Posts Tagged: secretary

State ponders prison closures, as inmate population drops.

A dining room at the Deuel Vocational Institution in Tracy, which closed last year. (Photo: CDCR)

by BRIEANNA ANDERSON posted 08.02.2022

With California’s prison inmate population flatlining, authorities are pondering the closure of three institutions. But many questions remain. The 2022-2023 state budget notes that there is a possibility of three prison closures during 2024 and 2025, based at least in part in the reduction of California’s prison population to about 94,000 in prisons and camps

Governor appoints Alex Padilla to U.S. Senate

Secretary of State Alex Padilla at a 2019 news conference in the state Capitol. (Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 12.22.2020

Alex Padilla, California’s chief elections officer and a former state legislator, was appointed Tuesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom to fill the U.S. Senate seat of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris. The appointment is historic: Padilla, 47, becomes California’s first Latino U.S. senator, representing a state in which about 38 percent of the population is Latino.

Former California water lobbyist, Trump’s Interior Secretary, under investigation

David Bernardt testifies at a Senate hearing on March 28. (Photo: Roll Call, via Associated Press)

by CHUCK MCFADDEN posted 04.18.2019

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.

California awaits uncertain fate for national monuments

The Milky Way viewed through the trees in the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.(Photo: David Hoffmann)

by DOROTHY MILLS-GREGG posted 01.25.2018

When it comes to national monuments, California is hoping it won’t suffer a fate similar to Utah’s. President Trump recently signed orders to reduce the size of two Utah national monuments. But will there be others?

Self-driving cars raise safety concerns

A Rinspeed Budii concept autonomous car. (Photo: Yauhen_D, Shutterstock)

by BRIAN JOSEPH posted 06.08.2016

On Valentine’s Day in Silicon Valley, one of Google’s experimental, self-driving cars sideswiped a city bus at 2 miles an hour. The incident marked the first time an autonomous car contributed to an accident on a public road, but did nothing to diminish the Obama administration’s enthusiasm for driverless vehicles.

Budget dispute over Tahoe funding

Lake Tahoe at sunset. (Photo: Dorothy Mills-Gregg

by DOROTHY MILLS-GREGG posted 04.18.2016

Deep in Gov. Brown’s 2016-17 budget was a big surprise for Lake Tahoe – the lake was cut out of its expected share of a $475 million environmental pie.

Governor sets dates for three special elections

Ventura County voters go to the polls in a California general election. (Photo: Spirit of America)

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 01.13.2015

We’re never actually out of election season. Not even in off-election years like this one. Gov. Jerry Brown has set the dates for special elections in three Senate districts to fill vacancies left by officeholders who won congressional seats in 2014.

Brown: The final state campaign

Jerry Brown works the crowd in Williams at his final campaign rally for state office. (Photo: Samantha Gallegos, Capitol Weekly)

by JOHN HOWARD posted 11.02.2014

Jerry Brown’s quest for state office began more than 45 years ago in Los Angeles and ended Saturday afternoon in the small town square of Williams, the pleasant farm-belt community where Brown’s ancestors settled in the 19th century.

A glimpse into Brown’s 4th term

California Gov. Jerry Brown at a public event. His wife, Anne Gust Brown, is in the background. (Photo: Randy Miramontez)

by SAMANTHA GALLEGOS posted 10.31.2014

A little-known panel of Gov. Brown’s top administration officials is poised to play a critical role in his fourth and final term as governor. The newly funded Strategic Growth Council, or SGC, is a cabinet-level body with a portfolio that cuts across virtually all aspects of California government.

Two weeks before the November election, a major casino-owning tribe in Southern California has launched a campaign against Proposition 48 to block another tribe’s establishment of a new casino in the Central Valley.