by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

In this Web Report Assemblyman Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank) talks about his efforts to protect our California's beaches and the marine life from Marine Debris. AB 258 is an important ocean protection bill that will reduce the amount of plastics debris that flows into our ocean. Plastics in our seas has become a serious problem that is proving devastating to marine ecosystems and is putting California's $45 billion ocean-dependent economy in jeopardy.

The world's oceans are being inundated with plastic marine debris. In fact, one thousand miles west of San Francisco, an enormous garbage mass measuring over 5 million square miles circulates in the Pacific Ocean, increasing by the day with man-made detritus. Research indicates that as much as 90% of this floating marine debris is plastic in concentrations so high, plastics outnumber plankton by a ratio of 6 to 1. Recent projections estimate that over 45,000 pieces of plastic are floating on every square mile of the ocean.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

California Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres weighed in with criticism of the Senate GOP -- and of the 2/3 budget vote threshold -- after the 52-day budget blockade ended. Here's his statement:

"No thanks to Senate Republicans, California finally has a budget more than seven weeks past the constitutional budget deadline. As a result of the Republicans' holding the budget hostage, California is the last state in the nation to pass a budget this year.
 
Our state has many great challenges facing us, including a health care crisis, under-funded public schools, and climate change. Sadly, Senate Republicans insisted on letting rigid extremism stand in the way of what is good for the people, leaving many vital state services in jeopardy.
 
Changing the budget vote requirement from two-thirds to a simple-majority would ensure that the wellbeing of the state would never fall victim to partisan gamesmanship, such as attempts to weaken environmental oversight and the fight against climate change, in the future."

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Pedro Nava
Member, California State Assembly

Today only 140 free-flying California condors exist on this earth. They are the largest living thing flying over North America. You can still see a few of them near Hopper Mountain in Ventura County and in parts of Big Sur. Ten thousand years ago, soaring on their 9 foot wingspan, they once flew over saber toothed cats and woolly mammoths. Their range was all across America. We have spent millions of dollars in restoration efforts and much energy but still the condor remains in jeopardy.

Unless we eliminate the number one threat to the free-flying California condor, lead ammunition, someday the only place you will see this magnificent bird is on the face of our California quarter.

Condors are scavengers. They only eat dead things. The remaining wild condors eat the lead left in the remains of animals that have been shot with lead bullets. Most of the time, the lead bullets don’t remain intact, they shatter into tiny shards. Condors mistake the minute amounts of lead for calcium-rich bone fragments they require.

The resulting lead poisoning then induces a slow and agonizing death. The condor’s digestive system is paralyzed and they can die of starvation, become disoriented, collide with power lines, electrocute themselves or drown.

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

One of the rider bills that passed the Assembly with the budget allocated $150 million in state bond money for the synchronization of traffic signals in Los Angeles. The Republicans have now pitched a fit about it, despite the fact that they agreed to this back when the bonds were initially proposed last year. They are now trying to include it in the budget negotiations. LAT:

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he was confident, after assurances from Nuñez, that the money was not in jeopardy.

"The millions of commuters who are stuck in traffic every day should not be further stalled by partisan bickering in Sacramento," Villaraigosa said Monday.

"The people were promised traffic relief when they voted for the bond, and we will continue to fight to make sure that the promise is kept."

City officials said signal synchronization would reduce traffic delays by 32% and reduce emissions by more than 900,000 metric tons per year, benefiting the entire region.

read more »

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

CDP Chair Art Torres today issued the following statement:

"California is fast approaching one month past the constitutional budget deadline, and obstructionist Senate Republicans continue to place partisan ideology above the wellbeing of the state, leaving many vital state services in jeopardy.

Our state has many great challenges facing us, including a health care crisis, under-funded public schools, and climate change. We cannot afford to let rigid extremism stand in the way of what is good for the people.

I urge Governor Schwarzenegger to come back to Sacramento, actively engage in the process and use his influence within his party, if he has any, to get the state moving again."

by Julia Rosen [courtesy of Working Californians blogs]

Yesterday, Obama addressed hundreds of working men and women in New Jersey as part of the AFL-CIO's series of townhall meetings with presidential contenders. AFL-CIO blog:

He said every worker deserves the freedom to form unions without intimidation, bargain in good faith and work in a safe environment. “Those rights are in jeopardy today,” Obama warned. When workers join unions, “not only do workers prosper, America prospers.”

Obama promised to “make the Employee Free Choice Act the law of the land” and to make universal health care coverage a reality.

We can have universal health care by the end of the next president’s first term, by the end of my first term.