A few points of good news from the Legislature. First, the homeless dumping bill, SB 275 passed out of the full Senate. Press release over the flip.

Also, Loni Hancock’s clean money bill, AB 583 was passed out of the Appropriations Committee. AB 583 is currently a focus of clean money that will use one open Assembly seat and one open Senate seat along with the 2010 Gov’s race to test the system.  It could be a really good way to test the system. You can write your Legislator via the CA Campaign for Clean Money’s letter program. They’ll actually fax the letter for you.

CEDILLO-DELGADILLO HOMELESS DUMPING BILL

ADVANCES TO ASSEMBLY

Two days after a decisive vote of support in Senate Appropriations, SB 275 passed with a majority vote of the Senate. The bill now advances to the Assembly.

Homeless dumping continues to be an acute issue. During the Appropriations hearing earlier this week, the Union Rescue Mission (URM) distributed advocacy kits to committee members. The kits contained a letter from URM director Rev. Andrew Bales describing another recent dumping incident at the shelter and a DVD of a 60 Minutes news segment on downtown Los Angeles skid row’s ongoing problems with local hospitals.

Although the bill places the threat of a misdemeanor crime on the horizon, it does not seem to be deterring the practice. The May 14th incident occurred even as SB 275 advances in the legislature, on the same day the bill was being considered in a committee hearing.

“From day one, our objective has been to make significant progress in the struggle to end the inhumane and illegal practice of homeless patient dumping,” remarked Los Angeles City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo.  “This legislation represents another vital tool in our battle, and I applaud its continued support in our legislature.” said Delgadillo.

“The Senate did the right thing today. We are excited by the bi-partisan support the bill received in committee, the bill has resonated with members from diverse districts across our state. While homeless dumping has recently become a heightened issue in Los Angeles, people connect with the inhumanity of the practice and want to help,” said Cedillo. “We look forward to this support carrying over to the Assembly.”

So, Rep. Jerry McNerney will now be attending the fundraiser tomorrow. That being said, it’s looking like a blast, from the yKos site:

Join YearlyKos Conventioneers and special guests Brian Keeler, buhdydharma, The Calitics crew, Lt. Colonel Charlie Brown, Hunter, Gina Cooper, Kid Oakland, Markos, Congressman Jerry McNerney, Navajo, Prosper, the San Francisco and Oakland (check their blog) Drinking Liberally chapters, San Francisco Young Democrats, SusanG, and other Left Coast luminaries.

  Tickets are only $35, and you get to hang with me! I promise to give you a piece of chewing gum if you come say hi to me.  Seriously, a whole piece of gum, I won’t make you split it with me. A brand new piece of gum!  More details over the flip…

More from the site where you buy tickets:

Don’t miss this fascinating fiesta featuring legendary DJ Label and reggae/funk band Planet Down(MySpace page). Lots of wine provided by Hopper Creek.

Friday, June 1, 2007, 7 p.m.
Roe Restaurant and Lounge
651 Howard Street, San Francisco
$35 in advance / $40 at the door

Your generous participation will ensure YKC 07’s stellar success. This year’s convention will feature a Leadership Forum featuring potential 2008 presidential candidates, a progressive film Screening Series, prominent panelists and more.

Kate Folmar starts out her article today with this line:

Californians aren’t quite sure how long legislative term limits are. But they like them. Then again, they’re willing to change them.

The statement is an accurate reading of the PPIC poll Brian wrote about earlier.  Only about 1% of Californians could accurately state the maximum years legislators are allowed to serve (14 years).  PPIC then informed them of the current rules and 61% of likely voters indicated their support for the current limits.  Then they read them the official ballot title and summary, the one that has been subject to some controversy.  53% of likely voters said they would vote for the initiative, including majorities from both Democrats and Republicans.

So what does this mean?

The initiative is in some trouble.  Traditionally support for initiatives only drops over time.  There are plenty of examples of initiatives holding a narrow early lead and then succumbing in the end.  Expect opponents to point to the Pre-school initiative for a recent example.  That is problematic, given the unique controversy that surrounded the initiatives main supporter, Rob Reiner.  It is unlikely that similar controversy will rear its head with the term limits initiative.

The initiative’s campaign strategist was pleased with the results.

The early findings heartened Gale Kaufman, the political consultant spearheading the term limits change. She hopes that prominent Democrats and Republicans will endorse the measure. So far, Schwarzenegger has not taken a position on it.

“With an issue that isn’t a front-burner issue, bipartisan support is incredibly important,” said Kaufman. “Our job will be to provide voters of all parties with supporters that they find credible. That includes the governor; we hope we will have his support.”

Given Arnold’s current popularity and the relatively narrow support for the initiative at this time, Arnold’s opposition could doom the measure.  They still have a decent shot at passage, despite the emergence of the U.S. Term Limits folks, who have done a good job at getting some earned media as of late.  This continues to be a pretty insider game, though an interesting one.

While some people mistakenly think the blogs are to newspapers as Craigslist was to classifieds — that thinking is totally wrong. The blogs thrive on news, we are all news junkies, and all of us have favorite reporters. One of my favorites (of many) was Bob Salladay. While I wish him the best of luck, I’m sorry to see this.

And most of you other reporters who don’t write “America’s (cough) Finest Blog” have plenty of fans. And we’ll miss you if you leave. I wish there were an easy answer to save the papers as my retirement strategy involves me, a porch, coffee and all the papers. I was hoping (then old man) Salladay would be part of my plan, but woe is me.

UPDATE by Brian: Hey Bob! You know you are welcome to post here anytime. You don’t even have to write all that good libruhl stuff that we normally spout here. There’ll be a user account waitin’ for ya!