Saturday Aggregator

• Overtime Pay. Eight LAPD officers, one ranking as high as lieutenant, each earned more than $200,000 last year, thanks largely to budget-busting overtime, a city controller's report has found. LA Times.


• Roughly 100 bills in the Legislature deal with global warming. California cities watchful.


• GOP Compromises. Some of the Republican front-runners are all over the map. Mostly, they're running from the center and lurching toward the right. ... Somewhere, (Ronald) Reagan is surveying the Republican field, shaking his head and, saying, with a smile, "There they go again." Ruben Navarrett. 
  


• 'Softer' Flashlight. It had to be powerfully bright, easy to operate and — perhaps most importantly — too small and light to be used as a dangerous weapon that could embarrass the Los Angeles Police Department and cost the city significant financial damages. The result: The 7060 LED, what some consider to be the police world's most innovative — and least harmful — flashlight. LA Times.


• Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger: "Now we need to lead the nation in recycling lives." Jason Kinney.


• LNG Terminal. Rep. Henry Waxman (pictured) is expanding his investigation into whether a political appointee intervened with the issuing of an air quality permit for a proposed floating liquefied natural gas terminal off Ventura County's coast. Ventura County Star.


• Schwarzenegger's appointees make Harriet Miers look like a good choice. Carmen Balber.


• Chiropractic Board. The procedure, known as "manipulation under anesthesia," is at the heart of recent controversy at the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners, where appointees of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, including two longtime friends from his bodybuilding days, have tangled with their own staff over the board's oversight of California's 15,000 or so chiropractors. Bee.

'Sen. Rambo' Headlines Boxer Fundraiser

Afraid political donors won't give the maximum amount at your fundraiser? Invite a guest of honor who could be packing heat.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) isn't running for re-election until 2010, but she's already booked a fundraiser at Ron Burkle's lavish estate scheduled for this Sunday, Wilshire & Washington reports. The Beverly Hills event will feature Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia as the guest of honor. Despite a Washington D.C. gun law against anyone possessing weapons, Webb's executive assistant was arrested Monday for carrying a loaded gun that apparently belonged to Webb into the Capitol.

By Wednesday, when President George W. Bush spoke at the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association dinner, he was joking: "And I'd like to thank Senator Webb for providing security."

Meanwhile, Wilshire & Washington wonders why Boxer would hold a fundraiser four years before she's up for re-election. Perhaps she sees the shadow of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who nevertheless has said he's only focused on being governor and not unseating Boxer.

In addition, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is hosting a $25,000 fundraiser at the home of Barbra Streisand on April 12 for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. "Will Streisand sing?" W&W asks. "The invite says only, 'musical performance with David Foster and special guest.' "

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images; Karen Bleier / AFP-Getty Images)

Whose Compromise Anyway?

The debate between Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rush Limbaugh over conservative values has spotlighted a schism within the Republican party that could alter the 2008 presidential race, says one conservative commentator. The over-publicized feud wasn't necessarily about the Republican California governor compromising with Democrats, although that was part of it.

Within the GOP itself, there is growing frustration over the abandonment of conservative fiscal restraint by the Republican leadership in Washington D.C., which operated for six years without having to compromise with Democrats like Schwarzenegger (shown in February at a UCLA basketball game talking to former Gov. Gray Davis.)

Kevin A. Hassett writes:

"How will they choose? Schwarzenegger's might seems to suggest that the compromisers will win, but I am not so sure. Republican policy in the past six years, especially the burgeoning size of government, has been so far from mainline conservative theory, that many in the party must hunger for a candidate who returns the party to its roots."

Alien & Sedition agrees somewhat, and offers a warning: "Milton Friedmanite movement conservatives are focusing on a showdown over the entire tax code - and, by implication, the future of American entitlements - in 2011. One way or another, there is a major budget gap that will need to be addressed. If the Rush Limbaugh ideologues do indeed triumph over the Schwarzenegger 'compromisers,' it will have important effects on the politics of the great budget debate when that time comes."

(Photo: Kevork Djansezian / AP)

Beatty The Septuagenarian

Warren Beatty, dabbler in California politics, turns 70 today.

