and Assembly.

Because Republicans are vastly outnumbered in the Legislature, Mansoor's proposal will be dead on arrival unless he can win support from Democratic colleagues whose party powers would be reduced if the constitutional amendment were to become law.

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye is delivering an aggressive message to members of the Assembly after the lower house narrowly passed a bill that would strip power from the state Judicial Council she controls.

In a 20-minute speech to the state's presiding judges in the days after the Jan. 30 vote on Assembly Bill 1208, a stern-faced Cantil-Sakauye said she was "greatly dismayed" at the "meritless, false claims" in the floor debate and the voting process in the Assembly.

Click here to download video of Cantil-Sakauye's speech. Requires a Windows Media file player.

"It's one thing to lose an argument based on merit," Cantil-Sakauye said, "it's another thing when the facts are not represented."

She said she expressed her displeasure after the vote in a phone conversation with Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez, who supported the bill.

She also said she was surprised that, with the bill in limbo and eight votes short of passing at 33-23, Pérez apparently helped round up the deciding votes for the 41-26 outcome.

"Because of my previous conversations with the speaker I thought for the most part then it would go away, because I understood that this bill would be up to each member to vote their conscience, that it wouldn't be the subject of political maneuvering...on the Assembly floor," Cantil-Sakauye said. "And that of course disturbs me, but I know our process is very different from the legislative process."

Pérez's office did not respond to requests for comment.

Cantil-Sakauye said the process "really called into question" the meaning of separation of powers. "That line has been and very well could be blurred based on the conduct and the involvement that occurred not only leading up to the bill, but how it squeaked out...of the Assembly. I don't know that anyone can stand tall after that process or claim a mandate after that process."

AB 1208 is pushed by a group of judges called the Alliance of California Judges and is backed by Service Employees International Union, representing courthouse employees.

The bill is stalled -- for now -- in the Senate. Cantil-Sakauye said she would continue pushing to kill the measure.

"That's my hill," she told the judges. "There are few hills as a judge. As you all know, we're neutral, we're objective, we're fact-finders. We left that persona (as advocates) behind a long time ago, but it is kind of funny how it comes back to you. Pretty quickly actually, about how when you're fighting for a value, or a principle you think threatens what you stand for, what you took an oath for."

PHOTO CREDIT: California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye visits The Bee on Jan. 26, 2012. Paul Kitagaki Jr. / Sacramento Bee

Saying that his position has become a "lightning rod for controversy," Ronald G. Overholt resigned today as interim administrative director of California's court system.

Overholt's move comes as the court system's statewide decisions have come under increasing fire and a group of dissident judges is pushing Assembly Bill 1208 to grant local courts more control over spending.

Overholt, in a written statement, noted that courts have operated for the past three years in an "anxiety-generated climate" of fiscal crisis that has prompted ongoing budget reductions and internal reorganization efforts.

"My decision is based on a number of factors," Overholt said of his resignation.

"Among them is that the position of administrative director of the courts has become a lightning rod for controversy, impacting the focus on budget discussions, Judicial Council governance of the judicial branch, and the Administrative Office of the Courts itself."

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani G. Cantil-Sakauye called Overholt's decision "understandable but unfortunate."

Overholt's 30 years of service in court administration, including his stint as interim administrative director since September 2011, have been exemplary and his departure is a great loss to the state's judicial system, Cantil-Sakauye said.

"But we respect his judgment that a transition is necessary at this time for him and for the court system he has served so well," she said.

A new interim director will be selected while a national search continues for a permanent director.

News coverage of actress Demi Moore's recent medical emergency has led one California lawmaker to push for new restrictions on the release of taped recordings of 9-1-1 calls.

Assemblywoman Norma Torres, D-Pomona, announced today that she plans to introduce legislation to "protect the privacy of 9-1-1 medical emergency calls."

The Pomona Democrat, who worked as a 9-1-1 call operator for 18 years, said in a statement that medical emergency calls "contain private and sensitive information that should never be broadcast to the world."

Moore was hospitalized last month after paramedics responded to a call for medical assistance at her Los Angeles home. Portions of the tape of the 9-1-1 call, which was released last week, includes an unidentified woman telling the operator that Moore was "semiconscious" and "convulsing" after smoking something " similar to incense." The tape was edited before its release to remove statements that could violate medical privacy rules, the Los Angeles Times reported.

California lawmakers sent bills to Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday that would allow the state to borrow $865 million from earmarked state accounts and K-12 districts to continue busing their students this school year.

The Democratic governor supports both measures, though his office has not said when he will act on them.

Senate Bill 81 would help rural and urban students that rely heavily on buses by transforming a $248 million mid-year transportation cut into a general-purpose reduction that hits all 1,042 school districts evenly. Some rural districts stood to lose more than $1,000 per student; under SB 81, all districts will lose about $42 per student.

The bill had bipartisan support in both houses, though some suburban Republicans have objected because their districts long ago reduced bus service and now face a larger cut under SB 81.

The Senate and Assembly also approved Senate Bill 95 allowing the state to borrow $865 million from earmarked accounts, most of which fund transportation. It is part of a plan to ensure the state does not run out of cash to pay its priority bills in early March.

Controller John Chiang said this week that without $3.3 billion in additional borrowing and payment delays, the state will fall below its comfortable cash cushion for several weeks starting Feb. 29. Chiang said that by March 8, the state would end up $730 million in the red.

Besides the internal borrowing in SB 95, the state plans to ask Wall Street for a short-term loan, have the University of California borrow on the state's behalf and delay payments to Medi-Cal hospitals and counties.

In other action, both houses passed Senate Bill 98 to reinstate the Board of Registered Nursing through 2015 after Brown vetoed a bill last year to extend its existence. The governor said he objected to last year's proposal, Senate Bill 538, because it would have expanded pension benefits for board investigators.

Jim Sanders and Dan Smith contributed to this report.

Looks like controversial legislation on how to fund California courts has been put on ice in the Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg told reporters today not to expect to see action on the legislation, Assembly Bill 1208, any time soon. The measure passed the Assembly on Monday.

"The Senate has no near-term plans to refer that bill," Steinberg said, adding "It's a long year and a long session."

The bill, which would give trial court judges more power in spending decisions currently controlled by the state Judicial Council, which is led by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, was the subject of intense debate in the state Assembly this week. It cleared the lower house by a vote of 41-23 on Monday.

The bill, which is backed by a splinter group called the Alliance of California Judges and a union that represents court employees, is opposed by Cantil-Sakauye and 44 of the 58 presiding judges of the county courts.

Steinberg didn't address opposition or the merits of the bill today, but instead signaled he was irked by a comment made by the bill's author Assemblyman Chuck Calderon, D-Whittier, on the floor this week.

"I know Chuck Calderon's big comment about why he didn't fix the bill in the Assembly and instead (sent) it to the Senate was something to the effect of 'If I had it my way, we'd eliminate the Senate,'" the Sacramento Democrat said. "Not that I took any note of that."

RELATED POSTS:
Assembly OKs bill to give local courts more power over spending

Legislation to allow local governments in California to keep using redevelopment funds earmarked for affordable housing projects cleared the state Senate today on a majority vote, after a failed attempt to win the votes needed for the measure to take effect immediately.

Senate Bill 654, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would allow cities and counties to retain tax dollars contained in the low- and moderate-income housing funds of the soon-to-be shuttered redevelopment agencies. Such funds contain about $1.36 billion that will otherwise be redirected to schools and other local government functions when the redevelopment agencies are dissolved on Wednesday.

The fate of that money is uncertain. Even if the measure is passed by the Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, its provisions would not take effect until next year without a two-thirds vote for an urgency clause.

An attempt to win two-thirds passage of the measure failed without GOP support, 24-1, after majority Democrats rejected amendments proposed by Senate GOP leader Bob Huff.

"I appreciate the pro tem's desire to address affordable housing, but we must go further," the Diamond Bar Republican said, raising questions about outstanding bonds and redevelopment projects already under way.

The bill cleared the upper house easily on the second try, with 10 Republicans who had abstained from the first vote voting yes. That margin would have been enough for the now majority-vote bill to pass as an urgency measure.

Amid the procedural maneuvering, Steinberg told colleagues on the floor that he would be willing later to put the language into a new budget bill so that it could be take effect immediately with majority-vote approval. Steinberg's office said that local agencies overseeing the transition could also opt not to decide what to do about the funds until the issue is resolved.

The agencies, axed as part of last year's budget package, are slated to be disbanded Wednesday. Legislation to delay that date until April 15 has failed to gain traction.

RELATED POSTS:
Steinberg: Extending redevelopment agencies 'not going to happen'

Rural and urban school districts in California that make heavy use of buses appear safe -- for now.

State lawmakers are fast-tracking legislation that would transform a $248 million midyear school bus cut into a general-purpose reduction that hits each K-12 district evenly. The Assembly Budget Committee passed Senate Bill 81 with bipartisan support Tuesday, while an aide to Gov. Jerry Brown testified that the governor supports the proposal.

But Brown still wants to eliminate specific funding for buses in his 2012-13 budget, along with removing earmarks for a variety of other K-12 programs. He instead proposes a new block grant funding system for schools, out of which he suggests districts could fund bus service if they choose.

In Tuesday's hearing, Republicans and Democrats representing rural areas joined together to lobby for SB 81, which only applies for the remainder of this school year. The bus cut was triggered when state forecasters determined last month that California would fall $2.2 billion short of a $4 billion tax revenue bump that Brown and lawmakers assumed in the 2011-12 state budget.

"It's a catastrophic problem in my district and in many other rural parts of California," said Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, D-Arcata, who represents the North Coast area. "Eliminating the school bus system creates dangerous situations for many children in California, but for my district it means it would be impossible for many children, if not most children in some districts, to attend school at all."

The state Senate today approved $13 million in settlements and fees in legal disputes lost by the state, including nearly $1 million in court-ordered attorneys fees in the Entertainment Merchants Association's successful challenge of a California law banning the sale of violent video games to minors.

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with the industry group last year in its effort to block the violent video game ban, upholding decisions at the federal and appellate court levels. Critics of the law, which was approved by the state Legislature and signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2005, had argued that the restrictions violated their First Amendment right to free speech.

The legislation, Senate Bill 730, was approved with bipartisan support, by a vote of 32-5.

Senate Bill 730 also gave the green light for a $4.23 million settlement in a lawsuit between EdFund, the state's former student loan guarantor, and a Mather business park office complex, two payments totaling $5.5 million in cases against the Department of Forestry and the Department of Fish and Game and a $1.5 million settlement in a lawsuit against the Department of Parks and Recreation filed by a man who had been struck by a falling tree at Los Banos Creek Reservoir in Merced County.

The appropriation bill, which requires a two-thirds vote to take effect immediately, must be approved by the Assembly before heading to Gov. Jerry Brown, who defended the video game law as state attorney general, for consideration.

RELATED STORIES:

Supreme Court strikes down violent video game ban

The Assembly rejected legislation today that would have required independent expenditure comittees to provide more disclosure of their contributors in backing candidates or ballot measures.

Assembly Bill 1148 fell two votes short of the two-thirds supermajority required for passage. Every Democrat but Cathleen Galgiani of Livingston supported it, and every Republican but Nathan Fletcher of San Diego opposed it or did not vote. The final tally was 52-26.

Democrats touted the measure as a way to ease voter cynicism by providing greater disclosure by independent committees, which can spend unlimited sums to support candidates or ballot measures.

Republicans countered that the bill would restrict freedom of speech. What the state needs instead are less restrictive candidate contribution limits, so that donors could give whatever sums they desire to candidate-controlled committees and there would be less incentive to create independent committees, GOP lawmakers said.

One day after turning thumbs down, the Assembly today passed legislation that would ask voters to alter California's "three strikes" criminal sentencing law.

Assembly Bill 327, approved by a vote of 41-33, now goes to the Senate.

Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, sought the re-vote after his measure lacked five votes for passage Monday, when 10 members either were absent or opted not to cast a vote.

"We have the opportunity not only to be tough on crime but to be smart on crime," Davis said in floor debate today.

But Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, countered that passing AB 327 would amount to "trivializing violent criminal acts."

AB 327 would ask voters to require that a third strike be a serious or violent felony before an offender could be sentenced to a 25-to-life prison term under California's three strikes law.

It's a Triple-D kind of day under the dome.

That's right, three separate deadlines are looming as California politicos prepare to enter month two of 2012 (Sorry for the false alarm, Guy Fieri fans).

1.) RIP Redevelopment Local Redevelopment Agencies will take their last breaths today. The 2010 law axing the agencies, crafted as part of last year's budget package, takes effect Feb. 1. While some lawmakers have voiced support for reviving the agencies' main functions in new forms, a workable solution has not emerged since the state Supreme Court struck down the Legislature's first attempt at creating a successor to RDAs. A push to delay the dissolution date until April 15 has failed to gain traction in the Legislature. Officials from the Department of Finance and the State Controller's Office will be addressing lingering questions on the termination during an 11 a.m. webinar. Questions can be submitted via email to redevelopment@dof.ca.gov.

2.) Last Call for 2011 bills: Bills introduced in 2011 must clear their house-of-origin today in order to stay alive for the remainder of the two-year session. The Senate plans to gavel in at 10 a.m. to tackle the handful of two-year bills remaining on the file. One measure expected to come up for a vote is Senate Bill 654, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg's legislation to allow local governments to keep and use redevelopment money earmarked for affordable housing projects. The Assembly, meanwhile, will get back to work at 9 a.m. Assemblyman Mike Davis, D-Los Angeles, is expected to take another shot at winning passage of a bill that would make changes to the state's "Three Strikes" law. Assembly Bill 327 fell five votes short during Monday's floor session.

3.) Campaign cash: Candidates for state and federal office face a midnight deadline for filing campaign finance reports. The reports will cover cash raised and spent through Dec. 31, 2011. Wondering which committee balances to check for state legislative races? Parts one, two and three of Capitol Alert's "Races to Watch" series might refresh your memory of the must-watch match-ups. Also due today are state lobbying reports for the fourth quarter of 2011.

RX FOR NURSING BOARD? The Assembly Budget Committee's agenda for today includes a recently crafted bill to reinstate the Board of Registered Nursing through 2016. The board was technically dissolved at the end of 2011 after Gov. vetoed legislation to extend its sunset date. The Budget Committee is expected to take up this bill and review Brown's budget proposal when it meets after the full session adjourns.

PLANNING AHEAD: The Greenlining Institute will present results of its survey on California's ballot initiative system at a luncheon on Wednesday. RSVP to brucem@greenlining.org or micheller@greenlining.org or call (408) 550-3121. The event begins at 11:30 a.m. at the Capitol, Room 2040.

Legislation to create a tiered sex-offender registration system designed to focus attention on violent criminals was killed today by the Assembly.

Assembly Bill 625 died by a vote of 19-41. Its author, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, said he will propose a similar measure later this year.

California law currently requires people convicted of various sex offenses to register with the state for life.

AB 625 would have created three tiers of sex registration, with offenders in the first two tiers allowed to drop off into an inactive status after 10 or 20 years, respectively.

The most lenient tier would have applied to sex offenders who did not use violence, did not molest a minor, and maintained a clean record during the 10 years they were on the active registry.

Opponents of the bill claimed that allowing some sex registrants to be placed on an inactive status would weaken current law and make communities less safe.

Hotly contested legislation that split the state's judiciary system over issues of money and power was approved today by the Assembly.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1208, passed by a vote of 41-23.

The bill was pushed by a group of judges called the Alliance of California Judges and was backed by Service Employees International Union, representing courthouse employees.

AB 1208 would shift authority from the state's Judicial Council -- led by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye -- to create a more formula-driven funding approach that would give more power to trial courts in setting spending priorities.

The bill by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, stems from years of budget crisis that have taken a toll on courts, sparking cuts of $350 million during the current budget cycle and nearly $300 in additional cuts over the past five years.

The Assembly passed union-backed legislation today that would allow charter school petitions to be rejected if they negatively affect a school district's finances.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1172, was approved by the bare minimum number of votes required, 41-27. No Republicans supported the bill by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia.

Supporters, including the California Teachers Association, contend that the bill is needed to help schools avoid fiscal insolvency, according to an Assembly analysis of AB 1172.

Opponents argue that the bill is too broadly written and that most school districts could claim a negative financial impact under it, the analysis said.

AB 1172 now goes to the Senate.

The Assembly approved new parental obligations today in response to a much-publicized Florida case in which Casey Anthony waited a month to report her 2-year-old daughter missing but ultimately was acquitted of her murder.

Assembly Bill 1432 would make parents or guardians guilty of a misdemeanor if they knowingly fail to report, within 24 hours, the disappearance of a child younger than 14.

Maximum penalties would vary, however.

Offenders could be jailed for a year and fined $2,000 for failing to report the death of a child from crime, or one who is missing under circumstances that would suggest danger.

Violations stemming from disappearances in which no danger of physical harm exists would be punishable by maximum jail sentences of six months and fines of up to $1,000.

The bill declares itself "Caylee's Law," a reference to Caylee Anthony, the Florida toddler whose body was found in a wooded area not far from her grandparents' home in 2008. She had been missing six months.

AB 1432, by Assemblywoman Holly Mitchell, D-Los Angeles, passed the Assembly with bipartisan support, 66-3. It now goes to the Senate. If signed into law with two-thirds support from the Legislature, the measure would take effect immediately.

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye visited The Bee's Editorial Board today to make her case against Assemblyman Charles Calderon's effort to reduce her clout over statewide spending on the judicial system.

The chief justice said Calderon's bill, Assembly Bill 1208, would "reduce and eliminate the authority of the Judicial Council" to control significant parts of judicial branch spending."

Senior Editor Dan Morain filed an account of her visit on The Swarm blog. Read it here.

Bills to require private health insurance plans to cover costs of oral chemotherapy and the treatment of mental illness and substance abuse were passed today by the Assembly, largely along party lines.

