#Gov. Jerry Brown

[bibliophilicstranger]

King Charles III and Governor Jerry Brown have the same awful taste in official portraits.

theroyalfamily: "It was a privilege and pleasure to have been commissioned by The Drapers' Company to paint this portrait of His Majesty The King, the first to be unveiled since his Coronation. When I started this project, His Majesty The King was still His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, and much like the butterfly I've painted hovering over his shoulder, this portrait has evolved as the subject's role in our public life has transformed. I do my best to capture the life experiences and humanity etched into any individual sitter's face, and I hope that is what I have achieved in this portrait. To try and capture that for His Majesty The King, who occupies such a unique role, was both a tremendous professional challenge, and one which I thoroughly enjoyed and am immensely grateful for."

Today The King unveiled the portrait at Buckingham Palace. The new work depicts His Majesty wearing the uniform of the Welsh Guards, of which he was made Regimental Colonel in 1975. The painting will ultimately hang in Drapers' Hall in London.

[californiastatelibrary]

Larry Itliong Day!

Today we celebrate Larry Itliong, labor organizer and civil rights activist. Oct. 25 was designated Larry Itliong Day by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2015. Learn more about Larry at the California Museum's online exhibit at https://californiamuseum.org/california-hall-of-fame/exhibitions/virtual-exhibitions/larry-itliong/

[beardedmrbean]

Gov. Gavin Newsom agreed to pay a $13,000 fine Friday for failing to report on time over a dozen charitable payments made at his request by notable foundations and businesses, including Microsoft, Amazon and T-Mobile, between 2018 and 2024.

California's political ethics law requires elected officials to report donations made on their behalf within 30 days. On 18 occasions, the Fair Political Practices Commission said, Newsom and his 2018 campaign committee failed to make those reports on time, often submitting them several months late.

The commission noted that Newsom, having served in public office for more than 25 years, should have known better than to lose track of what amounted to more than $14 million in payments. Newsom has filed more than 1,100 such reports since 2011, totaling over $300 million, and eventually filed all the reports before being confronted by enforcement officials.

Read more: Big companies donate millions on Newsom's behalf, raising concerns about corporate influence

One payment from T-Mobile was more than $12 million — others ranged from $5,000 up to almost $500,000 from Amazon. Newsom's campaign said some filings were late because it had to rely on third parties to track the necessary filing information.

"There is inherent public harm in non-disclosure of the payments because the public is deprived of important information and deprived of the timely opportunity to scrutinize the payments," the FPPC wrote in its settlement agreement with the governor.

The commission did not fine Newsom for missing deadlines on several payments he requested to help the state during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is common for elected officials to ask companies to make charitable donations to specific organizations, and such payments are not subject to the limits that apply to direct campaign donations. The reporting requirements are meant to allow timely public scrutiny over these "behested payments," which might be an attempt to curry favor with elected officials.

Read more: California sets new rules for mystery donations made on behalf of lawmakers

Concerns were raised when Newsom reported requested payments that were six times as much in 2020 as those reported by former Gov. Jerry Brown over his final eight years in office combined.

A Newsom spokesperson defended the governor’s record of soliciting charitable donations.

“This work, connecting private resources to public needs, is what we need more of across government,” Nathan Click said in a statement.

Click noted that Newsom has filed a thousand other reports on time, and said, “Many of these identified in the report were filed only a few weeks late and due to delayed notification of receipt of payment by the recipients.”

[msclaritea]

https://calmatters.org/commentary/2019/01/gavin-newsoms-keeping-it-all-in-the-family/?s=09

Gavin Newsom’s keeping it all in the family

BY DAN WALTERS

JANUARY 6, 2019

This story is part of California Voices, a commentary forum aiming to broaden our understanding of the state and spotlight Californians directly impacted by policy or its absence. Learn more here.

Gavin Newsom will be the first Democrat in more than a century to succeed another Democrat as governor and the succession also marks a big generational transition in California politics.

A long-dominant geriatric quartet from the San Francisco Bay Area – Gov. Jerry Brown, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – has been slowly ceding power to younger political strivers.

