Majority Leader Harry Reid (R) hugs Sen. Chris Dodd. Sen. Tom Harkin looks on.
With just the 60 votes they needed, the Democrats got the okay today to begin debating an $848 billion health [...]
Majority Leader Harry Reid (R) hugs Sen. Chris Dodd. Sen. Tom Harkin looks on.
With just the 60 votes they needed, the Democrats got the okay today to begin debating an $848 billion health [...]

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark.
Sen. Blanche Lincoln said minutes ago that she will vote to let the debate start on health care reform.
The Arkansas Democrat was the last holdout Majority Leader Harry Reid needed to start deliberations on the most massive overhaul ever of [...]

Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., will vote yes health bill debate.
Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu just announced she’s going to vote later today to allow Majority Leader Harry Reid’s health care reform bill to move to a formal debate.
That [...]
Longtime Fresno lawyer Phil Fullerton says it's the right decision to hold the trials of the five terrorists in federal court in New York: "Political attacks on the Obama administration's decision to hold the trial of five terrorists in federal court in New York rather than have a trial before" [...]
Between San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom ripping off his mike this week in an interview and GOP gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman weighing in on the media, we must say: man, some of...
As criticism rages this week over whether the Obama administration overstated the number of jobs created by economic stimulus spending, California officials issued a memo Friday giving state...

Sen. Barbara Boxer
On the eve of what will be the most important vote ever on health care reform Sen. Barbara Boxer spent 30 minutes making the Democrats’ case for beginning debate on a far-reaching $848 billion bill.
“What we have before us,’’ said Boxer, D-Calif., [...]
No one’s more surprised than we are to find that the New York Times, no less, already has acknowledged the global warming oops of the year:
“Hundreds of private e-mails and documents hacked from a computer server at a British university are causing a stir among global warming skeptics, who [...]
It didn't take long for California's groundbreaking decision on energy efficient televisions to go national .
One day after the Wednesday decision by the California Energy Commission to limit...
Well, that didn't work out.
The much ballyhooed recall effort against Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, died with a whimper today. Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced that of the...As folks worldwide are pouring over the data broken free from the clutches of those who would keep it secret, we’ve come across a pretty good summary of the data that reveals how global warming alarmists may have cooked the books to make their case (and protect their research grants) [...]
The effort of two Orange County GOP activists to recall Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was thrown out today by Secretary of State Debra Bowen after it was determined that insufficient signatures had been gathered to qualify the measure for the ballot.
Corona del Mar attorneys Mike Schroeder and Lee Lowrey were [...]
As we noted today, California’s nannies have ordered us no longer to buy and sell TVs they don’t like, even if we do like them and don’t mind paying to run them. Thanks so much Big Brothers, and you know who you are.
Well, despite the fearful likelihood that [...]
A new Rasmussen Reports poll shows Republican Meg Whitman in a dead heat with Democrat Jerry Brown in the race for governor, a big swing from less than two months ago when Rasmussen showed Brown 9 percentage points ahead and this Field Poll showed him 20 points ahead.
The [...]
America's Roman Catholic bishops aren't completely obsessed by abortion and gay marriage. My former colleague Ann Rodgers, one of the best religion reporters around, reports in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that bishops have been battling over whether to approve a retro English translation of the Mass with more traditional (and, [...]
Good news today from the backstage maneuverings on the Senate Democrats' healthcare reform bill. As The New Republic reported, Democratic leaders have agreed to give more flexibility to millions of Americans who get their health insurance today through their workplace.
First, a little [...]
Have we heard this before? Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger - the enabler of last January’s historic tax increase - says now he is opposed to tax increases to close the state’s (latest) budget deficit.
Memo to the governor: Where was that conviction a few months ago?
There are those who get upset just from looking in another person's direction. The mere mention of the other guy's name, the sight of his hair is enough to send them into a tailspin and launch them into convulsions.
And so it goes with the Palestinians and the Israelis. [...]
The universal wisdom is that there is absolutely no chance that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed can get anything but a swift conviction and the death penalty. The wisdom also says that it matters not whether the trial is in New York, another American city, or on the moon. No jury anywhere [...]
Interesting trend to watch as Palinpalooza wends it's way through America: How Republicans react to her. The ones who want to cuddle up to conservatives and the Tea Par-tayers will sing her...
....nothing. Oh, and you sick freaks thought thought she was going to air something like this ?
The Miss California USA beauty pageant is anything but dull and this year's gig -- on Sunday --...I met Tim Russert only once, before a "Meet the Press" debate between two Senate candidates from my home state of Pennsylvania. Russert was engaging, impressively au courant with Keystone State politics and, well, a nice guy. I also admired his work, and I was sad when he died before his [...]

