Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) touted the help of former Clinton advisor Alice Rivlin — ‘a great, proud Democrat’ — in promoting a key Medicare provision in his budget proposal Tuesday,” according to Politico.com.

“The only problem? Rivlin said she told the Republican she doesn’t support the final version of the measure he wrote into his budget — a provision Ryan referred to generally as the ‘Ryan-Rivlin’ plan when rolling out his sweeping economic blueprint.

“We talked fairly recently and I said, ‘You know, I can’t support the version that you have in the budget,” Rivlin said in an interview with POLITICO. “I don’t actually support the form in which he put it in the budget.”

“That’s not quite fair,’ Rivlin added when informed that Ryan had used her name to advocate his plan. ‘We had worked together but the version that’s in the budget resolution is not one that I would subscribe to.’

The rest of the article is here.

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While Congressman Tom McClintock seeks to grab headlines with President Obama’s actions toward Libya (his latest talking points) — or lecturing the Mexican president about immigration — here’s what his constituents and the local newspaper should be asking him about that is closer to home: Ongoing information on the status with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) in our county.

Here’s the latest, according to the county:
•Applied for to date: $18.9 million
•Approved to date: $12.7 million
•Funds received to date: $8.9 million

Details on the projects are here.

Tom doesn’t seem to understand his role in representing a small, rural district (and never has). Instead, he likes to grandstand. Is anybody who matters in D.C. listening to him? “Blah, blah, blah.”

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“Wisconsin voters will elect a Supreme Court justice today in a race that has become a proxy for the battle over Republican Governor Scott Walker’s law curbing collective bargaining for public unions.

“Groups inside and outside the state are pouring money into the nonpartisan contest between Justice David T. Prosser Jr. and challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg, an assistant state attorney general. The outcome may shift the court’s ideological balance and determine how a legal challenge to the Wisconsin law is decided, said Mordecai Lee, who teaches government at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.”

“‘This is not merely a symbolic referendum on public opinion about the collective-bargaining bill; it is substantively about the collective-bargaining bill,’ Lee, a state lawmaker from 1976 to 1990, said by telephone yesterday. ‘This is the swing seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court that will probably eventually decide the issue.’

The rest of the article is here.

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“Japanese authorities reported Tuesday they had found unusually high levels of radioactive materials in fish caught about 80 kilometers from a stricken nuclear plant, stoking concerns that radioactive water from the plant threatens marine life, and possibly a key food source for the country,” the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

“According to the Ibaraki prefectural government, two samples of small fish called konago, or young lance fish, caught at separate locations near the Pacific coast of northern Ibaraki contained higher-than-permissible levels of radioactive materials.

“The findings were the first clear indication of radioactive contamination in fish following leakage of radioactive water from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, which was battered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

“The rest of the article is here.

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“As federal officials began formal preparations for a government shutdown, House and Senate leaders struggled Monday to reach agreement over tens of billions of dollars in spending cuts that would avert the federal work stoppage,” the Washington Post is reporting.

“After weeks of negotiating over money, time is now also a major concern. There is general agreement that the two sides must work out a deal by Tuesday night if it is to work its way through both chambers and reach President Obama’s desk before the government runs out of money Friday.

“Late Monday, a senior White House aide told top agency officials to begin preparations for how to handle a shutdown, a move that was echoed in a statement by Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) to House leaders.

The rest of the article is here.

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