California Insider

Mea Culpa. In this item I tweaked Cruz Bustamante for, among other things, showing up for an editorial board meeting at the Bee that was not on our schedule. Turns out it should have been. Cruz's campaign has produced electronic evidence of one of our writers inviting him for that date and time. He must be so light by now that he simply fell off the schedule.

Schwarzenegger has signed a bunch of coastal protection bills today, along with Antonio Villaraigosa's school takeover bill.

Joe Mathews says the Schwarzenegger audio tape is nothing compared to what might be the real treasure trove: video.

Matier and Ross say a new poll (from a Democratic pollster) has the governor up by 20.

It looks as if somebody from the governor's office might have hacked the labor coalition's blog at the Alliance for a Better California. How else to explain the posting from "vikingsfanatic" with a list of budget reforms that could have been written by Schwarzenegger himself?

A sampling:

Zero-based budgeting: Begin each budget at 0 and require everything to be justified yearly.

No spending a dollar more than we take in.

Require 10% of revenues be put into a reserve and 20% of revenues be used to pay off debt. The 20% may only be waived if it's more than we are able to pay off.

Reduce the requirement to a simple majority while preserving 2/3 for tax increases.

Repeal spending mandates in Proposition 98, 49 and 63.

Restore the governor's authority to make mid-year cuts if revenues fall below forecast. The Legislature would then be able to pass an alternative set of cuts if it chooses to, and that would become law instead.

UPDATE: Julia Rosen advises that at their site, anyone who registers can blog. So think of the Viking fan as the equivalent of a commenter on most sites or a diarist at DailyKos.

The LA Times takes a look at the PPIC's report on voting patterns -- from the vantage point of 2030.

Santa Clara County's public health care system is in a downward spiral, says the Mercury News.

Steve Poizner says Cruz Bustamante has missed the deadline for filing a 250-word statement to be included in the Nov. 7 ballot pamphlet. If so, it wouldn't be the first time recently that the Cruzinator has had his wires crossed. Last Monday, we saw him at Sacramento International Airport trying to reel a Southwest jetliner back to the gate from the tarmac so he could get on, after missing his flight. The plane left without him.

This item originally tweaked Cruz for showing up at a Bee editorial board meeting that was not on our schedule. For an explanation, see this new item.