The California Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage will not be the last word. AP in the Daily News.

California voters will almost certainly hold a referendum on a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage in November, and for the first time anywhere in the U.S., the vote will have a direct and immediate effect on gay couples waiting to tie the knot.

The amendment needs a simple majority to pass, and if the voters reject gay marriage, their decision will supersede the high court's. There are signs the contest's outcome will be close.

The city of Los Angeles is losing an estimated $11 million a year by not consistently collecting fees for extra-capacity trash cans requested by homeowners. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daiiy News.

While thousands of Angelenos who ordered extra-capacity trash and green-waste cans aren't paying for them, the city also is failing to collect fees for 60 percent of the extra-capacity bins.

And with the city in a budget crisis and looking to close a $406 million gap, the City Council has begun reviewing how to recoup - and even possibly raise - those fees to encourage recycling and help fund city services.

One almost feels sort\ry for radio talk show host Kevin James at this point with his much viewed challenge by Chris Matthews on "Hardball" this week.
In it, James was going on and on about appeasement and Neville Chamberlain and finally had to admit he didn;t know what he was talking about.
Matthews, on Friday's show, played the nearlhy five-mionute segment again and ended by saying of James, "He's a good guy" and that he would invite him to appear again.
If you were James, would you go on?

This didn't take long.
A day after the California State Supreme Court ruled that gay marriages should be allowed, a firm has sent out an email offering its services to gay couples planning a wedding.
OutVite.com, which identifies itself as a leader in stationery products for the gay and lesbian community, said it expects to see a heavy demand in the coming months.
"California's Supreme Court ruling is a step in the right direction and the bottom line is that as same sex marriages are becoming more mainstream," notes Joanne Laipson, business development director for both OutVite and eInvite.

The California Supreme Court's landmark ruling striking down a state ban on same-sex marriage now opens the way to a summer of gay and lesbian weddings in the Golden State and a new political fight leading into the fall's presidential campaign, supporters of the decision said Thursday.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

The court's 4-3 decision - making California the second state in the nation, after Massachusetts, to give same-sex couples the right to marry - ruled that two state laws limiting marriage to a union between a man and a woman are unconstitutional.

But even while celebrating the decision Thursday, gay-rights advocates and supporters said they are bracing for a possible November ballot initiative from a coalition of religious and social conservative groups attempting to enact a ban on same-sex marriages in the state constitution.

While it would be one of the largest gang injunction areas in the city, Los Angeles law enforcement officials on Thursday insisted the court order they are seeking against the San Fers is the only way to crack down on one of the oldest and biggest street gangs in the city. Daily News.

At the same time, officials said they are trying to balance the terrorism of street crime with sensitivity to a community that has the highest homeownership level in the area and where 5,000 people turned out for the start of the Little League season.

The 9.5-square-mile gang-injunction area in the Northeast Valley - including the city of San Fernando, in a joint operation - is designed to break a gang that has been operating since the 1920s and that police believe has ties to the Mexican Mafia prison gang.

Around the time yesterday that the Los Angeles City Council was collectively breathing a huge sigh of relief that the Chief Legislative Analyst found $97 million to help restore favorite services and balance the budget, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office sent over a little letter with a demand.

The mayor, you see, had proposed cutting park rangers, library hours, library books, film festivals, community cleanups, and the calligraphers that produce those pretty resolutions in honor of community leaders -- all to help close a $406 million budget gap.

The City Council balked at those cuts and proposed putting upwards of $63 million in spending back in the budget, according to a high estimate. That prompted the mayor to complain during a community forum this week that the council was willing to spend without making their own sacrifices, such as cutting the number of city cars assigned to council staff.

So, when the CLA found $97 million, which allowed the council to send out a gloating press release and be the heroes who restored funding to popular programs that the mean old mayor cut, well, that was too much.

Villaraigosa fired off a letter: "I must insist that this additional revenue be used to restore funding to important services which support the core functions and priorities of the city."

He insists! The word infuriated council members. Most of the services that the mayor insisted on funding were already restored by the council, but that only fueled the fury.

"That's money we found," one council member seethed.

Does it really matter to the average Angeleno who proposed cuts and who restored funding? Probably not. Nobody ever notices what is preserved, only what's taken away.

