Old frenemies Bill Clinton and Gov. Brown meet up to discuss domestic and foreign policy as well as the state of the campaign trail.
David Siders and Christopher Cadelago write in Sac Bee: "Former President Bill Clinton and California Gov. Jerry Brown, who feuded bitterly in the 1992 presidential race and maintained a sometimes-frayed relationship in following years, met for about 90 minutes in Sacramento on Monday."
"Brown, a fourth-term Democrat, has not endorsed in the Democratic primary contest. But on Saturday he appeared to scold Bernie Sanders’ insurgent campaign, saying nobody “should be seeking the Democratic nomination with a scorched earth policy.”
"A Brown spokesman said the governor and Bill Clinton discussed foreign and domestic politics, including the presidential campaign. They met in the same room at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento where John F. Kennedy and Brown’s father, then-Gov. Edmund G. “Pat” Brown, met ahead of the 1960 election, Brown’s office said."
Voter registration in the Golden State is up, but how that will affect a ballot turnout statistically remains unclear.
Cathleen Decker in LA Times reports: "California, the state with a well-earned reputation for disinterest in things political, has been overrun by a vast and historic burst of new voters."
"And those voters will storm the polling places, rescuing the state from its usual self-flagellation over poor turnout and determining the winner of the contested June 7 presidential primary."
"Or it hasn’t. And they won’t."
Twenty-five-year-old Erin Schrode may be the youngest congressional contender in the nation, but her millenial generation role could give her a statistical advantage in an uphill battle against 52-year-old, two-term incumbent Jared Huffman: social media and attracting young voters.
Capitol Weekly's Dorothy Mills-Gregg reports: "As soon as her special coffee arrived, Erin Schrode Snapchatted it. Her Instagram account is cluttered with pictures of food, friends, and landscapes – not unusual for a millennial."
"But it also includes Schrode posing with her “#ErinForUS” campaign buttons: The 25-year-old Schrode, a Democrat, is running for the House in the 2nd Congressional District, which includes coastal counties north of the Golden Gate Bridge to the Oregon line. She is the youngest candidate in any of California’s 53 House races and may be the youngest in the nation. She actually turned 25 during the campaign – the minimum required age to serve in the House."
"Clearly, Schrode is a person of the digital age, but can she translate that into political support? A month ago, the social media news source NowThis posted a video about Schrode’s campaign for U.S. Congress. People have viewed the video on Facebook over 4.6 million times."
Silicon Valley players, regardless of political affiliation, have some choice words for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump -- and they aren't pretty.
LA Times Evan Halper writes: "In a place normally preoccupied with drafting code and dazzling investors, suddenly everyone in Silicon Valley has an opinion about the presidential election. And it tends to be the same opinion."
"The innovation economy has a serious distaste for Donald Trump. The masters of this world complain that his ignorance about their work and its relationship to the global economy is horrifying. Rank-and-file programmers are quick to call him a clown, or worse. The unity is notable in an environment where groupthink is frowned upon and nobody ever seems to color inside ideological lines."
"Trump has practically written a playbook on how not to court this well-heeled group that other politicians seem desperate to shower with affection."
Inglewood finds itself the epicenter of a tense legal battle between a former probationary accountant for the city and the city's mayor after allegations of budget manipulation to bed with the NFL surface.
Larry Altman reports in Los Angeles Daily News: "A former accountant dismissed from the city of Inglewood has filed suit against her former employer, Mayor James Butts and other officials, claiming she was let go for blowing the whistle on a “pattern of financial and accounting irregularities” during the city’s pursuit of an NFL team."
"In the “whistle-blower” lawsuit filed May 18 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Barbara Ohno alleges she was fired because she disclosed to federal and state authorities that the city illegally pooled its general fund with grant monies."
“I was told to stand down, look the other way and be a team player because when Inglewood got the Rams, there would be so much money coming in, no one would care how the city ran its finances,” Ohno said in a statement released by her attorney, Bruce Ishimatsu. “I refused to comply with what I was told was the ‘plantation mentality’ in Inglewood and got fired for it.”
Proposition 50 on the June ballot would allow the Legislature to dismiss lawmakers without pay -- a decision that was made after cases involving state Senators in the last couple years -- Ron Calderon, Rod Wright, and Leland Yee.
Capital Public Radio's Ben Adler reports: "California’s November ballot will be jammed with statewide propositions, but there’s just one measure in the June primary. Prop 50, which stems from scandals that hit the state Senate, would allow the state Legislature to suspend lawmakers without pay."
"The story behind Proposition 50 starts in 2013, when the FBI raided the office of Democratic state Senator Ron Calderon."
“According to a sealed affidavit obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera’s investigative unit, the senator is for sale: a politician willing to influence legislation in exchange for money,” reported Al Jazeera at the time."
Gov. Brown is endorsing Kamala Harris as Barbara Boxer's replacement on the U.S. Senate, and some believe the political play will persuade independent voters.
Joe Garofoli in The Chronicle: "Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in on California’s U.S. Senate race Monday,endorsing state Attorney General Kamala Harris a little more than two weeks before the state’s June 7 primary."
"Brown’s support could help her win over independent and Republican voters in November. Harris is leading the race to replace Sen. Barbara Boxer, who decided not to seek re-election, over fellow Democrat Rep. Loretta Sanchez of Santa Ana, according to the latest Field Poll. Three Republicans — former state Republican Party Chairmen Duf Sundheim and Tom Del Beccaro and Silicon Valley businessman Ron Unz — trail far behind in a field of 34 candidates."
"The top two finishers, regardless of party, will advance to the November general election."
The Board of Equalization may find parts of its agency on the chopping block after budget statistics show an increase in funding for the board, but nearly a decrease in public visits to departmental offices. Now, lawmakers are deciding what to do.
Jon Ortiz reports in The Sacramento Bee: "The cost of new and renewed office leases by California’s business-tax-collection agency increased nearly eight-fold in the last five years – even though the number of people who make office visits to the department fell by nearly half."
"State data analyzed by The Sacramento Bee show the Board of Equalization’s cost for those rental agreements grew from $691,000 in 2010-11 to $5.3 million last year. The money paid leases for 16 offices with some degree of public contact, including two new facilities."
"Following a recent Bee report that revealed office leases for the board members in downtown Sacramento cost taxpayers $740,000 per year, lawmakers are scrutinizing the board’s spending as they decide its budgetary fate for next year."
A new bill being pushed would allow Californian's to break out animals trapped in hot cars without fear of a civil lawsuit repercussion.
Jeremy B. White with Sac Bee: "By the time Sharie Lesniak finished her errand at the bank, the dog she had noticed waiting in a car on her way in had started panting and showing signs of distress."
"So Lesniak called 911. Before the authorities arrived to free the animal, the owners showed up. They weren’t pleased."
“The person started harassing me and asking me if I was a veterinarian, how dare I tell him how to take care of his dog,” Lesniak said. "
And now from our "Last Week Tonight" file ...
In traditional Daily Show style, Jon Oliver dissects and discusses primaries and caucases in last night's episode. NSFW WARNING: Language
