Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Speaker-elect Karen Bass has a start date: May 13, just as the budget battle will be heating up, the Sacramento Beereports. Bass will be great, and it doesn't hurt that Fabian Nunez willstill be around to help out before he is termed out.

Bass and Darrell Steinberg, her Democratic counterpart in the State Senate, have promised to be frugal in their personal habits, refusing to live a lavish lifestyle on the public's dime, according tothe Contra Costa Times. A lot of the problem has more to do withperception that meaningful dollars, but Bass and Steinberg are right totake this line.

Global warming isn't just impacting penguins and polar ice caps, it could very well effect how and where people live in the Bay Area, for instance, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. According to theChronicle, homes closer to the Bay and in some parts of the city andOakland could be underwater, and higher density may be needed to justto keep up with population growth.

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