So, like, you might assume that interviewer Hank Plante would ask about this mysterious absense from all his official events, and his unannounced, Mark Sanford-style trip to Hawaii. But Newsom just wants to grin and laugh the soulless laugh of a cornered Scientologist, and talk about the budget deficit. It is a terrible, terrible interview, with the rictus smile and the mirthless laughter. And it ends with Newsom removing his mic and bitching, off the record, about how mean it is of journalists to ask what the hell is up with him.

And then the Wall Street Journal reported that Newsom was going to quit politics and go back to his winery. Newsom called the reporter to deny it, but there's no way in hell this guy's remaining in office until 2012.

The event in question, a forum being put on by the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, will bring all the big gubernatorial candidates, including Gavin Newsom, a conversation on the state's many, many problems and how to fix them. Sadly for those who support the right-wing Whitman, she's going to be too busy at Fortune Magazine's "Most Powerful Women" Summit.

Sure, she helped John McCain last year, he's helping her and she knows how to be a flip-flopping demagogue, but that doesn't mean she's ready for the big leagues. She's already missed at least one event: a debate at the Sacramento Press Club. And she hasn't yet sent her RSVP for an October debate. Her flack insists she will participate in some debates down the line and stressed that she's holding "Meet Meg" events around the state, like one where she spoke at Yahoo's offices.

Good grief, these media mavens mulling public office sure are messy. Yes, we're talking about you, Carly Fiorina.

Although, seriously, if Meg Whitman wants to blend into the state's political scene, she needs to stop trying to separate herself from the pack. People trust politicians who can play the game. And that means playing with others. But, what do we know? We're just computer geeks — a group that has no place in politics whatsoever, right?

Apparently on leave from the heavily-armed governor's compound, Arnold Schwarzenegger visited Twitter's San Francisco HQ today for a webcast meet-and-greet. During his visit, the Republican casually mentioned that 90 percent of Americans are satisfied with their health care, that reforms perhaps should focus on a disgruntled minority of maybe 5 percent, and that the state's education crisis can be solved in part by seeking volunteer P.E. instructors.

In response to this political red meat, the watchdogs hanging out on Twitter asked a series of questions amounting to, "Why are you so awesome?" as seen in the attached clip. The third question was whether the state should tax something it's already taxing (legalized gambling). Then the governor received a t-shirt and went home. The tee might not fit very well — perhaps for his wife, CEO Evan Williams offered — but microblogging, with its magnetic effect on the star-struck and the bored, would appear to suit the governor quite well.

First it was that huge knife he pulled out, at random, on a video posted to his Twitter stream. Now he's admitted to keeping his sword from the Conan the Barbarian movies in his office, as well, and even uploaded a picture of the thing. We thought we'd seen it all in California politics but, honestly, who does this? Is it supposed to frighten his political opponents? Awe fans of 1980s muscle flicks?

We shudder to think what other implements of death the governor might be keeping in that office. This is the guy who starred in Predator, after all. We've let our imaginations run wild in the photo gallery below, showing a logical progression in gubernatorial arms.

The knife Schwarzenegger brandished in July. It CUTS fat from the budget, like education funding. Ha ha, get it??

The Conan sword Schwarzenegger just disclosed. He can really take a WHACK at spending with that thing!

Why not a grenade launcher mounted under an assault rifle? The governor could blow holes in the status quo with that thing. "Today, I am here to LAUNCH a new initiative. I think you'll find its potential is EXPLOSIVE."

A Gatling gun would be great for mowing down the naysayers in the press, right Arnold? "I've put a few new issues into the ROTATION, guys. I hope you don't mind if my answers sound a little CANNON-ED."

Fiorina's name has come up in politics even before she left HP. She was a fundraiser for McCain in last year's campaign, and a visible spokeswoman until she committed one gaffe too many. Now she seems to be plowing ahead with a campaign, despite a recent brush with breast cancer.

