Biden
Biden also received the Chancellor Medal (1980) and the George Arents Pioneer Medal (2005) from Syracuse University.[467][468]
In 2008, Biden received Working Mother magazine's Best of Congress Award for "improving the American quality of life through family-friendly work policies".[469] Also in 2008, he shared with fellow senator Richard Lugar the Government of Pakistan's Hilal-i-Pakistan award "in recognition of their consistent support for Pakistan".[470Sony PCG-81312M battery
Sony SVT151A11M battery
Sony SVT151B11M battery] In 2009, Kosovo gave Biden the Golden Medal of Freedom, the region's highest award, for his vocal support for its independence in the late 1990s.[471]
Biden is an inductee of the Delaware Volunteer Firemen's Association Hall of Fame.[472] He was named to the Little League Hall of Excellence in 2009.[473] Sony PCG-81313M battery
Sony PCG-81411M battery
sony SVF152A29M battery
On May 15, 2016, the University of Notre Dame gave Biden the Laetare Medal, considered the highest honor for American Catholics. The medal was simultaneously awarded to John Boehner, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives.[474][475] Sony PCG-81412M battery
sony VGP-BPS33Abattery
On June 25, 2016, Biden received the Freedom of the City of County Louth in the Republic of Ireland.[476]
On January 12, 2017, Obama surprised Biden by awarding him the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction—for "faith in your fellow Americans, for your love of country and a lifetime of service that will endure through the generations".[477][4sony SVF14AA1QM battery
sony SVF152C29M battery
sony VGP-BPS33 battery78] It was the only award by Obama of the Medal of Freedom with Distinction; other recipients include Ronald Reagan, Colin Powell and Pope John Paul II.[479]
On February 8, 2018, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement at the University of Pennsylvania officially opened offices in Washington, D.C.[480] sony SVF153A1YM battery
sony SVT151B11M battery
On December 11, 2018, the University of Delaware renamed its School of Public Policy and Administration the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy & Administration. The Biden Institute is housed there.[481] sony SVF153B1YM battery
sony SVT151A11M battery
On December 10, 2020, Biden and Harris were jointly named Time Person of the Year.[482]\======================================
Kamala Devi Harris
Kamala Devi Harris (/ˈkɑːmələ ˈdeɪvi/ (About this soundlisten) KAH-mə-lə DAY-vee;[3][4] born October 20, 1964) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 49th vice president of the United States. She is the United States' first female vice president, the highest-ranking female official in U.S. history, and the first African American and first Asian American[5][6] vice president.
sony SVT131B11M battery
A member of the Democratic Party, she served as a United States senator from California from 2017 to 2021, and as the attorney general of California from 2011 to 2017. Harris became vice president upon inauguration in January 2021 alongside President Joe Biden, sony SVF154B1EM battery
sony SVT131A11M battery having defeated the incumbent president, Donald Trump, and vice president, Mike Pence, in the 2020 election.
Born in Oakland, California, Harris graduated from Howard University and the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. She began her career in the Alameda County District Attorney's Office, before being recruited to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and later the City Attorney of San Francisco's office. In 2003, Sony SVF152A29M battery
sony PCG-71912M battery
she was elected district attorney of San Francisco. She was elected Attorney General of California in 2010 and re-elected in 2014. Harris served as the junior United States senator from California from 2017 to 2021. Harris defeated Loretta Sanchez in the 2016 Senate election to become the second African American woman and the first South Asian American to serve in the United States Senate.[7][8] Sony SVT131A11M battery
Sony SVT131B11M battery
sony PCG-71711M batteryAs a senator, she advocated for healthcare reform, federal de-scheduling of cannabis, a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, the DREAM Act, a ban on assault weapons, and progressive tax reform. She gained a national profile for her pointed questioning of Trump administration officials during Senate hearings, Sony SVF14AA1QM battery
sony PCG-71611M batteryincluding Trump's second Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, who was accused of sexual assault.[9]
Harris sought the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, but dropped out of the race prior to the primaries. Biden selected Harris as his running mate in August 2020, and their ticket went on to win the general election in November. Harris assumed office as vice president of the United States on January 20, 2021. Sony SVF152C29M battery
Sony SVF153A1YM battery
