[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

A capacity crowd filled the Sterling Hotel in downtown Sacramento as Speaker of the California State Assembly Karen Bass made her first appearance before the influential Sacramento Press Club. Speaker Bass chose the occasion to unveil the broad outlines of the Assembly Democratic budget plan. As we learn in this Assembly Web Report Speaker Bass made it clear the next state budget must include cuts AND new revenues.

by Bob Brigham [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The Capitol's ever-dwindling press corps is losing its top investigative reporter. Kimberly Kindy of the San Jose Mercury News/News Media Group, is taking a job at the national political desk of the Washington Post.

That's a dream job for any journalist. It will suit Kindy well.

Kindy, who moved to the Mercury News after the Orange County Register downsized its Sacramento bureau, has penned stories that have shut down a state agency, changed policies and led to new laws. Her most recent series of the Schwarzenegger Administration's fumbling of the state's vehicle fleet's attempt to improve fuel efficiency tied the administration in knots. When I was working for Governor Davis, Kindy also had us tearing our hair out with a series of stories on day care providers.

Always tough, always fair, Kindy should have a field day at the Washington Post, with its resources and its prestige. But the Sacramento press corps will lose one of the only reporters it has that has the leeway to go beyond the daily press conferences and day-to-day goings on in the Capitol.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

The incredible shrinking Sacramento press corps is getting even smaller.
 
The Los Angeles Daily News is shutting down its Sacramento (and Washington, D.C.) bureau. That means that the paper's lone writer, Harrison Sheppard, will be returning to the paper's LA office. Harrison is a solid, jack-of-all trades writer who always is fair and thorough. He'll be missed.
 
Another casualty in the News Media's empire, Alvie Lindsay, the Sacramento Bureau's editor, also will be leaving as the bureau shrinks.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Anthony Wright
Executive Director of Health Access California

Earlier this week, I spoke at a press conference with Governor Schwarzenegger, Speaker Nunez, and many different stakeholders in the health care field, with the message that we aren't going to give up on health care reform. Video from that press conference is available at the Governor's website.

The Governor answered some questions, but he gave longer ones earlier in the day at the Sacramento Press Club. Here's a transcript on his answers on health reform, which give some insight into what he's thinking as we move forward...

Q: George Skelton, LA Times. Is there anything about the present, or the killed health care plan, that you would like to preserve and maybe make some incremental steps, instead of making the big comprehensive program, waiting and doing that? Or would you just do children, for instance, or would you do requirement for 85 percent patient care, that kind of thing?

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Receiver Robert Sillen Thanked by the Court as Clark Kelso Takes Over

By Frank D. Russo

Robert Sillen lasted just shy of two years as receiver of the California Prison’s health care “system,” and will be missed by a number of those who appreciated the direct manner in which he brought attention to problems that have resulted in many avoidable deaths and serious health problems to those inmates who languished under treatment the Federal Courts have labeled as “cruel and unusual punishment.” He was abrasive at times, often irascible, minced no words as he spoke very forcefully about the problems of the prisons, and was not afraid to go where others had not in turning the system upside down and implementing strong emergency measures and starting systemic reforms.

Looking back to the situation of the prisons in 2005 when the courts placed them in receivership, Sillen was, by my lights, exactly what was needed to jolt the prisons, nudge elected officials in California, and get the beginning of changes in place. He could keep a roomful of reporters and policy makers in rapt attention, as he did when speaking at the Sacramento Press Club in July.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Former Governor Gray Davis will face the Capitol press corps for the first time in four years when he appears before the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday, November 14th at noon at the Sterling Hotel.
 
The appearance should give Capitol insiders plenty to cluck about; Davis has had nothing but praise about Gov. Schwarzenegger and his ex-Deputy Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy, who is now Arnold's chief of staff. Expect reporters to grill Davis about post-recall life, his reflections on the 2003 election, and how he sees the 2008 election shaping up.
 
For details, visit the Sacramento Press Club's website.