The Goldman Sachs connection

Gubernatorial candidates Jerry Brown and Meg Whitman trade charges over their connections to Goldman Sachs, which is being sued for fraud by the SEC. Whitman had direct financial ties, Brown had a somewhat tangential relationship via his time as mayor of Oakland. The Los Angeles Times looks at Whitman; California Watch looks at Brown.

Texas oil looks to influence California law

California environmental laws are some of the toughest in the nation, and are often copied by other states, much to the consternation of energy and automobile companies.

Former LA Times reporter Robert Salladay reports that two Texas oil firms appear to be funneling money into California for an initiative that would undo the state's landmark greenhouse gas legislation, known as AB 32.

From California Watch:

Two Texas oil companies have been evasive about whether they are backing a California ballot initiative that would suspend the state's landmark global warming law, signed with fanfare by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006.

But it wouldn't be surprising if Tesoro Corp. and Valero Energy Corp. were behind the initiative to delay AB 32.

The Texas companies – which operate refineries in Benicia and Wilmington, Martinez and Los Angeles, and hundreds of gas stations throughout California – have been well-known players in the fight to weaken global warming legislation at the federal level, and they are major donors to state politicians working for the same goals.

Read the rest of the story here.

What rough beast is this?

Joe Mathews, formerly of the LA Times and now with the New America Foundation, takes a stab at interpreting the logic behind Sarah Palin's resignation as governor of Alaska and finds it shows a hyper awareness that America has entered the age of hyper politics. Mathews goes so far as to call the move brilliant, at least when compared with the sad displays Mark Sanford and Bobby Jindal made in their respective 2012 presidential campaigns. By contrast, Palin will be able to fortify herself financially and politically, unburdened from the distraction of governing, as the campaign drags into 2010.

A speech in Cairo

President Barack Obama spoke in Cairo today. Story and text.

Congress to the rescue!

The plight of the ailing, failing newspaper industry has caught the attention of Washington pols. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Attorney General Eric Holder have made noise about relaxing anti-trust provisions to help Hearst unload the San Francisco Chronicle. Now a Maryland Senator has proposed legislation that would allow endangered papers to morph into nonprofits.

From Bennett Roth at CQ Politics (which is itself up for sale):

"We’re losing our local papers and it’s tragic. We need to look at a different model to save local newspapers,” said Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin , D-Md.

Cardin introduced a bill Tuesday that would permit newspapers to operate as nonprofits, or 501(c)3 corporations, much as public broadcasting now does.

Under this arrangement, advertising and subscription revenue would be tax-exempt, and contributions to support coverage or operations could be tax-deductible.

Such a structure would require at least one significant change for most newspapers: They would not be allowed to make political endorsements, a staple of many editorial pages.

*The nonprofit-newspaper legislation could boost efforts by a Bay Area investor to takeover the Chronicle. SF Appeal