Harris was born in Oakland, California,[10] on October 20, 1964.[11] Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, a biologist whose work on the progesterone receptor gene stimulated advances in breast cancer research,[1Sony SVF153B1YM battery
sony PCG-61414M battery2] had arrived in the United States from India in 1958 as a 19-year-old graduate student in nutrition and endocrinology at the University of California, Berkeley;[13][14] Gopalan received her PhD in 1964.[ Sony SVF154B1EM battery
sony PCG-61317M battery
sony PCG-61413M battery15] Harris' father, Donald J. Harris, is a Stanford University professor emeritus of economics, who arrived in the United States from British Jamaica in 1961 for graduate study at UC Berkeley, receiving a PhD in economics in 1966.[16][ sony PCG-61112M battery
sony PCG-61215M battery
sony PCG-61311M battery17] Along with her younger sister, Maya, Harris lived in Berkeley, California,[18][19] briefly on Milvia Street in central Berkeley, then a duplex on Bancroft Way in West Berkeley, an area often called the "flatlands"[20] with a significant black population.[21]
sony PCG-51311M battery
Sony PCG-61211M batteryWhen Harris began kindergarten, she was bused as part of Berkeley's comprehensive desegregation program to Thousand Oaks Elementary School, a public school in a more prosperous neighborhood in northern Berkeley[2sony PCG-51412M battery
Sony PCG-61212M battery0] which previously had been 95 percent white, and after the desegregation plan went into effect became 40 percent Black.[21] A neighbor regularly took the Harris girls to an African American church in Oakland where they sang in the children's choir,[22][23] and the girls and their mother also frequently visited a nearby African American cultural center.[24] sony PCG-51512M battery
sony PCG-51513M battery
Sony PCG-71313M battery Their mother introduced them to Hinduism and took them to a nearby Hindu temple, where she occasionally sang.[25] As children, she and her sister visited their mother's family in Madras (now Chennai) several times.[26] She says she has been strongly influenced by her maternal grandfather P. V. Gopalan, sony PCG-61112M battery
sony PCG-61215M battery
Sony PCG-71312M batterya retired Indian civil servant whose progressive views on democracy and women's rights impressed her. Harris has remained in touch with her Indian aunts and uncles throughout her adult life.[27] Harris has also visited her father's family in Jamaica.[28]
Her parents divorced when she was seven. Harris has said that when she and her sister visited their father in Palo Alto on weekends, other children in the neighborhood were not allowed to play with them because they were black.[26sony PCG-61311M battery
sony PCG-61312M battery
sony PCG-61313M battery
Sony PCG-71311M battery] When she was twelve, Harris and her sister moved with their mother to Montreal, Quebec, where Shyamala had accepted a research and teaching position at the McGill University-affiliated Jewish General Hospital.[29] Harris attended a French-speaking primary school, Notre-Dame-des-Neiges,[30] then F.A.C.E. School,[31] and finally Westmount High School[b] in Westmount, Quebec, graduating in 1981.[33] sony PCG-61315M battery
sony PCG-61316M battery
Sony PCG-71212M battery
Sony PCG-71213M battery Wanda Kagan, a high school friend of Harris, later told CBC News in 2020 that Harris was her best friend and described how she confided in Harris that she had been molested by her stepfather.[
sony PCG-61317M battery
Sony PCG-71211M battery34] She said that Harris told her mother, who then insisted Kagan come to live with them for the remainder of her final year of high school. Kagan said Harris had recently told her that their friendship, sony PCG-71711M battery
Sony PCG-61212M battery and playing a role in countering Kagan's exploitation, helped form the commitment Harris felt in protecting women and children as a prosecutor. After high school, in 1982, Harris attended Howard University, sony PCG-61413M battery
sony PCG-61414M battery
sony PCG-71611M battery
Sony PCG-61211M batterya historically black university in Washington, D.C. While at Howard, she interned as a mailroom clerk for California senator Alan Cranston, chaired the economics society, led the debate team, and joined Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[35][36] Harris graduated from Howard in 1986 with a degree in political science and economics.[37] sony PCG-71912M battery
Sony PCG-71312M battery
Sony PCG-71313M battery
Harris then returned to California to attend law school at the University of California, Hastings College of the Law through its Legal Education Opportunity Program (LEOP).[38] While at UC Hastings, she served as president of its chapter of the Black Law Students Association.[39] She graduated with a Juris Doctor in 1989[4
Sony PCG-71211M battery
Sony PCG-71212M battery
Sony PCG-71213M battery
Sony PCG-71311M battery0] and was admitted to the California Bar in June 1990.[41]
Early career (1990–2004)