Polls show her faring poorly against incumbent Democrat Barbara Boxer. And the newfound populist mood will prove hard for her to exploit, given her own pay record. (Her lukewarm proposal to put executive pay up to an annual shareholder vote seems unlikely to score points.) A Boxer fundraiser is already jumping on the news, sending the following email to supporters:

I just wanted to pass along some late-breaking news: According to a post this afternoon on the San Jose Mercury News website, during a
trip to Washington, DC on Tuesday, former HP CEO Carly Fiorina said she is "seriously considering" challenging Senator Barbara Boxer in 2010.

Fiorina reportedly received more than $150 million during her time at HP — including $21 million in severance pay after she left under fire — while laying off more than 25,000 employees as CEO, none of whom received the kind of golden parachute she did. Now she has millions of her own dollars to pour into a possible campaign against Barbara Boxer.

Another weak point for Fiorina: Her championing of visas for skilled workers at a think tank she just joined. America needs immigrant talent — but that's a tough issue to sell to voters.

She tells Fortune that she might spend $50 million of her own money on the campaign. That figure daunts even Jerry Brown, the state attorney general who's running for a second stint as governor: "That's a lot!"

But what does she bring besides money? The article glosses over her spotty voting record — she voted in less than half of the past 10 year's elections. And it also gives her a pass on her opposition to gay marriage. That position, in particular, has enraged natural supporters inside eBay and around the Bay Area, where a business conservative might otherwise hope to win crossover votes. (Puzzle this one out: Whitman's longtime assistant at eBay, Anita Gaeta, is a lesbian who lives with her partner in San Jose, and is working with her on the campaign.)

Whitman's fundamental mistake seems to be thinking that the decisiveness she displayed as eBay's CEO will translate into governance. Hold on a second. Was Whitman that great a CEO, beyond eBay's first few years, when the startup was fueled by the strength of founder Pierre Omidyar's idea of an online auction?

She made several bad mistakes in the second half of her career at eBay: buying the voice-over-Internet startup Skype for $2.6 billion; enraging eBay's sellers by hiking fees; and putting a revolving door of leaders through PayPal, the company's online service, which eBay is only now focusing on as a growth engine.

So, let's review: This is a person who engaged in wasteful spending, raised eBay's equivalent of taxes, and squandered opportunities for growth.

"Being CEO of the state is not a popularity contest," she says. Well, actually, last time we checked, getting the job was. Whitman had better start trying being popular, because running on her business record seems like a non-starter.

As if he planned to reveal it all along, Newsom casually Twittered that his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, was pregnant, after the Valleywag reported the news yesterday. In a news conference today, though, he admitted that the news didn't come out quite the way he wanted:

The mayor fielded questions about fatherhood today following a news conference about improvements to Civic Center Plaza, saying that the baby is due later this year, possibly sometime in September.

Newsom welcomed "any advice on diapers, any advice on feeding times, any advice on names," or other topics related to a new child, and said he was already receiving tips on his Twitter account....

He said some extended family members learned of the pregnancy through TV reports.

He even apologized to his Aunt Annie:

"Unfortunately, some gossip column in New York City leaked this, and so we didn't announce it in the way we intended to, but such is the life of public service," Newsom said Thursday outside City Hall. "I had to deal with my aunt. To my Aunt Annie, I apologize for you watching it on TV last night. The point being that I hadn't reached out to our extended family to let them know before everyone else found out."

("Some gossip column in New York City"? Gavin, hon, you need to brush up on your local media. Valleywag is based in San Francisco. How else would we have heard about it first?)

What better way to play the news than as benighted new father, dealing with anxious relatives and soliciting advice about diapers? It is a happy event for the Newsoms, certainly, as a family. But going into a tight race to be California's next governor, it could also spell a rebirth of his political ambitions.

Newsom, a Democrat, has declared himself a candidate for California's governor seat, a wide-open race taking place next year, since term limits are keeping Arnold Schwarzenegger from running again. A rising star in the Democratic party, Newsom has hurt himself with gaffes both personal and political.

He and his first wife, Fox News TV host kimberly Guilfoyle, divorced in 2006. While going through the divorce, Newsom had an affair with Ruby Rippey-Tourk, the wife of his campaign manager, Alex Tourk. The divorce and affair ruined Newsom's Camelot-by-the-Bay image.

