California marijuana advocacy groups are getting serious about the 2016 ballot, lining up donors and hiring consultant Gale Kaufman to work the campaign to legalize recreational use of marijuana, but they now find themselves struggling over competing measures and butting heads with national drug policy organizations. Peter Hecht, Sacramento Bee:
“’There is certainly friction for a variety of reasons,’ [Lynne Lyman, the Drug Policy Alliance’s California state director] said. ‘Some of it has to do with content. Some of it has to do with approach. For DPA, it’s primarily a social justice issue: This is about rolling back the war on drugs and reducing the hardships for people of color’ from unequal marijuana enforcement.
She added: ‘Other people are more concerned about industry issues. It’s not trivial that we all come from different approaches and areas of priority.’”
In a landmark move, California prison officials have issued standards by which inmates may receive sex-reassignment surgery. Don Thompson, AP:
“Under the policy that took effect Tuesday, prison mental health professionals would refer inmates for the surgery.
“To qualify, prisoners must be diagnosed with what is formally known as gender dysphoria; lived as a member of the preferred gender for at least 12 months; and expressed a desire for sex-reassignment surgery for at least two years.
“The announcement came after California became the first state to agree to pay for surgery for one inmate and refused to provide the procedure to another inmate who has since been paroled.”
Talk about pension abuse: CalPERS ordered former Loomis Fire Chief David Wheeler to pay back $450,000 in retirement benefits he received while he was still working. Brad Branan has the story at the Sacramento Bee:
“[A] judge had issued a preliminary finding that Wheeler, a member of the Loomis Town Council, knowingly violated state law by receiving a $137,000-a-year pension from CalPERS while also receiving a $60,000 annual salary from the Loomis Fire Protection District…
“’This is a clear case of pension abuse that CalPERS will not tolerate,’ CalPERS general counsel Matt Jacobs said in a prepared statement.”
Assemblymember Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) can’t catch a break. First, the governor vetoes 4/5 of his bills, the highest percentage of any legislator, and now he gets slammed by the LA Weekly for – of all things – his wedding. Reporter Hillel Aron raised questions about the propriety of a legislator inviting lobbyists (Hi Paula) to his wedding:
“Of course, there were lobbyists in attendance, and these lobbyists were presumably contributing to the Calderons' new house fund, which works a bit like a Kickstarter campaign…
“Lobbyists are allowed to give elected officials wedding gifts. But they must be disclosed by the politician in a quarterly report. Since the quarter just began on Oct. 1, Ian Calderon has until the end of the year to reveal how much he hauled in. But legal questions aside, the whole thing seems a bit shady, no?”
Calderon, in Hawaii on his honeymoon, was quick to set the record straight via Twitter:
“1/2 @hillelaron on my honeymoon and saw your article. Lobbyists that were there I knew long b 4 elected. I asked them all to not give a gift
“2/2 @hillelaron and they respected our wishes and did not give a gift.”
One year after Governor Brown signed the state’s first law to regulate groundwater, the California Water Commission has taken the first step in implementing the law, approving groundwater basin boundaries. Amy Quinton, Capital Public Radio:
“The new boundaries will allow local entities to work together and create a Groundwater Sustainability Agency. It will have the power to monitor groundwater supply, set new standards for use, and enforce compliance.
“But it will be a long time before California actively manages its groundwater supply.
“’We didn’t get into the situation we’re in with groundwater and all the unhappy effects of over-pumping groundwater…we didn’t get here overnight and so it’s certainly going to take a fairly good chunk of time to address this,’ says Lauren Hersh with the California Department of Water Resources.”
And speaking of water, Will Parrish has an epic (we’re talking Gilgamesh length) look at the California Water Project and the impending battle over new dams in the state. Check it out in the East Bay Express.
And, here’s an update on the proposed three-strikes revision we mentioned yesterday: not quite yet. Paige St. John at the LA Times:
“A day after receiving state permission to gather signatures for a proposed ballot measure to ease California's three-strikes sentencing law, the sponsors say they plan to change it.
"’We are currently working on an amendment,’ said Julie Piccolotti, the Half Moon Bay resident who filed the papers seeking to begin the process of putting the initiative on the November 2016 ballot. She would not elaborate."
And finally, Josh Richman profiles a think-outside-the-box longshot senate candidate from the Bay Area who has a message that he thinks will resonate with voters: “We’re all going to die.”
“A San Francisco attorney’s guerrilla campaign to succeed Barbara Boxer in the U.S. Senate rests upon a laser-like focus on combating climate change and a hefty dose of sarcastic humor.
“’ISIS. Obamacare. Russia. The NSA. Wealth disparity. Immigration reform. Gun control. What do all of these hot issues for the 2016 election have in common? None of them matter because we’re all going to die,’ says the home page at IWillNotDoNothing.com, the campaign website of Mikelis Beitiks, 32.”
Beitiks has some uncommon ideas about combating climate change, and offers some advice to Boxer for her remaining time in the Senate:
“’And, you know, I’m just spit-balling now, but the next time a fellow Senator says something untrue or unproductive about climate change, consider slugging him/her,’ he continued. ‘Imagine how you’d change the national conversation with a well-placed right hook! Squaring up would be ideal, but a sucker-punch would work, particularly as a metaphor.’”