SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – There are new developments on a case that CBS 13 first reported two years ago – a case that may end up costing taxpayers more than $4 million.

Flash back to July 2010 – that’s when a security guard tried stopping CBS 13 photographer Peter Roney from shooting video of an empty building, leased by a quasi-government agency.

“I’m going to have to ask you to stop filming,” said the guard.
“Don’t touch the camera,” was Roney’s response.

“Then stop filming please, stop filming,” the guard insisted.
That’s when Roney informed the guard, “I do not have to stop filming at all.”

The guard was trying to stop our camera from recording the empty office building at Mather Business Park – a vacant building costing California taxpayers $1.3 million a year in rent. In fact, the building was unoccupied for two years – costing taxpayers a total of $2.6 million.

The empty building was leased by EdFund – a now defunct contractor that previously ran the loan program for the Student Aid Commission. Two years ago, the Commission’s Diana Fuentes-Michel told CBS 13, “And that money is coming out of the student loan operating fund.”

“Please leave,” one of the EdFund lawyers told us at the time. “And if you don’t, we will call the police and escort you off.”

EdFund is now out of business, leaving behind a multi-year lease – and a lawsuit filed by the building owners demanding $40 million in unpaid rent.  (Read: EdFund Lawsuit)

In response, the California State Senate has already approved a settlement worth $4.2 million, to pay off the building owners.

Paying ten cents on the dollar may be the cheapest way to get rid of an expensive lawsuit, but critics say it’s $4 million taxpayers will never see again.

“The bottom line is that’s money that could be going for essential programs,” said Jon Coupal. The president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association told CBS 13, “And they should be obeying the law and not wasting money.”

Now it’s up to the state Assembly to approve the settlement – and ultimately Governor Brown to sign the bill that affects not just this case, but several other claims amounting to a total of $12.9 million in taxpayer funds.

If you see examples of government waste, send us your story ideas to onthemoney@kovr.com. You can also follow On The Money stories in progress via Twitter at twitter.com/#!/mikeluery and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/CBS13OnTheMoney

Although California still faces a $9.2 billion deficit, the credit rating agency said the state has corrected a significant portion of its budget imbalance.

“We are revising the outlook because, barring any other credit deterioration, (we) think the state is poised for credit improvement — and potentially a higher rating — pending its ability to better align its cash performance and budget assumptions,” S&P analyst Gabriel Petek said in a statement.

The agency’s report says a higher rating is contingent on sufficiently credible solutions to the state’s $9.2 billion deficit. That would include automatic spending cuts that are not subject to changes after the November election, if voters reject Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax hikes.

Brown has proposed a mix of cuts and temporary tax hikes but Democrats who control the Legislature are opposed to more cuts.

If the state can reach a balanced budget by the summer, California’s low credit rating might be turning a corner.

The last time the rating agency gave California a positive outlook was June 2007, when it had an A-plus rating. It now has a rating of A-minus. California’s outlook improved from negative to stable last July after the last budget was passed.

Revenues, however, remain a concern. Last week, the state controller’s office released its latest monthly report showing tax collections came in $528 million below the January projections in the governor’s proposed budget.

“Our rating is still near the bottom when compared to other states,” Senate Republican Leader Bob Huff, R-Diamond Bar, said in a statement. “While this is movement in the right direction, Californians should delay celebration until we’re closer to the top than the bottom.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Salt Lake City researcher Helen Radkey found documentation of the baptism while conducting regular checks of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints genealogical database last week.

Mormons believe posthumous baptism by proxy rites allow deceased persons to receive the Gospel in the afterlife.

The baptism of Holocaust victims was supposed to be barred by a 1995 agreement between the church and Jews, although some submissions continue by church members.

Church officials say the person who entered the names into the database has been disciplined.

In a statement, the California-based Wiesenthal Center expressed outrage and called the rite insensitive.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

The decisions, contained in a report released this week, drew criticism Wednesday from victims’ rights group.

After a little more than one year in office, the Democratic governor has allowed about 80 percent of the decisions by the state Board of Parole Hearings to free convicted killers.

