Hearing 7/9/21 On Gov. Newsom Lawsuit Against SOS to Get Party ID on Recall Ballot
Newsom blew the deadline on a statute he signed into law in 2019
As the Globe reported last week, Governor Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against California Secretary of State Shirley Weber Monday asking the court to require the Secretary of State print Newsom’s political party on the recall ballots, after neglecting to file the proper party notice 16 months ago.
“Lawmakers who are the subject of a recall have the option to file a notice of party preference after the recall notice is first submitted, which for Newsom would have been 16 months ago in February 2020,” the Globe reported. “However, he didn’t file a notice with the Secretary of State’s office until June 19, 2021, well over a year past the deadline. Newsom’s team asked for the party to be listed on the ballot due to it being a ‘good faith mistake,’ but Secretary Weber stuck with the law.”
Before Senate Bill 151 passed and was signed by Newsom in 2019, politicians targeted in recalls were not allowed to have their party next to their names.
Newsom missed the deadline for requiring the Secretary of State to do so by 16 months.
STARTING TODAY CALIFORNIA TO RELEASE MASSIVE AMOUNT OF INMATES
76K California violent, career felons get earlier releases
California is increasing early release credits for 76,000 inmates starting today, including violent and repeat felons.
With little notice, California is increasing early release credits for 76,000 inmates starting Saturday. They include violent and repeat felons.
The move comes as the state further trims the population of what once was the nation’s largest state correctional system.
More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017.
About 13,000 inmates convicted of serious but nonviolent offenses will be eligible for release after serving half their sentences.
DAWG SAYS: GEE WHAT COULD GO WRONG?
I AM GLAD I HAVE LEFT THAT STATE ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY DEFUND THE POLICE AND YOU CANNOT DEFEND YOURSELF IN ANTI GUN CALIFORNIA.
IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE AND I DO NOT PUT ADVERTISING UP.
DONATION ACCEPTED THROUGH PAYPAL.
MALE CALIFORNIA INMATES REQUESTING MOVES TO WOMENS PRISONS
261 California Prison Inmates Have Requested Transfer to Women’s Prisons Since January
Since January, 261 California prison inmates have requested transfers to prisons aligning with their gender identity, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the Daily Caller News Foundation Tuesday.
Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed S.B. 132 into law in January, a bill that requires the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to ask every individual entering the department’s custody to specify their pronouns, their gender identity, and whether they identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex.
The law prevents CDCR from disciplining the individual if that individual refuses to give this information, allows for the information to be updated later on, and requires staff to use the gender pronouns that the individual requested.
It also requires that CDCR house the individual in a “correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference.” Similar legislation has been passed in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Since the bill went into effect in January, 261 inmates have requested “gender-based housing” transfers, the CDCR told the DCNF Tuesday. The vast majority of these requests were from inmates requesting to be transferred to female facilities, and only six inmates did not request to be in a women’s facility.
“255 are from transgender women and non-binary incarcerated people who are requesting to be housed in a female institution and six are from transgender men and non-binary incarcerated people who are requesting to be housed in a male institution,” Deputy Press Secretary Terry Thornton told the DCNF.
CDCR has not denied a single gender-based housing request, the spokesman confirmed.
The CDCR has approved 21 of the requests, and four of these 21 have been transferred to Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla.
“Two of the 21 have changed their minds,” Thornton said. The spokesman said that as of April 2, 1,129 incarcerated people self-identify as transgender, non-binary, and intersex.
Prison inmates at Chowchilla told the Los Angeles Times that “men are coming” and that the prisoners should anticipate sexual violence.
“That if we think it’s bad now, be prepared for the worst. That it’s going to be off the hook, it’s going to be jumping,” 41-year-old Tomiekia Johnson told the publication that staffers said. “They say we’re going to need a facility that’s going to be like a maternity ward. They say we’re going to have an inmate program where inmates become nannies.”
Prisoners fear that inmates requesting transfers are lying about their gender identity in order to be transferred to women’s prisons, the LA Times reported. This has slowed down the transfer process, according to the publication.
Thornton told the LA Times that meetings and discussions “have helped to dispel any fears” and that “a person’s gender identity is self-reported and CDCR will evaluate any request submitted by an incarcerated person for gender-based housing.”
The prison system requested several million dollars from California for implementing the law, Thornton said.
IF YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE AND I DO NOT PUT ADVERTISING UP.
DONATION ACCEPTED THROUGH PAYPAL.
California revenues soar as rich get richer during pandemic
At the end of 2020, California had lost a record 1.6 million jobs during the pandemic. Nearly a half-million people stopped even trying to look for work. Business properties saw their value plummet more than 30%.
