[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Californian leadersare panning President Bush's offshore drilling plan. "The Bush plan isa hoax. It will neither reduce gas prices nor increase energyindependence. It just gives millions more acres to the same companiesthat are sitting on nearly 68 million acres of public lands and coastalareas," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Senators Dianne Feinstein andBarbara Boxer had harsh words as well.

Assemblymember Pedro Nava of the 35th Assembly District explains further in today's California Progress Report why Bush's drilling plan won't lower oil prices."I suggest that President Bush read the National Research Council ofthe National Academy of Sciences report prepared in 1991 at hisfather’s request while he was president. That report found that therewas insufficient scientific data to permit leasing in sensitive oceanwaters. You could not secure adequate protection for the marineenvironment and drill for oil."

California lawmakers have approved legislation banning restaurants and bakeries from using trans fats. AB 97, proposed by Assemblymember Tony Mendoza (D-Artesia), will now go before the governor.

There's more... 

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Carlos Mauricio, Center for Justice & Accountability (CJA) client and torture survivor, with CJA Executive Director Pamela Merchant at CJA's May 2008 Annual Dinner in San Francisco

By Pamela Merchant
Executive Director
Center for Justice and Accountability

Last week, a unique group of California-based NGOs convened in Sacramento to educate California lawmakers on the importance of state-sponsored support and advocacy for California’s population of torture survivors. Representatives from the California Consortium of Torture Treatment Centers, which shares information and best practices regarding the treatment of torture survivors living in California, held a press conference to promote recognition of the long-term psychological and physical effects of torture and the role treatment centers in California play in the recovery process. The June 26th conference marked the 21st anniversary of the 1987 Geneva Convention Against Torture and the 11th United Nations International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jovan Agee
Political and Legislative Director
United Domestic Workers of America

Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed ravaging cuts to the In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS), which provides personal care and domestic services enabling 408,000 California seniors and people with disabilities to remain at home safely and avoid unnecessary, expensive and unwanted institutionalization.

"Governor Schwarzenegger has failed to protect the needy, blind, disabled and aged in our communities, and has shown a total disregard for what should be a top priority of California lawmakers overseeing state spending," said Bill Young, an IHSS consumer in Sacramento County and a member of the California Senior Legislature. "To deny those in need in the name of fiscal restraint is shameful for any leader, but especially desperate for Governor Schwarzenegger, who continues to disregard the plight of low-income families across the Golden State."

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Bill Clinton has urged Democrats to "chill out" about worries that the extended primary race could cost us the generalelection. "We are going to win this election if we just chill out andlet everybody have their say," said Clinton.

Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach) wants to drop California's Cold War anti-communist laws. Needless to say, conservatives are freaking out: "Less than 20 yearsafter the fall of the communist Soviet Union, California lawmakers areeager to once again begin advancing a political ideology responsiblefor the deaths of millions of innocent people," said Karen England,executive director of Capitol Resource Family Impact.

Dan Walters asks whether California really needs a bullet train. The idea sounds great on paper, but funding could be difficult.

There's more...

Image courtesy Sacbee.com 

by Matt Ortega [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(Disclosure: I am an online organizer for It's OUR Healthcare!)

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's healthcare 'proposal' -- to require everyone to buy insurance, whether or not they can afford it and regardless of whether it actually protects them -- will be heard before the Assembly Health Committee in Sacramento today.

While the Governor's proposal gets further scrutiny from California lawmakers, none of whom from either party is willing to carry, Californians have already made up their mind. $5,000 deductibles is not "affordable healthcare."

It's OUR Healthcare! is currently holding a rally on the steps of the State Capitol. Can't make it to Sacramento? Text IOH to 30644. We are displaying your text messages sent in by thousands of Californians here at the Capitol and streaming them on the web.

Snag the code for the really cool text message display seen on the live fieed below:

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Dan Newman

Healthcare is a critical issue to ordinary Californians, but it seems that voters have little say about the fate of healthcare legislation in California. At MAPLight.org, a nonpartisan watchdog group that studies the connection between money and politics, we found that California lawmakers’ votes on key healthcare bills align with their big campaign contributors alarmingly often.

We looked at seven key healthcare bills and found that, on five of them, California legislators’ votes correlated closely with the money they received from interests supporting or opposing those bills. This pattern reveals a consistent and persistent bias in our legislative system. Whether campaign donations help convince a legislator to cast votes that are favorable to a specific group, or industries fund candidates who are already sympathetic to their interests, campaign contributions are distorting public policy.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Carmen Balber
Consumer Advocate
Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights

Three bills that would weaken good government laws suggest that California lawmakers have begun a sustained, but stealthy, attack on popular political and campaign reforms. Each bill has received unanimous, or near-unanimous, support from legislators.

The three bills attacking campaign reforms would: weaken disclosure of money in politics by increasing the amount that large donors can give before they must report their contributions; decrease disclosure and transparency of contributions solicited by a candidate for something other than his campaign; and, open a loophole in local campaign laws to allow special interests to skirt contribution limits by giving through political parties.

Politicians are whittling away at the laws meant to deny special interests a stranglehold on California politics. But the details of campaign laws are as important as their core – shave off the edges and the whole campaign finance structure crumbles.

The bills include: