Legislatures

Ivory Coast held a largely peaceful parliamentary election after a week dominated by political and ethnic bloodshed, but a protest boycott prevented polling in many parts of the Muslim north. Security was tight at flash points in the West African nation's main city, Abidjan, and in the north after the exclusion of Muslim former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara from the poll because of doubts about his nationality.

SACRAMENTO - California's financial picture is much brighter than Gov. Jerry Brown suggested in his latest spending plan, according to the Legislature's top budget advisor, who said the state will have $3.2 billion more at its disposal than the governor estimated. Improvements on Wall Street and in the state's housing market will mean about $4.4 billion in extra cash through the next budget year, rather than the $1.2 billion the governor has projected, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor said in a report Friday.

Louisiana lawmakers have just over two weeks to chart their hurricane-ravaged state's future, weighing matters as varied as new building codes, tax breaks and how employment benefits are calculated, and then answering the big question: how to pay for it all. Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco called a special session starting today for the Legislature to address 77 hurricane-related issues. The session has to end by Nov. 22, two days before Thanksgiving.

SACRAMENTO - Releasing his latest budget plan this week, Gov. Jerry Brown repeated his assurance that the tax hikes voters agreed to last fall were enough, that he won't ask them to dig deeper into their pockets any time soon. "We just got a nice tax," he said. "I think we ought to take a deep breath and show how we are spending it in a wise way before we start looking for more money. " But even before Brown spoke, lawmakers were testing him. They have been forging ahead with proposals to tax Californians more - on every can of soda, cigarette, plastic grocery store bag and bullet.

The Chinese-appointed provisional legislature passed its first law, pertaining to public holidays, drawing immediate protests from members of Hong Kong's current legislature. "The provisional legislature is an unconstitutional structure, and they don't have any legal foundation to pass laws for Hong Kong," said Democratic Party lawmaker Andrew Cheng on Hong Kong radio. A spokesman for the Beijing-appointed government said it had the right to act.

Opponents of the death penalty, having failed in a decade-long court challenge to capital punishment, said Wednesday that they will take their pleas back to state legislatures. Organizations that include Amnesty International, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP plan to announce an "abolition" campaign in Washington today, hoping to arouse moral outrage over what they view as the barbaric and outdated practice of executing criminals.

Kuwaitis elected 50 members of a transitional parliament in voting boycotted by opposition leaders, who are challenging government claims that the new body will advance democracy. No results were available, and it was unclear when they would be announced. Unofficial estimates put the all-male turnout at about 55%.

The Soviet Union's new national assembly began electing a full-time legislature from its ranks Friday, opening the country's lawmaking process more widely to broader popular participation after years of domination by the ruling Communist Party. Sharp divisions quickly emerged among members of the Congress of People's Deputies as the liberals fought conservatives for seats in the new Supreme Soviet, which will be the nation's standing legislature. A number of radicals, including the populist Boris N. Yeltsin, were included in the lists of candidates, but party officials maneuvered through the day to ensure a pliable legislature as the country sets out on one of its most fundamental political reforms.

The Indian government dissolved the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir state in an effort to restore peace to a region torn by a monthlong Muslim uprising against Indian rule. The move was a tacit admission by the central government that the 1987 elections for the Kashmir assembly were rigged, as is widely believed in the state.

In what is being portrayed as the latest test of antitax sentiment in the country, Oregon voters will decide Tuesday whether to accept an $800-million tax increase adopted by the Legislature to patch gaping holes in the state budget.

SACRAMENTO - Dynamics have shifted dramatically in California's Capitol since Gov. Jerry Brown returned two years ago - both fiscal and political dynamics. The two are intertwined. And Brown is the beneficiary. In short, because the state's fiscal health is being restored - in no small part because of Brown - he is in a much stronger position to deal with the Legislature. Essentially, the governor now needs the Legislature much less than it needs him. Brown referred to this ground-shifting in a comment toward the end of his budget news conference Tuesday.

