BOUQUET: To homeowners of a large southwest Tracy landscape maintenance district, for seeking an assessment increase through a special election in December. If approved as expected Tuesday night by the Tracy City Council, property owners in Zone 9 will be asked to pay almost $100 more annually for maintenance to median strips, public areas that include 12 parks and street trees. The new $226 annual fee will be assessed to 2,355 homes if approved by Zone 9 voters.

BARB: To the city of Tracy, for not budgeting more Public Works Department crews to keep up with replacing burnt out bulbs in streetlights, especial along major thoroufares and intersections. With later sunrises and earlier sunsets, the lack of lighting is a safety and security concern for drivers and pedestrians.

BOUQUET: To Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for vetoing a Democratic-approved universal health insurance measure that would have employers not offering employee health insurance to pay a minimum 7.5 percent payroll tax. Schwarzenegger’s alternative plan offers a sliding payroll-tax scale from zero to 4 percent based on the size of the company’s payroll.

BOUQUET: A second bunch of flowers goes to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, for signing a law prohibiting cities from requiring landlords to ask the residency status of tenants.

BARB: To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., for inserting a provision into a Defense Department spending bill that allows senators to continue to book multiple tickets with airlines to get home in the most expeditious way possible. This provision would protect senators from having to pay a penalty from multiple bookings, as other Americans must do.

BOUQUET: To Al Gore, for giving his $750,000 Nobel Peace Prize winnings to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a year-old organization campaigning to fight global warming and its potentially catastrophic impacts by publicizing the effects of global warming and turning citizens into climate-change activists (Live Earth concerts).

BARB: To Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, for having a too cozy living relationship with his chief political fundraiser. He shares a luxury downtown LA penthouse with Daniel Weitzman, who has collected nearly $600,000 in fees and expenses from Nunez’s political committees and the state Democratic Party since 2005. Nunez also owns a $1.2 million ranch-style home in Sacramento with his wife, Maria Robles.