UPDATE: This will take place at 3:30pm PT today.

Russ Warner’s campaign has informed me that he’ll be participating in a liveblog here later today about S-CHIP and children’s health care.  Health care is maybe the most pressing domestic issue in California and the nation, and I’m pleased to see one of our Democratic Congressional candidates engage us on this issue.  He’ll post a diary and then stick around in the comments to answer questions.  It should be a good way to get a sense of his policy ideas.  When I get an exact time I’ll update.

Any legislator or candidate can do this simply by posting a diary, and I’m hopeful that this will be the first of many of these live chats.  Rather than supporting anyone with a D in front of their name, it’s important to really engage and understand the views of those who wish to represent us.  On the endorsement front, I can say little other than the Hoyt Hilsman campaign has contacted the editorial board and decisions are in the process of being made.

Our favorite on-the-scene Sacramento reporter Frank Russo has the first installment of what will be a wild couple weeks in the California Legislature.  The session is scheduled to end September 14, and over 700 bills are likely to be voted on between now and then, to get to the Governor’s desk for signature.  The first batch of bills have been passed out of their respective chamber; in fact, 83 bills passed in the Senate just yesterday.  Frank highlights several that came out of the Senate and the Assembly; here are a few (on the flip).

AB 1108 (Ma) Toxic Toys- This bill prohibits the use of phthalates in toys and childcare products designed for babies and children under three years of age… It now goes back to the Assembly for concurrence in the Senate Amendments.

AB 122 (Solorio) Voter intimidation- Requires elections officials to provide a copy of the provisions of law prohibiting voter intimidation and voter fraud, and the penalties to every candidate. Senator Calderon used the example of a recent Orange County election where several thousand Latinos were sent a letter warning them not to vote. It passed on a 23 to 12 vote with the support of two Republicans, Senators Maldonado and McClintock and all the opposition was from Republicans. There was no known opposition to the bill. It now goes to the Governor.

AB 976 (Calderon) Prohibits a city or county from enacting an ordinance that compels a landlord to inquire, compile, report, or disclose any information about the citizenship or immigration status of a tenant. It passed on a straight party line 22 to 12 vote.

AB 1539 Krekorian- Compassionate release for medically incapacitated inmates with terminal illnesses. This bill provides that a court shall have the discretion to resentence or recall a prisoner’s sentence when the prisoner is permanently medically incapacitated if the conditions under which the prisoner would be released do not pose a threat to public safety. It passed on a 22-16 party line vote with Democratic Senator Lou Correa the sole member of his party voting against it. It needs to go back to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments.

AB 435 (Brownley) Wage Discrimination- Requires that all employers maintain their records of wages, wage rates, job classifications, and other terms and conditions of employment for five years, and extends the statute of limitations for a civil action to collect back wages to four years, or, in the case of willful misconduct, to five years. It passed on a straight party line vote of 21 to 15 with Democratic votes. It now goes back to the Assembly for concurrence in amendments.

AB 1429 (Evans) Requires health care service plan contracts and health insurance policies that provide coverage for cervical cancer treatment or surgery to also provide coverage for a Human Papilloma virus vaccine. It passed 26 to12 with a couple of Republican votes and all the opposition was from Republicans. It needs Assembly agreement on amendments.

AB 548 (Levine) Would require managers of multi-family dwellings to provide recycling services for their buildings. This is significant because it provides a residential recycling opportunity for more than 7.1 million Californians residing in more than 2.4 million multifamily dwelling units. It passed on a largely partisan vote of 47 to 25 and goes to the Governor.

SB 490 (Alquist) Would ban foods with transfat from being sold to kindergarten-high school students on school campuses. It passed on a largely partisan 50 to 26 vote with Republicans complaining that it trampled on local school boards’ discretion and Democrats saying the state sets the rules for schools.

Some thoughts:

• I’m glad something came out of that disgusting attempt in Orange County to intimidate Hispanic voters.  Good for Asm. Solorio.

• The Krekorian bill for compassionate release is simple common sense in a time of prison crisis.  Apparently the Big Kahuna of prison reform, Sen. Gloria Romero’s bill to create an independent sentencing commission, is being negotiated with the Governor’s office so that he’ll sign it.  We’ll see what transpires.

• AB 435 is a local version of the Lilly Ledbetter Equal Pay Act.  The Supreme Court ruled that a woman could not sue for wage discrimination because the statute of limitations had run out even though she didn’t know the extent of the wage discrimination until it was too late.

• The HPV vaccination bill should give the theocrats a jolt.  They’ve argued for some time that you can’t vaccinate and save kid’s lives because it might make them a little more promiscuous.  Showing their true priorities.

We’ll try to keep up with the major bills coming through the Legislature until the end of the session.

