State & Regional Govt & Politics Stories for December 2012
Stories for Sunday, December 30
Mortgages, guns among new-law topics for state legislators
Homeowners will have increased protections from foreclosure under some of the hundreds of state laws taking effect with the new year. California also is studying whether to create the nation's first state-administered retirement savings program for some 6 million private-sector workers, although it will take additional legislation before the program ...
Stories for Thursday, December 27
Gov. Brown appoints former lawmaker to judge post
Gov. Jerry Brown has appointed a former Democratic state lawmaker to a judgeship in Sacramento County after she decided against seeking re-election amid a divorce and financial troubles. The governor announced Thursday the appointment of former Assemblywoman Alyson Huber, who represented Sacramento suburbs in the Legislature. Huber, who is 40, ...
Stories for Wednesday, December 26
Secret Boy Scout sex abuse claims posted online
Thousands of previously unpublished Boy Scouts of America files that detail suspected sexual abuse by employees and volunteers have been posted online. The Los Angeles Times published the database containing redacted victims' names on Tuesday, including material that was released earlier by an Oregon Supreme Court judge's ruling. The names ...
Stories for Monday, December 24
Brown issues pardons based on 'exemplary behavior'
Gov. Jerry Brown pardoned 79 convicted felons who had served their sentences and committed no other crimes for at least a decade, the governor's office announced Monday. Pardons can be granted to those who have demonstrated exemplary behavior following their conviction. Most of Brown's pardons went to people who had ...
Stories for Friday, December 21
California jobless rate dips below 10 percent
California's jobless rate dipped below 10 percent last month for the first time since the recession began, the state announced Friday, signaling that the state's economy may have finally turned the corner. The 9.8 percent unemployment rate reported by the Employment Development Department is down from 10.1 percent in October. ...
Stories for Thursday, December 20
Brown: Medi-Cal expansion could hit state budget
Expanding the state's Medi-Cal program to meet new federal guidelines could add up to $4 billion a year in costs at the same time California is implementing federal health reform, potentially putting its budget "right out of whack," Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday. In an interview with The Associated Press, ...
Stories for Tuesday, December 18
Gun maker investment slipped through teacher fund
The nation's largest teachers' pension fund announced Tuesday that it was reviewing all its firearms holdings after one investment with ties to last week's Connecticut school massacre slipped through the pension's own ethics review. The California State Teachers' Retirement System, which manages $155 billion in assets, was looking at whether ...
State releases draft fracking regulations
California regulators released draft rules Tuesday that would govern hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," involved in oil recovery. The proposed rules were posted online by state oil regulators. California currently oversees oil well construction, but it had not previously required disclosure of fracking practices. Under the draft regulations, operators would have ...
Controller finds more problems in state parks
More than 200 state employees were overpaid more than $500,000 by managers who deliberately broke state rules at the troubled California Department of Parks and Recreation, according to a report Tuesday by the state controller. The report is the latest blow to a department where employees were found last summer ...
Stories for Monday, December 17
SF judge considers sex offenders' social media in Prop 35 case
Even child sex offenders have free speech rights. The question for a federal judge Monday was whether those rights can be limited by a voter-approved requirement that registered sex offenders turn over vital online information such as social media passwords, usernames and Internet service providers to law-enforcement officials. U.S. District ...
Stories for Thursday, December 13
SoCal judge says victims' body can prevent rape
A Southern California judge is being publicly admonished for saying a rape victim "didn't put up a fight" during her assault and that if someone doesn't want sexual intercourse, the body "will not permit that to happen." The California Commission on Judicial Performance voted 10-0 to impose a public admonishment ...
Ruling allows California to cut Medi-Cal payments
A federal appeals court on Thursday affirmed California's right to cut payments made to Medi-Cal providers by 10 percent, a victory that Gov. Jerry Brown's administration says will save the state more than $330 million a year. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that trial courts cannot block ...
Stories for Wednesday, December 12
Feds auction prime state land for oil development
The federal government auctioned off nearly 18,000 acres of oil leases on prime public lands on Wednesday in Central California, home to prized vineyards, several endangered species and one of the largest deposits of shale oil in the country. Eight different groups — including oil companies — bid for the ...
Stories for Tuesday, December 11
State audit: Whistleblowers ID thousands in waste
State employees engaged in bribery, conspiracy to commit mail fraud, received improper overtime payments and were wrongly reimbursed for thousands of dollars in travel expenses, including one scheme that cost two state agencies more than $227,000 in lost payments, California's state auditor reported Tuesday. In her annual whistleblower report, state ...
Stories for Sunday, December 9
New lawmakers to join in adding, changing votes
California Assembly leaders say they have no plans to change their longstanding practice of adding and changing thousands of votes after their votes are cast on the Legislature floor, despite criticism from good government groups that say it allows lawmakers to obscure their real positions and curry favor with lobbyists. ...
Hope, fear in gay marriage cases at high court
Gay marriage supporters see 41 reasons to fret over the Supreme Court's decision to take up the case of California's ban on same-sex unions. While nine states allow same-sex partners to marry, or will soon, 41 states do not. Of those, 30 have written gay marriage bans into their state ...
Stories for Friday, December 7
Both sides cheer high court's gay marriage review
The bitter rivals in California's gay marriage debate were in complete agreement Friday: The U.S. Supreme Court's decision to take up the state's gay marriage ban was a good thing. Of course, each side is now hoping for a diametrically opposite ruling. Still, both sides expressed relief that the long, ...
Stories for Wednesday, December 5
California lawmakers' vehicle repairs at a glance
This is a list of repairs requested by lawmakers in the final months before the state was forced to end a one of its kind perk that provided vehicles to state lawmakers at taxpayer expense. Of the 64 lawmakers who had state-financed repairs, 36 then bought their vehicles. State senators ...
AP Exclusive: California Lawmakers bought cars fixed by state
At least a dozen California lawmakers repaired or upgraded their state-provided vehicles at taxpayers' expense in the final weeks before the one-of-its-kind perk was ending, then later bought those vehicles for personal use. The improvements ranged from cosmetic changes such as fixing dents and replacing wheel covers, to getting tires, ...
Stories for Tuesday, December 4
Mayor: Deal approved to end costly port strike
Where the story occurred, was written or filed. Do not include the dash. Examples: ATHENS, Ga. or OAKLAND, Calif. Story: Negotiators reached an agreement late Tuesday to end an eight-day strike that crippled the nation's largest port complex and prevented shippers from delivering billions of dollars in cargo to warehouses ...
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