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, allowed about a quarter of the recommended paroles to stand, while former Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, allowed just 2 percent.

A victims’ group says Brown has allowed 331 murderers back on the street. A spokesman for the governor says he considers public safety, parole board recommendations and recent legal decisions in making his decisions.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)

Dan Pellissier, president of California Pension Reform, said Wednesday the group could not raise enough money to mount a petition-signature drive. A successful drive typically requires at least $2 million.

He blamed unfavorable language issued by the office of Attorney General Kamala Harris, a Democrat.

Pellissier said the “false and misleading title and summary” made it nearly impossible to gain voter support, even though pension reform is popular with Californians.

The group submitted two measures that qualified for signature gathering. One would have put new public employees into defined contribution plans, while the other would have put new workers into a hybrid plan that blends pensions with a 401(k)-style system.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)

Forget the fact that the President ordered his campaign manager to encourage his donors to support an organization that neither he nor his campaign can coordinate with. Put aside the fact that he will send Cabinet Secretaries and other Administration officials to this organization’s fundraising events. Try to get past the fact that earlier THAT DAY he was on the Today Show demonizing Super PACs to Matt Lauer. Whatever. If he’s going to flip flop he might as well go all in.

No one blames the President for competing with the same tools as his opposition, but the about face after his holier-than-thou finger-waving on this issue is striking. It also smacks of desperation and underscores two vulnerabilities in his reelection.

First, it shows that the level of support he had four years ago is no longer there. Obama supporters had been pounding their chests about a billion dollar warchest. With that prediction no longer realistic, he has to play with those evil Republicans in the dirty gutters of unlimited contributions.

Second, and more importantly, it is another example of a promise he couldn’t keep. He promised to do things differently–as an “outsider” he wouldn’t play the typical Beltway games. Hope and Change indeed.

This was the right move for the President. You can’t give the opposition a leg up. But it also reminds voters that he’s a politician who will do anything to win, just like the rest of them.

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS13/AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday declared California’s same-sex marriage ban to be unconstitutional, putting the bitterly contested, voter-approved law on track for likely consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court.

A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that a lower court judge correctly interpreted the U.S. Constitution and Supreme Court precedents when he declared in 2010 that Proposition 8 was a violation of the civil rights of gays and lesbians.

The court said gay marriages cannot resume in the state until the deadline passes for Proposition 8 sponsors to appeal to a larger panel of the 9th Circuit. If such an appeal is filed, gay marriages will remain on hold until it’s resolved.

• Read: 9th Court of Appeals Prop. 8 Ruling

Lawyers for Proposition 8 sponsors have repeatedly said they would consider appealing to a larger panel of the court and then the U.S. Supreme Court if they did not receive a favorable ruling from the 9th Circuit.

“Although the Constitution permits communities to enact most laws they believe to be desirable, it requires that there be at least a legitimate reason for the passage of a law that treats different classes of people differently. There was no such reason that Proposition 8 could have been enacted,” the ruling states.

The court crafted a narrow decision that applies only to California, even though the court has jurisdiction in nine western states. California is the only one of those states where the ability for gays to marry was granted then rescinded.

“Whether under the Constitution same-sex couples may ever be denied the right to marry, a right that has long been enjoyed by opposite-sex couples, is an important and highly controversial question,” the court said. “We need not and do not answer the broader question in this case.

Governor Brown reacted quickly to the court’s ruling.

“The court has rendered a powerful affirmation of the right of same-sex couples to marry. I applaud the wisdom and courage of this decision,” said Gov. Brown.

California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris applauded the court’s decision.

“Today’s ruling is a victory for fairness, a victory for equality and a victory for justice,” said Attorney General Harris. “Proposition 8 denied to gay and lesbian couples the equal protection to which all Americans are entitled. By striking this unconstitutional law from our books, the court has restored dignity, equality and respect to all Californians.”

While the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center called today’s ruling an historic moment but noted it is only one victory in the battle for civil rights.

“But we know today is not the final word as this matter is sure to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. Until that day, we must be ever vigilant in speaking out against the unfair and hurtful discrimination which now exists in the law,” said Shara Perkins Murphy, executive director of the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center.

