Links:

• I’m surprised it took this long: “A California vendor sued state officials Wednesday for paying bills with IOUs, calling the notes an unconstitutional dead weight on small businesses everywhere.”  Nancy Baird, a small businesswoman from SLO, brought the suit.

• Good DiFi: She offered a bill in the Senate to specifically ban aerial wolf hunting.  Whether it has to do with Sarah Palin or not, this practice has no place in civilized society.

• Bad DiFi: she misunderstands the reason automakers are leaving the state, not just because of race-to-the-bottom interstate tax breaks, but because of the crushing burden of health care costs in the US rather than Canada and Mexico.  DiFi is dragging her feet on the health care bill but trying to keep businesses in California who want to leave because of the crappy health care system.

• Hey, having trouble planning for all the new tax regulations that have come out of this budget “deal?” Well, you could call the Franchise Tax Board’s help desk.  But…they just cut their hours, so you better be able to call between regular business hours.

• Not cool: The Assembly expunged the record of the vote on the Tranquillion Ridge Drilling Project, which went down by a 28-43 vote. The funny thing about this is that Chuck DeVore is absolutely right that this only draws attention to the vote. CapitolWeekly has the story as well as the vote tally.  And if you want to look at the Assembly and Senate vote tallies for all the other trailer bills, reader California Condor has posted them. Assembly, Senate.

• Mark Leno was out in Washington today, attending events for single-payer health care.  Leno is carrying SB810, California’s single-payer bill.  Leno is in particular promoting an amendment by Dennis Kucinich that would allow states to explore single-payer alternatives no matter what national health care reform passes Congress.

• BART negotiations continue, but they are reaching a point of no return. If they don’t get a deal soon, BART plans on imposing terms. That, of course, will almost certainly result in a strike. Either way, expect some sort of major news on this by the weekend.

• Professors at CSU have agreed to take two furlough days per month. The trouble with professors taking furlough days is that the workload really doesn’t change, so they just have to spend their personal time doing the work. Crazy stuff really.