California Legislature

Leroy F. Greene, 84, who served 36 years in the California Legislature before his retirement in 1998, died Sunday of peritonitis at Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento. Greene, who was born in Newark, N.J., earned an engineering degree at Purdue University and went to work for the state of Indiana building bridges. After a stint with the Tennessee Valley Authority, he went overseas in the Army Corps of Engineers.

William A. Burke, a self-described entrepreneur, has been involved in a variety of businesses ranging from wine companies to mortuaries. And he's also no stranger to politics. In the late 1960s, he served as a field deputy for then-L.A. City Councilman Billy Mills. And on June 14, 1972, politics became part of the family when he married Yvonne Brathwaite, who was soon to be a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. It was the second marriage for each.

Democrats, led by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, on Tuesday were fighting off the Republicans' spirited effort to seize control of the Legislature's lower house for the first time since 1970. Pre-election predictions from both parties suggested that Democrats would retain at least a narrow margin in the Assembly, and early returns Tuesday in the most competitive districts appeared to confirm that Brown's forces would see their cushion trimmed although Democrats would remain in control.

The Legislature is on the verge of two major achievements -- on prisons and water -- if lawmakers can be calm and rational during the final week of this year's regular session. That means cooling the heated rhetoric -- particularly the staff-produced nastiness -- and sustaining an amiable climate for compromise. It also means settling for the merely significant rather than insisting on the spectacular. It's about what is politically feasible, not what's pure fantasy. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will need to be a partner, if not a leader.

Nearly everyone thinks it's a great idea to require the posting of state election campaign contributions and spending on the Internet. But legislation to require that keeps hitting stubborn resistance in the California Legislature. SB 49, authored by state Sen. Betty Karnette (D-Long Beach), has passed the Senate and is cruising through Assembly committees. But insiders think the bill faces a tough fight on the Assembly floor later this month.

Robert G. Beverly, a Republican who served in the state Legislature for nearly 30 years and may be best known for consumer-protection legislation that led to California's lemon laws, has died. He was 84. Beverly, who also was a lawyer, died Wednesday of complications related to Parkinson's disease at his home in Manhattan Beach, said his son William. Beginning in 1967, Beverly represented the South Bay in the Assembly. Nine years later, he jumped to the Senate to represent the 27th District, which eventually stretched from Rolling Hills to Downey.

A bill before the California Legislature would restrict the number of payday loans to any one borrower - an attempt to break the "debt cycle" that ensnares some of the state's poorest residents. Senate Bill 515 would bar the high-cost, short-term lenders from making more than six loans a year to any borrower. The bill, set to go before the Senate Banking and Financial Services Committee on Wednesday, also extends the minimum term of a payday loan to 30 days from 15. "We need to recognize that these low-income families are desperate to get by, and they are particularly vulnerable to this type of debt trap," said state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara)

Until California eases prison overcrowding, it can't slow the revolving prison doors that return roughly 70% of freed inmates within a year, national experts reported to the Legislature on Friday.

Not content to drive most members of the Assembly and state Senate out of their jobs by 1996, backers of Proposition 140 want lawmakers to feel the bite of a dissatisfied electorate even more quickly. One of two term-limit initiatives on the Nov. 6 ballot, Proposition 140 would immediately remove lawmakers from a retirement system that proponents describe as "overly generous" and "extravagant."

A bill before the California Legislature to address soaring student loan debt would require high school students to take a personal finance class.  ALSO: Photo gallery: Ted Rall cartoons Stumbling into another Korean war Schwarzenegger: California's silent disaster Follow Ted Rall on Twitter @TedRall