While the rush is now on to get ballot measures qualified for the November general election in California, the state’s voters will also get to decide the fate of a pair of initiatives in the June primary. Today’s California Update examines the first of those two issues.

Sacramento is increasingly looking ahead to the November election—yes, already—on multiple fronts. But somehow they all seem to boil down to budget issues.

A ballot measure requiring the labeling of genetically modified foods has taken a big step forward, while funding priorities for the California State University system are also expected to be affected by the November election.

Retired Citigroup CEO Sanford Weill (right) will receive an honorary doctorate, along with his wife Joan, from Sonoma State University on the afternoon of May 12.

Some SSU students, faculty, and staff are upset by this degree, describing it as “dishonorable.” As someone who has taught at SSU for the last four years, I have been interviewing members of our academic community about this matter.

Weill was CEO of Citigroup, the largest of the “too-big-to-fail” banks bailed out by taxpayers. Last year he gave $12 million for SSU’s new Green Music Center (GMC). At issue are how Weill got that money and what strings were attached to his passing that money on to SSU.

A major purveyor of toxic mortgages, Citigroup required $45 billion in government investment and a $300 billion guarantee of its bad assets to avoid bankruptcy.

“Sandy Weill is a greedy man,” says Melanie Sanders, a graduating senior of SSU’s Hutchins School. “He is a symbol of a nation’s economy becoming increasingly unbalanced and building the accounts of the ultra-rich on the backs of the very poor. Half of my school loans are with Citigroup. I once took out $15,000 in student loans. Now $29,365 is due.”

Such doubling, or even more, of student loans is no longer unusual. It used to be called usury and was considered at least immoral; it was often illegal as well. Weill, Citigroup and other big banks create debt bondage to banks. The national student debt recently reached $1 trillion, larger than all the credit card debt in the U.S.

“I am financially broken by his former company and unlikely to recover. I am compelled to protest this award. I must now call my grandma and explain that I will be protesting at my graduation ceremony. I am personally offended that he will be at my graduation and receiving a degree,” Sanders added. SSU is offending many by this decision.

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What do the Sierra snowpack and the state’s economy have in common? There is less to both than Californians would like.

May Day 2012, a.k.a. International Workers Day, was honored with parades, rallies and marches across the country and around the world on Tuesday, including in Santa Rosa. KRCB reporter Danielle Venton was on hand to observe the activites, and filed this report late in the afternoon.

Colorful native dancers (below)  were part of the festivites in Roseland, before the procession wound its way to Julliard Park. The day's events also included a  series of public actions coordinated by Occupy Santa Rosa, including protests at a pair of downtown banks, and a flash mob "nap in," to call attion to and oppose Santa Rosa's restrictions on sleeping in public places.