Gov.’s surprise bill signings: Harvey Milk recognition, paparazzi restrictions and ammo tracking

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger surprised many people today by reversing himself on several pieces of legislation and signing bills similar to ones he had previously vetoed, including measures regulating ammunition sales and recognizing gay rights leader Harvey Milk. He also signed measures to regulate cosmetic surgery and the paparazzi, both introduced in response to incidents involving celebrities.

The Republican governor signed a bill, opposed by many conservatives, that requires sellers of handgun ammunition, starting in 2011, to keep a log of information on sales including the buyer's thumbprint, signature and driver's license data.

"Although I have previously vetoed legislation similar to this measure, local governments have demonstrated that requiring ammunition vendors to keep records on ammunition sales improves public safety,'' Schwarzenegger said in a statement on AB 962 by Assemblyman Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles).

Because the governor had vetoed other bills restricting guns this year, the executive of Gun Owners of California was baffled that the governor agreed to track ammunition sales.

Plan emerges to solve new $140-million gap in L.A. schools budget

The weekend’s flurry of bill signings and vetoes included the governor’s veto of a measure that would have forestalled a new $140-million deficit affecting Los Angeles' public schools. But the deficit will likely be cured in another fashion as a result of apparently successful negotiations that preceded the veto.

Senate Bill 84 would have reversed unplanned-for cuts in supplemental funding totaling $400 million statewide and $140 million to low-performing schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Last week, in the wake of intensive political pressure, the office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tentatively blessed a different financial fix. It consists of accelerating the spending of federal stimulus dollars to fill the gap.

The benefit is that many California school districts, including L.A. Unified, won’t face an immediate new deficit that could imperil their finances.

The downside is that, in the process, California would burn up more precious federal stimulus dollars, which then won’t be available for the next school year when budget deficits are expected to open up once again. In fact, if this accelerated money is used now, only 10% of the original stimulus funding would remain. School districts, including L.A. Unified, had hoped to save about 50% of the one-time federal funds for the 2010-11 school year.

“It’s not as if new money fell from heaven,” said Rick Simpson, deputy chief of staff for state Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles). "We’re getting the money early and using it for this purpose. It’s a policy trade-off.”

Schwarzenegger vetoes bill restricting insurers' ability to cancel policies of sick patients

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a measure that would have restricted the ability of insurance companies to cancel the policies of sick patients and signed into law a bill honoring Harvey Milk as he rushed to act on 704 bills before their midnight signing deadline Sunday.

The governor vetoed 229 of the bills, but did not carry through on his threat to reject hundreds more as punishment for legislative leaders' failure to reach a bipartisan deal on upgrading the state's water system. Schwarzenegger said sufficient progress had been made in the water talks to move the bills off his desk.

The health insurance bill, AB 2 by Assemblyman Hector De La Torre (D-South Gate), addressed a practice known as rescission, a practice The Times has reported extensively about. It can involve insurance companies removing patients with serious, costly illnesses from their rolls retroactively.

Jerry Brown says it's not up to him to weigh in on governor's veto threat

Maybe it’s because he’s been governor before. Maybe it’s because he hopes to be governor again. Whatever the reason, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown – California’s Gov. Moonbeam of the 1970s – proclaimed Friday that he considers Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's threat to veto 700 bills as simply a part of the political game.

Brown, a front-runner to replace Schwarzenegger in 2010, cited the separation of powers doctrine to declare that he didn’t have a legal leg to stand on in offering an opinion on the governor's position that without a water deal, the bills would languish, or worse.
 
Brown concluded his two-page letter to Assemblyman Alberto Torrico (D-Fremont) and Sen. Jeff Denham (R-Atwater), who had asked for an opinion on the legality of the governor’s threat, by suggesting that “compromise in the rough and tumble legislative process is not achieved by doilies and tea.”

Brown borrowed 19th century German President Otto von Bismarck’s famous quip about lawmaking, saying, “There are two things you don’t want to see being made – sausage and legislation.”

“No one can duck responsibility like Jerry Brown can,” Denham said in a statement after receiving Brown’s missive. “Asked to render a legal opinion, Jerry instead rambles, quotes Otto von Bismarck and speaks of doilies and tea. And now Jerry wants to be governor again? Heaven help us if he makes it back.”

