Today's Fresh Meat

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

You probably heard already that Karen Bass made history yesterday whenshe was sworn in as the first African-American woman speaker inCalifornia history, as the Los Angeles Times reports. She is to be commended and congratulated, but not envied: the months ahead for the Assembly will not be easy.

How quickly Arnold has changed his tune. Administration officials told the Sacramento Bee that the Governor will release a budget that borrows from state lottery income, but does not short-change our schools or close down 48 state parks.Speaker Bass has already called the plan "risky," so we'll see how farit goes.

Before you can say "no-tax pledge," the LA Times reports that Arnold has an alternative to the lottery proposal: a sales-tax increase. The Governor deserves credit for his willingness to bend with thetimes, although it is difficult to be so optimistic about the GOPcaucus.

Sad thing is, the Governor had a lot of policy ideas that weren't half-bad and might have allowed for a median point with Democrats, but thestate's budget woes have prevented these plans from coming to afruition, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Instead, the year ofhealth care yielded proposed Medi-Cal cuts and the year of educationled to the potential for deep cuts.

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