The lower house also approved Assembly Bill 369, which would bar health plans from requiring a patient to try more than two lower-priced medications before providing access to the product prescribed by the patient's physician.

AB 369 passed, 46-19, with most Democrats but no Republicans supporting it.

Democratic Assemblyman Jim Beall of San Jose crafted the bill covering mental health and substance abuse treatment, Assembly Bill 154. It passed the lower house, 47-18, with no GOP votes.

Current law only requires private insurers to cover severe mental illness, while AB 154 targets other types of disorders, including depression and substance abuse but not bereavement or antisocial behavior.

Services covered under AB 154 include outpatient, inpatient and partial hospital services, as well as prescription drugs if the plan's contract already includes coverage for medications.

The oral chemotherapy bill, Assembly Bill 1000, was pushed by Assemblyman Henry Perea, a Fresno Democrat who said he conceived of the idea during his mother's treatment for lung cancer.

AB 1000 passed, 52-17, with support from only three Republicans: Paul Cook of Yucca Valley, Kevin Jeffries of Lake Elsinore, and Kristin Olsen of Modesto.

Health plans typically cover the price of a patient's intravenous chemotherapy, charging only a minor office co-payment. By contrast, most insurers cover only a portion of oral chemotherapy costs, leaving patients with bills that can total hundreds of dollars per month, Perea said.

AB 1000 would not require insurers to provide coverage for prescription drugs, but those that do would be required to bankroll much of the costs of oral chemotherapy as they do now for intravenous chemotherapy.

All three bills now go to the Senate.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that he believes an effort to extend the life of local redevelopment agencies through April 15 is "not going to happen."

Legislation to that effect, Senate Bill 659 by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, faces a Tuesday deadline for winning passage in the state Assembly, in addition to the planned Feb. 1 date of closure for the agencies

"I'm skeptical," Steinberg said. "I think the speaker is skeptical, and the governor is dead set against the bill. The focus needs to be on recreating a new set of economic development tools for cities and not on trying to keep alive the current form."

The Legislature axed the agencies, which subsidize local projects in blighted areas, and created a new redevelopment entity as part of last year's budget package. But the state Supreme Court ruled in December in response to a legal challenge to the move that while the Legislature had the power to dissolve the agencies, the replacement organizations could not stand.

Local governments have pushed for the extension measure, saying it is needed to allow lawmakers to address legal and contractual issues related to terminating the taxpayer-funded agencies. Gov. Jerry Brown expressed doubts about the proposal on a campaign stop last week, saying, "I don't think we can delay this funeral."

Steinberg said he is interested in exploring ways to take money and assets now held by the agencies and "hand (them) back to the cities and counties for economic development, but with a connection to ... our goals of better planning."

The Sacramento Democrat has introduced legislation to allow local governments to retain and use redevelopment money earmarked for affordable housing projects. That bill also faces a Tuesday deadline for winning approval.

Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez appears to be on the same page as Steinberg.

"The governor certainly made his feelings absolutely clear for extending them for the sake of an extension," said Pérez spokesman John Vigna. "So I think our focus is preserving some of the (long-term) economic development functions of them."

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California high court says state can eliminate redevelopment

California's "Medicare for all" universal health care legislation fell short of the 21 votes needed to pass the state Senate today.

Senate Bill 810 failed on a 19-15 vote during this morning's floor session, with four moderate Democrats abstaining and one voting no.

Democratic Sen. Mark Leno, who authored the bill, said the proposal would stabilize health care costs and expand access to coverage.

He called the bill, which does not include funding to cover the projected $250 billion annual cost of running the single-payer system, the first step in a "many year project" that will likely require asking voters to approve financing. He encouraged members to support the bill to allow the policy discussion to continue.

No Republicans voted for the bill. Sen. Tony Strickland, R-Moorpark, criticized the proposal as an attempt to create "another costly and inefficient bureaucracy."

"There's no doubt that we need health care reform, there's no doubt that we need to improve our health care system, but members, this is not the bill to move forward," he said.

The bill faces a Tuesday deadline for passing the state Senate in the current legislative session. Several similar bills have cleared one or both houses in recent years. The last version to win legislative approval was vetoed by then-GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Legislation aimed at restricting protests at military and other funerals won unanimous approval in the state Senate today.

Senate Bill 661, by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, would prohibit picketing within 500 feet of a burial or memorial site within one hour of the service. Violators of the law could face misdemeanor charges punishable by up to six months in prison and a $1,000 fine.

Supporters say the bill, which is backed by veterans groups, will protect grieving families from distress while maintaining the First Amendment rights of protesters. Opponents, including the American Civil Liberties Union and California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, say the bill goes too far in protecting the interests of funeral attendees over free speech.

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a similar version of the bill last year, writing in a message that while he was "very tempted to sign it," he felt the language "plainly fails to comport" with a 2011 Supreme Court decision.

Lieu's office believes changes to the language, including decreasing the zone around the funeral where picketing is banned, addresses the governor's concerns.

The bill now heads to the state Assembly for consideration.

Legislation that would have allowed Cal Expo to operate more independently and to receive the proceeds of any sale or leasing of its land died today in an Assembly committee.

Assembly Bill 1204 was shelved without a vote in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, proposed the bill as a step toward allowing Cal Expo to operate as an independent enterprise in tackling $45 million in deferred maintenance, as well as declining attendance for horse racing and the annual state fair.

A key element of AB 1204 would have eliminated a requirement that the state Department of General Services approve the purchase, acquisition, disposal, leasing, or permanent improvements of real estate or personal property owned by Cal Expo.

Under Dickinson's bill, approval of state fair property transactions would have been overseen by the State Fair Leasing Authority, consisting of four members of the Cal Expo governing board and directors of the state finance, general services, and food and agriculture departments. The state controller and treasurer would have been seated if transactions involved the issuance of bonds.

A spotlight was placed on the value of Cal Expo's land last year during discussions about the possibility of constructing a new Sacramento Kings arena on the 350-acre site. The fairgrounds' value was estimated at $200 million, according to an Assembly analysis of AB 1204.

Legislation to create a "single-payer" health care system in California won approval in a key committee today, getting the OK for a vote of the full Senate.

The Senate Appropriations Committee approved Senate Bill 810, Democratic Sen. Mark Leno's universal health care measure, by a vote of 6-2.

The vote came as the committee met to consider bills introduced in 2011 that are projected to cost the state at least $50,000. A fiscal analysis of SB 810 estimated that running a health care system that would be open to all 37 million Californians could cost up to $250 billion a year.

The bill, which supporters say would provide greater access to health coverage and lower costs, does not include any taxes or fees to cover the cost of the system, which would be run by a new state agency.

The concept has been introduced in the Legislature multiple times in recent years. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed one version approved in the 2007-2008 legislative session. A 2009-2010 measure, also authored by Leno, died in the state Assembly.

The committee also approved urgency legislation related to local redevelopment agencies, which are set to shut down next month due to legislation and court decisions.

Senate Bill 654, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would allow the local governments to keep redevelopment money budgeted for low- and moderate-income housing. The bill, which also affects repayment of loans from local governments, would need to win approval from two-thirds of members in both houses to take effect immediately.

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation containing a similar provision last year, saying it would be premature to take action before a legal battle over dissolving the agencies was settled.

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California lawmakers take another crack at 'single-payer' health care bill

A proposed state law to protect Capitol whistle-blowers from retaliation for filing a complaint of improper activity died today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Assembly Bill 1378 was derailed after it failed to get a motion or second in the committee. Thus, no roll-call vote was taken. It previously had passed the Assembly Judiciary Committee, 10-0.

Legal protection against blowing the whistle on government corruption or wrongdoing currently applies to most employees -- including executive branch employees, California State University workers, and legislative appointees to boards and commissions.

AB 1378 would have expanded the list to include current and former legislators and legislative employees. The measure was proposed by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada-Flintridge.

The state auditor, whose office is responsible for receiving, evaluating and investigating whistleblower complaints, estimated that AB 1378 would increase costs by about $400,000 annually.

State Auditor Elaine Howle opposed the bill in a letter sent Thursday to Portantino and the Appropriations Committee. She said it would undermine and erode the independence of her office to handle investigations allegations involving the Legislature, which directs much of her staff's audit work, approves its budget, and has sole authority to remove her from office.

"The bottom line is that we cannnot and should not investigate our client -- the Legislature," she wrote.

By dying without reaching the Assembly floor, AB 1378 does not leave a trail of votes that incumbents might have to defend in upcoming elections. All 80 Assembly seats are on the ballot this year.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This post was updated at 4:07 p.m. to clarify that the measure also would have applied to legislators. It also was updated at 5:11 p.m. to note that the state auditor opposed AB 1378.

A Republican senator's push to override Gov. Jerry Brown's veto of his state parks legislation failed today in the California Senate.

Sen. Sam Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo, brought up for reconsideration Senate Bill 356, which had proposed giving local governments the opportunity an opportunity to take over operation of state parks slated for closure due to budget cuts.

Blakeslee said the override would send a message to Brown, whom he described as California's "dreamer" governor in light of Wednesday's State of the State address, that the Legislature is working to "to economize and keep parks open."

"We have real world problems today that need immediate addressing and this is an opportunity for us potentially to keep state parks open that would otherwise close," he said.

Thirty-five senators had voted for the measure when it cleared the upper house unanimously in September. But support for bucking the Democratic governor, who called the legislation "unnecessary" in a veto message, was not as strong. Blakeslee's attempt to secure the two-thirds vote needed to override Brown's action failed with 13 lawmakers voting yes and 22 voting no. Those turning thumbs down included 20 Democrats who supported the bill last year.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said that while the legislation is "meritorious," a move to override a governor's veto is "not a decision to be made lightly." Such a decision, he said, should be made by leaders from both caucuses, not an individual member.

"This isn't the bill, this isn't the time," the Sacramento Democrat said.

Blakeslee bristled at Steinberg's response, arguing that it shouldn't be left to "two people to emerge from a smoke-filled room" for the Legislature to use its constitutional authority to act independently of the governor and override a veto.

The presiding officer, Democratic Sen. Joe Simitian, admonished Blakeslee for mischaractarizing Steinberg's remarks, and Blakeslee conceded that one part of his statement wasn't accurate.

"Smoking in state buildings in California is not allowed, so it probably would not be a smoke-filled room," he quipped.

Legislation to create a single-payer health care system in California was sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee suspense file today, delaying action on the bill until later this week.

After hearing from a long line of supporters and opponents of Senate Bill 810 this afternoon, committee members added the legislation to a list of costly proposals that are set to be considered on Thursday.

The bill, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, does not include any taxes or fees to cover the cost of the system, which would be run by a new state agency. A fiscal analysis pegged the annual cost of the bill at $200 billion to $250 billion.

Supporters, who say the proposal would simply shift $200 billion already spent on health care annually to a new system, cast the bill as an effort to lower cost for consumers and expand access to coverage for medical care. Opponents argued that the government should not get more involved in health care and that the proposal could end up making costs higher.

Similar legislation died on the Assembly floor in the 2009-2010 legislative session. Another version that was approved in both houses in the 2007-2008 session was vetoed by then GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

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Legislation to regulate high-interest loans in which borrowers use their vehicles as collateral died this week in the Assembly.

Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, D-Sacramento, said he was disappointed by the Assembly Banking and Finance Committee's rejection of his Assembly Bill 336 but will try again next year.

"(AB 336) would have offered at least some minimal protections to consumers for these loans, which have outrageous interest rates," he said.

Dickinson's bill targeted loans offered at annual interest rates ranging from 72 percent to 180 percent to car owners who have very low credit scores, need quick cash, and have few other options for borrowing money.

Lenders take title to the borrower's car as collateral and typically loan less money than the vehicle is worth. Thus, lenders are left with little financial risk because they benefit whether the borrower pays or the car is repossessed, Dickinson said.

State law does not restrict the interest rates charged on car-title loans of more than $2,.500.

AB 336 would have imposed additional disclosure requirements on lenders, including informing borrowers of total costs over the life of the loan. The bill also would have banned structuring car-title loans as a combination sale and leaseback.

Under Dickinson's measure, lenders would have been barred from making such loans if payments would exceed 50 percent of a borrower's gross monthly income.

Opponents of AB 336 contended that cracking down on car-title loans would leave borrowers with few other options and that high interest rates were necessary, in part, to cover costs of repossessing, handling and selling vehicles when defaults occur.

A bill to require legislative approval before any new peripheral canal could be built to divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of the state died this week in the California Assembly.

Democratic Assemblywoman Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills proposed the measure, Assembly Bill 550, which was rejected Tuesday by the Assembly's Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee by a vote of five yes, seven no.

The measure would have barred construction of such a canal if it would impact the Delta or its residents in ways ranging from imposing a financial burden to negatively affecting water rights, quality or supply.

Huber said Friday she will not try to revive AB 550 this year, but she will continue to push a provision calling for an independent analysis of financial feasibility prior to construction of any canal.

The Legislature, as part of a package of water legislation in 2009, created a Delta stewardship to develop a plan for long-term water supply and Delta protection. Four of its seven voting members are appointed by the governor.

Water exporters, business interests and Southern California officials have long supported construction of a new water canal to help stabilize California water supplies.

Huber contends that the stewardship council is moving toward approving such a project and that lawmakers, not appointees, should make the decision on "one of the largest infrastructure projects in California history."

"Ultimately my view lost," she said.

Tackling California's water problems pits powerful interests against each other, sparking political headaches.

"Ultimately, I think that the Legislature is afraid to be involved in decisions involving water," Huber said.

Two Republicans on the Assembly water committee opposed Huber's bill, along with five Democrats, including four from Southern California.

Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, a Fresno Republican who voted against AB 550, said that the Legislature should not renege on the commitment it made in 2009 to form the stewardship council.

"I don't believe in breaking promises," Halderman said Friday.

"In my view, once we start down that road, we create a body that's guaranteed to be dysfunctional," she said.

One of the perks of serving in the California Legislature is naming highways, bridges, interchanges and other public facilities - often for fellow politicians - and there are hundreds of such signs on the state's highways.

Chris Norby, a Republican assemblyman from Orange County, faced an uphill battle, therefore, in proposing a two-year moratorium on such namings so, he said, tighter guidelines could be developed.

Norby introduced his measure, Assembly Bill 595, last year but it languished in the Assembly Transportation Committee until this week, when it was taken up because of a looming deadline for action.

Norby made his pitch to his fellow committee members, citing costs and confusion from the welter of special signs. (The Caltrans website has a 246-page listing of named highways, bridges and tunnels.) He even gained support from the National Organization for Women, pointing out that just two percent of the official namings are for women, terming it "extreme gender disparity."

But he garnered opposition from the California Association of Highway Patrolmen, whose lobbyist, Aaron Read, said it would preclude honoring CHP officers killed in the line of duty.

Norby offered to exempt bills honoring CHP officers from the moratorium and make it a one-year moratorium, saying that made the measure "pretty watered down." Even so, it attracted just five votes, well shy of the eight required for committee approval.

Updated at 1:01 p.m. with website of named highways, etc.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg announced today that he will push for legislation to create an online open source library to reduce the cost of course materials for college students across the state.

The Sacramento Democrat framed the proposed project as an effort to lower costs for students struggling to cope with higher fees and tuition rates at California's public colleges and universities.

"We know that the costs of higher education are skyrocketing. Fees have gone up significantly in recent years and we must do something about it," Steinberg said at a Tuesday press conference. "But too often overlooked are other costs that make higher education hard to afford."

Steinberg said the average student spends $1,300 a year on textbooks, a figure his staff said is based on projections the University of California, California State University and community college systems provide to students for budgeting purposes. Under his proposal, materials for 50 common lower division courses would be developed and posted online for free student access. Ordering a paper copy would cost $20, compared to the $200-plus price tag carried by some books.

Steinberg plans to seek $25 million to create his proposed Open Education Resources system, with some funding going towards soliciting course material contributions from academics, nonprofits, Silicon Valley developers and the book publishing industry to be shared freely within the system. A new council of faculty leaders from the California's public higher education system would be tasked with selecting the courses for the first round of open source textbook development and reviewing and approving the materials added to the library.

"There would be no mandate for faculty to use these books, but when given a more affordable, a possibly free option that does not sacrifice quality, they will do the right thing for students," he said.

The child sex abuse scandal rocking Penn State University has sparked at least two proposals for new laws in California.

Two Democratic lawmakers have announced plans to introduce legislation to create new rules for coaches and nonprofits in response to reports that years of alleged sexual abuse of young boys by former Penn State football defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was not reported to authorities, even after a graduate coaching assistant told university athletic officials that he saw Sandusky raping a young boy in a Penn State locker room. Sandusky, who founded a nonprofit organization that runs programs for Pennsylvania youth, has been charged with sexually abusing at least eight young boys over a 15-year period. He has said he is innocent.

Foes of a new law requiring California public schools to teach students about the historical contributions of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender individuals have filed two proposed initiatives to challenge the statute.

One proposed initiative would repeal the section of Senate Bill 48 mandating LGBT history, leaving in place new requirements that students learn about the role of disabled individuals and members of different cultural and ethnic groups. A second would give parents the ability to opt their children out of instruction related to "social science and family life" that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Both measures were filed with the state attorney general's office by Richard Rios, who is listed online as the president of the Yorba Ranch branch of the conservative California Republican Assembly. Calls for comment to the phone number listed on the initiative proposal and Rios' home were not immediately returned.

The proposed initiatives mark the second attempt at challenging the law, which was approved by the Legislature and signed by Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year.

Gay and lesbian veterans who were dishonorably discharged from the military in years past because of their sexual orientation would be eligible for state benefits under legislation being crafted by a Sacramento assemblyman.

Democrat Richard Pan vowed Thursday to introduce the legislation when the Legislature reconvenes in January. His announcement came on the eve of the nation's annual Veterans Day.

"Beginning the conversation about how we treat our veterans, who dedicated their lives to our country only to be separated unjustly from the military, is an important step toward equality," Pan said.