Rupf
Contra Costa Country Sheriff Warren Rupf, who considered running for the 11th Congressional District himself, has endorsed Lodi grapegrower Brad Goehring in the 2010 Republican primary.
“Brad Goehring is a candidate that understands the nature of the law enforcement mission and the tools we need to accomplish [...]
We've seen taxes on death, luxury and sin, and now the Senate is poised to impose one on vanity. To help cover the cost of health insurance subsidies for the working class, the bill cobbled together by [...]

Environmentalists will hold a fundraiser next month for the state Attorney General campaign of Assemblyman Pedro Nava, D-Santa Barbara, right in one of his chief rivals’ backyards.
The Sunday, Dec. 9 event – for which tickets cost $100 to $500 each – will be held [...]
California Attorney General Jerry Brown ruled Thursday that the California Citizens Compensation Commission can cut the salaries of state lawmakers, setting in motion an 18% pay cut for members of the Assembly and Senate. The salary reduction will take effect Dec. 7, and reduce legislators' pay from $116,208 a' [...]
Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave an expansive interview to ABC News' Teddy Davis today, covering everything from Sarah Palin to 2010 Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown --...
[...] Responding to Obama’s Asian trip Doug Bandow did a piece consistent with what he’s been saying a long time (he did a book advocating military withdrawal from Korea in 1996) on what kinds of policy changes might ensue if we really rethought our policies in line with changed circumstances. [...]
Just a few minutes ago, at the University of California Board of Regents meeting being held today at UCLA, the board formally approved a 32% fee hike for students in the UC System. The Regents claim they have no other choice because the state is facing huge budget shortfalls next [...]
Former Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher’s district director, Jennifer Barton, has been selected BART’s new executive manager of external affairs.
BART General Manager Dorothy Dugger told her team this morning of her choice of Barton, who has been the face of District 10 for seven years. (See memo below.)
Barton has been working for [...]
Tuesday’s dismal turnout at the polls added fuel to the call to do away with polling places and conduct elections entirely by mail, as is done in Oregon, two small California counties and at least one California city.
Just 9,172 - 4 percent - of the 72nd Assembly District’s voters went [...]
Some days the good news just keeps comin’. Attorney General (soon to be governor?) Jerry Brown says the state Constitution permits the California Citizens Compensation Commission to reduce legislators and other elected officials’ salaries in the middle of their terms.
All together now: Hallelujah!
Legislative leaders resisted the Commission’s contention that [...]
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom -- seen as unusually elusive since his recent withdrawal from the 2010 Democratic governor's race -- suggested to KCBS radio Thursday that the press is...Occasionally we get good news from the state’s capital and today is one of those days. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he won’t run for another political office.
We can all breath a sigh of relief. The Terminator has presided over arguably the largest increase in state taxes in history, the [...]
Over on the OC Watchdog blog, we’ve got a report about Democratic State Senator Lou Correa’s mysterious new challenger, Sue Perez, who has filed paperwork with the California Secretary of State’s office to run in the 34th Senate District, but who is still registered to vote in the 33rd.
Loyal [...]
It looks like newly elected Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, will be joining the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the Science and Technology Committee.
The House...
[...]
Republican U.S. Senate candidate and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina is in Washington, D.C. this week, and in a meeting with the news reporters she focused on her Democratic opponent if she...So much for getting a break from the state budget.
On this week's Capital Notes Podcast, we take a look at this week's prediction of a $20.7 billion budget gap and what that means for lawmakers once they return to Sacramento.
Capitol Weekly's Anthony York and I also discuss the staffing changes [...]
U.S. Senate candidate Carly Fiorina has found a friend in John Mack , chairman and CEO of Morgan Stanley, who's giving a fancy fundraiser for her today in New York.
The event hosted by...
[...] 
Majority leader Harry Reid and Senate Democrats unveil health bill.
The long-awaited Democratic health bill that Majority Leader Harry Reid will bring to the Senate floor was unveiled tonight after the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the bill [...]
That's $26,000 for a single year at a University of California campus, not the four usually needed to graduate. The UC Board of Regents voted today to increase basic education fees for undergraduates by 32% to more than $10,000 for the 20010-11 academic year. [...]
GOP Senate hopeful Carly Fiorina added another feather to her ever-growing cap of conservative endorsements today: Senator James Inhofe.
That's right -- James M. Inhofe, aka Senator Climate...A controversial resolution calling for a non-interventionist foreign policy – meaning a withdrawal from Afghanistan and Iraq – was shot down by the Alameda County Republican Central Committee last night, even as the committee’s chair changed hands between the party’s warring factions.
Former chairman Jerry Salcido – among a faction [...]
If you need examples of why giving people power over other people is more problematic than beneficial, consider this item out of Palm Beach, Fla.
“An overgrown lawn could cost a homeowner $1,000 a day,” reports the Palm Beach Post.
The city’s considering quadrupling its fine for long grass in private [...]