Recently in California Category

Amid one of the worst recessions in California history, the percentage of underemployed workers in Los Angeles County has doubled in the past year to 18 percent, according to a new study from a nonprofit group to be released Friday. Troy Anderson in the Daily News.

Underemployment takes a broader look at the economy than official state unemployment figures because it also includes those who have given up on looking for a job or have been involuntarily reduced to part-time employment.

Underemployment in the county grew from 8 percent in 2007 to 18percent last year, according to the "Ebbing Tides in the Golden State" report by the Economic Roundtable. In California it grew from 8 percent in 2007 to 17percent in 2008.

California charter school leaders unveiled a plan Wednesday to push for higher academic standards at the more than 750 independent public schools statewide.Connie Llanos in the Daily News.

Under the plan the California Charter School Association, made up of school operators and leaders, will set new student achievement goals for charter campuses and would force schools to close if they don't meet minimum guidelines.

Current law gives charter schools options to remain open when they perform poorly on state standardized tests.

The move comes after a nationwide study revealed that charter school students are not performing as well as their traditional school counterparts.

While there is a lot of speculation about whether Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is running for governor next year, there has been no question about the ambitions of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom.
Villaraigosa has yet to announce what he will do as Newsom has created an exploratory committee and been traveling up and down the state to develop support.
And, the two will have a lot to talk about over that when they appear together Saturday at the annual gay rights parade in West Hollywood.
Both men will be at a news conference kicking of the day's festivities and will ride in the parade _ although it was not known if they will be in the same car.
They will have lots of company from the Los Angeles City Council, including the two members who represent Hollywood _ Eric Garcetti and Tom LaBonge _ along with Councilman Bill Rosendahl and Councilman Dennis Zine, who will be in leathers and on his motorycle.
Zine said City Attorney-elect Carmen Trutanich, who rides a Harley Davidson, also planned to be there on his motorcycle.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa -- or one of his staffers -- took his dispute with the state over funding to the blogsphere today.
On Fox and Hounds, the mayor made the case that he has been trtyighn to make with state officials for the past month.
On it, he says:
Year in and year out, it seems like our state faces the same predicament: An historic deficit; a deadlocked legislature; budget negotiations hijacked by a few hard-liners making unreasonable demands, and stalled by a two-thirds rule that impedes progress and weakens our ability to govern.

A few weeks ago - after the defeat of a series of measures designed to soften the blow of our budget shortfall - a coalition of mayors and city officials came together to call on our state representatives to follow a different path; to take responsibility for the public purse; to find a better way to navigate the choppy economic waters before us and lay the foundation for a stronger, more stable financial future.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and mayors from some of the state's largest cities head off to Sacramento again on Tuesday to try to head of more cuts as the state goes back into its gudget.
Vilaraigosa and San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, Santa Ana Mayor Miguel Pulido Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Fresno Mayor Ashley Swearengin will meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders.
The state has a $24 billion shortfall and and is considering plans to borrow money from local government as well as cuts in services, taking local gas tax dollars and reducing funding for police, fire and transportation services.
It is the second trip by Villaraigosa and the mayors to Sacrament since the special election where voters rejected four ballot propostions.

The government is charging Angelo Mozilo, the former chief executive of mortgage lender Countrywide Financial Corp., and two other company executives with civil fraud. Daily News.

The case brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission also accuses Mozilo of illegal insider trading, according to an agency spokesman.

Countrywide was a major player in the subprime mortgage market, the collapse of which in 2007 touched off the financial crisis that has gripped the U.S. and global economies.

Even as conservative groups bask in their recent legal victory upholding the ban on gay marriage in California, gay-rights supporters remain confident the tide of history is on their side.
Tony Castro in the Daily News.
Calling their cause a logical extension of the civil-rights struggle in America, they see the success of that movement predicting their own eventual victory, whether through the courts or new ballot measures.

Backers of traditional marriage, however, say it's unfair to compare the two - that the question of defining marriage does not parallel the struggle against the repression of ethnic minorities.

Latinos now account for about one in five American children - up from one in 10 three decades ago - thanks largely to a huge influx of Mexican and Central American immigrants that began in 1980, a study released Thursday found. Tony Castro in the Daily News.

The American-born children of parents who arrived since the 1980s now make up a majority of Latino youngsters in the United States, according to the Pew Hispanic Center in Washington, D.C.

This second generation of American-born children of at least one Latino immigrant parent now constitute 52 percent of the nation's 16 million Hispanic children, the study found.

The two lawyers who faced off in the historic legal fight that decided the 2000 presidential election on Wednesday announced they are partnering on a federal lawsuit to overturn California's ban on gay marriage.Tony Castro in the Daily News.

Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, who argued opposing sides of the landmark Bush v. Gore lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court, said Proposition 8 violates the equal protection and due process rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.

The plaintiffs in the case include Paul Katami and Jeffrey Zarrillo of Burbank, who were denied a marriage license on May 20, according to the lawsuit.

If AIG was too big to fail, how about the world's eighth-largest economy? Associated Press in the Daily News.

In a move with only one modern-day precedent, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers are pressing the Obama administration and members of Congress for federal loan guarantees to help the state out of a desperate, multibillion-dollar jam.

Gay rights advocates and supporters pledged a statewide cultural war Tuesday in additional to legal battles to overturn the California Supreme Court decision upholding the voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage.Tony Castro and Susan Abram in the Daily News.

A series of planned marches and protests Tuesday night across the state was the first sign of that campaign to repeal Proposition 8, which voters approved last November.

In West Hollywood, an estimated 15,000 people appeared at a rally and march, with political supporters including Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa who said he was confident voters will support another amendment reversing Prop. 8.

After more than 30 years together, Brent Lok and Wade French have accumulated more than a few possessions, including a hilltop home, an impressive collection of Asian art and, alongside their diplomas, vacation photos and family portraits, a framed marriage license, dated June 17, 2008. New York Times in the Daily News.

Today, Lok and French will discover what that license means in the eyes of the law, as the California Supreme Court hands down its decision on Proposition 8, the voter initiative passed in November that outlawed same-sex marriage. Previously, in May 2008, the court legalized same-sex marriage, and since the election, several groups have sued, saying the proposition's revocation of that right was unconstitutional.

In addition to answering that legal question, however, the seven-member court is expected to address the legal status of some 18,000 same-sex couples who were married in California between June - when the legalization took effect - and Election Day in November.

Tipoffs: Everyone has ideas on what other programs to cut.

Since Tuesday, when Californians shrugged off Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's warning of "fiscal Armageddon" and voted down a package of budget-balancing ballot measures, everybody has wondered what the worst part of Armageddon might be. Kevin Modesti in the Daily News.

Fire station closures? Prisoner releases? Education funding cuts? Health care funding cuts? Messy public parks?

The worst part of Armageddon so far seems to be the not knowing. At least that's the part most of us can agree about.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Thursday that he and lawmakers will try to quickly solve the state's $21.3 billion deficit without taxes, gimmicks or much borrowing. AP in the Daily News.

The Republican governor told reporters after a prayer breakfast in the capital that voters sent state leaders a clear message during Tuesday's special election: Live within your means.

Schwarzenegger said he took that as a sign voters want more cuts to state programs. He also has proposed selling state assets such as San Quentin State Prison, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum and CalExpo, the state fairgrounds in Sacramento