Details have not yet been worked out, but Pan said his goal is to ensure provision of state benefits for an estimated 3,000 gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender California veterans who were dishonorably discharged from the military.

A leading consumer group has launched an initiative drive to give state regulators the power to reject health insurance rate increases.

Consumer Watchdog has asked the state attorney general to prepare a title and summary for a proposed initiative for the November 2012 ballot to require that proposed rate changes are submitted to the state insurance commissioner for approval before taking effect.

The group had announced plans to go to the ballot earlier this year, after rate-regulation legislation stalled in the state Legislature.

"The Legislature didn't do this so the public's going to have to do it," said Consumer Watchdog President Jamie Court.

With the clock ticking, opponents of a new law limiting future initiatives to November elections have failed to raise the cash needed to qualify a referendum for the ballot.

About two months remain for opponents of Senate Bill 202 to gather the roughly 505,000 valid voter signatures needed to ask voters to overturn the law. Collecting that many signatures in such a short time frame has proven to be a costly endeavor.

"As of right now, there has not been enough financial support for it to really get off the ground," Chuck Bell, the GOP political attorney who filed the referendum papers, said in an interview Wednesday.

Opponents of a new law that allows illegal immigrants to receive college financial aid were given the green light to begin collecting signatures for a referendum to overturn the measure, Secretary of State Debra Bowen's office announced today.

Led by Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, referendum backers hope to halt implementation of the California Dream Act. Gov. Jerry Brown signed the measure Oct. 8.

Donnelly's group has until Jan. 6 to collect valid signatures from 504,760 registered voters. Donnelly has said he hopes to wage a largely volunteer effort fueled by social media and talk radio.

Assembly Bill 131, written by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, will allow undocumented immigrant college students who already qualify for in-state tuition rates to receive state-funded financial aid, including Cal Grants. Qualified students must have attended California high schools for at least three years and graduated.

The measure is scheduled to take effect in 2013. If Donnelly succeeds in securing the signatures, the measure would be halted until it can be decided by state voters next year.

With just one day left to circulate petitions, organizers of an effort to repeal a new law requiring that California students learn about the historical contributions of gay and lesbian individuals have told supporters that they "would need a miracle to qualify this referendum."

The Pacific Justice Institute and an arm of Capitol Resource Institute have been leading an effort to overturn Senate Bill 48, which requires public school instruction to include the role and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals, people with disabilities and members of different cultural groups. They face a Wednesday deadline for submitting to election officials the roughly 505,000 valid voter signatures needed to place a referendum of the law on the ballot.

Despite days of emails calling for a final push in the signature gathering campaign, referendum organizers told supporters in an early morning email that "it is doubtful we will get the number of signatures we need to qualify" the proposed referendum.

"The only possible scenario for snatching victory from the jaws of defeat is a 24 hour petition marathon," the email reads.

A follow-up email announced that they had received 5,000 additional signatures, declaring that "battle is not over quite yet."

Still, supporters of SB 48, which was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown earlier this year, celebrated the news as a sign the referendum will fail to qualify.

"The FAIR Education Act will simply ensure that California's students learn an honest, accurate, and inclusive account of history, but opponents of equality have grossly distorted the intent and the effect of the FAIR Education act in their quest to secure signatures for this referendum. Today's victory shows that their lies cannot stand up to our truth," Equality California Executive Director Roland Palencia said in a statement.

A GOP state assemblyman today launched an effort to ask voters to repeal the California Dream Act signed into law this weekend by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks, filed referendum papers to overturn Assembly Bill 131, which allows undocumented immigrant college students who already qualify for in-state tuition rates to receive state-funded financial aid, including Cal Grants.

"I think that it is perhaps the biggest mistake that Governor Brown has ever made...other than unionizing public employees," Donnelly, a former Minuteman Corps of California leader, told The Bee over the weekend.

Groups that want California to make Internet poker legal are upping the ante in their efforts to convince lawmakers that online gambling is a good idea: They're launching web sites where users can play poker without betting any money on the game.

Legislation to permit in-state Internet gambling stalled this year, but proponents are expected to come back in January with a new proposal. Gambling operators will likely use their new free poker sites to make the case to lawmakers that Internet poker is popular in California and demonstrate how gambling versions of the sites could work.

"This is pretty much what online poker would look like as a real money game," said Ryan Hightower, a spokesman for the California Online Poker Association, a group of cardrooms and casino-owning tribes that sponsored Senate Bill 40 to legalize Internet poker.

"It will absolutely serve as an example of the popularity of online poker in California."

BELMONT - Hours after dispatching with the last of hundreds of bills sent him by the Legislature this fall, Gov. Jerry Brown was still musing about the "very unusual process" that kept him up reviewing piles of proposed laws.

"I was up late last night signing and vetoing lots of bills," the Democratic governor said under drizzling skies in Belmont. "It's a very unusual process that concentrates a lot of the work of state government in the last couple of weeks."

When asked if there were any inconsistencies in his veto and signing messages, Brown said there were not.

"I look at each bill," he said. "Since the same mind is looking at each bill, there's at least a modest consistency."

Brown was in Belmont to celebrate solar energy company SunEdison's decision to move its corporate headquarters here from Maryland, but he faced continuing questions about Solyndra LLC's spectacular failure.

Brown said the nature of capitalism is for some businesses to fail and others to succeed.

"There's a certain Darwinian struggle," he said. "Some make it and some don't."

Gov. Jerry Brown may not be to the California Chamber of Commerce what Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was, but he did pretty well by the business group in his dispatching of proposed laws this fall.

Of five bills the chamber identified as "job killers" on his desk, Brown, a Democrat, vetoed four, the chamber said.

"We commend Governor Brown for vetoing nearly all CalChamber identified job killers," chamber President Allan Zaremberg said in a prepared statement. "Governor Brown's commitment to 'do no more harm' to California's economy will send a strong message that eliminating economic uncertainty is the first element of any program to make California more competitive."

Brown vetoed chamber-opposed bills involving bereavement leave, workers' compensation and judicial authority to reduce attorney fees in fair employment and housing cases, among others.

He signed one. Just after midnight, Brown announced signing Assembly Bill 22, by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, restricting the use of credit reports by employers making hiring decisions.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who was so annoyed by the volume of bills the Legislature produced this fall that he suggested cuing the "veto blues," ended up vetoing about 17 percent of the end-of-session bills, no record, but far more than the Democratic governor has vetoed before.

From mid-September to late Sunday night, Brown signed 466 bills and vetoed 97, his office said.

Brown's veto rate for the year overall was slightly lower, at about 14 percent. In the first year of his third term, Brown signed 760 bills, vetoed 128 and allowed one bill to become law without his signature, his office said.

Brown vetoed fewer than 5 percent of regular session bills when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed more than a quarter of regular session bills.

Siding with banks and employers, Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill unions sought to restrict employers from using debit cards to pay employees, his office announced this morning.

Paying workers with debit cards carrying wages that can be withdrawn at stores, banks and ATMs, is becoming more popular as employers try to cut costs. The payroll cards are cheaper to process than paper checks and - unlike direct deposit - can be issued to low-wage workers who don't have bank accounts.

But unions got behind Senate Bill 931 -- which would have limited the fees issuers can charge when workers access their wages. Banks said the fees would have resulted in a de-facto ban on the cards.

Brown said the bill, by Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, went too far.

"I strongly believe that reasonable protections are needed for those who use pay cards," Brown said in his veto message. "I will work with the bill's proponents and the
financial institutions to forge a better solution that I can sign into law."

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed bills to restrict tax breaks and overhaul California's budgeting system, his office announced this morning.

Brown vetoed Senate Bill 508, by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, which would have required corporate and individual tax breaks enacted after Jan. 1 to automatically end in 10 years.

"While I agree that we should consider sunset clauses for personal income and corporate tax credits, one size does not fit all," Brown said in a veto message. "The legislature should examine all its bills to determine how long they should exist or, indeed, whether they should exist at all."

The bill had been assailed by business groups as a limitation on job-creating tax incentives. Legislative Democrats sought the automatic sunset, in part, because it would have changed what they consider a key procedural dynamic: tax cuts can be approved by the Legislature with a majority vote, but require a two-thirds vote to end because that action is considered a tax increase.

Brown vetoed another Wolk bill, Senate Bill 14, that would have required the state to begin "performance-based budgeting," forcing each state department to provide lawmakers its goals, targeted outcomes and performance data.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a union-backed bill prohibiting grocery stores from selling beer, wine or liquor using electronic self-checkout lanes, Brown announced this morning.

Assembly Bill 183, by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, was supported by labor and police chiefs, who said it could deter underage drinking.

Business groups and grocers said existing oversight is sufficient and blamed labor interests for trying to block Fresh & Easy, a nonunion chain that uses only staff-supervised self-checkout lanes.

Fresh & Easy said in a prepared statement Monday that "we are disappointed that politics has prevailed over solid judgment."

Brown also vetoed legislation that would have required local governments to study the economic impact of proposed Wal-Mart and other superstores before approving them.

Senate Bill 469 by Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, would have required the studies to be paid for by project applicants.

"While I recognize that the merits of large-scale projects need to be carefully considered, plenty of laws are already on the books that enable and in some cases require cities and counties to carefully assess whether these projects are in a community's best interests," the Democratic governor said in a veto message. "This bill would add yet another layer of review to an already cumbersome process."

Vargas' bill had been assailed as a union-inspired effort to block development of non-union retail stores.

The California Retailers Association praised Brown's veto. "This veto clearly preserves local authority to decide what businesses they want in their communities and empowers them to bring in more jobs, economic activity and revenue.," Bill Dombrowski, the group's president, said in a statement.

Vargas said he was undeterred by Brown's veto. "Research continues to show that supercenters cause business districts to suffer, significantly decrease the net number of jobs and often rely on taxpayer-funded government services, like Medicaid, to provide healthcare for their employees," he said in a statement. "I will continue to work to make sure that our communities know the truth about these supercenters and how they claim to be creating jobs when actually they are destroying them."

Editor's Note: This post was updated to include Vargas' comments. Updated 11:39 a.m., Oct. 10

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation criminalizing openly carrying an unloaded handgun in public and requiring the state to keep records of rifle sales, as it currently does for handguns, Brown announced this morning.

The open-carry ban, Assembly Bill 144, by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada-Flintridge, pitted law enforcement groups against gun rights advocates. The legislation targeted the "open carry" movement, in which people displayed firearms in public places to protest gun-control laws.

The measure exempts peace officers, military gatherings, gun shows and hunting.
Assembly Bill 809, by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, requires the state to keep records of rifle sales starting in January 2014.

"Since the state already retains handgun purchaser information, I see no reason why the state should not also retain information pertaining to the sales of long guns," Brown, a Democrat, said in a signing statement.

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence praised Brown's signings, notably the open carry bill. "By prohibiting the open carry of guns, we can now take our families to the park or out to eat without the worry of getting shot by some untrained, unscreened, self-appointed vigilante," said Dallas Stout, president of the group's California chapter.

Editor's Note: This post has been updated with comments from the Brady campaign. Updated 9:34 a.m., Oct. 10, 2011.

Four months after vetoing labor-backed legislation that would have made it easier to unionize farmworkers - touching off a highly personal, late-night protest at the Capitol - Gov. Jerry Brown announced this evening that he has signed the compromise measure he helped negotiate.

Senate Bill 126, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, gives farmworkers greater protections in organizing disputes with growers, including allowing the state's Agricultural Labor Relations Board to certify a union when it determines grower misconduct affected an election's outcome.

Brown signed the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983, but his June veto tested his relationship with his longtime allies in the United Farm Workers union. The union and legislative Democrats cheered the compromise law.

"This change to existing law is a significant advancement," Steinberg said in a prepared statement. "The idea here is simple - if the Agricultural Labor Relations Board finds employer misconduct affected the results of the election and further determines that it cannot conduct a fair second election, the board may certify the union without further delay. I applaud the Governor for his action."

Gov. Jerry Brown today vetoed legislation that would have permitted the cultivation of industrial hemp in California, though the Democratic governor didn't seem happy about it.

Senate Bill 676, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, would have created an eight-year, pilot program for the cultivation of industrial hemp in Imperial, Kern, Kings and San Joaquin counties.

In a veto message, Brown said federal law considers industrial hemp to be a regulated, controlled substance, and that failure to obtain a federal permit would subject California farmers to federal prosecution.

"Although I am not signing this measure, I do support a change in federal law," Brown said in a veto message. "Products made from hemp - clothes, food, and bath products - are legally sold in California every day. It is absurd that hemp is being imported into the state, but our farmers cannot grow it."

Brown also vetoed Assembly Bill 568, by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, which would have prohibited prison guards from shackling pregnant inmates unless necessary.

"At first blush, I was inclined to sign this bill because it certainly seems inappropriate to shackle a pregnant inmate unless absolutely necessary," Brown said in a veto message. "However, the language of this measure goes too far, prohibiting not only shackling, but also the use of handcuffs or restraints of any kind except under ill-defined circumstances."

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation restricting local police from impounding cars at sobriety checkpoints solely because a driver is unlicensed, but he vetoed other checkpoint restrictions.

Supporters of the bill Brown signed, Assembly Bill 353, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, argued small cities used sobriety checkpoints to make money by impounding cars from unlicensed, low-income drivers who could not afford to retrieve them.

Brown, a Democrat, announced this afternoon that he vetoed legislation that would have defined how sobriety checkpoints are conducted in line with a California Supreme Court decision. In a veto message, Brown said the measure would have imposed greater restrictions than currently required by the court, for example stating a preference that checkpoints operate after dusk.

"This measure would also require law enforcement to announce the specific location of a checkpoint, 48 hours in advance, allowing drunk drivers to avoid detection altogether," Brown wrote.

Brown said the bill, Assembly Bill 1389, by Assemblyman Mike Allen, D-Santa Rosa, is "far too restrictive on local law enforcement."

Children of the Golden State: Prepare to fake bake no more.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation prohibiting minors from using tanning beds, he announced this afternoon, making California the first state in the nation to adopt such a ban.

Senate Bill 746, by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, was supported by doctors, nurses and the American Cancer Society. The tanning industry argued current law - requiring parental consent for children between age 14 and 18 - was sufficient.

"I praise Gov. Brown for his courage in taking this much-needed step to protect some of California's most vulnerable residents - our kids - from what the 'House of Medicine' has conclusively shown is lethally dangerous: ultraviolet-emitting radiation from tanning beds," Lieu said in a prepared statement. "If everyone knew the true dangers of tanning beds, they'd be shocked.

Brown, a Democrat, vetoed legislation that would have required health facilities where mammography examinations are performed to provide notice to patients who have dense breast tissue.

He said in vetoing Senate Bill 791, by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, that he talked to doctors and others about the proposed notification and "struggled over the words," unsure if such a notification would increase knowledge or cause unnecessary anxiety.

"If the state must mandate a notice about breast density - and I am not certain it should - such a notice must be more carefully crafted, with words that educate more than they prescribe," Brown said in his veto message.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation allowing children who are 12 and older to seek medical care to prevent sexually transmitted infections without parental consent, including vaccinations against human papillomavirus, or HPV, which can cause cervical cancer.

Assembly Bill 499, by Assemblywoman Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, was sponsored by public health officials and opposed by parental rights advocates, vaccination opponents and religious and conservative groups.

Randy Thomasson, president of the conservative SaveCalifornia.com, said in a prepared statement that Brown "obviously doesn't care about informed consent for patients or parental consent for dads and moms."

Brown, a Democrat, also announced today signing Senate Bill 946, by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, requiring health insurance policies to cover certain autism early intervention behavioral therapy.

But in a signing statement, Brown said the mandate will automatically expire if the federal government does not consider the services "essential" in its health care overhaul.

"While this bill provides relief for families of autistic children and some clarity for health plans, insurers and providers, there are remaining questions about effectiveness, duration, and the cost of the covered treatments that must be sorted out," Brown wrote in a signing statement. "Under national health care reform, the federal government will establish 'essential health benefits.' If the coverage established by this bill is not included as an essential benefit, the mandate of Senate Bill 946 will automatically expire."

Advocates said the bill would ensure treatment for autistic children, while insurers said the mandate would increase costs.

"This is a critical victory for thousands of California children and families," Steinberg said in a prepared statement. "For many of them, having this therapy covered by their insurance is the difference between despair and hope."

Editor's note: This post updated at 3:55 p.m. to include Thomasson's remarks.

Gov. Jerry Brown suggested in a veto message this afternoon that California might improve its schools by establishing a system of local panels to observe teachers, interview students and examine their work, among other things.

Brown, a critic of the state's existing testing program, vetoed Senate Bill 547 by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, that sought to change how the state measures high school performance, including factors such as graduation and promotion rates and career readiness.

"There are other ways to improve our schools - to indeed focus on quality," Brown wrote. "What about a system that relies on locally convened panels to visit schools, observe teachers, interview students, and examine student work? Such a system wouldn't produce an API number, but it could improve the quality of our schools."

The Democratic governor called the legislation, a priority of Steinberg's, "yet another siren song of school reform."

The bill, he said, "certainly would add more things to measure, but it is doubtful that it would actually improve our schools. Adding more speedometers to a broken car won't turn it into a high-performance machine."

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed legislation today that would have allowed the University of California and California State University systems to consider race, ethnicity and gender in student admissions.

The interpretation of Proposition 209, which prohibits the use of race- or gender-based preferences in hiring, contracting and admissions, is a matter for the courts - not the Legislature - to decide, he said. The matter is the subject of pending litigation.

"I wholeheartedly agree with the goal of this legislation," the Democratic governor said in a veto message. "Proposition 209 should be interpreted to allow UC and CSU to consider race and other relevant factors in their admissions policies to the extent permitted under the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution. In fact, I have submitted briefs in my capacities as both governor and attorney general strongly urging the courts to adopt such an interpretation."

