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* Reaction comes in from the “inauguration” of Speaker Perez. He’s not planning on running for Mayor of LA, but will ban texts between Lobbyists and Legislators on the floor.

* Speaker Perez also plans a “more open” Legislature. He’ll be posting more on-line (yay!). And, hey, if you want to see the speech, it’s on YouTube already. Part 1 & Part 2.

*  After a successful and widely popular Winter Olympics up in Vancouver, Lake Tahoe and Reno are getting a bid for the 2022 Winter Olympics under way. I (Robert) am all for it. If nothing else it’d help improve rail links from Sacramento to Tahoe/Reno. Denver is reportedly interested in 2022 as well, but after having won the 1976 Winter Olympics and then flaking out when Coloradans didn’t want to pay for it, I doubt the IOC will give them another chance.

*  CapAlert has your guv race news roundup. Condi endorses Whitman, Poizner files, and more!

 

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*  Meg Whitman goes negative against Steve Poizner.

*  Jerry Brown plans an “eloquent announcement” for Governor.

*  If you haven’t been watching the Republican Senate primary, there’s been charges of anti-Semitism and anti-Israel being lobbed back and forth.

*  Meg Whitman opposes marriage equality.

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*  This could leave a mark: a judge ordered California to pay back wages for furloughed state workers.

*  Meg Whitman supports the water bond. Shocker.

*  Andy Pugno, the Prop 8 attorney, is running for AD-5. Only thing is that he doesn’t live in the district. But, he’s really considering it.

*  Greg Lucas looks at the finger pointing in the Legislature.

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*  Van Jones landed on his feet. He got a job at the Center of American Progress and a post at Princeton.

*  Arnold is working on an anti-obesity program.

*  The City of Beverly Hills disowned a homophobe who claimed to be representing the city. Lauren Ashley is a Carrie Prejean wannabe who doesn’t really understand her own bigoted view of the Bible. She actually didn’t win any title in the city, and lives in Pasadena.

*  Have CalPERS and CalSTRS fully divested from Iran? Perhaps not.

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*  David Lazarus has a story in the LA Times about Health Net fighting against paying for procedures that keep an LA-area man alive. It isn’t just one company or another. This is what the Tea Partiers are fighting to preserve. I wonder how they’ll feel about the system they love so much when they are in Bob Iritano’s position.

*  Poor John Yoo, now he has to freak out against pretty much anybody who criticizes him. Yesterday, the Berkeley Law professor essentially called Dawn Johnsen a partisan hack, and that pretty much anybody who disagrees with him probably also a hack. It’s not easy trying to rationalize torture and professional misconduct, and look sane. But hey, 2 out of 3 isn’t bad.

*  Now that Meg Whitman captured the Howard Jarvis Non-Taxpayers endorsement, CalBuzz asks can Poizner still compete outside of the grassroots?

* From the “reap what you sow” file, wingnut talk radio host Lee Rodgers was fired by KSFO last week because the parent company didn’t want to pay the last 4.5 months on his contract. And how is this long-time defender of corporate rapacity reacting? By getting his union involved. Once again conservatives show that progressive solutions are perfectly acceptable for themselves, just not for anyone else.

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*  At HealthyCA, Dan Weintraub reports on California’s decreasing teenage birth rate.

* More from Dan Weintraub’s Healthy CA: Medi-Cal is a value choice. Do we want to provide insurance for those under the poverty line or not? Prior to Gov. Davis, we only went to 86% of the poverty line, and then we went to 100%. That’s hardly a huge committment to the people of California. It requires that a family of four earn preposterously low incomes. Yet, those changes did create a surge in Medi-Cal recipients.

* Poizner plays populist by going after Anthem Blue Cross.

*  The California Young Republicans voted overwhelmingly to endorse Steve Poizner for governor.

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*  Janice Hahn’s campaign manager, Michael Trujillo, sent out an email in the middle of the night blasting Gavin Newsom for thinking of getting into the race. It might throw a wrench into what appears to be a central theme of Hahn’s campaign: she wants to bring the city perspective to Sacramento. (Check the video to the right for her appearance at the CYD Bay area candidate forum.) Obviously, to the extent that any LG can bring any perspective to Sacramento, Newsom seems as equipped to bring that perspective as he is anything else.

*  More from the SF Gate Politics Blog: What Meg Whitman didn’t bother to do, register to vote when she lived in Boston, her “domestics” did.  Specifically, while she was working for Mitt Romney at Bain, she didn’t vote, but her cook did.  Think Romney might be a little peeved about that, considering he lost an election while she was living there? Oh, and as an aside, Meg Whitman also doesn’t really understand what “mass layoffs” means.

*  This morning’s CalBuzz post features a couple of noteworthy stories, one of which I went into earlier. The other story concerns the outing of the Prop 8 federal judge Vaughn Walker’s “outing.” Walker never really tried to hide his sexuality, because he has made a commitment to maintain his impartiality, just as every other judge does.  As I’ve said at the Prop 8 Trial Tracker, Walker’s sexuality should bear no more relevance than Alito’s gender in his decisions.

* This story on Sen. Wiggins is unfortunate, as it seems a medical condition is causing her to act erratically.  She has announced that she won’t be seeking re-election. Asm. Noreen Evans appears to be the favorite for that seat.

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*  John Wildermuth thinks Meg Whitman is scared of the IEs against her campaign, and that’s why she’s pressing Poizner to get out of the race.

*  Looks like the only CA-Sen debate on the Republican side will be on May 6. Mark that one on your calendars, should be fun.

*  Some Republicans criticize earmarks. Not Jerry Lewis. He’s # 2 in Congress in earmarks with over $82 million.  And by the way, that man is not looking well.

*  At least 1,500 NUMMI-related car manufacturing jobs have been lost due to the closure of the facility in Fremont.

* Oh good, Jacques Barzaghi, Jerry Brown’s Rasputin-like advisor is back in the Bay Area.

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*  College Dems President Ian Magruder has an op-ed in the Sacramento Bee today about how student voters can affect the higher education funding crisis.

*  Arnold says that the Assembly is losing PR points for rejecting Maldonado as LG. Really? Does he think people really care who is LG? That’s optimistic.

*  DiFi is definitely out of the CA-Gov race. (Maybe)

*  Timm Herdt takes inspiration from a Honda commercial in advocating for clean energy sources and AB 32’s efforts to regulate greenhouse gasses.

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*  Want a close-up with Jerry Brown? Well, this is pretty darn close.

*  Dan Weintraub, a former Bee columnist, has launched a new non-profit health care news website. You can find HealthyCal here.

*  Former LAPD Chief Daryl Gates has been hospitalized for a serious, but unannounced, condition. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

*  Tax benefits and loopholes are costing the state over $40 Billion each fiscal year.  Fix that, and deficit solved…