Some California school districts are grabbing their kids' lunch money -- money that is intended to help feed the districts' poorest children.
From the Senate Oversight Office via Capitol Weekly: "The California Department of Education recently ordered eight districts to repay nearly $170 million to their student meal programs. But these cases may represent only a fraction of a larger problem, the Senate Oversight Office found. Department officials concede they have no idea how widespread cafeteria fund misuse may be..."
"In each case, the funds involved were supposed to be spent primarily on free and reduced-price meals that experts say are frequently the best and often the only complete meals that many low-income children receive in a given day."
"Food service operations and the expenses charged to cafeteria accounts are reviewed by a team of fewer than 60 state examiners who oversee nearly 3,000 school districts, child and adult care facilities and other food-serving operations. The examiners are mostly nutritionists and dietitians, not accountants. The oversight system also is set up to be collaborative, with prearranged inspections of food service operations. Perhaps as a result, most of the recent investigations were triggered by whistleblowers rather than the state’s reviews."
The Brown administration is explaining to a federal judge in detail its plan to return thousands of out-of-state inmates to California custody.
From the LAT's Paige St. John: "Brown's lawyers filed papers late Wednesday afternoon arguing that the end of private prison contracts has no bearing on the delivery of mental health care to inmates, the core issue before Karlton."
"Nevertheless, California said its 4,527 inmates will finish their prison terms out of state. An average of 110 inmates are paroling out of those prisons each month.The remaining 4,325 will be returned in stages through June 30, 2016..."
"A three-judge panel that includes Karlton recently gave California an extra six months, until December 2013, to reduce its prison crowding to 137.5% of design capacity. The state has said it expects to be over that mark even without the return of out-of-state prisoners. Brown contends further reductions are not necessary and in January he issued an executive order claiming the 2006 "emergency proclamation" that allowed prisoners to be moved against their will is terminated, as of this coming July."
You can just call him "Farmer Brown" -- as in Gov. Brown, that is, who put on a flannel shirt to address Colusa locals at a breakfast meet to sell his water plan.
From the Bee's David Siders: "I checked out the voting history of Colusa County," Brown said."
"Not only has the county opposed the Democratic governor every time he has been on a ballot, Brown said, but it overwhelmingly voted against a similar, unsuccessful, water plan Brown championed when he was governor before, in 1982."
"The vote in Colusa County was 3.6 percent 'yes,' Brown said in a breakfast address. "So, guys, I've got some work to do."
The state is likely to be on the hook an additional $200 million in its contributions to CalPERS, which will decide the issue later this summer.
From Calpensions' Ed Mendel: "The nation’s largest public pension fund last week gave a joint legislative committee an update on its funding status and plans for the future, as required by recent legislation."
“For the year 2012-13 our state contribution rate was $3.8 billion,” Anne Stausboll, CalPERS chief executive officer, told legislators. “That is projected to be $4 billion in the coming fiscal year. That rate will be finalized in May, and we have a very open process leading up to that.”
"The giant pension fund covers 1,576 local governments and non-teaching employees in 1,488 school districts, but the annual payment for state workers draws the most attention."
Meanwhile, people who want to protect coyotes angrily demanded that the state halt a Modoc County coyote hunt.
From the Chronicle's Peter Fimrite: "A parade of angry citizens and coyote advocates showed up at the Fish and Game Commission meeting in Sacramento on Wednesday to demand that state officials stop a planned coyote killing contest in Modoc County, but commissioners said that current regulations do not allow them to interfere with the annual hunt, which is legal under state law."
"More than 6,000 people have signed an online petition, and 20 wildlife conservation organizations wrote letters condemning the three-day Coyote Drive 2013 scheduled to begin Friday in the woodlands around the rural town of Adin, in the far northeastern corner of California."
"The speakers who crowded into the commission meeting depicted the contest, with awards to hunters who kill the largest and most coyotes, as a "savage" and "medieval" indiscriminate "slaughter" of California's "native song dog."