Free Republic

The Legislature's top administrators have asked Attorney General Jerry Brown to decide whether pending 18 percent cuts to lawmakers' pay and benefits were legally approved by the California Citizens Compensation Commission. Jon Waldie, chief administrative officer of the Assembly, and Greg Schmidt, chief executive officer of the Senate, suggest that the reductions were beyond the jurisdiction of the seven-member commission, which is appointed by the governor. Citing the state's dire fiscal condition, the panel in May cut the pay for state officials by 18 percent beginning in December 2010 – after the next round of legislative elections. The cut will...

Attorney General Jerry Brown's communications director, Scott Gerber, submitted his resignation Monday after admitting last week that he had secretly taped conversations with reporters. In the letter to Chief Deputy Attorney General James Humes, Gerber said he was resigning "with a heavy heart" but emphasized that "neither the Attorney General nor any other attorneys from our office were aware that I was recording interviews without permission." The questionable, perhaps illegal, behavior came to light after Gerber told the San Francisco Chronicle that one of its reporters had misquoted Humes based on Gerber's recording of the conversation between Humes and political...

SACRAMENTO — The press secretary for California Attorney General Jerry Brown has been secretly recording telephone conversations with reporters, an apparent violation of state law. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that spokesman Scott Gerber acknowledged taping a phone interview with one of its reporters. It said Gerber later acknowledged recording other conversations with reporters without asking their permission.

While Democrats have more than seven months left to choose their candidate for governor, one of the party's key constituencies has already made its preference clear, at least in the all-important money race. Unions all across the state and country have poured more than a million dollars into Attorney General Jerry Brown's campaign coffers – even though he has yet to officially announce his candidacy. That includes influential statewide bodies such as the California State Council of Labor and the California Nurses Association as well as out-of-state carpenters unions from New York to Honolulu. Meanwhile, the only declared Democratic candidate...

Calpers burns in subprime fire 24 Oct 2009, 0000 hrs IST, REUTERS SAN FRANCISCO: Faced with huge losses on subprime loans, Calpers is suing the rating agencies which it said misled them by giving top ratings to mortgage bond funds which later turned out to be a house of cards. Calpers also was overcharged for foreign exchange transactions, says state Attorney General Brown, who is suing bank State Street. The market rally this year also has helped. “The recovery now is showing our asset strategy is doing pretty well,” Oliveira said. Calpers’ losses have been cut by about half from...

Want to make a big splash to bolster your chances in a political campaign? A tried and true strategy for some attorneys general has been to champion a populist position by exploiting the legal system for publicity. Just look at the lead up to the launch of former New York AG Eliot Spitzer gubernatorial campaign with his attacks on Wall Street. And that appears to be the playbook California Attorney General Jerry Brown is using in a lawsuit accusing State Street (NYSE:STT) of cheating the state's two largest pension funds, the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State...

More than a decade before Jerry Brown's current incarnation as undeclared gubernatorial front-runner, he hit the airwaves of liberal Berkeley radio station KPFA five days a week to speak his mind. What he said then, as he interviewed poets, activists and the likes of leftist icon Noam Chomsky, promises to resurface this coming year as the 71-year-old former governor ponders running for a historic third gubernatorial term. During his three years on the air, Brown repeatedly blamed corporate malfeasance and political corruption for undermining American democracy and even causing deaths, according to edited excerpts of the radio broadcasts. Brown regularly...

California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown is going to investigate "both ACORN and the circumstances under which ACORN employees were videotaped." That’s right. He’s going after filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles. He’d just assume rough up the young folks who caught ACORN committing unlawful acts while Jerry Brown and his staff weren’t catching ACORN committing unlawful acts. Jerry Brown is one of ACORN’s A-rated attorneys general. In other words, all the while ACORN was engaged in its apparently many unlawful activities in his state, Jerry Brown was helping ACORN on the taxpayer dime. It’s a bad sign, to say the...

Reporting from Sacramento - Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has launched an investigation into the brouhaha over videotapes of a conservative group's sting operation against ACORN, the community organizing group credited with helping push Barack Obama to the presidency. Brown's office plans to look into circumstances surrounding both the making of the videos and any possible misdeeds by ACORN employees in California caught on tape. In what has become a staple of TV and radio talk shows in recent weeks, ACORN workers in several states were shown allegedly offering advice on tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution. Undercover videotapes, shot...

(10-01) 15:14 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- State Attorney General Jerry Brown's office said Thursday that he is investigating the community activist group ACORN at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's request, after undercover videos at two California offices appeared to show staffers offering to help two purported clients break the law. Spokesman Scott Gerber said Brown sent a letter to Schwarzenegger last week agreeing to look into whether the group's employees did anything illegal. Brown said he would also investigate whether the surreptitious recording of the meetings in ACORN's San Diego and San Bernardino offices violated California privacy laws, a subject the governor...

