Question: what could be the next big thing in California politics?
Possible answer: Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.
That’s right. We’ve got Pirates.
Real pirates.
The Pirate Party recently filed paperwork with the office of Secretary of State Debra Bowen to begin the process of becoming an official California political party, with its own ballot line.
The Pirate Party is from Europe, but this is not a joke.
It’s a real party, formed in Scandinavia just six years ago. Its wide-ranging platform focuses on freedom of information (the pirates attracted to this party often have been digital ones) but also includes an emphasis on health care access and other issues, marrying values we think of both as lefty and libertarian.
Doesn’t that sound pretty Californian to you? Me too.
It’s not inconceivable the party could make some gains, though our not-very-democratic election system, with winner-take-all legislative seats and the top-two primary, is stacked against small, fledgling parties.
If anyone can beat the established system, it would be Pirates.
The party is now the fastest-growing political party in the world. It has a presence in more than 50 countries, and is already recognized in four U.S. states.
It’s also been winning legislative seats in European countries (with particular strength in Germany), and in the European parliament itself.
Welcome, mates.
Lead Prop Zero blogger Je Mathews is California editor at Zocalo Public Square, a fellow at Arizona State University’s Center for Social Cohesion, and co-author of California Crackup: How Reform Broke the Golden State and How We Can Fix It (University of California, 2010).
Send us your thoughts via Twitter @PropZero or add your comment to our Facebook page.
Source: www.nbcbayarea.com
California court bureaucracy battered in new report - San Jose Mercury News
California's statewide court bureaucracy is "dysfunctional" and should be slashed, reorganized and relocated to cheaper headquarters to save millions of dollars per year, an 11-judge committee found in a report released over the weekend.
Siding with increasingly vocal critics within the judiciary, the 298-page report blasts the state Administrative Office of the Courts for its unchecked growth and accumulation of power at a time when California's courts are coping with Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to cut the judiciary's budget by $544 million this coming year.
The report cites many examples of bureaucratic bloat, from a "top heavy" and "unwieldy" management structure to unnecessary and overstaffed programs. The report targeted numerous divisions, including the 75-member legal team, which has a staff attorney who is allowed to telecommute from Switzerland.
With a slew of recommendations, the committee took particular aim at the size of the AOC staff, as well as what it considered a disproportionate number of employees earning more than $100,000 a year. The court bureaucracy grew from about 430 employees in 2002 to more than 1,100 last year, with hundreds of them having six-figure salaries.
The committee suggested the court bureaucracy, which amounted to about $125 million of the judiciary's budget of more than $3 billion, could be cut to fewer than 700 employees. And it called for the agency's headquarters to be moved from nearly $11
million-per-year digs in San Francisco to cheaper, smaller space in Sacramento."The organization needs to be right-sized," the report said.
In response to mounting criticism of the AOC in recent years, Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye in March 2011 appointed the committee to examine the agency's operations and costs. In a brief session with reporters Tuesday, the chief justice said the state Judicial Council, which oversees the agency and courts, will now consider the recommendations.
Cantil-Sakauye stressed that she demanded the report to respond to concerns of judges and legislators. And she called the report a "snapshot in time," saying AOC staffers were heavily involved in assembling the information and provided "most of the hard criticisms."
The chief justice also defended her decision to release the report on Friday night of Memorial Day weekend, a move that prompted one group of judges to say she was trying to "minimize the impact of negative press coverage."
"That report was released as soon as I got it," she said.
The Alliance of California Judges, a group established three years ago in large part to call for dismantling the AOC, called the report an "indictment" of an agency "broken at its very core."
The group's leaders praised most of the report's findings, although they said the agency should be cut far more than the report suggested.
Howard Mintz covers legal affairs. Contact him at 408-286-0236 or follow him at Twitter.com/hmintz.
