A new California law now allows criminal defendants from disproportionately-convicted racial groups to challenge lawful convictions as state leaders seek to balance criminal justice reform with skyrocketing violent crime. The law also allows for additional challenges in the case of demonstrated racial bias inside or outside the court, or if a conviction or sentencing could have negative immigration consequences. Law enforcement and prosecutors say this act has reversed otherwise lawful convictions of violent individuals, threatening public safety, while criminal justice advocates say that the existence of racial disparities in conviction and sentencing are evidence of injustice.

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When Albuquerque announced plans to acquire a new fire engine, New Mexico's governor lauded the "zero emissions" technology while a fire department spokesman called it "all electric" and KRQE 13 gushed about the "fully electric" fire truck. San Diego's NBC 7 reported on what it called that city's first "all electric fire apparatus." When the electric fire engine debuted in Portland, NBC's KGW 8 quoted a fire department spokesman lauding the "monumental" "zero emissions" vehicle. Viewers could be forgiven for thinking that the new fire trucks were all electric and zero emissions. But all the fire trucks also have a diesel engine.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom promised “no new taxes” in his 2024-2025 budget as he announced the state’s shortfall is $7 billion worse than was expected in January, and proposed $15.2 billion in budget cuts against an up to $80 billion deficit. Newsom’s cuts include reducing water storage and reducing the state’s prison population by 4,600 inmates. In January, Newsom announced he was expecting a $37.9 billion budget deficit, compared to up to $73 billion by the non-partisan, state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office. Newsom claims new data says the state’s shortfall will be $7 billion worse than expected in January, suggesting the state’s deficit could be as high as $80 billion. 

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https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_c5aad39a-0f03-11ef-9127-df7a55621b70.html

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California Governor Gavin Newsom announced California is a “national model” for homelessness while announcing the availability of new funding for mental health and substance abuse treatment. California’s homeless population was 181,399 in January of 2023, and is the largest in the nation. Using similar, recent state programs as cost-approximation, Prop. 1 could very well meet the governor’s claims. While ongoing treatment costs may prove to be cost effective, government-funded housing projects in California have a history of going well over initial expectations.

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https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_a4586f64-1321-11ef-954f-cb3919f7835d.html

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 Amid a 4.5 million home housing shortage, California’s Little Hoover Commission, a non-partisan, state-funded body, unveiled major changes to the state’s landmark California Environmental Quality Act designed to improve housing construction times and costs. LHC found CEQA is heavily used for “non-environmental goals” and recommended, among other acts, exempting infill housing from CEQA review and requiring greater standing to indefinitely challenge new construction, as currently nearly anyone in the country can. 

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California Governor Gavin Newsom took to the top of Golden Gate Bridge to share the claim that California had hit an "unprecedented" tourism spending record. The facts? After inflation, tourism is down 14% from 2019. The false claim was shared by trusted news organizations such as CBS and the San Francisco Chronicle. In his press release with Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta, Newsom claimed tourism spending was up 5.6% in 2023 over 2022, a figure that is a 3.8% increase from peak 2019 levels. However, the Visit California report featured in the release and cited by Newsom says those figures are not adjusted for inflation, which has been approximately 19% since 2019. 

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https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_bcf013de-0bf5-11ef-9086-43e9809054f4.html

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Police cleared the encampment of pro-Palestine protestors at UCLA before dawn on Thursday, arresting hundreds for failing to disperse after the school declared the encampment an unlawful assembly. Protestors held on to hastily erected barricades against the police, who tore away at their defenses item by item until officers could break through. California Highway Patrol and Los Angeles Police Department officers deployed riot shields, tear gas, flares, and rubber bullets against the determined crowd. As police broke through the outer barricades, protestors fell back to more defenses, where the cycle repeated yet again. By sunrise,  the encampment was fully under police control.

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 California Governor Gavin Newsom proclaimed a “major clean energy victory” with a tenfold increase in battery capacity as the state’s energy costs rose to the highest in the contiguous United States, or double the national average. Only Hawaii, the island state in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, has more expensive energy. Newsom announced the state has 10,379 megawatts of battery storage during Earth Week. Given that the state consumes 259.5 terawatts of energy per year — or approximately 711,000 megawatts of energy per day — that’s enough capacity to run the state for 21 minutes.

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With the City of Los Angeles facing a $476 million deficit due to overspending and lower than anticipated tax revenues, Mayor Karen Bass has proposed increasing police spending while cutting millions from her signature “Inside Safe” homelessness programs. According to an earlier analysis of Inside Safe by The Center Square, the program costs approximately $17,000 per homeless individual each month. Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Meija recently announced he is auditing Inside Safe to see if it functions and whether money is being spent as promised. Bass’s budget includes $65 million in cuts for Inside Safe, which received $250 million last year, and increasing police spending from $1.9 billion for 2023-2024 to $2 billion for 2024-2025. 

Full story: https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_7ffe8e56-01aa-11ef-a265-f3e641d99cc1.html

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California seized over one million fentanyl pills just last week, more than was seized in all of February, highlighting how much smuggling of drugs and illegal immigrants has shifted to California since Texas strengthened its border. In September, California Governor Gavin Newsom increased the California National Guard’s San Diego border region presence from 40 to 60 soldiers for narcotics operations. “We are doing our job to keep illegal drugs off the streets of California,” Newsom said in a statement. "By working with our state, local and federal partners, we are continuing to crack down on drug trafficking in our communities.” A California bill to strip sanctuary state protections from fentanyl dealers failed in committee two weeks ago amid strong Democratic opposition.

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https://www.thecentersquare.com/california/article_0d5444d6-0317-11ef-a93f-23419c5691e6.html

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