This is a nice site that aggregates news mentions and polls into a nice visual interface. It also pulls in feeds from various news sites and twitter.

During an election year, national level politicians from all sides of the spectrum may say whatever it takes to get elected.  One website to check out the truth behind the speeches is factcheck.org, a project of the Anneberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.   Factcheck will respond to commericals, speeches, and other comments made by candidates during the campaign, and will cite its sources at the end of the response.

The California Research Bureau (CRB) and the California Council on Youth Relations (CCYR) have published this 62 page resource document on homeless youth, Homeless Youth: Bibliography and Resources, the California Homeless Youth Project (July 2008). Major research findings were presented during five public policy seminars for state and local policymakers held in 2007-08. The bibliography is annotated and covers topics such as: federal and state laws, education, housing, mental health, and criminalization and victimization. The report identifies research such as the CRB report, Voices from the Street: a Survey of Homeless Youth by Their Peers (March 2008). The report summarizes findings about homeless youth’s experiences, and ideas of support that would help them.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office has made available its analysis of the November 4, 2008 Ballot Propositions. The LAO analysis provides a summary of each of the 12 propositions and for each one provides information on Background, Proposal, and Fiscal Effects. June 26, 2008 was the last day for the Secretary of State to determine whether initiatives had been approved for the ballot in November. The Ballot Measure Update As of July 23, 2008, lists those initiatives that qualified for the ballot, also provides raw counts, and information on failed or withdrawn initiatives.

Since the UCB Library now has access to U.S. Congressional Hearings via LexisNexis Congressional (see this previous post for more information on what is available in LexisNexis Congressional), we will begin migrating our hearings to the Northern Regional Library Facility, better know as NRLF.   If you need to access a paper version of any hearing UCB holds after this move, you have 3 options: you can request the hearing via Pathfinder,  by visiting a circulation desk and making the request in person, or by visting NRLF directly.   If you request the hearing, you will have the hearing in 1-2 business days.  If you have any questions about this process, please let us know via our webform.

The California Air Resources Board will hear on June 26, 2008, the ARB staff presentation on the initial draft of the Climate Change Draft Scoping Plan, a framework for change. The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32) requires the Board to prepare a Scoping Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California to 1990 levels by 2020. This Scoping Plan is the state’s guide for how to achieve these emission cuts mandated by the 2006 law. The plan is now available for public comment and review. The Proposed Plan will be released in October 2008, taking into consideration all recommendations and will have a 45 day comment period before the Air Resources Board considers adoption at its November 2008 meeting.

From the Washington Post:

The administration lacks an updated and comprehensive Iraq strategy to move beyond the “surge” of combat troops President Bush launched in January 2007 as an 18-month effort to curtail violence and build Iraqi democracy, government investigators said yesterday.

While agreeing with the administration that violence has decreased sharply, a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office concluded that many other goals Bush outlined a year and a half ago in the “New Way Forward” strategy remain unmet.

The California Budget Project has created an easy to use and understand chart of comparisons between the Governor’s Revised Budget Proposal, and the spending plans of the Assembly and Senate. The table (revised June 16th) outlines the major differences between the Governor’s May Revision and the legislature’s spending plans. On June 12th the Budget Conference Committee began meeting to discuss these spending and budget plans. On the Budget Conference Committee: Assemblymembers John Laird, Mark Leno, and Roger Niello and for the Senate Denise Ducheny, Robert Dutton, and Michael Machado. Chairs of next year’s Budget and Appropriations committees, Assemblymembers Noreen Evans and Kevin de Leon also attend the Budget Conference Committee meetings.

Wikileaks has posted a US Army Special Forces Manual titled Foreign Internal Defense Tactics Techniques and Procedures for Special Forces

From the Slashdot user HeavensBlade23:

“The document, which has been verified, is official US Special Forces doctrine. It directly advocates training paramilitaries, pervasive surveillance, censorship, press control and restrictions on labor unions & political parties. It directly advocates warrantless searches, detainment without charge and the suspension of habeas corpus. It directly advocates bribery, employing terrorists, false flag operations and concealing human rights abuses from journalists. And it directly advocates the extensive use of ‘psychological operations’ (propaganda) to make these and other ‘population & resource control’ measures more palatable.”