SACRAMENTO - With California's deficit wiped out and its economy starting to hum, this was to be a year when Gov. Jerry Brown was free of the budget logjams that have paralyzed the Capitol. But instead, the governor has a fight on his hands - with his fellow Democrats. He is on a collision course with them over how to reshape the state's sprawling, complicated healthcare system to conform with President Obama's national overhaul. The sticking points in extending public healthcare to more Californians include how many to add to state insurance rolls, how much to pay doctors and hospitals, and how much money to give counties for their care of the indigent.

Gov. Jerry Brown's "ugly" proposal to federal judges to partially ease prison crowding by leasing empty jail beds in the state drew dismay from advocates on both sides of the criminal justice debate and a forecast of "dubious prospects" from a legislative leader who objects to the cost. "I strongly believe any additional taxpayer dollars ought to go into smart strategies to keep people from committing crimes once they're out," said state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg (D-Sacramento)

Fearing lawmakers may fail to pass a package of medical reform bills, a coalition of consumer groups and trial lawyers is mounting a campaign to put before voters an even more ambitious slate of initiatives aimed at curbing prescription drug abuse and holding doctors more accountable for misconduct. About two dozen state and national advocacy groups - including the Consumer Attorneys of California, California Nurses Assn., the Center for Public Interest Law, and Public Citizen - have been organizing privately since December and plan to unveil the campaign at the state Capitol on Thursday.

The time has come to put the Medical Board of California out of its misery. The board oversees the licensing of doctors and their discipline for misdeeds or incompetence. It also has jurisdiction over doctor-owned surgical clinics. Long ago the board acquired the reputation of being one of the least effective regulatory bodies in Sacramento. But evidence has mounted that it's worse: It's a danger to the community. Because of its ineffectiveness in a variety of spheres, patients have died.

SACRAMENTO - Obamacare is supplying fresh ammunition for one of the oldest turf wars in Sacramento. It pits doctors - represented by the politically powerful California Medical Assn. - defending their turf against other medical providers. They're nurse practitioners, optometrists and pharmacists. In political speak, it's about "scope of practice" - the type of medical care non-doctors are allowed to provide. The war has been waged for many decades, at times also involving chiropractors, podiatrists and any number of medical professions trying to encroach on the docs' terrain.

China today formally rejected a bid to allow a popular election to choose Hong Kong's next chief executive in 2007, in a crushing blow to pro-democracy advocates in the territory. The ruling, announced by Hong Kong's current chief executive, Tung Chee-hwa, also ended hopes of electing the territory's 60-member Legislative Council through universal suffrage by 2008. Only half the council members will be elected in that manner in balloting scheduled for later this year.

The Soviet Union's new, independent-minded legislature for the first time Tuesday voted to boot a deputy premier out of his job, despite a last-minute change in rules aimed at pushing through the Kremlin's choice to steer foreign economic policy. The vote served as proof, if the Soviet leadership needed it, that political maneuvering may not be enough to get an appointee through the current Supreme Soviet.

Finally, there's legislation that proposes reasonable solutions to the tortuous procedure for firing the worst teachers in California. The teachers who routinely screen movies instead of giving instruction, who denigrate their students, ignore them, harass them or even physically abuse them - yet who can appeal the firing process for years, during which the schools still must pay their salaries. Several reform-oriented bills went overboard to fix this. Under one, teachers suspected of abusive behavior would have had no avenue to appeal their dismissal.

Alabama this week moved to tighten the regulation of clinics and of medical personnel who perform abortions, the latest step in what abortion rights advocates argue is a campaign to use the regulatory power of government to limit a woman's right to an abortion. The Alabama legislature on Tuesday gave final passage to a measure that places restrictions, including a requirement that doctors who perform abortions have hospital privileges. The House voted 68-21 to approve the bill, known as the Women's Health and Safety Act, hours after the Senate voted 20-10 to approve it. Republican Gov. Robert Bentley is expected to sign it. The bill also sets stricter building requirements, including wider halls and doors and better fire suppression systems.