You may have seen word of the CSU Stanislaus- Sarah Palin affair. The "Foundation" didn't want anybody to know how much money was in play for Palin, and she certainly wasn't talking. A few students dug through a dumpster or two to find some relevant documents. There were some freedom of information requests that netted a few more documents as well.
But it's all a waste of time, at least according to Sarah Palin.
"A suggestion for those Dumpster divers: Instead of trying to tell people to sit down and shut up ... spend some time telling people like our president to finally stand up," she said.
The material recovered by the students, which detailed perks such as first-class airfare for two and deluxe hotel accommodations, prompted California Attorney General Jerry Brown to launch an investigation into the finances of the university's foundation arm and allegations that the nonprofit violated public disclosure laws.
"Jerry Brown and friends, come on. This is California," Palin retorted. "Do you not have anything else to do?" (AP)
Clearly Palin just doesn't get it. This isn't about telling anybody to shut up, it is about transparency at a state connected institution. It's fine that they are getting Palin to speak there. I mean, I wouldn't pay to see her, but if they feel that's a good way to make money, fine. But the people of California deserve to know how much Palin is taking from the "CSU-Stanislaus Foundation" in exchange for speaking.
But no, with Palin, it's all about blaming others first. How dare you seek transparency?
Flash back to 2005. In those heady days, Leland Yee was an Assemblyman who got a big piece of legislation passed and signed by the Governor. The legislation prevented the sale and rental of violent video games that depict serious injury to human beings in a manner that is especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, to consumers who are under 18 years old.
The legislation was eventually struck down under the First Amendment by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in Schwarzenegger v. Video Software Dealers Association. Now that case is heading up to the big-time, as the Supreme Court has granted writ of certiorari on the case. It will be heard in the next term:
Schwarzenegger said he was pleased the high court will review that decision. "We have a responsibility to our kids and our communities to protect against the effects of games that depict ultra-violent actions, just as we already do with movies," the governor said. ...
Michael D. Gallagher, president of the Entertainment Software Association, said video games should get the same First Amendment protections as the court reaffirmed last week for videos.
Given last week's ruling, "we are hopeful that the court will reject California's invitation to break from these settled principles by treating depictions of violence, especially those in creative works, as unprotected by the First Amendment," he said.
Leland Yee, the California state senator who wrote the video game ban, said the Supreme Court obviously doesn't think the animal cruelty video ban and the violent video game ban are comparable. If they thought that, he said, the justices would not be reviewing the Ninth Circuit's decision to throw out the video game ban. (WaPo)
Now, the big story here is that just last week the Court came out with a decision that struck down a law that banned the sale of so-called "crushing" videos as overbroad and not narrowly tailored. Yee and the state will be arguing that this law is sufficiently narrow and different from that case (Stevens) that this law should be upheld.
While it isn't all that common to see multiple cases on similar issues being taken up so frequently, it is possible that at least 4 justices on the court see an opportunity to futher define the counters of First Amendment jurisprudence with this case. Which side of the line the video game law resides on is the $64,000 question, and we won't get an answer on that for a while now.
I live in San Francisco, and if you asked me which of our legislators I would have written that sentence about, my first guess would not have been Leland Yee. You'd think that would be one of our two openly gay legislators. Well, I'm sure they get their fair share of homophobic hate mail, but today, I've got some hate mail from the Office of Senator Leland Yee. It's always fun to go through and vote on the best hate mail, so there's a poll after the flip.
Apparently, some of the right-wingers are getting very protective of the resigning Gov. Palin. They really do not appreciate that Sen. Yee has been asking questions of CSU-Stanislaus about how much she was paid, and what were the arrangements of the deal. While Yee isn't trying to block the appearance, rather just open the contract up to the light, that part isn't getting the attention of our resident right-wing talk show hosts. And then you get filtered down to the even more mentally imbalanced folks, and this is where you land.
Now, much of this is how shall we say this, rather gross. I'm going to go ahead and put it over the flip, rather than assaulting the eyes of folks who land on the home page. These are really quite offensive, caution is advised. Check them out over the flip...
