Gov. Brown struck a mix of optimism, fiscal prudence and a sense of grandeur and legacy in his State of the State Address.
From the Chronicle's Wyatt Buchanan: "Gov. Jerry Brown, riding a wave of remarkable political success from the first two years of his term in office, delivered a State of the State speech Thursday that cast California as being on the cusp of an era akin to the grand times of state history."
"It was the kind of optimistic and enthusiastic address to the people of California that was not possible when Brown came into office two years ago facing a nearly $26 billion deficit."
"But the governor, who persuaded the Democratic Legislature to make spending cuts and voters to raise taxes, delivered a budget without a deficit and is free to pursue dreams."
For an informal political assessement of Brown's address, click here for Capitol Weekly's Experts Expound
Political speeches are rarely fun and engaging, but Gov. Brown's State of the State Address was the exception to the rule and included a panoply of literary, biblical, cultural and historical references.
From the Bee's David Siders: "Among Brown's mentions were William Butler Yeats, Michel de Montaigne and King Charles III of Spain. There were lessons to be learned from the book of Genesis, Oliver Wendell Holmes and, in a moment of extemporaneity, "The Little Engine That Could.""
"That engine overcame adversity, the third-term governor said."
"So, too, did California's early explorers – though they were "forced to eat the flesh of emaciated pack mules."
From the LA Times' Patrick McGreevy: "Healthcare and education reform were key themes of Gov. Jerry Brown’s State of the State address Thursday in which he called for the Legislature to convene a special session to work out issues involving the state’s compliance with the federal Affordable Care Act."
"Our health benefit exchange, called Covered California, will begin next year providing insurance to nearly one million Californians," Brown said. "Over the rest of this decade, California will steadily reduce the number of uninsured."
"But he said it will be "incredibly complex" to implement a broader expansion of Medi-Cal called for by the federal law."
Meanwhile, the district attorney of Sacramento, Jan Scully, has refused to accept a case referred to her by the state attorney general involving the state parks department. The department was embroiled in scandal last year when the Sacramento Bee reported that it had sat on a stash of cash even as parks were being closed.
From the LA Times' Chris Megerian: "When an investigation by the California attorney general's office determined that some officials had deliberately hid millions of dollars at the state parks department, the conclusions were sent to the Sacramento County district attorney for a possible criminal prosecution."
"Now the district attorney is kicking the case back, saying the attorney general's office failed to identify possible targets for a criminal prosecution or what laws might have been violated."
"Without such an initial preliminary conclusion on the part of your investigative staff that a crime was committed, the referral of the case to our office for criminal review is simply not appropriate," says a Thursday letter from Dist. Atty. Jan Scully.