California
From the San Francisco Chronicle today:
A week after Lance Armstrong announced his retirement from competitive cycling, the seven-time Tour de France winner is coming to California today on a political tour - to push for a ballot initiative that would add $1 a pack to cigarettes to raise money for cancer research. “Cancer doesn’t care if you’re Republican or Democrat, rich or poor, young or old,” Armstrong said in an interview.
Yesterday, Citizens in Charge, joined by the Humane Society of the United States and the National Taxpayers Union, filed a friend of the court brief in the case, Michael Ni v. Warren Slocum, Chief Elections Officer of San Mateo County, asking the California Court of Appeal to reverse a lower court’s decision and hold that Michael Ni’s electronic signature on a 2010 petition was legally proper and, likewise, that electronic signatures gathered in accordance with the requirements of California law should be accepted as valid for initiative and referendum petitions. 
On February 19, Judge David R. Thompson died at the age of 80. He was a semi-retired judge on the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He was based in San Diego. He had been appointed to the 9th circuit in 1985. In 2000 he wrote the decision that invalidated a Washington state law that required the names and addresses of paid circulators to be made public, by their employers, on a monthly basis. That case was called WIN v Rippie. His decision said,
Perhaps still on edge from a contentious local election in November, Rancho Palos Verdes voters have found themselves in the middle of another ballot-box battle - this time, over the seemingly tame topic of a city charter. n March 8, voters will weigh Measure C, which would transform the 37-year-old municipality from a general law city to a charter city, thereby giving it more control over local affairs and potentially more say over its finances.
A proposed circumcision ban is likely headed for San Francisco’s ballot in November. “We are on track to submit the required number of signatures,” Lloyd Schofield, the retired hotel credit manager behind the initiative, told The Bay Citizen. Supporters have until April 26 to gather 7,200 valid signatures. Schofield said he aims to surpass that figure before the deadline.
A Riverside County Superior Court commissioner on Thursday approved Riverside County’s request for a temporary halt to a proposed ballot initiative. The initiative, being circulated by 2010 county supervisor candidate Herb Higgins, seeks to cut supervisors’ salaries in half and end their health insurance benefits.
Walmart will again try to expand its Milpitas store by nearly 18,460 square feet to allow liquor sales, groceries and 24-hour operation, according to documents filed today. Walmart filed its intent to hold a 180-day signature-gathering campaign today to bring about a ballot initiative for special election this fall, countering Milpitas City Council’s rejection of the same project last year. “Our goal with the proposed remodel and expansion is to offer a better shopping experience, create additional jobs, and generate tax revenues for the city,” Angie Stoner, Walmart’s senior manager of public affairs, said today.
Jerry Brown the candidate made it clear there was a caveat — voter approval — that would accompany any tax plans he considered toward cleaning up California’s fiscal mess. Jerry Brown the governor sounded a lot like Jerry Brown the candidate on Monday. Brown’s succinct State of the State address zeroed in on the one thing most important to him: Placing a ballot measure before voters to extend income, sales and car tax increases for five years.
Menlo Park might seem like a sleepy bedroom community tucked between San Jose and San Francisco, but behind the facade of tree-lined streets, pension payouts are threatening to cripple the municipal government. This is why Roy Thiele-Sardina, a local entrepreneur and venture capitalist, pushed for the inclusion of the Menlo Park Pension Reform Initiative on November’s ballot and its eventual passage.
In better times, Los Angeles city elections have served as vehicles for leaders’ ambitious ideas ”” from expanding the city’s solar energy capacity to building more than two dozen new libraries. This spring’s contest testifies to an era in which city leaders cannot afford new promises and are having trouble keeping ones already made. The times are most clearly reflected in a series of measures on the March 8 ballot aimed at putting the city’s finances on firmer ground.
California lawmakers must stop putting their own one-sided titles on ballot measures they sponsor and instead must allow the state attorney general to write impartial descriptions, an appeals court said Thursday in a case that could affect future votes on taxes and water.
A group dedicated to derailing plans for a BART extension through downtown Livermore took a step forward this week. Opponents of the proposed route filed a notice Thursday with the city clerk’s office of their intent to circulate a petition requesting an initiative be placed on the ballot.
Everywhere red-light cameras have been on the ballot they have gone down in flames. Citizens do not seem to like them one bit. However, that did not stop a California city council from deciding to add them at a couple of intersections:
Red-light cameras will be added to traffic signals at two Murrieta freeway off-ramps in the coming months, the City Council decided late Tuesday. Murrieta also will keep cameras at three other intersections. For about two hours, the council and a handful of residents debated whether to continue Murrieta’s five-year experiment with the cameras.