If the state budget revealed last week is any indicator, Governor Jerry Brown is still considering eliminating the state’s Division of Juvenile Justice. Brown proposed $10 million in funding for counties to help them prepare to house the young inmates displaced by the closure of current juvenile justice facilities…
The Legislative Analyst Office offered its first response to Brown’s budget in a press conference this afternoon. A legislative analyst called Brown’s suggested cuts to welfare “too severe” and questioned his projections for incoming tax revenue. The office did concede that Brown’s economic plan has the potential to reign in California spending over time…
More responsible spending couldn’t hurt California’s financial reputation, which improved a little bit today thanks to a new Moody’s credit rating. California’s score didn't improve, but the investor service did award Illinois an even worse score, landing that state in the position of worst in the nation and bumping California up to the number 49 spot…
Two Oakland police officers were disciplined for misconduct in their handling of the Occupy protest. The Oakland Policed Department suspended Officer John Hargraves for covering his name on his badge with black tape and demoted his supervisor, Lieutenant Clifford Wong, for inadequately reporting the incident. These are the first known disciplinary actions taken in response to hundreds of police misconduct complaints following the Occupy Oakland demonstrations…
Marin County is trying to curb another kind of conduct: smoking cigarettes. County supervisors are working on a new measure that would ban smoking tobacco in unincorporated-area apartments. The county board has asked the supervisors to rewrite the measure to exclude the smoking of marijuana from the ban.