For example, the levels of corruption and taxpayer ripoffs a private company can pull off is far superior to a government agency!

A San Bernardino County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted the founder of a charter school network that once was the largest in California, charging him with grand theft and misappropriation of public school funds. A Hesperia city councilman also was indicted.

Charles Steven Cox, 59, who built California Charter Academy into a statewide string of 60 campuses serving more than 10,000 students from Yuba City to Chula Vista, was taken into custody Tuesday and charged with more than 100 counts of misappropriation of charter school funds and theft of nearly $5.5 million.

A 2005 state audit alleged that Cox, as head of the charter academy and also owner of a for-profit company that provided management services to the schools, misused millions of dollars in charter school funds to lavishly pay himself, friends and family and to buy luxuries such as spa services and concert tickets.

The schools were paying the teachers below the state average, too.  More money for the corporation!

The numbers are actually worse, the state is seeking $23 million in misappropriated funds.  Some of the problems with the kind of charter schools Cox created have been addressed; for example, improving oversight and ensuring the corporation is in the same district as the charter school.  But the central issue – a school focusing more on corporate welfare and the balance sheet rather than the needs of students – remains.  To deny that possibility is to deny the existence of human greed.

I mentioned this in the Quickies, but it deserves some front-page attention.  The San Jose Mercury News has delved deeper (reg. req’d) into the connections between the GOP law firm pushing the dirty trick initiative to steal the 2008 Presidential election, and past ratfucking operations of years past.  At the top of the list is the key financier from the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Lawyers behind a California ballot proposal that could benefit the 2008 Republican presidential nominee have ties to a Texas homebuilder who financed attacks on Democrat John Kerry’s Vietnam War record in the 2004 presidential campaign.

Charles H. Bell and Thomas Hiltachk’s (Arnold’s former personal lawyer -ed.) law firm banked nearly $65,000 in fees from a California-based political committee funded almost solely by Bob J. Perry that targeted Democrats in 2006. Perry, a major Republican donor, contributed nearly $4.5 million to the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth that made unsubstantiated but damaging attacks on Kerry three years ago.

The Perry-financed committee in California, the Economic Freedom Fund, continued to spend money this year, mostly on legal expenses tied to an ongoing legal dispute in Indiana over phone calls made to voters in 2006. It lists the Sacramento law office’s address as its home and its Web site directs contributions to the firm, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk. In addition, Bell serves as the committee’s treasurer.

I highlighted that other bit because it’s significant that Perry also financed the major dirty trick of the 2006 election: numerous illegal robocalls to voters in swing districts, pretending to be from Democrats.  So the same law firm trying to split California’s electoral votes have taken cash from the major Republican dirty tricks operations over the last several years.

It’s unclear whether Perry has given to this current power grab.  But with his name in the rolodex, it would be absurd to think he won’t.

Here’s a little more on the law firm, Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk:

Bell, McAndrews & Hiltachk is one of the most politically involved law firms in the state. According to a news story on its Web site, Bell keeps a life-sized cardboard image of President Bush in his office. Federal records show the firm does legal work for a host of political committees, most with Republican or business ties.

“It comes across as a power grab,” said Republican analyst Allan Hoffenblum, who predicted the proposal would likely fail in the Democratic-leaning state. Even Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger offered a lukewarm assessment of the idea.

Here’s Digby on the power grab.

They really couldn’t be more obvious.

I suspect this is as much mind fuck as anything, and perhaps a simple desire to force Democrats to spend money on something they don’t want to spend it on, but you cannot take that for granted. These people have no compunction about cheating. They’ve shown that. Look what it got us in 2000. And if they succeed again, the press will just laugh and giggle about haircuts and cleavage and tell everyone to get over it. Just like last time. And the time before. And the time before that.

This is about spending money, certainly, but I do think it could backfire by energizing California and national Democrats in a way that they are rarely energized about anything. If we build a broad-based movement around first fighting this dirty trick and then making them pay, they could rue the day they ever put this out. Courage Campaign is raising money to fight this at the grassroots level, with low-dollar, broad-based donations.  They’ve already raised $7,000 from over 250 contributors within less than 24 hours.  Let’s get to 1,000.

This is something that impacts everyone around the country.  A strong people-powered movement in California will resonate everywhere, and this can be the spark that will light that movement.  Let’s not let the type of tactics we saw with the Swifties predominate.  Let’s make these thieves pay.

UPDATE: It was a blogger, our own Frank Russo of the California Progress Report who exposed Bell, McAndrews and HIltachk’s involvement with the Swiftboaters.  If you want to see more digging like this, more people-powered exposure of these dirty tricksters, give to the Courage Campaign fund to stop this power grab in its tracks.