However, he wrote, "Our constitutional system of separation of powers requires that the courts - not the Legislature - determine the limits of Proposition 209."

Senate Bill 185, by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-Los Angeles, became controversial when a Republican group at the University of California, Berkeley, held an "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" in opposition to the bill, charging different prices based on race, gender and ethnicity.

Gov. Jerry Brown today signed legislation allowing undocumented immigrant college students to receive public financial aid, marking California's relatively liberal ground in a bitter row over immigration nationwide.

The California Dream Act allows access to public financial aid, including Cal Grants, for undocumented students who came to the country before turning 16 and attended California high schools. Those students already are eligible for in-state tuition, and Brown in July signed a companion measure affording them access to private financial aid.

"Going to college is a dream that promises intellectual excitement and creative thinking. The Dream Act benefits us all by giving top students a chance to improve their lives and the lives of all of us," Brown said in a prepared statement.

Brown, a Democrat, supported the act during last year's gubernatorial campaign, and his signature was all but certain. He had negotiated amendments to the bill, Assembly Bill 131, to reduce costs, excluding graduates of technical and adult schools and delaying implementation until January 2013.

The bill, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, was passed by lawmakers on partisan lines. Democrats said it would result in a more educated population. Republicans said awarding scholarships to undocumented students would encourage illegal immigration, and they objected to the cost.

The program's expansion is expected to cost the state $23 million to $40 million annually.

Brown's signature comes amidst tension nationwide about immigration, most recently over strict new laws in Georgia and Alabama. Meanwhile, the Obama administration announced it would suspend deportation proceedings against undocumented immigrants who aren't a danger to public safety, including people who immigrated as young children and are in school.

Republican Assemblyman Tim Donnelly said the legislation would encourage illegal immigration and force students who are in the country legally to compete with undocumented immigrants for public resources.

"I think that it is perhaps the biggest mistake that Gov. Brown has ever made," he said, "other than unionizing public employees."

Donnelly, of Twin Peaks, is setting up a website, "STOP the Nightmare Act," and pledged to launch a referendum campaign.

In a prepared statement, Cedillo said the bill "will send a message across the country that California is prepared to lead the country with a positive and productive vision for how we approach challenging issues related to immigration."

Editor's note: Post updated at 1:25 p.m. to include remarks by Donnelly and Cedillo.

Just hours after Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation restricting initiatives and referendums next year to the November ballot, Republican attorney Chuck Bell submitted a request for title and summary for a referendum of the bill.

Bell said a coalition of groups preparing initiatives for June - including one initiative that would, in part, limit unions' ability to raise campaign funds from members - are considering a referendum. He said his filing is to "keep the door open for a possible referendum qualification effort."

Senate Bill 202 benefits Democrats and labor unions by restricting initiatives to November, when the party's voter turnout is expected to be higher than in June. The union dues measure was expected to qualify for the June ballot, when Republican turnout is expected to be proportionately higher than in November.

Californians will be able to register to vote online for 2012 elections under legislation signed into law today by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 397, by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, allows to state to begin registering voters online ahead of the completion of a new statewide voter registration database.

In the meantime, election officials and the Department of Motor Vehicles will work together to match registration information submitted online with DMV records containing an electronic copy of a voter's signature.

Supporters had argued that the bill would make it easier for Californians to register to vote, increasing voter participation.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced today that he has signed legislation banning the possession and sale of shark fins in California.

Assembly Bill 376, by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, is meant to combat "shark finning," an illegal fishing practice used to procure the main ingredient in shark fin soup.

Brown said in a statement that he signed the bill "in the interest of future generations," noting estimates that shark populations have declined by more than 90 percent.

"The practice of cutting the fins off of living sharks and dumping them back in the ocean is not only cruel, but it harms the health of our oceans," Brown said.

Brown also signed Assembly Bill 853, a companion measure to allow stores to continue selling current stock and exempt sharks legally caught by California fishermen, that was crafted as part of a deal to win the bill's passage.

The shark-fin ban, which was the subject of intense lobbying by environmental and animal-rights groups, attracted high-profile support. Brown mentioned recently that he had received a call from business mogul Richard Branson urging him to sign the bill.

Critics argued that the bill was discriminatory because it targeted a traditional Chinese delicacy and that the ban would would hurt Asian stores and restaurants owners.

In response to last year's pipeline explosion in San Bruno, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning requiring stricter oversight of natural gas transmission lines in California.

Among other things, the legislation requires the Public Utilities Commission to establish emergency response standards for pipeline operators, authorizes the PUC to require automatic shut-off or remote controlled valves on certain lines and requires utilities to develop service and safety plans.

"We learned very important lessons from the tragic explosion in San Bruno. Pipeline operators and the Public Utilities Commission must take every possible step to keep it from happening again," Brown said in a prepared statement. "These bills protect California's communities by setting new standards for emergency preparedness, placing automatic shut-off valves in vulnerable areas and ensuring that gas companies pressure test transmission lines."

The five bills signed by the Democratic governor are Assembly Bill 56 and Senate Bills 44, 216, 705 and 879.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation requiring health insurance plans in California to cover childbirth and other maternity services, eliminating an exception that allowed some smaller plans to exclude those services.

Federal law requires employers who offer health insurance and who have 15 or more employees to cover maternity services, and California since 1975 has required HMOs and large group health insurance plans to do so.

Two bills Brown announced signing this afternoon, Senate Bill 222 and Assembly Bill 210, require individual and small group plans to provide coverage for maternity services starting in July 2012.

"Healthy mothers mean healthy babies," Brown said in a prepared statement. "I want the next generation of Californians to get the best possible start in life."

The legislation was supported by Kaiser Permanente and Blue Shield of California. It was opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce, which said the requirement would deter insurers from offering discounted plans.

Brown's Republican predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, vetoed similar legislation.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning eliminating the state's requirement that food stamp applicants be fingerprinted, a bid to increase participation in the federally-funded CalFresh program.

Supporters said fingerprinting deterred participation, with just half of eligible Californians receiving assistance. California is one of three states and one city that require applicants to be fingerprinted, according to a legislative analysis.

Assembly Bill 6, by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Los Angeles, was among a batch of food-related bills Brown signed today. He also signed Assembly Bill 152, also by Fuentes, that provides a tax credit to California growers for the cost of fresh fruits or vegetables they donate to food banks.

The Senate Appropriations Committee estimated the tax credit will initially cost the state General Fund $200,000 a year.

"These bills will help bring food to the nearly 7 million Californians who go hungry each and every day," Fuentes said in a prepared statement. "The hunger relief package will reduce the burden on the neediest Californians to ensure that they can get the food they need."

Editor's note: This post updated at 11:36 a.m. to include remarks by Fuentes.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning toughening restrictions on illicit cellphones in prisons, and he ordered prison officials to step up efforts to confiscate smuggled phones.

Senate Bill 26, by Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, makes it a misdemeanor to deliver a cellphone to a prison inmate, among other things. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed similar legislation last year, saying it was too soft on inmates who carry phones and on guards and others who smuggle them.

Brown also issued an executive order instructing the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to increase physical searches of people who enter prisons and to develop a system to interrupt unauthorized cellphone calls.

Brown said in his order that prison staff discovered nearly 10,700 contraband cellular devices in 2010, and 7,300 in the first half of this year.

"Prisons exist to remove individuals from our communities who would otherwise do harm to their fellow citizens," Brown said in a prepared statement. "When criminals in prison get possession of a cell phone, it subverts the very purpose of incarceration. They use these phones to organize gang activity, intimidate witnesses and commit crimes. Today's action will help to break up an expanding criminal network and protect law-abiding Californians."

Nine months after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger controversially shortened the prison sentence of a political ally's son, Gov. Jerry Brown this afternoon announced that he has signed legislation requiring victim notification in such cases.

Assembly Bill 648, by Assemblyman Marty Block, D-San Diego, requires the governor to give written notice to local prosecutors in most cases at least 10 days before acting on an application to commute a prisoner's sentence. District attorneys must then try notifying victims in the case.

In a last-minute commutation, Schwarzenegger in January reduced the prison sentence of Esteban Núñez from 16 years to seven in a 2008 case in which Núñez, the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon.

The bill was one of 16 the Democratic governor announced signing this afternoon.

He vetoed three others, including legislation seeking to modify the state's overhaul of redevelopment agencies, the subject of pending litigation.

"Until the court issues its ruling in this case," Brown wrote, "it would be premature to consider the modifications proposed in this bill."

Rex Babin is the political cartoonist for The Bee. Click here to see a collection of his work.

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed a bill prohibiting cities and counties from banning male circumcision, his office announced today.

Assembly Bill 768 by Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Los Angeles, was inspired by a San Francisco ballot measure designed to prohibit child circumcision there. A judge in July ordered the circumcision ban off the November ballot, but Gatto's bill proceeded through the Legislature, where it passed with unanimous votes.

Gatto argued that such bans were an affront to the exercise of "personal, medical and religious freedom."

San Francisco's first-of-its-kind initiative drew national attention for targeting circumcision, removal of the male foreskin, a practice that has biblical roots and that many believe was commanded by God in a covenant with Abraham. Opponents of circumcision liken it to "genital mutilation" - the forced removal of a healthy body part from an unconsenting child.

U.S. circumcision rates have been declining for several years. Today, about half of all boys born in hospitals are circumcised, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Let the defrosting begin.

A dead mountain lion has been sitting in a freezer for some three years as officials at a Kern County museum have tried to get permission to display it.

Trouble was, voters approved a ballot measure back in 1990 to protect the lions, which required that dead critters be given to the Department of Fish and Game.

Officials at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest wanted to use the lion in an exhibit and stored the carcass in a freezer while petitioning for the department's OK.

Their quest is finally over. Gov. Jerry Brown has signed Senate Bill 769, by Republican Sen. Jean Fuller of Bakersfield, to let museums and other nonprofits display dead mountain lions.

It's a uniquely Berkeley scene.

College Republicans are selling cupcakes priced according to the buyer's race to highlight opposition to a bill they believe would overturn the state's ban on affirmative action in college admissions. Meanwhile, hundreds of demonstrators dressed in black are gathering to protest the Republican protest.

That's how a live blog by student reporters at the Daily Cal is describing today's actions at UC Berkeley -- a massive wave of lobbying prompted by dueling views of Senate Bill 185. The bill by Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, would allow California's public universities to use race as a factor in the admissions process, though it would not allow preferences for any racial groups.

Students who support the bill are working the phones on the Berkeley campus, urging people to call Gov. Jerry Brown and ask him to sign it. The Daily Cal reports that Ward Connerly is on campus to help the Berkeley College Republicans oppose the bill with their bake sale, which had advertised that treats would cost $2 for whites, $1.50 for Asians, $1 for Latinos, 75 cents for African Americans and 25 cents for Native Americans.

Read the student newspaper's up-to-the-minute coverage here.

PHOTO CREDIT: A student who identified herself as "Hannah" sells baked goods during the "Increase Diversity Bake Sale" led by the Berkeley College Republicans Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2011, at the University of California campus in Berkeley. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)

Gov. Jerry Brown has again used the power of the governor's pen to take a shot at a Senate Republican over the state budget.

The latest missive came in a signing message attached to Senate Bill 707, legislation by Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Ceres, to enact a 1 percent fee on the sale of olive trees.

"The author vouches for this fee by stressing the need to ensure that olives are 'healthy and viable for California farmers.' I agree. Perhaps the author and his colleagues might apply the same solicitude - and revenue - to ensure the health and viability of our schools?" Brown wrote.

"Just a thought," he concluded.

Brown had sought the support of Cannella and a handful of other Senate Republicans to pass his budget proposal to extend and place temporary taxes on the ballot. Months of budget negotiations failed to produce the two GOP votes needed to approve the plan.

Brown conveyed a similar sentiment in a recent veto message rejecting a bill authored by GOP Sen. Tom Harman, another member of the so-called "GOP 5."

The olive tree fee was one of dozens of measures included in the latest batch of bill signings and vetoes released by the governor, who has until Oct. 9 to act on the hundreds of measures sent to his desk in the final stretch of the legislative session.

Brown announced vetoing four measures, including two Democrat-backed bills to create commissions to study issues he said already get ample attention from legislative committees and other state agencies.

"Rather than creating a new entity, let's use the resources we have," he wrote in the veto messages for Assembly Bill 650 and Assembly Bill 750.

See all the bills Brown acted on today at this link.

Days after a Field Poll found a majority of Californians support the concept behind legislation scheduling all ballot measures during the November election, opponents of the bill are pushing back with their own poll results showing voters overwhelmingly oppose Senate Bill 202.

The poll, conducted for Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the Small Business Action Committee, found that 59.9 percent of voters surveyed want Gov. Jerry Brown to veto the bill, compared to 20 percent who want him to sign it into law.

HJTA President Jon Coupal touted the results as a sign that Brown should veto the bill, noting that "several groups have discussed the possibility of a referendum" to challenge the change if it is signed into law.

So did voters have a change of heart on the contentious proposal that passed in the final hours of this year's legislative session? Not necessarily. The questions for the two polls differ dramatically, so it's not surprising to see dramatically different results.

The Field Poll surveyed voters on the general concept of considering all initiatives in November, while the HJTA-SBAC poll focused on the last-minute nature of the bill and a provision that would delay consideration of a "rainy day fund" measure put on the ballot as part of last year's budget agreement. The opponents' question does not mention that the bill would limit other future measures to November.

The HJTA-SBAC poll released Friday surveyed roughly 600 voters on Sept. 22, compared to a sample of just under 500 voters polled by Field between Sept. 1 and Sept. 12.

Read both questions and results below, then let us know whether you think Brown should sign or veto the bill in our own poll on the issue.

Field Poll:

Do you favor or oppose changing election laws so that statewide initiatives can only be placed before voters in a November general election instead of a primary election?

Favor: 56 %
Oppose: 32 %
No Opinion: 12 %

HJTA/ SBAC Poll:

In 2009, the Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature reached a bipartisan agreement to balance the state budget in which the Republicans agreed to support significant increases to the state's income, sale and car taxes and the Democrats agreed to put before voters in June of 2012 an initiative limiting state spending increases and increasing the state's rainy day fund. On the last day of the current legislative session however, the state legislature passed a union-backed bill that would delay public vote on the initiative until November of 2014. Do you believe Governor Jerry Brown should sign this bill delaying the initiative or veto the bill and allow voters to consider the initiative next June? (And is that strong or somewhat (sign/veto)?)

Total supporting signing the bill: 20.4%
Total opposing signing the bill: 59.9%
Don't know/refused 19.7%

FOWLER -- Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation this morning authorizing the state to raise $200 million more from utility rate-payers to subsidize the installation of photovoltaic solar panels on homes and small businesses, and also extending the Public Utility Commission's authority to collect $83 million annually from ratepayers for similar projects.

The bills are supported by the green-energy industry but opposed by the California Chamber of Commerce, which said the increased cost would burden businesses.

Brown, a Democrat, signed the measures on an elementary school grounds in Fowler, south of Fresno, with a crowd of students watching from the bleachers and a high school jazz band playing.

Senate Bill 585, by Sen. Christine Kehoe, D-San Diego, authorizes the state to increase the total cost limit of the California Solar Initiative to $3.6 billion from $3.4 billion. The program, which took effect in 2007, called for the installation of 3,000 new megawatts of solar electricity by 2016

Assembly Bill 1150, by Assemblyman V. Manuel Pérez, D-Coachella, extends until July 1, 2016 the Public Utility Commission's authority to collect $83 million annually for an incentive program for small renewable energy systems.

Brown also signed Senate Bill 16, by Democratic Sen. Michael Rubio of East Bakersfield, which requires the Department of Fish and Game to expedite permits for renewable energy projects.

Fowler Unified School District is planning to put solar panels on school sites, including the elementary school where Brown was speaking.

Even though he endorsed the idea, Gov. Jerry Brown today vetoed one of the more innocuous bills of the legislative session, a measure to require the Department of Parks and Recreation to post information on its website before closing a state park.

That didn't need a law, Brown wrote in his veto message. He then criticized Senate Bill 386's author, Sen. Tom Harman, R-Huntington Beach.

"What the parks do need is sufficient funding to stay open -- something I feel compelled to note the author and his colleagues refused to let the people vote on," the Democratic governor wrote.

Brown also vetoed two other bills -- Senate Bill 847, which would have restricted the location of medicinal marijuana dispensaries, and Senate Bill 715, which had to do with annuity transactions. In his veto messages, he wrote that decisions about dispensaries "are best made in cities and counties" and called the other bill "virtually identical" to one he had already signed.

"Another won't be needed," he wrote.

Brown signed several budget-related bills and one bill allowing California bartenders to pour drinks that include "infused" alcohol.

The budget-related bills -- including Senate Bill X1 4 and Assembly Bills X1 16, X1 17, X1 30 and X1 32 -- will, among other things, appropriate special funds to the Healthy Families Program; clarify elements of the shift in public safety responsibilities from the state to the counties; and delay implementation of the $10 student fee increase per unit at community colleges from winter to summer 2012 if revenue falls short and so-called "trigger cuts" are required.

Senate Bill 32, by Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, permits bartenders to pour "infused" alcohol, alcohol steeped with fruit, vegetables or herbs.

Cocktail lovers had lobbied the governor to sign the measure, which changes a post-Prohibition law.

Click here to see the full list of bills Brown signed or vetoed today.

Saying his actions will help maintain the state's balanced budget, Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill to give lawmakers more leverage in making emergency budget cuts and signed two bills extending revenue-producing charges on the health-care industry.

"The two bills I signed today provide critical revenues that will keep our budget balanced, and I think the Legislature -- both Republicans and Democrats -- for working together to pass them," Brown said in a written statement.

"I am vetoing a third bill that would have undermined investor confidence in California by altering the budget's mechanism for automatic trigger cuts," the governor added.

The two bills signed by Brown were Senate Bill 335, to extend the state's existing Quality Assurance Fee on private acute care hospitals for 30 months; and Assembly Bill X1 21, to extend a tax on Medi-Cal managed health care plans for one year.

Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that he will veto many of the hundreds of bills passed by the Legislature last week, calling many of them unnecessary.

"I'm going to veto a lot of bills over the next 30 days," Brown told reporters in Sacramento. "So, I have to say to some, 'Fasten your seat belt, because it's going to be a rough ride. You've given me 600 bills, and there's not 600 problems that we need those solutions for."

Brown said, "I think there will be plenty of veto blues."

The Democratic governor is likely to use the veto to demonstrate a record of restraint.

"Not every human problem needs a law," he said. "That's kind of my first principle that I'll be applying."

Brown did not say what bills he plans to veto.

If he does use the veto pen aggressively, it will be a departure: Brown vetoed fewer than 5 percent of regular session bills when he was governor before, from 1975 to 1983.

The Legislature may be dominated by liberal Democrats, but the California Chamber of Commerce emerged from the 2011 session as a big winner in its annual "job killer" duel with labor unions, trial lawyers and environmental and consumer groups.

Each year, the chamber, backed by other business and employer groups, labels several dozen pending bills as "job killers," saying they impose costs or regulatory burdens that discourage business investment.

This year, 30 bills made the list, although business also opposes a wider array of bills. And when the gavel fell on the 2011 session early Saturday morning, just four of the 30 had survived.

A fifth, granting "card check" organizing rights to the United Farm Workers Union, also made it through the Legislature, but was vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown, who later negotiated a package of farm labor reforms that was enacted.

Democrat Brown must now decide whether to sign the four survivors or follow Republican predecessor Arnold Schwarzenegger's practice of vetoing virtually all bills wearing the "job killer" label that reached him. Brown has close ties to the groups supporting the four bills, but also has been cultivating business support for new taxes to balance the state budget.

Legislation designed to keep cities, counties, special districts and other public agencies from rushing into bankruptcy is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown after passing the Legislature Friday.

Assembly Bill 506 would bar local government agencies from filing for bankruptcy until they undergo mediation or hold a public hearing and declare a fiscal emergency threatening the health, safety or well-being of residents.

Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, a Fremont Democrat, proposed the measure with support from the California Labor Federation and other union groups whose labor contracts could be jeopardized by local government bankruptcies.

Legislation requiring the state to suspend occupational, professional or driver's licenses of the state's top tax debtors cleared its final legislative hurdle Friday and was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Assembly Bill 1424 hopes to generate millions of dollars in additional tax collections each year by publicizing - perhaps embarrassing - those whose tax debt to the state is extraordinarily high.

California law currently requires the state Franchise Tax Board and Board of Equalization to separately release a list of their top 250 tax delinquencies in excess of $100,000. AB 1424 would expand each list to 500 names.

For debtors on the state's lists, occupational, professional or driver's licenses would be suspended after July 2012 -- except for licenses to practice law or sell alcohol, which can be suspended but are not required to be under the bill.

AB 1424 also prohibits any state agency from contracting for goods or services from any of the state's highest tax debtors.

State officials estimate that AB 1424 would generate more than $45 million in additional revenue by July 2013.

The Assembly approved Senate amendments in the bill, 45-27, with most Democrats supporting it.

A last-minute proposal to limit initiatives and referendums to the November general election ballot is in the hands of Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 202, which would shift any future ballot measures that qualify for next June to November 2012, cleared both houses as the Legislature prepared to adjourn for the year, passing the Senate by a vote of 23-15 in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The measure's language was introduced Friday -- the final scheduled day of session -- as an amendment to an existing bill.

Customers could not buy alcohol in automatic self-checkout lines under legislation sent Friday to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Supporters say the measure, Assembly Bill 183, would help protect public safety by ensuring that alcohol is purchased in face-to-face transactions in which a clerk can check identification and prevent sales to minors.

But officials of the grocery industry say the bill's real purpose is to minimize self-checkout stands and force grocery chains to hire more union clerks.

Self-checkout machines are designed to "lock-out" and stop if alcohol is scanned, but Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, a San Francisco Democrat who proposed AB 183, pointed to a study suggesting the safeguards are not always effective.

The Assembly passed the bill, 43-26, with most Democrats supporting it and most Republicans opposed.

Legislation to extend up to $100 million in tax credits to Califormia moviemakers was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown early today.

Assembly Bill 1069 easily cleared its final legislative hurdle. The Assembly approved Senate amendments, 74-1.

The bill by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes, D-Sylmar, initially called for a five-year extension but was trimmed to just one. It continues an incentive program scheduled to expire in 2013-14.

Fuentes contends the tax credits are needed to prevent film crews from leaving California for less expensive venues.

State agencies would have to consider the cost and economic impact of proposed regulations under legislation sent today to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Senate Bill 617 won final legislative approval by a bipartisan vote of 39-0 in the state Senate. It now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration.

The proposal, amended into an existing bill as the end of session neared, was unveiled last week by legislative Democrats and business leaders. Under the bill, proposed rule changes expected to have an economic impact of more than $50 million on California businesses would be subject to added review.

RELATED POSTS:

Democrats, business groups agree on regulatory review

Gov. Jerry Brown's corporate tax package failed to clear the state Senate in the final hours of the legislative session.

The plan, contained in Senate Bill 116, fell five votes short of passage, by a final tally of 22-15.

The Democratic governor had proposed changing a corporate tax formula to require that multi-state companies calculate their tax liability based on the portion of sales in California. The roughly $1 billion expected to be raised annually through the change, mostly from out-of-state companies, would have been directed to specific tax breaks, including a sales tax exemption on manufacturing equipment.

Democratic Sen. Kevin de Leon argued that requiring businesses to use the single sales factor formula, instead of choosing how to calculate their tax liability, would "get rid of a competitive disadvantage and level the playing field for all California businesses."

A last-minute deal to avoid a referendum on a new online tax collection law has won approval in the state Legislature.

The bill gives retailers like Amazon.com a one-year reprieve on collecting the taxes while they lobby for a federal collection measure.

The legislation, introduced via amendment on the final day of the legislative session, was the result of a deal hammered out between legislative leaders, Amazon and brick-and-mortar stores. Assembly Bill 155 puts the law on hold until at least Sept. 15, 2012 -- the delay could be extended until 2013 if Congress enacts a federal online sales collection law by next summer.

In exchange for the delay, Amazon has agreed to drop its effort to ask voters to overturn the tax law, which was approved as part of this year's state budget package.

While the move creates a $200 million hole in this year's budget, lawmakers said it was better to take a one-year loss than to risk a referendum that could overturn the law for good.

A last-minute push by Sacramento Municipal Utility District to change the state's green energy law has been put on hold until next year.

Assembly Bill 391, by Assemblyman Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, would help utilities comply with a law requiring all utilities to get one-third of the electricity from green sources by 2020 by giving them credit for renewable energy sources already acquired.

Officials for SMUD, which currently gets 24.7 percent of its energy from renewable sources, argued that the current law would not allow them to count a 2006 green energy contract towards the state requirements. The need to purchase other sources to meet the 33-percent mark could result in rate increases of up to 7 percent, they said.

The legislation, introduced yesterday as an amendment to an existing bill, was scheduled to come up for a vote tonight. But with just hours left in the legislative session, senators decided to delay the bill until next year amid opposition from other utilities, including Pacific Gas and Electric.

Lawmakers can take up the measure when they return in January.

The Assembly tonight sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that would make it a crime to openly carry an unloaded handgun in public.

Assembly Bill 144 by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, targets the "open carry" movement, marked by gatherings of people displaying their firearms in public places to protest gun-control laws.

The lower house sent the bill to Brown on 44-30 vote. Opponents said the measure amounts to a major attack on gun ownership rights, while supporters said the prohibition will diffuse potentially explosive situations.

The bill language exempts peace officers, military gatherings, gun shows and hunting.

Public employee unions never liked former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to ask voters to create a "rainy day fund" that would give the state a stronger reserve.

Today, on the last day of the legislative session, they showed up in force to urge lawmakers to unravel Schwarzenegger's plan to put the question to voters next year.

Lobbyists for the state's largest public employee unions -- representing nurses, teachers, state workers and others -- made their case during the first public hearing on a bill that was written late last night and may run through the entire law-making process in less than 24 hours.

Senate Bill 202, by Democrat Loni Hancock of Berkeley, received a 13-minute hearing of the Assembly Elections Committee today, held during the lower house's lunch break and announced with less than two hours' notice.

It would do two things unions want: Delay a public vote on creating a rainy day fund until 2014, and require that all citizen-driven initiatives go on the ballot during a general election (not the soonest election, as is now the practice).

The state Senate sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill today that provides a judicial express lane for a proposed downtown Los Angeles NFL stadium.

The second largest U.S. city has been without an NFL team since 1994, and Senate Bill 292 is designed to give stadium developer Anschutz Entertainment Group a quicker path through California's environmental review process. The Senate passed the bill on a bipartisan 32-7 vote.

Just beforehand, the Senate approved a new bill to create a similar fast track for large projects worth at least $100 million, a proposal spearheaded by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento. Assembly Bill 900 would apply to clean energy sites, as well as sports and cultural buildings - such as a downtown Sacramento arena - that receive a high LEED score from the U.S. Green Building Council.

AEG lobbied the Capitol hard in recent weeks, joining forces with major labor unions and ultimately adding support from a handful of environmental groups. SB 292 became a top priority for Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez in the closing days.

The proposal creates a 175-day window for the Los Angeles-based 2nd District Court of Appeal to review environmental challenges, chopping 100 days or more off the normal process.

Proponents said the bill would leave intact the California Environmental Quality Act but accelerate the timetable for review and skip trial court proceedings. Some environmentalists still oppose SB 292 for altering CEQA on behalf of a company that pushed through the plan in the Legislature's final week. Other opponents were concerned about granting an exemption for one project, though that may have been defused by AB 900.

By Laurel Rosenhall
lrosenhall@sacbee.com

The Assembly is sending Gov. Jerry Brown a controversial bill that would allow the unionization of workers who receive state subsidies to care for children in their homes.

Assembly Bill 101 cleared the lower house today, 48-23, after a lengthy debate. Republicans argued that unionizing home child care workers would hurt poor families because it would drive up their costs for hiring care. Democrats argued that child care workers deserve a seat at the table in negotiating with the state.

"We're not talking about mandated unionization, we're talking about respecting the ability of these folks to form an association -- something that exists in 14 other states," said the bill's author, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez.

Pérez emphasized that the bill concerns only child care workers who receive state funds for looking after kids from low-income families.

Republicans criticized the last-minute nature of the bill, which was made public Tuesday and cleared the Senate on Thursday night.

"This is the last day of the session, and to consider a bill like this to require mandatory unionization for an entire industry is really a stretch," said Assemblyman Chris Norby, R-Fullerton. "This is a far reaching bill that's going to cost families in this state a lot of money that they don't have and we don't have."

Legislative language that would require ballot initiatives to be placed on the November ballot -- favoring Democrats and their labor allies -- is being inserted into a bill today, on the final day of the legislative session.

The language, discussed by Legislative Democrats for weeks, is expected to be heard by the Assembly Elections Committee this afternoon.

The bill would not affect two initiatives that have already qualified for the June ballot, one concerning term limits and the other a cigarette tax, Sen. Loni Hancock, who inserted the language, said in a statement.

The legislation would greatly advantage Democrats in initiative campaigns. In 2012, Democratic turnout is expected to be far higher for November's presidential election than in the June primary.

"Ballot initiatives and referenda have a tremendous impact on the lives of Californians," Hancock, D-Berkeley, said in the statement. "They should be voted on by the largest number of possible voters."

The bill also would move a union-opposed measure the Legislature placed on the June ballot -- bolstering the state's rainy day fund -- to November 2014.

"At this time of economic stress, it makes no fiscal sense to force the state to put more money into a "rainy day" reserve rather than paying down our outstanding budgetary debt or funding programs to create jobs and support higher education," Hancock said in a statement.

Lawmakers essentially threw in the towel Thursday on comprehensive public pension reform - at least for now.

With this year's legislative session scheduled to end at midnight today, the Assembly voted 51-21 to approve a last-minute bill declaring its commitment to pension reform but conceding that more time is needed.

Pension reform, a battle cry at the beginning of the year, steadily lost momentum at the Capitol amid strong opposition from powerful public employee unions bent on preserving much of the status quo.

Senate Bill 827 was gutted and amended Wednesday to promise continued study of the issue by both legislative houses.

The measure reads:

"This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to convene a conference committee to craft responsible, comprehensive legislation to reform state and local pension systems in a manner that reflects both the legitimate needs of public employees and the fiscal circumstances of state and local governments."

SB 827 now goes to the Senate.

Legislation meant to reduce the number of vehicles impounded at sobriety checkpoints was sent to the governor late Thursday night.

The bill would bar counties from conducting combined sobriety and vehicle inspection checkpoints.

Supporters of the measure, Assembly Bill 1389, say that checkpoints are used as a revenue-generating tool for local government and that they unduly harm sober but low-income or undocumented drivers.

The impounding of vehicles at checkpoints when drivers have no valid California license hits undocumented residents particularly hard, because state law bars them from obtaining driver's licenses, supporters of AB 1389 note.

Under the legislation, officers would be entitled to briefly question motorists at sobriety checkpoints, but if no sign of impairment is found, the drivers should be permitted to leave without further delay.

Opponents of the bill, by Assemblyman Michael Allen, D-Santa Rosa, said its passage could endanger public safety by restricting officers at checkpoints.

"I think we're going down a very slippery slope," said Assemblyman Steve Knight, R-Palmdale.

Added Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Twin Peaks: "We need to trust local law enforcement and let them have the tools to protect our communities," he said.

AB 1389, which also would enact public notification and various other standards for sobriety checkpoints, passed by a largely party-line vote, 44-21. Only two Republicans supported the bill. No Democrats voted no, but 10 abstained.

Fees for birth and death certificates would rise under a proposed state law that cleared its final legislative hurdle late Thursday night.

The Assembly approved Senate amendments to the bill, 44-23, sending it to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Assembly Bill 1053, by Menlo Park Democratic Assemblyman Richard Gordon, would raise the base fee for birth and death records by $6 - consisting of $2 increments for three consecutive years, beginning in January 2012.

Most counties currently charge $9 for a certified copy of a fetal death record and $12 for a certified copy of a death record, according to an Assembly analysis of Gordon's proposal.

Most counties current charge applicants -- other than government agencies or adoption agencies -- $16 for a certified copy of a birth certificate.

Counties would retain 85 percent of revenue from the proposed increases, while the state would receive the remainder.

Most Democrats supported AB 1053. Twenty-three Republicans voted no and five abstained or were absent.

California would retain records of rifle sales, as they do now for handguns, under legislation that is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Assemblyman Mike Feuer, a Los Angeles Democrat who crafted the bill, said it would allow peace officers responding to a crime at a particular address to check via database whether any long-gun owners live there.

The Assembly concurred in amendments to Assembly Bill 809 late Thursday night, 44-27. Most Democrats voted yes, most Republicans no.

The measure would take effect in January 2014.

Opponents contend that the bill is another slap at the constitutional right to own firearms, and that the measure would accomplish little because criminals do not abide by state gun laws.

Legislation aimed at cracking down on contraband cell phones in prisons is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.

Under Senate Bill 26, by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, any person caught smuggling a cell phone or wireless device into a prison could face six months in jail and fines of up to $5,000 per device. The bill also increases penalties for inmates caught with the devices and includes provisions to support the implementation of new technology to block unauthorized calls, texts and emails sent and received within prison confines.

"Cell phones in the hands of inmates are a clear and present threat to the safety of correctional officers, victims, and the public," Padilla said in a statement. "We know that inmates with cell phones are ordering murders, organizing escapes, facilitating drug deals, controlling street gangs and terrorizing rape victims. With this bill we will finally crack down on cell phones in California prisons."

The bill, which cleared the Senate on a unanimous 40-0 vote, will take effect immediately if signed into law by Brown.

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Alex Padilla introduces tougher prison cell phone bill

Last-minute legislation that would allow unions to organize child-care providers who work out of their homes was approved by the Senate this evening.

Assembly Bill 101, by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would affect roughly 40,000 home-based child-care providers, as well as some individuals receiving state subsidies to care for relatives

The proposal was introduced as an amendment to an existing bill late last week and had its first and only public hearing Wednesday.

The labor unions backing the bill -- American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees and the Service Employees International Union -- have for years sought the right to organize the child-care providers.

Similar proposals have passed the Legislature in recent years but were vetoed by former Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Supporters say budget cuts to state subsidies that help cover the care of children from low-income families gives new importance to the measure.

"We have made hundreds of millions of dollars of cuts to subsidized child care, and so if you choose to devote your professional life caring for little children, we have already done a lot of damage," Steinberg said. "Where is the hope for people who too often are paid a substandard wage? The hope lies in the ability to organize."

Critics raised concerns about the costs of the measure, which would allow unionized child-care providers to negotiate reimbursement rates for the state child care assistance in future years.

"This is not the right focus," said Sen. Ted Gaines, R-Roseville. "The focus ought to be on how we can create more jobs in the state of California, how can we unencumber the challenges that business have in this state, how can we move forward with a vibrant economy."

The bill was approved on a party-line vote, 23-15. It will now be sent to the Assembly for consideration ahead of Friday, the final day of the legislative session.

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Democrats make last-minute push to unionize California child care workers

The state Senate has approved legislation today that would make it a crime to openly carry an unloaded handgun in public.

Assembly Bill 144, by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada Flintridge, targets the "open carry" movement, marked by gatherings of people displaying their firearms in public places to protest gun-control laws.

The bill language contains a number of exceptions, including exemptions for peace officers, military gatherings, gun shows and hunting.

Democratic Sen. Kevin de León said the measure would stop a practice that alarms the public and creates a "potentially dangerous" situation when law enforcement officials or members of the public are unsure whether an exposed gun is loaded or not.

