Citizen Cartwright

Perry beats Hutchison in Texas

Amid what the Dallas Morning News calls the "whipsaw politics of the Tea Party movement," Gov. Rick Perry defeated Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison in the Republican primary.

Perry had one dominant theme, the paper says: "I'm Texas, she's Washington."

States' pension obligations

States face a total shortfall of at least $1 trillion in their funds for employees' pensions and retirement benefits, according to a report being released Thursday by the Pew Center on the States.

In New Mexico, a move to bank locally

The state House has unanimously passed a bill that could result in the transfer of more than $1 billion of state account balances to local banks, with the goal of enabling those banks to lend more to local businesses and individuals.

"We think bringing New Mexico's money off of Wall Street and back to Main Street makes sense," says Jerry Walker, executive director of the Independent Community Bankers Association of New Mexico.

New definition of a political outsider

Jerry Brown, who was governor of California in the 1970s, wants to return to the job. And he's running as an outsider.

"I'm an outsider by my own sense of things," he says. "I have an outsider's mind with an insider's perspective."

For the record, in addition to his two terms as governor, Brown was California secretary of state, chairman of the state Democratic party, mayor of Oakland — and now is state attorney general.

New Orleans' new mayor has a very familiar name

Louisiana Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, D, on Saturday was elected the city's first white mayor since his dad, Moon Landrieu, left the job in 1978. The new mayor's sister, Mary, is Louisiana's Democratic senator.

Some Americans getting out of the sun

After decades of rapid growth, more Americans moved out of Florida and Nevada than moved in during the year that ended July 1, The Washington Post reports, citing Census Bureau data.

More California dreamin'

Remember a couple of weeks ago when California's chief justice, Ronald George, said the ability of voters to make new laws and amend the state constitution through the initiative process has "rendered our state government dysfunctional?"

Well, now there's a possibility that voters could render some families dysfunctional, too — and permanently.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen on Friday authorized John Marcotte, who wants to ban divorce in the state, to begin collecting signatures to put the proposed constitutional amendment on next year's ballot.

Los Angeles Times

Pension precipice

After losing about $1 trillion in the markets, state and local governments have a difficult choice to make for pension funds covering teachers, police officers and other government employees: either slash retirement benefits or chase high-return, high-risk investments.

The Washington Post

Golden state is a broken state, judge says

California's chief justice, Ronald George, says the ability of voters to make new laws and amend the state constitution through the initiative process has "rendered our state government dysfunctional."

Voter initiatives have restricted the taxing power of the Legislature, leaving state revenues dependent on a "boom or bust economic cycle," he said in a speech to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Los Angeles Times