Lobbying

Los Angeles Times WASHINGTON - When Jessica Bravo came here this month to talk to her congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), about expanding rights for illegal immigrants, their meeting ended in a shouting match and tears. Bravo, an 18-year-old community college student at Golden West College in Huntington Beach, was smuggled over the border from Mexico by her parents when she was 3. She recently joined hundreds of other young illegal immigrants in a campaign to confront members of Congress and ask them to vote for a pathway to citizenship for 11 million illegal immigrants.

Mineta San Jose International Airport officials are urging the city to approve construction of an $82 million facility that would house jets flown by Google executives. The proposed 29-acre facility would sit on the airport's west side and accommodate Google's and other clients' jets. It would be developed and managed by Signature Flight Support. The facility would include an executive terminal, hangars, ramp space and aircraft servicing facilities. According to a San Jose Mercury News story, Google's top three executives have at least eight jets, including a twin-aisle Boeing 767 passenger jet that is commonly used by airlines for transcontinental flights.

WASHINGTON - Traditional pillars of the Republican base, such as police groups, evangelical pastors and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have begun to push skeptical GOP lawmakers to change federal immigration laws to allow most of the nation's 11 million illegal immigrants to apply for legal status. The issue has long been fought mostly between Republicans and Democrats. But the fate of a potential immigration overhaul may be determined by battles erupting inside the GOP. "Now it's conservatives versus conservatives over how much immigration reform should happen," said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration expert at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington that has advanced a free-market argument for opening up the immigration system.

Even before Barack Obama was sworn in as president the first time, he touted his efforts to "change business as usual in Washington" by setting strict rules for his inauguration: No corporate donations were allowed; individuals could give only $50,000. This time, Obama's inaugural committee is seeking million-dollar contributions from corporations and offering perks in return, such as tickets to the official ball. The six companies that have given so far include AT&T, Microsoft and Financial Innovations, a marketing company that received $15.7 million to produce merchandise for Obama's reelection campaign and is the official vendor for the inauguration.

Seeking to counter the influence of the pro-gun lobby, former U.S.  Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, are launching a campaign to change the nation's gun policies. The initiative, called Americans for Responsible Solutions, was announced Tuesday on the two-year anniversary of the Tucson mass shooting that killed six people and severely wounded Giffords.  “Forget the boogeyman of big, bad government coming to dispossess you of your firearms.

Three days before the massacre of 20 young schoolchildren in Newtown, Conn., a federal appeals court struck down Illinois' ban on carrying a weapon in public. The ruling complicated the task of legislating protections against gun violence, but it was less of a victory for the gun lobby than it initially appeared. Alone among the states, Illinois imposes a broad ban on the carrying of "ready to use" guns outside the home. (There are exceptions for police, hunters and target shooters.)

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power repeatedly bypassed its competitive bidding process when it awarded $480,000 in contracts to lobby Sacramento decision-makers, according to a report issued by City Controller Wendy Greuel. DWP executives issued four no-bid contracts for state lobbying over the last two years, two of them to Mercury Public Affairs, a firm that includes former state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez as one of its partners. No public debate or vote by the utility's five-member Board of Commissioners was required under DWP contracting rules because each agreement was $150,000 or less.

After losing a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, craft stores chain Hobby Lobby said it would defy a federal healthcare mandate requiring employers to provide their workers with insurance that covers emergency contraceptives. The Oklahoma City-based chain, owned by a conservative Christian family, had applied to the high court to block a part of the federal healthcare law ordering companies to offer insurance that covers contraceptive drugs, including the so-called morning-after pill.

After losing a last-minute appeal to the Supreme Court, craft chain Hobby Lobby will defy a federal healthcare mandate requiring employers to provide its workers with insurance that covers emergency contraceptives. The Oklahoma City-based chain, which is owned by a conservative Christian family also with holdings in the religious bookseller Mardel Inc., had applied to the Supreme Court to block a part of the federal healthcare law ordering companies to offer insurance that covers contraceptive drugs including the morning-after pill.

SACRAMENTO - When state officials wanted a computer system to track the cost of therapy, transportation and other services for 240,000 disabled Californians, they hired Deloitte Consulting. After four years, the Department of Developmental Services decided the new system didn't work as needed and canceled the project after paying Deloitte $5.7 million. That same month in 2006, the Department of Industrial Relations hired the New York-based company to computerize its monitoring system for workers' compensation claims.