The United States Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence has just released 2 reports on pre-war intelligence activities. You can find the reports on the committee’s webpage. The reports are titled:

Report on Whether Public Statements Regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials were Substantiated by Intelligence Information

Report on Intelligence Activities Relating to Iraq Conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group and the Office of Special Plans Within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Policy.

Among other things, the reports found that officials misrepresented secret intelligence to make the case to invade Iraq.  At this point in time, UC Berkeley has not received these reports from the Government Printing Office.

On May 15, 2008, the California Supreme Court released its Opinion legalizing same-sex marriage in California. The seven judges ruled 4-3 in favor of declaring discriminatory  the California law passed in 2000 (Proposition 22) that stated that only marriage between a man and a woman was valid or recognized in California.  California along with Massachusetts are the only two states that issue marriage licenses to same sex couples. Listen to the Oral Arguments of the In Marriages Cases [six consolidated appeals].

Beginning June 16th, same-sex couples can marry in California.

The National Conference of State Legislatures offers its latest update on Same Sex Marriage, Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships. The May 2008 update includes quick facts, a chronology of same-sex marriage events, and a listing of state statutes defining marriage.

Equality California, which “works to achieve equality and secure legal protections for LGBT people” gives answers to basic questions at: Frequently Asked Questions - Marriage for Same-Sex Couples in California.

May 13, 2008, Assemblymember Karen Bass was sworn in as the first African American female Speaker of the California Assembly. She is also the first African American female to hold this high legislative office anywhere in the United States. Read the text of Speaker Bass’ swearing in address and see a short 3 minutes video of her speech at Karen Bass website.

The Little Hoover Commission has released its latest report, Addressing Addiction: Improving & Integrating California’s Substance Abuse Treatment System, calling for more attention, oversight and reform. This latest report is a follow-up to the 2003 study, For Our Health and Safety: Joining Forces to Defeat Addiction, also calls for integrating substance abuse treatment into most health and human services and requires counties to use performance management strategies to improve outcomes and help clients recover. California spends more than $1 billion annually on substance abuse treatment.

The California Budget Project has published a series of reports on effects of the Governor’s proposed cuts. The reports can all be found on the California Budget Project website and include the following titles:The Impact of the Governor’s Proposed Cuts by Legislative District; The Impact of the Governor’s Budget Cuts on Children, Seniors, and Women; Who in Each County Would be Affected by the Governor’s Proposed Budget Cuts?; The County Impact of the Governor’s Proposed Cuts. The recent report, Impact of Proposed Budget Cuts by County has a listing by County, highlights several policy areas (Medi-Cal, CalWORKS, In-Home Support Services, etc) by legislative district, impact of cuts by program, and impact of cuts by population group.

The Foreign Policy Association (FPA) “is a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring the American public to learn more about the world. Founded in 1918, FPA provides independent publications, programs and forums to increase public awareness of, and foster popular participation in, matters relating to those policy issues.” Supporting the focus on key current policy issues, the FPA website features blogs that discuss international events and also daily postings from foreign policy experts. Sections such as Explore by Region (with map) and Explore by Issue are very useful. Currently the Explore by Issue section includes: Iraq, European Union, Diplomacy, Russia. Defense & Security, Latin America, China Trade, Philanthropy and more. The Latin America listings include Spring Updates (post-Fidel Cuba), Recommended Readings, and a Latin America Blog. A key item on the FPA site is the video content which features clips from the FPA’s Great Decisions television series and also lectures by prominent scholars.

The California Dept. of Education has created a Budget Crisis Report Card website to report on proposed budget cuts and effects on education in California. The information collected is from news and reports from local educational agencies to the California Dept. of Education. Sections on the website include Report Cards (3 vols), Proposed Local School District Budget Cuts (which is composed of local school district snapshots of budget cuts), and News Releases from the State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell.