In 1990, Harris was hired as a deputy district attorney in Alameda County, California, where she was described as "an able prosecutor on the way up".[42] In 1994, Speaker of the California Assembly Willie Brown, who was then dating Harris, appointed her to the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board and later to the California Medical Assistance Commission.[4sony SVP132A16M battery
sony VGP-BPS38 battery
sony SVS131A12M battery
2] Harris took a six-month leave of absence in 1994 from her duties, then afterward resumed as prosecutor during the years she sat on the boards. Harris's connection to Brown was noted in media reportage as part of a pattern of Californian political leaders appointing "friends and loyal political soldiers" to lucrative positions on the commissions. Harris has defended her work.[42][43][4sony SVP112A16M battery
sony SVS131A11M battery4]
In February 1998, San Francisco district attorney Terence Hallinan recruited Harris as an assistant district attorney.[45] There, she became the chief of the Career Criminal Division, supervising five other attorneys, where she prosecuted homicide, burglary, robbery, and sexual assault cases – particularly three-strikes cases. In 2000, Harris reportedly clashed with Hallinan's assistant, Darrell Salomon,[4sony VGP-BPS40 battery
sony VGP-BPS40 battery6] over Proposition 21, which granted prosecutors the option of trying juvenile defendants in Superior Court rather than juvenile courts.[47] Harris campaigned against the measure, which passed. Salomon opposed directing media inquiries about Prop 21 to Harris and reassigned her, a de facto demotion. Harris filed a complaint against Salomon and quit.[48]
sony SVS131A11M battery
sony SVP112A16M battery
In August 2000, Harris took a job at San Francisco City Hall, working for city attorney Louise Renne.[49] Harris ran the Family and Children's Services Division representing child abuse and neglect cases. Renne endorsed Harris during her D.A. campaign.[50] sony SVS131A12M battery
sony SVS131B11M battery
sony VGP-BPS38 battery
In 2002, Harris prepared to run for District Attorney of San Francisco against Hallinan (the incumbent) and Bill Fazio.[51] Harris was the least-known of the three candidates[52] but persuaded the Central Committee to withhold its endorsement from Hallinan.[50] Harris and Hallinan advanced to the general election runoff with 33 and 37 percent of the vote, respectively.[53] sony SVS131C1EM battery
sony SVS131C24M battery
sony SVS151A12M battery
sony SVP132A16M battery
In the runoff, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty and to prosecute three-strike offenders only in cases of violent felonies.[54] Harris ran a "forceful" campaign, assisted by former mayor Willie Brown, Senator Dianne Feinstein, writer and cartoonist Aaron McGruder, and comedians Eddie Griffin and Chris Rock.[55][5sony SVS131E1EM battery
sony SVS131E1DM battery
sony SVF13NA1UM battery6] Harris differentiated herself from Hallinan by attacking his performance.[57] She argued that she left his office because it was technologically inept, emphasizing his 52 percent conviction rate for serious crimes despite an 83 percent average conviction rate statewide.[5sony SVS131C1DM battery
sony SVF14NA1EM battery8] Harris charged that his office was not doing enough to stem the city's gun violence, particularly in poor neighborhoods like Bayview and the Tenderloin, and attacked his willingness to accept plea bargains in cases of domestic violence.[59][60] Harris won with 56 percent of the vote, becoming the first person of color elected as district attorney of San Francisco.[61]
sony SVF15NA1YM battery
sony SVF14NA1UM battery
Harris ran unopposed for a second term in 2007.[62]
Public safety
Non-violent crimes
Harris as San Francisco district attorney
In the summer of 2005, Harris created an environmental crimes unit.[63]
In 2007, Harris and city attorney Dennis Herrera investigated San Francisco supervisor Ed Jew for violating residency requirements necessary to hold his supervisor position;[64] Harris charged Jew with nine felonies, alleging that he had lied under oath and falsified documents to make it appear he resided in a Sunset District home, necessary so he could run for supervisor in the 4th district.[6sony SVF15NB1GM battery
sony SVF15NB1YM battery
sony SVF15NA1GM battery5] Jew pleaded guilty in October 2008 to unrelated federal corruption charges (mail fraud, soliciting a bribe, and extortion)[6Dell Inspiron 14-5455 battery
Dell GK5KY battery5] and pleaded guilty the following month in state court to a charge of perjury for lying about his address on nomination forms, as part of a plea agreement in which the other state charges were dropped and Jew agreed to never again hold elected office in California.[66] Dell Inspiron 14-5459 battery
Dell Inspiron 5-3558 battery Harris described the case as "about protecting the integrity of our political process, which is part of the core of our democracy".[66] For his federal offenses, Jew was sentenced to 64 months in federal prison and a $10,000 fine;[67] for the state perjury conviction, Jew was sentenced to one year in county jail, three years' probation, and about $2,000 in fines.[68] Dell Inspiron 14-5547 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3551 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3552 battery