Source: www.mercurynews.com
California smog threatens world's oldest trees - Poughkeepsie Journal
SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK, California The California forest that is home to the biggest and oldest living things on earth, the giant Sequoia redwoods, also suffers a dubious distinction. It has the worst air pollution of any national park in the United States.
"Ozone levels here are comparable to urban settings such as LA," said Emily Schrepf of the nonprofit advocacy group the National Park Conservation Association. "It's just not right."
Signs in visitor centers warn guests when it's not safe to hike. The government employment website warns job applicants that the workplace is unhealthy. And park workers are briefed every year on the lung and heart damage the pollution can cause.
Although weakened trees are more susceptible to drought and pests, the long-term impact on the pines and on the giant redwoods that have been around for 3,000 years and more is unclear.
"If this is happening in a national park that isn't even close to an urban area, what do you think is happening in your backyard?" said Annie Esperanza, a park scientist who has studied air quality there for 30 years.
It's a problem in a handful of the nation's 52 parks that are monitored constantly for ozone, including Joshua Tree National Park in California's Mojave Desert and North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains National Park. But none is as severe as Sequoia and its neighbor, Kings Canyon.
While forest fires create some pollution, most comes from the San Joaquin Valley, the expanse of farmland that is home to California's two busiest north-south trucking highways, diesel freight train corridors, food processing plants and tens of thousands of diesel tractors.
Smog is created when the sun's rays hit pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen and volatile organic compounds that are in motor vehicle exhaust, solvents, pesticides, gasoline vapors and decaying dairy manure.
"There is no simple answer to ozone pollution," said Thomas Cahill, a researcher at the University of California, Davis who studies air problem in Sequoia and across California.
Source: www.poughkeepsiejournal.com
California death row inmate found dead hanging in his cell - msnbc.com
A 68-year-old California inmate on death row in San Quentin State Prison was found dead hanging in his cell, authorities said Tuesday.
Authorities are investigating the suicide of condemned inmate James Lee Crummel and declined to provide the circumstances of the hanging, which happened Sunday afternoon in the rear of his single-occupant cell, said Lt. Sam Robinson of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
A corrections officer had last observed Crummel 15 minutes before he was found dead, Robinson said. The officer was doing an inmate count before dinner when he found Crummel's body, Robinson said.
Crummel had not been under suicide watch, Robinson said. An autopsy will be conducted.
Crummel went to death row shortly after being sentenced to death on July 9, 2004, by a Riverside County jury for the April 13, 1979, kidnapping, sexual abuse and murder of 13-year-old James Wilfred Trotter, who disappeared on his way to school, authorities said.
The boy's remains were found in 1990, and the identity of the body was not confirmed until 1996, authorities said.
California reinstated capital punishment in 1978, and since then, 57 condemned inmates have died from natural causes, 20 have committed suicide, 13 have been executed in California, one was executed in Missouri and six died from other causes, authorities said.
California has 723 convicts on California's death row.
Source: www.msnbc.msn.com
California 9/11 license plate fund raided for deficit - CBS News
Part of the money raised through the sale of the plates was to fund scholarships for the children of California residents who perished in the attacks, while the majority -- 85 percent -- was to help fund anti-terrorism efforts.
But an Associated Press review of the $15 million collected since lawmakers approved the "California Memorial Scholarship Program" shows only a small fraction of the money went to scholarships. While 40 percent has funded anti-terror training programs, $3 million was raided by Gov. Jerry Brown and his predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, to plug the state's budget deficit.
Millions more have been spent on budget items with little relation to direct threats of terrorism, including livestock diseases and workplace safety.
Moreover, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has been advertising the plates as helping the children of Sept. 11 victims even though the state stopped funding the scholarship program seven years ago. The specialty plate fund continues to take in $1.5 million a year.
Californians who lost loved ones in the attacks take the raid on the license plate fund as an affront to the memory of those who died.
"I can't believe that they would do that," said Candice Hoglan, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and bought a plate to commemorate her nephew, Mark Bingham. "We're paying extra for the plate; we're making a point, and it means a lot to us."
