California Insider

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named six new members to the 17-member Community College governing board today, and they appear to be a rainbow coalition of partisan affiliation, gender, ethnicity, background and point of view. The six include four Democrats and two Republicans; four of them are women while two are men. They are: Anthony Alvarado of Coronado, Margaret Quinones of Santa Monica, Steven Rhodes of Los Angeles, Sara Martinez Tucker of San Francisco, Catherine Unger of Los Angeles, and Leslie Wang of Galt. Here is a link to the press release with more background on each of the appointees.

The Bureau of State Audits has just issued a pretty damning report on the Corrections Department's contracting for medical services, a cost that is now running at more than $200 million a year. The audit says the department is not following its own procedures for getting competitive bids, and other lapses are preventing the state from getting discounts that are included in the contracts. Read the executive summary here, with a link at the bottom to the full audit.

Sen. Richard Alarcon, the leading legislative advocate for state regulation of workers compensation rates, has amended his rate-regulation bill and scheduled a hearing for April 12 in anticipation, he says, of a “comprehensive workers’ compensation reform package.” Alarcon’s bill would create a three-member Commission on Workers Compensation Rate Regulation” that would include representatives of the Insurance Commissioner, the governor’s Division of Workers Compensation and the Attorney General. The commission would take testimony from insurers and the public and set maximum and minimum rates, plus limits on administrative costs and profits.

Here is an update from the Bee on Schwarzenegger's talks with the prison guards. The guards union says they are willing to take pay cuts (or give up planned increases) -- if Schwarzenegger gives them more say in running the prisons.

And here is a story from the Mercury News raising questions about the people Schwarzenegger has called upon to reform the prisons.