Pod People Invade California

They came from Sweden with briefcases. They have names like Magnus and Christer and write PDF reports about visiting the "Capitolium" in Sacramento and meeting powerful men such as Lt. Gov. John Garamendi.

The podcars are coming.

Officials from Institute for Sustainable Transportation in Sweden have been meeting with California officials to sell them on the idea of an environmentally friendly transportation system with individual podcars. They claim to have made serious contacts with the state government and in Santa Cruz, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach.

The Swedes were especially excited about Irvine, where they said officials saw podcars as "so interesting that they may defer their decision on which public transport system they will choose for Great Park. The plans of Great Park are to convert a closed airport (the former marine airbase El Toro, e.g. where Nixon landed his Air Force One) into a business and recreation park with strong sustainable profiles."

And because it's a Friday holiday, that brings us to "Marge vs. the Monorail." In the episode, a fast-talking salesman convinces Springfield to buy a monorail system. The charming stranger, Lyle Lanley (voiced by Phil Hartman), makes his pitch to the citizens of Springfield with a tune right out of "The Music Man:"

Lyle Lanley:  Well, sir, there's nothing on earth like a genuine, bona fide, electrified, six-car monorail! ... What'd I say?

Ned Flanders: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley:  What's it called?

Patty and Selma:  Monorail!

Lyle Lanley:  That's right! Monorail! (crowd chants "Monorail" softly and rhythmically)

Miss Hoover:  I hear those things are awfully loud ...

Lyle Lanley:  It glides as softly as a cloud.

Apu: Is there a chance the track could bend?

Lyle Lanley:  Not on your life, my Hindu friend.

Barney: What about us brain-dead slobs?

Lyle Lanley: You'll all be given cushy jobs.

Abe: Were you sent here by the devil?

Lyle Lanley:  No, good sir, I'm on the level.

Wiggum: The ring came off my pudding can.

Lyle Lanley: Take my pen knife, my good man. I swear it's Springfield's only choice ... Throw up your hands and raise your voice!

All: Monorail!

Lyle Lanley:  What's it called?

All: Monorail!

Monorail!

Unfair Advantage?

If Fred Thompson, the former Tennessee senator and "Law and Order" actor, runs for president (the real president, not a fake movie one), TV stations across the country likely would cancel any shows featuring him, the Washington Post reports today.

In his career, Thompson has played the president, a White House chief of staff, a senator, an arms dealer, a rear admiral, a major general, a lieutenant colonel, the CIA director, a doctor, a detective, an FBI agent, and a "politician."

The FCC regulations on requiring equal airtime for candidates has been a problem with California politicians as well, the newspaper reminds us:

"During the 2003 gubernatorial race in California, television stations dropped all Arnold Schwarzenegger movies out of fear that showing them would require them to give countless hours of free airtime to all 134 other candidates for governor. Stations also dropped 'Bedtime for Bonzo' and other Ronald Reagan movies during his campaigns for governor of California and president."

Still, wasn't it helpful to Schwarzenegger during the 2003 recall to have his action movies removed from the airwaves? He was trying to look serious, while his opponents were painting him as cartoonish and violent. These days, it seems as if a Schwarzenegger movie is playing 24 hours a day somewhere on cable. For a few months in 2003, the FCC was being merciful. (Sarcasm does not apply to "Total Recall" and "Terminator" 1 and 2.)

The UC Berkeley Student And The Indian Revolution

When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger travels to India in November, he can bring along the story of Kartar Singh Sarabha, a U.C. Berkeley chemistry student who helped lead a revolt against the colonial government in India during World War I.

It's not the greatest U.S. immigrant story, but it has passion. Sarabha arrived in California in 1912 and immediately faced discrimination because, as an immigration officer said, he came "from a slave country."

Sarabha helped start the Ghadr revolution party in Washington, Oregon and California. "He would sit with a worker for hours and explain to him how death is a thousand times preferable to a life of slavery filled with humiliation," writes Ashfaque Swapan in Indian Life and Style.

Sounds like your typical U.C. Berkeley student.