The Supreme Court panel also said there was no evidence that former Chief U.S. Judge Vaughn Walker was biased and should have disclosed before he issued his decision that he was gay and in a long-term relationship with another man.

The ruling came more than a year after the appeals court heard arguments in the case.

Proposition 8 backers had asked the 9th Circuit to set aside Walker’s ruling on both constitutional grounds and because of the thorny issue of the judge’s personal life. It was the first instance of an American jurist’s sexual orientation being cited as grounds for overturning a court decision.

Walker publicly revealed he was gay after he retired. However, supporters of the gay marriage ban argued that he had been obliged to previously reveal if he wanted to marry his partner — like the gay couples who sued to overturn the ban.

Walker’s successor as the chief federal judge in Northern California, James Ware, rejected those claims, and the 9th Circuit held a hearing on the conflict-of-interest question in December.

California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 percent of the vote in November 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman.

The ballot measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the California Constitution, thereby overruling the court’s decision. It was the first such ban to take away marriage rights from same-sex couples after they had already secured them and its passage followed the most expensive campaign on a social issue in the nation’s history.

The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles, has estimated that 18,000 couples tied the knot during the four-month window before Proposition 8 took effect. The California Supreme Court upheld those marriages, but ruled that voters had properly enacted the law.

With same-sex marriages unlikely to resume in California any time soon, Love Honor Cherish, a gay rights group based in Los Angeles, plans to start gathering signatures for a November ballot initiative asking voters to repeal Proposition 8.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Roseanne Barr’s name is on California’s primary ballot as a Green Party candidate for president.

Secretary of State Debra Bowen announced Monday that Barr is among 24 candidates she intends to place on the June 5 ballot. An officially certified list will be released on March 29.

A news release says Barr is among three candidates for the Green Party presidential nomination.

The actress-comedian released a statement last week saying she’s a longtime supporter of the Green Party and she looks forward to working with people who share her values. She says the two major parties aren’t serving the American people.

The Green Party will select a presidential nominee at a convention in Baltimore in July.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A controversial campaign ad for a senate seat has one California lawmaker claiming it’s pure racism.

The ad opens with a gong and shows a woman bicycling through a rice field in China before speaking to the camera in broken English.

“You’re economy get very week. Ours get very good. We take your jobs. Thank you, Debbie spend it now.”

The ad for Michigan Republican Senate candidate Pete Hoekstra is produced and shot in California. State Sen. Leland Yee is among those condemning it.

“It is racist to its core. It is offensive,” said Yee (D-San Francisco). “Talk about the facts, but you don’t have to reduce it to stereotypical caricatures.”

In Sacramento, campaign consultants CBS13 spoke to talked about the risk vs. reward of releasing an ad that could be offensive to particular groups.

“I think you take the risk, especially something as big as this, only when you’re desperate,” said Democratic strategist Roger Salazar.

“You’re trying to have something that’s sexy, something memorable, something that cuts through the clutter,” Republican strategist Aaron McLear said.

The man who shot this ad is well known in California political circles.

“So Fred Davis did this,” McLear said. “Fred Davis also did the demon sheep commercial for (U.S. senate candidate) Carly Fiorina a couple years ago and a lot of folks here will remember. He’s kinda known for these really memorable, very controversial ads and from his perspective the fact that this is a senate race in Michigan and the Sacrament affiliate TV station is doing a story on it, that means he won.”

Hoekstra is standing by the commercial.

“The ad clearly lays out that the Chinese clearly benefit form the recklessness of U.S. spending. and U.S. economic policy,” he said. “I don’t see anything nasty in this ad at all.”

“I’m honored to have Governor Pete Wilson’s support, because he’s one of California’s most accomplished leaders,” Romney said in a prepared statement. “As governor of California from 1991 to 1999, he led California from the depths of recession to prosperous economic recovery. Taking office with an inherited revenue gap of over $14 million, he left his successor a surplus of over $12.5 million. Insisting on strict budget discipline and rehabilitation of the state’s then-hostile environment toward investment and job creation, Pete persuaded Democratic Legislative majorities to enact dramatic tax and regulatory relief especially helpful to small businesses.”