"This is not the wild west," the Los Angeles Democrat said, adding, "How discomforting can it be if you walk into a restaurant, to Starbucks, to Mickey D's, wherever it is that you may go to, and all of a sudden you see someone walking around with a handgun, and you don't know, can't discern if they're a law enforcement agent."

No Republicans voted for the bill. Sen. Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, criticized the proposal for "further narrowing peoples' Second Amendment rights."

"The Second Amendment is not a loophole," LaMalfa said, adding that open carry is "isn't a problem for anybody except for the gun grabbers that continually chip away and narrow our basic rights."

The bill was approved 21-18, with three Democrats joining Republicans in opposing the measure. The bill now returns to the Assembly for consideration of amendments added in the upper house.

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Gov. Jerry Brown celebrated a corporate tax deal Thursday with the Assembly, but he acknowledged he still has to persuade enough senators to support the package.

The agreement would require companies to base their corporate tax calculations only on the share of sales they have in California, raising about $1 billion annually starting in the 2012 tax year, mostly from out-of-state firms. It would redirect that money to tax breaks for in-state businesses and individual taxpayers.

Brown and lawmakers hailed the plan as a jobs creator, though they offered no projections on the extent of its economic impact. The Democratic governor was joined by GOP Assemblymen Nathan Fletcher and Cameron Smyth, whose votes would put the plan over the top in the Assembly if all 52 Democrats support the package.

"This is a very important coming together of very disparate individuals and philosophical views to do something for California," Brown said. "So instead of just acting as Democrats or Republicans, the people you see here behind me are acting as Californians first."

Under the plan, Californians would receive an increase in the personal income tax standard deduction, jumping from $3,769 to $4,769 for individuals and $7,538 to $9,538 for couples. That change would offer relief mostly to low- and middle-income families who do not itemize their deductions.

Gov. Jerry Brown has scheduled a 12:15 p.m. press conference to announce a corporate tax deal with Republicans, but it remains to be seen whether he has enough votes from the Senate GOP.

The deal would require companies to base their corporate tax calculations only on the share of sales they have in California, raising about $1 billion annually starting in the 2012 tax year, mostly from out-of-state firms.

In exchange, start-up manufacturers will receive a 4 percent sales tax reduction on equipment purchases, while other firms will get a 1 percent reduction, according to sources who would not be named because they did not want to get ahead of the governor's announcement.

The proposal also includes tax relief for individuals with a roughly 27 percent increase in the standard personal income deduction, according to a source. Finally, the plan contains exemptions on the first $50,000 in business income for small businesses.

Brown has been negotiating primarily with Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher, R-San Diego. But sources said it is unclear if he has Senate Republican support.

The package will also wrap in a five-year extension in the state's film tax credit, a proposal whose length had been disputed between the Senate and the Assembly, sources said.

As Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders dicker over a package of business tax incentives aimed at boosting the state's stagnant economy, an oversight office created by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg has concluded that previous corporate tax breaks cost many billions of dollars more than anticipated.

The report, issued Thursday by the Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes, provides ammunition for tax reformers who have called for closing corporate loopholes to raise state revenues and who are leery of opening new ones.

Brown has proposed to change the way multistate and multinational corporations are taxed to raise revenues, then use the proceeds for targeted tax breaks to spur job-creating investment. But with the 2011 legislative session in its final hours, he's encountered resistance from Republicans whose votes would be needed for the tax swap.

Meanwhile, Steinberg's investigators, who are mostly former Capitol reporters, have concluded that "some California tax breaks are acting as blank checks, costing the state billions of dollars more than anticipated when they first were put in place..."

They estimate that over the last decade, 10 major corporate tax breaks have cost the state treasury $6.3 billion more than estimates when they were enacted, including $1.3 billion more in 2010-11.

By Kevin Yamamura and Dan Smith

In a deal with state lawmakers and brick-and-mortar stores, Amazon tentatively agreed Wednesday to stop fighting a requirement that internet retailers collect sales tax on California purchases.

Under the handshake deal, Amazon won a delay until at least September 2012 but will eventually collect state sales taxes.

The arrangement could lay the groundwork for a national online sales tax law. Amazon and major brick-and-mortar retailers like Wal-Mart and Barnes & Noble agreed to lobby Washington over the next 11 months for an internet sales tax law that applies across 50 states.

"Basically, Amazon will get a safe harbor to lobby Congress and the retailers will go hand-in-hand with them to adopt a law that will apply to all of the states," said Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-Whittier, who worked on the compromise.

If no federal deal emerges by July 31, 2012, Amazon would have to begin collecting California sales taxes starting on Sept. 15, 2012. State lawmakers intend to pass a new bill in the next two days that would delay implementation of the online sales tax law until that date, according to Calderon and several sources.

If Congress strikes a deal by July 31, 2012, online retailers would begin collecting taxes starting on Jan. 1, 2013 under whatever federal requirements are approved.

The compromise means that California would not collect $200 million in tax revenues that the state had projected in the current 2011-12 fiscal year. The state has already fallen behind its projections for total revenues in June and July.

"We're well into the fiscal year and there's no money coming in anyway," Calderon said.

Lawmakers have scrapped a last-minute push to make changes to state election laws amid criticism that the changes could undermine the state's new primary system and give elected officials more latitude in declaring residency as they jockey for newly drawn districts.

Assembly Bill 1413, by Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Cupertino, included a provision stating that the residency of a member of the Legislature or Congress "is conclusively presumed to be the address indicated on that person's currently filed affidavit of registration."

The proposal came as a handful of legislators are facing the prospect of relocating to qualify to run under the state's new political maps. The timing also raised eyebrows in light of last year's indictment of Sen. Rod Wright, D-Los Angeles, who faces charges stemming from accusations that he lied about his residence to run for the state Legislature.

Fong, who chairs the Assembly Elections and Redistricting Committee said earlier today that the bill would not impact Wright's case, but was meant to "clarify the residency rules" for members ahead of the 2012 election.

"There's a lot of moving going on right now and so we just wanted to clearly define the residency... to be the domicile," he said.

As the Planning and Conservation League sees it, the last few days of the legislative session are like a football game. Some bills have made it across the goal line, others are still moving and the clock is running out on others.

The PCL uses the football metaphor in a newsletter, the PCL Insider, it dispatched to its members Wednesday, describing the fate of measures it supports and opposes. The newsletter concludes with legislation to fast-track California Environmental Quality Act clearance for developer AEG's proposed professional football stadium in Los Angeles, a bill that has divided environmental groups but cleared the Assembly later Wednesday.

The PCL Insider likens the Los Angeles arena bill to the famous - or infamous - 1982 football game between Stanford and Cal in which the Bears scored the winning touchdown in the final seconds by running a kickoff through the Stanford Band, which had poured onto the field to celebrate an apparent win - an episode forever known as "The Play."

"In a society governed by the rule of law, laws must apply equally to all," the PCL Insider concludes, "even for football stadiums. As of this Insider, however, it looks doubtful that the Legislature will see things this way, as AEG seems poised to get its exemption after last minute concessions pulled some environmental groups to support SB 292 through two committee hearings on Monday. All of which leads...to the conclusion that following CEQA in the last days of session is a little like following The Play...whether you like the outcome depends all which side of the trombone you're on."

Legislation to help pave the way for construction of a new Los Angeles professional football stadium was approved by the Assembly today.

Senate Bill 292, crafted in the final week of the legislative session, passed the Assembly by a wide margin, 59-13.

The measure would not exempt the proposed football stadium project from state environmental laws, but it would create a process for expedited judicial review of environmental challenges.

Under SB 292, the Los Angeles-based 2nd District Court of Appeal would issue a decision on a stadium challenge within 175 days, cutting 100 days or more off the typical process, according to an Assembly analysis.

Gov. Jerry Brown's latest proposal to charge a minimum $175 firefighting fee on rural homeowners is on life support in the Legislature.

The Democratic governor sponsored new legislation last week to replace an earlier fire charge that was supposed to raise $50 million for the state budget. In separate hearings, the Assembly and Senate budget committees tabled Brown's new plan, saying it still requires significant work. Some Democrats joined Republicans in voicing opposition.

The new proposal would impose a higher fee than a $90 charge approved last month by the state fire board and authorized by the Legislature. Brown's new plan would charge $175 on the first structure and $25 each on additional structures. The plan also would charge for land, starting at $1 per acre for the first 100 acres. Homeowners who live in fire districts, which includes 94 percent of the roughly 730,000 structures being charged, would qualify for a $25 discount.

The new fee is contained in Assembly Bill X1 24 and Senate Bill X1 7, which require a majority vote.

A years-long and often sharp political duel over whether the state should control local government bankruptcies was resolved Wednesday with an apparent win by local officials over unions.

The Senate Governance and Finance Committee, by a 7-2 vote, approved a much revised bill, Assembly Bill 506 by Assemblyman Bob Wieckowski, D-Fremont.

As now written, AB 506 would allow a city or other local government to declare bankruptcy without state permission if it goes through a "neutral evaluation process" of its finances or declares a "fiscal emergency" after a public hearing.

Legislation mandating helmets for minors hitting the slopes has been vetoed by Gov. Jerry Brown.

The Democratic governor said in a veto message that his decision to reject Senate Bill 105 was driven by concerns about the "continuing and seemingly inexorable transfer of authority from parents to the state."

"Not every human problem deserves a law," Brown wrote.

The bill, by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would have established a $25 fine for the parents of people under 18 who fail to wear a helmet while skiing or snowboarding. The bill would also apply to youth at skateboard parks.

Yee said in a statement that the bill "would have significantly reduced instances of traumatic brain injury or death" among youth.

"Unfortunately, the Governor ignored the pleas of parents who were asking for this law and for a simple tool to help get their kids to wear helmets on the slopes," Yee said in a statement. "California's ski slopes are perhaps the last area of recreation where we do not have basic safety standards in place for children."

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed a bill aimed at curbing protests at military funerals, citing concerns that the measure would run afoul of a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

While Senate Bill 888, by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, cleared both houses with nearly unanimous, bipartisan support, it was expected to face court challenges if signed into law.

Brown said in a veto message that while he was "very tempted" to sign the bill, he decided against it in light of the high court's ruling. He noted that as state attorney general, he filed a brief in the Supreme Court case "arguing that funeral protesters should be held accountable to their victims.

"But earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled that funeral protests are protected by the First Amendment and can be circumscribed in only extremely limited ways," he wrote in today's veto message. "I cannot in good faith sign this measure because it plainly fails to comport with the Supreme Court's decision."

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As California prepares to ask investors for $5.4 billion next week, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer is none too pleased with a last-minute bill related to automatic budget cuts.

Lockyer had to amend his disclosure statement to explain that lawmakers may require Gov. Jerry Brown's administration to consult on alternatives to as much as $2.5 billion in "trigger" cuts under Assembly Bill X1 20. Brown and lawmakers agreed in June to prescribe cuts to schools and other public programs that would take place if the state falls behind its optimistic revenue projections.

Brown opposes the bill, and the Senate budget committee did not approve the measure Tuesday night in its first examination.

"We like the triggers fine just the way they are," said Lockyer spokesman Tom Dresslar. "We would have preferred that the Legislature not monkey around with them. The triggers were one of the strongest features of the budget. It's unfortunate there's a possibility they will be weakened."

Democratic lawmakers say the blowback is much ado about nothing. Sen. Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, chairman of the Senate budget committee, said before yesterday's hearing that the bill allows for better planning and more disclosure. He noted that lawmakers always have the power to change cuts mid-year, and this bill serves to underscore that point.

Gov. Jerry Brown has vetoed legislation to require that people being paid to gather initiative petition signatures wear identifying badges while at work.

Senate Bill 448, by Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, would have required that paid solicitors working to qualify initiatives, recalls or referendums for the ballot wear badges stating in "no smaller than 30-point font print" that they are a paid signature gatherer.

Supporters had argued that the disclosure would benefit voters, noting that many professional petition circulators are paid on a per-signature basis to make their pitch. The Democratic governor called the proposal ""provocative, but ultimately unpersuasive" in a veto message released today.

"If it is acceptable to force paid signature gatherers to place identifying badges on their chests, will similar requirements soon be placed on paid campaign workers? I choose not to go down this slippery slope where the state decides what citizens must wear when petitioning their government," he wrote.

Brown announced actions on several dozen measures this morning, including one bill that was allowed to become law without his signature. See a full list of the legislative action at this link.

Gov. Jerry Brown has nixed a proposal that would have made penalties more pricey for California motorists caught using cell phones behind the wheel.

Senate Bill 28, by Democratic Sen. Joe Simitian, proposed upping the fine for drivers caught texting or talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device from $20 to $50 for the first offense. The final tab with local and state assessments could be up to $328 for fist-time offenders. A second ticket could have cost has much as $528 under the under the Palo Alto Democrat's proposal, which also called for new penalties for using cell phones while riding a bicycle.

Simitian, who had authored the state's laws targeting talking and texting while driving, called the veto "a lost opportunity to save more lives."

"I'm disappointed, but the Governor gets the last word," Simitian said in a statement. "I understand and accept that. My job now is to figure out where do we go from here."

The Democratic governor announced his decision in a veto message released today.

"I certainly support discouraging cell phone use while driving a car, but not ratcheting up the penalties as prescribed by this bill," he wrote. "For people of ordinary means, current fines and penalty assessments should be sufficient."

PHOTO CREDIT: Effect July 1st, 2008 new law requiring ear devices for cell phones begins in California. Sacramento Bee photograph by Jose Luis Villegas, June 25, 2008.

The Senate voted Tuesday to ban the possession and sale of shark fins, the chief ingredient in shark fin soup prized as a cornerstone of Chinese cuisine.

The legislation, Assembly Bill 376, was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown on a 25-9 vote after a sharp floor debate on it and a companion measure, Assembly Bill 853, that was hastily written to exempt sharks legally caught by California fishermen from the ban and thus soften opposition. AB 853 cleared the Senate on a 28-8 vote and was returned to the Assembly for final action.

The votes for the bills were bipartisan, but they sharply divided Chinese American legislators.

Assemblyman Paul Fong, D-Mountain View, wrote both measures with the backing of conservation groups who said the practice of catching sharks, removing their fins and returning them to the ocean is cruel and threatens sharks' survival. "Finning" is already illegal in California, but the possession of imported fins is not.

Fong's measures drew support from Sen. Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, but was opposed by Sens. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, and Leland Yee, D-San Francisco.

Yee was particularly vehement in his opposition, saying the measure would hurt hundreds of small Asian merchants and restaurant owners and "create a black market for shark fins." He charactierized it as "discrimination against Chinese Americans."

California cities and counties could not ban circumcision of male children under a proposed state law that cleared the Legislature today.

The Assembly overwhelmingly concurred in Senate amendments, 67-2, and the measure now goes to Gov. Jerry Brown, who has taken no position on it.

Assembly Bill 768 would prevent local governments from enacting laws prohibiting the circumcision of male children.

The measure was sparked by a circumcision ban that initially qualified for San Francisco's November ballot but was removed by a Superior Court judge, who ruled that an existing state law pre-empted it.

Legislation was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown today to ban the sale of baby bottles and sippy cups containing a chemical linked in laboratory tests to health problems.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1319, would prohibit the sale, manufacture or distribution of infant bottles or cups containing bisphenol A -- known as BPA -- beginning in July 2013.

The bill, by Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, D-Marina del Rey, cleared its final legislative hurdle today when the Assembly concurred in Senate amendments, 42-19. The vote was largely along party lines, with most Democrats but no Republicans voting yes.

The state Senate today defeated a Democratic effort to avoid a ballot box battle over the online sales tax they passed in June.

Amazon.com and other online retailers are poised to submit signatures that would force a June ballot referendum over the bill that requires them to collect sales tax on California transactions.

In response, Democrats have pushed forward with a second bill -- this one requiring a two-thirds vote -- that they believed would be immune from the referendum process because it takes effect immediately.

But a vote on Assembly Bill 155 in the Senate today drew no GOP support, and the effort appears to have washed out. The vote on the measure was 22-12, five votes short of the two-thirds majority needed. The Senate could take up the bill again on Wednesday.

Democratic legislative leaders have rolled out a last-minute bill that would allow unions to organize child care providers who work out of the home.

The measure, by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, would give family child care providers the right to organize and participate in collective bargaining. It would affect both licensed family child care providers, who can care for no more than 14 children in their home, and certain license-exempt providers, including grandparents, relatives and neighbors receiving state subsidies to care for one family.

The bill language argues that the change is needed to "improve the quality of child care and to reduce turnover in the industry that is charged with providing safe and quality care for children in California."

Lagging tax revenues are making California officials nervous about "trigger" budget cuts to schools and services that appear likely unless more money flows into state coffers or the economic outlook improves.

A newly amended Democratic bill would require the Department of Finance to give at least 10 days notice if it determines the state must install various cuts in December. The proposal, Assembly Bill X1 20, also would require Finance to "consult" with lawmakers on alternatives to cuts already prescribed in the existing budget act.

Under existing law, Gov. Jerry Brown's finance officials must determine in December whether California is on track to receive $4 billion more in revenues over the 2011-12 fiscal year. If not, the budget requires the state to impose as much as $2.5 billion in cuts to K-12 schools, higher education, public safety and social services.

The state fell $541 million short of July expectations, and there are already signs the state may also miss its August projections.

Los Angeles lawmakers rolled out a bill Friday that would hasten environmental reviews and help a major developer build a downtown NFL stadium there, but the plan provides no help to other budding sports venue projects in Sacramento and Santa Clara.

The proposal spearheaded by Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez and Sen. Alex Padilla is solely focused on expediting environmental reviews of Farmers Field, a $1.3 billion project adjacent to Staples Center in Los Angeles that also involves replacing part of the downtown convention center. It requires that the developer, Anschutz Entertainment Group, attempt to control traffic spikes that would result from the 68,000-seat stadium.

