Sacramento: November 2007 Archives

Assemblyman Lloyd Levine, D- Van Nuys, has found a special meaning for Thanksgiving. It was the day he proposed marriage to Edie Lambert, a Sacramento television reporter, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Levine aides said he proposed to Lambert on Thursday.

"They're engaged and they're incredibly happy," said Alex Traverso, Levine's spokesman.

No date for the wedding was announced.

Thanksgiving carries a special significance for the couple -- and apparently always will.

Exactly two years ago, Levine and Lambert met in a chance encounter, hundreds of miles from home, inside a Seattle airport during a Thanksgiving Day visit to relatives.

Upon meeting, they began talking casually, one passenger to another, and each apologized because neither recognized the other, Levine recalled in an interview last spring.

"We've been dating ever since," Levine, 38, said at the time. "She's absolutely wonderful."

Consultants for Secretary of State Debra Bowen said Friday they found several flaws in Los Angeles County's voting system that could leave it vulnerable to fraud or electronic hacking. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The report found that seals on boxes used to carry the system hardware could be opened and resealed without detection, making the machinery susceptible to tampering.

Plus, some password-protected systems could be hacked with certain programs, and some encrypted files containing sensitive data could be decrypted.

Is Arnold snubbing Newt?

Arnold Schwarzenegger, California's politically ambidextrous governor, is planning to skip a Republican Governors Association meeting in his home state next Thursday when former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is scheduled to moderate a discussion of "government transformation." Associated Press in the Mercury News.

It's a 75-mile trip from his Los Angeles home to an Orange County resort where the meeting is being held.

Schwarzenegger "is proud that RGA chose California for this meeting," said spokesman Adam Mendelsohn. "Unfortunately, his work as governor will not allow him to participate in every event."

Seeking to stave off a bitter regional battle over transportation money, state officials said Tuesday that they will add $1 billion to funding for port infrastructure and trade-route improvements throughout California. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The move came as a coalition of five Southern California counties geared up an aggressive lobbying campaign to try to land nearly 85 percent of transportation-bond funds to be doled out soon - or $1.7 billion out of $2 billion.

But officials with the California Transportation Commission said they now plan to add $1 billion from other revenue sources to the program - meaning most regions will now get close to the amounts they were originally seeking.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has become the most prolific campaign fundraiser in California history, taking in more than $125 million for his various political committees, according to an Associated Press review of fundraising records. Associated Press in the Daily News.

In doing so, he has surpassed Gray Davis, the governor he ousted four years ago in a recall election that focused in large part on Davis' seemingly incessant fundraising.

Schwarzenegger's political committees have taken in $125.8 million since he jumped into the gubernatorial recall campaign in August 2003. Davis took longer - seven years - to raise $120 million for two gubernatorial campaigns and to fight the recall effort against him.

California's fiscal woes are worsening as a slowing economy, sputtering housing market and unexpected setbacks have created a nearly $10 billion budget shortfall over the next two years, state officials said Wednesday. Harrison Sheppard in the Daily News.

The projection from Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill comes less than three months after the Legislature and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger passed what was believed to be a balanced budget for 2007-08 with a $4 billion reserve.

But now the state is instead likely to face a $2 billion shortfall this fiscal year - a swing of $6 billion - and an additional $8 billion next year.