Announcing his support, Wilson said, “Mitt Romney is an enthusiastic believer in American exceptionalism and has been a spectacular example of it: Mitt has been a success in creating American private sector jobs, a success as the rescuer of the Salt Lake City Olympic games, and as a public chief executive as the Republican governor in the challenging environment of heavily Democratic Massachusetts. It is clear that he will be a success in the White House.”

Wilson served as the 36th governor of California (1991–1999), the culmination of more than three decades of public service that included eight years as a United States senator (1983–1991), 11 years as mayor of San Diego (1971–1982) and four years as a California State Assemblyman (1967–1971).

GOP caucuses began as early as 7 a.m. in the state capital of Carson City, with a “vote and go” option for shift workers and others unable to attend the regular caucus meeting. Depending on the county, caucuses were scheduled at various times throughout the day, the last scheduled for 7 p.m.

Rita Homer and her husband, Brad, were the first in line when the doors opened in Carson City around sunrise.

For them, unemployment and immigration are the biggest concerns in this year’s presidential race. They voted for former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

“He has some off-the-wall ideas, but I have no problem with that,” said Rita Homer, 60, an office manager and tea party backer. “If he wants someone on the moon, let’s get there first.”

By midday, some caucuses were in full swing, with voters debating the attributes and shortcomings of the four remaining GOP hopefuls — Gingrich, Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum.

Others were over quickly, sparking anger from latecomers at one site in Henderson. About three dozen voters were turned away from Green Valley High School when they showed up after the fact.

Party officials chalked it up to a learning experience, saying some voters are still unfamiliar with how caucuses work, believing they can show up at any time and cast a ballot.

“Contact the party and complain,” precinct captain Dale Napier told some disgruntled voters.

Nevada changed from a presidential primary to a caucus state in 2000 — and many bemoan the switch. Petitions were being circulated at some GOP caucuses to go back to primaries.

“This whole process disenfranchises too many people,” said Carol Howell, site manager in Carson City. “We lose early voting and absentee voting. Most people don’t understand the process.”

Statewide, 1,835 GOP precincts were meeting at 125 caucus sites.

More than 1,000 people were at a middle school in Sparks.

Vinney Tolman, a 35-year-old small business owner, was backing Romney, the former Massachusetts governor who won Nevada four years ago and was favored to repeat on Saturday.

“He has some ethics and morals that are going to be a stable foundation for his policies,” Tolman said.

Rosemary Millet, 56, liked Romney’s business experience.

“We need a financial genius at this point and I think he’s it,” she said in Carson City.

Charlene Bybee, a Sparks flight attendant and tea party organizer, said former House Speaker Gingrich was the better candidate because he talks about “facts, not rhetoric.”

In the Las Vegas community of Summerlin, Steve Commander bounced around a middle school science classroom wearing a tea party lapel pin and a tie spangled with $100 bills.

He serenaded volunteers with a rendition of the Sammy Davis Jr. song, “I’ve Gotta Be Me.”

“I’m excited about the America that was and will be,” said Commander, 67, a former adviser to Sharron Angle in her failed bid to unseat Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Republicans this year are hoping to generate the kind of buzz and voter enthusiasm that Democrats garnered in 2008 to propel Obama to the White House.

At Cimarron-Memorial High School in Las Vegas, about 1,200 people from 26 precincts turned out, and by 10 a.m. most had finished voting.

“We had some minor issues and had to call the central party office to verify registered voters,” said site manager Tom Thomas. “A few showed up late after their precincts finished. We didn’t turn anyone away.”

A special 7 p.m. caucus was to be held to accommodate religious voters in Clark County who celebrate the Saturday Sabbath. Caucus results will be released by the state Party via Twitter and Google.

Romney was a projected favorite, though all of the candidates had their share of backers.

Jeff Coppens, 45, and his wife decided just before the caucus to support Santorum, and dismissed talk that Romney was the presumptive Republican nominee.