For many elected officials, it is either common practice or legal requirement that they disclose their schedule. They don't need to disclose what was said at the schedule, just who they were meeting with. After all, we are there bosses, right?
But the California Legislature? Not so much. The AP tried for quite a while to get access to legislators schedules through the Open Records laws. Those requests were denied. They then tried simply asking the legislators. One, Senator Leland Yee, agreed and wanted to open up his schedule.
The Legislature was having none of that:
The rules committees for the Assembly and Senate, which oversee the operations of the state Legislature, refused to provide lawmakers' schedules, pointing to a provision in the Legislative Open Records Act that excludes "preliminary drafts, notes, legislative memoranda, personnel, medical or similar files."
They also cited security concerns and a 1991 state Supreme Court decision that allowed then-Gov. George Deukmejian to keep his schedule private under a separate state open records law.
In a letter to Yee, Secretary of the Senate Gregory Schmidt said the Senate had an obligation to protect citizens' rights to "complain, chastise, petition or even praise" their elected officials without third parties knowing about it. (AP)
Um, yeah, that's what this is about. The rights of the downtrodden lobbyist for anonymity. What a crock of BS.
Look, if it's good enough for the president and the governor, it's good enough for the legislators. They weren't even asking for the content of their discussion, simply for who they were meeting with.
The Legislature occasionally distresses about their low approval ratings. But, you want to improve the public trust in their government? Why don't you start with providing the people of the state of California information about what exactly is going on in Sacramento.
A couple of weeks ago, Dave wrote about Moby's work to prevent murder and domestic violence in support of a bill by Senator Leland Yee. Moby's concert tomorrow at the Warfield in San Francisco will benefit domestic violence shelters.
This week, Senator Yee has made some progress on his front. His bill to earmark money from the crime victims fund for domestic violence shelters has gotten one step closer to reality.
The emergency bill authorized the transfer of $16.3 million to domestic violence shelters. While it doesn't sound like much, it will likely be enough to keep many of them running through the year.
"Governor Schwarzenegger has put women and children at risk; he will now have a second chance to do the right thing," said Yee. "Each passing day only results in the closing of more domestic violence shelters and victims facing homelessness or returning to their abuser."
"In order to keep the remaining domestic violence shelters open, it is absolutely vital that the Governor immediately sign this bill into law," said Yee. "Failure to do so will only result in increased health care, law enforcement and other costs to the state. But more critically, it puts victims of domestic violence and their children in grave danger."
Schwarzenegger has said that he's not inclined to sign the bill as the fund is heading towards depletion, but Arnold isn't known as a man who gets himself dead set on anything. We'll see if he takes the initiative to help prevent some very serious crimes.
Sen. Yee (D-SF) recently passed SB 242, which would prohibit businesses denying services based on the language the customer spoke, with some exceptions for business transactions that require spoken language. The law grew out of a controversial decision by the Ladies' Professional Golf Association (LPGA) to require that the pro golfers speak English, despite the fact that golf doesn't really require spoken language. But, don't worry, California still has some of those super classy folk! This is from an email received by Sen. Yee's office:
You communist! If you live in this country, learn English, or get the hell out! Go live in China or Cuba and see row much you can yap your freaking gums about Chinese or Spanish. It's a**holes like you who keep English from being our official language. The LPGA had it right! I don't give a shit how many Asians are in the LPGA. Tell your fellow yellow folk to learn English or GET OUT!!!"
I wonder if this guy feels the same about the Navajo language?
The session ended early Saturday morning in a fit of panicked voting and negotiations. To put it mildly, there were a lot of questions left unanswered, and a lot of things left undone. Some of these uncompleted items will leave Californians in serious danger.
As the session was drawing towards a close, the Yacht Party Senators collectively said they would not vote for any supermajority measures unless some of their own proposals, already defeated, were resurrected. It is just another example of the Yacht Party using their minority veto to impose policies rejected by large majorities of the state. It is an act of political ransom, and entirely unacceptable.
However, this act has real consequences. Specifically, I point to the domestic violence shelters that Dave mentioned last week. Senator Yee's bill to take $16 million from non-general fund monies for the shelters was nearly unanimously approved by the assembly. However when it returned to the Senate for concurrence of a few minor changes, the Senate Republicans refused to support a measure they had only a few days ago supported.