But California’s bank account is overflowing. As of January, the state’s tax collections were $10.5 billion ahead of projections. By the end of the fiscal year on July 1, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature could have a $19 billion surplus to spend.
It’s so much money that, for just the second time ever, the state is projected to trigger a state law requiring the government to send refunds to taxpayers.
Economic downturns usually put state governments in a bind, forcing them to cut services at a time when people need them most. That’s what happened a decade ago during the Great Recession when the housing market collapsed and the stock market tanked, creating a cascade of losses from the wealthy on down.
But this time, with the pandemic forcing the closure of bars, restaurants, theme parks, sporting events and small businesses, lower-wage workers bore the brunt of the losses while the wealthier worked from home. The economic losses started at the bottom of the income ladder and so far they haven’t made their way up to the top.
A California church continues its legal fight against what it calls unconstitutional orders.
The case involving Harvest Rock Church and Harvest Rock International Ministry is currently at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals after a district judge ruled against an emergency injunction.
CALIFORNIA CHURCH FIGHTING NEWSOM IN COURT
Liberty Counsel, which is representing the ministry, appealed to the Ninth Circuit after Judge Jesus Bernal ruled against the injunction that sought to allow the church to remain open while Harvest Rock fights Gov. Gavin Newsom and his lockdown orders.
Liberty Counsel attorney Mat Stav says there is “zero worship” going on at Harvest Church, located in Pasadena, as well as 162 other satellite church congregations located across the state.
“I’m talking about no one can gather together for worship,” Staver explains. “And that even includes Bible studies and home fellowship in their life groups, (so) you can’t even have somebody in your home that doesn’t live there.”
Violators face a criminal charge punishable by up to a year in prison.
Staver tells OneNewsNow the pastor has received a warning letter from a prosecutor threatening criminal charges that would apply to the pastor, church staff, and anyone who attends a service.
Californians are witnessing the state and local governments threaten church worship at the same time their liberal governor has praised – and defended – the tens of thousands who have marched in the streets in recent months to demand racial justice and police reform.
“The virus doesn’t discriminate between religious and non-religious gatherings,” Staver says, “but Gov. Newsom clearly does and that’s a problem with the First Amendment.”
Bill AB 3121 — the first of its kind in any state — was signed on Wednesday. It creates a nine-member task force that will inform Californians about slavery and explore ways the state might provide reparations, Newsom’s office said in a news release.
The task force will convene in the wake of nationwide protests calling for racial justice and police reform following the death of George Floyd while in police custody in May. Democratic lawmakers in Congress have also called for a vote on a bill to study reparations.
“As a nation, we can only truly thrive when every one of us has the opportunity to thrive. Our painful history of slavery has evolved into structural racism and bias built into and permeating throughout our democratic and economic institutions,” said Newsom in the release.
Newsom acknowledged that Black Californian’s and people of color in the state still face “discrimination and disadvantages.”
It’s a long drive to just about anywhere Gary Wright needs to go. A rancher in the far northeastern corner of California, he sometimes has to drive nearly 100 miles, one-way, to get to where his cattle graze. It’s 36 miles to Klamath Falls, Ore., for a significant errand run.
There are only a few gas stations along the routes through the forests and high deserts in Modoc County — let alone electric vehicle charging stations. There are none near the rangeland where Wright’s cattle graze.
So he was baffled when Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last week that California would require all new passenger cars and trucks to be electric or “zero-emission” by 2035 to combat climate change.
Newsom’s directive signaled the governor was moving more aggressively on climate change during one of the hottest years in California, and with wildfires consuming nearly 4 million acres — the most in modern history. But his order comes with significant challenges for rural California and the Central Valley, where many people drive all day for work, not just to commute, and traveling long distances is a necessity.
Newsom signs law allowing transgender inmates to be placed in prison by their gender identity
CALIFORNIA INMATES HOUSED BY GENDER IDENTITY
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) will now house inmates based on their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth – but only if the state does not have “management or security concerns” with individual inmates.
The law Newsom signed Saturday requires officers to ask inmates privately during the intake process if they identify as transgender, nonbinary or intersex, then inmates can request to be placed in a facility that houses either men or women.
The CDCR cannot deny requests solely because of inmates’ anatomy or sexual orientation. When a request is denied, the state must provide a written statement to the inmate explaining the decision and give them an opportunity to object.
“California has some of the strongest pro LGBTQ+ laws in the nation and with the bills signed today, our march toward equality takes an additional step forward,” Newsom said in a statement.
