To the links:

• GM is pulling out of NUMMI, its joint venture with Toyota. There had been rumors that Toyota might build some of the new Prius models there, but that was quashed. No word on what the job situation will be in the plant in Fremont.

• Those trees growing on the levees in the Central Valley have to go, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.  Hopefully they won’t replace them with newspaper, the way they did in New Orleans.

• Dan Walters seems moved by the PPIC report that the half-billion-dollar enterprise zone program has no effect on employment and instead constitutes a set of useless tax breaks.  Sadly, this program was not cut by Democrats or the Governor in their budget proposals.  At the very least, tax break programs like these should have a sunset so they can be assessed for effectiveness.

• The SEIU State Council endorsed LG John Garamendi in his bid for CA-10. In some respects, it seems the big labor endorsements are being split between Garamendi and DeSaulnier.  We should see how the money is flowing after the Q2 reports emerge.

• Pay as you drive auto insurance could be coming to California shortly, by the end of the year.  This could make sense for people who don’t use their car very much, although I doubt it will impact congestion.

• CREDO Mobile is encouraging public comment against the reinstatement of the death penalty, and they make a compelling case.  The deadline is tomorrow, so get your cracks in.  The ACLU, who argues that the death penalty will cost the state $1 billion over 5 years, is planning a statewide Day Of Action To End The Death Penalty tomorrow.  More info on that here.

• After bowing out of the governor’s race, Mayor Villaraigosa is now laying out his plans for Los Angeles for his second term.

• Oooh, jobs for Michigan. Apparently, Michigan Governor Granholm wrote a letter about sending prisoners to empty prisons there.  Wow, “empty prisons.” That’s not a phrase you hear around here very often.

• It’s about a week old, but Joe Matthews’ take on a “bailout” for California is worth reading.

To all my SF area compatriots, happy Pride weekend.  If you are up in SF, think about coming to the Alice Pride Breakfast on Sunday morning before the parade. Many of the local and statewide politicos will be in attendance, including both Democratic candidates for Governor. Get your tickets here or at the door on Sunday morning. Now to the links:

• {From Brian} Another event you might be interested in: a SF fundraiser for Anthony Woods featuring Lt. Dan Choi. Should be a good time.

• (From Dante) My brother David–a fellow author here on Calitics–hosts a weekly half-hour progressive radio show every Friday at 11:00am in Ventura on KVTA-1520, together with Brian Leshon, Communications Committee chair of the Ventura County Democratic Party.  I was an in-studio guest this week as we talked about Sen. Tony Strickland, local tax measures and what the May 19 special really meant.  check out the podcast here, and be sure to return every Friday afternoon for future shows.  It feels good to be bringing a progressive message to Ventura County.

• The Senate GOP Caucus rejected Arnold’s surcharge to fund CalFire as well as a Vehicle fee to fund parks.  At this point, I’m not sure if they know what that green button does.

• Ellen Tauscher was confirmed as Undersecretary for the Dept. of State.  Gov. Schwarzenegger now has to select a special election date, which, I believe has to be within 90 days from today. I’ll try to get confirmation on that last part.  Her final speech in the House in the video to the right.

• The ACLU and the National Center for Lesbian Rights hopped on board the federal challenge to Prop 8. In filings to the court, they said they supported the challenge.

• Deposed Assembly Republican Leader Mike Villines is officially running for Insurance Commissioner.

A little bit late on this one, sorry about that. Now to the links.

• CalBuzz has a post on how California became ungovernable. It gets the biggies with 2/3, initiatives, Prop 13 and term limits. I would argue the point about gerrymandering, as it is more about the fact that we have self-organized into like-minded communities than the district lines.

• Capitol Weekly handicaps the Speaker’s Race. Karen Bass is termed out in 2010, so there will be another round.  CW likes Kevin De Leon, but there might be some pressure to pick a current freshman to get somebody who will be there for more than one term.

• Josh Richman makes a good catch from the campaign finance website: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison dropped $13K on Jerry Brown.

• As if there weren’t enough people running for Attorney General, Rocky Delgadillo is thinking about getting in the race again.