Ending their neutrality, two of the area's most powerful politicians -- Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman -- came out Thursday to support Sen. Barack Obama's bid for the Democratic nomination for president.
There has been wide speculation about what the two would do and the signal it sends to the Jewish community.
"Barack Obama has laid out a foreign policy vision driven by principle and conviction, and he understands that our moral authority and our safety as a nation go hand in hand," Berman said in a statement.
Waxman added: "Senator Obama's vision for change has inspired tens of millions of Americans. And he's also proved that he has the experience, judgment, integrity, and toughness to bring real reform to Washington."

Faced with a faltering economy and a worsening budget deficit, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for the first time in his five-year tenure opened the door Wednesday to a potential tax increase in his proposed 2008-09 budget. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

Schwarzenegger said he will first ask lawmakers and voters to authorize the state to borrow up to $15 billion against future state Lottery earnings over three years. But if that fails on the November ballot, it would trigger an automatic one-cent increase in the statewide sales tax for at least three years.

The proposal contrasts with promises Schwarzenegger has made from the beginning of his term to refuse to raise taxes, while also ending borrowing for normal government operations.

Seven years after the death of a controversial plan to recycle sewage water into drinking water, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has resurrected the idea as one way Los Angeles could provide much-needed water to its growing population. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

The reclamation concept - at one time opposed by Villaraigosa - is among a dozen ideas that will be proposed by the mayor and the Department of Water and Power in a new water-supply action plan set to be announced today.

The proposal outlines how Los Angeles will conserve and recycle enough water over the next 20 years to serve an expected 500,000 more Angelenos without having to import more water.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's pick to oversee Los Angeles' finances turned down the job offer Wednesday and said he would continue working in the private sector. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

A former chief deputy to the mayor, Marcus Allen was nominated for the city administrative officer position in March.

But his selection raised concern among some council members because of his lobbyist connections and request for a $290,000 salary, which was about $70,000 more than the current CAO Karen Sisson makes.

"Having considered this opportunity for several weeks now, I have decided to respectfully remove my name from consideration for this important position," Allen wrote in a letter to the mayor.

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday released a $144.3 billion state budget that eliminates a massive deficit by selling lottery bonds and cutting billions in state programs. AP in the Daily News.

The spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July is austere, a byproduct of a slowing state economy.

Tax revenue has been falling far short of what California needs to keep pace with spending obligations, leading to a $15.2 billion shortfall.

"As everyone knows, we are facing an extremely tough budget year," Schwarzenegger said during a news conference at the Capitol. "Our crisis is real, and it is very serious."

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is scheduled to attend campaign fundraisers in Newport Beach and Century City Thursday, an aide confirmed, in what could be her final visit to Southern California as a 2008 presidential candidate. Daily News.

The event at the Century Plaza Hotel is "sold out," Sim Farar, one of Clinton's national finance chairs told the Daily Variety Web site, Wilshire & Washington, which reports on politics.

Various media outlets have reported that the Clinton campaign is about $20 million in debt, including about $11 million she loaned it in what she called a demonstration of her commitment. If Clinton is not repaid the money she loaned the campaign by the time the Democratic Party nominates a candidate Aug. 27, federal law limits the amount she can receive to $250,000.

Los Angeles Councilwoman Janice Hahn continues to take fire from talk radio hosts and conservative bloggers, two weeks after a television news report accused her of providing city funds to active gang members under the auspices of gang intervention programs. Gene Maddaus in the Daily Breeze.

But a review of the Fox 11 News story found major flaws that undermine its central allegations. Most notably, records and interviews show that the gang intervention workers identified in the report have not received city funding. Additionally, a convicted rapist was wrongly identified as a gang intervention worker, and Hahn was mistakenly accused of providing funds directly to gang workers.

In the history of Los Angeles city bureaucracy, the special-event fee waiver might be the most talked about budget reform that has never been acted on. Kerry Cavanaugh in the Daily News.

Three times a week, the Los Angeles City Council writes off thousands of dollars worth of city employee time for working at fairs, awards shows, parades and countless other special events held by businesses and community groups.

Last year, such fee waivers cost the city some $11 million. But those write-offs are becoming a growing point of contention as Los Angeles faces a record $406 million budget deficit - and the mayor says the city can no longer afford to foot the bill.