Opinion

Fired reporter Henry Norr’s offhand snipe that the San Francisco Chronicle “apparently sees no problem in having a Sacramento bureau chief whose wife is Arnold Schwarzenegger's deputy chief of staff and was previously a flack for Maria Shriver” prompted not one but two indignant denials from Chronicle functionaries. They told us that the Chronicle's Sacramento bureau chief, Greg Lucas, has agreed to be reassigned, and is no longer covering the governor, the Legislature or any area of state government. -more-

California now ranks dead last in the country in per capita arts spending, at three cents per person, according to the most recent report from the almost-extinct California Arts Council. Last year, the 27-year-old Arts Council was decimated by a 94 percent budget cut from the Legislature and the governor. This situation is deeply ironic in a state which owes so much to the entertainment industry, which in turn has always relied on the talent produced by California’s formerly excellent arts education program, especially since so many of our political leaders, including the current governor, came from that industry. -more-