Governors

SACRAMENTO - California voters have yet to strongly embrace Gov. Jerry Brown's controversial plan to shift money from rich schools to poor ones, an ominous sign as he works to win support for the idea from skeptical lawmakers and the state's powerful teachers unions. A new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll found that 50% of respondents agreed with such a move, to help school districts that serve low-income children and English-language learners. But a significant minority, 39%, opposed the plan, which is embedded in the governor's budget blueprint and is the centerpiece of his education agenda.

New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez says she now backs a program to expand the state's film tax credit. Martinez recently vetoed a bill that would increase the state's film credit to 30% for TV series shooting at least six episodes in New Mexico, saying she questioned the logic of an "unlimited subsidy to a single industry. " But Martinez changed her tune over the weekend. At a news conference on Saturday in Santa Fe, she said she would, in fact, support the improved incentive as part of a large package of tax reforms approved by state lawmakers, including a proposed reduction in corporate tax rates.

SACRAMENTO -- Six governors, including those in Pennsylvania and Michigan, were paid more last year in annual salary than California Gov. Jerry Brown, but his state's Legislature receives the highest base pay in the nation, according to a survey released Monday by a state panel. The survey results will be used by the California Citizens Compensation Commission when it meets Thursday to begin deliberating on whether to grant pay raises to Gov. Brown, lawmakers and other California officials.

Booth Gardner, a two-term Democratic governor who later in life spearheaded a campaign that made Washington the second state in the nation to legalize assisted suicide for the terminally ill, has died after a long battle with Parkinson's disease. He was 76. Gardner died Friday at his Tacoma home, said family spokesman Ron Dotzauer. The millionaire heir to the Weyerhaeuser timber fortune served as the state's 19th governor from 1985 to 1993 following terms as Pierce County executive, state senator and business school dean.

Areli Morris was frustrated that her poor English prevented her from helping her daughter in preschool. And she was embarrassed when the 4-year-old began correcting her pronunciation. Morris, who is from El Salvador, has vastly improved her language skills since she began attending Azusa Adult School. For nearly 60 years the campus has served as a community resource for those, like Morris, who needed English classes, dropouts seeking high school diplomas, immigrants taking citizenship classes and those pursuing career and technical training.

The NHL Board of Governors approved realignment and a change to the Stanley Cup playoff format, as expected, with the changes to take effect for the 2013-14 season. The Eastern Conference will have two eight-team divisions, and the West will have two seven-team divisions. For the moment, those divisions have the poetic names of A, B, C and D, but those will be changed later, the league announced on Thursday. The NHL Players' Assn., which rejected a previous realignment proposal, has consented to playing under the new alignment and playoff system at least through the 2015-16 season, when the alignment and format will be reviewed.

WASHINGTON -- The possibility of a three-way gubernatorial free-for-all in Virginia evaporated Tuesday, as Republican Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling announced that he would not run as an independent, citing money as the main impediment. Bolling's decision, disclosed in an email to supporters, is good news for state Atty. Gen.  Ken Cuccinelli, the likely Republican nominee. Cuccinelli, a conservative firebrand, figured to be hurt more than  Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, a longtime figure on the Washington political scene who was a major fundraiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton.

David Morrissey has cast a wide shadow over "The Walking Dead" in its third season as the much anticipated villainous leader known as the Governor. While the character is a sinister presence with a black eye patch and a closet full of zombie heads, Morrissey in real life is upbeat and chatty as he talks from rainy London, which is his home. In Sunday's episode, "Arrow in the Door," Morrissey's Governor finally had a sit-down with his arch nemesis, Rick, played by Andrew Lincoln.

SACRAMENTO - As Democratic lawmakers speed to implement President Obama's healthcare overhaul in California, they are finding themselves at odds with the leader of their own party: Gov. Jerry Brown. The governor and legislators disagree over how the state should expand Medicaid to more than 1 million low-income Californians, a critical component of the federal Affordable Care Act. Under proposals passed by both houses of the Legislature last week on mostly party-line votes, individuals earning up to 138% of the federal poverty level - or $15,415 a year - would be newly eligible for Medi-Cal, the state's version of Medicaid.