“I feel differently that Romney’s the only one who can beat Obama,” Coppens said, adding that Santorum “is consistent on what he says and very tough.”

The Nevada caucuses are the first-in-the-West Republican presidential contest and the fifth in the nation.

Romney carried the state four years ago, benefiting in part by the large Mormon presence in Nevada.

Paul, a Texas congressman, finished second in Nevada in 2008, and was counting on continued support Saturday from a loyal base and voters like Ruth Dodrill who are attracted to his libertarian, anti-government and anti-tax message.

“I doubt he will make it, but I still believe there are steps this country needs to make to get its economics in shape,” said Dodrill, 76, a former teacher. “Government should not be running anything. That’s unconstitutional.”

State GOP leaders expect 50,000 to 60,000 voters — out of 400,000 active registered Republicans in Nevada — to participate. At stake are 28 delegates to this summer’s Republican nominating convention that will be awarded proportionally based on the outcome of Saturday’s contest.

All four candidates crisscrossed the state this week, trying to woo voters in a state that has been slow to recover from the economic blows of the Great Recession.

Nevada’s unemployment rate has been highest in the nation since May 2010, soaring to just shy of 15 percent later that year. By December 2011, the rate receded to 12.6 percent, but more than 166,000 people remained out of work.

The collapse of the housing market left a majority of homeowners underwater on mortgages, and one in every 177 homes was in foreclosure in December, also the highest rate in the nation.

___

Associated Press writers Michelle Rindels, Ken Ritter and Oskar Garcia in Las Vegas and Scott Sonner and Martin Griffith in Reno contributed to this report.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press

According to new party registration statistics released this week by California Secretary of State Deborah Bowen http://www.sos.ca.gov/admin/press-releases/2012/db12-025.pdf, the number of Californians registering as Republicans fell from 33.45 percent of all voters in January 2008 to just 30.36 percent in January 2012. Meanwhile, the number of Democrats jumped from 42.71% to 43.63%.

Why the decline? California Republicans continue to pursue policies far to the right of California values. Legislative Republicans have no policy agenda other to say “no” to whatever the Governor or Democrats propose — even when it’s smart public policy.

Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown tried his level best to engage Republicans in the budget and policy process. He met with them repeatedly, had them at the table for budget discussions, tried to negotiate compromises on issues like pensions and streamlining the state’s environmental quality act. But Republicans stuck to their extremist positions rather than participate in the governing process in a productive way.

No wonder the California GOP continues to circle the drain.

SACRAMENTO (AP) — Parents and educators said they were relieved Thursday after state lawmakers changed their minds and voted against targeting school bus service in a midyear budget cut to education.

The move alters a $248 million school transportation spending cut lawmakers included in the state budget they passed last summer. The cut was to take effect automatically at the start of the year because tax revenue was running well behind projections, but many school districts objected.

Both houses of the Legislature approved the bill, sending it to Gov. Jerry Brown, who was expected to sign it.

“I’m so excited,” Cinnamon Paula said after the vote. Paula, a parent of four, helped organize opposition to the cuts in the Southern Humboldt Unified School District, which covers 700 square miles in far Northern California.

“I think we would have lost a third of our school district,” said Paula, who lives in Redway, about 200 miles north of San Francisco. “They would have had to be home-schooled or left the area because they couldn’t have gotten to school.”

She created a Facebook page focused on the transportation cuts, helped organize a protest trip last month to Sacramento attended by more than 200 parents, children and other North Coast residents, and arranged for opponents to email and telephone the governor’s office every day.

Eliminating or significantly reducing bus service would have had the greatest effect on rural districts, where students often travel long distances to get to and from school. Lawmakers listened and said school districts can absorb the spending cut anywhere in their overall budgets.

The measure would take effect immediately if Brown signs it into law, but it would protect transportation funding only through the rest of the current school year. Brown is proposing to eliminate the funding in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The governor wants to switch to a formula that would replace nearly all school categorical programs, including home-to-school transportation.

Paula remains concerned about Brown’s proposal, and her feelings are shared even in a much different school system.

