Colleagues worry Dianne Feinstein is now mentally unfit to serve, citing recent interactions
TAI KOPAN and JOE GARAFOLI, Chronicle: “When a California Democrat in Congress recently engaged in an extended conversation with Sen. Dianne Feinstein, they prepared for a rigorous policy discussion like those they’d had with her many times over the last 15 years.
Instead, the lawmaker said, they had to reintroduce themselves to Feinstein multiple times during an interaction that lasted several hours.
Rather than delve into policy, Feinstein, 88, repeated the same small-talk questions, like asking the lawmaker what mattered to voters in their district, the member of Congress said, with no apparent recognition the two had already had a similar conversation.”
Amid Covid and crime fears, Californians stocked up on guns
WILL SHUCK, Capitol Weekly: “California may well have the toughest gun laws in the country, but criminals still get automatic weapons and everyday people still head to the gun store in times of trouble.
And the pandemic with its parade of woes has motivated thousands of first-time gun buyers.
It turns out, while some Californians hoarded toilet paper and hand sanitizer, others bulked up on firepower.”
After ‘Real Housewives’ scandal, scathing audit says California fails to stop corrupt lawyers
LA Times, MATT HAMILTON: “The State Bar of California has failed to effectively discipline corrupt attorneys, allowing lawyers to repeatedly violate professional standards and harm members of the public, according to a long-awaited audit of the agency released Thursday.
The audit of the State Bar was ordered last year by the Legislature in the wake of a Los Angeles Times investigation that documented how the now-disgraced attorney Tom Girardi cultivated close relationships with the agency and avoided discipline despite scores of complaints and lawsuits from cheated clients.
After the State Bar acknowledged its “mistakes” in handling complaints against Girardi, the Legislature mandated the public examination of the attorney discipline system.”
Katie Valenzuela served with new council recall notice just after Sacramento mass shooting
THERESA CLIFT, SacBee: “An effort to recall City Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela is again moving forward, but it’s unclear when the measure would reach voters if her critics gather enough signatures to put it on the ballot.
East Sacramento residents have been spearheading the effort. Valenzuela gained that neighborhood in her district earlier this year through the city’s once-a-decade redrawing of election boundaries.
City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood last week announced only residents of Valenzuela’s old district — the central city and Land Park — can recall her, not her new East Sacramento constituents.”
California voters say state is moving in the wrong direction, feel financial squeeze
LA Times, HUGO MARTIN/RACHEL URANGA: “Coronavirus cases are dropping and the state’s unemployment rate is on the decline, but most California voters still say the Golden State is headed in the wrong direction, with high gasoline prices, low housing affordability and persistent homelessness cited as the biggest challenges.
In a new survey on some of the most prominent economic topics, nearly 6 in 10 voters said the state is on the wrong track and more than 70% rated high gasoline prices as a “very serious” or “somewhat serious” problem. The survey of registered voters by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies was co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Times.
“Californians are giving a negative rating of the direction of the state,” said Mark Di Camillo, director of the Berkeley institute’s poll. “That coincides with how voters are viewing their personal financial situation.””
Democrats and Republicans see California’s problems very differently, according to a new poll
The Chronicle, SUSIE NEILSON: “Is the top issue facing Californians in 2022 crime or housing affordability? Climate change or the high price of gas? The answer changes dramatically depending on the politics of whom you ask.
The Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies released the results of a poll on April 14 that presented nearly 8,700 California registered voters with 15 of the state’s most prominent issues. About 51% of the response was from Democrats, 26% was from Republicans and the rest was from no party preference or other. The polls asked voters to rank two of the issues as the most important, then organized their responses by political party.
Housing affordability, homelessness and climate change are Democrats’ top three issues, according to the poll. None of these issues even make it to the top of Republicans’ priority list: California GOP voters cited crime and public safety, gas prices and immigration as their primary concerns.”
California created a new unit to address harassment in the Legislature. Is it just making things worse?
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: “Ruth Ferguson initially feared making a workplace harassment claim about colleagues in her California Legislature office in July 2019. But she was comforted, she said, by the launch a few months earlier of a special unit meant to resolve reports like hers.
The Workplace Conduct Unit, created in the wake of the #MeToo movement, had been heavily promoted as an improvement for employees alleging misconduct in the Legislature. Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins lauded the revamped process, saying it would fairly investigate complaints.
“Based on the public statements that leadership in the Legislature had made, I felt like, ‘OK, these people are going to do a fair investigation,’” Ferguson told The Chronicle. “I trusted that they would do the right thing.””
California lawmaker drops bill to eliminate COVID vaccine personal belief exemption for students
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: “A California state senator has dropped a bill that would have required all students to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to attend school by eliminating the state’s existing personal belief exemption.
The bill is the second major piece of vaccine legislation to die at the state Capitol in the last two weeks, after legislators shelved a separate bill that would have required all California businesses to vaccinate their employees against the virus.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last fall that the state will require children to get the COVID vaccine to attend classes in person, starting the term after the shot receives final FDA approval for their age groups. The mandate could take effect as soon as July 1. But it includes a major loophole: Parents who object to the vaccine for personal reasons, including religious or political beliefs, can exempt their children.”
S.F. redistricting fiasco: Panel risks lawsuit after rejecting controversial map, blowing through deadline
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: “San Francisco’s chaotic effort to update its supervisorial district boundaries took another dramatic turn when the city’s Redistricting Task Force rejected its final draft map and prepared to continue working on a replacement.
By rejecting the map, the task force set itself up to miss a crucial deadline and opened itself to potential lawsuits. It also created more uncertainty about how the contentious process — marked by protests, outbursts at public meetings and a walkout by several task force members — will play out.
In a 5-4 vote Wednesday night, almost seven hours into what was supposed to be its last meeting, the task force shot down the controversial plan it had narrowly adopted in the early hours of Sunday morning that would have reshaped some of the 11 supervisorial districts.”