Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

One vote. That's all we need to get a budget passed for California and put all of this posturing behind us. Though last night's vote fell short of the two-thirds needed for passage, Republican Senator Abel Maldonado (left), a moderate from Santa Maria, courageously broke ranks in support. This is a balanced budget with no new taxes, fees or social programs, the California Progress Report points out, and deeper cuts to welfare are off the table. What more can we do?

State Controller John Chiang was unable to make over $1 billion in payments for July, according to the Sacramento Bee. That's $1 billion that should be going to summer camps for children and care for low-income senior, the Bee editorializes, potentially putting working parents at risk of losing their jobs due to lack of childcare, among other problems.

You wouldn't know it from the headlines, but yesterday was a key goalpost in the next leadership battle of the California legislature, Capitol Weekly reports. Not surprisingly, the two Democrats most talked about as the next Speaker, Karen Bass and Kevin de Leon (both of Los Angeles), reported the most cash on hand. On the Senate side, two leading contenders for Pro Tem, Darrell Steinberg of Sacramento and Alex Padilla of Los Angeles both did quite well, but were eclipsed by Leland Yee of San Francisco and Gloria Negrete McLeod of Chino.

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Photo courtesy of the Orange County Register.