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Actress Bo Derek may be a "10," but state lawmakers Wednesday indefinitely put off a decision on whether to confirm her appointment by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to a state board. The Senate Rules Committee delayed action on the governor’s appointments of Derek, Keith Brackpool, David J. Israel and Richard A. Rosenberg to the California Horse Racing Board. If confirmed, they would all serve well into the administration of the next governor, who takes office in January.

<p>The Associated Press Jul. 20, 2010 SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday appointed actress Geena Davis to a California commission established to promote women's equality.</p> <p>Schwarzenegger named the 54-year-old actress to the Commission on the Status of Women. The nonpartisan panel advocates for women and girls in areas such as education and access to health care.</p>

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed Manatt, Phelps & Phillips partner George D. Kieffer to the University of California Board of Regents. ... Kieffer, 61, is based in Manatt Phelps’ Los Angeles office, where he serves as chair of the firm’s Government and Regulatory Policy Division, overseeing major business litigation, business transactions and land use matters. He is also a member of the firm’s Executive Committee and the Board of Directors of ManattJones Global Strategies LLC, an international consulting firm and wholly-owned affiliate of Manatt Phelps. Admitted to the State Bar in 1973, Kieffer joined the firm as an associate that...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger named Karen Douglas the new chair of the California Energy Commission on Thursday. Douglas, 34, has served on the commission since last year. Before that, she was the director of the California Climate Initiative at Environmental Defense. A Democrat, she'll earn $132,179. The position requires Senate confirmation.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, D-Los Angeles, said Monday that Gerald Parksy, a longtime Republican political figure, will chair the tax commission she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger formed in late October. The commission, according to the executive order Schwarzenegger signed, will release a report on how to modernize California's tax structure on April 15, 2009. The commission has gotten off to a slow start, however. On October 30, Schwarzenegger said, "Speaker Bass and the Senate President pro Tem and I will name 12 commission members in time for them to begin their work in November." But as of yet no one...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger officially named San Francisco Democrat Carole Migden to a high-paying seat on the state's waste board on Friday. The job pays $132,178 per year. The first was ex-Assemblyman John Laird. Then came former Sen. Sheila Kuehl. All three are Democrats. All three also happened to be members of the LGBT caucus. A couple years back, she pressed the vote button of an Assembly Republican for her own legislation. Earlier this year, she paid a state record $350,000 fine for campaign finance violations. She pleaded no contest to misdemeanor reckless driving after a 30-mile drive in her state-owned...

For termed-out and defeated legislators or former high-ranking gubernatorial staffers in search of a soft landing, there is none softer than the California Integrated Waste Management Board. Appointees to the six-member board take home $132,000 a year, plus expenses and a car allowance. That's not bad for what amounts to four all-day meetings a month. Some them work hard between meetings; others don't. The waste board reeks of the government's stale status quo, a potent symbol of lawmakers who are out of touch. Even as California slips further into fiscal chaos, legislators and friends of the governor continue to enjoy...

The long tradition of political appointees landing high-paid slots on California's waste board continued Tuesday. Two termed-out Democratic state lawmakers – Assemblyman John Laird of Santa Cruz and Sen. Sheila Kuehl of Santa Monica – were appointed to posts on the Integrated Waste Management Board, courtesy of the Democratic legislative leaders. The jobs pay $132,178 a year. Both new recycling board commissioners will replace other well-connected members. Laird will replace Cheryl Peace, the wife of a former state legislator. Kuehl will replace former Democratic Sen. Wes Chesbro. Government watchdogs have criticized the board for its high proportion of highly paid...

It looks like Sen. Carole Migden will likely land on California's high-paying waste commission, after all. After Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata appointed Sen. Sheila Kuehl to a spot on the $132,178 commission on Tuesday, Capitol Alert has learned that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to name the fiery San Francisco Democrat to the final vacancy on the recycling panel. It is one of the most plum appointments in state government. On Tuesday, California's two Democratic leaders appointed two of their termed-out colleagues - Kuehl, D-Santa Monica, and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz - to the board. There remains...

Reporting from Sacramento -- California has often been tagged as the "nanny state" for passing laws that some people say interfere with citizens' lives. But now it has earned the label for a whole different reason, thanks to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Republican governor announced this week that he had appointed a nanny -- his own children's nanny, in fact -- as a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. Lindsay Ann Schnaidt, 32, a Democrat from Hermosa Beach who has worked for the Schwarzenegger family for seven years, will be paid $100 a day...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has appointed his children's nanny to a board that oversees the guide dog industry. Thirty-two-year-old Lindsay Schnaidt will be a part-time state regulator on the Board of Guide Dogs for the Blind. She will be paid $100 each time the board meets. That's usually about eight times a year. Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear says Schnaidt expressed interest in serving California. She is a former teacher and has worked for the family for seven years. McLear says she fills a seat that must go to a representative of the public rather than someone with expertise...