Moreover, Newsom is succeeding someone who could be considered his quasi-uncle, since his inauguration continues the decades-long saga of four San Francisco families intertwined by blood, by marriage, by money, by culture and, of course, by politics – the Browns, the Newsoms, the Pelosis and the Gettys.

The connections date back at least 80 years, to when Jerry Brown’s father, Pat Brown, ran for San Francisco district attorney, losing in 1939 but winning in 1943, with the help of his close friend and Gavin Newsom’s grandfather, businessman William Newsom.

Ties among the Brown, Newsom, Pelosi and Getty families date back three generations. Click on image for a larger view. Graphic for CALmatters by Nazneen Rydhan-Foster.

Fast forward two decades. Gov. Pat Brown’s administration developed Squaw Valley for the 1960s winter Olympics and afterward awarded a concession to operate it to William Newsom and his partner, John Pelosi.

One of the Pelosis’ sons, Paul, married Nancy D’Alesandro, who went into politics and has now reclaimed speakership of the House of Representatives. Another Pelosi son married William Newsom’s daughter, Barbara. Until they divorced, that made Nancy Pelosi something like an aunt by marriage to Gavin Newson (Nancy Pelosi’s brother-in-law was Gavin Newsom’s uncle).

The Squaw Valley concession was controversial at the time and created something of a rupture between the two old friends.

Become a CalMatters member today to stay informed, bolster our nonpartisan news and expand knowledge across California.

William Newsom wanted to make significant improvements to the ski complex, including a convention center, but Brown’s Department of Parks and Recreation balked. Newsom and his son, an attorney also named William, held a series of contentious meetings with officials over the issue.

An eight-page memo about those 1966 meetings from the department’s director, Fred Jones, buried in the Pat Brown archives, describes the Newsoms as being embittered and the senior Newsom threatening to “hurt the governor politically” as Brown ran for a third term that year against Ronald Reagan.

Pat Brown’s bid for a third term failed, and the Reagan administration later bought out the Newsom concession. But the Brown-Newsom connection continued as Brown’s son, Jerry, reclaimed the governorship in 1974. He appointed the younger William Newsom, a personal friend and Gavin’s father, to a Placer County judgeship in 1975 and three years later to the state Court of Appeal.

Justice Newsom, who died a few weeks ago, had been an attorney for oil magnate J. Paul Getty, most famously delivering $3 million to Italian kidnapers of Getty’s grandson in 1973. While serving on the appellate bench in the 1980s, he helped Getty’s son, Gordon, secure a change in state trust law that allowed him to claim his share of a multi-heir trust.

After Newsom retired from the bench in 1995, he became administrator of Gordon Getty’s own trust, telling one interviewer, “I make my living working for Gordon Getty.” The trust provided seed money for the PlumpJack chain of restaurants and wine shops that Newson’s son, Gavin, and Gordon Getty’s son, Billy, developed, the first being in a Squaw Valley hotel.

Gavin Newsom had been informally adopted by the Gettys after his parents divorced, returning a similar favor that the Newsom family had done for a young Gordon Getty many years earlier. Newsom’s PlumpJack business (named for an opera that Gordon Getty wrote) led to a career in San Francisco politics, a stint as mayor, the lieutenant governorship and now to the governorship, succeeding his father’s old friend.

He’s keeping it all in the extended family.

[mariacallous]

SAN FRANCISCO (J. Jewish News of Northern California via JTA) — Dianne Feinstein was an eshet chayil, the Hebrew term for a woman of valor, Rabbi Jonathan Singer proclaimed in his opening remarks on Thursday at a memorial service for the U.S. senator who died Sept. 29 at 90.

The event outside San Francisco City Hall was attended by about 1,500 invited guests, all gathered to remember a pathbreaking politician who spent a decade as the city’s first woman mayor.

Singer, the co-senior rabbi of Congregation Emanu-El — the same synagogue where Feinstein, then Dianne Goldman, was confirmed as a teenager in 1949 — shared the English words of Psalm 23, which begins, “God is my shepherd.” Cantor Roz Barak, Emanu-El’s cantor emerita, sang the psalm in Hebrew.

“She feared no evil, as she courageously pursued justice as a leader in the Senate,” Singer said. “And she gave us hope that we Americans can always be inspired by the values of democracy, even as we walk at times through the valley of shadows.”

