U.S. State Politics

Jerry Brown: The Philosopher-Governor

The days of the philosopher-king are long gone. Slipping away, too, are the days when the citizenry was familiar with the concept of a benevolent despot shaping a state in his mind's image. But not in California. The picture painted of Gov. Jerry Brown in an extensive Atlantic magazine profile publ ... More >>

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval Denies Dumping More Than One Patient From Psych Hospital

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval says indeed his state did improperly discharge one mentally ill patient from a state-run hospital, but no more than that -- and it was accidental. According to Reuters, the republican governor defended his state, and denied accusations that Nevada had been busing hundred ... More >>

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Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom Gets Overwhelmed by Two Meetings

It's not news that Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom has not a thing to do up there in Sacramento, a city that he himself has said is boring. But you know what is news: Newsom finally had something to do -- and didn't do it!On Monday, Newsom's morning included showing up to a meeting and casting a vo ... More >>

State Supreme Court, Legislature Want to Give Juveniles Serving Life Sentences a Shot at Parole

On June 6, 2007, Rodrigo Caballero, a 16-year-old member of the Vario Lancas gang in Los Angeles, jumped out of a green Toyota and opened fire on three Val Verde gang rivals walking down the street. He missed two of his targets, but the third caught a non-fatal gunshot wound near the shoulder blade. ... More >>

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano Pulls Plug on Medical Marijuana Reform Bill

Attempts to reform California's oft-confusing and always-contentious medical marijuana industry have been put on hold until next year -- at the earliest.Assemblyman Tom Ammiano on Monday withdrew from consideration Assembly Bill 2312, medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access announ ... More >>

NORML: Attorney General Eric Holder Lied to Congress About Marijuana Crackdown

Attorney General Eric Holder "lied" to members of Congress when he insisted that the only targets of the federal Justice Department's medical marijuana crackdown were breaking state law, cannabis advocates said today.On Thursday, Holder told the House Judiciary Committee the same mantra he and the f ... More >>

Prop. B: Tracking the Money Poured into the Coit Tower Battle

Medical Marijuana Activists Occupy the Capitol

As the pleasant Sacramento spring turns into the furnace of the Central Valley summer, so too is the heat turned up in the corridors of the state Capitol: It's budget season, and it's also last call for certain bills stalled in the Legislature to get a hearing before a June 1 deadline sends them int ... More >>

Kamala Harris Says Arizona Can't Boot Illegal Immigrants from Country

​California has the largest number of illegal immigrants and undocumented laborers in the country. So it should be no surprise that California Attorney General Kamala Harris has joined the fight against Arizona's unfriendly immigration law.Yesterday, Harris filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the ... More >>

Gavin Newsom Admits He Doesn't Have Much to Do

​Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom finally found something meaningful to bestow on the office of Lieutenant Governor: advocating for the position to be eliminated. That's right, the former San Francisco mayor who famously asked "What does the lieutenant governor do?" is lobbying that that his own highly p ... More >>

Hawaii Governor Refuses to Defend Gay Marriage Ban in Court

​As the battle over the constitutionality of California's ban on gay marriage wends its way through the federal courts, the challenge to a similar law in Hawaii has taken a surprising turn.Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii's Democratic governor, said this week he will refuse to fight a lawsuit in U.S. Dist ... More >>

Prop. 8 Appeals Court Ruling: Inside the Dissenting Opinion

​Same-sex marriage advocates rejoiced today as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker's 2010 decision that Proposition 8, the 2008 California ballot initiative banning gay marriage, is unconstitutional.The decision is almost certainly destine ... More >>

Leland Yee, Champion of Shark Fin Soup, to Tout More Politically Correct Broth

​State Sen. Leland Yee, the enigmatic San Francisco politician known for his past brushes with the law and diverse array of stances on major policy issues, positioned himself last year as an opponent of a ban on shark fin soup, the Asian delicacy that depends on grisly fishing methods. That turned ... More >>

