He Wants to Pin a Tax on Disposable Diapers

Constituents have called to say they think it stinks, but state Sen. Don Perata believes that when California babies grow up, they’ll thank their forebears for taxing disposable diapers to keep them out of landfills.

The Oakland Democrat wants to tax disposable diapers at a quarter-cent each, arguing that, with landfills already filling up, “elected officials, policymakers, health professionals, waste haulers, recycling experts and parents agree: Disposable diapers just don’t belong in our state’s landfills, for both environmental and public health reasons.”

A dozen years ago, the Federal Trade Commission ordered an Orange County company to stop advertising that its diapers would decompose in landfills.

Studies have shown varying rates of diaper decomposition in landfills, where junk is packed so densely that “biodegradable” may be a process that takes decades or even centuries.

Human lifespans tend to max out around 100 years; humans’ diapers can linger in landfills about 500 years -- and more than 20 billion of them are sent to the nation’s landfills every year.

Perata’s bill, which would probably hasten potty training, would dedicate the tax money to pay for diaper-recycling programs.

Ink Is Red -- and Maybe Some Faces

The ink is red, but his politics aren’t: Irvine’s longtime Republican state Sen. Ross Johnson has been penning his “Red Ink Diaries” for Capitol insiders, sending zingers in the direction of Gov. Gray Davis.

His latest takes Davis to task for accumulating a staff of nearly 200, including more than 100 personal aides working in various state departments with salaries totaling $7.7 million.

Davis’ press secretary, Steve Maviglio, sent out his anti-ballistic-missile announcement to intercept Johnson’s.

The Capitol Morning Report points out the salaries of Johnson’s staff of 11, among them special assistant and longtime Johnson employee Susan Swatt, who earns $133,416 a year -- $2,000 more than the governor’s chief of staff -- and Johnson’s own chief of staff, former Orange County assemblyman Dennis Brown, who makes $100,752.

Been Down This Street Before

He was caught cruising in a state-leased SUV, and now he may be cruising for a fall.

Assemblyman Steve Samuelian, a Clovis Republican, is feeling the heat from conservatives to resign after Fresno police caught him cruising in late January on the same street where he was arrested in 1998 for intending to solicit sex from a prostitute.

Although police recommended Samuelian be charged with loitering for the purpose of soliciting an act of prostitution, the city attorney’s office declined to press charges because of insufficient evidence.

He paid a $500 fine after that 1998 citation and completed a one-day diversion program. That removed the citation from his record.

The latest resignation demand comes from the California Young Americans for Freedom, which tried to shame Samuelian into dropping his candidacy three years ago, handing out a flier about his first arrest at the party’s spring convention.

Earlier this month, Cal-YAF’s board faxed a letter and a copy of the new arrest report -- with the police recommendation that Samuelian be cited for loitering with intent to solicit prostitution -- to every Republican Assembly member.

The former YAF-er is “a disgrace to the conservative movement,” YAF Chairman Chad Morgan said.

Assembly members who haven’t condemned him, Morgan continued, “can no longer hide from reporters by saying they don’t have the facts.”

Samuelian’s former boss, Mariposa Republican Rep. George P. Radanovich, has added his voice to those calling for Samuelian to step down.

The assemblyman himself has made no comment.

He told officers who stopped him that he got lost while trying to drop off a flier at the Fresno County Farm Bureau about 9:45 p.m.

She’s Got Designs on George Magazine

It’s George Redux, and it’s coming to Los Angeles.

The political magazine launched by John F. Kennedy Jr. in 1995 to impart some style to politics and vice versa closed its covers in March 2001.

Now the youngest daughter of Kenneth O’Donnell, onetime aide to John F. Kennedy and bosom buddy of Robert F. Kennedy, says she is going to launch a successor to George, a “leaner, meaner” magazine, and she’s going to do it out of L.A.

“What John was trying to do with George was try to bring politics back to the average guy, the everyday guy who gets you elected, and that’s what we want to do with the magazine,” said Helen O’Donnell, in describing the pitch to “the average citizen who, post-9/11, really realized they have to care about politics.”

For O’Donnell, “The most logical first step to do that is get out of New York, or you’re going to get that sort of inward-looking approach to things.”

She knew JFK Jr. and spoke with some of his friends and family members and with political people who said, “ ‘It’s a shame the magazine had closed,’ so I thought, ‘What the heck, I’ll look into it.’

“I thought [JFK Jr.] really had a good idea and may have been a little bit ahead of his time.”

Until she finds out whether she can get the rights to the name George, the magazine’s working title is Common Good.

O’Donnell hopes to have a mockup done by June and a limited newsstand launch in September.

Points Taken

* The L.A. City Council voted to name an 8th District constituent service center after the district’s former council member, Mark Ridley-Thomas, now an Assembly member.

* Rep. George Miller of Martinez, ranking Democrat on the Committee on Education and the Workforce, wants to raise the minimum wage by $1.50 an hour, to $6.65, in two steps over 14 months. He introduced House legislation identical to a Senate bill by Democratic Minority Leader Tom Daschle. Combined, the two bills have nearly 100 co-sponsors in both houses.

* The Women of Los Angeles group is sponsoring a “Report Card on Women’s Rights” in this country and around the world on March 17 at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills, featuring Gloria Steinem, Mavis Leno, Peg Yorkin and Maureen Britell.

You Can Quote Me

“It’s one of those basic truths -- you can’t legislate common sense and politeness.”

Kim Kuo, spokeswoman for the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Assn., which opposes San Francisco’s trying to follow New York City’s example to do just that: ban the audible use of cell phones, both ringing and talking, in all places of public performance, except sporting events -- and in case of emergency.

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Patt Morrison’s e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes .com. This week’s contributors include Jean O. Pasco.