It has been a long busy week, 12-14 hour work days. Admittedly, I am running out of brain power, so forgive the link post, rather than full analysis.

• California leads the way on environmental legislation. While, I am not totally thrilled with this particular bill as a whole, it is pretty great to see Congress using AB32 to create federal legislation.
• Our HMOs suck, so says a state report. I have a post up on the subject at Working Californians.
• The battle between Speaker Fabian Nunez and the California Nurses Association has gotten personal and nasty. Basic background is that CNA only supports single payer health care and the CA legislature (with the rest of labor and the consumer groups) are perusing reform that keeps in place private health insurance companies. CNA has been actively campaigning against it and seems willing to put resources in to dooming the entire effort. They do not have the resources to pass single payer, nor does it appear to be viable in terms of the public support. The current path we are on is the status quo, which is extraordinarily disappointing.Hopefully soon I will have time to write a full post on the subject for Calitics.
• Courage Campaign sent an email on behalf of Working Assets today pressuring DiFi to oppose immunity for the telecom companies in the FISA bill. Take action here: contact DiFi.
• Speaking of FISA and immunity. The uproar today is over a report that Reid was going to try and push past Dodd’s hold of the bill. However, and this is pretty wonky…The bill is not in a place in the process where there is anything to actually put a hold on. We don’t know if the language is going to have immunity in it. They said it would a few days ago, but it is unclear if the latest dust-up will change the wording. That is why it is so important to push DiFi to do the right thing and oppose a bill with immunity, not to mention the basket warrants.
• And now for something completely different… Top Out Colleges. I found this via AfterEllen.com. It really needs some more votes to be more accurate. For some reason Smith is in second place even though they have a perfect score and more votes than the #1 score. Vassar unfortunately is stuck at 29th, boo. Ithaca is at #8. I have some good memories hanging out with my cousin there with her crew of lezzies. They called themselves the She-Man Woman Lovers Club. Best. Name. Ever.

That’s all I got for now.

I spoke with my contact at UNITE-HERE a few weeks ago and he indicated that signature gathering was on target. That indeed appears to be the case. They delivered over 700,000 signatures for 4 separate ballot initiatives today to the Secretary of State. SacBee:

Backers of referendum drives to block casino expansions for four of California’s richest gambling tribes said Monday that they have delivered some 700,000 signatures for each of four proposed ballot measures.

Al Lundeen, a spokesman for the coalition seeking to repeal the gambling agreements, said the last signatures were submitted Monday to meet an Oct. 8 filing deadline for the Feb. 5 ballot. Some 433,971 valid signatures of registered voters are required to qualify each referendum.

Unless they have an unusually high number of bad signatures these four initiatives should make the Feb 5th ballot. It will set up a massive fight between unions and the tribes. Both have a lot of resources, though UNITE-HERE will need the help of the larger labor community in California to wage this battle. Given the support they had during the legislative fight earlier this year from the Labor Council, that seems likely.

There are all kinds of issues with the contracts, especially when it comes to union organizing. The contracts are the only way that the state has legal oversight of the tribes. UNITE-HERE wanted check card unionizing like the Employee Free Choice Act. These compacts can easily be opposed on other grounds. The state really did not strike a good deal with the tribes, earning less revenue for the slot expansion than similar compacts recently negotiated in other states.

This shall be an interesting battle. Expect many ads on your airwaves. In the most recent battle between labor and the tribes, during the special election to replace the late Rep. Juanita Millender-McDonald labor won out. However, boots on the ground matter a disproportionately more during special elections, with the low turnout rate. Feb 5th should be a pretty high turnout election, depending on how the early primaries/caucuses go.

The backlog of death penalty cases in California is so large that the state would have to kill 5 prisoners a month for 10 years to clear the docket. Death waits average 17.2 years, double the national rate. One judge on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote an article in the Southern Californian Law Review with a a few prescriptions for change. LAT:

Rather, he has called for a radical overhaul of what he described as systemic problems, including a critical shortage of defense lawyers to represent death row inmates on appeal and an inefficient use of judicial resources.

Alarcon suggested a major infusion of cash to attract lawyers to the difficult cases. He also proposed shifting automatic judicial review of death penalty cases to the state’s appeals courts.

I do not support the death penalty. I think it is inefficient and ineffective. That said, getting good lawyers to represent people facing the death penalty needs to be a priority. Too often, people are put to death while being represented by inexperienced or simply poor lawyers. If we are going to have the death penalty, defendants need a vigorous defense.

While more than 50 condemned prisoners have died of old age, suicide or prison violence in the last three decades, only 13 have been executed since capital punishment was reinstated in 1978.

In an interview, Alarcon said he believes neglect by politicians and particularly the failure of the Legislature and the governor to put more money into the process are at the root of the dysfunction.

“There may be no interest on the political side in doing something,” Alarcon said. “They may be comfortable with a de facto abolition of capital punishment.”

What a surprise, the California legislature failing to act on our prison system….