Congrats to Jesse Silva and Karen Munro for their Congressional Research Tutorials, which were recently spotlighted in the Scout Report:

Making a clear and direct path through the vast amount of Congressional materials can be quite a chore, even for the most seasoned and experienced researcher. Fortunately, the University of California at Berkeley Library has created these fine Congressional tutorials. Designed to help users locate materials both online and in the library, these tutorials are in the form of short Flash-enabled videos. Most of the tutorials last about two minutes, and they include “Find a Bill”, “How Do I Contact My Representative?”, “Find Congressional Debate”, and “Find a Hearing”. After viewing one (or more) of these tutorials, users can also make their way to the “What’s going on in Congress right now?” area to stay on top of the various activities of this important legislative body.

You can find the tutorials here:

http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/wikis/congresearch/

From the AP:

Big worries for the nation’s first high-tech census should have been obvious when some of the door-to-door headcounters couldn’t figure out their fancy new handheld computers.

Now, officials say, technology problems could add as much as $2 billion to the cost of the 2010 census and jeopardize the accuracy of the nation’s most important survey.

From Ars Technica:

The revolution won’t be televised, but it might show up on a wiki and a mashup.

Stanford professor Lawrence Lessig has made it clear for some time that he intends to step away for most of his work on copyright and with the Creative Comments to focus on a more fundamental issue: congressional corruption and reform. At a speech in Washington, DC yesterday, Lessig rolled out his “Change Congress” web site and provided more details of his reform program. Not surprisingly, mashups, open-source tools, and wikis are a big part of a plan in which everyone in the US can keep tabs on their elected officials’ commitment to transparency.

From a Wikileaks press release:

In the last week Wikileaks has released over 150 censored photos and videos of the Tibet uprising and has called on bloggers around the world to help drive the footage through the Chinese internet censorship regime — the so called “Great Firewall of China”

The California Channel has posted a video of the hearing on the same-sex marriage case that was heard on March 4, 2008.  You can watch the full 3.5 hour hearing here: http://www.calchannel.com/MEDIA/0304A.asx  Please note that Windows Media Player is required to watch the hearing.  The Court has 90 days to issue a ruling on this case.

The 2008 legislative elections will bring major change since over 75% of seats are to be decided.  StateVote 2008 hosted by the National Conference of State Legislatures offers quick and easy information on these elections. Full state profiles are available that give the composition of state legislatures, Senate and House, by party affiliation, Democrat, Republican and Other. Comparisons of all the states is also possible. The Ballot Measures Database allows the user the search the database by state, topic area, year,  type of election (general, primary, special, any), and measure type (any, initiative, legislative or popular referendum, other). The section, 2008 Legislative Seats to Be Elected; State Primary Dates; and State Primary Runoff Dates,  gives total seats by state for the Senate or Assembly and the number of these seats up for election.

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life just released the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older.  The entire report is online along with a video overview of the findings. The online section includes interactive tools that allow viewers to gather data on religious affliation by state, choose a religious group and see demographic data such as age, ethnicity, educational level, and income. One online section allows for comparisons of religious groups by age, ethnicity, educational level, and income levels.

Anyone needing tax forms for the State of California and for the Internal Revenue Service can find these online at:

State of California Franchise Tax Board

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Governor Schwarzenegger announced on Feb. 19, 2008, an executive order that is expected to save the state of California an additional $100 million. Savings are to be achieved through immediate General Fund expenditure reductions from state agencies and departments. The full text of the Governor’s executive order  is available.

The recently published report, Reforming Inmate Education to Improve Public Safety: From Cellblocks to Classrooms, finds that California offers academic and vocational programs to only a small segment of the prison population. In addition the small number of inmate education programs that do exist have a number of problems limiting their effectiveness at reducing recidivism. This LAO report recommends reforms to increase performance, outcomes, and accountability.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) has issued recently its analysis of the Governor’s budget that attempts to deal with the huge 2008-09 budget deficit.  The LAO Analysis of the 2008-9 Budget Bill and the 2008-09 Budget, Perspectivies and Issues, conclude that the Governor’s budget fails to put forward a plan to prioritize state spending. Further, the LAO analysis recommends that the Legislature reject the Governor’s  across-the-board approach and has developed an LAO Alternative Budget Overview.

A webcast of the LAO analysis is also available.