Bingham was killed on United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania, and was one of the passengers who led the attempt to wrest control from the hijackers. His mother, Alice Hoagland, also was troubled by the program's apparent drift from its original purpose.
"I'm sorry that as we retreat in time from 9/11, we seem to be retreating in our resolve never to forget," she said in a telephone interview.
The plates, which cost an initial $50 plus a $40 annual renewal fee, feature an American flag partially obscured by clouds and the "never forget" slogan. Residents of California, where all four jetliners were bound when they were hijacked, have bought or renewed the plates more than 200,000 times since 2002.
Of the other states directly associated with the 2001 attacks, only Virginia has established a similar specialty plate program. Yet it did not set up a special fund for the proceeds of its "Fight Terrorism" plate.
For the past decade, the California DMV has said on its website that the money will "fund scholarships for the children of Californians who died in the September 11, 2001, terror attacks and helps California's law enforcement fight threats of terrorism." It advertises the program with the slogan, "Be a patriot."
While the DMV description of the program was not "totally disingenuous," the department should probably remove references to the scholarship program, said Joe DeAnda, a spokesman for the state treasurer's office, which disburses the money.
"It's out of date and it's on DMV to update that," he said.
Late Friday, the department modified the description of the license plate on its website to remove the reference to the scholarship program in response to the investigation by the AP, which began in March. Spokeswoman Jan Mendoza said the reason promotional materials were not updated sooner was "unknown."
The DMV still lists the scholarship program on the online and hardcopy form drivers fill out to buy the license plates, but Mendoza said the department will change this next time the forms are printed.
The legislation establishing the plates had earmarked 15 percent of the revenue for scholarships. Yet only $21,381 has reached the children and spouses of the three dozen California residents killed during the terrorist attacks. The state treasurer's office closed the scholarship program in 2005, the sign-up deadline for potential recipients, and has $60,000 in reserve.
The total amount dedicated to scholarships was 1.5 percent of the $5.5 million raised through the sale of the plates through 2005.
The original legislation said the remainder of the money would go to "law enforcement, fire protection, and public health agencies" to be used "exclusively for purposes directly related to fighting terrorism."
But in 2008, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, borrowed $2 million to close a budget gap. Last year, Brown, a Democrat, borrowed another $1 million.
Neither loan has been repaid nor are their deadlines to ensure they will be. Elizabeth Ashford, a spokeswoman for Brown, said the loans have done no harm.
"We're trying to simultaneously balance the budget and fund important programs," she said. "If there was an indication that borrowing this money was going to negatively impact this program, we wouldn't borrow the money."
The rest of the money has gone to a wide array of budgets and programs.
The Legislature sent $3.7 million to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, according to the Department of Finance, to establish an online food monitoring database and implement a variety of worker safety programs, including hiring industrial hygienists to tend to worker health.
But it is difficult to say precisely where the money has gone. Late Friday, the agriculture department delivered documents it said were in response to a California Public Records Act request the AP filed eight weeks earlier.
The response contained itemized budget reports going back six years and listing payments for all types of government functions, ranging from salaries and benefits, to printing costs and communication equipment. Among the details: $18,163 for furniture in 2006 and $11,492 for auto inspection in 2009.
The response also included a legislative report on the threats the agriculture department is targeting with an online database the license plate program helps fund . A similar report from 2006, when the license plate money was first authorized, lists bioterrorism as a potential danger. But the 2011 report focuses on food safety and livestock concerns, including foot-and-mouth disease and meat and poultry monitoring.
Director of Animal Health and Food Safety Services Annette Whiteford said the department does not track license plate money separately from other funds.
She said it would be wasteful to reserve the money exclusively for anti-terrorism work. For example, the department uses some of the money to buy safety suits that would be essential during an anthrax attack but also are useful for routine food investigations.