Under Harris, the D.A.'s office obtained more than 1,900 convictions for marijuana offenses, including persons simultaneously convicted of marijuana offenses and more serious crimes.[69] The rate at which Harris's office prosecuted marijuana crimes was higher than the rate under Hallinan, Dell Inspiron 14-5557 battery
Dell Inspiron 14-7437 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3542 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3543 battery but the number of defendants sentenced to state prison for such offenses was substantially lower.[69] Prosecutions for low-level marijuana offenses were rare under Harris, and her office had a policy of not pursuing jail time for marijuana possession offenses.[69] Harris's successor as D.A., George Gascón, expunged all San Francisco marijuana offenses going back to 1975.[69] Dell F7HVR battery
Dell G4YJM battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3537 battery
Violent crimes
In the early 2000s, the San Francisco murder rate per capita outpaced the national average. Within the first six months of taking office, Harris cleared 27 of 74 backlogged homicide cases by settling 14 by plea bargain and taking 11 to trial; of those trials, nine ended with convictions and two with hung juries. Dell T2T3J battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3531 batteryShe took 49 violent crime cases to trial and secured 36 convictions.[70] From 2004 to 2006, Harris achieved an 87 percent conviction rate for homicides and a 90 percent conviction rate for all felony gun violations.[71] Dell Inspiron 14-7447 battery
Dell MR90Y battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3521 battery
Harris also pushed for higher bail for criminal defendants involved in gun-related crimes, arguing that historically low bail encouraged outsiders to commit crimes in San Francisco. SFPD officers credited Harris with tightening the loopholes defendants had used in the past.[72] In addition to creating a gun crime unitDell M5Y1K battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3458 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-3520 battery, Harris opposed releasing defendants on their own recognizance if they were arrested on gun crimes, sought minimum 90-day sentences for possession of concealed or loaded weapons, and charged all assault weapons possession cases as felonies, adding that she would seek prison terms for criminals who possessed or used assault weapons and would seek maximum penalties on gun-related crimes.[7Dell 33YDH battery
Dell D2VF9 battery3]
Harris created a Hate Crimes Unit, focusing on hate crimes against LGBT children and teens in schools.[74] In early 2006, Gwen Araujo, a 17-year-old American Latina transgender teenager, was murdered by two men who later used the "gay panic defense" before being convicted of second-degree murder. Harris, alongside Araujo's mother Sylvia Guerrero, Dell Inspiron 13-7357 battery
Dell Inspiron 13-7368 battery
Dell D2VF9,0YGR2V battery
Dell Inspiron 15-7547 battery
Dell 0YGR2V battery
Dell Inspiron 15-7548 batteryconvened a two-day conference of at least 200 prosecutors and law enforcement officials nationwide to discuss strategies to counter such legal defenses.[75] Harris subsequently supported A.B. 1160, the Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act, advocating that California's penal code include jury instructions to ignore bias, sympathy, prejudice, or public opinion in making their decision, Dell Inspiron 14-3421 battery
Dell F7HVR battery
Dell Inspiron 15-7537 battery
Dell 357F9 battery also making mandatory for district attorney's offices in California to educate prosecutors about panic strategies and how to prevent bias from affecting trial outcomes.[76] In September 2006, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed A.B. 1160 into law; the law put California on record as declaring it contrary to public policy for defendants to be acquitted or convicted of a lesser included offense on the basis of appeals to "societal bias".[76][ Dell Inspiron 14-3442 battery
Dell MR90Y battery
Dell F7HVR battery
Dell T2T3J battery77]
In August 2007, state assemblyman Mark Leno introduced legislation to ban gun shows at the Cow Palace, joined by Harris, police chief Heather Fong, and mayor Gavin Newsom. City leaders contended the shows were directly contributing to the proliferation of illegal guns and spiking homicide rates in San Francisco. Dell Inspiron 14-3452 battery
Dell Inspiron 14-3451 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5758 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-7437 battery (Earlier that month Newsom had signed into law local legislation banning gun shows on city and county property.) Leno alleged that merchants drove through the public housing developments nearby and illegally sold weapons to residents.[78] While the bill would stall, local opposition to the shows continued until the Cow Palace Board of Directors in 2019 voted to approve a statement banning all future gun shows.[7Dell Inspiron 14-3452 battery