Torrico was more charitable with Brown, a fellow Democrat, less so with Schwarzenegger, a Republican. He noted that some colleagues in the Assembly have been grumbling about pushing for an impeachment attempt against the governor if Schwarzenegger makes good on his veto vow.

“It’s hard to gauge the level of anger among members, but a year’s worth of work would be going down the tubes,” Torrico said. “What’s happening is remarkable. It’s just one more sign of our political culture – negotiation by ransom note.”

--Eric Bailey in Sacramento

Inmates' lawyers want governor held in contempt

Lawyers for state prisoners today asked a panel of federal judges to hold Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in contempt of court and impose a fine for California’s failure to comply with their order to submit a plan for reducing the inmate population by 40,000 over two years.

The state submitted a plan in U.S. District Court on Sept. 18  that would meet the order’s requirements within five years, provided the Legislature changes state law. Without the legal changes, the governor’s plan would not meet the judges’ requirements, even within six years.

The inmates have said prison overcrowding violates their rights to adequate medical and mental health care. Their lawyers told the federal judges that the state had shown “utter contempt” for the judges’ orders. They said state prison officials “are no more above the law than those in their custody,” and should not be allowed to choose which laws and court orders to follow and which to “simply ignore.”

Orange County Fairgrounds officially put up for sale by state

The Orange County Fairgrounds was placed on the auction block today in an attempt to cut into the state deficit.

The state Department of General Services issued a request for proposals for the 150-acre property in Costa Mesa, giving bidders until Jan. 8 to make offers.

Earlier this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed liquidating state properties -- including Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, San Quentin State Prison and three state-owned fairgrounds -- to raise cash to help balance the state budget.

If a buyer is found, the property could be in a new owner’s hands a year from now, said Eric Lamoureux, a spokesman for the state agency.

The Orange County Fairgrounds are the highest-value property listed in a July 24 budget bill that authorizes the sale of state assets as a way to shore up California's finances.

The Orange County Fair Board and Orange County Board of Supervisors each passed resolutions supporting the idea to sell the fairgrounds to a local government or nonprofit agency, saying they wanted the land to remain in local hands and continue to be used for a fair.

Democratic assemblyman to Schwarzenegger: 'You lie!'

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger made an unannounced stop at a San Francisco Democratic Party gala Wednesday night -- and wasn’t exactly greeted with open arms.

When the Republican governor took the podium and began to speak, San Francisco Assemblyman Tom Ammiano shouted, "You lie!"

It was a West Coast reprisal of GOP Rep. Joe Wilson’s now-infamous outburst during a congressional address by President Obama last month.
 
Asked today about his own outburst, Ammiano, a liberal Democrat, said: “It’s not like you’re in a [legislative] chamber and you sit there and suffer. It’s our house, it’s our event.”

Legislative leaders say they hope for a water deal this week

Legislators said today that they hope to reach a tentative deal by Friday on upgrading the state’s water system.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has demanded a water agreement before he’ll take action on the 700 bills on his desk. A Friday deal would give him two days to sign or reject the bills before a midnight Sunday deadline.

Schwarzenegger met for more than an hour today with the four top legislative leaders, who emerged saying that unresolved issues included the size of a water bond proposal.

"I am leaving the meeting feeling very positive that the governor knows how hard we are working on this [water] issue, that we will be able to work it through and that he will not do a mass veto of bills," said Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles).

The Legislature's leaders had been told by the governor and his staff that a mass veto was a possibility if lawmakers did not reach a water deal.

"The governor will consider every bill on its merits," Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear said today, without addressing the issue of mass vetoes. "Right now we’re focused on pushing the Legislature toward an agreement on water.”

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

Second member of state boxing panel quits

A second member of the state commission that regulates boxing and mixed martial arts has resigned within a week.
 
Howard Rose, a Beverly Hills talent agent who has also worked as a boxing promoter, notified state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento) in a letter Tuesday that he was stepping down from the California State Athletic Commission immediately. He did not offer an explanation, saying only that he was “very proud” of the commission’s accomplishments.

