LA Observed has on it’s website a list of all the employees at the Los Angeles Times that may be taking severance packages to leave. This necessary because more and more people for good reasonaren’t reading the LA Times,. See list here. One that is listed as confirmedis the LA Times Sacramento reporter that writes the Political Muscle Blog for them, Robert Salladay. The Times has hard a hard time finding an online voice for their political coverage. Losing Salladay will add to their woes.

I do wonder if I could get a buyout from FlashReport. Maybe someone out there will pay me not to write? Anyone?… Read More

The article below appears today in Roll Call, the "newspaper of Capitol Hill" — note that the article references that Congressman Doolittle has been "arming" his supporters with ‘talking points. FR was able to get a copy of those, and they are attached as a .pdf at the bottom of this post.

SUPPORT ERODES FOR DOOLITTLE By David M. Drucker Roll Call Staff May 15, 2007… Read More

The Governor’s proposed budget spends too much. First and foremost is the ongoing deficit spending where expenditures under the proposal outpace projected income. But even if the budget where balanced, it is still bloated. Our "fitness Governor" needs to turn the flabby government into something more firm. In some respects I feel back for the Governor — as news headlines today show him taking flack from the left and the right on this budget. Of course, we’re all wishing Arnold 1.0 would return — because our state despirately needs structural reform, and significant downsizing in its size and scope. Need some talking points on what is going on with Congressman John Doolittle and the feds? His people are distributing some for you. There is an article by David Drucker in Roll Call today on Doolitte’s challenges (and potential challengers) — which we’ve posted on the blog page. We also attached your talking points! Speaking of downsizing… At the risk of inflating his ego, I actually thought that one of Assembly Speaker spokesman Steve Maviglio’s "come… Read More

The Governor’s proposed budget spends too much. First and foremost is the ongoing deficit spending where expenditures under the proposal outpace projected income. But even if the budget where balanced, it is still bloated. Our "fitness Governor" needs to turn the flabby government into something more firm. In some respects I feel back for the Governor — as news headlines today show him taking flack from the left and the right on this budget. Of course, we’re all wishing Arnold 1.0 would return — because our state despirately needs structural reform, and significant downsizing in its size and scope. Need some talking points on what is going on with Congressman John Doolittle and the feds? His people are distributing some for you. There is an article by David Drucker in Roll Call today on Doolitte’s challenges (and potential challengers) — which we’ve posted on the blog page. We also attached your talking points! Speaking of downsizing… At the risk of inflating his ego, I actually thought that one of Assembly Speaker spokesman Steve Maviglio’s "come… Read More

I "lifted" this item from State Board of Equalization Member Bill Leonard’s e-newsletter:

The Governor’s May Revise is out.

Senator McClintock has this initial response on his blog:

Going Forward (Backwards)

The Governor’s May budget revision has been released and from all appearances it moves in the wrong direction. The skepticism in my May 10th blog was borne out: the “significant spending cuts” hinted last week were flimflammery. The May Revision INCREASES the Governor’s January proposal from $103.1 billion to $103.8 billion. Some cuts. The projected deficit for next year widens from $1.9 billion to $2.5 billion. And that’s if everything in it works perfectly. Significant statutory changes will be required for roughly $5 billion of the plan.

If it were adopted intact and its projections are correct, state spending will have increased at an

For those folllowing the case, I just posted over at the Red County/OC Blog that today the Appelate Court denied Trung Nguyen’s writ to have the election results reviewed by the higher court.… Read More

There is no commentary today, but the main page has been updated with the news on California politics gleaned from our extensive review of MSM news sources. Happy Mothers Day to all!

Care to read comments, or make your own about today’s Daily Commentary?

Just click here to go to the FR Weblog, where this Commentary has its own blog post, and where you can read and make comments.… Read More