“This transportation cut really got the attention of the community,” said Edgar Zazueta, director of government relations for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has the highest enrollment in the state.

The district had voted to sue the state when the cut took effect last month. Overcrowding in some schools forces the district to bus certain students on lengthy trips through rush-hour traffic.

The superintendent and school board decided to continue providing transportation even if that meant taking money from classrooms and other programs, Zazueta said.

Despite Thursday’s vote, the district’s lawsuit is likely to continue because SB81 only helps school districts this fiscal year.

“We are on the hook to provide these services whether we get the state funding or not,” Zazueta said.

Allan Clark, president of the California School Employees Association, said in a statement that the Legislature’s action was a relief to thousands of students and parents.

SB81 cleared the Assembly 54-4 and the Senate 26-8. In the Assembly, some lawmakers representing suburban areas objected or abstained because their districts would lose more money under the funding shift.

“We’re going to gore one district to fix another,” said Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, R-Lake Elsinore, who did not vote.

Supporters of the legislation said some districts will indeed lose some money under the change but can survive. They argued the transportation cuts would have been devastating to other districts and the children who rely on the service.

“It all boils down to this: Children cannot learn if they cannot get to school,” said Assembly Budget Committee Chairman Bob Blumenfield, D-Sherman Oaks, who carried the bill.

The fix for this budget year “is a Band-Aid on the problem,” Blumenfield said.

Some Republicans criticized majority Democrats for approving the school transportation trigger cut as part of the budget last summer, without GOP support. Blumenfield countered that the cuts might not have been needed had Republican lawmakers supported the governor’s proposal to extend temporary tax increases that have since expired.

“What phantom money are you smoking?” he asked Republican critics.

Before lawmakers agreed to revise the spending cut, some school districts were scrambling to find ways to keep the buses running. Some planned to tap reserves so students would not be stranded.

In the tiny Hughes-Elizabeth Lakes Union School District, in the San Gabriel Mountains of Los Angeles County, the school board was considering charging parents a fee for busing. In Southern Humboldt Unified, which covers 700 square miles in far Northern California, school officials were looking at consolidating bus routes and making elementary schools drop-off points for secondary students, Superintendent Jim Stewart said.

Some school districts, such as Palo Verde Unified in Riverside County, were starting to consider online learning and expanding independent study programs for students who would be unable to make it to a physical school.

The district buses about 20 percent of its 3,500 students, some of them from 45 miles away near the Arizona border. Eliminating busing also would severely affect athletic programs because teams travel great distances to games and meets, said Palo Verde Superintendent Bob Bilek, who was interviewed before Thursday’s legislative vote.

“We cannot simply stop busing,” he said.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)

Working against the tax hikes is the perception that government does not spend taxpayer dollars efficiently. Pension costs continue to rise while funding for virtually every other program is cut. Stories about six-figure (and in Salinas this week, million-dollar) pension and benefit payouts for retired public employees continue to get headlines. Legislators award raises to their staff then spend taxpayer dollars to sue the state over getting their pay docked for last year’s late budget.

Against that backdrop CBS13′s investigative report tonight on the state missing millions of dollars in assets is significant. In November voters will be asked to send more of their money to Sacramento. As long as they are seeing stories like this and question how their government is spending the money they already gave them, it’s going to be a tough sell.

Siding with the ban’s supporters, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled the public doesn’t have the right to see the footage.

The 2010 trial lasted 13 days and was the first in a federal court to examine if prohibiting gay couples from marrying violates their constitutional rights.

It was open to the public and received widespread media coverage, so the recordings would not have revealed any new evidence or testimony.

In deciding to keep the videos under seal, a three-judge 9th Circuit panel cited a promise by the trial judge that the footage would not be seen outside his courtroom.

Former U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker had staff members make the recordings with the caveat that the footage would be used only by him to help him reach a verdict.

Walker, who has since retired and revealed he is in a long-term relationship with another man, originally wanted to broadcast the trial in other federal courthouses and on YouTube.