Last week, the commission’s chairman, Timothy Noonan, submitted his resignation to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Fresno County sheriff named to state lottery board

Facing criticism over long delays in filling Lottery Commission vacancies, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today named Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims to the panel, leaving only one seat empty on the five-person board.

The announcement comes two days after the chairman of the Assembly Committee on Accountability and Administrative Review said the governor had failed to fill two vacancies on the panel for about a year, even though the law that created the commission requires the governor to fill vacancies within 30 days.

Some lawmakers have worried that vacancies mean less oversight of the multibillion-dollar lottery. Schwarznegger aides said the search for appointees has been complicated by a requirement that one be held by a certified public accountant and the other by a law enforcement official.
 
--Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

Gov. Schwarzenegger signs bill establishing day to honor Vietnam veterans

Avoiding the embarrassment of what could have been the first successful veto override in California since 1979, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed legislation Friday that establishes an annual Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day on March 30.

Schwarzenegger had vetoed an identical bill earlier this month, saying it did not address high-priority needs including "comprehensive changes in our policies on water, energy, and corrections" and that he might reconsider the measure once legislators acted on those issues.

In response to the Sept. 8 veto, furious Assembly members, including Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley), the bill’s author, threatened to override the governor and said they had the votes to do it.

Cook, a decorated Vietnam veteran, later met with Schwarzenegger and they agreed that Cook would introduce a new bill with the same language and the governor would approve it, even though the Legislature failed to adopt a comprehensive plan to improve the state’s water supply.

Schwarzenegger signed the bill today during a ceremony at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms.

"This was a highly politicized war," Cook said of Vietnam. "It still evokes strong feelings among veterans and people who disagreed with the U.S. policies at the time, but it is important that we set aside these differences to honor and thank the men and women who put on uniforms to preserve the freedoms we have today."

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

Schwarzenegger appoints to horse-racing board a businessman who employed his chief of staff

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed to the state horse-racing board a politically connected businessman who once employed his chief of staff, the governor’s office announced today.

The company run by Keith Brackpool, 52, of Los Angeles paid Schwarzenegger Chief of Staff Susan Kennedy $120,000 in 2005 as a consultant. She advised the firm, Cadiz Inc., on a project to store water from an underground aquifer in the Mojave Desert for use during droughts in Southern California.
 
Schwarzenegger, who is now negotiating with lawmakers on a water deal that could fund billions of dollars in new projects, endorsed Cadiz’s proposal earlier this year, though he has not committed to making it part of an agreement to bolster the state’s water supply.

Schwarzenegger nominates friend of Villaraigosa to seat on California Horse Racing Board

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today announced the nomination of one of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s closest friends and confidants, Keith Brackpool, to the California Horse Racing Board.

Brackpool, 52, is chief executive of Cadiz, a company that hopes to complete a water banking project in the Mojave Desert. Cadiz, based in Los Angeles, had tried unsuccessfully to sell the Metropolitan Water District on a $150-million water storage plan in the eastern Mojave Desert.

Villaraigosa worked as a consultant for Cadiz before he was elected mayor in 2005, and the governor's chief of staff, Susan Kennedy, also used to work for Cadiz: In 2005, while Kennedy was serving on the state Public Utilities Commission, the firm paid her $120,000 in consulting fees.

Appointments to the horse racing board are subject to Senate confirmation, and compensation for the post is limited to a $100 per diem. Brackpool is a Democrat.

-- Phil Willon at L.A. City Hall

Governor signs bill to keep Healthy Families kids insured

Adding a dash of good feeling to a year dominated by budgetary distress, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this morning signed a measure that keeps nearly 700,000 children from being yanked off a government health insurance program.

The measure by Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) allows the state’s Healthy Families program to reap $196 million and ensure coverage to children of families who wouldn’t otherwise have coverage.

“We were going through painful moments…Today we are turning all this around,” Schwarzenegger said during a ceremony in the Capitol rotunda. “It would have been disastrous to lose healthcare for all those kids.”

He called the scheme used to save the program “innovative,” with much of the money coming from a new 2.35% tax on health insurance companies that will be used to leverage nearly $100 million in federal matching funds.  Insurance companies will be largely reimbursed with federal money for the cost of the tax, which expires at the end of 2010.