The two Democratic lawmakers framed the proposal as a job creator, projecting that it would bring 12,000 jobs during construction and 11,000 permanent jobs once the project is completed. Senate Bill 292 is backed by the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, whose powerful executive secretary-treasurer, Maria Elena Durazo, was in Sacramento with other labor leaders Thursday to lobby lawmakers.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said earlier this week he thought the stadium exemption would work as part of a broader change to environmental reviews. Some Democrats are against the idea of passing bills that aid one specific project, especially after facing negative reactions to a 2009 exemption for a competing NFL stadium development in the City of Industry. And lawmakers based in San Diego see no reason to potentially help Los Angeles take the Chargers away, one possibility for the NFL.

The state Assembly voted today to send Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that allows undocumented immigrant college students to receive publicly-funded financial aid.

After a lengthy debate, Assembly Bill 131 -- the second part of the controversial measure known as the California Dream Act -- cleared the lower house on a 45-27 vote.

"Today is a wonderful day," said Assemblyman Manuel Perez, D-Coachella. "Today is a day of hope. Today, there are many students throughout the state of California who are saying, 'It's about time.'"

A bill to ban the use of tanning beds for Californians who are 18 or under is headed to Gov. Jerry Brown after winning final approval in the Legislature.

Senate Bill 746, by Democratic Sen. Ted Lieu, would make California the first state in the nation to ban minors from fake baking under the ultraviolet bulbs. Amendments to the bill were approved by the state Senate today on a vote of 24-12.

Current law prohibits youth under 14 to use tanning beds and requires consumers between the ages of 14 and 17 to get permission from a parent or guardian. Supporters say enacting a full ban will protect minors from the harmful effects of exposure to ultraviolet radiation, including the increased risk of skin cancers.

"Scientific research has shown conclusively that tanning beds cause skin cancer," Lieu, of Torrance, said. "The younger kids are when they start using tanning beds, the greater the cumulative damage to their skin and the more likely they are to die of skin cancer."

Critics, including the Indoor Tanning Association, argue that California already has the nation's most stringent indoor tanning regulations. They say the ban will negatively impact their businesses by eliminating a demographic that makes up an estimated five to 10 percent of their clientele.

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Bill to ban tanning beds for minors advances in Senate

Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative Democrats are seeking a firefighting fee on rural homeowners significantly higher than the maximum $90 charge passed last week by California's fire board.

The new proposal would impose a minimum $175 per house fee, with an additional charge on land, starting at $1 per acre for the first 100 acres. Homeowners who live in fire districts, which includes 94 percent of the roughly 730,000 structures being charged, would qualify for a $25 discount.

Brown's Department of Finance expects the state to begin sending bills to homeowners in spring 2012. The governor said previously that California residents have increasingly moved into wild land areas in recent years, and he considered it fair to have them help pay the state costs of fighting wildfires.

Democrats consider the proposal a "clean up" measure of a budget bill intended to raise $50 million in the first year and $200 million annually thereafter. When Brown signed the original plan, Assembly Bill X1 29, he signaled that the proposal was flawed because it didn't allow the state to use fee dollars to fight wildfires.

That bill capped the charge at $150 and lacked acreage fees. The state Board of Forestry and Fire Protection last week approved a $90 fee with significant exemptions, such as a $45 discount for those who already pay district charges. That proposal would have raised a fraction of the $50 million that lawmakers had counted on.

Under Brown's latest proposal, the board would have to scrap last week's board plan. The new fee is contained in AB X1 24 and SB X1 7. Despite the higher fee, the Department of Finance believes it would still raise the same amounts of money after further analysis of rural home and land ownership. The bills require a majority vote.

The Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association has vowed to fight the measure in court, saying it violates Proposition 26, a voter-approved measure that further restricted fees that could be passed by a majority, rather than two-thirds, of the Legislature.

Californians could be able to register online to vote in time for the 2012 elections if legislation headed to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk is signed into law.

Senate Bill 397, by Democratic Sen. Leland Yee, cleared its final legislative hurdle today when the state Senate approved amendments offered in the Assembly by a vote of 23-13.

The bill would allow online voter registration to begin ahead of the completion of a new statewide voter registration database under development. That project, VoteCal, isn't expected to be fully implemented until at least 2015.

The legislation directs elections officials to work with the Department of Motor Vehicles to create a process for matching registration information submitted online with an electronic copy of a signature on file at the DMV.

In a rare joint appearance Thursday with California's top business advocates, legislative Democrats sought a more thorough review of future regulations, such as rules on greenhouse gas emissions or labor standards.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez discussed last-minute bill amendments they said would improve business activity by defining how agencies review new rules that have at least a $50 million economic impact. Agencies would have to consider impacts on jobs, the environment and business creation, as well as conduct an economic analysis of costs and benefits. The proposal will be amended into Senate Bill 617.

Steinberg and Pérez were joined at a press conference by California Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Allan Zaremberg and California Manufacturers and Technology Association president Jack Stewart, who typically find themselves on the other side from Democrats on Capitol issues. Steinberg said it was the first time he could remember standing at a podium next to Zaremberg, whose organization each year labels a set of Democratic bills as "job killers."

Pérez also plans to pursue another proposal, Assembly Bill 29, that would officially create an Office of Economic Development for California. Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a similar proposal last year, saying the office was unnecessary because he had already organized one by executive authority and he did not believe its director should have to face Senate confirmation.

Gov. Jerry Brown said this morning that he's leaning against Internet retailer Amazon.com's proposal to put off enforcing a new law that taxes online purchases in exchange for the company launching several California distribution centers that would create several thousand new jobs.

"I'm concerned about anything that will reduce revenue going forward because we have a very uncertain economy," the governor said shortly after speaking at an awards ceremony at Sacramento's Radisson Hotel honoring California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation employees. "Look, we need more revenues unless we're going keep curbing schools, courts, corrections."

Amazon has reportedly offered to open six new distribution centers in California that would create an estimated 7,000 jobs. In return, Amazon wants a reprieve from a bill that Brown signed in June until sometime in 2014. The new law requires online retailers immediately collect sales taxes from California customers.

The state budget assumes the new online tax will bring in roughly $200 million annually.

Amazon has poured more than $5 million into a state initiative drive to overturn the new law. State lawmakers responded with another bill that would make the tax measure impervious to a ballot-box challenge.

The Assembly today voted 43-28 to send Gov. Jerry Brown a union-backed bill that would require cities and counties to assess the economic impact of so-called "superstores," such as Wal-Mart, proposed for their communities.

Senate Bill 469 by Sen. Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, requires the economic studies, to be paid for by project applicants, to evaluate the impact of the store on small businesses and the economic well-being of the community in general.

Supporters in organized labor said the requirement will give local government decision makers more information before approving projects.

Opponents, including business groups, said the measure will erect more impediments to job creation and economic development.

A controversial push to give state regulators the power to reject proposed increases in health insurance rates has stalled in the state Senate.

Assembly Bill 52, by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, would let the state insurance commissioner or the director of the Department of Managed Health Care reject or modify proposed rate increases found to be "excessive," "inadequate" or "discriminatory."

The bill cleared the Assembly on a party-line vote in June. But Feuer has decided to hold off on any action this year, saying he does not have the votes to win approval from the Senate before the first year of the legislative session ends next week.

"Despite an outpouring of strong support from small business, working families and consumers throughout CA, the bill has hit a temporary roadblock in the Senate," Feuer said in a statement. "Right now, not enough senators are prepared to vote for any form of health insurance rate regulation."

A Feuer spokeswoman said the Los Angeles Democrat will continue to work for the bill's passage next year, when the Legislature returns for the second leg of its two-year session.

AB 52 sparked one of this year's biggest battles under the dome, pitting Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, consumer activists and health advocacy groups against health insurance industry and business groups. Local governments, pension funds and Gov. Jerry Brown's Department of Finance had come out against the bill in recent weeks.

The Assembly today sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that would allow undocumented immigrants eligible for resident fees at CSU or community colleges to be compensated for student government positions they hold.

Assembly Bill 844 by Assemblyman Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, cleared the lower house 49-23 after a long and sometimes tense debate.

The measure comes after Pedro Ramirez, president of the Fresno State Associated Students, Inc., last year publicly identified himself as undocumented and volunteered to serve in his position for no compensation.

While California allows illegal immigrant students to attend colleges and pay resident fees under certain circumstances, federal allow does not allow undocumented people to legally work in the United States.

Lara's bill would allow undocumented students eligible for resident fees to serve in student government positions and receive "any grant, scholarship, fee waiver, or reimbursement for expenses that is connected with that service." Federal law allows states to provide certain public benefits to undocumented aliens as long as the state passes a law specifically allowing the payment.

The debate drew strong opposition from the Assembly's GOP members, who argued the state should not be providing further incentives for illegal immigrants in California. "This is a slap in the face to people who have come here legally," said Assemblyman Don Wagner, R-Irvine.

The Senate today approved legislation to give the governor the power to appoint an independent inspector general to oversee the California Military Department.

Senate Bill 921, by Democratic Sens. Ted Lieu and Lou Correa, comes in the wake of an ongoing Sacramento Bee investigation that has uncovered examples of fraud and mismanagement within the California National Guard.

In addition to replacing the department's internal inspector general with an independent watchdog, SB 921 would provide protections for whistle blowers, mandate a toll-free number for reporting alleged abuses and require that the independent inspector general continues to investigate allegations of misconduct.

"The National Guard has had systemic breakdowns in different parts of its organization. One of the reasons for this is guard members who are scared or unwilling to come forward when they see the illegal, inappropriate behavior. A more independent inspector general plus additional whistle blower protections would mitigate that problem," Lieu, of Torrance, told Capitol Alert.

The bill, which would take effect immediately, passed the Senate 32-0. It now heads to the Assembly for consideration.

See all The Bee's recent coverage of the National Guard at this link.

The most contentious bill in the 2011 legislative session's final days would subject the multibillion-dollar health insurance industry to state rate regulation -- and it's spawned a boatload of campaign contributions, according to a new compilation.

Assembly Bill 52 is now pending on the Senate floor after clearing the Assembly on a 45-28 party-line vote, with Democrats in favor and Republicans opposed. Carried by Assemblyman Mike Feuer, D-Los Angeles, and sponsored by Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, the measure also enjoys support from consumer activists, labor unions and other Democrat-friendly groups, while it's opposed by the health insurance industry and business groups.

Maplight, an organization that tracks campaign contributions and ties them to specific issues, says in its report that advocates of the measure have contributed nearly three times as much money to state senators as its opponents.

The Senate outcome is uncertain, even though Democrats could pass it without Republican votes, because it's also drawn opposition from local governments, pension funds and Gov. Jerry Brown's administration, the latter citing costs of implementation.

Advocates say that the measure would protect health care consumers from being gouged, especially in light of the federal government's new mandatory coverage law.

Maplight says that advocates of the measure have contributed $1.3 million in the last three years to senators who will be voting for or against the bill while opponents have given $455,000. The contrast was especially evident among senators who voted on the bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee last week, Maplight said.

It should be noted, however, that the groups weighing in on AB 52 typically have other issues pending before the Legislature, and the pro-AB 52 groups historically support Democrats, while those opposed are more likely to support Republicans.

The full Maplight report can be found here.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is pushing last-minute legislation to give local governments power to seek new fuel surcharges to fund certain transit projects.

Senate Bill 791 would allow local transportation agencies to seek voter approval for a "regional transportation congestion reduction charge" on gasoline or diesel. The bill language, introduced in the form of amendments to existing legislation last week, would also allow a new vehicle registration charge on electric vehicles. Revenues raised by the fees, which would require approval of a majority of voters in the impacted region, would fund transit proposals developed by the local transportation planning agencies to reduce vehicle congestion.

The Sacramento Democrat called the bill an effort to create a "local option" for funding transit projects, saying it is "very consistent with the work that we've done this year on bringing services closer to the people" through realignment of state and local functions.

"The state does not have the financial capacity to adequately fund transit and road improvements, and if we can't afford it we ought to at least give the regions of this state the ability to go to the voters and raise money for important priorities like transit and road improvements," he said.

Steinberg said he is hopeful that the majority-vote bill will clear both houses before the legislative session ends next week, though he left to door open to working on the bill next year.

The California Taxpayers Association has issued a letter to members of the Assembly outlining opposition to the bill and raising concerns that it believes the measure should be subject to a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, not a majority vote.

"While we recognize the need to repair and maintain the state's roads and highways, we note that Californians already pay the highest gas taxes in the nation. Yet, our transportation system ranks near the bottom in national surveys," the letter reads. "We are also concerned that these new tax revenues will fund projects that are unrelated to and do not benefit the payor, including but not limited to projects related to bicycle and walking trails, etc."

SB 791 is in the Assembly and would have to win approval there before returning to the Senate for a vote before being sent to Gov. Jerry Brown .

With labor unions pressing him again on legislation to make it easier to organize farmworkers, Gov. Jerry Brown said today that he remains opposed to so-called "card-check" legislation, but he proposed a package of compromise measures to protect workers from grower interference.

"This is not a time for fundamental changes in a law that has only been changed once since I signed it in 1975," Brown, governor before from 1975 to 1983, told The Bee before speaking at a green energy conference in Las Vegas.

Brown said he has proposed to Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg changes to existing law to reduce the time by which growers can delay bargaining and to allow for the immediate reinstatement of employees unfairly fired during organizing drives, among other measures.

The Democratic governor said his proposal "does speed things up, and it does provide a remedy."

The "card-check" legislation would provide unionizing farmworkers an alternative to the secret ballot, letting unions organize them instead through signed petition cards. Brown said such a bill is "not something I'm going to do in the last week of the session."

He said, "If people want more far reaching changes, those should be the subject of more deliberation that involves workers, growers ... academics, and other interested parties."

Brown vetoed a similar bill in June despite intense pressure from fellow Democrats and labor allies, touching off an emotional protest at the Capitol.

The California Chamber of Commerce called the bill a "job killer," and former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, vetoed the legislation four times in four years.

Farmworkers plan to protest at the Capitol on Sunday.

Legislation to ban the use of chemical BPA in baby bottles and sippy cups squeaked through the state Senate today on a 21-12 vote.

Assembly Bill 1319, by Democratic Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, would prohibit the manufacturing, sale or distribution of bottles and other children's cups that are found to contain certain levels of bisphenol A. The chemical, commonly known as BPA, has come under scrutiny in recent years amid concerns over the potential effects exposure has on hormones and brain and development, particularly in young children and fetuses.

Supporters pointed out that 11 other states and several countries, including China, have approved bans on the chemical in similar products. They said while many companies now offer products that are BPA-free in response to consumer demand, a statewide ban would protect lower-income communities that may see fewer choices on the shelves.

"This bill protects the health and safety of children in everyone's neighborhood," said Sen. Fran Pavley, D-Agoura Hills, an author of previous BPA legislation that failed to win passage.

Opponents raised concerns that the legislation would interfere with the mission of the California Green Chemistry Initiative, which created an administrative process to regulate harmful chemicals. Democratic Sen. Ron Calderon also questioned whether the bill's low threshold for BPA levels could expose manufacturers not intentionally using the chemical to "undue litigation costs."

"While manufactures can make bottles and sippy cups without BPA, they cannot guarantee the product will be BPA free because, as I mentioned, BPA is omnipresent," the Montebello Democrat said.

The bill, which calls for the ban to take effect in July 2013, will now return to the Assembly for consideration of amendments added in the Senate.

The Assembly today passed a bill that would allow non-medical school employees to give anti-seizure medication to epileptic students, sending the emotional issue a crucial step closer to final approval by Gov. Jerry Brown.

After 40 minutes of passionate debate on the Assembly floor, the lower house approved Senate Bill 161 with a vote of 47 to 15. It garnered substantial support from Democrats -- 22 out of 52 supported the bill -- despite opposition from the state's Democratic party chairman and several large labor unions.

"While it's not perfect, this bill is about saving the life of a child or saving permanent brain damage (from happening) to a child," said Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, explaining why she was voting in favor of the bill.

Opponents also cited the well-being of children in making the case for their opposition.

"Let's vote no," said Assemblyman Sandre Swanson, D-Oakland. "And let's work immediately to fund nurses at schools, ...the best possible care for our children."

The bill is the second attempt by Sen. Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, to permit non-nurses to administer a drug called Diastat to school children experiencing seizures. Labor unions, including those representing nurses, teachers and support staff, oppose the bill. They argue that the medication, which must be injected into the patient's rectum, is difficult to administer and should only be done by a nurse. Supporters, including parents of epileptic students, said that most schools don't have a nurse on site every day and that their children must be protected if a seizure occurred during the school day.

The bill says school employees who volunteer to administer the drug will receive training.

The bill now returns to the Senate -- which approved it 32-4 earlier this year -- for a final vote that would send it to Gov. Jerry Brown's desk.

The state Senate today blocked a push by Assembly Speaker John A Pérez to eliminate the city of Vernon.

Assembly Bill 46 sought to disincorporate any California city with fewer than 150 residents -- criteria met only by the tiny industrial city represented by Pérez. It fell eight votes short of passage today on the Senate floor, on a 13-17 vote.

Pérez has made axing the city one of his top priorities this year, saying it is the best way address allegations of corruption in a city that is home to fewer than 100 residents but more than 1,000 businesses. Under his proposal, Vernon would become an unincorporated part of Los Angeles County.

Pérez issued a statement blasting the Senate and its Democratic members, saying the upper house "chose to ignore decades of corruption in Vernon."

"The fact is clear: Senators (Ron) Calderon and (Kevin) De León, along with their colleagues, have given Vernon a free pass to continue doing business as usual, and those senators will own the responsibility for any misdeeds that may occur in the future."

Democratic Sen. Los Wolk, who presented the bill on the floor, appealed to members to consider what she called Vernon's "extraordinary record" of abuses and corruption.

"There is no independent electorate in Vernon that can stand up against the corruption and mismanagement in the city," the Davis Democrat said of city's small population.