The UC Berkeley Libraries have just purchased access to several previously unavailable full-text digital Congressional Publications though our database LexisNexis Congressional.  With this access, UCB faculty, staff and students can search for an exact quote from a hearing from a computer on campus or connected through the proxy server, where previously you had to visit the Library and spend some time reading the hearing to get the quote.  The following types of congressional materials are now available (with one exception) for full-text searching.

Congressional Hearings (1824-2003) LexisNexis is currently digitizing all congressional hearings and have completed the published hearings from 1950’s though 2003.  They are working backwards and will have digitized all published and unpublished hearings from 1824-present when the project is completed at the end of 2008.  Prior to this digitization project, UCB only had access to the published hearings in paper and microfiche.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) Reports (1916-2003) - CRS is a part of the Library of Congress and creates research reports for congressional members.  CRS reports provide the background information that Congress uses in its legislative and investigative work.  These reports are rarely released to the public, and can be a great starting point for many research projects because they contain background information and full bibliographies.  UCB previously only had access to these reports from 1991-present in microfiche.

Committee Prints (1830-2003) - Committee Prints contain a variety of information, including research, notes, and background reports that a congressional committee uses when it is working on a bill or other issue.  The contents of Committee Prints vary widely, and some prints will contain more information than others.  These documents provide invaluable insights into the inner-workings of Congress.  Prior to this purchase, UCB only had access to these from 1917-1969 in microfiche and 1970-present in paper.

For more information, please contact us through our webform

The Democratic National Convention is scheduled August 25-28, 2008 in Denver, Colorado. The website for the DNC offers an FAQ section that explains the basic structure of the delegate system and also includes an interactive Delegate Map. This state-by-state map gives for each state the delegate allocation factor, the number of alternates, delegation size, total number of delegates, and also the pledged and unpledged delegates. As of Feb. 12th, California is listed as having 71 Un-Pledged votes.

The Government Information Unit is debuting a website containing tutorials for doing Congressional Research.

http://sunsite3.berkeley.edu/wikis/congresearch/

This site houses short tutorials on finding bills, hearings, and debates, and allows you to pause the tutorial at any point and practice in the live database below the tutorial (if there is a database).  It also contains links to current congressional news, recent votes, and a Google Custom Search Engine focused on Congressional websites.  Overtime, we will be adding more tutorials.

Founded in 2001, the Pew Hispanic Center is a nonpartisan research organization.  Its mission is to improve understanding of the U.S.  Hispanic population and to chronicle Latinos’ growing impact on the entire nation.

2007 National survey of Latinos: as illegal immigration issue heats up, Latinos feel a chill.

Hispanics in the United States are feeling a range of negative effects from the increased public attention and stepped up enforcement measures that have accompanied the growing national debate over illegal immigration. 

Hispanics and the 2008 election a swing vote?

After spending the first part of this decade loosening their historic ties to the Democratic Party, Hispanic voters have reversed course in the past year.

Stateline.org offers an easy 2008 Presidential Primary and Caucus Dates listing. The information presented also offers a comparison of changes made since 2004 elections. Party primaries are listed: Democratic party in blue, Republican party in red, and multi-party primaries in black.

 The California Research Bureau (CRB) is responsible for providing nonpartisan research services to the Governor and his staff, the state Legislature, and to state elected officials.  Two new interesting reports have just been made available:

Homeless and Runaway Youth: Selected Resources (Preliminary Report)

CRB and the California Council on Youth Relations are conducting major research to identify and bring to the attention of state policymakers the issues facing homeless youth in California. Research findings are being presented alongs with an annotated bibliography of selected resources. The final report is expected Spring 2008.

California Research Bureau Public Retirement System Survey

This survey, conducted on behalf of the California Public Employee Post-Employment Benefits Commission,  identifies the amount of pension benefits that remain unfunded. The survey found that despite $63.5 billion in unfunded public employee pension liabilities, the California public retirement systems are recovering from the early 2000s financial market downturn.

On January 10, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger presented to the California Legislature his proposed 2008-09 California Budget. This proposed budget along with the Governor’s Message, Summary of the Budget and Details is made available by the California Dept. of Finance.  As discussions progress a Revised Budget will be available sometime mid-May with the Enacted Budget expected Summer 2008. Briefly, the Governor budget proposes cuts to close an expected $14.5 billion budget gap.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has just issued their report, Overview of the Governor’s  Budget along with a webcast.  In contrast to the Governor’s across-the board cuts, the LAO  recommends elliminating or reducing low-priority programs and the examination of additional revenue options.