San Francisco Mayor London Breed, Vice President Kamala Harris, former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer were among the prominent speakers. President Joe Biden delivered a recorded message.

“God bless a great American hero. She was something else,” Biden said. “She was a dear friend.”

The service took place on an exceptionally hot San Francisco day, punctuated by the Blue Angels flying overhead as part of Fleet Week, which Feinstein was responsible for establishing in 1981 to honor the armed forces. “Fleet Week would be dedicated to you,” Pelosi noted as the roar of the jets caused her to pause.

Many of the guests, including current and former members of Congress, accented their formal attire with sun hats and baseball caps and fanned themselves with the memorial programs as the sun beat down. A building-sized portrait of Feinstein was displayed outside City Hall, where Feinstein lay in state on Wednesday before a private, family-only burial after the service.

In his remarks, Schumer told a story about his colleague, recalling how she called him in New York shortly after his daughter Alison moved to San Francisco.

“Does your daughter have anywhere to go for the High Holiday services?” Feinstein asked him. He replied that she did not. “Well, then, she’s going to services with me.”

(Feinstein and her third husband, Richard Blum, joined Reform Congregation Sherith Israel in 1992, though it is unknown how long they were members.)

Schumer worked closely with Feinstein to pass the federal ban on assault weapons in 1994. “Dianne Feinstein was a leader of uncommon integrity,” the New York senator said.

Harris described Feinstein as “an American patriot, a giant of the Senate and a dear friend” to her and her husband, Doug Emhoff.

“Dianne commanded respect, and she gave respect. She was a serious and gracious person who welcomed debate and discussion, but always required that it was well informed and studied,” the vice president said.

Pelosi said Feinstein was not only a close colleague in Congress but also a good neighbor in Pacific Heights, their San Francisco neighborhood.

“Dianne loved cultivating people, and flowers,” Pelosi said, describing the hydrangeas growing in Feinstein’s yard as “the most fabulous.” She also knew the senator to be quite the matchmaker and credits her with pairing former Gov. Jerry Brown and his wife, Ann Gust.

Feinstein was also an avid painter, giving her friends mugs and painted images of her homegrown flowers, Pelosi said.

Pelosi read off a list of legacies Feinstein leaves behind, including fighting to save San Francisco’s cable cars; authoring legislation to create the breast cancer stamp that benefited research; doggedly battling to pass the federal assault weapons ban; and starting the annual Lake Tahoe Summit with former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 1997.

“She left on her own terms,” Pelosi said, recalling Feinstein’s final vote, a day before she died. “She walked into the [Senate] floor and voted to advance legislation to keep the government open for the people,” she said.

John Burton, who served in Congress and the state Assembly and chaired the Democratic Party in California, provided written remarks read aloud by Breed. “She had chutzpah, and I loved her for it,” Burton wrote.

Eileen Mariano, Feinstein’s 31-year-old granddaughter and the final speaker at the hourlong memorial service, described the warm, grandmotherly woman she was behind the scenes.

Feinstein would cut her granddaughter’s hair in her kitchen, often slightly crooked, Mariano joked. “She taught me to play chess, although she hated losing,” she remembered, and would sing “You Are My Sunshine” as a lullaby.

“We had an effortless connection,” said Mariano, who works in the San Francisco mayor’s office.

Among the Jewish elected officials in attendance were Sen. Barbara Boxer, who was elected alongside Feinstein in 1992, becoming the first Jewish women to win seats in the Senate; California state Sen. Scott Wiener; San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin; Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg; Rep. Adam Schiff of Southern California; and Sen. Jon Ossoff of Georgia.

“Let’s remember what she meant to San Francisco,” Wiener said in a statement. “She became mayor during one of the most difficult periods imaginable for our city. She led San Francisco out of the fires of political assassinations, mass cult suicides, and a mass die-off of gay men due to a new, terrifying virus.”

Heading out after the memorial, Steinberg stopped to share his thoughts. “She represented the best in Jewish values,” he said. “As a public servant, she embodied what we need more of in this country — leaders who have strong values, who fight but fight in the right way and are always looking for common ground. And the one thing that matters more than anything else: accomplish something on behalf of the people. That was Dianne Feinstein.”

