CalWatchdog Morning Read – September 2

• De Leon panel-packing scheme died handily
• Loretta Sanchez tries to attract the Right
• ACLU: Charter schools breaking the law
• How a PUC accountability measure fell apart from last-second dealings
• Democrats in Sacramento’s broad liberal agenda

Good morning. TGIF and TG for the three-day weekend.

Everyone is looking back at the recently wrapped legislative session. And while Democrats will walk away from it with a long list of environmental accomplishments, one got away.

A bill sponsored by Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon, D-Los Angeles, would have added three members to the South Coast Air Quality Management Board, which regulates air quality in Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties.

And while that probably seems as dull as watching paint dry to nearly everyone who just read it, the measure had major implications for Republicans, local governments, business interests, environmentalists and residents of the broad district that has some of the most toxic air in the nation.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• On the heels of a Los Angeles Times story saying she was making a play for voters on the right, Democratic Senate candidate Loretta Sanchez pushed Gov. Jerry Brown to sign a bill increasing minimum penalties in sexual assault cases, according to CalWatchdog.
• “More than 250 of California’s 1,228 charter schools, including dozens in Southern California, violate state law by keeping out low-performing students and creating unfair admission policies, according to the American Civil Liberties Union,” reports The San Bernardino County Sun.
• “A major effort to overhaul the state’s energy regulator surprisingly collapsed after late legislative maneuverings led to the unraveling of the broad coalition that had pushed for changes at the scandal-ridden agency,” writes the Los Angeles Times.   
• Democrats in Sacramento pushed through the broadest liberal agenda in recent memory. The Sacramento Bee has more. 

Legislature:

• Gone ’til December. 

Gov. Brown:

• No public events announced. 

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