Sacramento is getting in the crab season spirit.

Outgoing Assemblymember Jim Wood, the North Coast’s representative since 2014, recently introduced Assembly Bill 1797, which aims to immortalize Metacarcinus magister, the iconic Dungeness crab, as the state's official crustacean.

It would add the Dungeness crab to a laundry list of official state fauna: the now-extinct California Grizzly Bear (official state animal); the California gray whale (marine mammal); the California dogface butterfly (insect); the golden trout (freshwater fish); and the desert tortoise (reptile). That’s not to mention the flora: golden poppies (official state flower); California redwoods (tree); purple needlegrass (grass); lace lichen (lichen); and California golden chanterelle (mushroom). (And did you know that California's official state dance is West Coast Swing?)

The bill makes a compelling case, describing the Dungeness crab as "an essential part of California's ecosystem and economy." It’s already garnered support, co-authored by Senator Mike McGuire, as well as Assemblymembers Dawn Addis and Gail Pellerin, per the Mercury News.

Wood expects some good jokes to come out of it, too. He posted on social media requesting some crab puns.

Meanwhile, commercial Dungeness crab season is still in limbo. Its start date has been delayed several times, and despite being set for Friday, January 5, it looks like it might get pushed back once again. Local fisherman are in the midst of ongoing price negotiations with seafood distribution companies, claiming that the crab prices offered for are too low, as the Times-Standard reported.

Image via Colleen Proppe/Flickr under Creative Commons.

The fine folks over at SFBG did a little sleuthing over Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent vetoing of Assemblymember Tom Ammiano's AB 1176, a simple bill that involved the Port of San Francisco and some sort of financing issues. Basic stuff, really. According to SFBG Editor Tim Redmond, "It’s the kind of bill that legislators offer on behalf of their cities all the time," the kind of bill that is routinely passed.

But, lo and behold, Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill. Why? Well, here's the explanatory letter he sent Ammiano:

Do you see what he did there? Look at it again. If you still don't see it, SFBG will explain everything.

Anyway, Redmond sums it up better than we can, saying, "What an asshole. No wonder it's hard to get anything done in Sacramento; the gov's office is full of frat boys spending hours (and it would have taken hours to get this exactly right) making stupid little-boy jokes."

Arnold's letter could be in response to Ammiano's recent outburst at the Governor during the Democratic County Central Committee gala. If you recall, the Assemblymember shouted to Schwarzenegger, among other things, to "kiss my gay ass."

Take note, California: the Governor of New York introducing legislation to legalize same-sex marriage. "There is clearly a problem in that those individuals who are gay or lesbian who would live in a civil union are still not entitled to somewhere between 1,250 and 1,300 civil protections" that are afforded to married couples, Paterson said yesterday.

A similar same-sex marriage bill was knocked down in the New York state Senate in 2007 when former Gov. Eliot Spitzer brought it to the table. What's more, this most recent announcement comes on the heels of New York installing Archbishop Dolan.

President Obama's controversial economic recovery plan passed the Senate, and is now on its way to House-Senate negotiations. According to AP, "Just three Republicans helped pass the plan on a 61-37 vote and they're already signaling they'll play hardball to preserve more than $108 billion in spending cuts made last week in Senate dealmaking. Obama wants to restore cuts in funds for school construction jobs and help for cash-starved states." But Republicans are still snippy about the entire thing "This is a spending bill, not a stimulus bill," whined Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn. The stimulus bill could cost up to $838 billion.

(By Anonymous) [No, not them, but a well-respected writer who choose SFist in which to rant about their woeful experience at St. Luke's, using a veil of anonymity. -- SFist]

The billing department at St. Luke's Hospital in San Francisco is a shady operation. Last month we received two bills for about 250 bucks each. Our primary doctor is based out of St. Luke's, so most medical needs are taken care of there. One of the bills was for services this year, and since $250 is my insurance's yearly deductible, we paid it, no questions asked. But the second bill, you see, was for services from 2007. When we called St. Luke's to ask about it, they said that Aetna had paid for the services in 2007, but then "took the money back."

WTF?

So. We called my insurance, and asked them about it and they had no idea what St. Luke's was talking about, and told us to check our records and see if we had indeed paid them last year around the time the services were done. Alas, we checked our records, and could find nothing indicating that we had paid St. Luke's at that time, so: we went ahead and forked over the money.