"California Assembly Speaker
Fabian Nuñez said Thursday that if he were governor, he
would not have acted the way Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did on his trip to Washington this week," reports the AP's Erica Werner.
"The moderate Republican governor spent two days dispensing advice to Republicans, Democrats and President Bush on how to get along.
"'
I'm not the governor. But if I were -- which I'm not, but if I were -- I'd come to Washington with a little bit of a different mission. I'd come here as a supplicant,' Nuñez, D-Los Angeles, said in an interview before testifying about global warming at a Senate committee hearing.
"'
I'd go back home and my lips would probably be swollen from pleading for help because we need Washington more than Washington needs us,' Nuñez said."
Nuñez apparently is pretty good at supplicating, according to the latest gift disclosure filings.
The Bee's Aurelio Rojas
reports: "When Assembly Speaker Fabian Núñez remarried his ex-wife,
Maria Robles, his staff showed the boss their love
with a $5,000 gift certificate" to Nordstrom.
"Their token of appreciation was disclosed Thursday, the deadline for elected state officials to file their yearly statements of economic interest.
"Officials are required by state law to disclose information about their investments, incomes, assets and gifts for each calendar year.
"Legislators are not allowed to receive gifts of more than $360 from any non-family source, but wedding gifts are specifically exempted.
"Filings by Núñez, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem
Don Perata, D-Oakland, reflected the usual gifts of complimentary lodging, meals and sporting event tickets.
"But while the Senate president's statement totals nine pages, the speaker's runs a whopping 27 pages because of the array of wedding gifts he received.
"Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also filed a disclosure form on Thursday -- 18 pages of high-end investments, including his ownership of a Singapore Airlines jetliner, and income from various movie and real estate ventures.
"He also disclosed 126 gifts, including $150 worth of food and wine from singer
Paul Anka, $100 worth of flowers from actor
Tim Allen and $250 worth of wine, cheese and candy from
Clint Eastwood and his wife.
Sylvester Stallone's gifts to the governor were worth $180 and described as 'cases of water.'"
Is it
post-partisanship, or post-Republicanism? That is the question asked about the governor by AP's Laura Kurtzman. "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made a splash in Washington this week by talking up "post-partisanship" and instructing the president to schmooze his political opponents over cigars.
But the happy world of political cooperation he urged is not the one he has created at home. If it is bipartisanship, then it is of a very different sort.
In California, Schwarzenegger is single-handedly striking deals with the Democratic majority, often leaving his own party on the sidelines and increasingly dejected.
"'
Some of his close advisers, and you know who they are, we believe they have switched out some of his pain medication,' Assemblyman
Bob Huff said. '
And when he comes back, we'll have the governor we once had.'"
Dan Walters writes that
bonds alone are not enough to meet the state's infrastructure needs. "There is, however, a gigantic problem with merely continuing to borrow money. As it is, California is approaching the prudent level of debt that must be repaid out of the state's general fund, like last year's bonds, and the budget is already running multibillion-dollar annual deficits.
"If California is to do what's needed, it must adopt other financing vehicles, such as raising gasoline taxes, imposing fees on property protected by levees and/or going into partnership with private companies to build and perhaps operate projects.
"Any one of those alternatives generates huge political impediments, such as Republicans' pathological fear of taxes or unions' equally unbending opposition to privatization. In the end, however, it's a choice between doing it differently and not doing it at all."
Anaheim Mayor
Curt Pringle is trying to bring an end to
the war between his city and The Happiest Place on Earth. "Pringle is proposing a holistic review of the city's resort district that includes the possibility of workforce housing.
"Until now, Pringle has steadfastly supported Disney's position of keeping certain housing out of the tourist-friendly district. But he floated a compromise plan a day after the entertainment giant sued the city to block a 1,500-unit condo-apartment project near Disneyland from being reconsidered by the City Council.
"'Is there a global settlement that will allow the city to step forward with its head held high and build toward the future?' said Pringle, who introduced his proposal at Tuesday's council meeting. Also backing the plan was Councilman
Harry Sidhu.
"'
I'd like to move this beyond an angry, frustrating debate where some people lose and some people win,' Pringle said.
"Disney seemed unmoved by the overture."
The Chron's Nanette Asimov reports, "California should
consider testing student achievement in the arts, according to a new study that found
only 11 percent of the public schools are meeting state goals for arts instruction.
"By adding such testing, the study reasons, more classroom emphasis would be placed on music, art, drama and dance."
For the record, let it be known that we at the Roundup can
Running Man like it's nobody's business...
The Chron's Jill Tucker reports, "Oakland Unified's state-appointed adminstrator will
close four schools in June because they have too few students and too low test scores.
"Yet the closures announced Wednesday could be but the tip of the iceberg, with more closures seemingly inevitable in coming years, given the district's declining enrollment.
"Oakland has lost 14,000 students over the last six years, and enrollment is expected to shrink by 8,000 more by 2011.
"That's enough students to equal all those currently attending Berkeley, San Carlos and Palo Alto schools -- combined."
Finally, "[a] teenage biker has been hit with what is believed to be
the quickest driving ban ever recorded after being caught over the drink-drive limit - just one day after he passed his test.
"Engineering apprentice
Jason Richards said yesterday that he was 'a bit gutted' and felt stupid for not realising he was over the limit, three hours after having three pints at lunchtime.
"The 18-year-old passed his motorbike test last Friday after a six-hour course paid for by his mother Sue, a book printer at Clowes in Beccles.
"But the next day he was pulled over by police while carrying a pillion passenger and had 44 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath. The legal limit is 35.
He said: '
If I had known I was over the limit I would never have done it. I am a bit gutted really. I had only had my licence 28 hours.'"
