Well, let’s see what’s going on as we head into this weekend:
• Even more pushback against the cone of silence, from Timm Herdt of the Ventura County Star, and the SacBee editorial board. It’s not often Calitics lines up with mainstream journalism so neatly.
• Our friends at the Communications Workers of America (CWA) seem like they may be headed for a strike against AT&T. Hopefully the situation will be remedied before it gets to that point, and all will turn out well.
• Just in case you missed it here or at the new site OC Progressive, we don’t have a spending problem. And the author shows the work, too. Also, rich people aren’t leaving the state in droves. It’s hard to keep up with all the zombie lies…
• The State Bar apparently is not backing down on having their state convention at the Manchester Hyatt in November. Doug Manchester, the owner of said Hyatt, gave $125,000 to the Yes on Prop 8 Campaign. Other groups have moved their confrences out of the hall, some at great expense, but the Bar apparently got a great deal and won’t take a stand for equality over a bargain. San Francisco’s LGBT Bar association, Balif, will be boycotting the event. You can check their letter here.
• The Governor nominated Karen Douglas to be the new Energy Commission chair. Douglas, a Democrat, was previously a commissioner and the director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense. Seems like a pretty solid pick from Mr. Post-Partisan.
• Lots of stories about former CA Congressman, and CA Forward chair, Leon Panetta‘s hearings for CIA Director.
• The LA Times takes a look at whether a true banking behemoth, Bank of America, can save itself. Despite the fact that it is ridiculously large, it’s still an outstanding question. George Soros has been saying that the most fiscally prudent response would be to simply do what the Swedes successfully did a few years back: nationalize the banks.
• Let’s close with a dirty story: San Francisco will be converting cooking grease to fuel in a biofuels program set to start this year.