Controversies
Voters' Approval of State Legislature Surges 8 Points to a Miserable 29%
California voters still have a massive dislike for state lawmakers, even after a 61% leap in approval since March 2010 and a steady climb toward a lousy 29% approval rating, according to a USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll.
The Legislature’s approval rating was 18% in March 2010 and 21% in April 2011. read more
San Francisco Police Recorded all Arrested Asians as Chinese, and Latinos as White
The San Francisco Police Department is long overdue for a computer upgrade. Due to the department’s antiquated software, all Asian Americans arrested have been listed as “Chinese” while all Latinos were marked down as “white.” read more
Livermore Moves Dangerous Nuclear Materials
Six years after the Bush administration announced that it would move all nuclear-weapons-grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium out of the Bay Area’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by 2014, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) announced it had completed the task. read more
Marijuana Crop Seizures Down; L.A. County Pot Shops Headed There
Speculation abounds about why California’s outdoor marijuana crop seizures this year may be their lowest since 2004, but it’s no secret why medical pot is becoming more scarce.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office kept up its assault on medical marijuana by taking legal action Tuesday against 71 dispensaries in Los Angeles County. read more
Biotech Company Accused of Having 1 Vet for 10,000 Goats and 6,000 Rabbits
At its U.S. headquarters in Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz Biotechnology (SCB) rides herd on nearly 19,000 animals it uses for research.
Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) filed a 10-page complaint against SCB, citing “willfull violation” of the Animal Welfare Act and listing six more inspections loaded with allegations stretching back to 2007.
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State Corporations Win Right to Handle Assault Weapons
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney famously echoed the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United when he said, “Corporations are people, my friend.” And since corporations are people, the California Office of Administrative Law (OAL) has reasoned, they ought to be able to have permits for selling assault weapons, just like their corporeal embodiments. read more
Court Blocks Virtual Residency Ban on Paroled Sex Offenders
Law enforcement authorities in California will have to be more circumspect about restrictions on paroled registered sex offenders after a state appellate court ruled last week that a law banning them from living 2,000 feet from a park or school was unconstitutional.
Voters approved Proposition 83, known as Jessica’s Law, in 2006 to further restrict the movements of sex offenders and reduce the threat of predators in areas with children. read more
8,000 Homeless Vets in L.A. Excluded from Rented-Out VA Campus
While an estimated 8,000 homeless veterans wander around Los Angeles, the largest Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical center in the country—centrally located with lots of vacant land on its 388 acres—is making millions of dollars for the VA by leasing out property to private enterprise. read more
Community Colleges Kill Winter Sessions
Many community college students across the state—at least those fortunate enough to weather shrinking aid, higher fees and fewer class offerings this Fall—won’t have the same problems for the winter semester. read more
Courts Compete for Sparse Dollars: It’s “Like We’re in a Jerry Lewis Telethon”
Winners and losers in the California courthouse construction sweepstakes were announced last week as 23 projects got the green light and seven were put on hold after 20 hours of public hearings that left everyone bruised and battered. read more
Schwarzenegger Beats the Rap for “Repugnant” Sentence Commutation as Governor
While acknowledging that former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s last-minute sentence reduction for the son of a political ally was “repugnant to the bulk of the citizenry of this state,” Sacramento Superior Court Judge Lloyd Connelly said Friday that it wasn’t illegal. read more
High Court Responds to 500-Page Habeas Corpus Writ with 122-Page Smackdown
The California Supreme Court, reacting to a heavy caseload of capital crime appeals from prisoners, unanimously decided to put a 500-page limit on habeas corpus briefs that are often filed after conviction. The court took 122 pages to make its case for strict restrictions, including a 50-page limit, on arguments which might literally involve life and death. read more
L.A. Adds to Medical Marijuana Confusion, Puts Pot Dispensary Ban on Hold
You don’t have to be stoned in Los Angeles to be lost in a haze about the status of legalized medical marijuana.
Federal law has criminalized marijuana since the early part of the last century. California gave medical marijuana a green light in 1996. In 2004, the state authorized non-profit cooperatives to sell medical marijuana. read more
Space Shuttle Endeavour's Trip Across L.A. Will Leave 400 Downed Trees in Its Wake
When the Los Angeles County Museum of Art wanted to drag a 340-ton boulder across the city to display in an exhibit, it managed the task with only the loss of two palm trees along the way.
In sharp contrast, carting the space shuttle Endeavour from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to its new home 12 miles away at the California Science Center in Exposition Park will result in the chainsaw massacre of 400 trees in Los Angeles and the city of Inglewood. read more
Rewrite of Landmark Environmental Act Fails, but Exemptions Chip Away at It
In a year when few environmental bills made it out of the Legislature, conservationists couldn’t be blamed for marking as one of their most satisfying achievements the deflection of a hasty, last-minute rewrite of the landmark California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). read more
Utility Companies Block Renters from “Virtual” Solar Power
State Senator Lois Wolk introduced a bill that would have created what some call a virtual solar power source by enabling residents to collectively buy power from shared renewable sources—wind, solar, geothermal, small hydro, biomass—but it died in committee on the Legislature’s last day in session after opposition from utility companies.
“Unfortunately, PG&E and Southern California Edison control the committee,” Senator Wolk wrote in a prepared statement after the bill’s death. read more