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Nine seek seats on CalPERS board http://www.sacbee.com/content/business/story/13651572p-14493894c.html (EXCERPT) Nine candidates, including two incumbents, are vying for a pair of at-large seats on the 13-member governing board of the California Public Employees' Retirement System, the nation's largest public pension fund. The open seats are for four-year terms starting in mid-January. Overall, six of the 13 trustees are elected by members. The governor appoints two representatives. The Assembly speaker and Senate Rules Committee jointly name one trustee, and the state Personnel Board selects one. The state treasurer, controller and director of the Department of Personnel Administration also serve on the board overseeing...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - State tax collectors are unexpectedly busy across America, and many states have built strong reserves that exceed Wall Street's recommendations. Yet lawmakers and governors are worried. A new report from the National Conference of State Legislatures says state budgets are in the best shape in five years, thanks to "robust" tax collections and tough budgeting. Collectively, the states have reserves of 7 percent, almost twice what they projected and well above the 5 percent cushion that Wall Street suggests. But the same report, released Wednesday at the legislative group's convention in Seattle, said the pressure to spend...

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Still smarting from a fight over evolution, Kansas schools now face an almost unthinkable possibility: They might not reopen in the fall because of a political and legal battle over education funding. The Kansas Supreme Court has ordered legislators to provide millions more in aid to schools by July 1. Gov. Kathleen Sebelius has called a special legislative session for June 22 to act on the order. Some Republicans who control the Legislature want to defy the court, arguing it cannot tell them exactly what to spend on anything. Their tough talk has educators and others...

Search for Leader Exacerbates NAACP Woes By ERIN TEXEIRA, AP National Writer Sat May 21, 5:35 PM ET AP Photo: Kweisi Mfume, left, president and chief executive officer of the NAACP, with Julian Bond, NAACP... Perennial worries about the effectiveness of the 96-year-old NAACP have been heightened recently by the ongoing search for a president to replace Kweisi Mfume, who resigned last year and has since been accused of giving preferential office treatment to an employee he was dating, creating a toxic work atmosphere. Add in financial worries and an IRS query into its nonprofit status after group leaders made...

SCOTIA, Calif. - Financially troubled Pacific Lumber Co. is the victim of its corporate owner's excesses, not increasing government restrictions on logging, according to a state water agency's controversial new study. The state Water Resources Control Board's 18-page report blames Texas-based Maxxam Inc. for shifting hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from Pacific Lumber in "subtle and complex ways," forcing the North Coast timber giant to cut trees "at rates that greatly exceed sustainable forest practices." The state report claims Maxxam has funneled nearly $725 million in Pacific Lumber earnings into its own Houston, Texas, coffers over the past...

The pressure intensified Monday on workers' compensation insurance carriers to step up and deliver significantly lower rates to employers and improved benefit payments to workers. The questions that loom over California's struggling workers' comp system came into sharp focus at a hearing Monday held by Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi. The hearing was the start of a process to establish a benchmark for workers' comp rates during the second half of 2005. Garamendi expressed dismay that the workers' comp reforms of recent years have primarily served to reduce medical and disability benefit payments to workers without a meaningful cut in premiums...

In a scathing report delivered to City Hall after sundown yesterday, San Diego City Attorney Michael Aguirre concluded that there is "substantial evidence" Mayor Dick Murphy and the City Council committed civil violations of federal securities laws. Aguirre's report, widely anticipated at an anxious City Hall, said Murphy and the council, beginning in early 2002, concealed important facts about the city's ailing pension system from the public and from investors in more than $1 billion of city bonds. At a hastily called news conference early last night, Murphy, reading a written statement, called Aguirre's allegations "untrue, irresponsible and defamatory." Murphy...

WASHINGTON - Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) sought to link the Iraq (news - web sites) war to U.S. economic woes on Wednesday, calling President Bush (news - web sites)'s move against Baghdad a "catastrophic choice" that so far has drained $200 billion in needed resources at home. Democrats also raised fresh questions about Bush's Vietnam-era Air National Guard service. "We know that John Kerry was in Vietnam," said Democratic Party chief Terry McAuliffe in a conference call with reporters. "My question, Mr. President, is where were you, Sir?" His comments came as Democrats tried to turn the...