His wedding last year to Siebel, a cousin of wealthy software entrepreneur Tom Siebel, was a step towards restoring his tattered image. (Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin ferried guests in their private jet to the wedding site on a Montana ranch.)

But then came Proposition 8, California's ban on gay marriage, a cause Newsom has championed since he defied state law in 2004 by issuing marriage licenses to gay couples (including the author of this post). At a rally, Newsom declared that gay marriage was coming to California "whether you like it or not," a sound bite Prop 8 supporters aired endlessly in TV commercials and was cited in many election post-mortems as a factor in the passage of Prop 8.

With memories of his messy personal life still fresh, and his main cause defeated in the last state election, Newsom's push for the governor's seat looked like it was off to a rocky start. In the Democratic primary, he faces California Attorney General Jerry Brown, the former Governor Moonbeam.

But political observers say Brown may strike potential voters as too old. With Newsom's wife expecting a child in the fall, he will have the perfect family-man campaign prop. What better way for a claimant to the throne to seem young and vital than to have his very own heir?

Update: The mayor's office has confirmed that the Newsoms are expecting. Spokesman Nathan Ballard said:

We are pleased to confirm that Mayor Gavin Newsom and First Lady Jennifer Siebel Newsom are starting a family. The Mayor and the First Lady are thrilled to be embarking on this adventure together, and they appreciate your good wishes.

Guess who wasn't expecting this? Gavin's dad and Jennifer's mom, both of whom told the San Francisco Examiner that their children hadn't let them in on the secret.

(Photos by Getty Images)

In her quest for political power, she has gone through a puzzling makeover. She first entered politics as the finance cochair for Mitt Romney's GOP presidential campaign, and then threw her support behind John McCain when Romney dropped out. McCain gave her a primetime speaking slot at the Republican National Convention (where she bombed). And she has now assembled a team of campaigns veterans who worked with Romney, George W. Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

They will surely try to position her a centrist, business-friendly replacement for Schwarzenegger. But she is hardly that. Her support of Proposition 8, California's gay-marriage ban, has embittered many natural supporters in her home turf of northern California. Gay eBay employees, an influential group within the company, are especially furious at her betrayal. The new fees eBay pushed on sellers have tarnished her image as a friend of small businesses. And her failure to secure key domain names like meg2010.com, combined with her failed attempt to reclaim them from the man who registered them, hardly makes her seem tech-savvy.

Outside of the Bay Area, she is a virtual unknown; two-thirds of California voters have no opinion of her. Hence the soft-focus photo on her campaign homepage. Who is Meg Whitman? At this point, people who worked for her for years say they don't know. Perhaps that makes her the perfect political candidate: a blank slate of ambition, free of core beliefs, on whom political consultants can write whatever it takes to get elected.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, can't run again because of California's term-limits laws, which means the 2010 race to replace the Governator is wide open on both sides — the only kind of scenario in which a political novice like Whitman might even consider running for office. (She could even face a former employee: Steve Westly, an eBay executive who won election as California's state controller in 2002, is a Democratic contender.)

Why won't Whitman just come out and say she's running as a Republican candidate? Her off-again, on-again efforts are increasingly bizarre. She didn't even register as a party member until 2007, when she started working on Mitt Romney's doomed campaign. She then staked out a far-right position on gay marriage, at odds with eBay's HR practices. She has yet to form an exploratory committee, a necessary step before she can start raising money for the 2010 election.

And yet she is taking vigorous action against a California businessman who registered several domain names related to a Whitman gubernatorial campaign. Henry Gomez, a former eBay executive who now serves as her spokesman, offered the lamest possible explanation for the effort: "We're retired. We're bored."

Whitman must be even more restless, now that she's quit her corporate boards. But her pseudocampaign is off to a rocky start. She hired Republican operative Steve Schmidt, who ran campaigns for George Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and John McCain, last fall — but he quietly quit the Whitman effort in December. One step forward, one step back. She's not even running, and yet Whitman's finding politics much harder than business.

