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Jumping Into the WayBack Machine with Jerry Brown to the Gubernatorial Election of 1978
In remarks at the Stanford Mansion on June 26 supporting The Maddy Institute’s Bob Beverly Legislative Intern Scholarship Fund, Gov. Jerry Brown allowed that:
“You’re never down as long as another election is coming up.”
He noted that in the 1978 primary he was in a dead heat with Republican Attorney General Evelle Younger. Read more »
Two Memorable Encounters with Ray Bradbury
It’s not always best to meet an idol. Sometimes the actual person doesn’t live up to the idealized.
This was anything but the case on two occasions shared with Ray Bradbury, each some 20 years apart.
The first was during the Deukmejian administration in the mid 1980s and Bradbury was a dinner speaker kicking off a tourism conference in Sacramento. Read more »
Happy Birthday Governor Deukmejian!
Courken George Deukmejian, California 35th governor, was born in Menands, New York on June 6, 1928.
Running as Attorney General on a law-and-order platform in 1982, Deukmejian sharply expanded California’s prison building program – and the number of inmates behind bars. He also remade the state Surpeme Court in his iamge after voters ejected Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other justices in 1986. Read more »
Happy Birthday Governor Latham!
Milton Slocum Latham, California’s sixth governor, was born in Columbus, Ohio on May 23, 1827.
He continues to hold the record for shortest term as California’s chief executive:
Five days.
From January 9, 1860 to January 14, 1860.
During his brief tenure, he sent President Buchanan a letter supporting the desire of six southern counties to split from California and form a new, more slavery-friendly territory. Read more »
Happy Birthday Governor Budd!
May 18 is the birthday of James H. Budd, California’s 19th governor, who served from January 1895 to January 1899. He was the last Democrat to hold the office until Cuthbert Olsen was elected in 1938.
A Stockton resident and lawyer, the “genial and jovial” Budd ran on an anti-Southern Pacific, trim-the-fat in government platform. Read more »
A Dark Day 94 Years Ago for Free Speech — With a SIlver Lining
On May 16, 1918, Congress approved the Sedition Act. The law was an expansion of the previous year’s Espionage Act, which allowed the Postmaster General to remove seditious or treasonable material from the mail and punished anyone convicted of interfering with military recruitment with up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000. Read more »
Happy Birthday to the Royal Historian of Oz
May 15 is the birthday of L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and more than 55 other novels.
Lyman Frank Baum was born near Syracuse, New York in 1856. At 26, he married Maud Gage. Her mother was close to Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, leaders of the women’s rights movement. Read more »
Promontory Point Utah May 10, 1869
The Central Pacific and Union Pacific railroads met on May 10, 1869 at Promontory Point, Utah completing the transcontinental railroad.
The connection of the two rail lines was celebrated with the hammering in of a silver and golden spike.
Former California Gov. Leland Stanford, president of the Central Pacific, said this, acording to the New York Times:
“The Pacific Railroad companies accept with pride and satisfaction these golden and silver tokens of your appreciation of the importance of our enterprise to the material interests of the sections which you represent on this occasion, and to the material interests of our whole country, East and West, North and South. Read more »
Happy Belated Birthday Governor Young!
Governor Clement Calhoun Young, born April 28, 1869, was an English teacher at Lowell High School in San Francisco before he entered politics.
His January 1927 inaugural address and two lengthy biennial messages to lawmakers in 1929 and 1931 reflect both his professorial background and his political experience.
Young, a Republican, is California’s last “Progressive” governor. Read more »
Capital Improvements Sought at California State Fair Grounds
WHEREAS, The arts, crafts and vocational work of the California schools is of such high quality as to make it a matter of state pride and
WHEREAS, The present Educational building of the State Fair Grounds, Sacramento has become entirely inadequate to house the multitude of exhibits produced and offered for exhibit by the students of the elementary, junior high and senior high schools of our state; and
WHEREAS, The exhibits now offered are crowded through lack of space in a manner inimical to the best interests of their educational value, and
WHEREAS, The heat of the day and the dampness of the night are enervating to health of employees and exhibitors and destructive to woodwork and other exhibits in the large tent annex of said Educational Building; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Elementary Principals’’ Association of California, Northern Section, in annual convention assembled do hereby petition the Legislature of the State of California and the directors of the State Agricultural Society to make such provision as may be necessary toward the erection of a new and larger building for the purpose of exhibiting the arts and crafts and vocational work of the pupils and students of the schools of California. Read more »
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