Lighten up, everyone, it’s Christmas!
• During the election, there was some talk that Jim Nielsen, the eventual winner in AD-02, would have his victory invalidated because he didn’t actually live in the district. State prosecutors took a look at it, and they took a pass. So no back-door victory for Paul Singh.
• Late last week Ramon Cortines was tapped so be the new superintendent for LA schools. This was expected, as Cortines was an ally of Antonio Villaraigosa. But he does bring with him a raft of experience running school districts in New York, San Francisco, San Jose and Pasadena. Hopefully he can bring some stability to a struggling school district in LA.
• Nothing official yet, but the rumors are all over the interwebz that Chris Kelly, the chief privacy officer at Facebook will join the crowded AG’s race. In addition to his work at Facebook, Kelly worked in the Clinton administration on education issues, and in other big-time law gigs.
• The Professional Engineers in California Government becomes the first union to file suit against Arnold Schwarzenegger over his plan to mandate furloughs, pay cuts and layoffs. I’d expect a few more.
• Another way that California is in troublesome waters: the so-called safety net is actually being called upon in these bad economic times. Whether or not it will be there is up to Arnold and the Republicans. If they want to kill of services to those who need them, they should know the consequences. There is a terrible risk that public hospitals will be overrun and potentially bankrupted if they aren’t provided with additional funding. It’s great that Arnold wants to stimulate hospital building by running roughshod over CEQA (Not really), but we kinda need to keep the hospitals and clinics that are open now in good working order.
• The story of Interior Department official Julie MacDonald, and her constant interfering in the work of career scientists and decisions on endangered species, is really outrageous. The effects on California’s habitats are quite real.