by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Terry Francke
General Counsel and Founder
Californians Aware

Recently an op ed piece by Peter Scheer, executive director of the California First Amendment Coalition, suggested that the Legislature could help citizens keep public safety (police and fire) employee union pay and benefit agreements in prudent check—and thus reduce the risk of municipal bankruptcies like Vallejo's—by removing some or all of the secrecy that is permitted by the open meeting laws to surround the negotiation of such agreements. As it now stands, he said, the Brown Act, the state's open-meetings law, carves out a huge exception for negotiations with public employee unions. The combined effect of this exception, and separate provisions of the labor code, is to close the door, pull down the shades and turn off the lights on virtually all decisions relating to employee compensation and other terms of union contracts. By the time the public gets to see the compensation provisions, it is already a done deal—indeed, any effort to change the terms likely would be a breach of the contract.

The prescription suggested is to roll up the metaphorical shades in favor of legislatively created sunshine.

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by Robert in Monterey [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) today released the following response to President Bush’s State of the Union Address:

"In his final State of the Union Address George W. Bush reminded us why America is so eager to move on from his misguided and myopic approach. First he has the gall to criticize Congress for undermining trust in government when he and Dick Cheney have done all they can to undermine that trust. Then, we’re served a lukewarm rehash of inadequate responses to the health care crisis and hear only lip service and loopholes instead of real leadership on climate change. Given the economic downturn and the mortgage meltdown, Californians wanted to hear real plans from their President. Thankfully, Speaker Pelosi and California’s Democratic Congressional delegation have been keeping working families’ interests at the forefront of efforts to jump start the economy."

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Some depressing news about the coming economic downturnfrom the San Jose Mercury News—more and more people are expected tolose their homes and their incomes as adjustable-rate mortgages reset,and banks continue to tighten their credit lines. Home prices haveplunged by as much as 40 percent in California, and we could beentering a recession bigger than the one from 2001-2003.

Wildfires have returned to plague Southern California, specifically the affluent Malibu area, where 500 homes have beenevacuated following a blaze which began early this morning, reports theSan Jose Mercury News. No injuries have been reported, but asmid-morning, the fire had not yet been contained.