The California Secretary of State, Debra Bowen, maintains the California elections information website. The Official Voter Information Guide contains Presidential Candidate and Political Party statements. The voter guide and the Supplemental guide contain the information on Propositions 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 96 & 97 that have qualified for this February 5th 2008 Presidential Primary Election.

A listing of Propositions that are on the November 4, 2008 General Election Ballot is available along with a listing of those initiatives pending count of signatures and signature verification. Failed, Withdrawn and Initiatives/Referenda in Circulation (as of Jan. 10, 2008) are also included. There are currently no propositions on the June 3, 2008 Statewide Direct Primary Election Ballot.

At 3:30pm today, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger will deliver the State of the State address.  This speech will update the citizens of California on the state’s affairs, including budget issues and future planning.  You can watch it live at : http://www.gov.ca.gov/

The House on Tuesday sent President Bush a streamlined energy bill that would make the first statutory increase in fuel economy standards in 32 years and require billions more gallons of biofuels to be blended into gasoline over the next 15 years.

Human Rights Day 2007 2007 starts a year-long commemoration of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The theme for 2008 is Dignity and Justice for All of Us. The UN website includes a video of the Commemorative event which includes the address by UN Secretary-General Mr. Ban Ki-moon. Calendar of events for the year is available.

The New Jersey Senate approved on Monday December 10th a bill (S-171) that would repeal the death-penalty and replace capital punishment with a criminal sentence of life without parole. The State Assembly is expected to vote on this legislation on Thursday December 13th. The New Jersey Democratic Legislature has put this death-penalty repeal on the fast track and Democratic Governor Jon Corzine has said he would sign the bill. This legislation would make New Jersey the first state to repeal the death penalty since its reinstatement more than 30 years ago. Several other states (Maryland, New Mexico, etc.) are also working on similar legislation.

The Death Penalty Information Center which advocates against the death penalty provides state-by-state information, fact sheets, recent legislative updates, and more.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has investigated over the past 16 months allegations of political interference with government climate change science. The investigation includes over 27,000 pages of documents from the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), & the Commerce Dept., two hearings and interviews with key officials. This Proposed Report, December 2007, concludes that the “…Bush Administration has engaged in a systematic effort to manipulate climate change science and mislead policy makers and the public about the dangers of global warming.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has completed a review of decisions made under the Endangered Species Act. The review found that former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks Julie MacDonald inappropriately influenced these decisions. According to a letter from the FWS to Congressman Nick Rahall (D-WV), the “…review was undertaken after questions were raised about the integrity of scientific information used and whether the decisions made were consistent with the appropriate legal standards.” The reversal affects the protection of species including the Canada Lynx and the California Red-legged Frog.

More information on this announcement, including an FAQ on the review can be found at:

http://www.fws.gov/endangered/news/macdonald/

Wikileaks is a wiki website that allows whistleblowers to release government and corporate documents anonymously. Launched in December 2006 it now contains over 1.2 million documents.

From the site:

Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable system for safe mass document leaking and public analysis. Our primary interests are in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we expect to be of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.2 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources

From Tim O’Reilly’s blog:

Carl Malamud of public.resource.org just wrote to let me know that he’s begun harvesting, and making available for bulk download, all the data currently being provided by the Government Printing Office, including the Congressional Record, various presidential papers (up until 2004, when they stopped being made public), the Federal Register, and other government documents. These have been available one at a time from the GPO, but now, Carl is making them available for bulk download. This is useful for anyone who wants to do text analysis.

The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released a draft version of its long awaited Synthesis Report (AR4) “Summary for Policymakers.”

The report forecasts that an increase of the earth’s temperature by 1.5 to 2.5 degrees will endanger 20-30 percent of the planet’s plants and animals, and that 75-250 million people in Africa will suffer from water shortages by 2020.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says climate change is “more frightening than any science fiction movie.”

The 23 page report is a summary of three other reports issued by the IPCC earlier this year, collectively called “Climate Change 2007“. The three other reports from the IPCC include the report of Working Group I, The Physical Science Basis ; Working Group II, Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability ; and Working Group III, Mitigation of Climate Change.

The report is expected to form the basis of a UN environmental summit in Bali, Indonesia in December 2007, where world leaders will discuss a successor pact to the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012.

As part of its mandate by the UN Commission on Human Rights, the Special Rapporteur examines situations of extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and submits an annual report of findings together with conclusions and recommendations to the Commission. Special attention is to be given to children and women and to allegations concerning violations of the right to life that result against participants in demonstrations or public manifestations. Special attention is also paid to situations were the victims are individuals carrying out peaceful activities in defense of human rights and basic freedoms. The Special Rapporteur website currently lists numerous statements and reports, such as: the crackdown in Myanmar, an interim report on Darfur, executions in Nigeria, police violence in Bangladesh, and more.

The Philip Alston, Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, has issued a statement following the end of his visit to Brazil on November 14, 2007.  The visit included meetings with a wide range of Brazilian officials, heads of military policy,  visits to a prison in Sao Paulo, a police station in Rio de Janeiro, a settlement in Pernambuco and more. Meetings with key human rights individuals included the UN Country Team, and the Human Rights Commission of the Rio de Janeiro Legislative Assembly. The visit took place within the context of widespread concern about criminal violence in Brazil.  The statement includes some data in its ‘key concerns’ section, such as: 45,000-50,000 homicides committed per year; in Pernambuco it is estimated that 70% of all homicides are committed by death squads. Preliminary conclusions and recommendations are contained in the statement.

The California Legislative Analyst’s Office has just released it’s report, California’s Fiscal Outlook: LAO Projections 2007-08 Through 2012-13. In additionl the LAO website features a webcast of Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill describing their findings. The LAO website also features California’s Fiscal Outlook charts to 2012-18,

From the UC Berkeley News Center:

A renewed focus on agricultural development is critical to successfully reducing global poverty and hunger, according to a new World Bank report co-authored by economists at the University of California, Berkeley.

The report points out that 2.1 billion people earning less than $2 per day live in rural areas, and most of them depend upon agriculture for their livelihoods. However, only 4 percent of official development assistance to developing nations is earmarked for agriculture, down from 12 percent in 1990.

The Brazilian government released in late August 2007 an official report, The Right to Memory and the Truth, detailing atrocities dating from 1964 during Brazil’s two decade dictatorship. The 500 page book, Direito a Memoria e a Verdade: Comissao Especial Sobre Mortos e Desaparecidos Politicos,  published after 11 years of research  outlines the torture, rape and disappearance of nearly 500 activists. The book publication date also coincided with Brazil’s 1979 amnesty law which pardoned both activists and members of the military. Few print copies were published, but the UC Berkeley Library was able to purchase one of the print copies which should be received soon.

On October 10th, the Governor’s Office announced via a press release, the Governor’s signature of legislation that will strengthen flood protections in California. The package of six bills will help develop a coomprehensive Central Valley Flood Protection Plan. Also affected will be the Reclamation Board and cities and counties will be required to consider flood risks when making land use decisions. The press release identifies the six bills (AB156, SB5, AB162, SB17, AB70 and AB5) and provides links to the bill text.

The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) reports that as of April 13, 2007 at least 1169 bills and resolutions related to immigration or immigrants and refugees have been introduced in the state legislatures of the 50 US states. In 2006 immigration related bills totaled 570. The top areas covered by these bills are employment, law enforcement, benefits and education. Human trafficking issues have been addressed in more than half of all the states. The NCSL information lists the proposed legislation by policy area, number of bills, number and name of states. Enacted proposals are also listed.

The Legislative Analyst’s Office has issued the report, California Spending Plan 2007-08: The Budget Act and Related Legislation. The state spending plan includes $131.5 billion in total budget expenditures. Key features of the spending plan include: Budget Overview (total state spending), Budget-related Legislation, and Expenditure highlights: Proposition 98, K-12 Education, Higher Education, Health, Transportation, etc. Based on the 2007-08 budget plan, the state will face operating shortfalls of more than $5 billion in both 2008-09 and 2009-10.