by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Public Policy Institute of California has lined up an All-Star cast for their forum on legislative reform today at noon in Sacramento : Willie Brown. Pete Wilson. Jim Brulte. John Burton. Fabian Nunez. The group will focus on a report unveiled today by the PPIC.
 
Among the recommendations of the report:

• Limiting campaign donations and encouraging public financing of campaigns
• Open primaries
• Non-partisan elections
• "Cross filing" that will allow candidates to run in more than one party's primary

The PPIC report also downplayed the significant of redistricting: Noting that "districting is not destiny," PPIC says "Redistricting would probably soften partisanship only at the margins." It also noted that Schwarzenegger's last initiative "might easily have produced an uncompetitive, bipartisan plan, the opposite of the measure's intention."

by David Dayen [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

by WarmingLaw [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

(Cross-posted from Warming Law, which focuses on covering and analyzing the fight against global warming from a legal perspective. My name is Sean Siperstein, and I run Warming Law as part of my work for Community Rights Counsel, a non-profit, public interest law firm that assists communities in protecting their health and welfare. Given the blog's focus, a lot of what I write about ends up having to do with efforts by the administration and the auto industry to hold up California's pioneering efforts in fighting global warming (here's our full archive of posts about the EPA waiver application), and as such I'm (belatedly) taking up a suggestion to post select items here. Thanks for the opportunity to join the discussion; I really look forward to it!)

Reacting to last week's lawsuit challenging the EPA's failure to produce a timely decision on California's waiver application to enforce its own auto emissions standards, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson cited-- as he had many times before-- the need to painstakingly evaluate thousands upon thousands of in-depth public comments on the waiver.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Technically they are called drought busters, but the purpose is to focus on excessive water usage. The DWP is tasked with patrolling the city. LAT:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced Monday that he would reactivate a program of "drought busters" to preach the message of water conservation.

Department of Water and Power employees will roam the nation's second-largest city and issue friendly advice to residents they see wasting water.

Excessive lawn watering and sidewalk spraying are expected to be top targets.

They have a large task in front of them.

The mayor will unveil details of the program, which centers on having five to 10 people patrolling the city, at a news conference today at DWP headquarters. Los Angeles covers about 469 square miles.

That is a heck of a lot of miles per person.

That said, publicizing the effort should help persuade folks to follow the rules, lest they risk a fine.

by Kevin Shaw [courtesy of Blog for America]

Hat tip to Susan Rowe...

Don't Think of a Sick Child: The Logic of the Health Care Debate

In launching this campaign, the Rockridge Institute is contributing to progressives as they consider and focus their health care message. We have written a thoughtful white paper, as well as talking points, prototype television advertisements, blog posts, op-eds, and other material designed to bring some consistency and honest framing to the cause of health care security. To the many groups and individuals engaged in this cause, it is our hope we will be of some help to your heroic efforts.

Lots of good reading at:

http://www.rockridgeinstitute.org/health

by Susan Rowe [courtesy of Blog for America]

This Rockridge Institute study is about the we and us debate in comparison to the me and mine debate.  Their ad is very interesting.

(video) Rockridge Institute healthcare ad Don't Think of a Sick Child:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg44c9ZvA0E

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