The Santa Rampage, Budget Crisis Christmas, A Look at Arnold’s Year

Let’s get the horrifying stuff out of the way first. You probably already know that 9 people were killed in Covina when a guy dressed like Santa Claus showed up at his ex-wife’s Christmas party shot people and burned the house down before driving back to his brother’s house in Sylmar and shooting himself in the head. Here’s the best coverage: [LATimes] [Photos from LA Daily News]

Excellent article looking back at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s performance in 2008, insightful analysis and a surprisingly breezy read. The article goes through different theories as to why the Governor had such a difficult time getting anything done in 2008 — the theories range from “he’s bored” to catching a bad case of the creeps from rural California Republicans. Seriously, check this article out. [LA Weekly]

We were going to write up a FAQ about the status of the California budget crisis as of Christmas day, but the SacBee beat us to it. Check it out. [SacBee]

Starting January 1, San Francisco’s Minimum Wage going up to $9.79/hour that’s a 43 cent increase. The highest minimum wage in the nation. [SF Chronicle]

Uh oh. The California teacher’s union has submitted a ballot measure to the Attorney General which”would boost the state sales tax by a penny, which would bring between $5 billion to $6 billion a year in new money to schools, money that couldn’t be touched, delayed or redirected by the governor or the Legislature.” [SFGate Politics Blog]

R.I.P. Eartha Kitt and Harold Pinter