[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

A fractured Aseembly Public Safety effectively killed Senator Gloria Romero's measure at increasing police transparency, theLos Angeles Times reports, prompting a very public lashing out betweenRomero and three Democrats who "took a walk" on the bill (by justsitting there silently). Fiona Ma of San Francisco voted no.

LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was hob-nobbing and raising money in Gavin Newsom's home turf todayand the list of event co-sponsors (including Willie Brown and KamalaHarris) was "eyebrow raising," according to the San FranciscoChronicle. The fundraiser was for Villaraigosa's mayoral re-electionbid, but could the location and hosts be seen as a snub to Gavin?

Ron Dellums has had a tough transition from lion of a Congressman to mayor of Oakland,where as the Wall Street Journal describes it, most people are moreinterested in filling potholes and stopping gangs than they are aboutthe kind of progressive, national issues Dellums championed inWashington.

There's more... 

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

Governor Schwarzenegger announced at a press conference today his desire that legislators pass a budget by March so that cuts can take effect immediately at the beginning of the new fiscal year for the state in July. He also announced a hiring freeze, issued an Executive Order for an additional $100 million of cuts, and repeated his rhetoric that the state has a spending problem and not a revenue problem.

But as he was speaking, events occurring elsewhere in Sacramento showed a sharp disconnect between his bluster and reality. A Senate Committee hearing looking to see what had been done with the multi-billion bond for prisons passed last year, designed to avert a Federal Court ordered release of prisoners because of overcrowding and lack of medical care, was told in the middle of their hearing about the hiring freeze, after having heard from Administration witnesses about the gains that were being made and were planned to catch up on staffing the prisons. Committee Chair Senator Gloria Romero, said she was handed a note about the freeze, and wanted to know how it stacked up with the notoriously understaffed prisons and pledges to beef them up.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Nick Rahaim
Executive Assistant
California First Amendment Coalition

The 2007 legislative session started with a host of promising bills that would have created more transparency and would have reversed recent judicial and Attorney General opinions permitting excessive secrecy. There were some successes and some disappointments. The major disappointment was the failure to overturn the 2006 state Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court, which effectively sealed all police disciplinary records. The major success was legislation creating more oversight and accountability for the UC Regents’ and CSU Trustees’ executive pay committees.

Assemblyman Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Senator Gloria Romero (D-Santa Monica) introduced AB 1393 and SB 1019, respectively. These bills attempted to overturn the Copley Press decision that closed police disciplinary records to the pubic. With the police union’s full political weight against the bills, they never emerged from committee. The battle is not over, however. Both bills are likely to be considered again in the next legislative session.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Governor Schwarzenegger has vetoed legislation that would provide unfettered media access to the state’s prisons, thus joining the ranks of former governors, including Gray Davis andPete Wilson, who also vetoed similar bills. According to the SF Chron,State Senator Gloria Romero (D-Los Angeles), the sponsor of the bill,believes that it would improve the transparency of the state prisonsystem, while the Governor believes it would “glamorize murderers” and“traumatize crime victims and their families.” On the other hand,there's nothing glamorous about the condition of our prisons, either.

Acommittee commissioned by the Governor to come up with a proposal toimplement the reduction in carbon emissions mandated by AB 32 has endorsed setting up a carbon cap-and-trade systemfor the state of California, according to the Torrance Daily Breeze.Air Resources Board Chairwoman Mary Nichols supports setting up amarket for carbon credits, but many Democrats and environmentalists arerightly insisting that strong regulations be put in place first. TheSan Jose Merc outlines the report’s specific recommendations here.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

Tow United States District Court Judges, Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton have issued simultaneous orders that a rare three judge panel be convened to determine what measures should be considered to relieve overcrowding of California's state prison system which is affecting the medical care that inmates have received.

We reported on the June 28 court hearing, and the skepticism of the judges that actions by the state would prevent serious health problems and deaths in the prisons and that they appeared to court observers, including State Senator Gloria Romero who was at the hearing that this would be their likely decision.

The remarks of Robert Sillen at the Capitol Press Club earlier this month about the conditions in the prison and overcrowding will also give some background as to the events that have led up to the judges' decisions. Sillen was appointed by Judge Henderson as the Receiver of the California Prison health care system and given extraordinary powers a year ago in the case of Plata v. Schwarzenegger which has been going on for well over a decade.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mark Schlosberg and Kate Kennedy

The significant and unwarranted force used by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department on May 1, 2007 at MacArthur Park has been widely reported. Demonstrators and members of the media were subjected to baton strikes and rubber bullet shots as police broke up a largely peaceful immigration rally. Unfortunately, the public will never learn which officers committed misconduct and what discipline, if any, they received because of the August 2006 California Supreme Court decision in Copley Press v. Superior Court.

Senator Gloria Romero’s (D-Los Angeles) SB 1019, which would overturn that decision and restore public access to police misconduct records, is stuck in committee. Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) has made no effort to move the bill, and his leadership is needed in the face of strong police union pressure.

For the last 30 years, jurisdictions throughout the state have created processes for holding public hearings regarding police complaints and discipline. Openness and transparency are essential for building trust in a department and promoting police-community relations, especially for communities of color, immigrant communities and the LGBT community, all of which have historically born the brunt of police misconduct.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

I don't make a habit of taking on reporters that cover California politics. Sure, I'm not happy when something negative is written about my boss. And as any Capitol press corps scribe will tell you, I'm pretty darn aggressive when it comes to making sure that our side of the story is well represented in any news article.
 
That's why I don't take lightly writing this post to call out LA Weekly's Marc Cooper for his faux reporting.
 
Two weeks ago, Cooper wrote a column for the LA Weekly on an upcoming vote on Indian tribes in the State Assembly. Without a trip to the Capitol or any contact with any member of the Assembly (or even staff), Cooper wrote an unsubstantiated rant about the state of compact negotiations in Sacramento, concluding that Sacramento Democrats had stopped fighting for the little guy. He blasted Senator Gloria Romero as a"faithful in-the-bag servant of wealthy gambling interests" and in racist language wrote about a "powwow between Nunez and the Indian chiefs."