By Sheila Kuel

After more than six years of carving up and flushing what used to be referred to as the California Dream, the Governor has looked around at the wreckage and decided to float the story that it wasn't his doing.  Many have obediently picked up the narrative and amplified it through the press and online. The story, as set out, for instance, in the New York Times, goes: the Governor is a real independent, neither a rabid left-wing Democrat nor a salivating Tea Partier and, therefore, no one loves him any more.

Somehow, even as he stands in the rubble of California, Arnold has spun this to be a good thing, when, instead, he is an embodiment of what Texas gadfly Jim Hightower meant when he said, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow stripes and dead armadillos."

By Kelli M. Evans
ACLU

Every year tens of thousands of people in California are arrested for simply possessing small amounts of marijuana. These arrests overload our already stressed courts and jails. They also divert scarce public safety dollars that could be used to address violent crime. California’s Proposition 19, on the November 2010 ballot, offers a remedy that will move marijuana policy in a direction that makes sense. 

The California Legislative Analyst's Office explains that the passage of Proposition 19 would allow redirection of court and law enforcement resources to solving violent crimes.

By Julia Negron
Moms United to End the War on Drugs

As a person in long-term recovery and a drug treatment professional, I know a thing or two about drugs, addiction and the drug war. As a mother and a grandmother, I know more than I care to about how all of those things affect families – including my own. Addiction is a particularly painful health issue for any family to struggle with.

Like most other chronic health conditions, like cancer and diabetes, it can be treated and managed. But unlike other chronic health conditions, our government is at war with it.

The sad truth is that the war on drugs is a war on people, and they can be people you love.

By Dr. Ami Bera
Candidate for Congress, District 3

182,000,000 gallons. That’s how much oil scientists estimate spewed into the Gulf during the BP catastrophe. It’s enough oil to cover San Francisco, Oakland and Berkley.

The oil is visible from space. It covers 400 miles of coastline across two states. It’s permeated fragile marsh ecosystems. The initial explosion killed 11 workers.

$82,000. That’s the amount of money my opponent, Congressman Lungren, has taken in campaign contributions from oil companies. Money from Chevron, from Exxon, and yes, even from BP.

$2.6 billion. That’s the amount of money Lungren voted to give Big Oil in tax breaks.

By Artem Raskin
California Progress Report

If approved by voters in November, Proposition 26 will put a billion dollar dent in the state budget, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO).

The LAO’s nonpartisan analysis released last week revealed that Proposition 26 would nullify the “Gas Tax Swap” approved by the legislature in March, and eliminate about one billion dollars annually in anticipated revenues to the general fund for schools and other programs.

By Public Policy Institute of California

Three months after a massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Californians’ support for more drilling off their coast has plunged, according to a survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). A solid majority of the state’s residents now oppose more offshore drilling (59% oppose, 36% favor)—a 16-point increase in opposition from last year (43% oppose, 51% favor). The PPIC survey was conducted with support from The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and is the 10th in a series about Californians and the environment.

In contrast to the shift in opinion on drilling, Californians’ views on another contentious environmental policy issue have held steady since last year. Two-thirds (67% today, 66% in 2009) favor the state law (AB 32) that requires California to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

By Willie L. Pelote, Sr.
American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees

The recent controversy over the intriguingly high salaries of three public officials in the City of Bell should serve as a template for all budget negotiations throughout the state going forward and into the future.

Every time a budget deficit appears, it is always the lowest paid and most vulnerable citizens who are asked to sacrifice.

The furor over the salaries that public officials in the City of Bell have been paying themselves shows that in all matters regarding city, county, and state budgets, we must cut from the top.

With a population of less than 40,000 residents, the Los Angeles Times recently revealed that Bell City Manager Robert Rizzo drew a paycheck of $787,637 a year, almost twice as much as President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile, Assistant City Manager Angela Spaccia made $376,288 a year, while Bell Police Chief Randy Adams earned $457,000.

By Robert Cruickshank

So it's been almost a month since the 2010-11 state budget was to have been enacted, and yet so far there's been hardly any movement or action at all on the budget. With Prop 25, restoring majority rule to the budget process, Republicans would be out of the picture and Democrats could negotiate directly with the governor.

With a Democratic governor, majority vote budgets that involve the use of fees could be approved and signed without a single Republican vote being needed - that is, if Prop 26 fails.

The common thread here is that Republicans, in the governor's office and in the state legislature, are all actively prolonging the state budget mess. Why? Because it's in their interest to do so.

Prior to 2008, the longest budget standoff in California history was in 2002.

By Marlene Allen

Last week I joined hundreds of other Californians -- college students, school employees, social workers and other community members in a march to Occidental Petroleum’s offices in Los Angeles. We carried a simple message: closing a $1.2 billion tax loophole that giant oil companies take advantage of each year could save our schools and vital social services from deeper cuts. 

Rebuilding California requires everyone to do their part, and working families have already sacrificed so much in this economic recession. Now it’s time for Big Oil to do its share. We’re calling on California leaders to close the oil pumping loophole.

By Andrea D. Shorter
Equality California

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of attending a press conference held by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in Los Angeles. Along with clergy, coalition partners and allies including California Faith for Equality, the National Black Justice Coalition and the California Lesbian Project, we welcomed the release of the PRRI's report on their findings of the largest survey on religion and same marriage in California to date, Religion and Same-Sex Marriage in California: A New Look at Attitudes and Values Two Years After Proposition 8.