“These new laws will help us better understand the impacts of COVID-19 on the LGBTQ+ community, establish a new fund to support our transgender sisters and brothers and advance inclusive and culturally competent efforts that uphold the dignity of all Californians, regardless of who you are or who you love.”
Similar laws protecting transgender inmates exist in Rhode Island, New York City and Massachusetts.
Emphasizing that California must stay at the forefront of the fight against climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday issued an executive order to restrict new car sales in the state to only zero-emission vehicles by 2035 and threw his support behind a ban on the controversial use of hydraulic fracturing by oil companies.
Under Newsom’s order, the California Air Resources Board would implement the phase-out of new gas-powered cars and light trucks and also require medium and heavy-duty trucks to be zero-emission by 2045 where possible.
California would be the first state in the nation to mandate 100% zero-emission vehicles, though 15 countries already have committed to phasing out gas-powered cars.
Newsom did not take executive action to ban the controversial oil extraction method known as fracking but called on the state Legislature to do so, setting up what could be a contentious political fight when lawmakers reconvene in Sacramento next year.
Taken together, the two climate change efforts would accelerate the state’s already aggressive efforts to curtail carbon emissions and petroleum hazards and promise to exacerbate tensions with a Trump administration intent on bridling California’s liberal environmental agenda.
Along with the Ventura County facility, the agency has a youth correctional complex in Stockton and a forestry camp in Northern California. In all, they hold around 700 to 800 juveniles and young adults.
“It’s really a slap in the face to my brother, to the judicial system,” said Dena Love.
Love is once again having to relive the murder of her brother,
Kevin “John” Ruska Jr., who was kidnapped and eventually died at the hands of Terebea Williams in 1998.
Williams only served a quarter of her 84 years to life sentence for first-degree murder.
Kevin “John” Ruska was killed by Williams and the family says they still don’t know why.
“She should have spent the rest of her life behind bars,” said Love.
Williams is now walking free after she was deemed at high medical risk for the virus. The Yolo County District Attorneys Office was told she suffers a heart condition.
Yet, according to our analysis of Census data, housing construction continues to lag (burdened by lengthy permit processes and often years of litigation)
At the current rate, it would require nearly 30 years to build 3.5 million homes.
Persistent housing shortages mean that most new single-family and apartment construction tends to be for the high-end market.
Only 7,800 of the new apartments built between 2015 and 2017 in Los Angeles — around 11% of total construction — are affordable,
With rents of around $1,842 a month.
By contrast, average rent on the 66,000 “market rate” apartments exceeds $2,500 a month.
With the Bay Area and coastal Los Angeles too expensive for most middle- and working-class families,
they have headed to places with more affordable housing but relatively few high-paying jobs.
The Inland Empire of Riverside and San Bernardino counties, for example, also suffers the lowest average pay of any of the nation’s 50 largest counties.
The COVID-19 pandemic offers California a way out of this dilemma,
Rather than try to cram growth into a few areas, it would make sense to find ways to offer incentives to a new Tesla plant to Fresno or to Riverside County,
Or have Google put a customer support operation in Manteca rather than Mississippi, as it announced recently.
But unlike in other states, there is no coordinated strategy in California to help industry grow middle-class employment.
The biggest impediments are not physical or even fiscal,
But the willingness of state leaders to acknowledge the crisis for working people of all ages in California,
Made worse by the fallout from the pandemic.
The question is, do they care enough about economic and racial justice to build a vision and adopt policies that would give more people a shot at a decent job and affordable housing?
DAWG SAYS: AS FAR AS JOBS GO; CALIFORNIA HAS MANY RESOURCES IN ITS FAVOR- EXCEPT POLITICS.
YOU CANNOT TAX PEOPLE INTO PROSPERITY, SOME FEEL MONEY IS THE ONLY ANSWER, BUT IT IS NOT.
TAXES CHASE GOOD JOBS AWAY TO AREAS WHO REALIZE LESS RESTRICTIONS AND TAXES MEAN MORE JOBS,
ARIZONA-TEXAS-NEVADA. GOOD JOBS THAT NEED PEOPLE WILL DRIVE WAGES UP.
MORE FAST FOOD OUTLETS WILL NOT FIT THAT NEED.
ALSO, ALL THE REQUIREMENTS FOR BUILDING PERMITS, INSPECTIONS, ENVIROMENTAL IMPACT REPORTS,
DRIVES THE COST OF HOUSING UP MAKING MORE UNAFFORDABLE FOR THE AVERAGE PERSON.
AND THERE IS AN EXODUS OF PEOPLE LEAVING THE STATE FOR A VARIETY OF REASONS.
