CLEARLAKE
American Legion Post 437 breakfast
We will be serving bacon, sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy, $9 with the July special — blue berry pancakes -Sunday July 11, 8:30 to 11 at 14770 Austin Rd. Clearlake CA. Please call 707-994-3677 for information.
—Submitted
SACRAMENTO
Newsom wants to diversify judiciary
Speaking of Newsom, the governor has mostly been laying low since an investigation last week found he vastly overstated California’s progress on fire prevention, giving just one press conference at which only two reporters asked him questions. Notably, on Thursday he did not unveil the final prizes — six Dream Vacation giveaways — in the state’s vaccine lottery; the Department of Public Health hosted the event instead. The governor, perhaps seeking to strike a more sober tone after a series of carnivalesque lottery drawings, instead launched a new mentorship program that aims to diversify California’s judiciary. The announcement came less than 45 minutes after Kounalakis set the recall election date. It also followed a series of reports from CalMatters’ Byrhonda Lyons that found white Californians make up nearly two-thirds of superior court judges but only one-third of the state’s population, while four majority-Latino counties don’t have a single Latino superior court judge.
- Newsom: “This mentor program supports our efforts to identify the best and brightest judicial candidates from throughout the state, contributing to a stronger, more inclusive bench to better serve all Californians.”
—Hoeven, CALMatters
CALIFORNIA
Gun sales, homicides surge
Californians legally bought a record 686,435 handguns in 2020 — a nearly 66% increase from the year before — while annual long-gun sales reached their second-highest total with 480,401 legal purchases, according to data Attorney General Rob Bonta released Thursday. Though Bonta noted that a surge in gun sales doesn’t necessarily correspond to a rise in gun-related violence, the slew of reports he published Thursday show that homicides skyrocketed 31% from 2019 to 2020, resulting in California’s highest homicide rate since 2008. Nearly 75% of the 2,202 reported homicides last year involved the use of a gun. Meanwhile, domestic violence-related calls for assistance involving guns shot up 42% and violent crime increased 0.8%. And despite a new law intended to limit police use of force, the number of civilians killed by law enforcement rose to 172 in 2020, up from 147 the year before.
- Bonta: “With more weapons, more economic stagnation, more desperation, I think those are all potential components and drivers of where we are today.”
Rising rates of homicide and violent crime will likely feed into ongoing concerns about public safety and could play a big role in next year’s attorney general election. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert, who has a more traditional law-and-order approach, announced Thursday that she’s raised more than $1 million since announcing her AG bid two months ago. Campaign finance records show Bonta, who’s positioned himself as more of a progressive prosecutor, has raised $1.15 million for his reelection campaign.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
CALIFORNIA
Supreme Court axes another CA law
California took another hit from the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday, when the nation’s highest court in a 6-3 vote struck down a state law requiring charities to disclose the identities of their major donors. The ruling was a massive win for two conservative groups — including one linked to the billionaire Koch brothers — that argued the Golden State’s law hampered their ability to raise money and subjected donors to possible harassment. Attorney General Bonta, meanwhile, slammed the decision as one that would make it harder for his office to weed out fraud and self-dealing within the state’s vast system of 115,000 charities. It’s the second California law the court’s conservative majority has overturned in less than two weeks: In late June, it knocked down a law that allowed union organizers to meet with farmworkers on growers’ private property.
But another recent U.S. Supreme Court decision challenging the notion that college athletes shouldn’t make money has emboldened California, which sparked a national movement in 2019 when it passed a first-in-the-nation law allowing players to sign paid endorsement deals. Now California legislators are pushing for the law to go into effect earlier and expand it to cover community college athletes.
—Hoeven, CALMatters
SACRAMENTO
Governor Newsom announces appointments
Yong Ping Chen, 58, of Camarillo, has been reappointed to the California Acupuncture Board, where she has served since 2020. Chen has been a Professor at Alhambra Medical University since 2020 and an Acupuncturist at Chen’s Chinese Medicine clinic since 2002.
Tian Feng, 62, of Walnut Creek, has been reappointed to the California Architects Board, where he has served since 2014. Feng has been District Architect for the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit District (BART) since 2001.
Mitra Kanaani, 69, of San Diego, has been appointed to the California Architects Board. Kanaani has been a Professor at NewSchool of Architecture and Design since 1992, where she has held several roles, including as Chair of the Architecture Department and the Undergraduate Program, Acting Dean and Director of Integrated Path to Architectural Licensure, IPAL Program.
—Submitted
—Compiled by Ariel Carmona Jr.
