SACRAMENTO -- Jettisoning another apparently losing cause, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has abandoned a yearlong legal fight over hospital staffing rules, one that sparked the public employee rebellion that led to the defeat of his special election agenda.
The administration's effort last November to scale back some of the strict nurse-to-patient ratios that lawmakers imposed on California hospitals was rejected repeatedly by a Sacramento County Superior Court judge.
Late Thursday — the same day Schwarzenegger pledged publicly to be less combative with those who had opposed him — the governor's office directed its lawyers to drop its appeal.
Leaders of the California Nurses Assn., which had challenged Schwarzenegger in court, said today that they viewed the action as both an "olive branch" and a "strategic retreat." The nurses declared victory Friday after hounding Schwarzenegger throughout California, holding 107 protests against his policies.
"The governor did extend the olive branch and we don't want to be ungracious," said Rose Ann DeMoro, the union's executive director. "But as he extends this branch, we will never take our eye off the tree. What we are focused on is that this governor takes his direction from corporations."...
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