{"id":8427,"date":"2009-04-01T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2009-04-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2009-04-01T03:06:42","modified_gmt":"2009-04-01T03:06:42","slug":"tuesday-331-open-thread","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/2009\/04\/01\/tuesday-331-open-thread\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday 3\/31 Open Thread"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Go out and shop before the sales taxes go up tomorrow! Buy a car! Buy a rocket ship, whatever floats your boat, just buy!! And with that, back to our regular linky program:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oops! The Dept. of Corrections (and Rehabilitation&#8230;hahaha) paid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-prisons31-2009mar31,0,7827510.story\" target=\"_blank\">unemployment for workers fired for cause<\/a> to the tune of $1.3 million. If the Dept. had properly filed paperwork and represented their case, much of that would not have been paid out.<\/li>\n<li>The SacBee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1735628.html?mi_rss=State%2520Politics\">is claiming encouraging early signs<\/A> for the federal stimulus. &nbsp;That can&#8217;t come soon enough, particularly to the Central Valley Depression. &nbsp;In Yuba County, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/251\/story\/65107.html\">nearly 78% of the mortgage debt<\/a> is tied to underwater houses. &nbsp;That is an insane number, meaning that 60% of ALL homeowners are underwater.<\/li>\n<li>We learned yesterday that the proceeds from the state&#8217;s bond sale will <a href=\"http:\/\/californiascapitol.com\/blog\/?p=324\">immediately go toward restarting public works projects<\/a> that had to be canceled in the wake of the cash crunch. &nbsp;Which is great, but we will eventually have to pay off all that debt &#8211; &nbsp;and yes, contra <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-cap26-2009mar26,0,4193149,full.column\">George Skelton<\/a> our crappy bond rating DOES reflect the reality that the state budget is fragile and unpredictable. &nbsp;FWIW, John Chiang says that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021164.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">we have enough money to get through July<\/a>. &nbsp;Yay!<\/li>\n<li>Wanna buy San Quentin? The s<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-property31-2009mar31,0,4769207.story?track=rss\" target=\"_blank\">tate auditor wants to sell it off.<\/a>&nbsp; Honestly, I don&#39;t know why they haven&#39;t done this a while ago. That land would have fetched quite a handsome price had they sold 3 years ago, but it still is quite valuable.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s an article in Newsweek about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/id\/190871\/page\/1\">revival of Compton<\/a>. &nbsp;The evidence for this is that homicides are down and there&#8217;s a TGI Friday&#8217;s now. &nbsp;Unemployment in Compton remains twice the national average. &nbsp;So there&#8217;s work to be done. &nbsp;But there are some successes; it&#8217;s worth a read.<\/li>\n<li>Carrie Lopez, the Consumer Affairs chief, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-expenses28-2009mar28,0,6880148.story?track=rss\">the second Schwarzenegger Administration official to resign<\/a> due to questionable expense accounts. &nbsp;Arnold&#8217;s culture of corruption continues. &nbsp;Wonder if anyone will notice.<\/li>\n<li>Well, it&#39;s looking like EFCA might get bogged down in the Senate. But, here in California, we have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1741405.html\">SB 789 that would allow card check for agricultural workers<\/a>. Arnold isn&#39;t the biggest labor supporter, but it should be a priority for Democrats in the coming years. Agricultural workers need the protection of a union, with the dangers of their job.<\/li>\n<li>Gottschalks, a Central Valley department store, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/local\/story\/1296310.html\">will be liquidated shortly<\/a>. It&#39;s the end of an era.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Go out and shop before the sales taxes go up tomorrow! Buy a car! Buy a rocket ship, whatever floats your boat, just buy!! And with that, back to our regular linky program:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Oops! The Dept. of Corrections (and Rehabilitation&#8230;hahaha) paid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-prisons31-2009mar31,0,7827510.story\" target=\"_blank\">unemployment for workers fired for cause<\/a> to the tune of $1.3 million. If the Dept. had properly filed paperwork and represented their case, much of that would not have been paid out.<\/li>\n<li>The SacBee <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1735628.html?mi_rss=State%2520Politics\">is claiming encouraging early signs<\/A> for the federal stimulus. &nbsp;That can&#8217;t come soon enough, particularly to the Central Valley Depression. &nbsp;In Yuba County, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mcclatchydc.com\/251\/story\/65107.html\">nearly 78% of the mortgage debt<\/a> is tied to underwater houses. &nbsp;That is an insane number, meaning that 60% of ALL homeowners are underwater.<\/li>\n<li>We learned yesterday that the proceeds from the state&#8217;s bond sale will <a href=\"http:\/\/californiascapitol.com\/blog\/?p=324\">immediately go toward restarting public works projects<\/a> that had to be canceled in the wake of the cash crunch. &nbsp;Which is great, but we will eventually have to pay off all that debt &#8211; &nbsp;and yes, contra <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-cap26-2009mar26,0,4193149,full.column\">George Skelton<\/a> our crappy bond rating DOES reflect the reality that the state budget is fragile and unpredictable. &nbsp;FWIW, John Chiang says that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/static\/weblogs\/capitolalertlatest\/021164.html?mi_rss=Capitol%20Alert\">we have enough money to get through July<\/a>. &nbsp;Yay!<\/li>\n<li>Wanna buy San Quentin? The s<a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-property31-2009mar31,0,4769207.story?track=rss\" target=\"_blank\">tate auditor wants to sell it off.<\/a>&nbsp; Honestly, I don&#39;t know why they haven&#39;t done this a while ago. That land would have fetched quite a handsome price had they sold 3 years ago, but it still is quite valuable.<\/li>\n<li>Here&#8217;s an article in Newsweek about the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.newsweek.com\/id\/190871\/page\/1\">revival of Compton<\/a>. &nbsp;The evidence for this is that homicides are down and there&#8217;s a TGI Friday&#8217;s now. &nbsp;Unemployment in Compton remains twice the national average. &nbsp;So there&#8217;s work to be done. &nbsp;But there are some successes; it&#8217;s worth a read.<\/li>\n<li>Carrie Lopez, the Consumer Affairs chief, is <a href=\"http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/local\/la-me-expenses28-2009mar28,0,6880148.story?track=rss\">the second Schwarzenegger Administration official to resign<\/a> due to questionable expense accounts. &nbsp;Arnold&#8217;s culture of corruption continues. &nbsp;Wonder if anyone will notice.<\/li>\n<li>Well, it&#39;s looking like EFCA might get bogged down in the Senate. But, here in California, we have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.sacbee.com\/politics\/story\/1741405.html\">SB 789 that would allow card check for agricultural workers<\/a>. Arnold isn&#39;t the biggest labor supporter, but it should be a priority for Democrats in the coming years. Agricultural workers need the protection of a union, with the dangers of their job.<\/li>\n<li>Gottschalks, a Central Valley department store, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.fresnobee.com\/local\/story\/1296310.html\">will be liquidated shortly<\/a>. It&#39;s the end of an era.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2450,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Pvhz-2bV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2450"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calitics.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}