On the FBI at the Capitol and Legislators Fundraising

The FBI’s rubber-gloving of the Capitol prompts a look at campaign contributions 

By Greg Lucas

Sacramento News & Review, June 27, 2013 — The line between felony and fundraising is explicit.

Yet California legislative history over the past quarter century shows 14 Democratic and Republican legislators, lobbyists and others convicted in a federal-corruption investigation that came to light in 1988 for soliciting campaign contributions outside the lines.    Read more »

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Happy Birthday Justice Marshall!

July 2 is the birthday of  Thurgood  Marshall, the first African-American to serve as a U.S. Supreme Court Justice.

He was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1908.

Marshall’s legal shingle went up in 1935. Five years later, he won his first case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Chambers v. Florida, which asserted due process was violated by a forced confession of an African American defendant.    Read more »

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Valetudinarian

 

Noun: “A sickly or weak person, especially someone morbidly concerned with their own health.”

Adjective: “Chronically ailing; sickly.”

Used in a Sentence: “Are you deaf? The senator from Pasadena isn’t Armenian. He’s valetudinarian.”

-30-    Read more »

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June Income and Business Taxes $1.5 BillIon Above Estimates

Further buttressing the state’s financial condition, California’s June income tax and business tax receipts are nearly $1.5 billion higher than projected.

Total income tax payments through June 30, the close of the previous fiscal year,  were $8.4 billion.

In the budget signed by Gov. Jerry Brown June 27, $7.5 billion was predicted.    Read more »

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News That Stays News

 

“Republican philosophy seems to guide high court’s conservative justices”

— Sacramento Bee, Forum Section

June 30, 2013    Read more »

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Brown Signs Budget Three Days Before New Fiscal Year

At an 11 a.m. signing ceremony on June 27,  Gov. Jerry Brown signs California’s $145 billion budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. His press office says he’ll be joined by Senate President Pro Tempore Darrell Steinberg, a Sacramento Democrat,  and Assembly Speaker John Pérez, a Los Angeles Democrat. The  Budget Act of 2013 is AB 110.      Read more »

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Today’s Latin Lesson Is a Comforting Notion But Apparently a Long Wait

 

Post Tenebras Lux

“After Darkness, Light”    Read more »

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Witty

“Here lies a proof that wit can never be defense against mortality.”

 — Aphra Behn, 1640?  – 1689, on her tomb at Westminster Abbey    Read more »

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Wouldn’t News Be If the Democratic Majority Assembly Voted it Down?

Assembly Passes Corbett Bill Protecting Struggling Homeowners, Borrowers

SB 426 Clarifies Status of Debts Following Foreclosure

SACRAMENTO – Legislation that strengthens existing deficiency protections for borrowers after losing their homes in foreclosures passed from the Assembly floor earlier today (June 24, 2013). 

Authored by Senate Majority Leader Ellen M. Corbett, a Hayward Democrat, SB 426 specifically prohibits deficiency collections and adverse credit reporting on non-recourse loans following a non-judicial foreclosure.     Read more »

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In Fundraising, As Elsewhere, The More Things Change…

The line between felony and fundraising is plainly visible.

Public officials who vote or act in a certain way in return for a campaign contribution are guilty of  big time crime.

Yet California legislative history is littered with politicians and those who solicit contributions for them who have gone well outside the OB marker.      Read more »

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