The attorney general of California has opened an investigation into ACORN and the circumstances under which its employees were secretly videotaped, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on his Twitter page Thursday. The attorney general of California has opened an investigation into ACORN and the circumstances under which its employees were secretly videotaped, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced on his Twitter page Thursday. Schwarzenegger wrote he had "just heard" that the state's attorney general, Edmund G. Brown Jr., is opening an investigation following the release of five hidden-camera videos that depicted ACORN employees offering advice to filmmakers James O'Keefe and Hannah...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - California Attorney General Jerry Brown took a major step toward running for governor on Tuesday by filing paperwork that will allow him to raise campaign funds more aggressively. Brown, a Democrat who served as governor of California from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s, submitted papers for "Brown for Governor 2010 Exploratory Committee" with the state's top elections officer. Brown, 71, had already been raising campaign funds but the committee will allow him to raise money at higher levels if he opts to seek the Democratic nomination for governor. Brown can run for governor again because...

Crime | Government | Wildfires | Education | Roman Polanski | Traffic | Westside L.A. NOW Southern California -- this just in « Previous Post | L.A. NOW Home | Next Post » Jerry Brown files papers to explore run for governor September 29, 2009 | 5:42 pm Jerry Brown dropped the fiction that he was seeking reelection as state attorney general and filed papers today to explore a run for governor, a job he first won in 1974 and has for months been fighting hard, if quietly, to recapture. Brown’s move was born of necessity: Contributions to candidates for...

Runner sues Attorney General over ballot wording SACRAMENTO • State Sen. George Runner is suing California Attorney General Jerry Brown for crafting what Runner calls an “overtly biased” summary of a ballot measure the senator created to prevent voter fraud. “I believe he has misrepresented what this initiative does,” said Runner, R-Lancaster, in an interview Monday. “That’s a tremendous disservice to the citizens of California.” Earlier this year Runner submitted ballot measure Vote SAFE, which would require voters to present photo identification at the polls, allow county Registrar of Voters additional time to count military votes and protect the identity...

Just heard on Savage's home radio station, 910 KNEW, that they will be dropping his 3PM to 6PM PST slot in favor of the Armstrong and Getty show! I am interested to see what his reaction will be to this one... First banned in Britain, and now in his own hometown??? http://910knew.com/main.html

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Legal Newsline)-California will no longer be home to a "liberal, activist" attorney general if voters choose state Sen. Tom Harman as the state's next chief legal officer, the Republican told Legal Newsline. Harman is the only Republican vying to replace Attorney General Jerry Brown, the state's high-profile politician, in 2010. A crowded field of Democrats is in the running, but Harman said they are largely in the mold of Brown, who is widely expected to run for governor rather than seek reelection as attorney general.

California's gubernatorial primary is still 10 months away, but the multimillion-dollar race for campaign cash has already picked up a quick pace, with former eBay CEO Meg Whitman at the front of the pack. It's no surprise that the billionaire Internet exec, who has never held elected office, has lots of money in the bank to spend on her campaign. According to a tally Saturday, she has some $19 million in cash available--and that's after spending $6.1 million to get her campaign operations up and running. It's also after she contributed first $4 million, then $15 million of her own...

State Attorney General Jerry Brown joined a legal challenge Wednesday to Pleasanton's 13-year-old limit on housing construction, arguing that the East Bay community is defying state housing laws and adding to urban sprawl, vehicle use and greenhouse gas emissions. "Pleasanton's draconian and illegal limit on new housing forces people to commute long distances, adding to the bumper-to-bumper traffic along (Interstates) 580 and 680 and increasing dangerous air pollution," Brown said in a statement after filing suit in Alameda County Superior Court. He said Pleasanton's housing shortage will worsen if the city adopts a revised general plan that calls for more...

LIMITS ON VOTING. INITIATIVE STATUTE. Prohibits citizens from voting at the polls unless they present a government-issued photo-identification card. Establishes provisional voting for citizens at the polls who fail to present government-issued photo-identification. Requires that provisional and mail-in ballots be deemed invalid unless the accompanying envelope is marked with the last four digits of a citizen's California driver's license, state identification card or social security number. Eliminates the right to vote for citizens on probation for a felony offense. Establishes that ballots from absent military personnael are timely if postmarked by election day.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today told a federal court in San Francisco that the state does not dispute that Proposition 8 may violate the federal Constitution and called for quick action to resolve the legality of the ant-gay measure law. "Plaintiffs' complaint presents important constitutional questions that require and warrant judicial determination," the governor said in a written response to a federal challenge of the anti-gay marriage ballot measure. " In a constitutional democracy, it is the role of the courts to determine and resolve such questions. … The administration encourages the court to resolve the merits of this action expeditiously."...

Attorney General Jerry Brown, whose office has issued subpoenas in a widening public pension fund corruption probe, has received $52,500 in recent campaign contributions from relatives and a company of the two California businessmen he's now investigating. The contributions from four family members of Sacramento lobbyist Darius Anderson and the company of Los Angeles political fundraiser Daniel Weinstein went to Brown late last year – months before his office reportedly subpoenaed companies run by the two men. They have not been charged in a public pension scandal that has migrated west from New York and resulted in a handful of...

