February 2009 Archives

Last week, we ran a column by George F. Will of the Washington Post in which he bolstered is argument that global warming is an alarmist myth by citing data from the climate change center at the University of Illinois. Will's column has caused quite a stir, not least because the university says it has no such data. So far, Will and the editorial page editors at the Post have been silent on the controversy.

Today, the New York Times published an article highlighting both the uproar over Will's claims and a similar incident involving former Vice President Al Gore, who was accused of misstating data from a Belgian research group to buttress his warning that global warming is causing more fires, floods and other natural disasters.

Gore, according to the Times, has dropped a slide containing the data from his presentations and plans to substitute data from another source. Will, comes word this afternoon, is preparing a follow-up to his global warming column. Something tells me he doesn't plan to back down, but we'll see soon enough.

-- Jim Sweeney

So what did state Sen. Abel Maldonado get for his state budget vote?

One concession is great: a vote next year on an open primary system. California needs that to push the ideologues back to the margins, or better yet to waiting arms of the Peace and Freedom and American Independent parties.

Another concession, the gas tax, is worthy of a debate. That money was for road repairs, and it's hard to find anyone who would say with a straight face that California roads are in good shape. Higher prices reduce demand and therefore reliance on foreign oil. Not to mention greenhouse gas emissions. Then there's the real world. It's tough to ask people to pay another12-cents a gallon during a steep recession (though the oil companies don't seem to mind gouging another 20-cents to 30-cents a gallon since December, even as the price of oil has continued to drop).

Then there's the third concession: A state constitutional amendment banning legislative pay raises in deficit years. It sounds good, though many people would rather have blood, or at least no pay at all if the budget is late. But there's already a provision of the constitution prohibiting deficits (and, yes, I do know that creative officials practicing legerdemain can get around this one). So did Maldonado really get anything here besides window dressing? I'll be looking for the language of the amendment to find out.  

- Jim Sweeney

If you've been counting votes in the state Senate this week, you might be confused.

For all intents and purposes, the vote count stands at 26-13.

So, that's a two-thirds majority, right?

It is if you're doing old math. Or, for that matter, new math. But it doesn't add up if you're doing legal math.

The state constitution requires a two-thirds vote of the "membership" of the state Senate and Assembly to pass budgets and tax bills. The constitution also establishes that the state Senate has 40 members. A two-thirds vote is 27. Currently, there are 39 but a two-thirds vote remains 27..

If the standoff continues - and there's no reason to think it won't - watch for someone to argue, perhaps in court, that 26 votes is a two-thirds majority in a 39-member Senate.

The vacancy was created in December after Democrat Mark Ridley-Thomas was elected to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. A special election to fill his old Senate seat will be held next month, with a possible run-off in June.

With six Democrats on the special election ballot, it may be hard to avoid a run-off. Republicans have no realistic chance of winning this seat. Voter registration in the district is 66 percent Democratic, 11 percent Republican.

So, wait until June, and if the two Republicans now ready to vote for a budget don't change their minds, there may be a deal.

- Jim Sweeney

Those two young cougars are still on the loose

The story of how Nicole Lentz of Santa Rosa fought off two young mountain lions Monday afternoon was the talk of my family and neighborhood this morning. We know the Lentz family and were hiking with our dog in the same area about four hours earlier.

The story was also the main subject of conversation at my children's school today. Austin Creek Elementary is just a short distance from where the attack occurred. One teacher told me the school received a number of calls from nervous parents imploring the school not to let kids out on the grass playing fields adjacent to the school. Given the downpour that was occurring at dropoff time today, that didn't seem to be an option anyway.

Nichole's husband, Gary, is a friend and a regular contributor to our letters to the editor. He told me a short while ago that Nicole was "pretty shaken up last night" but was doing better today. He said his family doesn't want to be afraid, but they also know that those two young lions are still out there somewhere - and they don't seem to be afraid of cruising the neighborhood.