"The things that I worry about in the animal food safety division are very high consequence events, but very infrequent. So I always try to leverage those resources," she said.
Another $2 million has gone to programs that aim to protect Californians from all manner of potential threats, not just those related to terrorism.
The California Emergency Management Agency used nearly $1 million in memorial license plate money for general operations, including administrative costs, buying and fueling cars, and hiring a person from 2007 to 2009 to coordinate five so-called "fusion centers," according to documents obtained through a Public Records Act request.
The other $1 million went directly to the fusion centers, which were founded after the 2001 attacks to focus on terrorist threats but have since switched to an "all crimes" approach that includes gang activity and natural disasters.
Herb Wesson, who wrote the license plate bill when he was speaker of the California Assembly, said he was saddened to hear how the money had been spent.
"I understand the financial climate they find themselves in, but they are not following the spirit and intent of the legislation," said Wesson, now president of the Los Angeles City Council. "The lion's share of the money was supposed to be given to local law enforcement so that they could beef up their anti-terrorism operations."
About 40 percent of the total raised to date, or $6 million, has gone to anti-terrorism training programs for firefighters and law enforcement officers. There is a slight discrepancy between the DMV's revenue figures and the Department of Finance's expenditure figures that neither agency could explain.
Patricia Anderson, who paid $98 for a personalized memorial plate reading "WE R 4US," said she signed up for the program primarily to show respect for victims of the 9/11 attacks. Anderson said she was disheartened but not surprised to learn that much of the money has gone to fill the state deficit or used for general purposes.
"That's California," said Anderson, who now lives near Austin, Texas. "It's kind of a given these days -- nothing is spent on what it's supposed to be."
Source: www.cbsnews.com
Bluefin tuna caught off California contains radiation from Japan's Fukushima plant - Daily Telegraph
One of the largest and speediest fish, Pacific bluefin tuna can grow to 10 feet (3 meters) and weigh more than 1,000 pounds (450 kilograms). They spawn off the Japan coast and swim east at breakneck speed to school in waters off California and the tip of Baja California, Mexico.
Five months after the Fukushima disaster, Fisher of Stony Brook University in New York and a team decided to test Pacific bluefin that were caught off the coast of San Diego. To their surprise, tissue samples from all 15 tuna captured contained levels of two radioactive substances – ceisum-134 and caesium-137 – that were higher than in previous catches.
To rule out the possibility that the radiation was carried by ocean currents or deposited in the sea through the atmosphere, the team also analysed yellowfin tuna, found in the eastern Pacific, and bluefin that migrated to Southern California before the nuclear crisis. They found no trace of caesium-134 and only background levels of caesium-137 left over from nuclear weapons testing in the 1960s.
The results "are unequivocal. Fukushima was the source," said Ken Buesseler of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, who had no role in the research.
Bluefin tuna absorbed radioactive caesium from swimming in contaminated waters and feeding on contaminated prey such as krill and squid, the scientists said. As the predators made the journey east, they shed some of the radiation through metabolism and as they grew larger. Even so, they weren't able to completely flush out all the contamination from their system.
"That's a big ocean. To swim across it and still retain these radionuclides is pretty amazing," Fisher said.
Pacific bluefin tuna are prized in Japan where a thin slice of the tender red meat prepared as sushi can fetch $24 per piece at top Tokyo restaurants. Japanese consume 80 per cent of the world's Pacific and Atlantic bluefin tuna.
The real test of how radioactivity affects tuna populations comes this summer when researchers planned to repeat the study with a larger number of samples. Bluefin tuna that journeyed last year were exposed to radiation for about a month. The forthcoming travellers have been swimming in radioactive waters for a longer period. How this will affect concentrations of contamination remains to be seen.
Now that scientists know that bluefin tuna can transport radiation, they also want to track the movements of other migratory species including sea turtles, sharks and seabirds.
Source: AP
Source: www.telegraph.co.uk
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