This Governor is in the habit of rolling out Judicial appointments in big batches. Until this week, his last batch of new Judges was announced back in May -- twenty of them. I have made no bones about that fact that it is galling to me that the Governor, who was elected with all of the support of the Republican Party, loves to appoint registrants of the party of Barack Obama to the bench. In that May batch, it was 9 Republicans and 8 Democrats. It is a very sad situation for GOP donors and activists that we have to...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday appointed two former aides to well-paying state jobs, less than two weeks after ordering spending cuts to most state agencies. The state faces a multibillion dollar budget deficit over the next year-and-a-half. His latest appointments benefited a former speech writer and an assistant to Schwarzenegger's chief of staff. Jeffrey Danzinger, 47, of Fair Oaks, who was deputy communications director and chief speechwriter for the governor until 2006, is moving from being a member of the Integrated Waste Management Board to serving as an adviser to the board. His pay will be $103,603 in his new...

Dr. Henry Gong, a prominent pulmonary physician and a member of the California Air Resources Board, has died. Board chairwoman Mary Nichols said Monday that Gong died from heart failure Aug. 16 at his home in Pacific Palisades, surrounded by his family. He was 60. "Dr. Gong brought a unique, invaluable perspective to air issues as a physician specializing in pulmonary health," Nichols said in a statement. "All of us who breathe California's air owes a debt of gratitude to Dr. Gong as one of the state's true clean air champions. We will miss him." Gong, one of 11 air...

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put a key banking oversight agency under the stewardship of an administrator who, according to a bipartisan legislative investigation, helped arrange the misuse of millions of dollars of public funds and steered government contracts to friends. Michael A. Kelley, appointed commissioner of the Department of Financial Services by the governor in December, was a central figure in the scandal that ultimately drove former Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush from office in 2000. Kelley, who was Quackenbush's top deputy, was found unanimously by a bipartisan legislative panel to have helped the former insurance commissioner divert public...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday turned to a former top environmental official for Democratic Govs. Jerry Brown and Gray Davis to replace the ousted chairman of the state Air Resources Board. Schwarzenegger's decision to hire Mary Nichols, director of the UCLA Institute of the Environment, comes after he fired the former board chairman, Robert Sawyer. At the time, Schwarzenegger was irked that Sawyer backed the Air Resources Board's June 14 vote to support a waiver giving San Joaquin Valley polluters until 2024 to comply with federal Clean Air Act restrictions. Sawyer's firing prompted the ARB's executive director, Catherine Witherspoon, to...

A Berkeley lawyer who has fought electronic voting in California and a half-dozen other states has been tapped by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen as her deputy in charge of voting machinery. Lowell Finley, co-founder and co-director of the election-integrity group Voter Action, has pulled out of lawsuits against elections officials in California, Florida, Ohio and other states in order to accept a post of deputy secretary of state. Bowen, who was sworn in Monday, still is figuring out the management structure for the office, but she expects Finley to have a lead role in her promised "top-to-bottom review"...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has tapped a Republican aide to President Bush's 2004 re-election campaign in Ohio to serve as his new press secretary. Aaron McLear, 29, will take over press duties starting next month. He replaces Margita Thompson, who departed last week to work for HealthNet, a Woodland Hills-based health maintenance organization. McLear, an Ohio native, served as communications director for Bush's 2004 campaign in the crucial Midwest swing state. He currently works for the Republican National Committee as a regional press secretary for the Northeast. The Republican governor has shown an affinity for hiring former Bush aides this year....

State Moves Forward on Implementing Landmark Global Warming Law Market Advisory Committee Members Chosen, Early Action Workshop Scheduled SACRAMENTO – Today, Linda Adams, Secretary for Environmental Protection, announced a 14-member Market Advisory Committee to support the implementation of the state’s first-in-the-nation comprehensive greenhouse gas reduction program. The Committee was formed according to the Governor’s Executive Order S-20-06. The Committee will make recommendations by June 30, 2007, to the state Air Resources Board on the design of a market-based compliance program. “California is showing tremendous leadership on climate change. In my talks with national and international climate leaders, the progress we’re...

Yesterday Arnold Schwarzenegger announced a number of changes in key senior positions in his administrations. A number of them represent great moves, and a few of them are, frankly very disturbing. Let's start with the great news! First and foremost, the Governor's elevation of conservative Dan Dunmoyer to the position of Cabinet Secretary is outstanding news for all of us. Dan is capable, smart and effective. In this key position which acts as a liaison and coordinator between the Governor and all of the Agency heads will be in good hands. Undoubtedly this will be a big relief for former...