The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) held a boisterous picket line in San Francisco last night, but their chants targeted a surprising adversary: labor leaders and their political allies. While California Democratic Party Chair John Burton (labor’s greatest California ally), State Senator Mark Leno and leaders of UNITE HERE, the Sailors, Plumbers, Building Trades, and Police and Fire unions, were inside the Plumbers Union Hall honoring the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), SEIU was outside denouncing NUHW – and by implication its supporters – as corrupt. Last week, SEIU informed Burton that it would end its $1 million annual donation to the state Party unless he withdrew his support for NUHW, which he refused to do.

Since the passing of Proposition 8, gay rights activists vow to continue their efforts in legalizing same sex marriages in California. Neither side is ready to sit still and rejoice or mourn the decision from the past ballot. Both feel this is just the beginning of the battle in California.

Regulators took over the California National Bank. The taken over of bank by regulators was the fourth largest in the history of banking of U.S.A.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is ticked off. He’s tired of signing bills that don’t address the pet causes he deems important. So when another unworthy bill crossed his desk recently for signing — addressing funding issues for the Port of San Francisco — the guv vetoed it and sent lawmakers a little note saying why. Only the note said a little more than lawmakers were expecting.Buried in the text was a hidden message directed at State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, author of the bill, according to the San Francisco Bay Guardian.Missed the hidden code? The Bay Guardian has helpfully picked it out. When asked by the Guardian if the message was intentional, Schwarzenegger’s spokesman said only, “what a strange coincidence.” The paper noted that he was “clearly being sarcastic.”He added that the governor’s office had written other letters that also had hidden words spelled out in them. When asked for examples of what was spelled out in those letters, he replied “soap,” “poet,” “ear.”“When you do so many veto messages that’s bound to happen,” he said.

Below is some food for thought by California State Senator George Runner around the real politics of the so called California "Green Economy". He is correct in that a lot of the parts and manufacturing for green energy components such as wind turbines and solar panels will most likely come from overseas.

California Youth Energy Services promotes green jobs in California by hiring young people in various urban neighborhoods to assist the underprivileged with energy efficiency practices.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed legislation, AB 30, allowing the pre-registration of 17-year-olds in the state of California. The state joins seven others that allow pre-registration at either 17 or 16. Matthew Segal from the Student Association for Voter Empowerment said "I think pre-registration is a major step in the right direction because it helps institutionalize voter registration, said matthew segal. If implemented at DMVs it will also be essential in reaching many young people who are not college bound." SAVE supports replicating what we've done in California federally with a bill we are currently working with FairVote and Congressman Markey's office to introduce."

Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and 2010 Republican candidate for Governor, is hoping to reshape the state of California politics with less government and more private sector investment.

Jerry Brown is looking for more contributions in his effort to widen his lead over Gavin Newsom in the 2010 California Gubernatorial race. It appears that Brown is taking a page out of the Obama playbook and is asking for small Internet donations.

A bill is scheduled to reach Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk which deals with narrowing the category of jobs for which employers could investigate the financial background of applicants in the state of California. Those would include positions in which employees would have access to large amounts of cash, valuables, or confidential financial information.

Green economy jobs provide a new hope to rebuild and shape the economy while bettering the planet. California is gearing up to be the nation's clean technology leader and innovation center. Over the past three years, California has been the leading state in various green initiatives ranging from energy efficiency to clean technology venture capital investment.

Health reform in the United States and in California has been a subject of major debate recently. While some have cautiously accepted the new health care reform proposals, many have rejected it outright by saying it will increase the financial burden for tax payers.

Accusing the State Bar of California of being "overly political, unresponsive … and inefficient," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation Sunday that allows the legal association to collect its annual dues. In his veto message, Schwarzenegger cited a recent audit critical of the bar and questioned the group's "impartiality in considering judicial appointments." The July audit found rising costs at the bar and poor internal controls, which allowed a former employee to embezzle nearly $676,000. "The conduct of the State Bar itself must be above reproach," Schwarzenegger wrote in his veto. "Regrettably, it is not." Bar President Howard Miller called the veto "regrettable," but also signaled a willingness to work with Schwarzenegger, calling his concerns "legitimate." "Sometimes organizations suffering from inertia need an external jolt to renew themselves," Miller said. "We regret that it has come in this particular manner." Part of the dust-up dates to Schwarzenegger's August appointment of conservative former state Sen. Chuck Poochigian (R-Fresno) to the state Court of Appeal. News leaked that that the bar's Commission on Judicial Nominees Evaluation had rated Poochigian as "not qualified," the lowest of four possible rankings, before the governor had even made the appointment. The ranking was supposed to be confidential at the time.

Brad Friedman, of www.Bradblog.com and www.velvetrevolution.com, have created a petition to hold the Diebold voting machine company accountable for the dangerously non-functioning, deliberately hackable machines they sold to California. Let's start in California, where the documentation and investigation has been the most thorough, and then move on to the rest of the states that foolishly still use these horrid machines. Without election integrity, all the rest of the noise we make is just noise.

Just two weeks after the revelation that Meg Whitman, the anointed GOP candidate for governor, did not register to vote until she was 46 years old, a new poll finds her tied with former Rep. Tom Campbell, who had been trailing against Whitman and state Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner. The poll also finds Democratic former Gov. Jerry Brown 20 points ahead of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom -- and that either Brown or Newsom would defeat any of the three Gops if the election were held tomorrow.

As a part of the plan to fix the $42 billion budget deficit, the California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is urging the legislature to back his proposed cuts to the three largest areas of the state’s budget - prisons, education, and health care. Much attention was paid to the Governor’s plan to save money by deporting undocumented immigrants.

"The state has shelled out more than $8 million in late-payment penalties to vendors, contractors and others over the last two years because Sacramento did not send the checks when they were owed, records show. The late budget last year was one reason bills didn't get paid when they were due, but not the only one. Confusion over which offices should make payments, delays in invoices being sent from field offices to headquarters and shortages of staff to pay the bills also are responsible. At a time when the state is slashing services to parks users, the disabled and domestic violence victims, taxpayer advocates said Monday that the waste of millions of dollars on late fees is inexcusable."

This weekend’s California GOP Convention was rocked by news that the party establishment’s favorite gov candidate, Meg Whitman, 53, did not register to vote until 2002 and has failed to vote in elections since then. Her main rival, Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, pounced, calling on Whitman to quit. The conventioneers showed their displeasure by voting for Poizner 78% to 14% — a whopping 64 point margin.

The present budget deficit faced by the State of California is around $26 billion and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is seeking a solution to bridge this deficit gap through three furlough days a month. These furloughs have affected at least 215,000 workers employed with the State.

Oakland voters recently approved the nation’s first ever business tax on retail marijuana sales, Measure F, on the July 21, 2009 ballot.