California death penalty cases cost $184 million each year Since California reinstated the death penalty in 1978, the state’s taxpayers have spent more than $4 billion on capital punishment. The state has carried out 13 executions since then, or about... (Continue reading)
California lawmakers raced up to the deadline Wednesday to send a budget proposal to Gov. Jerry Brown that contains further cuts to education, additional fees and many of the “gimmicks” that he repeatedly pledged to avoid in order to close... (Continue reading)
Americans are living longer than ever before, but compared with the healthiest nations in the world, their life expectancy is shorter and falling behind. Even Californians, who fare better than the national average, are living shorter lives than their peers... (Continue reading)
Katie Lichtig gets $308,408 in total compensation as the manager of San Luis Obispo, a city with about 700 employees and 41,000 residents. That’s almost twice the salary of the governor, responsible for 44,000 employees and 37 million people. [Bloomberg]... (Continue reading)
Proposals to ban the circumcision of male children will appear on the November ballots in several California cities, the first public votes on a subject that has long been considered a family decision. [AHN] San Francisco and Santa Monica voters... (Continue reading)
Prison officials allowed 450 violent convicts to be placed on unsupervised parole last year prompted a sharp exchange between the department of corrections and the inspector general’s office, according to a California audit. [CaliforniaWatch] A report released Wednesday by Inspector... (Continue reading)
California is most likely to dramatically shrink its inmate population by changing who goes to prison in the first place, not by mass release of convicted felons. [CaliforniaWatch] The U.S. Supreme Court this morning narrowly upheld an appellate court ruling... (Continue reading)
California is slated to save $170 million in pension fund payments mostly because new union contracts shift some of the costs to state worker. [MercuryNews] New agreements with unions have boosted employee contributions by anywhere from two percent to five... (Continue reading)
Former California First Lady Maria Shriver left her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger last January after the former governor admitted fathering a child more than a decade ago with a longtime member of their household staff. [LA Times] Shriver moved out of... (Continue reading)
Dozens of San Luis Obispo County teachers received final layoff notices last week in compliance with the state-imposed deadline of May 15, even though school districts are still in the dark about their financial status for the coming school year.... (Continue reading)