Dispatches from day two of this weekend's California GOP confab from my KQED colleague, Scott Shafer.

Meg-a Problem? Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman gave a somewhat lackluster speech to the state Republican convention Saturday afternoon. She touched on all her usual themes -- cutting taxes and regulation, staying tough on crime, etc. But one thing she didn't mention was her personal voting record.
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[With me close to home these days expecting some family news, my KQED colleague Scott Shafer is covering this weekend's biannual California Republican Party convention. He's also filing a few short journal entries for CapNotes. Listen for his GOP confab coverage this afternoon on the newsmagazine edition of The California Report, starting at 4:30 p.m. on many public radio stations statewide. --JM]
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Sorry, folks. We seem to be having some scheduling troubles... looks as though the weekly podcast is again MIA. Given the lack of activity in Sacramento, the timing isn't as bad as it could be. Stay tuned...

A long awaited study of the costs to small businesses from state regulations is finally out, and on first blush seems to reinforce the argument that state lawmakers should scale back their meddling ways.

But the study appears thin on an actual roadmap forward for policymakers, and may not help untangle the complicated issue of which regulations are superfluous, and which ones... even if costly... serve a worthy purpose.
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The autumnal equinox is often marked in Sacramento by the state's chief executive signing or vetoing hundreds of bills submitted by the Legislature.

This season is no diffferent. Or... is it?
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Just a small moment of shameless self promotion. I'm honored to report that Capital Notes has just won the first-ever award for reporter blogs from the Northern California chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. A big thanks to all of you for actually reading CapNotes, which began as an experiment five years ago next month.

Now, back to the news.

You're probably thinking that headline is just part of the normal snarky nature of our weekly Capital Notes Podcast, that there must be some double entendre or hidden joke in its meaning. Right?

Well, no.

In one of those great moments in podcast history, it turns out this podcast is only about 2/3 of what we thought it was. The culprit: a maxxed out digital flash card, onto which our audio records. You can imagine the surprise when the audio quits just as Capitol Weekly's Anthony York is making one of his insightful comments. Alas, lost to the ages.

This week's conversation focused on the end of the 2009 regular legislative session, from last minute wheeling and dealing to what happened on the big three policy issues: water, renewable energy, and prisons. Trouble is, the audio recording never made it to prisons, and actually stops abruptly in our chat on energy.

For those who smell some kind of coverup, rest assured: it wasn't an 18 1/2-minute gap forever linked to a dutiful secretary that did us in. Nope, just a snafu of modern digital audio... and one apologetic radio journalist.

As is proper to say on these occasions: "We regret the error."

Few new tax proposals have dominated the recent political debate in Sacramento like calls for a new levy on each barrel of oil produced in California. Both sides say it's a no-brainer; not surprisingly, it's a little more complicated than that.
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On Friday, a trio of federal judges will be waiting with hands outstretched for a plan from the state of California to resolve the overcrowded conditions behind its prison walls. And it's now looking like a distinct possibility that the plan will not be limited to the pared-down proposal ratified by the Legislature as last week's session came to an end.
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It's hard not to see the results of tonight's new statewide poll as even more fuel to the fire of reworking the way California government -- and frankly, California politics -- will operate in the future.
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