Links:

• Republicans are jumping the Poizner ship for Team Meg Whitman. Get used to talking about slave labor.

• Melissa Rodgers’ op-ed offering 10 lessons for health care reform based on California’s 2007 lesson is actually pretty decent, but there’s a difference between health care reform at the state level and the national level, and that’s the ability for the federal government to print money.  That additional constraint tied health care reform’s success in states to the national economy, and as we have seen, that’s an impossible constraint.

• (Dave wrote this one) The Very Serious Journalists at CalBuzz tell us that they did some actual reporting and discovered that the Bay Area Council may, contrary to a report here, may offer some steps to alter Prop. 13.  And that looks to be true, Prop. 13 has multiple elements to it.  But let me just suggest that the Bay Area Council may not actually be a completely reliable source on what the Bay Area Council wants to do, especially things that may put them in a negative light.  I’m no Serious and Important Journalist, but I hear that sometimes organizations spin the press in ways favorable to their agenda.  Stenographers of the world beware!  In addition, the BAC language that delegates to a Constitutional convention will be prohibited from changes to “Property taxes associated with Proposition 13” is certainly a problem to many people, including Phil Ting, and is absolutely worth debating, actual reporting or not.

• Jon Kyl (R-Ariz) put a hold on Ellen Tauscher’s nomination.  It’s not clear how long Kyl is prepared to let this go, but Tauscher has more than the traditional 60 votes.  Either way, this brings up the possibility of a delayed special in the CA-10.  Kyl, by the way, just loves building more nuclear weapons, and that’s the source of his “concern” about Tauscher.

• Sen. Wiggins turned in her state car, and then promptly bought it back from the dealership that the state had sold the hybrid Civic to.

• I see no reason why a years-long drought couldn’t trigger a federal declaration as a major disaster area, as is the case in Fresno County.  Actually, it’s an economic disaster area these days.

• If noted moderate California Blue Dog is pushing a single-payer system, you know that it’s absurd to have it walled off from the national debate.

• Timm Herdt ruminates on possible third candidates in the Dem. primary.

A quick reminder to sign the petition urging DiFi to stand with Americans on health care. It’s really one of the biggest issues of our time, and it needs to get done this year.  By the way, those of you in California on MoveOn’s list probably got the email about calling DiFi about her comments, as well as donating money for an ad they will be putting up challenging her on her remarks.  We have to keep up the pressure.  Now, to the links:

• Lots and Lots and Lots of stories about Villaraigosa not running for governor.  Calbuzz has the take from the other governor candidates.

• The federal government will lend California-based Tesla Motors $465 million dollars to help fund the building of electric vehicles.  It’s very good to see Tesla get a kick-start from the Feds, which they can hopefully leverage into another round of funding to increase their efforts.  This will help finance factories in Northern and Southern California, and it makes perfect sense to invest in alternative technologies in the auto industry to drive innovation throughout the sector.  Good stuff.

• Calitics mentioned previously that Ted Lieu’s bill puts a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures to allow lenders and borrowers to come to agreements on modifications that would keep people in their homes.  One problem with that: seven lenders have immunity from the ordinance, including Bank of America Home Loans, CitiMortgage and Carrington Mortgage Services.  And more lenders may follow with immunity provisions.  Suddenly this bill doesn’t seem so spectacular.

• A follow-up story about how Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis is doing at her current job.

• A good story in the LA Times about the people who harvest our food. Things really haven’t gotten better for them; it has always been and will continue to be a hard life.

• LA County passed a temporary budget filling their huge deficit, but it doesn’t account for potential state budget cuts, which obviously are coming.  No wonder Antonio won’t be hitting the campaign trail.

Links from around the state

• A few events coming up that are worth noting: the New Leaders Council has events in the Bay Area and LA for their 40 under 40 List, Anthony Woods has an event next Monday in San Francisco.

• Steve Lopez has a great take on Antonio Villaraigosa’s demurral from a run for Governor.  It was essentially a self-inflicted wound.