California's Year of the Nanny

Tom Ammiano: Not an abuser of nannies. ​This has been the Year Of The Nanny in California politics. There was Meg Whitman's undocumented nanny who accused her of not paying her enough, which was perhaps the death knell to Whitman's gubernatorial campaign (Okay, technically, that was last year). Th ... More >>

Rolling Paper: Looking at the Current State of Safe Access

Faux Willie Brown Weighs In on San Francisco Politics

Amazon.com Goes to War with State of California over Online Sales Tax

​Nobody expected that Amazon.com would take kindly to California legislators' decision to force the mammoth web retailer to collect state sales tax. As part of the recently approved, arduously deliberated state budget, California is now requiring out-of-state companies such as Amazon to slap the t ... More >>

Jerry Brown Rehires Official Who Protested State Building Privatization

That was a close call.​After he was quoted in The Snitch protesting a proposed sale of 24 government office buildings to private investors, Arnold Schwarzenegger fired Donald Casper from his job as a state buildings commissioner.Now that Governor Jerry Brown has scotched the Governator's mone ... More >>

Justice Department "Clarifies" Stance on Medical Marijuana: It's Illegal And They Will Arrest You

They gonna getcha​President Barack Obama's stance on medical cannabis has been a wee nebulous: as candidate, Obama said the drug war was a failure and that doctors prescribing pot as a treatment was "appropriate"; as president, Obama's Justice Department said chasing after pot growers and users wa ... More >>

AB 152 Proposes Tax Credits for Farmers Donating to Food Banks

Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes.​Just as the California state legislature fights for its paychecks, another food-related bill fights to make it through committee in the Senate after passing unanimously through the Assembly.AB 152, introduced by Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes, is intended to give reli ... More >>

Medical Marijuana Bills Killed by Odd Bedfellows -- Labor and Business Groups

You can't really win against business AND labor​Public safety and jobs. To a California politician, they are the bread and butter -- if bread and butter means getting elected, that is. There are fewer worse labels for a politician than "job-killer" or the pejorative "soft on crime."You'd think, th ... More >>

Amazon Tax Bill Is Gaining Favor Among S.F. Businesses

Read the full story on your Kindle​Business leaders in San Francisco are supporting the same legislation that's made economic behemoths such as Amazon.com threaten to leave California. AB155, also known as the Amazon tax bill, passed the Assembly this week and now awaits the state Senate's vote. ... More >>

Schwarzenegger Creating 'Governator' Cartoon Chracter

Schwarzenegger will use his alter-ego to take on the state's Democrats​Just when you thought you had seen every iteration of Arnold Schwarzenegger -- playboy, bodybuilder, Terminator, governor -- he comes up with one more: cartoon characterIn his free-time as the state's former chief executive, Sc ... More >>

Gov. Jerry Brown Stops in SF to Get Buy-In on Budget

What kind of salesman is he?​Update: The Bay Area Council voted to endorse Brown's budget proposal. Members called the talk with Brown "tough but refreshing."As a governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger had the star power that could set off a media frenzy every time he blew his nose. And while Gov.Jerry B ... More >>

Pelosi Called 'Sick Woman' By Former GOP Candidate Carl Paladino

We get it...you don't like Pelosi​Defunct New York gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino made the unfortunate and embarrassing mistake of hitting send on an e-mail where he called Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi a "sick woman."In that scenario, there's only two things to do: apologize or get defensive. ... More >>

Soda Tax: Will it Fizz Out?