"I am deeply disappointed that petty Sacramento politics and end-of session drills were put before the lives of victims," said Yee. "It was absolutely vital to approve this legislation. Failure to pass this bill only puts more lives at risk. I will reintroduce this bill again and again and again until we finally save our domestic violence shelters. Anything less is irresponsible, and not only increases health care and law enforcement costs, but puts victims and their children in grave danger."
The short-term fights are starting to be VERY short-term. Following up on an earlier item, Democrats in the legislature plan to hold a vote on prison reform as early as Thursday, that would clarify $1.2 billion dollars in cuts. And they don't need any Republican votes to do it.
Over objections from Republican lawmakers, the Legislature plans to take up a majority-vote prison package Thursday that is designed to reduce the state's inmate population by 27,300 and is backed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The overall package would save $1.2 billion in part by reducing certain property crimes to misdemeanors, placing low-level parolees on global positioning system monitoring and sending older, infirm prisoners to house arrest or medical facilities to serve the final 12 months of their sentences.
The initial plan included an independent sentencing commission that could report back on changes to the runaway sentencing laws at the heart of the prison crisis. I don't see that mentioned in this article, or anywhere else. Hopefully that remains part of the solution. And like the rest, lawmakers can enact it on a majority-vote basis (which means that the solutions wouldn't take effect for 90 days). Darrell Steinberg reiterated his support today.
"I'm confident we'll have the votes," said Steinberg, who will caucus with Democrats tomorrow
Steinberg said the Senate would vote on the governor's plan, but with slight modifications to clarify which elderly and infirm inmates could be eligible for alternative custody and release.
"The intent has never been to carte blanche release any inmates, elderly, infirm inmates," he said. "It never has been, but there has been some concern expressed, so we want to make sure that there are very tight criteria that would even allow for the possibility of allowing elderly and infirm inmates to be released."
I prefer the People's Budget Fix, which would stop putting nonviolent drug offenders in overcrowded prisons, focus on reducing recidivism through rehabilitation and treatment, institute risk-based parole supervision rather than blanket supervision that inevitably raises the rates of recidivism (often on technical violations of parole), and address the most ineffective areas of the criminal justice system - the burdensome, brutal three strikes law, and the death penalty. The People's Budget Fix coalition held a rally today. You can hear Leland Yee speaking about it here and here.
And I hope they keep fighting. I hope we have a sane criminal justice policy caucus in the legislature as a counterweight to the tough on crime troglodytes. But while the Democratic/Schwarzenegger package isn't perfect, but it's the first step in the right direction in 30 years. Particularly if the sentencing commission is included in the package, it will be historic and very important. We will finally end the long march of building more prisons and warehousing inmates without giving them the tools to actually rehabilitate themselves and become productive members of society, and toward a future where we spend less, create more productive citizens and actually make our state safer.
One of the tragedies of the budget "deal" was that many domestic violence shelters' budgets were dramatically slashed. Many of them would simply have no other choice than closing their doors either permanently or for part of the year. Obviously, this is a dangerous "solution" that emerged from the minds in the Horseshoe.
Sen. Leland Yee (D-SF/Peninsula), on the other hand, was no huge budget supporter. He voted for a handful of the bills, but voted No more than most senators. And then Governor Tuffy McBloodyHands decides to veto funding completely for 94 centers. Now, this may or may not be legal, but something needs to change. Thinking about this horrible disaster forced him to work on some other solutions. He thinks he's on to one with a bill he's bringing to the legislature.
"I don't know why he did it. This puts kids and moms at risk," said state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco/San Mateo.
The program faced a 20 percent budget reduction before Schwarzenegger completely eliminated funding for 94 domestic violence shelters in the state.
"It is absolutely vital that we keep domestic violence shelters open," said Yee, who voted against cuts to the domestic violence program. The veto increases health care, law enforcement and other costs to the state and puts victims of domestic violence and their children in grave danger, he said. ...
