ST. HELENA
Thompson applauds $23.4 million grant for California agriculture and specialty crops
Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05) released the following statement after the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) awarded the California Department of Food and Agriculture a $23.4 million grant from the Fiscal Year (FY) 2022 Specialty Crop Block Grant Program (SCBGP).
“California is a leader in the nation when it comes to agricultural output, and our farmers, ranchers, and growers support the availability of nutritious and abundant specialty crops,” said Thompson. “The funding from USDA will help our agriculture community strengthen their production and boost supply for the millions in the United States and around the world who depend on our products.”
SCBGP grants will be used to fund projects that support the specialty crop industry by enhancing food safety, investing in specialty crop research (including research to focus on conservation and environmental outcomes), developing new and improved seed varieties and specialty crops, and improving strategies for pest and disease control. In addition, some projects will focus on increasing child and adult nutrition knowledge, consumption of specialty crops and improving efficiency and reducing costs of produce distribution systems.
Funding for the SCBGP grants is authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill and FY 2022 funding is awarded for a three-year period beginning September 30, 2022. Since 2006, USDA has invested more than $953 million through the SCBGP to fund 11,331 projects that have increased the long-term successes of producers and broadened the market for specialty crops in the U.S. and abroad.
—Submitted
CALIFORNIA
California election updates
It’s hard to believe, but California’s general election is just a little more than two months away. Let’s dive into the latest developments:
- A new poll from UC Berkeley’s Institute for Governmental Studies and the Los Angeles Times found that progressive U.S. Rep. Karen Bass is leading the more moderate billionaire developer Rick Caruso in the Los Angeles mayor’s race by a widening margin, with 43% of the city’s registered voters supporting Bass, 31% backing Caruso and 24% undecided. The poll also found that had the effort to recall Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón gathered enough signatures, it would have had a good chance of ousting the progressive prosecutor from office.
- Voters will decide whether Patricia Guerrero, an associate justice on the California Supreme Court, will become its next chief justice — and the first Latina to hold the position — after a judicial commission on Friday confirmed Newsom’s nomination. The governor tapped Guerrero for the role earlier this month after current Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye announced she plans to retire on Jan. 1 instead of seeking another 12-year term. Newsom’s choice raised some eyebrows, as he had nominated Guerrero to the California Supreme Court fewer than six months before proposing to elevate her to its top position. But the Commission on Judicial Appointments, in unanimously confirming Guerrero, described her as “exceptionally well-qualified” and “universally lauded for her superior intellect, clear writing, judicial temperament, work ethic, and compassion.”
- A fuller portrait emerged of Alameda County Superior Court Judge Kelli Evans, whom Newsom nominated to replace Guerrero as an associate justice on the state’s highest court, in a Saturday Los Angeles Times profile. Evans, who if confirmed would be the court’s first openly lesbian justice, said she was raised by her grandmother because her mother suffered from severe mental illness. Evans met her wife when they were both undergraduate students at Stanford, and they married in Oakland in 2008, one day before California voters approved a later-overturned ballot measure banning same-sex marriage. Her career experiences include serving on a team of federal monitors overseeing the Oakland Police Department and working as Newsom’s chief deputy legal affairs secretary, where she helped fend off a challenge to his moratorium on death penalty executions and advocated for a law restricting police use of force. (If confirmed, Evans wouldn’t go before voters until 2026.)
- With San Francisco’s law allowing noncitizen parents to vote in school board elections recently tossed out by a superior court judge, the Mercury News and East Bay Times editorial boards on Saturday argued voters should reject similar proposals in Oakland and San Jose, deeming them “bad policy, potentially legally flawed and politically misguided.”
—Emily Hoeven, CALMatters
