The Bee's Peter Hecht previews one of the many deals sure to real their head as the
end of the legislative year approaches .
"California card
clubs and tribal casinos, long bitter political rivals,
are working
together in a concerted, behind-the-scenes drive to legalize Internet
poker in the Golden State.
The
effort to create an online California "Internet poker consortium" is
being led by a wealthy Riverside County tribe, the
Morongo Band of
Mission Indians, and by card clubs including the Commerce
Casino in Los
Angeles County.
They are dispatching lobbyists to the capital and
privately courting other tribes and poker rooms to
build political
momentum for a gambling enterprise run by a consortium
of tribes and
card rooms. The state's 60 card clubs and more than 100 federally
recognized Indian tribes would be eligible to participate."
Kevin Yamamura looks at how Eunice Shriver shaped the governor's political career.
If not for Eunice Kennedy Shriver, Arnold Schwarzenegger might never have become governor of California."
OK, stop. Meditate on that. Exhale. Continue...
"Shriver,
who died Tuesday at age 88, pushed her celebrity son-in-law into public
service roles, none greater than his successful bid
for governor in
2003.
"As Schwarzenegger tells it, he was only going to run
in the recall election if his wife – Shriver's daughter, Maria – signed off on the idea. After growing up in a political
family, Maria Shriver saw Schwarzenegger as an escape
from that life. She broke into tears when he raised
the idea of running for governor.
"But the bottom line was her mother, Eunice Kennedy
Shriver" Schwarzenegger recalled during a May speech in San
Jose. "She's an unbelievable mother-in-law. She was always very supportive of whatever I did.
"And so she told Maria, she said, 'Look, I know from my brothers, when
they have something in their gut you can never go and
stop them. You
can't. You've got to be with it. You've got to be part of the team.'
And she talked Maria into it, and so that's how we then went out and we
ran."
Martin Wiscol reports Gavin Newsom has Proposition 13 in his sites.
Does anyone else around here appreciate the irony that
proponents of Proposition 13 might have to turn to Jerry Brown as their best hope?
"Gubernatorial hopeful Gavin Newsom pulled few punches
in laying out
his vision at a town hall Tuesday night – and acknowledged that some of
his ideas are opposed by the majority of Californians.
"The San
Francisco mayor, who ignited controversy when he began
marrying
same-gender couples in 2004, touted his support for services for
illegal immigrants, for a public component to universal
health care and
for reducing the two-thirds legislative majority required to approve
the budget.
"He also made the case for removing industrial and
commercial properties from Proposition 13 tax protection, although he
stopped short of endorsing such a move.
"I'm not a poster child
for playing along, for playing it safe," he told the enthusiastic,
standing-room-only crowd of about 300 at Santa Ana College. "Now more
than ever, we need more courage among our politicians."
Meanwhile, Antonio Villaraigosa seems to be making more enemies
among unions in Los Angeles. Howard Blume reports, "Los
Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday he will push the school
district to allow outside operators to bid for control
of hundreds of
campuses, a move he described as the centerpiece of education
reform
for his second term.
"The proposal drew the ire of the teachers union, which
has
strongly criticized the mayor's own school-improvement efforts at 10
schools, including Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights.
Villaraigosa, in
turn, called the union "the biggest defender of the status quo."
"The mayor's goal, embodied in part in a proposal by Board of
Education
member Yolie Flores Aguilar, would let charter-school organizations,
the mayor's nonprofit and other groups compete to run 50 new schools
scheduled to open over the next four years. The school
board is
scheduled to take up that motion later this month."
And finally, from our Marblehead, Ohio bureau, AP reports,
"A woman in Ohio is telling a fish story about one that got away — from a bird, and damaged her car. Authorities in northwest Ohio say the fish — a Lake Erie freshwater drum, known as a sheepshead — smashed a car windshield Tuesday when an eagle dropped its catch from a height
of about 40 feet."
Ah, if only we were Washington Redskins fans, we could
make a joke about how another eagle can't hold on to a catch...