In addition, the state’s First 5 early childhood development effort, the voter-approved program that is flush with cash from a special tobacco tax, has agreed to divert $81 million to help Healthy Families.

More than $15 million in additional funds would come from a shift in dental coverage and from higher premiums and co-payments for Healthy Families participants. The only unaffected participants would be the lowest-income enrollees, making less than $27,500 annually for a family of three.

During the signing ceremony, Schwarzenegger also announced that the state had won $42.7 million in federal stimulus money to help the homeless.

-- Eric Bailey in Sacramento

Governor sets Jan. 12 for election to fill Duvall's Assembly seat [updated]

[Updated 11:55 a.m.: The date of the special primary election to replace 72nd District Assemblyman Mike Duvall will be Nov. 17, with a runoff Jan. 12 if no candidate wins a majority in the primary. The governor's office issued a proclamation calling for a Jan. 12 election and neglected to mention the primary.]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called a Jan. 12 special election to fill the vacant Assembly seat of Orange County Republican Mike Duvall.

Duvall resigned this month after remarks he made to a fellow legislator about sexual encounters were recorded on an open microphone during a lull in a July legislative hearing. The remarks were later broadcast by a television station, prompting Duvall's abrupt resignation.

Several Orange County politicians already have said they will seek the office in the heavily Republican district. They include Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby and GOP activist Linda Ackerman, whose husband, Dick Ackerman  once served in the Legislature.

Democrat John MacMurray, a teacher who previously ran against Duvall, also has said he will get into the race.

-- Jean Merl

Governor's prison plan would fall short of judges' demands

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends today to give federal judges a plan to reduce overcrowding that would take three times as long to do as they ordered -- and only if state lawmakers approve some of his proposals.

The plan appears to set up a confrontation between the governor and the judges, who have already made it clear they are impatient. If they find that the state’s proposal is a violation of the order they issued Aug. 4 for a prison plan, they could hold state officials in contempt.

The judges could also ask inmates’ attorneys to present their own plan to reduce overcrowding and order the state to implement it.

Schwarzenegger’s plan would take six years, if lawmakers sign off, to achieve the overcrowding reductions that the federal judges have demanded take place in two years. If lawmakers balk at more prison changes than they reluctantly approved last week on the final day of the legislative session, then the state would still have about 10,000 more inmates after six years than the judges have said is reasonable.
 
In the plan he submits today, Schwarzenegger will combine a proposal to build new prison beds, which would take years to ease the overcrowding that the judges have ruled unconstitutional, and some ways to reduce the number of inmates.

It avoids anything that might be seen as a mass release of criminals. 

--Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

Watchdog agency to investigate state athletic commission

California’s ethics watchdog agency today opened an investigation into members of the California State Athletic Commission, in connection with free event admission that board members obtained for themselves, friends and associates.
 
The Times reported today that the athletic commission, which oversees boxing and mixed martial arts, had requested that promoters whom they license and regulate provide admission to events for themselves and more than 50 people who did not work for the agency over the last year and a half. Most of the guests were friends and associates of the commissioners.

Most of the free admission was not reported as gifts to the California Fair Political Practices Commission, a state ethics agency that can fine high-ranking officials who violate state law requiring that gifts are disclosed and do not exceed annual limits.

“Based on the information in The Times article, the [Fair Political Practices] Commission will be investigating the activities of the athletic commission,” said Roman Porter, the ethics agency's executive director.

Those invited included actor Sylvester Stallone, who is a friend of Commission Chairman Timothy Noonan; John Cruz, a high-ranking aide to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger; a church pastor; and other friends and relatives.

Gov. Schwarzenegger and his son sat next to Stallone at a January fight for which tickets cost up to $300. Six of the seven commissioners were appointed by Schwarzenegger.
 
In a statement, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, Matt David, said, “We fully support their investigation and will demand compliance with their findings.”

Erin Shaw, a spokeswoman for the athletic commission, said she had “nothing further” to add to the statement from the governor’s office.

-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

Schwarzenegger urges Brown to investigate ACORN

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today called on state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown to investigate ACORN, the left-leaning national community organization that has come under fire in recent days after conservative activists released videos that they said showed the group’s workers offering advice on how to set up prostitution businesses.

