Links!

• Vanity Fair has a long piece about the Bohemian Grove. It’s a super-secret club for titans of industry, but only men, up in the Russian River area. Apparently, the group has been harvesting old-growth redwoods in a rather sketchy manner.

• Well, at least one sector is having success in this economy: reposession.  This stands to reason, as budget cuts and state employee wage cuts have nearly destroyed the Sacramento-area economy.

• The State Senate will resume policy committee meetings, after temporarily suspending them in light of the Governor’s ridiculous smear job attempting to criticize the Senate for doing their job.  They should have never stopped the policy committees to begin with, but good for them for restarting them.

• There are additional threats from the National Park Service that they would elect to take control of six parks if the Governor and the Legislature seek to close them.  These include Angel Island in San Francisco Bay, Point Sur State Historic Park in Big Sur and Point Mugu State Park near Malibu.

• Steve Benen has a very good rundown of the alleged murder of August Provost, a gay Navy Seaman found dead at Camp Pendleton last week.  The case raises all kinds of issues, not the least of which is the vulnerable position LGBT members of the military have been put in thanks to Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.  Rep. Bob Filner (CA-51) has called for a full investigation.

• A battle is brewing in the solar energy world   over subsidies for solar power.

• Das Williams announced his candidacy for AD-35. He’s been endorsed by former Assembly member Hannah-Beth Jackson, and he’ll face Susan Jordan, an environmentalist and the wife of the current Assembly member Pedro Nava.

• By Brian: I occasionally do a bit of non-political writing, so I’ve started a new site, leubitz.net. Here’s the first post about a trip exploring the wonderful Bay Area for a weekend.