All Other News
Jaws of the bay
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
A California sea lion has forced us to update our list of worrisome things that tend to bite us from behind.
What a shame. Those playful, Falstaffian creatures _ the ones with the barking voices, the ones our tourists love to point at and our children love to pet, are now ranked with death, taxes and the Taliban, to name a few.
Pay-grade inflation at California State University
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The chancellor of the California State University system sure seems to have a low regard for the intelligence of taxpayers who pay his salary. How else to explain Charles Reed's plan, approved by the CSU trustees this week, that will tighten the issuance of golden parachutes to departing administrations _ starting with his successor.
A fantastic scenario on deficits
By DAN WALTERS
Monday, November 20, 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, fresh off his landslide re-election victory, was in an upbeat mood this week as he laid out the broad themes of his second term during an address in Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger didn't use the "fantastic" label he seemingly applied to everything during the first months of his up-and-down governorship, but as he described it, a new spirit of bipartisanship has infused Sacramento and would lead to agreements on just about everything.
When asked about the state's chronic budget deficits, however, Schwarzenegger did offer a fantastic scenario _ fantastic as in fantasy _ that the $42 billion in infrastructure bonds also approved by voters this month would generate so much economic activity that the state's coffers would overflow and the deficits would disappear.
"Now we have 42 billion dollars," Schwarzenegger said.
Hope on homelessness
Monday, November 20, 2006
The Democratic takeover of the House and Senate may force a new day of bipartisanship in Washington, but the one area where it was already thriving was the effort to end chronic homelessness.
New windmills in California fuel global warming fight
By DAVID R. BAKER
Monday, November 20, 2006
California's latest source of clean energy started spinning slowly in the wind above the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta last spring.
One hundred white windmills, their blades stretching 122 feet, line the hilltops west of Rio Vista.
Spending on needier areas of California deficient, reports say
By ILENE LELCHUK
Monday, November 20, 2006
Not enough federal or foundation dollars are going to California's and the country's neediest families, according to two new reports on government housing cutbacks and charitable donations.
Rogue sea lion in S.F. menaces swimmers
By JANE KAY
Monday, November 20, 2006
A California sea lion lurking in San Francisco's Aquatic Park Lagoon is terrorizing swimmers, biting at least 14 on the legs and chasing 10 others out of the water this week.
Third body found in reservoir but no sign of missing couple
By JASON BERGREEN
Monday, November 20, 2006
Searchers found another body in Strawberry Reservoir Thursday, the third in a bizarre search for two missing boaters in the cold, 90-foot-deep water.
Pombo begins transition back to civilian life
By MICHAEL DOYLE
Monday, November 20, 2006
Annette Pombo wants her husband home. Because of last week's election, that's right where he's going.
"She's got a list, a long list, of stuff that need to be done," Richard Pombo said with a laugh Wednesday afternoon.
For the next six weeks or so, Pombo still will be formally known as Rep.
California facing $2 billion in budget cuts, analyst says
By CLEA BENSON
Monday, November 20, 2006
`With a decline in home sales driving a slowdown in California's recent economic boom, lawmakers will find it "much tougher" to balance the state budget next year than they did this year, the Legislature's nonpartisan budget adviser said in a report Wednesday.
The economy is still doing slightly better than lawmakers expected when they approved the current $131 billion state spending plan in June, partly because oil prices have dropped since the summer, the report said.
