Links!

• Even Newsweek and John Wildermuth are making fun of iCarlyfornia. And really, why not? It’s just so easy.

• The Fresno Bee points out a new study in the Journal Ecological Restoration about why we should be restoring riparian habitats.  With the growing effects of climate change, this becomes more than an academic question.

• The Governor has officially lost their furlough fight with the State Compensation Insurance Fund, as a judge today forced the state to give back pay to workers.  The SCIF isn’t even paid with state money.  What a stupid act of grandstanding this was.

• Here’s an under-the-radar but persistent trend – the Governor typically appoints people to corporate boards people with whom he has a personal relationship.  His own dentist sits on the state Dental Board, to add another example.

• The groups authoring initiative language on a constitutional convention has decided to delay their filing while they continue to work out the details.  This would move them past the suggested deadline, tightening the window for signature gathering.  They plan to file within a few weeks.

• Whoops! The Lottery’s “Make Me a Millionaire” Show screwed up the payouts.

• CapWeekly sez to expect a special session starting the week of October 13.  Water would certainly top the agenda, along with the effort to qualify the state for education stimulus funding by changing policies on performance pay, and the dead-in-the-water Parsky Commission proposal.

• Dianne Feinstein didn’t take the bait on a Devin Nunes-led Central Valley water amendment that would have overturned federal agency decisions.  Of course, Nunes immediately attacked Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for not giving over their wallets in this particular stick-up.

• California will seek half of all the federal stimulus dollars for high speed rail.