By The Association for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs’ Board of Directors in Roseville & Granite Bay Press Tribune  

March 3, 2016

When Realignment was introduced, it was described as one of the “great experiments in American incarceration policy.” Unfortunately, the guinea pigs in this experiment were not the inmates released from the state prisons, but the residents of California whose lives and property was purposely put at risk.

That change was followed in short order by Proposition 47, which not only led to the release of prison inmates but reduced former felony drug and theft crimes to misdemeanors. While law enforcement warned crime rates would increase if Proposition 47 passed, voters fell for an initiative duplicitously labeled “the Safe Neighborhood and Schools Act.”

Read more at Roseville & Granite Bay Press Tribune

By David Whiting in The Orange County Register

March 7, 2016

Anna Gonzalez scans the crowd at what has become a tent city of homeless at the county’s Civic Center and says, “These are all my children.”

For Gonzalez, who is known as Mama Brizy and uses a walker as she visits waves of blue tarps, that may be true. “This is not a park. This is a home,” she says. “We are like a family.”

In two years, Gonzalez’s adopted family in downtown Santa Ana doubled to more than 500, and the annual number of people left homeless in Orange County jumped nearly 20 percent.

Read more at The Orange County Register

By James Poulos at California Political Review

February 25, 2016

New data has brought a new urgency to the souring fortunes of California’s middle class.

“Not only are Californians leaving the state in large numbers, but the people heading for the exits are disproportionately middle class working families — the demographic backbone of American society,” the American Interest recently noted.

Read more at California Political Review

By Dan Walters in The Sacramento Bee

February 25, 2016

Jerry Brown may be fuming that a Superior Court judge has blocked, at least temporarily, his ballot measure to overhaul criminal sentencing laws.

If he wants someone to blame, he should look in the mirror.

The governor tried to short-circuit the process that initiative measures must endure to get to the signature-gathering phase.

By David Siders in The Sacramento Bee

February 24, 2016

Proponents of a measure to raise billions of dollars for anti-poverty and children’s programs through higher taxes on commercial properties stopped collecting signatures for the November ballot and said Wednesday they will try again another year.

The “Lifting Children and Families out of Poverty Act,” backed by several Southern California nonprofit groups, sought to impose a surcharge of up to 1 percent on real estate with assessed values more than $3 million.

By David Siders in The Sacramento Bee

February 25, 2016

In an effort to revive his ballot initiative to make certain nonviolent felons eligible for early parole, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday appealed to the California Supreme Court to allow the measure to go forward.

The filing came less than 24 hours after a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled the initiative was improperly filed and barred the state attorney general from issuing ballot language necessary for supporters to start collecting signatures.

By Tom Miller at kcra.com

February 23, 2016

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (KCRA) —When it comes to an increase in violent crime, Sacramento ranks No. 1 among major cities in the United States.

The new data comes from FBI statistics compiled by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Researchers found Sacramento saw 76 more violent crimes per 100,000 people during the first half of 2015 compared to the same time in 2014.

Read more at kcra.com

By George Avalos in the Contra Costa Times

February 23, 2016

SAN FRANCISCO — PG&E monthly bills for residential customers are on the rise again.

The upcoming increases will arrive in two stages. Starting in March, as a result of previous approvals by the state Public Utilities Commission, electricity bills for average residential customers will rise $2.29 a month, bringing the average residential bill to $149.50 a month.

Separately, in papers filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the utility said it needed additional revenue increases from ratepayers that could lead to a $3 a month average rise in gas and electricity bills.

Read more at the Contra Costa Times

By Arlene Martinez in the Ventura County Star

February 21, 2016

A program to cap home construction, criticized by members of the business and housing communities and strongly rejected by the Ventura Planning Commission, heads to the City Council on Monday night.

Read more at the Ventura County Star

By Louis Casiano Jr, Jessica Kwong, Alma Fausto and Jenna Chandler/ Staff writers in The Orange County Register

February 19, 2016

SANTA ANA – Three people died and two others, including a police officer, were wounded in a rash of shootings across the city this week, underscoring what the police chief on Friday called a surge in brazen gang-related crimes.

Santa Ana police Chief Carlos Rojas said it was the worst week in a year already rocked by the “busiest” January for his department since 2011.

The number of shootings reached 55 on Thursday since Jan. 1.

Read more at The Orange County Register