Chris Nichols, Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, Peter Cohen, Mark Stivers and Chione Fleagal at A Conference on Housing, March 9, 2023. Photo By Scott Duncan, Capitol WeeklyCAPITOL WEEKLY PODCAST: This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s Conference on Housing, and presents Panel 2: Affordable Housing.
Dear Editor: I want to commend reporter Sigrid Bathen for her thorough and excellent reporting on an issue important to so many people: providing mental health care for our loved ones. Ms. Bathen’s two-part series shined a critical light on some counties’ resistance to adopting Laura’s Law to enhance outpatient services to those with severe mental health issues.
A suspect in custody, handcuffed by police. (Photo: Boyfare, via Shutterstock)Police response to mental-health calls often ends – again and again – in chaotic, noisy hospital emergency rooms, where staff is stretched thin, and a heart attack is likely to take precedence over someone in the throes of a mental-health crisis. “Traditionally, people would be dropped off at the ER, and the only option was to transfer them to a psychiatric facility,” says Dr. Scott Zeller, a nationally known emergency psychiatrist and former president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry.
Nearly three out of every four Californians are registered to vote, an increase of nearly 751,000 since 2010 and a reflection of the growing number of voters who decline to state a party preference. The major parties experienced declines in registration. Of California’s 24 million eligible voters, about 17.7 million actually have registered, or about 73.41 percent, according to the secretary of state’s office. The figures reflect registration through Dec. 31, 2013.
Backers of an initiative that would give new Ventura County employees a 401(k)-style plan, rather than a pension, sometimes mention a lawsuit filed last fall by a former sheriff. Bob Brooks, whose salary as Ventura County sheriff was $227,600 a year when he retired in January 2011, received an annual pension of $283,000. He filed a suit last September seeking an additional pension of $75,000 under a supplemental plan.
Counties that completely flipped from red to blue include many suburban and inland counties, with significant changes among populous Los Angeles suburban counties, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Riverside and Ventura.
With his announcement Monday that he is leaving public office in January 2015, State Treasurer Bill Lockyer ends 40 years as a lawmaker and statewide office holder.
“I need to do something different that’s challenging and interesting,” Lockyer told Capitol Weekly in announcing he won’t seek the job of controller in 2014 for which