Posts Tagged: leland

California gets C-minus for integrity

by Rob Gunnison posted 11.09.2015

One night in March 2014, state Senator Leland Yee stood before a fancy dinner thrown in San Francisco by the Society of Professional Journalists to receive the Public Official Award — for a second time. Yee, then a candidate for secretary of state, was saluted for “his courage to oppose his own Democratic Party leaders and the governor in 2013 with public criticism of efforts to weaken the California Public Records Act.” A week later, a handcuffed Yee appeared in federal court, accused of taking bribes, political racketeering and even running guns in the Philippines.

An attempt by journalists to force the disclosure of appointment records, calendars, schedules and related material of two former lawmakers facing corruption charges in an FBI undercover probe was put on hold Friday. Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny heard oral arguments and is expected to make a final ruling within 90 days. The day before, Kenny issued a tentative ruling that favored the reporters in a lawsuit against the Legislature seeking access to the records.

Suspended state Sen. Leland Yee, caught in a years-long FBI undercover investigation into a Chinatown-linked criminal network, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on corruption charges, wire fraud and conspiracy to smuggle guns. Yee, 65, is one of 29 people named in the indictment handed down Thursday and unveiled Friday. Yee, arrested March 26 in a pre-dawn raid, is free on $500,000 bond.

Lawmakers who seek or receive bribes face a boosted level of fines and penalties, under a plan that is getting renewed attention because of the scandals rocking the Senate. The proposal by Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, a Bell Gardens Democrat, also bars the use of campaign funds to pay restitution fines in bribery convictions.

Gov. Brown has signed into a law a measure allowing prison inmates who were minors at the time they committed their crimes to apply for resentencing and early release at least 15 years into their sentence.

Less than a month after the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, the Senate Judiciary Committee discussed restoring the protections.

“I was particularly disappointed with the statement in the oral arguments that Congress passed the Voting Rights Act only because it had a nice name,” Minnesota Sen. Al Franken