• Wow, a tiff between Jeff Denham and Dean Florez. That sounds, well, completely unsurprising.

• CalBuzz has all your Tony V. horse race implications before the announcement today.

• Sci-fi writer Ray Bradbury’s new gig: fundraising for local libraries in Ventura.  Unfortunately, not every library in this state has a famous literary sponsor.

• The Wall Street Journal editorial page is positively giddy about the prospect of a flat tax in California.  You can pretty well figure out the relative benefits of a policy, for the super-rich as opposed to working people, by how it’s covered on the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

• Speaking of opinions you can’t trust, here’s Michael Savage on the California budget.

• BART’s contract expires at the end of the month, and there is a long way to go in negotiations.

• A vote on a proposed stadium for the A’s in San Jose has been delayed. Under Major League Baseball’s rules, the Giants have territorial restrictions over the South Bay, so the A’s would need to get a change in the rule before they could move.  The A’s management wants to avoid an unnecessary election.

• LAPD scored very well on the latest poll. A LA Times Poll shows the Department with a 77% approval rating, with strong approval from every demographic.

• The President made a funny at the Radio and TV Correspondent’s Dinner about Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying that they were building a new reality show around him and the troubles in Sacramento called “I’m A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here.”  LOL.

• Yay! Something positive about the budget.  Well, sort of.  Corporate tax revenues are up. That’s good, but it is really only because a budget bill from last year SB 28 1X required corporations to frontload their annual tax payments in the first two quarters of the year.

• Following S&P’s watch report on California’s credit rating, Moody’s has done the same.

• Moody’s isn’t entirely sanguine about our budget mess either, joining Standard and Poor’s by placing California on a credit watch list.

• The California State Parks Foundation has had success with their recent action items. They’ve sent over 125,000 letters in support of the state parks. It really isn’t that surprising as state parks are commonly used by fairly politically aware people who were jolted into action by Arnold’s call to close most of the state parks. We mentioned it 3 weeks ago, but if you haven’t done so, how about taking some action for the parks?

• Shira Tarrant does not like the proposed cuts to the CSU. Under the budget committee’s plan, CSU and UC take equal cuts to their budget.

• John Myers has a good wrap-up of some loose ends about the Dems’ budget deal.  Meanwhile, the California Budget Project did a side-by-side comparison of the Dems’ budget and the Governor’s.  Check it out.

• One area of success in the Prop 8 campaign? Asian-American votes swung in favor of marriage equality rapidly. Asian-Americans supported the ban in Prop 22 in 2000 by a 36 point margin. In 2008, it was only a 6 point margin.  There is a lot more work to be done in this community, but hopefully next time we’ll win this demographic.

• Is Placer County the new Orange County?

• California leads the way in the edible garden movement.

Have you emailed Boxer and Feinstein yet?

• Speaking of Sen. Boxer, hats off to her for putting that general in his place and demanding some respect.

• Let the games begin in CA-10, as Ellen Tauscher easily passed through the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today on her way to confirmation in the State Department.  She could be confirmed as soon as next week.

• The CRP is enraged that an SEIU member would call for action against legislators who don’t stand up for services in this state. They’re using her words in a YouTube ad that she wants pulled down. The funny thing about the ad? Most of the ad is about SEIU intimidating people who vote against them.  Umm…should a party where every legislator has signed a pledge of inflexibility really be calling this particular kettle names?

• Arnold wants to tackle water after the budget.  Fresno residents apparently disagree. You can catch the video of Arnold’s speech here, with the angry calls for action on water at the end.

• Arnold’s idea of a gift for Sen. Steinberg: a metal sculpture of bull testicles. Seriously.  Sen. Steinberg returned them, saying that it took fortitude to protect those who needed protection.

• Some good news on high-speed rail, as indications suggest that California is on track to win a substantial chunk of stimulus money for its HSR efforts.  We should know before the end of summer.

• This is just a lame scaremongering effort by the California Statewide Law Enforcement Association, who are protesting $20 million in budget cuts and the loss of 70 agents by running statewide ads that blare “California Legislature surrendering to drug lords in Mexico”.  Really, it takes 70 agents to fight all Mexican drug lords?  I’m all for staving off cuts, but this is a bridge too far on hyperbole.

