Stay tuned for what could be another wild legislative session tonight.  Links:

• Interesting story on “Sale-in, Lease Out” deals for transit agency in StreetsblogLA. Apparently, these deals, which were outlawed in 2005, might be preventing transit agencies from replacing old cars.

• Another structural reform idea: vetting initiative ideas through the Legislature. Indirect initiatives are already used in eight states, and it would hopefully allow us to avoid some of the nasty drafting errors that usually come along with law by ballot box. There are currently three proposals in the Legislature that would have initiatives go through the Legislature in some form. One would allow the Legislature propose changes to the measure before it hits the ballot, two other bills would force the Legislature to act on an issue if a petition gathers a lower numbers of signatures than a new, higher initiative threshold.

• The Prop 8 case brought by Ted Olson and David Boies gets its first hearing on Thursday. Judge Vaughn Walker will rule on an injunction against Prop 8.  Given the legal standard necessary for an injunction, a victory seems unlikely. However, this is a very preliminary hearing, and there is a long way to go before any substantive decision.

• SoCal has had another bad rainfall year.

• There were hearings about the prison system’s execution process in Sacramento yesterday. There’s been a moratorium on executions for a few years due to questions surrounding the lethal injection process used. In addition to the moral aspects of the death penalty, a state Senate commission estimated that the death penalty costs us $137 million per year over what it would cost us for permanent incarceration.

• Two more school district parcel tax elections in Los Angeles County today: La Canada USD and Rowland USD.  These elections are vote-by-mail only, so if precedent holds, we should get semi-final results around 8:15, with the late drop-offs and mailed ballots counted in the final tally on Friday.  To see the election results in detail, you can go to the election results page, or to be the first to know, follow @lacountyrrcc on Twitter and turn on mobile updates to get the semi-final results in your SMS inbox.