Sandre Swanson

East Bay Assemblyman Sandré Swanson is concerned that right in the midst of one country's most serious financial storms the state's unemployment insurance fund appears like it will go broke by January.

The Oakland/Alameda Democrat made his concerns public during a joint hearing of the Assembly's insurance and budget committees this week in Sacramento.

"This fund is critical to ensure that workers who have lost their jobs through no fault of their own are able to pay their bills and put food on the table while they look for work," Swanson said.  "The current funding crisis threatens the solvency of that fund and we must address it as quickly as possible."

SACRAMENTO -- Assemblyman Sandre Swanson (D-Oakland/Alameda) said that due to the ongoing state budget impasse he would not be traveling to Denver this week to attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

Here's his statement:     

SACRAMENTO - In the aftermath of Sunday night's disastrous Democratic attempt at getting a state budget finally passed, two East Bay law makers had different yet interesting takes on the stalemate.

The failed vote show that state Democrats and Republicans remain at loggerheads over increasing taxes to the state wealthiest residents and over the idea of implementing a real cap on state spending in the future.

Assemblywoman Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) told the San Francisco Chronicle Monday that passage of a state spending plan may wait until after the Nov. 4 general election when Democrats may pick up some additional seats in Sacramento.

"That may be the only alternative," she said. Republicans "have not made any moves to be productive and resolve this crisis."

With Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger briefly away over the weekend, he left his normal weekly radio address duties to his sometime foe, sometime ally, U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein who used the time to talk about the Golden State's water problems and their joint idea to sell a near $10 billion bond to address the crisis. 

Here's the text of the San Francisco Democrat's address:

Whenever I fly to Las Vegas on a Friday, usually from Bob Hope airport in Burbank, there usually are women who are getting on the same flight dressed in a manner that indicates that either they are commuting to work or Halloween is near, and it's not always October.

On one flight, purely as a result of "accidental" eavesdropping, I confirmed what my business partners had already guessed: the women were, indeed, commuting to work. These women -- and I'm not saying this has been scientifically studied, at least not by me -- are prostitutes. At least for the weekend. At least in Vegas where, though not legal, prostitution is overtly tolerated and encouraged.