[home-inspiration-blog]

Don’t gut 2013 PEPRA pension reform, reject AB 569

Sometimes you just have to shake your head over what goes on in the California Legislature. The latest dive into unreality is Assembly Bill 569, by Assemblymember Catherine Stefani, D-San Francisco. It would gut the California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013, the signature fiscal achievement of Gov. Jerry Brown. PEPRA affected the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, which…

[elannert]

Planetary Eclipse

[bllsbailey]

Another Failure: Gavin Newsom's Bankrupted Medi-Cal After Expanding Coverage to Illegal Aliens

We told them so.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (Democrat, of course) bragged about a huge budget surplus during the COVID lockdowns and made big promises to his core constituencies about how they were going to use that money. For many reasons (pandemic unemployment fraud, gross mismanagement, huge tax base losses) that surplus isn't just gone; the state has such a large shortfall that some agencies were ordered to stop ordering office supplies. 

READ MORE: Newsom Tried to Use the Pandemic to Create a Progressive Paradise; Now CA's Facing a $68 Billion Deficit

Last year, despite loud warnings about the cost from (most) California Republicans and anyone else with a brain, Newsom and his band of virtue-signaling Democrats made Medi-Cal available to illegal aliens in the state - and now Medi-Cal is bankrupt and Newsom's asking the legislature for $6.2 billion just to keep it solvent through the end of the fiscal year.

Surprisingly, he admits that paying for healthcare coverage for illegal aliens is "partially" contributing to Medi-Cal's funding shortfall.

Where will that money Newsom's requesting come from? The state's general fund will probably be raided, and monies earmarked for other things (most likely from the $10 billion "climate change" bond voters approved last year, so not from anything important) will be diverted to pay for this boondoggle.

Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones (R-San Diego)

wants to know why estimates were so far off (and so do the rest of us):

Just days after the Newsom Administration announced a $3.4 billion loan to cover Medi-Cal for illegal immigrants, they are now scrambling to secure an additional $2.8 billion just to keep the program solvent through June. That’s a staggering $6.2 billion over budget...and the costs keep climbing with no end in sight. Californians should not be forced to shoulder the burden of radical Democrats' reckless financial mismanagement. Even Jerry Brown refused to expand Medi-Cal to all illegal immigrants because he knew it was fiscally irresponsible and unsustainable. Now under Newsom, legal residents are paying the price both financially and in reduced access to healthcare. The public deserves answers: Why are the costs so much higher than what Newsom promised? What is Newsom’s plan to fix the financial disaster he created?

And, Jones continues, we shouldn't be funding Newsom's failed political stunts:

California taxpayers deserve transparency and accountability, not another blank check for Newsom’s failed political stunts.

Seriously, Newsom can't get a single thing right. He can't name a single policy success. His financial estimates constantly overestimate revenue and underestimate cost. Yet, he's off convening special sessions to allocate money we don't have to "Trump-proof" the state, recording podcasts with Tampon Tim, and stoking fear that Medicaid/Medi-Cal will be destroyed. Well, as far as California goes, that might be true, but it will be his fault, not Trump's.

Much like Trump, Gavin can now claim that he's kept his promise from 2019 to hose California residents to provide this healthcare coverage (my summary of his words, not his actual words).

READ MORE: Trump-Obsessed Gavin Newsom Promises to Hose CA Residents to Care for Illegals

As Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA) said:

Thanks to President Trump, illegal immigration into our great country has virtually stopped. Despite the radical left's lies, new legislation wasn't needed to secure our border, just a new president.

Help us continue to report the truth about the president's border policies and mass deportations. Join RedState VIP and use promo code FIGHT to get 60% off your membership.

[mc-posts]

California Coastal Commission must be abolished.

