August 17, 2011, 12:05 AM
As California’s attorney general, Jerry Brown was the first to crack down on questionable car impounds at checkpoints. Soon, it appears, the governor also will get the last word on the legality of police seizing vehicles from sober but unlicensed motorists at roadway operations intended...
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August 8, 2011, 12:05 AM
The Legislative Analyst’s Office is calling on state lawmakers to get more involved in reducing the number of inmates in California’s overcrowded prisons. In a report released Friday [PDF], the analyst's office recommended that the Legislature start by asking federal courts for...
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July 28, 2011, 12:05 AM
The current moratorium on suction dredging in California's rivers and streams was extended another five years Tuesday, when Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill that prohibits the controversial gold mining technique through June 2016. Environmentalists called the bill – AB 120 – a...
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July 27, 2011, 9:05 PM
Californians are worried about climate change and overwhelmingly support measures to reduce the state’s output of greenhouse gas emissions. But just how they are going to do that, at what cost, and whether they believe their political leadership can do it is not so clear. A survey by the...
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July 8, 2011, 12:05 AM
Jerry Brown's term as governor promises big returns for the two Oakland charter schools he founded. So far this year, Brown has raised $2.3 million for the Oakland Military Institute and Oakland School for the Arts. American Indian tribes, foundations and companies that lobby state...
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June 30, 2011, 4:43 PM
Gov. Jerry Brown signed an $85.9 billion budget today, bringing to a close a month that featured a veto of the first simple-majority vote budget to come out of the Legislature in decades and a subsequent decision to cut off lawmakers' pay. The budget, which establishes a roughly $500...
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June 29, 2011, 12:05 AM
Six months into his second tenure as the governor of California, Jerry Brown is surrounding himself with the familiar. As of this month, Brown has made 124 political appointments – the vast majority older, male Democrats. For all the talk of bipartisan governance, Brown...
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June 28, 2011, 10:22 PM
For the second time in two weeks, Democratic legislators relied on a simple majority vote to pass a budget package that closes the state's current $9.6 billion deficit, a move finalized late tonight less than three days before the end of the fiscal year. Unlike the June 15 budget Gov....
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June 24, 2011, 12:05 AM
There was plenty of talk among lawmakers in the Capitol yesterday, but with less than a week before the start of the next fiscal year, there is still no budget deal in sight. After an unprecedented week of action – including the first majority-vote budget to come out of the legislature...
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June 21, 2011, 12:35 PM
California Controller John Chiang announced today that he will withhold legislators' salary and per diem pay until a "balanced" budget is presented to Gov. Jerry Brown, following through with his promise to voters earlier this month that he would enforce Proposition 25. Known as...
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June 16, 2011, 4:21 PM
Gov. Jerry Brown wasted little time today when he vetoed the budget package California legislators presented him less than 24 hours prior. Brown said in a statement that the budget – which lawmakers passed with a simple majority yesterday and without any Republican support – was...
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June 13, 2011, 3:40 PM
Gov. Jerry Brown reaffirmed his call to enact temporary tax extensions when he met with dozens of state leaders today, just two days before the June 15 budget deadline. Lawmakers continued negotiations over the weekend, as Republicans remained staunchly opposed to pushing the expiration date...
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June 13, 2011, 12:05 AM
California nursing homes dodged the 10 percent rate cut hitting doctors and most other Medi-Cal providers approved by the Senate on Friday, angering advocates who hoped to see funding aligned to reward top-notch care. Nursing homes carved out a deal carried by Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield...
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June 3, 2011, 12:05 AM
In a notable display of bipartisan support, the state Assembly approved potentially landmark school financing legislation by a 74-2 vote this week. The vote reflected an overwhelming consensus on the need to reform the way schools are funded. The fact that Republicans unanimously voted...
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June 2, 2011, 12:05 AM
More than three in four Californians buy into Gov. Jerry Brown's notion that voters should have a say in deciding which cuts and taxes will be used to plug the state's budget gap, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll released last night. Since his campaign last...
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