All Other News

By ANDY FURILLO
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association may be miles away from getting a new labor contract with the state, but its members appear to be in line for a pay raise sooner rather than later, thanks to the union's victory in a grievance it filed a year ago.

In a decision dated Saturday, an arbitrator ruled that the CCPOA's 31,000 members are entitled a pay raise based on compensation increases the state gave to the California Highway Patrol.

By ANITA CREAMER
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
The victims' families are outraged. Bloggers and broadcasters are furious, too.

But isn't O.J. Simpson at least half a decade too late for the public to particularly care what he has to say?

In a considerable achievement for our age, poor taste plunged to new depths last week with the announcement that in "If I Did It," a planned book and TV special, Simpson describes how he would have orchestrated the vicious slashing deaths of his ex-wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ronald Goldman in June 1994.

After a firestorm of criticism _ and after several Fox affiliates said they would not run the special, planned for Nov.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Every few years, garbage suddenly becomes glamorous when a coveted slot opens on the state Integrated Waste Management Board. You'd never suspect that tire recycling and biosolids would generate such interest, but when a state job offers a six-figure salary for meeting once a month, it becomes a hot ticket for termed-out legislators and others with connections.

Two slots are now open, and so Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez and state Senate Pro Tem Don Perata are being heavily lobbied to hand out this plum to someone or another.

Beginning with former Gov.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006
If you've had your TV on lately, you know that the prison guards union is at it again.

The California Correctional Peace Officers Association is using its formidable political war chest to run ominous television ads to put pressure on Gov.

By C.W. NEVIUS
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
When you sit down for Thanksgiving this year, take a moment to consider your turkey. How well do you know it, really?

Do you know where it was raised? Did you watch your bird when it was roaming free on an Internet video hookup? Do you know who its ancestors were?

No?

You mean you invited a total stranger to Thanksgiving dinner?

If this concerns you, we have the answer.

By JIM DOWNING
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
On a 450-acre farm along Interstate 80 southwest of Davis, Calif., Rich Collins is planning a $5 million showcase for Yolo-area agriculture.

In Bridgeway Farms _ "a new-age Nut Tree," he says, referring to the well-known former highway attraction _ Collins envisions fruit and nut orchards, a cheese-making operation drawing from local goats and cows, and cold storage and warehousing for local small farmers.

By E.J. SCHULTZ
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
As Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut deal after deal with the Democrats this year, Republicans in the California state Assembly watched with frustration.

By ANDY FURILLO
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Facing a double whammy of a population cap and a court decision that threatens to wipe out the state's sentencing law, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation is considering a sentencing commission that would help decide who goes to prison and for how long.

"We are willing to engage in sentencing reform," Corrections Secretary James Tilton said in an interview with The Bee, adding that as part of the discussion, the Schwarzenegger administration is looking at establishing a sentencing commission.

Such panels take different forms but can allow states to manage prison populations by altering the approach to sentencing.

By JANE KAY
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Widely used chemicals with suspected links to cancer and developmental problems in humans are present in common baby products like the yellow rubber ducky, bath books and clear plastic bottles, a San Francisco Chronicle analysis confirmed.

By JASON B. JOHNSON
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif., voters may oppose the Iraq war, but the oak-studded hillside suburb of Lafayette has taken center stage among Bay Area war protests thanks to an emotional debate over a highly visible memorial to U.S.