This past weekend Jen and I paid visits to both the San Francisco SPCA and the city pound. The first stop did not result in any love-at-first-sight scenarios, but the latter brought us face to face with Lucas, an adorable five-month-old black lab. Upon passing by his cage, he pressed his face against the cold metal fence and shoved his disproportionately large paws underneath, as he maneuvered his fuzzy little body as close to us as possible.

After filling out the necessary paperwork (that even included a call to my leasing office to confirm that I really am allowed to have a dog) just to "meet" Lucas, we were escorted to the "Getting Acquainted" room. There, the furry ball of affection slid and skidded across the linoleum floor, eager to chase down the tennis ball in whatever corner it landed. He was careful to stop and lie down from time to time for some much-needed puppy lovin'.

If no one else beats us to him, Lucas might soon be the most popular member of this household. And surely the hit of next weekend's party.

-Gabe

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In the grand scheme of issues, this bill, which dealt with journalists' access to state prisons, was easy to overlook. It got little attention and disappeared without trace. But it is an important bill nonetheless, and the governor's decision to scuttle it reaffirms suspicions that Davis is attempting to run the most closed gubernatorial administration in recent memory.

The bill by Sen. Carole Migden, a San Francisco Democrat, sought to overturn a policy established in 1996 by the administration of Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, which placed restrictions on reporters seeking interviews with prison inmates.

Although it was never acknowledged publicly, numerous Capitol observers said privately that the Wilson policy stemmed from scathing investigative reports earlier in the Orange County Register. Among other things, the paper noted that guards with rifles routinely shot at unarmed inmates in fistfights, and that California guards killed three times as many inmates between 1989 and 1994 as in all other state and federal prisons combined.

Under the Wilson policy, the Corrections Department stopped setting up inmate interviews, and blocked reporters from bringing notebooks, pencils, tape recorders and cameras into prisons. Journalists have long chafed at the policy, which originated at the upper levels of the Corrections Department, but the state said the policy would not affect the public's ability to know what is going on inside California's prisons.

A number of legislative critics of that policy, however, said it blocked effective and aggressive reporting about the prison system. While that contention is arguable, there is no question that reporters' access to prisons has been restricted.

Davis staff said his veto stemmed in part from the desire to deny celebrity status to inmates, and to balance the needs of the state with those of the reporters and the inmates' families.

But the result of his veto is that a policy restricting public access to the darkest corner of state government will remain in effect. The issue isn't whether some inmates are celebrities or whether the public needs to know every detail of prison life, but whether the conduct of state authority behind bars is lawful.

Subsequent news reports, particularly those in the Los Angeles Times that focused on Corcoran State Prison, have examined the conduct of correctional officers and have identified major problems, despite the restrictive policy. The Davis administration argues, in effect, that these news reports show that the policy isn't really restrictive.

But the flip side is equally valid: If the policy is really having little effect, why continue it?

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