Marisa Lagos looks at howthe oil spill in the Gulf
of Mexico has changed the governor's view on T-Ridge.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger on Monday withdrew his support
for a plan he
championed to allow new offshore oil drilling off Santa
Barbara County,
citing the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Schwarzenegger, whose administration as recently as
Friday defended
the proposed Tranquillon Ridge offshore drilling project,
said images of
the spill in the gulf changed his mind.
"All of you have seen, when you turn on the television,
the
devastation in the gulf, and I'm sure that they also
were assured that
it was safe to drill," he said at a news conference
Monday. "I see on TV
the birds drenched in oil, the fishermen out of work,
the massive oil
spill and oil slick destroying our precious ecosystem.
That will not
happen here in California, and this is why I am withdrawing
my support
for the T-Ridge project."
"Assemblyman Dave Jones leaned in toward his microphone,
hands
punctuating nearly every word, as he scolded two insurance
executives
for premium hikes affecting hundreds of thousands of
Californians.
"Have
you no shame?" asked an indignant Jones, who chairs
the Assembly's
health committee.
"The Sacramento Democrat wasn't playing only to the
audience at the
hearing, which he had called. He also was performing
for his own camera
crew. Staff from his campaign to be California's next
insurance
commissioner was there to film the exchange — perhaps to cut it later
into a TV ad."
Pot, meet kettle.
"Political grandstanding comes with the territory in
Sacramento. Generations of legislators have called
hearings to probe
alleged wrongdoing, puffing themselves up in the process.
But the line
between government service and career advancement is
ever blurrier in a
capital where term limits force legislators to begin
eyeing their next
political landing spot the moment they arrive."
Could Sunday night's debate be a turning point in the race for governor? Steve Harmon examines.
"Poizner eviscerates Whitman for her attempt to dismiss
her 15-month
tenure on Goldman Sachs’ board of directors as an uneventful and trivial
period in her life.
Her comment, that she “fired” the board (quit) because she didn’t
“like the culture” or “didn’t like the management” gave Poizner a pretty
wide point of entry.
“Wow, you really don’t get this, Meg,” he said. “Until you got
caught, you didn’t think anything was wrong.”
"State tax collections plummeted unexpectedly in April,
wiping
out months of steady gains that legislators hoped
would ease their
budget troubles and restore California's economy faster
than experts
predicted.
"Such hope is now fading fast.
"Revenue for April, the biggest revenue month because
it is when most
Californians pay their taxes, lagged projections by
nearly 30% — roughly
$3 billion, according to state officials. The drop was
steep enough to
erase improvements recorded in each of the four previous
months."
Economists and finance officials are scurrying to analyze
the data to
determine what caused the April swoon. Some suspect
it sprang from new
laws that changed the rhythm of tax payments. It could
also reflect the
growth in unemployed residents eligible for refunds.
Meanwhile, opponents of the state's gloal warming law are ready
for November.
The LAT reports, "Backers of a measure to suspend implementation
of the state's
greenhouse gas law until unemployment drops to 5.5% have submitted more
than 800,000 signed petitions to qualify the measure for the November
ballot.
"A coalition of anti-tax and small business groups, with
funding from out-of-state oil companies, held a news
conference in
Sacramento before handing in the petitions.
"Jon Coupal, president
of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn., said the measure
is an effort to
"return California's economy to some semblance of sanity."
Coupal said
the measure would cost the state more than 1 million jobs, far outpacing
any potential job gains from new, "green-tech" jobs.
And finally, still wondering what to get the special
Muslim in your life? How about the home pork detector? Reuters reports, "Scientists in mainly Muslim Kazakhstan
have come up with an instant test
for the presence of pork in food, a popular newspaper
reported on
Monday.
"The plastic-stick test detects food molecules that are found only
in
pork, which is forbidden by Islam but is easily found
in the Central
Asian state, Megapolis weekly said.
"It's no secret that some chefs cheat and add pork
to beef to make the
dish cheaper," the newspaper wrote on Monday, saying
the practice was
widespread in Kazakhstan.
"When you get your beef patty, cut off a couple of
small pieces and drop
them in a glass of water. Stir, shake, put the test
stick in ... In a
minute or two you will see the result."