Sarabha started a newspaper in San Francisco that preached the revolutionary overthrow of India. Ghadr, the newspaper, "carried extensive exposes of the criminal deeds of the British empire, it carried poetry to inspire young and old. The first issue declared: 'The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pen and ink.' "

Anyway, World War I started and Sarabha traveled back home to kick some British butt. He is quickly betrayed and then hanged. That's the California history lesson for today. He should have worked out more, married a Kennedy and done a few action movies.

Need $250 million? No problem.

It's amazing what can happen in the Legislature when lawmakers are really motivated. On the eve of a Cesar Chavez birthday holiday and a one-week spring break, the Assembly quietly and quickly sanctioned a $250 million insurance policy in the event Los Angeles is awarded the privilege and financial burden of hosting the Olympics in 2016.

Approved with a 65-0 vote, the legislation by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) would make California liable for any debt related to the games. Backers of the legislation promised the Olympics would more than pay for itself. Here's the fine print from the bill, AB 300:

"(d) No additional state funds shall be deposited into the Olympic Games Trust Fund once the Director of Finance determines that the account has achieved, or is reasonably expected to otherwise accrue, a sufficient balance to provide adequate security, acceptable to the site selection organization, to demonstrate the state's ability to fulfill its obligations under a games support contract, or any other agreement, to indemnify and insure up to two hundred fifty million dollars ($250,000,000) of any net financial deficit and general liability resulting from the conduct of the games."

Make sense? In other words, Chicago has guaranteed $500 million for the 2016 games and California needs to act quickly before an IOCC meeting April 14 where a U.S. city will be recommended. "You may ask, why are we moving so quickly? There is a one-word answer: Chicago. Our only American competition for the 2016 games," said Assemblywoman Karen Bass (D-Los Angeles), who spoke in support of the bill.

Unlike Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (pictured), not everyone is enthusiastic about the Los Angeles Olympics. Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) did not vote for the bill because he said criminals released early from the overcrowded Los Angeles County jail would make the area dangerous.

He told Times reporter Nancy Vogel that criminals might more easily attack foreign Olympic tourists because they would know the tourists would not return to the U.S. to testify against them. "I don't think L.A. is a safe place for the Olympics to do business," Spitzer said. [Emph. added.] "We're incurring a tremendous amount of liability from injuries and assaults and robberies."

(Photos: Damian Dovarganes / AP; Nick Ut / AP)

Student Collapses On Stage Near Schwarzenegger

 A 17-year-old student fainted and fell on stage near Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today during an appearance at Cesar E. Chavez High School in Delano, Kern County, the birthplace of the California farmworker movement. Schwarzenegger had been talking about regulations to avoid fainting and heatstroke among farmworkers and then started a monologue about his father-in-law, Sargent Shriver.

The governor noticed the girl collapse to his far left on stage, and stopped speaking. He walked over, helped lift her up and walked her off stage. Schwarzenegger returned and told the students:

"All right, she's fine. She's walking again. OK. Everyone that is standing back here, loosen up your knees. Don't stay with stiff knees, OK? Because that's how you faint. Loosen up and relax. Do some pushups, do some sit-ups."

Then another girl appeared to wobble at the other end of the stage. Schwarzenegger went over to her, but she was taken away. "There is someone else. Everyone feeling good? OK. I tell you, I've held a lot of speeches, but I never made people faint. It's unbelievable, what's going on here."

Watch video here. The incident occurs about halfway through the speech. Aaron McLear, the governor's spokesman, said the girl never lost consciousness and later returned to the stage.

(Photos: Casey Christie/Bakersfield Californian via AP; Christian Parley/Fresno Bee via AP)

Take The Money And Run

The liberal Courage Campaign has launched a new website aimed at tracking presidential candidates that use California as a cash ATM rather than talking about "our issues." Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been selling the same idea - making sure the national candidates are asked tough questions about California.

I'm a bit skeptical - I think presidential candidates do talk about the issues. And what is the functional equivalent in California of an ethanol subsidy to an Iowa voter? Offshore oil drilling perhaps. Otherwise, California voters tend to care about the same things that other voters care about: immigration, health care, traffic, the environment. Still, it does feel cheap when presidential candidates hold California fundraisers without a single public event. Check out ATM Watch, inaugurated by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (pictured).