Dell Inspiron 14-3458 battery
Dell M5Y1K battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5568 battery
Dell WDX0R,T2JX4 battery9]
Reform efforts
Death penalty
Harris has said life imprisonment without parole is a better and more cost-effective punishment than the death penalty,[80] and has estimated that the resultant cost savings could pay for a thousand additional police officers in San Francisco alone.[80] Dell Inspiron 14-5447 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5558 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5559 battery
During her campaign, Harris pledged never to seek the death penalty.[54] After a San Francisco Police Department officer, Isaac Espinoza, was shot and killed in 2004, U.S. senator (and former San Francisco mayor) Dianne Feinstein,[8Dell 1608T,C4MF8,5KG27 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5555 battery1] U.S. senator Barbara Boxer, Oakland mayor Jerry Brown, and the San Francisco Police Officers Association pressured Harris to reverse that position, but she did not.[82] (Polls found that seventy percent of voters supported Harris's decision.)[83] When Edwin Ramos, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, Dell M5Y1K battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5547 battery
Dell TRHFF battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5551 battery
Dell Inspiron 15-5552 batterywas accused of murdering a man and his two sons in 2009,[84] Harris sought a sentence of life in prison without parole, a decision Mayor Gavin Newsom backed.[85] Dell Inspiron 15-3567 battery
Dell 4P8PH battery
Dell 1V2F6 battery
Recidivism and re-entry initiative
In 2004, Harris recruited civil rights activist Lateefah Simon to create the San Francisco Reentry Division.[86] The flagship program was the Back on Track initiative, a first-of-its-kind reentry program for first-time nonviolent offenders aged 18–30.[8Dell T54FJ battery
Dell WD52H,KWFFN,HJ8KP,J31N7 battery
Dell RRCGW battery
7] Initiative participants whose crimes were not weapon- or gang-related would plead guilty in exchange for a deferral of sentencing and regular appearances before a judge over a twelve- to eighteen-month period. The program maintained rigorous graduation requirements, mandating completion of up to 220 hours of community service,
Dell M7R96 battery
obtaining a high-school-equivalency diploma, maintaining steady employment, taking parenting classes, and passing drug tests. At graduation, the court would dismiss the case and expunge the graduate's record.[8Dell Inspiron 17-5749 battery
Dell Inspiron 17-7737 battery
Dell 4GVGH battery
Dell 62MJV battery
8] Over six years, the 200 people graduated from the program had a recidivism rate of less than ten percent, compared to the 53 percent of California's drug offenders who returned to prison within two years of release. Back on Track earned recognition from the U.S. Department of Justice as a model for reentry programs. Dell Latitude 3150 battery
Dell 1P6KD battery
The DOJ found that the cost to the taxpayers per participant was markedly lower ($5,000) than the cost of adjudicating a case ($10,000) and housing a low-level offender ($50,000).[89] In 2009, a state law (the Back on Track Reentry Act, A.B. 750) was enacted, encouraging other California counties to start similar programs.[90Dell Latitude 3160 battery
Dell Precision 3800 battery
][91] Adopted by the National District Attorneys Association as a model, prosecutor offices in Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Atlanta have used Back on Track as a template for their own programs.[92][93][94] Dell RYXXH battery
Dell Latitude 3440 battery
Dell Precision 3510 battery
Dell WJ5R2,4F5YV battery
Truancy initiative
In 2006, as part of an initiative to reduce the city's skyrocketing homicide rate, Harris led a city-wide effort to combat truancy for at-risk elementary school youth in San Francisco.[95] Declaring chronic truancy a matter of public safety and pointing out that the majority of prison inmates and homicide victims are dropouts or habitual truants, Dell Latitude 5280 battery
Dell TXF9M battery
Dell WD52H,KWFFN,5K1GW,909H5,G0G2M battery Harris's office met with thousands of parents at high-risk schools and sent out letters warning all families of the legal consequences of truancy at the beginning of the fall semester, adding she would prosecute the parents of chronically truant elementary students; penalties included a $2,500 fine and up to a year in jail.[96] The program was controversial when introduced. Dell GJKNX battery
Dell 79VRK battery
Dell Latitude E5570 battery
In 2008, Harris issued citations against six parents whose children missed at least fifty days of school, the first time San Francisco prosecuted adults for student truancy. San Francisco's school chief, Carlos Garcia, Dell P63NY,N3KPR battery
