News from around the state:
• Ellen Tauscher’s confirmation hearing was today. No real surprises here. The Right has been making news about her lack of experience in the field of nuclear disarmament, but it appears there won’t be more than a handful of random votes against her.
• Noted San Francisco politico Clint Reilly’s take on why the mighty are falling.
• The LA County Probation Department has been exceeding its overtime budget big-time over the last few years. One of the problems in laying off so many state workers is that we’ll end up with more overtime to ensure the work that must get done actually gets done.
• Sen Leland Yee has been shaking some trees over the management of the state university systems for a while now. CalBuzz takes a look at the issue and Yee’s suggested cure, more legislative oversight.
• In San Francisco, pressuring parents on truancy has paid off with substantially lower truancy rates for elementary school students.
Just read an article about another Dem running for that coveted open seat left by Tauscher. His name is Anthony Woods. The article said he’s a West Point grad who went on to Harvard, served two tours in Iraq (was awarded the bronze star) but was forced to leave the military after it came out that he was gay.
I checked out his website and he sounds great (biked across the country to raise money for Habitat for Humanity, worked with Habitat in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, etc.) but does anyone here know anything else about him? I’ve never heard of him until this article and am just wondering what his chances are and if he’s as terrific as he sounds because after reading all of that, I’m wanting to send him a donation.