California Coastal Commission must be abolished. Ric Grenell, a longtime ally of President Trump, said “there will be conditions” to the coming aid, echoing previous warnings from both men in recent days. Grenell said the California Coastal Commission “needs to absolutely be defunded.” Initiated by voters and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in his first term, the 1976 Coastal Act was a response to…

[hungamaofficial]

As Newsom Plans to Greet Trump, He Faces a Political Test

Gov. Gavin Newsom came into office in 2018 confronting one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in the state’s history: the Camp fire. Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Newsom accompanied Donald Trump, then the president, and Jerry Brown, then the governor, in inspecting a blaze that killed 85 people and consumed over 153,000 acres around the Butte County town of Paradise. On Friday, more…

[newstfionline]

Sunday, January 26, 2025

From Fires to Mudslides, Catastrophe Has Defined Newsom’s Tenure (NYT) Gov. Gavin Newsom came into office in 2018 confronting one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in the state’s history: the Camp fire. Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Newsom accompanied Donald Trump, then the president, and Jerry Brown, then the governor, in inspecting a blaze that killed 85 people and consumed over 153,000 acres around the Butte County town of Paradise. On Friday, more than six years later, Mr. Newsom will once again greet Mr. Trump as the president comes to Los Angeles to view the aftermath of the latest devastating wildfires that have swept California. These new fires—in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles and in Altadena—serve as a reminder that Mr. Newsom’s tenure as governor has been defined by catastrophe and crisis, whether natural or man-made: fires, mudslides, atmospheric rivers, the Covid pandemic, the at-times violent protests against police brutality after the murder of George Floyd. “It’s mind-boggling the number of natural disasters and otherwise he has to deal with,” said Anthony Rendon, who served as speaker of the California Assembly from 2016 to 2023. “It is something that has bracketed—and maybe even defined—his time in office as governor.”

Egg Prices Are High. They Will Likely Go Higher. (NYT) On a trip to a Walmart in Ozark, Mo., in early January, Laura Modrell was surprised to see shoppers “standing around and gasping” in the grocery’s dairy section. As she got closer, she saw that the shelves, where there would normally be stacks of egg cartons, were nearly empty. “All of the normal-size cartons of eggs were practically gone,” Ms. Modrell said. Across the country, shoppers in grocery stores are facing empty shelves and higher prices for what has traditionally been an inexpensive source of protein: eggs. And it’s likely to get worse. Volatile egg prices have been a part of the grocery shopping experience partly because of inflation, but also because of an avian influenza, or bird flu, that made its way to the United States in 2022. That influenza, caused by the H5N1 virus, has infected or killed 136 million birds thus far. But the outbreak has recently intensified. More than 30 million chickens—roughly 10 percent of the nation’s egg-laying population—have been killed in just the last three months, to prevent the spread of the disease. It could take months before the supply of egg-laying chickens returns to the normal level of around 318 million, roughly the equivalent of one chicken per person.

Ireland and UK clean up after unprecedented Storm Éowyn brings record winds and damage (AP) Emergency crews began cleaning up Saturday after a storm bearing record-breaking winds left at least one person dead and more than a million without power across the island of Ireland and Scotland. Work was underway to remove hundreds of trees blocking roads and railway lines in the wake of the system, named Storm Éowyn (pronounced AY-oh-win) by weather authorities. In Ireland, wind snapped telephone poles, ripped apart a Dublin ice rink and even toppled a giant wind turbine. A wind gust of 114 mph (183 kph) was recorded on the west coast, breaking a record set in 1945. Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in the Republic of Ireland, neighboring Northern Ireland and Scotland, remained without electricity on Saturday.

Belarus election is poised to extend the 30-year rule of ‘Europe’s last dictator’ (AP) The last time Belarus staged a presidential election in 2020, authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko was declared the winner with 80% of the vote. That triggered cries of fraud, months of protests and a harsh crackdown with thousands of arrests. Not wanting to risk such unrest again by those opposing his three decades of iron-fisted rule, Lukashenko advanced the timing of the 2025 election—from the warmth of August to frigid January, when demonstrators are less likely to fill the streets. With many of his political opponents either jailed or exiled abroad, the 70-year-old Lukashenko is back on the ballot, and when the election concludes on Sunday, he is all but certain to add a seventh term as the only leader most people in post-Soviet Belarus have ever known. Lukashenko was dubbed “Europe’s last dictator” early in his tenure, and he has lived up to that nickname, harshly silencing dissent and extending his rule through elections that the West has called neither free nor fair.