• It’s a little old, but I did want to mention that a 90-day moratorium on all foreclosures in the state took effect on Monday, welcome news for people facing the loss of their homes.  The way it works it the moratorium stays in effect unless the lender works out a modification program with the borrower.  Assemblyman Ted Lieu, who created the bill, said “We must put a stop to the unending tidal wave of foreclosures that has crippled our economy.  This law will help people stay in their homes by giving lenders a serious incentive to modify loans.”

• And some news of our always batshit crazy Congressional Republican delegation, John Campbell (CA-48) signed on to the nutjob “birther” bill suggesting that Obama wasn’t born in this country, and the dearly departed Duncan Hunter Sr. spoke during his Presidential campaign at a Minuteman event put on by Shawna Forde, the woman who has been charged in a double-homicide of an Arizona man and his daughter.  They’re a classy bunch.

• While the UCLA forecast calls for a gradual rebound in the second half of the year, Chapman U. thinks it might be into next year.

• Joseph Palermo doesn’t like the odds that Democrats will win many concessions this budget season.

• Some poor performing charter schools would be closed under a new plan for a ratings system.

Links!

• Gov. Schwarzenegger is deferring to the federal court on Prop 8. The opinion doesn’t really have much impact on the case, but it’s noteworthy nonetheless.

• It’s been clear from here in Los Angeles that Antonio Villaraigosa wasn’t running for Governor, but his election as second VP at the US Conference of Mayors almost clinches it.  Villaraigosa would be in line for the Presidency of the organization in 2011 – if he stuck around as LA Mayor.  And he probably wouldn’t run for this office if he wasn’t.

• From the Wow department, Josh Richman has a story on Prop 36 today. Essentially, cuts to Prop 36 funding will deny treatment to eligible offenders. However, they can’t be forced to prison, so they just move along back into the same environment that created the problems in the first place.

• One budget cut I didn’t notice in the Democrats’ version was phasing out the completely failed enterprise zone program, which would save $500 million dollars, not bad for one program.

• We’re actually down an Assembly seat right now, and the Secretary of State set a date for the election to replace Curren Price.  The primary would take place September 1, and if nobody wins a majority, the general election would be November 3.

• Charter schools do not provide the performance results that advocates claim?  Math results are significantly lower in charter schools than public schools?  Get out of town!

• There are rumors that the Fremont NUMMI plant, a joint project of Toyota and GM, may make the Toyota Prius. Well, they say that manufacturing will be part of California’s recovery, so maybe this is the start of something.

• A group of lobbyists were booted from court in their attempt to remove the clean money initiative from the ballot in June 2010. If it passes, the SoS election in 2014 will be a clean money election and would be paid for by a tax on lobbyists.

• Is this the first actual good economic news I’ve seen in a while? – median SoCal home prices actually increased last month.  Well, no, as Calculated Risk explains, prices are still dropping, it’s a matter of a different mix of sales raising the median.

• Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll thinks that what will happen after the budget crisis will be more ballot box budgeting. We’ll get some more revenues for specific programs, and the budget will be even more difficult to manage.

Brian will be on KALW’s Your Call Radio again at 11 AM to talk budget.  Listen live or grab the podcast here.Links!

• Greg Lucas has a good story on the “Tax Commission”. Apparently the big plan is to RAISE taxes on people earning less than $100,000 and decrease taxes on people earning more than $100,000 by imposing a flat 6% income tax. That is freaking insane, immoral, and just plain wrong. Simply put, the idea is a non-starter.  If this commission had any courage whatsoever, they would simply say what no Republican dares to say, but the Washington Post did today: Fix Prop 13.

• Jerry Brown sent out a very campaign-y email today.

• Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson denies that he asked President Obama to fire a federal inspector general.

• George Tsakopolous, noted developer, Phil Angelides supporter, and patriach of the Tsakopolous clan, died at the age of 81.

• Arnold seems to think he had a deal with the legislative Dems not to raise taxes again.