Admittedly that title may be hitting slightly below the gigantic supposedly anti-capitalistic designer belt.  Michael Moore is coming to Sacramento today to lecture the legislature on how to handle health care.  Because the musings of a filmmaker who, by the way, couldn’t look less healthy, are relevant to such a complex problem.  I guess in a state where portraying yourself as a robot from the future counts as gubanatorial portraying yourself as an expert on government conspiracies makes you qualified to pontificate on health care.  Glad to know our legislature is spending its time so wisely.  Perhaps to beat summer doldrums they can get George Clooney or Bono to come talk about Africa.   

Just a quick note to let you all know that the labor dispute at the California State Universities has been all but settled with negociations to be finalized over the next few weeks.

The deal gives all CSU faculty guaranteed base salary increases of 20.7% over four years (retroactive to July 2006) and step salary increases of up to 2.65% each year. In addition, it assigns $28 million to fund two new merit-based programs that will provide raises for senior and junior faculty. As part of the deal, faculty would receive an extra 1% raise for each of the last three years of the contract, contingent on additional state budget funds for the university system.

A labor dispute is still brewing, however, over at the University of California over equitable pay for janitors and other maintenance staff.

We’ve banned lead paint. Lead dishes. Lead cookware. Lead pencils. Lead candy. Lead medicine (it’s a traditional Mexican cure for diarrhea).

But we still have lead bullets.

It appears that California might be moving towards a ban on the use of lead in bullets due to some new studies on the effects of lead on endangered species, especially the California Condor, the largest terrestrial bird in the United States.

Continue reading “California considers banning lead bullets” »

Today is the second annual Queer Youth Advocacy Day at the State Capitol.  Representatives from the more than 600 Gay Student Alliances (which are at 45% of public high schools), and other youth under the age of 24, are meeting in Sacramento to lobby for Senate Bill 777 (Kuehl).  This bill will standardize the anti-discrimination policies in all schools receiving public funds to give all students equal protection from harassment, bullying and discrimination.

The students attended a lobbying training at the Crest Theater before meeting with legislators this afternoon.  A handful of protesters were on hand to inform the youth than they were sinners, but were scared off by the inclement weather (maybe God was trying to tell them something about tolerance, loving thy neighbor, and casting the first stone).

Continue reading “Fabulous!” »

On Thursday, February 15 at 7pm the Arden Arcade Incorporation Committee will be holding a petition drive celebration and informational meeting at Arcade Church (3927 Marconi Avenue). For those of you who haven’t been accosted by the for hire signature gatherers in the area recently, some folks in the Arden Arcade area are trying to incorporate. In order to do so they must “obtain” a certain amount of signatures from the public.

Now I’m all for taking it to the streets and letting the people decide, but these signature gatherers are just plain jack-holes. So much so that I am all for voting against incorporation in protest.

Has anyone else encountered these scoundrels? Runner-eats? Sac-girl? What say you?

Following up on this discussion from 2005 regarding CC&R, it appears the bill (AB 394) that went to the Governor’s desk was put into law last year. From cbs13.com:

County clerk recorder Craig Kramer said residents can buy the official CC&R and strike the clause, making it good for all properties in the subdivision. The Morris’s plan to do that, as a happy 21st century family, they say some sometimes history needs a little rewriting.

As discussed in the earlier post, this law went into effect on January 1, 2006. So why is it only getting press in 2007? And can one person “buy” the official CC&R and strike the clause for the whole neighborhood? And if so, how?

Well, loyal reader, you’ve come to the right place.

Continue reading “More fun with CC&R” »

Now that the dust as settled on last week’s MySpace debate, I figured we could take a few swings at this situation in Orangevale:

An Orangevale man is being fined $2,500 for flying five American flags on county streetlight poles.

The best part of this story is that the man being fined, Ed Andrews, took up a collection last summer in his neighborhood and raised $400 for the flags and brackets. Well done, Ed.

Now the lawyers are involved as well as the Sacramento County supervisors:

At an impromptu meeting on a neighbor’s driveway Wednesday evening, Sacramento County’s Director of Transportation Tom Zlotkowski explained that allowing American flags on light poles around Acer Way and Ortiz Court would mean any other flags could be put up.

Hmmm, I wonder about that, but, sure, OK.

“But yet people could go out and burn the flag if they wanted to, but yet we’re having a problem flying the flag and showing our patriotism,” said Michele Turner, whose future stepson is due back from Iraq in a few days.

There’s the issue, Sacramento. Where do you draw the line? If a gal has to pay to have repairs made to her sidewalk, why can’t folks fly old glory in their neighborhood?

From the L.A. Times:

The love affair between Phil Jackson and the state capital continued Thursday.

“It’s a beautiful place,” he said, opening his arms figuratively with an apparent compliment for Arco Arena. [...] “It’s just one of the very few places where you have to walk across the court to get to a locker room that’s a dungeon.”

There’s more, and the LAT seems to like it just a little too much. In fact, they took a dig in another section, too:

Sacramento is a suburb of Los Angeles. Nothing drives home that point more than a walk through Terminal A at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at the start of the workweek, where you can see a host of L.A. lawmakers — and lobbyists, political lawyers, labor leaders and corporate executives — waiting for their short hops to the Capitol. [...]

California’s capital city may be where all the state’s movers and shakers mingle, but L.A. still rules.

Yeah, just ask ‘em. Here’s the rest.

Homelessness is a problem of most metropoliseses, and especially those such as ours where housing prices skyrocketed in a short time, making affordable housing difficult to obtain by those who need it most.  Many times, people have to make do with whatever they can get their hands on.  Some people deal with such adversity better than others.

Just ask Gov. Arnold. According to SFGate.com’s Lynda Gledhill:

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Wednesday that he’s “very happy in my little hotel room.”

That in response to a published report in the Sacramento Bee that he and First Lady Maria Shriver have toured a new 15-floor hotel and condominium project being built a few blocks from the Capitol.

Schwarzenegger has been living in a the penthouse in the Hyatt hotel across from the Capitol since taking office. The state has no official governor’s residence and he and Maria found no suitable house when he was first elected. The constraints of security, wanting to be close to the Capitol and necessary space for a governor with four children left almost no options.

Continue reading “Feed the homeless (governor)” »

Well here we are, Sacramento, it’s time to get out the vote. Beckler has an entertaining post on Heckasac conjuring Aileen Voisin’s penchant for straw men and the helpful services they provide. If anyone has any enjoyable polling place stories or witnesses anything out of the ordinary (people eating $6000 combo meals outside your polling place, for example) make sure to post them here.