Thousands attend a Jan. 17 rally in San Francisco to demonstrate for affordable health care. (Photo: Kim Wilson Photography, Shutterstock)With the Affordable Care Act facing an uncertain future, could California set up its own universal health care system as an alternative?
Sutter Brown at the state Capitol. (Illustration: Judd Hertzler/Capitol Weekly. Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)“Lists like the one you are about to read are a lot like most hairpieces: They’re probably a bad idea, but they do get a lot of people talking,” we wrote in 2009. Eight lists later, we’re still having fun – okay, not as much as before – but we think this list has value and is becoming something of an institution. At least, that’s what people tell us.
Shoe shine man Eddie Wright, a familiar figure in the Capitol who has polished the shoes at the South Entrance for 22 years, has been laid off because of budget cuts. A shoe shine stand has existed in the Capitol for a century. In 1992, when Wright took it over, the job was private. A decade later, former Senate Leader John Burton made Wright a Senate staffer and put him on the official payroll, according to the Capitol Morning Report, which first reported Wright’s situation.
Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, at a sentencing hearing last week in Los Angeles. (Photo: Associated Press)State Sen. Rod Wright, who began his state political career nearly two decades ago and rose to chair the powerful Senate committee that targets alcohol and gambling, resigned from the Senate Monday effective Sept. 22, just days after he was sentenced for voter fraud and perjury.
State Sen. Rod Wright, an Inglewood Democrat who once headed the powerful Governmental Organization Committee, was sentenced Friday to three months in jail and banned for life from holding public office for lying to the public and election officials about his true place of residence.
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.
Three state Senators – one convicted of voter fraud and perjury and the other two facing federal corruption charges – were suspended from office Friday effective immediately. The Senate voted 28-1 to suspend Sens. Leland Yee of San Francisco, Ron Calderon of Montebello and Rod Wright of Inglewood – all Democrats.
Two days after he was convicted of eight felony counts of voter fraud and perjury, state Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, introduced legislation that would allow nonviolent felonies to be reclassified as misdemeanors in some cases.
Sen. Rod Wright, D-Inglewood, at a 2013 conference on online gaming. (Photo: Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)Sen. Rod Wright, the chair of the powerful Governmental Organization Committee and the Legislature’s leading expert on online gaming, was convicted of eight felony counts of perjury and voter fraud in a case spanning nearly seven years. He was convicted of lying about his true address — which under California law must be in the district he represents — and lying on registration and candidacy documents. (Above: Rod Wright at a Sacramento conference, 2013. Scott Duncan/Capitol Weekly)