The U.S. Supreme Court forbade him from moving forward with that plan after the ban’s sponsors argued that distributing trial footage could subject their witnesses to harassment. At the time, the 9th Circuit did not allow the federal courts within its jurisdiction to televise trials. The appeals court since has adopted rules that would permit trials to be broadcast under limited conditions.

A coalition of media organizations, including The Associated Press, and lawyers for the two couples who successfully sued to overturn Proposition 8 in Walker’s court have petitioned to have the Proposition 8 trial recordings made public on First Amendment grounds, maintaining the ban’s backers have not proven their witnesses would be harmed if people got to see what they said under oath.

Walker’s successor as the chief U.S. district judge in Northern California, James Ware, agreed in September and planned to unseal the videos. In its Thursday ruling, the three-judge 9th Circuit panel unanimously agreed that Ware had erred and ordered the recordings kept under seal.

“The integrity of our judicial system depends in no small part on the ability of litigants and members of the public to rely on a judge’s word. The record compels the finding that the trial judge’s representations to the parties were solemn commitments,” the appeals court said.

Gay rights advocates have indicated they want to use the recordings to try to puncture political arguments used by opponents of same-sex marriage.

The 9th Circuit has said it wanted to resolve the public release of the trial videos before it addresses the more substantive issue of whether Walker correctly struck down Proposition 8 on federal constitutional grounds. The appeals court panel heard arguments about that a year ago, but does not face a deadline for making a decision.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)

Republican minority leaders Bob Huff and Connie Conway issued a statement Wednesday saying the state should use the expected tax revenue “to protect our public school students from the governor’s trigger cuts and pay down the state’s debt service.”

Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, a Democrat from Sacramento, cautioned that it’s unclear when tax revenue from those reaping the benefits of Facebook shares will reach state coffers.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office has said the state stands to reap hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Silicon Valley social networking giant says it wants to raise $5 billion.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.)

California is having a cash crisis, as evidenced by this letter issued today by State Controller John Chiang.

The state could run out of money by March, yet California is truly the Golden State for nearly 2 million government workers. A new survey by the U.S. Census Bureau shows they are the highest paid workers of any state.

California has about 1.8 million state and local government workers – far more than any other state. Of course California is also the most populous – but the paychecks here are the biggest of any state, as you can see below from the average monthly paychecks for state and local government workers.

DC $ 5,843
CA $ 5,470
NJ $ 5,345
NY $ 5,197
CT $ 5,038

California government workers make on average about $65,640 a year, second only to Washington, D.C. at $70,116. New Jersey is third at $64,140, while New York is fourth at $62,364. Connecticut public employees are fifth at $60,456 in yearly salaries.

By contrast the national average for government workers is about $50,000. Of course the cost of living is higher in California – but critics say government salaries here are too generous, especially in view of today announcement from the state controller.

“We think it’s ironic that the U.S. Census Bureau would release these figures on the same day that John Chiang announces that we’re going to be running out of cash in March,” said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. Coupal added, “We see a lot of connection between those two facts.”

But government workers we talked to say they’re worth every penny.

“Well I’m worth that,” said Margaret Hamlin-Mills. The state worker added, “I don’t make that, but of course (I’m worth it)”.

“My first three years for the state I didn’t make anything and I have a degree,” stated Johnell Wilson. She added,” But I promoted from within and so, but I’m definitely not making that.”

There’s one category where California is not a leader – the ratio of government workers per 10,000 residents ranks near the bottom of the list.

Send your story ideas to On The Money via e-mail at onthemoney@kovr.com. You can also follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/CBS13OnTheMoney and via Twitter at https://twitter.com/#!/mikeluery

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – California is running out of money, and if nothing is done, the state will be out of cash by March 8, according to State Controller John Chiang.

The state controller says a cash crunch is coming with California $730 million in the hole by the first week of March.

The cash problem comes because state revenues are $2.6 billion below projections and spending is up by $2.6 billion.

Chiang is asking the legislature to take quick action and come up with $3.3 billion to avoid the crisis.

In a letter to sent to state lawmakers, Chiang urged them to pass Senate Bill 95, which would allow the state to borrow money from existing state accounts.

