Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Governor Schwarzenegger punted the issue of California's overcrowded prisons yesterday.  The prison-reform plan he signed yesterday will add 50,000new beds and allow inmates to be shipped out of state.  On a positivenote, the plan attempts to lower the recidivism rate of inmates byproviding them with necessary skills for the outside world.  "In thecritical few months before an inmate is released, our re-entryfacilities will focus on job training and placement, on education, onanger management, substance abuse and family counseling and housingplacement," Schwarzenegger said.  Umm, shouldn't we have been doingthat already?

A proposed plan to improve the Folsom Dam has passed environmental review.  The new and improved dam will doubleSacramento's flood protection, and for cheaper than previous proposalsestimated.  It's good to see the government learning lessons fromHurricane Katrina.

Poor supervision and bad decisions by the Los Angeles Police Department may have helped facilitate the violence that broke out at animmigration rally on Tuesday.  It turns out that the LAPD removeddozens of experienced officers from protest duty shortly before theconfrontation that led to violence.  The clash began when someprotesters threw plastic bottles and rocks at the police, who respondedwith rubber bullets and batons.  The FBI is investigating the matter,so we'll have to wait and see just how badly the LAPD screwed up.

There's more...