A California Place Name Neither Indian, Spanish Nor Civil War

Lake Almanor is one of Plumas County’s prime recreation areas. It’s a reservoir with a capacity of 1.3 million acre-feet.

One acre-foot is about 326,00 gallons, roughly the water a family of four uses each year.

Now owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, the reservoir, about 90 feet deep, was built by Great Western Power by damming the North Fork of the Feather River.    Read more »

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New Law Would Detail Non-Discriminatory Policy on Transgender Students

 California is poised to become then first state in the country to put into law what public schools must do to ensure transgender pupils aren’t discriminated against.

Primarily that means being allowed to use a restroom or locker room that matches the gender the student identifies with, which may not be the same as the gender listed on their birth certificate.    Read more »

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An “Exclusive” Interview with Gloria Deukmejian

From the Long Beach News, Thursday June 20, 1985: 

What Gloria Deukmejian likes most about being California’s First Lady – next to her husband being the governor, of course – is “meeting people and going to places I wouldn’t normally travel to.”

Like the town of Quincy in Plumas County, 140 miles northeast of Sacramento.    Read more »

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Miguel Santiago Shows Over $214,000 Cash-on-Hand in Assembly Bid

(Editor’s Note: The above is the headline on a recently sent e-mail to Sacramento lobbyists by Santiago’s campaign.)

Miguel Santiago is running to succeed Assembly Speaker John Perez who employs Santiago as his district director. Nearly 59 percent of the registered voters in Perez’s 53rd Assembly District are Democrats like Perez and Santiago.    Read more »

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Does This Guy Rock or What?

By Dennis Hoey, Portland Press Herald Staff Writer 

George H.W. Bush, the nation’s 41st president, did not decide to go bald for style or even for comfort.

His spokesman, Jim McGrath, said the 89-year-old Bush went under the razor to show his support for the 2-year-old son of a Secret Service agent assigned to his security detail at the Bush family compound on Walker’s Point.    Read more »

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Photos of Dead People, Dog Parks and Redundancy

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation to reassure coroners that they’re shielded from liability if Californians see illegal copies of photographs or images of dead people.

The bill — AB 957 by Assemblyman Don Wagner, an Irvine Republican –only reassures because coroners have been protected from liability for someone else copying or leaking official corners’ photographs since 1968.    Read more »

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Proposed Ballot Measure Claims to Strengthen Freedom of Religious Speech

Both the California and federal constitution are explicit on the subject of religious freedom:

“Free exercise and enjoyment of religion without discrimination or preference are guaranteed,” reads the 12-word declaration in Article I, Section 4 of California’s constitution.  With only this 21-word exception:

“This liberty of conscience does not excuse acts that are licentious or inconsistent with the peace or safety of the state.”     Read more »

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Jerry Brown Digs Cemeteries

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation shoring up the finances of the Kern River Valley Cemetery District – the fifth cemetery district the Democratic governor has aided during the past two years.

Four of the five cemetery districts have seen business drop not because of falling mortality rates but because of competition from nearby, recently opened federal Veterans Administration cemeteries.    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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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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