California Faultline

Following up on promises to withdraw from speaking at UCLA graduation ceremonies if the UC system didn’t settle a labor dispute, Clinton finally sent word today that he was cancelling plans to attend the event scheduled for this Friday. Yesterday, former California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez also cancelled a commencement speech scheduled for today at UC Davis, citing the same reasons. [via SacBee]

While tumultuous contract negotiations have stretched on for months, UC so far has managed to avoid a strike by its 20,000 employeess with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, who complain of low wages and poor benefits.

AFSCME-represented workers include radiology, respiratory and operating room technicians; cooks, food servers and caterers; and custodians, groundskeepers and other maintenance workers in the UC health care system, which includes Santa Monica-UCLA and four other hospitals plus student health centers. [MyFoxLA]

In late May, the UC system filed a restraining order to prevent a planned two day strike. Before a judge could decide on the matter, the AFSCME cancelled the strike plans and returned to contract negotiations. However, UCLA, 20 students began a 3 day fast in support of the union workers on the same day the strike would have started.

[additional source: MercuryNews.com]

Days after the LA Times reported that Maria Shriver was among the celebrity health files that starstruck UCLA staffers peeked at, the Governor has announced he’s looking into the privacy breaches.

Hospitals need to develop procedures to protect patient information “if they’re celebrities, if they’re business executives, or just ordinary citizens,” Schwarzenegger said. “Everyone’s file ought to be protected, and everyone’s medical history ought to be protected. That is the responsibility of the hospital, and so we’re going to go work with them to find a way so that we can help them protect everyone’s files.” [from Capitol Alert]

While the concern is understandable, I’m trying to find any indication of where Schwarzenegger has stood on privacy issues before now, such as his view of the Patriot Act. If anyone knows of a source, please let me know… On the Issues seemed like a good start, but offered no insight.

LOS ANGELES

Two L.A. City Councilmembers are publicly butting heads over how to handle gang intervention funding - Tony Cardenas is vehemently against Laura Chick’s plan to pass control from Council to the Mayor’s office. [LA Times]

The City of Paramount relaunches its brand new $20,ooo website with a high tech feature unavailable since it first launched in 2001: email links to city council members. The site also has a searchable database of city laws, event listings, and news items. [Long Beach Press Telegram]

Most of the students at Pasadena’s Wilson IB Middle School are pro-Obama and are ‘”antagonistic’ toward the Bush administration.” [Pasadena Star News]

Gov. Bill Richardson keynotes and Gen. Wesley Clark headlines Tuesday’s conference “on how the U.S. should act toward ‘rogue states’” at UCLA’s Ron Burkle Center for International Relations. Other speakers include Former Foreign Minister to Thailand Kantathi Suphamongkhon, Kal Raustiala, director of the Burkle Center; Henry T. Wooster, and deputy director of the Office of Iranian Affairs at the U.S. State Department. [event info]

SAN DIEGO

The ACLU has filed a complaint against San Diego Mayor Jerry Sander, saying a Feb. 25th report on last October’s wildfire failed to address the need of minorities who didn’t understand warnings that were only sent out in the English language. [SignOn San Diego]

The controversial private military outfit Blackwater Worldwide has dropped plans to build a training base in east San Diego County after discovering gunfire tests exceeded county noise limits. [SignOn San Diego]

SAN FRANCISCO

The San Francisco Chamber of Commerce is hoping Mayor Newsom will veto a plan to “place human-shaped bronze markers” at the site of every homeless death in the city. [LA Times]

Speaking of Mayor Newson, he’s considering a run for governor in 2010, joining an anticipated race between “Attorney General and former Gov. Jerry Brown, former state Controller Steve Westly and Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.” [San Francisco Chronicle]