Did Ukraine Kill Its Own by Downing a Russian Plane? A Year Later, It Hasn’t Said. (NYT) One year has passed since Moscow accused Kyiv of shooting down a Russian military plane carrying dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war. Ukraine opened an investigation, but has yet to release its findings, leaving questions about who was killed, and why. The crash of the IL-76 transport plane in the Belgorod region of Russia, near the border with Ukraine, set off a series of recriminations at a delicate moment for Kyiv, as it lobbied for Western aid to build up its depleted weapons stocks. Russian officials called it a “terrorist” act and convened an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. Ukrainian officials did not admit or deny shooting down the aircraft, and said they could not confirm that Ukrainian prisoners were onboard. American officials later assessed that Ukrainian forces had used a U.S.-made Patriot missile to shoot it down, thinking the plane carried Russian missiles and munitions.

India’s Economy Slows Down Just When It Was Supposed to Speed Up (NYT) A year ago, India was bouncing back from a recession caused by Covid-19 with a spring in its step. The country had overtaken China as the most populous country, and its leaders were declaring India the world’s fastest-growing major economy. India displaced Britain in 2022 as the world’s fifth-biggest economy, and by next year it is expected to push aside Germany in the fourth spot. But India has lost a step, revealing its vulnerabilities even as it moves up the global rankings. The stock market, which soared for years, has just erased the past six months of gains. The currency, the rupee, is falling fast against the dollar, making homegrown earnings look smaller on the global stage. India’s new middle class, whose wealth surged like never before after the pandemic, is wondering where it went wrong.

Thai authorities seek to ease air pollution in capital by offering free public transport (AP) Thai authorities have made travel by public transport in Bangkok free for a week starting Saturday, the latest tactic to try to tackle soaring levels of air pollution that have already seen hundreds of schools closed and employees working from home. The travel concession allows passengers to ride buses and elevated and underground electric trains in the capital without charge. Authorities hope the move will cut the number of private cars on the road, to reduce one key factor driving the surge in pollution. Air pollution has been a problem for many years in Thailand’s north, where the burning of forests and agricultural waste are major contributing factors. But in recent years Bangkok has also begun to suffer with extended periods of high levels of pollutants, especially during the cooler months.

U.S. shared secret intelligence with Syria’s new leaders (Washington Post) The United States has shared secret intelligence on threats from the Islamic State with the new government in Syria, which is itself run by leaders of a militant group long considered by Washington to be a terrorist organization, according to multiple current and former U.S. officials familiar with the exchanges. In at least one case, the U.S. intelligence helped thwart an Islamic State plot to attack a religious shrine outside Damascus earlier this month, according to the officials. The back channel with Hayʼat Tahrir al-Sham, which overthrew former president Bashar al-Assad’s regime last month, reflects rising U.S. alarm that the Islamic State could mount a resurgence as Syria’s new leaders try to consolidate control. The intelligence sharing is driven by a mutual interest in preventing such a comeback, officials said.

Fighting in Sudan’s civil war sets ablaze the country’s largest oil refinery (AP) Fighting around Sudan ‘s largest oil refinery set the sprawling complex ablaze, satellite data analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday shows, sending thick, black smoke over the country’s capital. Forces loyal to Sudan’s military under army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan later claimed they captured the refinery, owned by Sudan’s government and the state-run China National Petroleum Corp. The facility represents a long-sought prize for the military in its civil war with the rebel Rapid Support Force. The facility, capable of handling 100,000 barrels of oil a day, remained broadly intact until Thursday. On that day, an attack at the refinery set fires across the complex, according to satellite data from NASA satellites that track wildfires worldwide.

Arthur Blessitt, Who Carried a Cross Around the World, Dies at 84 (NYT) Arthur Blessitt, whose fervent efforts to convert the hippies, freaks and addicts along Hollywood’s Sunset Strip were just a prelude to his decision to carry a 110-pound wooden cross from Los Angeles to New York City—and then to keep going, eventually traveling 43,340 miles through every country on the planet—died on Jan. 14. He was 84. A Southern Baptist preacher who ran a Christian coffeehouse adjacent to a strip club, Mr. Blessitt started his journey on Christmas Day 1969, bearing his homemade 6-by-12-foot cross on his shoulder. He made adjustments along the way, swapping his sandals for boots and adding a 12-inch wheel to the base of his burden; he later swapped the heavy cross for a 42-pound version that he could split in two, making it easier to ship. It took him six months to walk across the country. When he was done, he returned to Los Angeles, only to receive—in his telling—orders from Jesus to take his journey global. “Go!” Jesus told him, he recounted on his website. “I want you to go all the way.”