"Let's put it this way. Our kids (ages 8 and 10) walk to school every day rain or shine," he said. "I drove them this morning."

For those who know the area, there's a break among the houses on Mountain Hawk Way with a switchback trail down to the ravine and the open space area east of the Skyhawk subdivision. Nicole Lentz and their 4-month-old Labrador, Piper, had just reached the bottom of that trail about 4:15 p.m. and were hiking along near the creek when the juvenile lions came out and tried to attack Piper.

At first, Nicole thought they were bobcats, Gary said. She fought them off by kicking them and then Piper broke loose from her collar. "I don't know if it was a good thing or not, but she actually then used the leash to hit the animals," said Gary. When she was able to make it into a neighbor's backyard through a fence, she thought they were safe. But then one of the lions "scurried under the fence . . . It was like a bad movie." The lions ran off when the neighbor and their dogs came outside.

The odd part was the lions then hung around the neighborhood and was on one family's front porch for a while. As Kerry Benefield noted in her story today, the cats were later cornered in a back yard but were able to leap a fence and get away, heading in the direction of Los Alamos Road.

The Lentz family got Piper after they lost their previous dog last fall following a hike on Mount Hood. The dog apparently had a heart attack. It was clear, Nichole was not about to lose another one to tragedy.

"If there's one thing to be learned from this story it's don't mess with my wife," said Gary. 

- Paul Gullixson

Enough already . . . Where is California's emergency budget plan?

Californians keep hearing that the "Big Five" in Sacramento are close to hammering out a compromise plan. But where is it?

Assemblyman Jared Huffman told us on Jan. 30 that he expected a budget plan to be released no later than last week - before Friday's furloughs. At least that was what members of the Democratic caucus were led to believe.

David Crane, the governor's economic adviser, told a breakfast gathering of the Sonoma County Alliance on Wednesday that he expected a plan to be released either late last week or early this week. But nobody knows for sure because everything is happening behind closed doors.

In a state that prides itself on process, public participation and transparency, it's remarkable how much of the world's sixth largest economy hinges on secret meetings with five people.

Floor sessions are scheduled in both house of the state Legslature today, but there's nothing to talk about - at least concerning the budget. State Senate Leader Darrel Steinberg tells the Sacramento Bee that the earliest a vote could occur would be on Wednesday. Possibly later.

Cities and counties can't afford to wait. They have to deal with their deteriorating budgets. The Santa Rosa City Council meets tonight to confront a $23 million budget gap.

Hey, even a bad budget plan is better than nothing.

- Paul Gullixson

Who would have thought there would be parallels between choosing letters to the editor and playing hide-and-seek with my son?

Part of the job is identifying ersatz grass-roots letter-writing campaigns organized by interest groups that willingly provide opinions for anyone willing to clam them as their own. This week, we've been targets of two such campaigns (at least).

Sometimes, the seeking is pretty easy.

In the space of 90 minutes on Wednesday, for example, we received about a dozen letters in favor of the stimulus package, most of them including some variation on the same theme: It will save jobs, avert layoffs for teachers and create green jobs. About a dozen more arrived by this morning, and they're still trickling in this afternoon.

By the way, did you know the stimulus bill will save jobs, avert ...

It didn't take much leg work to find a letter-to-the-editor writing tool created by the liberal advocacy group moveon.org, which conveniently provided the talking points as well as a quote from the Nation that appeared in several of the letters. If you want to see it, here's a link tailored for people in the Bay Area (and including the helpful information that 31 letters already have been sent to The Press Democrat). But do me a favor, no more letters. We want letters that express original thoughts. And we will publish a few letters that appear to be generated by the moveon.org campaign, but these authors appear to have crafted their own arguments.

Another robo-letter got past me and ran in today's paper. This one opposed the stimulus bill and began: "History is set to repeat itself, again. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009 has all the hallmarks of a classic deja vu." When an identical letter arrived today, I realized what was going on. With another search, I found the same letter (but curiously not the same author) in the Tulsa World, the Oregonian, the Auburn Journal, the Schenectady Daily Gazette, the Oakland Tribune, the ... well, you get the idea.

