California Roundup: Will Golden State Fall Behind On License Plate Advertising? Cortines: No More!

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Say it ain't so, Ray! L.A. schools Superintendent Ramon Cortines -- like former LAPD Chief William Bratton a whipping boy in both the Giuliani and Villaraigosa administrations -- will quit before his self-mandated three-year tenure is up. L.A. Times' Howard Blume reports.

* Do tax hikes help budgets? Get your five minutes of econ at Calwatchdog.com. It will clean out the pipes.

* George Skelton rallies the base with an improbable warning that HPCEO Carly Fiorina (R) might unseat Sen. Dianne Feinstein Barbara Boxer (D). [Doh! Thanks to commenter Ron for pointing out my Freudian slip, which in my defense I can only say stemmed from my love of DiFi, not my disapprobation of Boxer.]

* Legislative Analysts' Office rules on pot-legalizing Prop 19: Fiscal Impact: "[P]otential increased tax and fee revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually and potential correctional savings of several tens of millions of dollars annually." So why are the Democrats against it?

* If you can randomize my license number you've got a deal: State Sen. Curren D. Price Jr. defends his forward-looking plan to study digital license plates against a say-no-to-digital weigh-in by Nick Goldberg's L.A. Times ed board.