Dell Latitude E5550 batterysaid the path from truancy to prosecution was lengthy, and that the school district usually spends months encouraging parents through phone calls, reminder letters, private meetings, hearings before the School Attendance Review Board, and offers of help from city agencies and social services; two of the six parents entered no plea but said they would work with the D.A.'Dell Latitude E5250 battery
Dell Latitude E5450 battery
Dell G5M10,8V5GX,6MT4T batterys office and social service agencies to create "parental responsibility plans" to help them start sending their children to school regularly.[97] By April 2009, 1,330 elementary school students were habitual or chronic truants, down 23 percent from 1,730 in 2008, and down from 2,517 in 2007 and from 2,856 in 2006.[9Dell 33YDH battery
Dell Inspiron 17R-5721 battery
Dell Inspiron 17R-5737 battery8] Harris's office prosecuted seven parents in three years, with none jailed.[98]
Attorney General of California (2011–2017)
Elections
See also: Electoral history of Kamala Harris
2010
Main article: 2010 California Attorney General election
Nearly two years before the 2010 election, Harris announced she planned to run.[99] She also stated she would only run if then-Attorney General Jerry Brown did not seek re-election for that position.[100] Brown instead chose to run for governor and Harris consolidated support from prominent California Democrats.[1Dell MFKVP battery
Dell T05W1 battery
Dell YMYF6 battery
01] Both of California's senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, United Farm Workers cofounder Dolores Huerta, and mayor of Los Angeles Antonio Villaraigosa all endorsed her during the Democratic primary.[101] In the June 8, 2010 primary, she was nominated with 33.6 percent of the vote, defeating Alberto Torrico and Chris Kelly.[102]
Dell 74XCR battery
Dell V79Y0 battery
In the general election, she faced Republican Los Angeles County district attorney Steve Cooley, who led most of the race.[103][104] Cooley ran as a nonpartisan, distancing himself from Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman's campaign.[citation needed] The election was held November 2 but after a protracted period of counting mail-in and provisional ballots, Cooley conceded on November 25.[10Dell Precision 3510 battery
Dell D1R74,7WMM7 battery
Dell YMYF6 battery
Dell XPS 14Z-L412Z battery5] Harris was sworn in on January 3, 2011; she is the first woman, the first African American, and the first South Asian American to hold the office of Attorney General in the state's history.[106]
Dell VYP88,9MGCD battery
Dell Y1FGD battery
Dell V79Y0 battery
2014
Main article: 2014 California Attorney General election
Harris announced her intention to run for re-election in February 2014 and filed paperwork to run on February 12.[107] The Sacramento Bee,[108] Los Angeles Daily News,[109] and Los Angeles Times endorsed her for re-election.[110] Dell Latitude 5480 battery
Dell 271J9 battery
Dell XPS 14Z-L412X battery
On November 4, 2014, Harris was re-elected against Republican Ronald Gold, winning 57.5 percent of the vote to 42.5 percent.[111] Dell Latitude E5470 battery
Dell C1JKH battery
Dell XPS 14Z battery
Consumer protection
Fraud, waste, and abuse
Harris meets foreclosure victims in 2011.
In 2011, Harris announced the creation of the Mortgage Fraud Strike Force in the wake of the 2010 United States foreclosure crisis.[112] That same year, Harris obtained two of the largest recoveries in the history of California's False Claims Act – $241 million from Quest Diagnostics and then $323 million from the SCAN healthcare network – over excess state Medi-Cal and federal Medicare payments.[113][114] Dell Y9N00 battery
Dell PKH18 battery
Dell 3H76R battery
Dell 4RXFK battery
In 2012, Harris leveraged California's economic clout to obtain better terms in the National Mortgage Settlement against the nation's five largest mortgage servicers – JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and Ally Bank.[ Dell 489XN battery
Dell XPS 13-L322X battery
Dell XPS 13-L322X battery115] The mortgage firms were accused of illegally foreclosing on homeowners. After dismissing an initial offer of $2–4 billion in relief for Californians, Harris withdrew from negotiations. The offer eventually was increased to $18.4 billion in debt relief and $2 billion in other financial assistance for California homeowners.[116][11Dell ALIENWARE M18X 2F8K3 battery
Dell V8XN3 battery7]
Harris worked with Assembly speaker John Pérez and Senate president pro tem Darrell Steinberg in 2013 to introduce the Homeowner Bill of Rights, considered one of the strongest protections nationwide against aggressive foreclosure tactics.[118] The Homeowner Bill of Rights banned the practices of "dual-tracking" Dell C4K9V battery
Dell XPS 15D-2828 battery
Dell H76MV battery
Dell PFXCR battery
