[courtesy of California Progress Report]

The James Irvine Foundation has released a 44 page report, "New Experiments in Minority Voter Mobilization: A Report on the California Votes Initiative",that is the product of a multi-year study of infrequent voters.

The authors of this report, Melissa R. Michelson of California State University East Bay,Lisa García Bedolla of the University of California at Irvine, and Donald P. Green of Yale University are all respected scholars. Green is the author of Get Out The Vote! How to Increase Voter Turnout, published in 2004 by the Brookings Institution Press.

While the information here is of tremendous interest to those involved in the hurly burly of political campaigns, there is a very important point they make as well: The electorate that is turning out does not represent California's diversity. At the beginning of the report, they say:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

This afternoon the Governor announced that he was proposing $9 billion in "comprehensive water infrastructure' spending plan and that it would be contained in two bills--authored by Assembly Republican Leader Michael Villines and Republican Senator Dave Cogdill. Before receiving the Governor's press release, the talk of the town was about a $5 to 6 billion dollar set of bonds.

Neither of these bills announced by the Governor are in print, and there is no indication of whether they are general obligation bonds or revenue bonds. There is no description of them on either the Assembly or Senate Republican sites or that of the Governor's authors.

Senator Perata has the only bill in print in the special session on water--SB 1 XX (also denominated SB2X 1) which he introduced last Friday and which we've already described in some detail in an article on Sunday.

He also has a bill, SB 1002, passed in the regular session that is on the Governor's desk and ready for his signature or veto.

Here are the releases from Perata and the Governor as they contain the latest information as to where we are in the special session on water:

Perata Statement on Governor’s Water Proposal for the Special Session

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Negotiations are in full gear, primarily concerning the interim land use measures which would be put in place until a flood control plan for the Central Valley is completed in 2012. (These discussions principally affect AB 5 and SB 5.)

PCL staff member Jonas Minton is playing a key role in these negotiations. He is seeking to ensure that new flood policy incorporates wise land use into the flood control plan and provides complementary benefits to both public safety and the environment.

Nail-biting...

Tracking the flood negotiations right now feels like judging a complicated gymnastics routine on the balance beam. With each move, we can't help but hold our breath until the gymnasts land safely. And we know that we won't be able to breathe easy until Senator Steinberg and the other flood bill authors finish their routine (i.e. release the negotiated package of flood legislation).

Among other crucial aspects of the package, we're focused on bill language that requires the adoption of flood control measures that also provide ecosystem benefits. This specifically includes:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

What a difference a week makes!

Last week: no budget, and little progress on flood legislation
This week: a budget (hurrah!), and a flurry of activity on flood legislation

Is that light I see at the end of the tunnel?

The various pieces of flood legislation still alive in the state legislature are, at long last, MOVING! Flood bill authors and staff are working together on crafting a comprehensive flood management solution for California. PCL and other environmental groups spent all of Wednesday in meetings with some of the legislative staff working the flood bills, as well as with the Department of Water Resources and the staff in the office of the Speaker of the Assembly, Fabian Núñez.

We are hopeful that a strong package will be presented to the Legislature soon, a package that keeps the best of AB 5, AB 70, AB 156, AB 162, AB 1452, SB 5, and SB 17.

And now, we travel inside the mind of a typical reader to answer your subconscious questions and concerns.

[cue fog machine, haunting music...]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Gary A. Patton
Executive Director
Planning and Conservation League

Last week we reported that key flood bills (AB 5, AB 70, and AB 162) advanced through to Appropriations just before the policy committee deadline.

The authors of all the various flood bills pending in the Legislature have committed to work together during negotiations this summer, to pass the best possible flood policy package. Because several of the key flood bills have similar provisions, some legislative "vehicles" (lobbyist lingo for "bills") may be scrapped for parts and not make it through recess, requiring strong cooperation between the various authors.

In this week's installment of our Flood Policy series we'll take a look at the nuts and bolts of good flood policy.

Part III: The 2007 Flood Package: Flood Priorities Worth Fighting For

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

With Convention over, a sense of normalcy will return to CMR. We still have lots of multimedia that we will get up over the next few days (we haven't even touched our video camera footage yet). That said, one piece of video we wish we had recorded but never got a chance to was Senator Chris Dodd's intimate blogger circle discussion. Luckily, Calitics is happy to provide.

To the crime of Driving while Black, we can add Driving while Latino. That's the conclusion of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, after an exhaustive 64,000 person interview. While the study's authors caution that there could be other variables influencing the data, "Police were much more likely to threaten or use force against blacks and Hispanics than against whites in any encounter, whether at a traffic stop or elsewhere."

Governor Schwarzenegger has bought them. Speaker Nunez has bought them. But do carbon offset purchases make a wit of difference? That's the question the Sac Bee poses here in the type of wonkish policy orientated article that makes this recovering scientist smile. Their conclusion: maybe.