The California Republic, image by grafvisionANALYSIS – As we head into the final two weeks of the 2023 California Legislative Session, I wanted to provide some reminders about the purpose and use of letters to the Assembly or Senate Daily Journals, as well as a few recommendations that I hope will be implemented in the future.
David Bernardt testifies at a Senate hearing on March 28. (Photo: Roll Call, via Associated Press) The inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department has opened an investigation into Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s past work on behalf of California’s huge Westlands Water District and other organizations. Nancy DiPaolo, spokeswoman for the Office of the Inspector General in the Department of the Interior, told Capitol Weekly her office had received 12 letters asking for an investigation of Bernhardt’s role in some California fish and game issues, including protection of the delta smelt.
An aerial view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.State water officials today ordered cuts in water to dozens of growers and ranchers, limiting supplies to farmers who have had rights to the water for more than a century. The cutbacks mark the first time since 1977 — also a severe drought year — that such reductions have been ordered.
A year-end report of California’s campaign law enforcer includes hundreds of violations, ranging from failure to report donations to money laundering to the infusion of millions of dollars in stealth cash to influence measures on the 2012 ballot. The 16-page annual report by the Fair Political Practices Commission’s Enforcement Division said violations involving two categories — political campaigns and lobbying — “were at the highest level ever in 2013” and that “conflict of interest prosecutions continued at record high levels.”
Dear Editor,
The opponents of my bill quoted in your story (“Protecting the homeless raises locals’ ire,” Capitol Weekly, May 6) repeat the same old canards – that the bill will allow the homeless special privileges and allow them to “urinate in public places” or jeopardize public health.
On the contrary, the bill allows local
Editor:
Thank you for your March 7 article “Parcel taxes go front and center” that described efforts of local municipalities to tax commercial properties more than residential property in order to mitigate the distortions between residential and commercial property taxes caused by Proposition 13.
Readers may be interested to know that prior to Prop 13,
Dear Editor:
I write in response to your report of February 5, “UC Students Dig Deep to Stay Afloat,” which painted a deeply skewed and inaccurate picture of the University of California.
It is true that in our efforts to emerge intact from one of the worst recessions in California’s history, UC was forced to