(Photo by Getty Images)

The Google cofounders, according to Thomasson, "replaced all notions of God's truth by worshiping money as god." Also, the company makes fun of Easter and prefers "pagan-type holidays." Of course, no one seems to have told the CCF's Webmaster — the screenshot from CCF's page on current issues surrounding marriage in California asks users to search Google News for the latest updates on heathen abominations.
(Photo by AP/Steve Yeater, via Mangoes)

Pickens and Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey McClendon are about to convince California voters to fork over $5 billion in a ballot proposition called the "California Alternative Fuels Initiative." It's really a giveaway to natural gas developers like Pickens and McClendon.

Good thing he's sticking to energy, an industry he understands. When last we heard from the iconic corporate raider, he was busy losing piles of money on Yahoo and cursing the company's management.

That debacle forgotten, of late he's has been getting more media attention for his role in massive projects under the catchy "Pickens Plan."

Part of that plan is California's Proposition 10, due for a vote in November. Pickens and McClendon have spent only $3.7 million so far promoting the $5 billion bond measure, according to the Wall Street Journal. If it passes, that's one heck of a return on investment.

The plan will ultimately cost taxpayers $8.9 billion and raise sales taxes with no guarantees that the state will actually see much of a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. You'd think environmentalists would have seen through Pickens "reformed oil man" facade, but you'd be wrong: With less than three months until the issue is due for a vote, no formal opposition has emerged.

Pickens is a pro at bending state politics to his will. His plan to drill for groundwater in the Texas panhandle and sell it to Dallas residents met with opposition from ecologists and landowners, since it required a 250-mile straw to drink up the Ogallala aquifer's milkshake.

So Pickens slapped some wind-turbine generators onto the plan, and with the help of some changes to local laws, managed to place himself at the head of a new water district with the power of eminent domain in order to seize the necessary land across the dusty Texas plains for the pipeline. It's the kind of move that you would think would provoke bipartisan disgust — natural-resource exploitation, to offend the liberals, with the abuse of eminent domain for private gain, to piss off the conservatives.

Instead, the longtime Republican who helped swiftboat Democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry is winning green points amongst conservatives by promising "energy independence" from foreign oil. And Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D.-San Francisco, is an investor in Pickens's Clean Energy Fuels. As such, she stands to profit from the deal as well, effectively silencing the state and national Democratic Party on the issue

Our ten-gallon hats are off to the man for suckering both sides of the aisle into giving him what he wants and the public into thinking he's motivated by anything more than greed. Well played, Mr. Pickens, well played.

• If you're an employee who's paid hourly and has filled out a W-2 form, you are probably non-exempt. In which case, you are entitled to time-and-a-half after eight hours in a day or the first eight hours on the seventh continuous day and beyond, and double-time after twelve hours in a day or eight hours on the seventh continuous day.
• For salaried workers, there are three classes of exemption. If you are an "executive," you are exempt from overtime. Executives are involved in the management of the company, have at least two subordinates reporting to them directly, have the power to hire and fire employees or recommend such actions and are allowed to make independent decisions that impact the business.
• The "administrator" exemption only applies in cases where an employee is administering the business affairs of a company, directly assists a proprietor or executive, or works independently and exercises discretion on non-manual tasks that involve special skill or technical expertise. However, if you're in the process of producing goods and services that the company sells, you're probably not exempt. This class of exemption is often abused.
• The "professional" exemption is one that's often abused at technology companies, because accredited engineers or others doing "learned or artistic" creative or intellectual work is exempted — but only if they make over twice the state's full-time minimum wage in salary, which is over $33,000 a year. And this is meant to apply to individuals, not entire classes of employees at a company (hence the quantity of class-action suits when companies apply the exemption too broadly).

The choice of whether or not to allow the Prius to be assembled in the United States (most of the parts will likely be built in China/Japan) or the choice of production facilities is probably more Toyota's than GM's. More importantly, according to one Toyota spokesperson, they are actually contemplating the decision:

"Nothing has been decided on production of Prius at the joint venture New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., even though Toyota is always seeking ways to build the most appropriate production system."