Yee said his legislation allocates $16.3 million from the victims' compensation fund, with a current balance of $136 million, to the Domestic Violence Program. (San Mateo Daily Journal 8/5/09)
Hopefully this is an urgency measure, but the Governor's people are saying that the fund is being spent at a pace that it will be gone by 2012. Yee debates those figures, but I'm sure the Legislative Analyst will have something to say on this one.
I headed southwest a few miles to the edge of the City this morning to grab some pancakes. Now, typically this isn't blog fodder, or, well at least not fodder for Calitics. Maybe some other blogger would write a hilarious post about pancakes, but not this one. This pancake breakfast was different, it was a town hall for Sen. Leland Yee.
Now, what he said was nothing that you haven't heard a million times here. But he did a good job of laying out all of the facts of the budget mess, and why he voted against many of the cuts in the budget deal.
As we head into the post-May 19 days, we need to do everything we possibly can to ensure that we explain to the public what is going on. Explain to them what the Republicans are trying to do to our government and the critical, and popular, services it provides. Going directly to the people is a great way to start. Legislators and other leaders of the party and other progressive organizations should be going directly to the people. While town hall events, like this one that Gloria Romero was hosting, are of course coming from some political self-interest. Nonetheless, town halls are a good way to do this.
There are a few weeks in each legislative session that I get simply barraged with press releases from legislative staff. And this week is one of them, as the deadline for bills to pass out of their respective policy committees is on Friday. But before I move on... here's a rant:
First, props for trying to reach out to bloggers, that's a point for you. But I would give one point of free advice to all you press flacks out there, please include the text of the press release in the email. I really don't want to open a PDF just so that I can get the privilege of having all of your pretty formatting work out every time. And by text, I mean text, not an image of text. Ok end rant.
Now, to some of the actual bills that have emerged from policy committees that are taking up space in my inbox. First, how about one from an environmental champion, Lois Wolk:
Wolk´s Senate Bill 679 prohibits the use of state park lands for non-park purposes without legislative approval. Even with legislative approval, the bill would not allow a project to move forward unless the use of the park land was compensated for with a parks´ designation for land with equal environmental and fair market value. (Press Release here)
And how about a couple from Sen. Leland Yee. SB 557 would allow law enforcement to sieze property from human traffickers. And in response to the SF Bay Oil Spill last year, he has gotten SB 1217 passed out of the policy committee. It would regulate bar pilots and provide more transparency in the process.
And how about one from freshman Assembly member Joan Buchanan? Her AB 1317 was passed out of the Assembly Committee on Health. The bill would provide access to parent of newborns for tests to screen for a wide range of disorders, such as sickle cell anemia.
I suppose I am encouraging more emails with this post, so I guess all you Assembly staff can feel free to shoot me more emails with tales of your boss's big breakthrough.
Under current law, prosecutors can incarcerate domestic violence victims to make them testify against the perpetrator. Unfortunately, this has the effect of scaring many victims out of testifying. The practice was previously banned for sexual assault victims. Well, today, consider that practice an historical one for domestic violence victims as well:
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) today signed into law a bill that victim advocates believe will result in more women coming forward to law enforcement after falling victim to domestic violence. Senate Bill 1356, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), protects domestic violence survivors from the threat of incarceration when they refuse to testify against their abuser in court. The law mirrors an existing statute for sexual assault victims.
Sheila Kuehl, Chair of the California Senate Health Committee that is holding a hearing on AB X1 1, the Nunez-Schwarzenegger health coverage bill, has just announced that a vote on the bill by the committee will not take place until Monday. She announced that the delay in the vote on the bill was requested by Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, who is a coauthor of the bill [...]
The building is rife with rumors as to Senators being asked to step down from the committee or asking to be taken off of it, and other procedural moves to get the bill out of the committee. With vote postponed, that gives additional time to possibly amend the bill, change the committee membership, and for those on one side or the other of the issue to bombard their Senators with calls, emails, and visits. The outcome is unknown as well as whether Perata will take extraordinary measures to move the bill.
With the LAO report today giving little cover to those pushing the reform (if the average premium is $300 per person, as the LAO expects, the program is underfunded in the first year), and both Kuehl, Yee, and possibly Gloria McLeod wavering, obviously some serious efforts are being made to turn this ship around. The SF Chronicle had a very good article about this today.
