California Insider

Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez says he wants to fashion a megapackage of bipartisan ballot measures that would included a scaled back infrastructure package along with redistricting reform and a tweak to term limits.

Here is a link to the report prepared for Don Perata by the Keston Institute at USC on options for leveraging the state's infrastructure funding with other public and private sources of money. With some exceptions, it could have been a document produced by the Schwarzenegger Administration. It endorses toll roads, public-private partnerships, design-build contracts for freeways, fees on water users, and other measures the governor has suggested.

Can the truth about a politician emerge from an online battlefield of ideas? Capitol Hill staffers seem to be spending most of their time these days editing the entries about their bosses on a popular Internet cooperative encyclopedia.

A $1.5 million machine that can save lives by spotting heart problems without an invasive procedure.

Keep your eye on the Oakland schools. Already facing a strike threat from the teachers, the district is now struggling to nail down a contract with the union that represents security guards, secretaries and classroom aides. The district, which serves some of the poorest students in the state, is already in receivership because its finances were a mess.