Sunday Links

• Say what you want about the Governator, but for a Republican he's got some really good initiatives, especially when it comes to the environment. Now, he is proposing that all Californian children, including those in the state illegally, be guaranteed medical insurance as part of his stated goal to ensure medical coverage for all of the 6.5 million Californians who now have none.

• Insurers are about to begin canceling policies in New Orleans.

• The AFL-CIO and the United Food and Commercial Workers are suing the Labor Department for inaction on a worker safety rule that requires employers to pay for personal protective equipment.

• The death penalty is about to be abolished in NJ, after a report found it "costly and pointless."

• And last but not least, it has been revealed that the White House and the Secret Service signed an agreement last year, in the heat of the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, that declared that records identifying visitors to the White House are not open to the public. Do not think for one moment that the new Democratically-held Congress is going to forget to look into this.