Dell T19VW battery (processing a modification and foreclosure at the same time) and robo-signing and provided homeowners with a single point of contact at their lending institution.[119] Harris achieved multiple nine-figure settlements for California homeowners under the bill mostly for robo-signing and dual-track abuses, Dell T0TRM battery
Dell Y758W battery
Dell F38HT battery
Dell G0G2M batteryas well as prosecuting instances in which loan processors failed to promptly credit mortgage payments, miscalculated interest rates, and charged borrowers improper fees. Harris secured hundreds of millions in relief, including $268 million from Ocwen Financial Corporation, $470 million from HSBC, and $550 million from SunTrust Banks.[120Dell 90V7W,JD25G battery
Dell 7C2JF battery
Dell WD52H battery][121][122]
From 2013 to 2015, Harris pursued financial recoveries for California's public employee and teacher's pensions, CalPERS and CalSTRS against various financial giants for misrepresentation in the sale of mortgage-backed securities. She secured multiple nine-figure recoveries for the state pensions, recovering about $193 million from Citigroup, $210 million from S&PDell HW905 battery
Dell X784C battery
Dell HJ8KP battery
Dell NCVF0 battery, $300 million from JP Morgan Chase, and over half a billion from Bank of America.[123][124][125][126]
In 2013, Harris declined to authorize a civil complaint drafted by state investigators who accused OneWest Bank, owned by an investment group headed by future U.S. treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin (then a private citizen), Dell RM672 battery
Dell RM677 battery
Dell 2P2MJ battery
Dell GHT4X battery
Dell GVD76 batteryof "widespread violation" of California foreclosure laws.[127] During the 2016 elections, Harris was the only Democratic Senate candidate to receive a donation from Mnuchin. Harris was criticized for accepting the donation because Mnuchin purportedly profited from the subprime mortgage crisis through OneWest Bank;[1Dell CWVXW battery
Dell F3G33 battery28] she later voted against his confirmation as treasury secretary in February 2017. In 2019, Harris's campaign stated that the decision not to pursue prosecution hinged on the state's inability to subpoena OneWest. Her spokesman said, "There was no question OneWest conducted predatory lending, Dell DHT0W battery
Dell M1Y7N battery
Dell W0X4F0 batteryand Senator Harris believes they should be punished. Unfortunately, the law was squarely on their side and they were shielded from state subpoenas because they're a federal bank."[129] Dell M9H56 battery
Dell 3K7J7 battery
Dell DFNCH battery
In 2014, Harris settled charges she had brought against rent-to-own retailer Aaron's, Inc. on allegations of incorrect late charges, overcharging customers who paid off their contracts before the due date, and privacy violations. In the settlement, the retailer refunded $28.4 million to California customers and paid $3.4 million in civil penalties.[1Dell 9TJ2J battery
Dell 1M215 battery30]
In 2015, Harris obtained a $1.2 billion judgment against for-profit post-secondary education company Corinthian Colleges for false advertising and deceptive marketing targeting vulnerable, low-income students and misrepresenting job placement rates to students, investors, and accreditation agencies.[131] Dell 970V9 battery
Dell YRX4W battery The Court ordered Corinthian to pay $820 million in restitution and another $350 million in civil penalties.[ Dell MPK22 battery
Dell TPHRG battery132] That same year, Harris also secured a $60 million settlement with JP Morgan Chase to resolve allegations of illegal debt collection with respect to credit card customers, with the bank also agreeing to change practices that violated California consumer protection laws by collecting incorrect amounts, HP PX03XL Battery
·
· HP TE04XL Battery selling bad credit card debt, and running a debt-collection mill that "robo-signed" court documents without first reviewing the files as it rushed to obtain judgments and wage garnishments. As part of the settlement, the bank was required to stop attempting to collect on more than 528,000 customer accounts.[133] HP SG03XL Battery
·
· HP RR03XL Battery
In 2015, Harris opened an investigation of the Office of Ratepayer Advocates, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison regarding the closure of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. California state investigators searched the home of California utility regulator Michael Peevey and found handwritten notes that allegedly showed he had met with an Edison HP BP02XL Battery
·
· HP SR04XL Battery executive in Poland, where the two had negotiated the terms of the San Onofre settlement, leaving San Diego taxpayers with a $3.3 billion bill to pay for the closure of the plant. The investigation was closed amidst Harris's 2016 run for the U.S. Senate position.[134][135] HP BI03XL Battery
· HP CM03XL Battery
· HP CI03XL Battery
· HP MB04XL Battery
·
Privacy rights
In February 2012, Harris announced an agreement with Apple, Amazon, Google, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, and Research in Motion to mandate that apps sold in their stores display prominent privacy policies informing users of what private information they were sharing, and with whom.[136] HP NP03XL Battery