A hidden-camera video released Tuesday by James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who posed as a pimp and a prostitute, depicts a woman who O’Keefe says is an ACORN worker in San Bernardino saying she could show them “how not to get caught.”

On the video, which is edited, she also discusses shooting and killing her ex-husband and says she “laid some groundwork” beforehand by going to domestic violence shelters and saying she was abused.
 
The pair has previously released similar videos in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., and Brooklyn, N.Y., that have appeared on websites and the Fox News channel.
 
In a letter to Brown released to reporters, Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said the reports “concerned me greatly.”

“I believe it is appropriate that your office launch a full investigation into ACORN’s activities in California,” the governor wrote. “My administration stands ready to assist in any way necessary.”

Brown spokesman Scott Gerber said in a statement that his office would review the video, "and if we think there's any wrongdoing, we'll look into it or refer it to the local" district attorney.

The U.S. Senate voted Monday to block federal housing grants to the group, which has also come under fire in voter registration fraud cases, particularly during last year’s presidential campaign.

 The group registers voters for Democrats.

-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

Fire destroys Hollywood Hills home

A house in the Hollywood Hills was destroyed today in a fire.

The fire broke out after 6 a.m. on 2027 Sunset Plaza Drive, overlooking the Sunset Strip in an area where the blaze could have spread to the hillsides and neighboring homes. Dozens of firefighters responded.

The fire razed the home but did not damage other structures, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department.

It's unclear whether anyone was inside the home, and no injuries were reported.

-- Shelby Grad

Photo: The Hollywood Hills home. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

State assemblyman wants to override Schwarzenegger veto

State lawmakers are considering the first override of a California governor's veto in three decades today as the hours tick away before the year's lawmaking deadline.

Earlier this week, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill to have a day to honor Vietnam veterans.

"I'm going to get this done, come hell or high water," said Assemblyman Paul Cook (R-Yucca Valley), a Vietnam veteran and author of the bill.

The governor had threatened to veto every bill on his desk -- more than 70 in total -- if lawmakers did not withdraw them. In an e-mail to Democratic staff, the chief of staff to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles) wrote that the governor demanded action on his priorities before signing the other legislation. The lawmakers removed all the bills but one. Schwarzenegger vetoed it. Now, Cook said he's "ready to go to war" over the issue.

A one-on-one meeting with Schwarzenegger did nothing to calm Cook, a former Marine colonel who admitted, "I was probably a little disrespectful." The GOP lawmaker said he is rounding up votes for an override. He plans to work the issue until tonight's midnight deadline. "If my political career ends on this," he said, "so be it."

-- Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento

Inspector General Laura Chick calls for public access to state audit results [Updated]

State Inspector General Laura Chick called on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today to order agencies to disclose the results of hundreds of internal audits that have been kept from the public despite a promise of new transparency.

"It has come to my attention ... that hundreds of valuable and important reports conducted by state departments and agencies are not yet included on your transparency web-site," Chick wrote to the governor.

"By applying the narrow and technical definition of 'audits,' departments have excluded ... critical reports that remain off-line and out of public view," she wrote.

One 2008 report by the state's Employment Development Department found that the Work Investment Board of Los Angeles County failed to comply with rules governing contract payments, executive salary limits and monitoring of receipts.

"There is no reason why this public document should not be shared with the people of California, who not only paid for the report but also paid for the original grant with their [taxpayer] dollars," Chick wrote.

Another report last year found problems with an agency that provided energy efficiency services to low-income residents in L.A. County. The investigation of Veterans In Community Services found $1.8 million in disallowed costs, kickbacks and fraud.

"Though millions of taxpayer dollars have gone to this agency, and the case has since been closed; the report is not posted on your web-site, hidden out of public view," Chick wrote.

[Updated 4:23: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered all inspections and audits by state agencies to be posted on the state website today after Chick complained.

 “Bureaucratic and technical excuses for not posting reports will not be tolerated,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement released by his office.]

-- Patrick McGreevy in Sacramento

Lawmakers pass bill to honor Harvey Milk

California lawmakers today passed a measure calling for a special day of recognition for Harvey Milk, the state’s first openly gay elected leader who was assassinated by a political rival in 1978.