Stay tuned. It should be a wild weekend in the Capitol.
The massive health care reform plan brokered by Governor Schwarzenegger and Speaker Nuñez has been fraying at the edges a bit in recent weeks. State hospitals appeared to waver on supporting the fees that would be charged to them under the plan, and hearings in the Senate Health Committee were delayed a week pending an analysis from the Legislative Analyst. That hearing is currently scheduled for Thursday tomorrow, but State Senator Leland Yee just put a major wrench into that plan.
On the eve of a hearing for landmark health legislation, a spokesman for Sen. Leland Yee said the San Francisco Democrat will oppose the health care measure. The move throws into limbo whether the legislation has the necessary votes to move forward.
"The costs are a big concern for him," said Adam Keigwin, a spokesman for Yee, regarding the $14 billion health care price tag that coincides with a projected $14.5 billion budget hole [...]
Keigwin said Yee conferred with labor leaders in his district over the weekend who were "almost unanimous" in urging Yee "to vote no."
With Health Committee chair Sheila Kuehl already opposed to the bill, this means that it would be unable to get out of committee without a Republican crossover vote. And even with moderate (for the GOP) Abel Maldonado on the committee, that is unlikely.
I don't think this is the end of the bill by a longshot. Yee or Maldonado could have their arm twisted, or Kuehl could let the bill pass without a recommendation.
What happens next is unclear, though options certainly remain for passage.
For instance, Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata could ask Kuehl to grant the measure a courtesy vote, allowing it to proceed to the Senate floor despite her personal opposition.
In an interview Tuesday morning, Kuehl reiterated her position, saying, "I've been very clear with all the advocates and everybody that I do not favor the bill."
She said she had not been contacted by Perata or his staff to support the bill. Asked if she would consider granting a courtesy vote if she was, she replied that she "can't answer that."
"In the Senate, we generally are equal as members," Kuehl added.
Don Perata could also kick Yee off the committee and replace him, although he hasn't exactly been wildly supportive of the bill thus far.
What will happen is anyone's guess. But for the moment, this is a major blow to efforts to overhaul health care in California.
There are rumors that the report of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office, to be released soon-tonight or tomorrow morning-will not be all that favorable. That report had been sought by Senator Perata in December to further vet and test the assumptions made so that voters would not be faced with a ballot measure with shaky financial underpinnings in a year of a massive budget deficit, cuts in other programs including health, and uncertainties.
Making it even less likely that Perata will act. But the pressure on him must be intense.
After reading the electoral winds or the home fires, or what not, Sen Leland Yee has decided to stay out of the CA-12 race:
I am humbled by the outpouring of support from the people of San Francisco and San Mateo County who have encouraged me to run for Congress. However, at this time, my family and I have decided it is best to continue the work started in the State Senate. I am committed to addressing the critical issues currently before the State Legislature, including providing universal healthcare and protecting services for our working families. In the years to come, I look forward to working with the next member of Congress in serving the residents of the Peninsula.
With Yee out, it's hard to imagine anybody else who can come close to challenging Jackie Speier. But, all the same, I hear from Ms. Speier that she will be diligently beating the bushes for votes between now and June, and then November.
I'm currently at the Leo J Ryan memorial park for Jackie Speier's official congressional campaign kickoff. Wow. Not only is it the nicest day imaginable, but the crowd is amazingly huge (I'll have pics up later). I'm told the number is 812 signed in with over 40 of her 92 endorsed elected officials on hand. Anna Eshoo. Mike Thompson. John Burton. Scores of volunteers. Hot dogs and a cotton candy machine. The operation is top notch.
If it is possible to win a campaign with one event, the Speier campaign may have pulled it off today. The overwhelming show of support and organization is going to make anyone think long and hard about getting in the race. Speier's popularity in the district is legendary, but today was a powerful reminder of how deep that support runs. There's a poll after the jump asking your predictions as to whether you think Leland Yee gets in. I'm voting no.
Updated with pictures and speech exerts and news coverage and videos.