·
Facebook later joined the agreement. That summer, Harris announced the creation of a Privacy Enforcement and Protection Unit to enforce laws related to cyber privacy, identity theft, and data breaches.[137] HP BT04XL Battery
·
· HP HT03XL Battery Later the same year, Harris notified a hundred mobile-app developers of their non-compliance with state privacy laws and asked them to create privacy policies or face a $2500 fine each time a non-compliant app is downloaded by a resident of California.[138]
· HP TF03XL Battery
In 2015, Harris secured two settlements with Comcast, one totaling $33 million over allegations that it posted online the names, phone numbers and addresses of tens of thousands of customers who had paid for unlisted voice over internet protocol (VOIP) HP ME03XL Battery
·
· HP PK03XL Battery phone service and another $26 million settlement to resolve allegations that it discarded paper records without first omitting or redacting private customer information.[139][140] HP LE03XL Battery
· HP KB06XL Battery Harris also settled with Houzz over allegations that the company recorded phone calls without notifying customers or employees. Houzz was forced to pay $175,000, destroy the recorded calls, and hire a chief privacy officer, the first time such a provision has been included in a settlement with the California Department of Justice.[1· HP BK03XL Battery
41]
Criminal justice reform
Launch of Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry
In November 2013, Harris launched the California Department of Justice's Division of Recidivism Reduction and Re-Entry in partnership with district attorney offices in San Diego, Los Angeles, and Alameda County.[142] In March 2015, Sony SVE15AA11V keyboard
Sony SVE151G13L keyboard
Harris announced the creation of a pilot program in coordination with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department called "Back on Track LA". Like Back on Track, first time, non-violent, non-sexual, offenders aged between 18 and 30[failed verification] Sony SVE151J13M keyboard
Sony SVE151G12W keyboard- 90 men participated in the pilot program for 24–30 months. Assigned a case manager, participants received education through a partnership with the Los Angeles Community College District and job training services.[143] Sony SVE151L11W keyboard
Sony SVE171A11M keyboard
Sony SVE171A11V keyboard
Sentencing and prison inmate retention
After the 2011 United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Plata declared California's prisons so overcrowded they inflicted cruel and unusual punishment, Harris fought federal court supervision, explaining "I have a client, and I don't get to choose my client."[144Sony SVE171B11W keyboard
Sony SVE151G11V keyboard] Harris's record on wrongful conviction cases as attorney general has engendered some criticism from academics and activists. Law professor Lara Bazelon contends Harris "weaponized technicalities to keep wrongfully convicted people behind bars rather than allow them new trials".[14Sony SVE171B11V keyboard
Sony SVE171C11L keyboard
Sony SVE171C11V keyboard
5] Harris declined to take any position on criminal sentencing-reform initiatives Prop 36 (2012) and Prop 47 (2014), arguing it would be improper because her office prepares the ballot booklets. John Van de Kamp, a predecessor as attorney general, publicly disagreed with the rationale.[144] Sony SVE171E11L keyboard
Sony SVE151G11M keyboard
In September 2014, attorneys for Harris argued unsuccessfully in a court filing against the early release of prisoners, citing the need for inmate firefighting labor. When the memo provoked headlines, Harris spoke out against the memo. Sony SVE171E11M keyboard
Sony SVE171E12L keyboard
Sony SVE151G11L keyboardShe said she was unaware of it, and the attorneys had produced the memo without her knowledge.[146] Since the 1940s, qualified California inmates have the option of volunteering to receive comprehensive training from the California Department of
Sony SVE171G11M keyboardForestry and Fire Protection in exchange for sentence reductions and more comfortable prison accommodations; prison firefighters receive about $2 a day, and another $1 when battling fires.[147] Sony SVE171E13M keyboard
Sony SVE171G11L keyboard
LGBT rights
Opposing Prop 8
Main article: Hollingsworth v. Perry
In 2008, California voters passed Prop 8, a state constitutional amendment providing that only marriages "between a man and a woman" are valid. Legal challenges were made by opponents soon after its approval, and a pair of same-sex couples filed a lawsuit against the initiative in federal court in the case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger (later Hollingsworth v. Perry).
Sony SVT131A11M keyboard
In their 2010 campaigns, California attorney general Jerry Brown and Harris both pledged to not defend Prop 8.[148]
Sony SVE151G13M keyboard
Sony SVS151A12M keyboard
0 notes