Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

What do leaders like former Speaker Willie Brown and former Gov. PeteWilson think is the key to making the Legislature more functional?Well, for starters, more booze, more backroom deals and less sunlight, the Sacramento Bee reports. They were only half joking. The realproblem, they say, is the absence a real relationship betweenlawmakers—how do we get that back?

Speaker Nunez announced yesterday that he would oppose Proposition 92,the well-intentioned but flawed community college measure that represents ballot box budgeting at its worst. Nunez's decision, reported by the Capitol Alert, was based on theinitiative's lack of attention toward low income students and itspotential to jeopardize funding for other high education programs.

Describing the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's movement to take up landmark global warming legislation as the "biggest week of my life," California Senator Barbara Boxer, theCommittee Chair, is set to be a pivotal figure in efforts to finallypass an emissions reduction bill with teeth, the Sacramento Beereports. Even Republicans concede the bill will pass, but with a vetothreat looming, the fight has just begun.

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Photo courtesy of UC Berkeley School of Journalism