by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

KQED's Forum is live right now with a program about whether the EPA is properly investigating the safety of chemicals.  Senator Barbara Boxer will appear on the show at 9:30 our time.  You can listen here or listen to the archive here.

by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

SF's NPR affiliate KQED is doing a show on Prop 93 right now. You can listen live here. They'll be doing the other props soon as well. You can find the Forum archive here.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sara S. Nichols

Listening to an extensive series of interviews yesterday on the Forum show on KQED (Northern California public radio, avaiilable live on the net and which also has archived shows) about the big oil spill in San Francisco bay, I was struck by how strongly crises affect public policy in California, and elsewhere. Crises seem to have become a necessary ingredient for social change to occur.

From this vantage point, using only anecdote and my limited memory, it seems that clear, obvious, well-documented systemic problems are not sufficient to capture the attention of the public or their legislators. Well, I overstate the case. Problems such as millions of uninsured people, indisputable global warming, and widely weakened bridges do reach the attention of the public and their legislators, but for the most part, those systemic problems are not sufficient to result in policy changes.

Instead, we need Hurricane Katrina, dramatic bridge collapses, and killing sprees in high schools to force legislators to pass legislation and appropriate money to address such matters.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Contra Costa Times blog has this little tidbit today suggesting that Attorney General Jerry Brown is already looking down the road at the corner office.
 
Whether it was a slip of the tongue or a simple misstatement, who knows. In any case, as Senate President pro Tem pointed out on KQED this morning, Senate Republicans did more for Brown's political career this morning than anyone has in a decade.

Watch for CMR's new gubernatorial race rankings coming soon to see how Brown stacks up against his competitors for the 2010 nomination.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

About 10:30 p.m. last night, Speaker Nunez came out of the door of his office and answered questions from a dozen or so reporters. This is a transcript of what the Speaker said John Myers of KQED asked the first question. The question I asked and the answer I received, has been bolded.

Where did it all fall apart?

I'm getting a taste of what Senator Perata has been dealing with in this . But I will tell you --I want to reiterate what I said to you when I walked out of the Big Five meeting--because, I really meant it. I don't mean to bad mouth Senate Republicans, and at the time I said that I take back everything negative I said about Senate Republicans. And I want to be consistent with that.

There are some differences, obviously that wee expressed at the Big Five meeting, but my understanding when we walked out of that meeting is that we had an agreement on the budget. And in fact we had one.

Some time between the time that I walked from the governor[s office out the door to come upstairs and the time I walked outside, he [Ackerman] changed his mind or had second thoughts about what he had agreed to. So, I'll give him that.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The struggling San Jose Mercury News has reportedly cut about 35 news positions today, including its veteran Sacramento political reporter Kate Folmar. Today's action is yet another sequence in a disturbing trend that has hit just about every newspaper in the state capital, from the powerful LA Times to the one-person bureau at the Bakersfield Californian.
 
Kate has been covering Gov. Schwarzenegger for the past several years. She's penned some in-depth pieces (the latest opus being a critique of the Governor's staffing and salaries). She also provided some of the best coverage of the 2005 special election. Lately, she's teamed up with Anthony York of Capitol Weekly and John Myers of KQED to do a weekly podcast of Sacramento political events.

by blogswarm [courtesy of Calitics: Soapblox California - Front Page]

From the blog of KQED's John Myers:

Today marks the semi-official beginning of a new feature both here at Capital Notes and, eventually, on a few other sites: a weekly podcast on California politics.

We're calling it Talking Points, and its premise is pretty simple: a weekly chat on all things political from three Capitol reporters-- myself, Kate Folmar of the San Jose Mercury News, and Anthony York of Capitol Weekly.