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Happy Birthday, and many more to our wonderful host and great patriot—creator of Free Republic—Jim Robinson! Post your good wishes here!

RUSH: Here's Nancy Pelosi. She is not happy. Obama's out there, promised eight times, have all these health care negotiations on C-SPAN, Brian Lamb said, "Hey, televise them, we'll do everything, we'll let the American public see this exactly like President Obama said." And Pelosi, she's not happy about this at all. This is yesterday afternoon in Washington, a reporter said, "C-SPAN wrote a letter, Mr. Lamb, to you guys to have this process be transparent regardless conference committee. Right now it's being done with a ping-pong. Any response to that? PELOSI: Really? Well, (laughing) There are a number of...

At first blush, it looks like just another bureaucratic shuffle. It isn't. In fact, the move to carve out a new state Department of Public Health reflects a shift in California's attitude toward fighting disease and confronting health emergencies--including those prompted by terrorism and fears of epidemics, such as avian flu. The department is patterned in part after the kind of agency that all 58 counties and three cities--Berkeley, Pasadena, Long Beach--already have, by law. It will be run by a medical doctor known as the state's public health officer--the state's "Top Doc" or "Papa Doc," as the position already...

California's Legislature faces the highest turnover in at least a decade this November, about 40 percent, as more than one-third of lawmakers are being forced out by term limits and others plan to leave. The number could soar even higher if some incumbents are unseated, resulting in a Legislature that will be one of the least experienced in years. "The Legislature that meets in December will have over one-third of its members having never served a day in state government," said Tim Hodson, director of the Center for California Studies at California State University, Sacramento. "Therefore, no matter how good...