Chiang, along with the Department of Finance and Treasurer’s Office, has come up with a cash management plan that includes payment delays, external borrowing and money from SB95.

He believes the state can avoid issuing IOUs or delaying tax returns as it has done in past cash crises.

But that doesn’t put vendors at ease.

Gloria Freeman owns Staff USA, which contracts with the state. She says payments to her company have been behind.

“When the state doesn’t pay its bills, it means we can’t pay our bills,” she said. “It’s a trickle down effect on the economy.”

Brown’s ballot measure committee reported Tuesday that it raised $1.2 million in 2011. The campaign has taken in another $500,000 since then.

The largest donor is the California Hospitals Committee, which gave $500,000. A building trades union, the American Beverage Association and Occidental Petroleum each gave $250,000.

The Democratic governor wants to ask voters to raise the statewide sales tax by half a cent and boost the income tax rate on those making $250,000 or more a year. The extra revenue would go to schools and counties.

Brown also ended the year with $5 million in his 2010 campaign fund and $325,000 in his 2014 re-election account.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – In the speech in front of about 1,000 people at the Sacramento Convention Center, Johnson talked about the economy, the push to build a new sports and entertainment arena and promoting green jobs.

“We can’t wait for the economy to recover on its own. We have to take bold actions to ensure we determine our own destiny. We have to make the impossible possible,” said Mayor Johnson.

Johnson pushed for the new arena saying it would bring more than 4,000 jobs for the region.

• Watch: State of the City – Part 1
• Watch: State of the City – Part 2

He unveiled the “Brick-by-Brick” program to help raise $10 million toward a new arena. The program would literally sell bricks to supporters. The bricks would be engraved with their name and used in the entryway of the new area. He also presented two honorary bricks to two local boys, Jack O’Brien and Gil Vechter, who have raised hundreds of dollars for a new arena by selling lemonade.

Mayor Johnson gives honorary bricks to Jack O’Brien and Gil Vechter, two local boys who have raised hundreds for the arena by selling lemonade in their neighborhood.

The mayor also pushed to improve Sacramento schools something he says will also help the city’s economy.

“A quality education is necessary in the long run to ensure a robust and healthy economy in Sacramento,” said the Mayor. “Don’t tell me our schools aren’t important to our economy. We won’t be able to compete in the global economy until we fix our schools.”

• Read: Transcript of Mayor Kevin Johnson’s State of the City Address

The mayor also talked about flood protection, homelessness, and the arts.

For more information on the “Brick by Brick” program, you can visit www.thinkbigsacramento.com.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The California Supreme Court is upholding new state Senate maps drawn by an independent redistricting commission, dealing a blow to GOP efforts seeking to block Democrats from gaining enough seats to pass taxes on their own.

The high court on Friday announced that the Senate maps drawn last year by the citizens commission should be used in the June primary and November general election, even though an initiative challenging the map is expected to qualify for the ballot.

Republicans are seeking an initiative to overturn the new boundaries and wanted the new maps tossed out until voters decide the issue. The court first had to find whether it even had the authority to act because the GOP initiative has yet to qualify.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Sen. Lou Correa says the Veterans Affairs Committee, which he chairs, found several questionable practices within the California Military Department.

His office says department employees who worked in Sacramento were claiming to live as far away as San Diego, Nevada and Texas. They then claimed their housing and travel reimbursements as income that should be counted in calculating their pensions.

Correa, a Democrat from Anaheim, said one person increased his annual pension by $10,000. His bill, SB807, would ban the practice.

It passed the Senate unanimously on Thursday and now goes to the Assembly.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)

Lawmakers on Thursday approved AB154, which would require insurers to cover the diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses, and AB171 for developmental disorders such as autism. They also approved legislation to cover oral chemotherapy treatments and mammograms regardless of age.

The bills now move to the Senate.

Democratic Assemblyman Jim Beall of San Jose, who authored the mental health and autism bills, said expanding coverage is a cost-effective way to help those already paying for insurance receive the “full scope health insurance they need.”

He says getting people treated earlier also will save taxpayer money.

Republican lawmakers say the legislation will drive up insurance costs.

(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press)