Californians like Jerry Brown and they like the fact that Democratic super-majorities rule both houses of the Legislature, according to the latest Field Poll. Who'd have thunk it?
From the Chronicle's Wyatt Buchanan: "Gov. Jerry Brown's approval rating has surged to its highest level since he was elected and, despite still giving the Legislature low marks, a strong majority of voters view the Democrats' two-thirds supermajority as a positive, according to a Field Poll released Thursday."
"The survey also found the highest number of voters who think California is headed in the right direction since the summer of 2007. Brown's approval rating has jumped to 57 percent among those surveyed, with 31 percent disapproving and 12 percent having no opinion. It's the first time the poll has found that the governor has had a majority of voters approving of his performance since he took office in 2011."
"The previous Field Poll conducted last fall found 46 percent of voters approving his performance, and 37 percent disapproving."
The heat is on the state Parks and Recreation Department over its cash stash and state investigators from the Attorney General's office are poised to take another look.
From News10's John Myers: "A top deputy to Harris confirmed the investigation on Wednesday at a legislative hearing on the saga of $54 million in hidden cash, a saga that resulted in the departure of a number of top parks administrators."
"The attorney general's office previously conducted a fact-finding investigation at the request of Gov. Jerry Brown's administration. Last month, Sacramento County District Attorney Jan Scully declined to file criminal charges, citing the fact that former parks officials were interviewed under the condition that those statements wouldn't lead to criminal charges..."
"The news came as legislators convened to bemoan the entire process that led to public criticism of parks, from a system that allowed some of the money to be squirreled away for as long as two decades to the existence of the secret even as the Legislature was wrestling with closing some 70 parks during the state budget crisis."
Being the most powerful elected officials in the state doesn't mean they are the most highly paid officials in the state.
From the Chronicle's Matier & Ross: "No fewer than 572 San Francisco city workers and executives made more than Gov. Jerry Brown last year.
More than 1,500 city workers made more than state Attorney General Kamala Harris."
"And that's without overtime."
"That's pretty staggering," said Tom Dalzell, head of the California Citizens Compensation Commission, which sets pay for state lawmakers. With a salary of $173,987, Brown makes about as much as a senior police sergeant in San Francisco, once premium pay for the cop's years of service, special training and the like are included."
Barely half of the people eligible for food stamps actually enroll in the program and California is leaving a lot of federal money on the table.
From the Inland Daily Bulletin's Beau Yarbrough: "f every Californian eligible for federal food stamp programs signed up for them, they would generate an additional $8.3 billion in economic activity each year, according to a new study."
"The California Food Policy Advocates on Wednesday released its annual Program Access Index, which measures the portion of people who can receive food stamps in each of the state's 58 counties and actually sign up for them."
"Only 55 percent of Californians eligible for the federal food aid program enroll, according to the study by the Oakland-based nutrition policy and advocacy organization."
The job out look statewide remains painful, but there's something of a boom in an unlikely sector -- Bay Area police departments.
From Joshua Melvin in the Contra Costa Times: "After years of cutbacks, layoffs -- and now climbing crime rates -- police departments throughout the Bay Area have begun taking on new recruits again."
"Over the past five years, of 13 Bay Area police agencies surveyed by this newspaper -- including the California Highway Patrol, Oakland and San Jose -- all but one have shed officers, a total of 981 cops, leaving 6,637. That's a loss of 12.8 percent, forcing some departments to focus on responding to crime rather than preventing it."
"But the rush of hiring will reverse the downward trend and begin to rebuild the forces, many of them undermanned and demoralized from years of reductions."
And finally, to take note of the fact that there is a world outside California, here's everything you need to know about the looming, infamous "sequester," courtesy of the Washington Post.