California
Opponents of California’s Dream Act have failed in a signature-gathering drive aimed at overturning the new law that will permit some undocumented immigrants to receive publicly funded college aid.
Assemblyman Tim Donnelly informed supporters of the referendum drive through a written statement today that the campaign had fallen short of qualifying for the ballot.
The effort garnered 447,514 signatures, not the required 504,760 valid voter signatures required to place the matter before voters, Donnelly said.
It’s an embarrassment that California, the state that led the technology revolution in America, is, according to Digital Learning Now, last in the nation in using technology to transform its education system from its current factory-model roots into a student-centric one.
California policy has done its best to create a byzantine””some might say bizarre””set of regulations to frustrate the power of online learning to do just that. From geographic barriers that limit the ability of students in certain locales to access online learning to restricting blended learning in some unfortunate ways, California has created a maze to frustrate would-be innovators.
Sacramento — In his first year back as California’s leader, Gov. Jerry Brown was unable to get what he wanted.
Voters returned Brown to the Capitol for a third term after he campaigned as a seasoned, no-nonsense veteran who knew how to get things done. But Brown didn’t anticipate how much Capitol politics had changed in his 28-yearabsence.
He re-entered office last January pushing a plan to allow Californians to decide whether to raise taxes or face further cuts to government services. The effort failed because the governor did not get a handful of necessary Republican votes to place a tax measure on the ballot.
The committee advocating that the Poway City Council have term limits has collected more signatures than required to place the matter on the November 2012 ballot, according to its leader. City Councilman Dave Grosch said Sunday night that the signatures of 3,121 people have been collected on the initiative petitions. He said the committee’s goal is to have more than 3,400 signatures when the petitions are turned in next Monday.
Los Angeles city officials have filed suit to block a proposed ballot initiative requiring porn actors to wear condoms during film shoots. City officials contend that the proposed measure is unnecessary and will waste taxpayer money, the Associated Press reports. The suit, filed Thursday, says state laws mandating workplace safety already address the need for protective barriers to be used when workers are exposed to blood-borne pathogens such as HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Opponents of a plan to remake Cotati’s downtown into a narrower street that includes roundabouts have told city officials they will pursue a ballot initiative unless they change course. The initiative would bar the city from building roundabouts anywhere within its limits. Its backers want the city to adhere to a concept it previously outlined, a four-lane street controlled by traffic lights.
The proposal would ban both corporations and labor unions from collecting political funds through “payroll deduction”. Dan Schnur is the former Chair of the California Fair Political Practices Commission and a former Republican strategist. He said in an era of independent expenditure committees, money won’t stop flowing to campaigns. “The great irony is that even if this initiative were to pass, under the current rules for campaign finance, it probably wouldn’t have nearly as much of an impact today as it might of in years past, because it’s so much easier to raise large sums of money from other sources,” said Schnur.
Some San Francisco citizens who are worried that the city’s iconic Coit Tower is not getting the TLC it needs are hoping to force the city to shower the landmark with a little more money. And what better way to make sure that happens than through another ballot measure? The Protect Coit Tower Committee — a coalition of neighbors, environmentalists, and artists — filed a ballot initiative with the city’s Elections Department yesterday, and plans to collect 9,700 signatures over the next two months to get the measure on the June ballot. If approved, the measure would limit commercial activities and private events held there.
An initiative to reform the city’s debt-ridden pension system is tentatively scheduled to be placed on the June 5 primary election ballot following a 5-3 vote by the City Council. The measure qualified for the ballot with 115,000 petition signatures. If passed, it would give 401(k) plans to new employees, other than police officers, instead of having them enrolled in the employee pension system.
California Governor Jerry Brown will propose a ballot measure to increase taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increase the state sales tax:
Echoing the Occupy Wall Street movement’s call to tax the rich, Gov. Jerry Brown wants California’s highest earners to pay more to stave off further budget cuts to education and social services. Brown is expected to propose a ballot initiative asking voters to increase taxes on the rich and raise the statewide sales tax by half a cent, to 7.75 percent. The combination of income and sales tax increases would raise about $7 billion and expire in 2016.
Resident Phil Ozenick and other volunteers with Friends of Roseville were out in full force last weekend trying to gather enough signatures to qualify their salary cap initiative for the ballot, but ultimately fell short. City Spokeswoman Megan MacPherson confirmed that the citizens’ watchdog group did not submit the documents required to proceed with the initiative by the 5 p.m. Nov. 28 deadline.
Los Angeles voters may be asked if condoms should be required in pornographic movies if a health advocacy group’s campaign continues to advance.AIDS Healthcare Foundation President Michael Weinstein says his group has collected more than enough signatures to qualify a citywide ballot initiative for the June 2012 election. The ballot measure would require porn producers to shoot safe-sex porn as a condition of getting a filming permit in Los Angeles.
For public school students in California, where you live usually determines where you can learn. To David Haglund, that’s not right. This month, Haglund, principal of the Riverside Virtual School, an online independent study program run by the Riverside Unified School District, introduced a statewide ballot initiative that would give students unrestricted access to publicly funded courses — wherever they are.
California’s Secretary of State approved a ballot initiative November 18 that seeks the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station and the Diablo Canyon plant. The initiative was filed by Ben Davis Jr. in April after the earthquake, tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. Davis drafted this and an earlier petition that led to the closure of the Rancho Seco power plant in June 1989.