The Assembly approval of the measure by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) marks the second year in a row that lawmakers have given their blessing to a day of honor for Milk.

Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a virtually identical bill, saying celebrations of Milk’s life should remain a local matter.

Supporters of the measure hope that recent recognition of Milk’s accomplishments — including an Oscar-winning film, presidential plaudits and the governor's own selection of Milk for the California Hall of Fame — might sway Schwarzenegger this year.

The proposal is among the most hotly fought bills in the Legislature. The governor’s office has received more than 100,000 phone calls, e-mails, letters, faxes and tweets — short dispatches on the Twitter website — about the issue.

Aaron McLear, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman, said a majority have been in opposition to the measure.

Leno’s bill now returns to the state Senate, which already approved it, for concurrence on a few technical changes.

—Eric Bailey

Judges deny state's request to delay prison order

A panel of federal judges today denied state officials’ request to delay an order that they produce a plan to reduce California's prison population by 40,000 inmates.

Aides to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have said they would take their request to the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday.

In denying the state’s request, the judges said they had been “more than patient with the state and its officials” and harshly criticized them for “conflicting representations” in court that have forced the cases to drag on.

“Further delays and obstruction will not well serve the people of the state, and will not be tolerated by this court,” wrote U.S. District Judges Thelton Henderson and Lawrence Karlton, and U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Stephen Reinhardt.
 
In their order last month, the judges said overcrowding is the primary cause of substandard healthcare and mental health care in state prisons. They required the state to produce a plan by Sept. 18 to relieve the overcrowding.

State officials, in requesting a delay, had said they would be wasting taxpayer resources putting together a plan that ultimately might be unnecessary after an appeal of the order. The appeal was filed separately today.

The judges noted that a proposal to reduce prison overcrowding has been approved in the state Senate and part of that plan passed the Assembly.

“Indeed, the state has already completed much of the necessary work to develop a plan that could satisfy much or all of our order,” they wrote.

—Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento

High-speed rail board puts off vote on $9-million contract

California's high-speed rail commission today postponed a vote on a $9-million public relations contract that appeared headed to a company led by the governor's top political advisor and his former campaign manager.

A panel of three commission staff members recommended that the rail board give the business to Mercury Public Affairs, where Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political strategist Adam Mendelsohn is a partner. Another partner is Steve Schmidt, who managed the governor's 2006 reelection effort.

Two members of the panel are former Mendelsohn colleagues.

Several rail board members demanded more information about the selection process and the winning bid, calling the staff panel’s report inadequate and saying they might want to hear presentations from the runners-up.

“The staff report and recommendation here wouldn’t be adequate in kindergarten,” said Richard Katz, a board member.

Jeffrey Barker, a member of the staff panel and deputy director at the California High Speed Rail Authority, said Mercury’s bid scored 91, the runner-up 90.

Commissioner Lynn Schenk said that was “awfully close – within the margin of error of subjectivity.” And she raised questions about the “formal and informal, professional and other relationship with members of the selection team” and Mercury.

A vote was postponed until the rail board’s October meeting.

--Shane Goldmacher in Sacramento

Republican state lawmakers will appeal prison ruling

A group of Republican state lawmakers plan Thursday to appeal a federal court order that would force the state to reduce its prison population by 40,000 inmates, the legislators said at Capitol news conference.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the main defendant in the two inmate lawsuits in which the order was issued, will also appeal the decision, his aides said. The appeals are separate. 

The Republican lawmakers had previously joined the suit as interested parties. Assembly GOP leader Bruce Blakeslee of San Luis Obispo called the Aug. 4 order from the panel of three judges “an egregious overstep of federal power.”

The judges said the state must come up with a plan by Sept. 18 to reduce the prison population because overcrowding has led to healthcare and mental health care that does not meet federal constitutional standards.  One of the judges has said that in the past, inmates were dying preventable deaths at a rate of about once a week.

State Sen. George Runner (R-Lancaster) said the judges had ignored the state’s recent “huge investment” in spending on inmate healthcare, as well as statistics showing that California spends more on healthcare per prisoner, and has a lower mortality rate among them, than many other states.

“We believe there is constitutional care today,” he said. “We believe there always has been.”

-- Michael Rothfeld in Sacramento