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SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger dispatched a military jet and a 15-person team in April to retrieve an ailing state senator who was visiting Brazil — at a cost to taxpayers of $147,187, the administration confirmed Wednesday. Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), who has returned to work in Sacramento, said he was nearing the end of a nine-day goodwill trip to Brazil — paid for with campaign funds — when he started feeling pressure in his chest. Vasconcellos said he had undergone heart bypass surgery nearly 20 years ago, and was concerned about a possible heart attack 6,300 miles from...

California Lawmakers Propose Teenage Voting Rights, Paper Says By Samantha Zee May 6 (Bloomberg) -- The legal voting age in California could drop to 14, after the Senate Elections and Reapportionment Committee voted 3-2 to pass legislation that would lower the state's age, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. State Senator John Vasconcellos, a Democrat from Santa Clara, whose bills support the change in voting age, asked committee members to see young people as more critically thinking, civic-minded Americans than as ``aliens form Mars to be frightened of,'' the newspaper reported. If the bills by Vasconcellos become law, the California constitution...

Friday, March 12, 2004 Why stop with 14-year-olds? If ignorant illiterates can vote (and elect Sen. Vasconcellos), toddlers deserve say By RICHARD KIRK Free-lance writer who lives in Oceanside State Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, is at it again. The same dude who, over a decade ago, established that immensely productive state task force on self-esteem, has recently joined with a group of like-minded legislators to propose giving partial votes to teen-agers. He would give 14- and 15-year-olds quarter-votes. Their 16- and 17-year-old siblings would get half-votes. What's surprising is that the esteem guru of Sacramento would stop short of...

<p>State Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-Santa Clara, is at it again. The same dude who, over a decade ago, established that immensely productive state task force on self-esteem, has recently joined with a group of like-minded legislators to propose giving partial votes to teen-agers. He would give 14- and 15-year-olds quarter-votes. Their 16- and 17-year-old siblings would get half-votes.</p>

Millions of California's teenagers would become the nation's first to vote under a proposed constitutional amendment introduced Monday by a 71-year-old state senator. Sen. John Vasconcellos, D-San Jose, proposed the idea alongside three other lawmakers, saying the Internet, cellular phones, multichannel television and a diverse society makes today's teens better informed than generations of their predecessors. Coming on the heels of an expected record low turnout among adults in the March 2 election, Vasconcellos would give 16-year-olds a half vote and 14-year-old a quarter vote in state elections beginning in 2006. The idea, formally called "Training Wheels for Citizenship," first...

KATU 2 News - Portland, Oregon www.katu.com Lowering voting age to 14 proposed in California March 10, 2004 - By JIM WASSERMAN SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A proposed amendment to California's constitution would give 16-year-olds a half-vote and 14-year-olds a quarter-vote in state elections. State Sen. John Vasconcellos, among four lawmakers to propose the idea on Monday, said the Internet, cellular phones, multi-channel television and a diverse society makes today's teens better informed than their predecessors. The idea requires two-thirds approval by the Legislature to appear on the November ballot. "When we gave the vote to those who didn't own property,...

<p>Weary of diminishing voter participation in state elections, a group of lawmakers proposed a radical solution Monday: Let Californians as young as 14 cast ballots.</p> <p>Under a proposed amendment to the state constitution, those age 14 to 17 could vote for state and local offices and measures, but not for anything dealing with the federal government. Ballots cast by 14-and 15-year-olds would count as a quarter of a vote.</p>