Initiatives California

Not in 18 years has a sport hunter legally shot and killed a California mountain lion--a secretive, nocturnal predator that inhabits terrain as disparate as the eastern desert, the Sierra Nevada's snowy slopes and the coastal oak woodlands of Los Angeles and Orange counties. In 1987, the state Department of Fish and Game tried to reintroduce limited hunting of the animals, whose population statewide was estimated to have grown to about 5,100.

SACRAMENTO - The bullet train won't be on the November ballot, but it will be on many Californians' minds as they decide the fate of Gov. Jerry Brown's tax proposal. That's what I keep hearing from e-mailers such as Fred: "Many voters will not support Jerry's tax plan so long as his budget includes monies for high speed rail. " And Bob: "Every time Jerry Brown mentions the bullet train, the two November tax increase measures lose votes. More and more voters just don't want to give the state any more money.

Authors of the successful initiative limiting the terms of state elected officials said Thursday that they are considering a measure for the 1992 ballot that would impose similar limits on the state's U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives.

Amid rising unemployment, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday unveiled a training initiative funded by Microsoft Corp. that gives California residents free access to Microsoft's online computer courses and certification exams. Microsoft said it would distribute 166,500 vouchers that could be redeemed online for courses that range from basic computer training -- such as Web navigation -- to more formal professional certifications in Microsoft Office applications, including Outlook, Excel and Access.

The idea took hold just as a new wave of immigration was taking off. Experts proposed, activists insisted, politicians consented: Children who spoke little or no English could be taught in Spanish, Chinese or whatever tongue they had learned at home, and at the same time become fluentin America's dominant language.

Before Polly Klaas, there was Kimber Reynolds. Different crime, same result: random murder, generating public rage of sufficient force to propel politicians. Kimber Reynolds, as with Polly Klaas, was the kind of daughter who would make any parent proud--and, similarly, one whom workaday, law-abiding people everywhere could relate to as one of their own. "She was the All-American girl," recalls her brother, Michael Brian Reynolds, 24, a UCLA Law School student.

Maybe there is a reason why the closest families shoulder some of the worst tragedy, say Collene and Gary Campbell of San Juan Capistrano. Last Wednesday, Collene Campbell's only sibling, racing promoter Mickey Thompson, and his wife, Trudy, were killed by gunmen outside their home in the San Gabriel Valley community of Bradbury. Six years ago, the Campbells' 27-year-old son, Scott, was strangled and his body thrown from a small airplane at 2,000 feet, a mile past Santa Catalina Island.

Breaking ranks with other insurance companies, two of the state's biggest sellers, State Farm and the Automobile Club of Southern California, said Thursday that they are withholding their support from the insurer-sponsored Proposition 106, a ballot initiative that would slash lawyers contingency fees.

Allstate and Farmers insurance companies said Monday they are raising their private passenger auto insurance rates in California by an average of 6.5% and 5.4%, respectively, in premium notices now going out to policyholders. Spokesmen for both companies blamed rising claims costs for the increases.

Yakima Dixie has spent much of his adult life in and out of jail. He lives month-to-month on a disability check in a 600-square-foot house heated by wood-burning stoves. The nearest store is seven miles away and he doesn't own a car. But Dixie could get an annual $1-million check for up to 20 years if voters in March approve a deal reached earlier this month between the governor and dozens of Indian tribes with gambling operations.

For more than two decades, Mercury General Corp. Chairman George Joseph has been sparring with consumer advocate Harvey Rosenfield over California's landmark automobile insurance law, Proposition 103. They've battled in the courts, the Legislature and the media over complex regulatory questions that affect billions of dollars in premiums paid by the state's 23.7 million licensed drivers. Now they're squaring off over a Mercury Insurance-sponsored initiative on the June ballot.

Foreclosures were down in California during the second quarter of this year, but the drop represents an eye in the foreclosure storm that's likely to continue in full force this year, a real estate research firm reported Wednesday. The number of homes repossessed by lenders was down 28% from April through June compared with a year earlier, according to San Diego-based MDA DataQuick. Still, more Californians defaulted on their home loans.

The cap on state spending that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants voters to pass in November is emerging as a centerpiece of a nationwide strategy by influential conservatives to slash government spending in state capitals across the country.

Stung by a federal crackdown on medical marijuana in California, activists are pushing toward a new ballot measure to test a state's right to distribute pot as medicine. Americans for Medical Rights, the Santa Monica-based group that promoted California's landmark medical marijuana initiative in 1996, is eyeing such a test in one of three smaller Western states--Arizona, Washington or Oregon--that already have "medpot" laws.

The final weeks of the year for the California Legislature are always filled with motion and chaos, but this year's end-of-session blitz, which begins today, could be more frenetic than most. In addition to the usual raft of last-minute legislation, the session's closing weeks will be enlivened by Gov. Gray Davis' proposed bailout of Southern California Edison, a controversial notion with significant opposition.

Voters could decide to ban the cutting of any California tree that began growing before the state entered the union in 1850 if a coalition of social, religious, civic and conservation organizations succeeds in putting the initiative on next year's ballot. The measure would apply to all state-owned forests and private land, but could not restrict logging on federal land. It is opposed by the state's logging industry.

A judge sentenced Lawrence Raymond Cowell to 25 years to life in prison Friday for the airplane murder of a young Anaheim man, ending nearly eight years of trials and court hearings for the victim's family which spurred their involvement in a statewide court-reform movement. Cowell, 41, formerly of Anaheim, has been convicted of first-degree murder twice now for the April 17, 1982, death of Scott Campbell, whose body was dropped from an airplane and never found. A co-defendant, Donald P.

Angel's days were numbered. No doubt about it. Once a beloved pet, the petite white pony was now a starving wisp of skin stretched over bone. Her hooves--untrimmed for months--were grotesque, like gnarled driftwood. Try as she might, Angel could scarcely walk. When the pony hobbled into a Monterey County auction yard last summer, the slaughterhouse buyers sized her up, made some quick calculations and prepared to bid.

A group of state lawmakers is quietly backing a campaign to prolong the maximum tenure in office, angering the activists who persuadaded California voters to approve limits for state officials 11 years ago. The lawmakers, who include Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) and Sen. Don Perata (D-Alameda), are working to place an initiative on the March 2002 ballot that would give voters the power to extend the careers of popular legislators.

Proclaiming that "Californians came through like champs," Gov. Gray Davis on Wednesday touted better-than-passing grades from voters on his midterm election tests--even as some of his fellow Democrats groused that he offered them little help. The governor claimed credit for victories on four ballot initiatives this year, most prominently Proposition 39, which will allow voters to approve local school construction bonds by a 55% tally rather than the previous two-thirds majority.