Well, George Skelton may be willing to give Jerry Brown a pass on the oil-mapping request that AP dug up last week, but one of the agency employees charged with doing the work was unhappy enough to file a whistleblower complaint. Ellen Knickmeyer, Associated Press:
“Jennie Catalano, a mapping specialist who has been with the state Department of Conservation for 18 years, brought the complaint. She contends that she faced unspecified retaliation after being suspected of lodging the complaint over being directed to do the personal work for Brown, said her attorney, William Rehwald...
“Contacted at work, Catalano confirmed the whistleblower's complaint but declined further comment. Teresa Schilling, a spokeswoman for the Department of Conservation, declined to comment Monday, saying the agency does not comment on potential personnel matters.
“Whistleblower complaints to the state are confidential, and no other details were available including when the complaint was filed.’
And in the “good timing” department, California received a grade of C- from the State Integrity Investigation, a “data-driven assessment of state government accountability and transparency” released by the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity. Rob Gunnison, Capitol Weekly:
“Among the 13 individual categories, California had its highest scores for pensions, state budget processes and lobbying disclosure. Aside from access to information, its other failing mark was for judicial accountability, largely because the state has no system of evaluating judges’ performance or independent confirmation process system for trial court judges.
“The Public Records Act is showing its age, but the state’s Political Reform Act seems to enjoy a perpetual youth.
“In 2012, the first go-round for the State Integrity Investigation, California scored a B- or 81 and ranked 4th nationally. Scores from the two surveys are not directly comparable, however, because of improvements and updates to the project and methodology. The 2015 survey did not include a category for redistricting, for example, which occurs once every 10 years, after each census.
“In the latest survey, California’s ranked 11th among the states for legislative accountability despite the legal woes of [Leland] Yee and two other Senate Democrats, Rod Wright of Los Angeles, and Ron Calderon of Montebello. Wright was sentenced to 90 days in jail for lying about whether he actually lived in his legislative district when he ran in 2008. Calderon faces a federal trial on political corruption charges.”
A state senator said yesterday that she plans to introduce legislation that would would eliminate the statute of limitations on rape and some other sex crimes. Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times:
“State Sen. Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) said Monday that she will introduce legislation that would eliminate the statute of limitations for rape and some other sexual crimes to increase the chance that victims will get justice.
“California law generally limits the prosecution of a felony sexual offense to 10 years after the offense is committed, but more time can be provided if new DNA evidence is found….
“’Survivors of sexual offenses, including rape, deserve to know that California law stands on their side as they seek justice,’ Leyva said in a statement. ‘A sexual predator should not be able to evade legal consequences in California for no other reason than that the time limits set in state law have expired.’”
A new report from the Public Policy Institute of California finds that half of California’s undocumented immigrants could be eligible for Medi-Cal under a proposed expansion. Soumya Karlamangla, Los Angeles Times:
“The study found that of the estimated 2.6 million unauthorized immigrants in California, 51% make so little money they would qualify for Medi-Cal. To sign up for Medi-Cal, a single person or a couple must have an annual income of less than $16,243 and $21,984, respectively...
“The study is the first to evaluate the size and incomes of California’s undocumented immigrant population at a county level. Shannon McConville, study author and research associate at the institute, said that with so many recent as well as proposed changes to California’s health policies, she and her colleagues wanted to assess how each county would be affected.”
And, just after the study was released, the news broke that a federal Appeals Court had ruled against President Obama, saying that he did not have the authority to block deportation of nearly 5 million people in the country illegally. Don’t expect anything to happen on this one right away.
In a surprise move, SeaWorld announced that it is ending its trademark Shamu Killer Whale shows and replacing them with performances based on the animals’ behavior in the wild. Lori Weisberg and Jennifer Van Grove, San Diego Union-Tribune:
“The move comes amid efforts at both the state and federal level to clamp down on SeaWorld by ending the captive breeding of orcas. SeaWorld has already vowed to fight a recent ruling by the California Coastal Commission to bar it from breeding its orcas as a condition of moving forward with the tank expansion project.”
And finally, a new state job opening being posted isn’t generally big news, but then, most state jobs don’t involve regulation of the entire medical marijuana biz. Yes, the state is looking for a Chief for the new Bureau of Medical Marijuana Regulation.
“Sounds like an awesome opportunity, dude. You could get in on the ground floor of California’s push into regulating medical marijuana, making from $115,608 to $128,808 per year.
“But you’ll have to deal with writing a load of rules and regulations, like licensing standards for distributors. A first in California.
“Old-school growers and newbie farmers will want to tell you how to do business. Then you’ve got the consumers and the sellers. Doctors, lawyers, cops, politicians ... . We’re talking a billion-dollar industry that has sprung up in the wild, wild west. You’ll have to tame it.”
We hate to be a bummer, but folks with previous criminal history need not apply.