I haven't tracked the deja vu letter back to a particular organization yet. But somehow I don't think I've accidentally discovered proof of the monkey theorem (you know, a monkey typing at random for an infinite period of time eventually will produce the complete works of Shakespeare.)

-- Jim Sweeney

There is value to hearing debates first-hand, and last Wednesday's Cotati City Council debate on the moment of silence is no exception. I wasn't present, and I based part of an editorial that ran Saturday on our news account in Friday's paper. Councilman George Barich said his views were misstated in the story and the editorial, stating that he did favor eliminating the moment of silence but doesn't want to drop the Pledge of Allegiance.

Beginning this year, Cotati is making its council meetings available via podcast (http://cotaticitycouncil.libsyn.com). I listened, and I think Barich has a legitimate complaint. We're running a correction of the story and the editorial in Wednesday's paper.

I transcribed Barich's remarks, and I'll post an excerpt with this entry. I haven't taken the time to transcribe the remarks of Councilman Robert Coleman-Senghor, who asked to drop the moment of silence. But they're worth listening to. He provides some history of the Pledge of Allegiance and adds some perspective to his proposal, explaining that his mother is a devout member of the Jehova's Witnesses, whose religious beliefs include a prohibition on swearing oaths. Much of the public discussion to date has focused on Coleman-Senghor's atheism and religious professions by others.

The moment of silence debate comes near the end of a lengthy meeting, but it's not hard to find on the podcast.

-- Jim Sweeney

Excerpts of Councilman George Barich's remarks on moment of silence:

Barich: "As many of you know, for the many years that I've come to these meetings, I've never understood the meaning of the moment of silence, and I've never participated in it. Whether I've offended anybody by sitting down immediately during that time, I apologize. But I don't like participating in anything I don't understand. So it's poignant tonight to look at this. For what it's worth, many of you know I attend many of the Rancho Adobe Fire District meetings, and those gentlemen in their infinite wisdom don't follow a moment of silence.

"But I do think we're on a slippery slope. I think we all know where we're going with this. The issue of the Pledge of Allegiance will be facing us soon. I can see the hand-writing on the wall. I don't think, there isn't any doubt in my mind, that that's where we're going. And if that's where we're going, so be it. At this time, those are my comments."

A few minutes later, after Coleman-Senghor made some further remarks about the prospect of people being stigmatized for not participating in a moment of silence, Barich spoke again.

Barich: "I agree with you, Bob, in saying that. I would be lying to you after coming here for 10 years and sitting down during the moment of silence that I didn't feel uncomfortable. I'm a pretty solid person with my ego, and I felt uncomfortable. So I think, Bob, you've articulated a lot of issues that I've not really been able to intellectualize, and I thank you for that. I can tell you this: If the Pledge of Allegiance is ever removed from this body's beginning ceremonies, I will stand outside and make my Pledge of Allegiance to the flag that's out there on the front steps. I don't need to be in here to do it. I think Bob brings up an interesting point, that when you're in here, it's a different animal."

Barich made the motion to drop the moment of silence and, in answer to a question from Coleman-Senghor, said his motion didn't extend to the pledge.

Maybe that extra Golden Gate Bridge toll for Doyle Drive isn't so dead after all.

You may recall that a deal was cut last year to pay the local share of a Doyle Drive upgrade without a toll that's effectively a tax on North Bay commuters. Well, it turns out the ink on that deal was barely dry when Assemblywoman Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, introduced legislation to allow the state to impose just such a toll.

The bill slipped through the Legislature without public notice but it was vetoed last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Richard Spotswood had the story in his Sunday column in the Marin Independent-Journal.

We're left to wonder if this idea might creep back from the grave again.

-- Jim Sweeney