Monday, November 15, 2010 – 10:15 a.m.

Which county registrar is causing heartburn in the close race for California Attorney General?

The answer? Los Angeles.

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Michael J. Sorba, Staff Writer
Posted: 11/14/2010 04:52:38 PM PST

VICTORVILLE – Federal and local investigators continue to request stacks of documents from the city as part of ongoing probes into bond sales and financial records.

Requests for information have become so intensive that three full-time workers are dedicated to processing them, said Councilman Ryan McEachron.

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Dutton

10:00 PM PST on Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Press-Enterprise

State Senate Republican Leader Bob Dutton drives an SUV, adamantly opposes the state’s global-warming law and thinks the California Air Resources Board is hurting the economy.

On solar power, though, Dutton and his environmentalist foes might find some common ground.

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James Rufus Koren, Staff Writer
Created: 11/14/2010 08:45:18 PM PST

Election Day was full of victories for California Democrats, as they took the governor’s office, held a U.S. Senate seat and won nearly every statewide position.

Outside of California, it was a big day for Republicans, who stormed back into the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and took control of 19 state legislatures.

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By Jack Chang
jchang@sacbee.com
Published: Monday, Nov. 15, 2010 – 12:00 am | Page 1A
Last Modified: Monday, Nov. 15, 2010 – 6:34 am

While Gov.-elect Jerry Brown has said little publicly about what his administration will look like, he’s privately told longtime allies that he’ll seek a mix of younger talent and state government veterans from his first two terms in office nearly 30 years ago.

Brown will have the authority to make up to 2,000 appointments, which includes about 400 current board and commission vacancies. Like Brown, at least some of those appointees will come with decades of experience.

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Marisa Lagos, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Monday, November 15, 2010

The ink was still drying on the election results when Assembly Republicans unanimously voted Nov. 4 to replace their leader, Martin Garrick, a stolid, conservative GOP standard bearer, with Connie Conway, a pragmatic, affable lawmaker with ties to both sides of the aisle.

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The ‘sleeper’ initiative on November’s ballot could make it nearly impossible for state or local governments to pass oil severance fees, cigarette and alcohol surcharges, toxic waste cleanup levies, and more.
Proposition 26

By Margot Roosevelt, Los Angeles Times
November 14, 2010

It was the “sleeper” ballot initiative of California’s election season: Few paid heed to Proposition 26, besides the oil, tobacco and alcohol companies that funneled millions of dollars into promoting it in the final weeks of the campaign.

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November 15th, 2010, 1:00 am · posted by Mary Ann Milbourn

The lame duck Congress reconvenes today after the election recess with an estimated 410,695 Californians facing the potential cutoff of unemployment benefits if legislators don’t act by Nov. 30.

In July Congress approved a bill that allows unemployed workers to collect up to 99 weeks of jobless benefits through the end of this month. Because time is short and Congress is deeply divided over the issue, it is unclear whether legislators favoring an extension of benefits will be able to muster the votes for a new bill.

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The border of the plume has shifted 1,800 feet beyond a containment boundary set up by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in 2008, spreading higher levels of a cancer-causing heavy metal isotope, state officials say.

Roberta Walker spends time with her pets in Hinckley, Calif. Walker says the plume has been moving toward her house. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times / November 13, 2010)

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times
November 15, 2010

Reporting from Hinkley, Calif. —

A plume of chromium-tainted groundwater is once again bearing down on residents of Hinkley, Calif., where more than a decade ago an underdog battle with Pacific Gas & Electric Co. spawned a multimillion-dollar settlement and the Oscar-winning film “Erin Brockovich.”

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