SACRAMENTO - A devastating flood that damaged thousands of Northern California homes and businesses nearly two decades ago is now weakening the state's already-fragile finances. The state's liability in an 18-year-old Yuba River flood stems from one of a series of court cases that could complicate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plans when he presents his latest budget outline next month. Taken together, three court decisions put the state on the hook for at least $850 million. Three other pending cases endanger at least another $1.1 billion. All told, an amount equal to about 3 percent of the general fund budget could...

‘Everything on table’ GOP plans cuts, reforms, to tackle budgetary woes By Alexander Bolton and Sam Dealey House Republicans hope to enact a host of measures aimed at curbing what both centrist and conservative lawmakers decry as runaway federal spending. Emerging from a rare members-only “mandatory” two-and-a-half-hour conference called yesterday to deal with mounting budget concerns, Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) told reporters: “Nothing is sacred in this business. Everything is on the table.” Although Hastert didn’t say so, several initiatives under consideration would curb the power of the Republican leadership as well as House appropriators and authorizers. These initiatives...

Gov. Bush 'alarmed' as Broward County's election woes deepen By Scott Wyman, Linda Kleindienst and Buddy Nevins Staff Writers Posted October 22 2003 Gov. Jeb Bush expressed alarm Tuesday over the growing crisis in Broward County's elections office and refused to rule out the possibility that he might try to wrest control from Elections Supervisor Miriam Oliphant. Bush acknowledged that his legal team is again reviewing what authority he has to intervene and ensure fair and accurate elections. He said the state's top election official, Secretary of State Glenda Hood, will brief him Friday about the findings of a task...

The 51-year-old is expected to undergo a hysterectomy this week, ending plans for a show this fall and threatening the future of her current reality series. Her health problems come after dismal reviews - and low ratings - for her bizarre reality show, "The Real Roseanne," which follows the performer as she goes about making a new cooking-themed comedy series for the ABC Family Channel, "Domestic Goddess." ABC had been scheduled to air two 30-minute episodes of "The Real Roseanne Show" each Wednesday night leading up to the previously planned Sept. 20 launch of "Domestic Goddess" on ABC Family. But...

<p>SACRAMENTO - The state budget Gov. Gray Davis plans to sign Saturday sticks a Band-Aid on California's record $38.2 billion deficit but fails to cure its fundamental financial woes.</p> <p>Even as lawmakers fled the capital and its searing heat Wednesday, the sighs of relief over finally reaching a budget compromise were replaced with the realization that when they return they'll have to defuse a ticking time bomb: a $7.9 billion shortfall.</p>

<p>Gov. Gray Davis will propose solving California’s budget crisis through a combination of new taxes, program cuts and borrowing, sources said Tuesday.</p> <p>The governor’s revised May budget, set for release Wednesday, calls for a much-anticipated increase in the car tax as well as a half-cent increase in the state sales tax.</p>

<p>Two years after an energy crisis repeatedly blacked out parts of the state and sent giant companies into bankruptcy, California's power market is still ripe for exploitation.</p> <p>The state's grid operator predicts a new round of market manipulation could add $50 million or more to annual electricity costs starting this summer.</p>

<p>The planned sale of nearly $2 billion in bonds to pay pension obligations is a major piece of Gov. Gray Davis' plan to erase the state's massive deficit -- but it amounts to just a drop in a wave of borrowing already used or proposed for everything from paying the state's electricity bills to financing health programs.</p>

Watchdog: Higher Taxes Won't Cure State Budget Woes Jim Burns, CNSNews.com Monday, Jan. 6, 2003 According to a lyric in the song "Ball of Confusion" by the Motown group The Temptations, "Politicians say more taxes will solve everything. And the band played on." As new governors take office and state legislatures return to work in the first days of 2003, many states are considering tax increases in order to balance their budgets. But a study just released by the National Taxpayers Union Foundation (NTUF) concludes that higher taxes are the wrong solution for states to balance their books. John...

With summer waning, Northwestern Ontario hunters are starting to think about unlocking the gun cabinet and oiling up the long arms. But this fall will mark the last season that Canadians can legally hunt with unregistered firearms. Under Bill C-68 — the controversial Firearms Act — the Canadian government will consider all gun owners who do not register their firearms by the end of this year to be criminals. With that in mind, I expect the feds will be receiving a mountain of gun registration applications some time about Dec. 31. The tidal wave of paperwork will certainly create more...