By Darrell Smith
dvsmith@sacbee.com

Health care advocate Consumer Watchdog wants to take regulation of health insurance rates to California voters with a ballot initiative set for 2012.

The ballot measure would expand the Proposition 103 Act, which regulates auto and home insurance rates in California, to include health insurance rates. It would also roll back health insurance rates by 20 percent and give the Insurance Commissioner power to approve or reject rate increases.

The initiative push echoes Consumer Watchdog's successful effort to regulate auto insurance rates in the late 1980s even as it anticipates a diluted Assembly Bill 52, which seeks to give the insurance commissioner authority to regulate health insurance rates.

California's death penalty has new life.

Legislation seeking to eliminate the death penalty was shelved today in the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

Senate Bill 490 would have placed before voters in November 2012 a measure to close death row and replace the death penalty with life in prison without parole.

Sen. Loni Hancock, a Berkeley Democrat who proposed the measure, said she withdrew SB 490 from consideration after its fate became clear.

"The votes were not there to support reforming California's expensive and dysfunctional death penalty system," Hancock said in a written statement.

"I had hoped we would take the opportunity to save hundreds of millions of dollars that could be used to support our schools and universities, keep police on our streets and and fund essential public institutions like the courts," she said.

Hotly contested legislation that would have given some hope of eventual release to juvenile offenders sentenced to life without possibility of parole was rejected today by the Assembly.

Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, plans to bring Senate Bill 9 before the Assembly again, perhaps with amendments, before the legislative year ends next month, said Adam Keigwin, his chief of staff.

The Assembly roll was called four times on SB 9 as supporters, including Speaker John A. Pérez, scrambled to line up the 41 votes required for passage. The final tally was 36-36, with Republicans opposed.

The bill would have allowed sentencing reconsideration for juveniles who were 16 or 17 years old when they committed their offense and had been incarcerated at least 15 years.

By David Siders and Torey Van Oot
dsiders@sacbee.com

The tax and jobs plan Gov. Jerry Brown proposed this morning was immediately assailed by Republicans as "creative packaging," and even Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg -- who stood beside Brown at the podium for the announcement -- said he doesn't expect it to pass.

"I have no expectation that Republicans are going to put up votes for this," said Steinberg, D-Sacramento. "It would be surprising to me. Pleasantly, but surprising nonetheless."

At issue is Brown's proposal to eliminate a tax benefit that allows companies to pick the less expensive of two tax formulas when calculating their tax liability. In a 2009 budget deal, California became one of only two states to let companies make that choice each year.

The Democratic governor said at a Capitol news conference that the allowance is "perverse and outrageous." He proposed using money generated by eliminating the benefit, about $1 billion, to fund a sales tax exemption for purchases of manufacturing equipment.

But changing the corporate tax structure would require at least a two-thirds vote in the Legislature, and Brown is unlikely to find the two Republican votes needed in each house. Republicans blocked a similar proposal in budget talks earlier this year, and the two sides appear no closer than they were then.

Legislation to force the Assembly and Senate to comply with the same public records standards imposed on local governments was proposed today by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino.

The measure, Assembly Bill 1129, would repeal the Legislative Open Records Act and require the Legislature to abide by the California Public Records Act, which places less restrictions on access to records.

"Assembly leaders have hidden documents and expenditures from the public long enough," the La Cañada Flintridge Democrat said in a written statement.

"No more gimmicks, no more tricks and no more incomplete and misleading financial documents can be circulated or tolerated," he said.

Portantino's measure was sparked, in part, by a dispute between himself and Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez that led to public records requests for current office budgets of all 80 Assembly members.

By Dale Kasler
dkasler@sacbee.com

A group of California legislators plans to push a new online sales tax bill in a move to thwart tax opponent Amazon.com.

Lawmakers today used a "gut-and-amend" procedure that takes an existing bill and substitutes an online sales tax measure. The bill passed the Senate Appropriations Committee today.

In late June, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill requiring Amazon and other online retailers to begin collecting sales tax on California transactions. The bill passed on a regular, majority vote. Amazon has refused to collect the tax and launched a referendum to have it overturned.

But Larry Levin, a spokesman for Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Oakland, said the new legislation would be different. It would pass on a two-thirds supermajority and would carry an "urgency" clause. That means it can't be subject to ballot referendum, Levin said.

The maneuver has the support of the California Retailers Association, he said.

Although Republican lawmakers have generally resisted taxes, "we think we can get to two-thirds," Levin said.

Spokesmen for Amazon couldn't be reached for comment.

Gov. Jerry Brown, for whom few issues have been as politically difficult as capital punishment, suggested today that he might support a measure asking voters to repeal the death penalty.

Brown declined to discuss Senate Bill 490, which would put the question of whether to retain capital punishment before voters in November 2012.

But he said that, in general, "When we have deep, troublesome issues that create gridlock in the Legislature, going back to the people can be a way to break the gridlock."

The bill's prospects are highly uncertain. A Field Poll last year found that 70 percent of Californians support the death penalty.

Brown, a Democrat, vetoed death penalty legislation when he was governor in 1977, but his veto was overridden by the Legislature. He enforced the death penalty as state attorney general and said he would uphold it as governor, despite personal reservations.

"As with most bills, I don't comment until I get it," Brown said at a news conference at which he discussed jobs and a tax measure. "But I'm certainly not going to answer that and destroy my whole jobs press conference."

PHOTO CREDIT: Shown is a witness gallery inside the new lethal injection facility at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Tuesday, Sept. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/ Eric Risberg)

Amazon.com has poured another $2.25 million into its effort to overturn a law requiring some online retailers collect sales tax on purchases made by Californians, bringing the company's total investment in the referendum qualification drive to more than $5 million.

The latest contribution to the committee funding the effort, "More Jobs Not Taxes," was reported in a campaign filing posted Friday to the Secretary of State's website.

Referendum proponents have until Sept. 27 to collect the 504,760 valid voter signatures needed to qualify for the next statewide ballot. If they hit that mark, the budget-related bill will be suspended until voters can act on the issue in the June 2012 statewide primary election.

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg said today that he supports legalizing Internet gambling in California but does not want any legislative action on the issue this year, extending the big-money debate for at least another year.

Despite numerous hearings on the matter, Steinberg said in a letter to gambling interests and opponents, "significant, unresolved issues remain." Disagreements include which games would be made legal and who would be eligible to operate the sites.

"We believe that well thought out, fair solutions to these differences can be reached, but not before the end of this legislative year on September 9th," says the letter by Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Sen. Roderick Wright, the Inglewood Democrat who chairs the Senate's Governmental Organization Committee that oversees gambling regulation.

California's Indian tribes support online gambling but are split over bills that have so far been introduced. SB 40 by Sen. Lou Correa is sponsored by several card rooms and tribes, including the Morongo and San Manuel bands of Indians. Other tribes oppose the bill, saying it would exclude them from cashing in on the windfall that legal online gambling could bring.

In an interview with The Bee today, Steinberg said he likes the idea of legalizing Internet gambling because of its potential to bring hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes to state coffers, which he hoped could go toward health and education. But he said existing proposals aren't good enough.

"I don't think it's ready in the last two weeks of session," Steinberg said.

A copy of his letter is below.

Steinberg Letter on Internet Gambling

Legislators will consider this week last-minute legislation that could give an influential Native American tribe the power to block a Southern California quarry project it opposes.

Assembly Bill 742, by Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would require tribes to sign off on reclamation projects proposed within certain distances of a sacred site, reservation boundaries and the waterways connected to the Santa Margarita River -- specifications designed to meet the proposed Liberty Quarry project in Riverside County.

Deadlines for introducing and holding policy hearings on proposed legislation have long passed, but the measure surfaced last week in the form of amendments to a bill that had already cleared the Assembly. A special hearing of the Senate Natural Resources Committee on the so-called "gut-and-amend" legislation has been scheduled for Tuesday.

How many legislators does it take to craft a bill limiting executive pay at California's universities?

At least four, apparently.

A flurry of bills on that theme have been introduced this week. All are responding to last month's decision by trustees of the California State University to award the new president of San Diego State a salary $100,000 higher than his predecessor's -- at the same meeting they raised student tuition by 12 percent.

The current tally of bills on university executive pay includes these:

• Senate Bill X1 25 by Sen. Elaine Alquist, D-Santa Clara, would prevent CSU from giving administrators raises above 10 percent in any year the university increases tuition for students. It would include sitting executives and new hires.

• Senate Bill X1 26 by Sen. Ted Lieu, D-Torrance, would limit CSU presidents' pay to 150 percent of the salary earned by California's chief justice, or $343,269 this year; would prohibit pay hikes if tuition has increased within three years; and would compel CSU trustees to give preference to applicants within the CSU system when hiring a campus president.

• Senate Bill X1 27 by Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, would prohibit executive pay raises at CSU and UC in any year the university systems' state funding is reduced.

• Assembly Bill X1 39 by Assemblyman Roger Hernández, D-West Covina, would prohibit UC and CSU from using state funds or student fees to give pay raises to administrators in any year the state cuts funding to the university systems. It would also cap salary for CSU presidents at $300,000 and cap salary for UC chancellors at $326,000.

Sen. Leland Yee is hoping the third time's a charm.

Senate Bill 8, which would expand the authority of the California Public Records Act on the state's college campuses, is heading to Gov. Jerry Brown for consideration.

The San Francisco Democrat's two previous bills to subject college auxiliary organizations, such as foundations, to the state's public records act were vetoed by then Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The Senate approved amendments to the current version today, 36-1, sending it to Brown's desk.

Private organizations that support public universities are now exempt from having to disclose much of the information that public agencies usually make public.

For example, last year the foundation at California State University, Stanislaus, declined to report how much it was paying former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin to speak at a fundraiser -- until it was forced to do so by the courts. Yee made national headlines by drawing attention to the case.

Petition circulators hitting the streets and storefronts in search of voter support would have to wear identifying badges if they are being paid to gather signatures under legislation sent to Gov. Jerry Brown today.

Senate Bill 448, by Democratic Sen. Mark DeSaulnier, would require that paid solicitors working to qualify initiatives, recalls or referendums for the ballot wear badges stating in "no smaller than 30-point font print" that they are a paid signature gatherer.

The state Senate today approved amendments to the measure, which had previously passed both houses, on a 24-14 vote. The lower house had stripped a provision that would have also required identification badges for those working as a "volunteer signature gatherer."

Supporters say voters deserve the disclosure, pointing out that many professional circulators are paid on a per-signature basis to pitch the proposals.

"When volunteers cannot circulate petitions because of the bad actions of special interest petitioners, this is bad for true community activism and civic engagement," DeSaulnier said in a statement. "Approval of this bill is an important first step in restoring the initiative process to what Hiram Johnson intended."

Opponents counter that the move would hurt the state's direct democracy system by making it harder for individuals to collect signatures.

Gov. Jerry Brown, who is expected to sign landmark "Dream Act" legislation this year, said Wednesday that he is seeking to first "make some adjustments" to the bill to reduce costs.

The Democratic governor last month signed one of two "Dream Act" bills, Assembly Bill 130, which allows students who are in the country illegally but qualify for in-state tuition to apply for private financial aid. The broader Assembly Bill 131 would let those students seek public financial aid, including Cal Grants.

AB 131, by Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, D-Los Angeles, is estimated to cost the state about $13 million annually in Cal Grants.

"We're looking at a way to structure that to get better control of costs," Brown said when asked by The Fresno Bee's editorial board on Wednesday if he would sign Assembly Bill 131. "But in general, I definitely think the more people we can get in our colleges and universities who have the qualifications, the better off we're going to be in producing the wealth we need."

Cedillo said this morning that he is mindful of the state's "very limited resources" and is working with the governor's office to modify the bill. He said he still expects it to be passed by the Legislature this session and signed by Brown.

Asked what modifications might be made, Cedillo said, "Let us work it out."

Brown's predecessor, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, vetoed similar legislation. Brown has been supportive of it since last year's gubernatorial campaign.

PHOTO CREDIT: Maria Luna, 23, of Sacramento, who is undocumented, wears her graduation cap from Sacramento State on Thursday, May 5, 2011, in support of Assembly Bill 130 in the Assembly balcony. Hector Amezcua / Sacramento Bee

Editor's note: Comments on this post were closed Aug. 18 because of inappropriate comments containing personal attacks and racist language.

Supporters of controversial legislation to give state regulators power to approve, deny or modify changes in health insurance rates have returned from their summer recess to find added opposition as they push for its passage before the session wraps up.

Gov. Jerry Brown's finance officials came out against Assembly Bill 52 at a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing Monday, raising concerns about the costs of the rate regulation proposal.

The measure, by Democratic Assemblyman Mike Feuer of Los Angeles, is one of the most contentious measures up for debate in the session's remaining weeks. It would allow the state insurance commissioner or the director of the Department of Managed Health Care to reject or modify proposed rate increases found to be "excessive," "inadequate" or "discriminatory."

Supporters, including Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones and health advocacy groups, say the measure would protect businesses and consumers from sky-rocketing premiums, pointing to large rate hikes recently pursued by Anthem Blue Cross.

The California Taxpayers Association has concluded that proposed legislation to permit car dealers to raise document-handling fees does not violate Proposition 26 -- and the group is taking no position on the bill.

CalTax initially had concerns that Assembly Bill 1215 -- part of which would allow car dealers to hike their handling charges from $55 to $80 -- might violate the voter-approved ballot measure that restricts the state from raising various fees without a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.

"After reviewing AB 1215, we determined that the fee discussed in the legislation is a private-party transaction that the state is regulating," spokesman David Kline said in a written statement. "Therefore, AB 1215 does not represent a state-imposed fee, and does not violate Proposition 26."

Anthony Matthews, spokesman for Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, the Woodland Hills Democrat who crafted the measure, said that state coffers would receive no portion of any increase in handling charges.

AB 1215 would allow dealers to increase their document-processing fee for both new- and used-car sales, beginning in July 2012.

The big-money debate over legalizing Internet gambling in California is heating up as the Legislature begins its final month of business for the year.

The California Online Poker Association, backed by the Morongo and San Manuel bands of Indians as well as many card rooms, has begun airing radio and television ads urging the Legislature to pass Senate Bill 40 by Sen. Lou Correa. The bill would make internet poker legal and tax it, potentially bringing hundreds of millions of dollars to state coffers.

"Unfortunately, nurses, police, fire and services for the poor and disabled will all be cut again if California doesn't find $4 billion in new revenue by December," the radio ad says. "There is a solution. By approving online poker, California has the ability to tap $250 million in new money immediately and billions in years to come."

Legislation that would increase fines for using a cellphone while driving - and making the law apply to bicyclists as well - was sent to Gov. Jerry Brown Monday.

The Senate gave final approval to Senate Bill 28 by Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, on a 23-13 vote after Simitian told senators that while the current law on automotive cellphone use had worked well, raising fines would make it work better.

Under SB 28, the basic fine for a first automotive offense would jump from $20 to $50 and for subsequent offenses from $50 to $100. However, with state and local assessments tacked on, the total bite for a first offense would jump from $208 to $328 and for additional tickets from $328 to $528.

Tickets for riding a bike while talking on a cellphone would be $20 for a first offense and $50 for additional tickets, but there would be no assessments.

The California Chamber of Commerce Monday unveiled a new weapon in its never-ending war over legislation it considers to be anti-business - a series of video clips narrated by former Capitol television reporter Kevin Riggs.

The first edition of the series, entitled "CalChamber News," focuses on three pending bills that the chamber has placed on its "job killer" list. It was unveiled as the Legislature returns to the Capitol for the month-long final segment of its 2011 session.

The three are Senate Bill 568 by Sen. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, which would ban polystyrene foam food containers unless they can be recycled; Assembly Bill 350 by Assemblyman Jose Solario, D-Santa Ana, which would require employers who acquire building service companies to retain existing workers for at least 60 days; and AB 22 by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza, D-Artesia, which would sharply restrict use of credit reports in hiring decisions.

The first video includes an interview with owners of a Sacramento café about the effects of Lowenthal's polystyrene bill. Riggs was a longtime Capitol reporter for Sacramento's KCRA who left the station in May to join Randle Communications, a political media consulting firm.

Californians could pay more in document fees when buying cars -- but perhaps sleep sounder if the vehicle is a used one - under legislation that is receiving bipartisan support in the Legislature.

The wide-ranging measure, Assembly Bill 1215, has won support from two traditional industry rivals -- the California New Car Dealers Association and Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety (CARS).

"For sides that have been fighting each other for a long time to come together, and work together, pushing a bill toward a common end, it's really nice," said Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield, a Woodland Hills Democrat who proposed the measure.

The measure would allow car dealers to increase their maximum document-processing fee from $55 to $80, beginning in July 2012. The increase would apply both to new and used vehicles.

More than a decade after George W. Bush beat Al Gore for president despite winning fewer votes nationwide, California has given a movement to overturn the nation's Electoral College system perhaps its greatest lift yet.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation this morning committing California to an interstate compact to award electoral votes to the presidential candidate who wins the most votes nationwide.

The agreement would become effective only if states possessing a majority of the nation's 538 Electoral College votes agree. Eight other states and the District of Columbia have signed on, committing 74 electoral votes. The bill Brown signed today adds California's 55.

Proponents say the agreement would make California more relevant in presidential elections.

Gov. Jerry Brown today gave the go-ahead for an experiment that will allow Yolo County to conduct three local elections entirely by mail until 2018.

Assembly Bill 413 by Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada creates a pilot project for the county to test the theory that voters prefer voting by mail. Under the measure, the jurisdiction subject to the election -- city, county, special district -- must give its approval. The all-mail option is not available for statewide primary or general elections.

The county is required to report findings to the Legislature, including costs, voter turnout by race and political identification and any problems with fraud. A previous pilot project in Monterey County was deemed to be inconclusive because it did not require detailed reporting of the turnout statistics, according to a legislative analysis of Yamada's bill.

Yamada's bill cleared the Legislature on mostly party-line votes, with Republicans opposed.