KMP0629Liquid assets -- literally! ​The truth: Soda is incredibly unhealthy -- and limiting the amount one drinks is one of the quickest ways to lose weight. The truth: It is unlikely that two-thirds of California's elected representatives will agree to impose new taxes upon the populace, even if ... More >>

Jerry Brown Abandons Schwarzenegger Plan to Sell State Buildings

Vanquished!​Gov. Jerry Brown today announced he is scrapping former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to sell a dozen state buildings, including San Francisco's PUC Building and Supreme Court Building.Schwarzenegger attempted to bulldoze the plan through last year before leaving office -- which ra ... More >>

Newsom Mania Comes to an End

​Now that Gavin Newsom has finally cut the cord and left San Francisco, one can only wonder how long it will be before we see his face on TV again.It's been well-stated that for such an ambitious politician, Newsom landed a politically impotent position as California's lieutenant governor. And as ... More >>

Schwarzenegger Dealt Setback In Bid to Rush $1.3 Billion Building Sale

Drag​Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's frantic bid to rush the $1.3 billion fire sale of 11 state buildings before he leaves office suffered a blow this afternoon. A state appeals court in San Jose announced it wouldn't hear arguments until Jan. 26 regarding whether the sale should be allowed. Schwarze ... More >>

Return to Sender

How Would Immigration Reform Look if the Feds Got Off Their Duffs?

Inspector General's Office Nixed By Jerry Brown. What Did Inspector General Do?

​Move Will Save State Not Quite Three-Thousandths Of One Percent Of Looming DeficitThe office of Gov.-elect Jerry Brown yesterday announced it would be curtailing the office of inspector general in January as a cost-cutting move. This, of course, prompts the question "what does the inspector gener ... More >>

"Client 9": Alex Gibney's doc rehabilitates Eliot Spitzer

Schwarzenegger to Tour San Bruno Today

Well, he said he'd be back...​ Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, fresh from visiting the future Bay Bridge in China, will tour the disaster zone today in San Bruno. Alongside Sen. Leland Yee and Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado, the governor will "receive a briefing," walk through the devastation, and ... More >>

State bill makes malicious sock puppets a crime

Let's just drain the Lily Pond and kill the frogs

Republicans tastelessly milk cow-shooting controversy

Arizona and America Join Joe Arpaio in Rushing to Inquire: Are Your Papers in Order?

Immigration Activists Set to Rally Downtown Tomorrow

Jerry, we have a complaint! ​Buoyed by a federal judge's decision to block the "papers please" components of the Arizona immigration law that goes into effect tomorrow, San Francisco activists and Assemblyman Tom Ammiano are now turning their wrath on California Attorney General Jerry Brown. At a ... More >>

The Week in Gay: Heterosexual Bloodbath

This week, let's check in on the heteros​The National Organization for Marriage is on a month-long, 23-city tour in the U.S. to promote heterosexual supremacy. During the tour, NOM is depicting itself as the victim of a campaign similar to the one they are engaged in to marginalize and defame LGBT ... More >>

Marijuana-Legalizing Proposition 19 Gets Greenlight From California Young Democrats

Bill St. ClairThe young are restless...​Supporters of Proposition 19 -- the Tax Cannabis 2010 legislation -- were bummed this weekend when California's Democratic Party opted to make no endorsement on the measure and stay neutral. But when it comes to marijuana, the kids are all right. California ... More >>

David Plouffe Tells Panicked S.F. Dems They've Never Had it So Good

​David Plouffe says to give Obama a break...​Democratic strategist David Plouffe was in San Francisco Wedensday to inspire panicked Democrats with an obvious-yet-overlooked message: Irrespective of his plummeting poll numbers, Barack Obama has been an extraordinarily successful president, and li ... More >>

Pot Paraphernalia Still 'For Tobacco Use Only,' Says State Assembly

​For the serious cannabis consumer, only the Volcano Vaporizer will do: The popular $500-plus combustion machine burns only the THC in cannabis -- while leaving the gummy plant matter behind -- resulting in a cleaner, dare we say healthier smoke.No one in their right mind would breathe vaporizer b ... More >>

Undocumented immigrants barred from visiting loved ones in prison

Bringing Up Baby Gavin

How William Newsom's pipeline into the Getty fortune has put money -- lots of it -- in his politically ambitious son's pocket