SACRAMENTO: SB 71, AB 76, report, "Legislature changing course on Public Records Act challenge"....

* Sacramento Bee:  "Legislature changing course on Public Records Act challenge" - From the Bee:

Battered by criticism from open government activists, the Assembly will vote Thursday to undo a budget bill that made some provisions of the state's Public Records Act optional for local governments.

In a statement Wednesday, Assembly Speaker John A. Pérez said the Assembly will move Senate Bill 71 without the records act changes requested by Gov. Jerry Brown. "To be clear, this means that the California Public Records Act will remain intact without any changes as part of the budget - consistent with the Assembly's original action," Pérez said.

John Vigna, spokesman for Perez's office, said the Assembly "tried to stop" AB 76, one of several bills in the budget packet for the coming fiscal year. "We didn't succeed and it was part of the (budget) package," Vigna said.

If the Senate and the Assembly send Brown SB 71, the governor will have to choose which bill to sign -- the one with the records act changes or SB 71..........

***ALSO:

* Los Angeles Times (PolitiCal):  "Eric Garcetti wants state lawmakers to change course on records law"

SACRAMENTO: SCA 3, SCA 7, SCA 9, SCA 11, measures lowering voter-approval threshold for various local taxes referred to Senate Rules Committee to be "held for a broader conversation"....

* Los Angeles Times:  "Proposals allowing for 55% vote for local taxes sidetracked" - From the LAT:

Proposals to lower the voter-approval threshold for various local tax increases from two-thirds to 55% got sidetracked Tuesday, with even some Democrats saying more consideration is needed. Rather than send the four constitutional amendments to the Senate floor, a senate panel referred the measures to the Senate Rules Committee to be “held for a broader conversation,” according to Sen. Norma Torres (D-Pomona).

The chairwoman of the Senate Elections and Constitutional Amendments Committee said the detour was justified because “Each is very important and they have huge policy questions” that deserve more consideration. Torres withheld her support from the four measures, but they passed out of her committee on a 3-0 vote.

The measures include Senate Constitutional Amendment (SCA) 7, which would allow a 55% vote for local tax measures to fund libraries; SCA 9, lowering the threshold for special taxes for economic development projects; SCA 11, applying to special districts; and SCA 3, extending the 55% rule to school parcel taxes..........

POLITICS: New book, novel by wife of a former California state senator: "Novel depicts California Capitol as full of sex and corruption"....

* Sacramento Bee:  "Novel depicts California Capitol as full of sex and corruption" - From the Bee:

California's Capitol is full of hard-drinking, skirt-chasing, and corrupt hypocrites - or so Dianne Harman, the wife of a former state senator, would have readers of her new novel, "Tea Party Teddy," believe.

Read more here: http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2013/06/novel-depicts-california-capitol-as-full-of-sex-and-corruption.html#storylink=cpy

The title character is "Teddy Randall," newly elected Republican assemblyman from Orange County who hates illegal immigrants and wants to drive them out of the state, but is financially strapped from his campaign, owes money to a Mafia loan shark who's pressuring him for repayment, and is willing to be bribed to vote for an immigrant-friendly bill. Randall falls for an FBI sting, but not before learning that his wife is carrying on an affair with a Latino lawyer who champions immigrant rights.

Harman's husband, Tom, was a long-serving legislator from Orange County, and she says in her acknowledgements that he "day after day asked how the book was coming along, edited numerous drafts and gave tirelessly of his expertise on how things are done in Sacramento." She doesn't say, however, whether that expertise extended to the novel's explicit sex scenes...............

POLITICS (National): New York mayor's race, New York Times: "Labor Seeks Influence in New York's Mayoral Race"

* New York Times:  "Labor Seeks Influence in New York's Mayoral Race" - From the NYT:

After more than a decade of sitting out the fiercest race in town, leaders of the United Federation of Teachers are plotting a comeback. They have so much polling data that they can pinpoint the views of Puerto Ricans and Chinese immigrants alike. They can tailor messages based on brands of toilet paper voters buy. Normally busy handling complaints from teachers, they are now scouring financial records and questioning candidates about $4,000 restaurant bills.

And on Wednesday, the union will throw its sophisticated political machine behind a candidate for mayor of New York City.

Unions across the city, after years of low morale and stalled contract negotiations, are roaring back to life this election season, excited by the prospect of installing a friend of labor in City Hall when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg leaves office at the end of the year.

Some groups, like the teachers’ union, are expected to spend several million dollars on the race. . . . . . . .

   ****

Labor leaders face several challenges as they seek to reassert themselves as political heavyweights in a city that has not elected a Democrat for mayor since 1989. . . . . . . .

   ****

Exactly how much the unions will spend in the mayoral race depends on several factors, including whether they face competition from other unions or from political action groups seeking to dampen the influence of organized labor................

SACRAMENTO: Pay raises for state employees? Restoration of pay cuts to state's top elected officials??

***More money in state coffers, higher pay to state employees and top elected officials?

* Sacramento Bee:  "Panel to consider restoring pay cuts for state's top elected officials"

* Los Angeles Times (PolitiCal):  "Raises for state workers could affect decision on governor's pay"