[norainahmadme-blog]

From Fires to Mudslides, Catastrophe Has Defined Newsom’s Tenure

Gov. Gavin Newsom came into office in 2018 confronting one of the deadliest and most destructive fires in the state’s history: the Camp fire. Even before he was sworn in, Mr. Newsom accompanied Donald Trump, then the president, and Jerry Brown, then the governor, in inspecting a blaze that killed 85 people and consumed over 153,000 acres around the Butte County town of Paradise. On Friday, more…

[californiastatelibrary]

Every January 23 marks Ed Roberts Day, named for the “Father of Independent Living” Ed Roberts. Roberts was a trailblazing advocate for people with disabilities.

Paralyzed by polio as a child, Roberts was considered "unemployable” by the California Department of Rehabilitation, a prejudiced decision he successfully fought to overturn. Roberts was the first UC Berkeley student with significantly limiting disabilities and earned his Masters in Political Science. A decade after graduation, Roberts became head of the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation and, after two terms under Gov. Jerry Brown, spent the rest of his life running the World Institute on Disability — the first non-profit dedicated to the development and advancement of a unified body of public policy on disability issues.

The Ed Roberts Campus in South Berkeley was built shortly after Roberts' death and commemorates his many contributions to the fight for disability rights. The Center features fully accessible meeting rooms, a computer/media resource center, a fitness center, a cafe, and a child development center.

Read more about Ed Roberts here: https://cal170.library.ca.gov/so-i-decided-to-be-an-artichoke/

[beardedmrbean]

The brother of San Francisco's mayor was resentenced to a shorter prison term Monday for his role in the 2000 death of his girlfriend as she drove a getaway car over the Golden Gate Bridge following a robbery.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Brendan Conroy reduced Napoleon Brown’s sentence from 44 years to just over 31 for involuntary manslaughter, armed robbery and carjacking, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

In 2018, Mayor London Breed sent outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown a letter urging him to show leniency and commute her older brother's prison sentence. She referenced her position as mayor in the letter, and the stationery read "Mayor London Breed" at the top. He did not respond.

INCARCERATED BROTHER OF SAN FRANCISCO MAYOR MAY GET REDUCED SENTENCE IN HOMICIDE, ROBBERY CASE

Marc Zilversmit, Napoleon Brown's attorney, said they are pleased the judge agreed to a reduction but they had asked for an even shorter sentence. Brown has served nearly 22 years in prison, according to Zilversmit.

"There are mixed emotions," he said.

FIRST ARREST IN NYC GANG WAR KILLINGS THAT PROMPTED GRUESOME MURDER OF NAIL SALON OWNER FOUND IN BURNING CAR

The mayor’s press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Brown and another man robbed a San Francisco diner in June 2000 and sped off over the Golden Gate Bridge. His girlfriend, Lenties White, drove and was either pushed or fell from the vehicle and was killed by a drunken driver.

Brown denies prosecutors’ assertions that he pushed White.

[midweekpaypaydlans]

MidweekPay Payday Loans

MidweekPay Payday Loans

A key vote occurs Wednesday in the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions Committee. Make no mistake, as in the past, this is a giant uphill battle. The chairman, Sen. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, received $70,400 from 2008 to 2012 from the industry – and he is not alone. Getting this bill to the Senate floor will require pressure from the public, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Gov. Jerry Brown.

The need for change is clear. Under current California law, for a two-week payday loan of $300 – from companies such as Advance America, Moneytree Inc., Checksmart Financial and Cash Plus Inc. – borrowers pay a fee of $45, leaving $255 in cash. That fee is equivalent to an outrageous annual percentage rate of 460 percent for a two-week loan.

[home-inspiration-blog]

Higher water rates vs. the right to water

Did you know that in California, there’s a human right to affordable water? In 2012, Gov. Jerry Brown signed Assembly Bill 685, adding this language to the state Water Code: “every human being has the right to safe, clean, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking and sanitary purposes.” The “affordable” part seems to be ignored. Today (April 8), the board of…