Reporting from Los Angeles and Sacramento -- An ongoing investigation into pension fund corruption across the country intensified Friday as California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown directed subpoenas at politically connected firms and individuals, according to sources familiar with the investigation. Brown issued the subpoenas as part of a probe into "placement agents" who help secure pension fund investment contracts for their clients in return for large sums of money, often millions of dollars. The subpoenas seek information on the use and disclosure of placement agents and potential conflicts of interest, said sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because...

A scofflaw made off with the two passenger side tires from state Attorney General Jerry Brown's state-owned Toyota Camry hybrid as it was parked outside his Oakland hills home, his office said Thursday. Brown, Oakland's former mayor, was attending the state Democratic convention in Sacramento when the theft occurred April 24, said Brown's spokesman Scott Gerber.

Jerry Brown's Tires Stolen Near Oakland City Hall CBS 5 CrimeWatch OAKLAND (BCN) ― A thief stole two tires from California Attorney General Jerry Brown's Toyota Camry hybrid while it was parked outside his home in the Oakland hills last Friday night, his spokesman Scott Gerber said Thursday. Gerber said Brown was in Sacramento attending the state Democratic Party convention at the time. He said that when Brown returned home he discovered that two tires had been stolen. Brown apparently is taking the incident in stride. In a comment he posted on his Facebook site, Brown said, "Even though I...

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom on Saturday took a swipe at potential rival Jerry Brown, telling party delegates he represents the future and not just "a stroll down memory lane." The San Francisco mayor was greeted by thunderous applause as he addressed delegates at the state Democratic Party convention in Sacramento. After announcing his candidacy this week, Newsom made his pitch to the party faithful by casting himself as the candidate of tomorrow. "Will we offer Californians a stroll down memory lane?" he said. "Will we embrace the past, or will we embrace the future?" Newsom, 41, did not mention...

State Attorney General Jerry Brown enters the state Democratic convention today favored to be the party's next candidate for governor - but the irony of that development is not lost on Democrats who remember when Brown quit the party a decade ago after sharply criticizing Democratic leaders before the very same audience. SNIP And he has taken a far more conciliatory tone with his party in recent years than the Jerry Brown who addressed the 1996 Democratic state convention. "People were stunned; you could have heard a pin drop," said Roberta Lewis, a Democratic central committee delegate from Woodland Hills...

Democratic state Attorney General Jerry Brown -- the former two-term governor expected to make another run in 2010 -- has issued the ultimate challenge to newbie Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gavin Newsom. He says he's willing to do "any test" to prove that he can meet and match any candidate, anywhere -- on brain power. Brown, 71, made the comments on KGO 810 AM this morning, after he was asked about the "generational" differences between himself and the San Francisco mayor, 41, who declared himself a candidate for governor earlier this week. "If he's asserting that the year he's born ......

State Attorney General Jerry Brown has announced he has filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court to recover $1.5 billion he says was fraudulently solicited from California investors in Wells Fargo Bank. State Attorney General Jerry Brown today announced he has filed suit in San Francisco Superior Court to recover more than $1 billion he says was fraudulently... Brown claims more than 2,000 California investors were victimized by bank sales employees who, up until the fall of 2008, had marketed Wells Fargo auction-rate debt securities and auction-rate preferred securities as liquid, or available to be exchanged for cash at any...

SAN FRANCISCO -- The 1996 ballot measure that outlawed preferential treatment for women and minorities in government programs is unconstitutional because it prohibits all affirmative action and fosters the discrimination it was supposed to eliminate, Attorney General Jerry Brown told the state Supreme Court on Wednesday. Brown's opinion, which the court requested in considering a lawsuit that two white-owned contractors brought against San Francisco, could reopen the legal debate on Proposition 209. A federal appeals court upheld the measure in 1997, but the state's high court has never ruled on its validity. It could also become an issue in Brown's...

Schneider: Jerry Brown for California governor?Story Highlights Jerry Brown is currently California's attorney general Polls suggest Brown is the frontrunner in next year's race for California governor Brown was first elected governor of California in 1974 "I would work very hard to transcend the poison of partisanship," he says By Bill Schneider CNN Senior Political Analyst LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- Is Jerry Brown planning to run for governor of California next year? He sure sounded like it when I spoke with him this week. Jerry Brown, a one-time governor of California, is reportedly looking to run again next year....

Use prohibited so go to link but the same thing was in WSJ this morning and other sources so the title is not copyright violation.

Democratic State Attorney General Jerry Brown, standing Tuesday at the side of Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger, declared his support for the Republican governor's budget reform measures Props. 1A-1F on the May 19 special election ballot. The two state officials were surrounded by fire and police chiefs from Alameda County at an Alameda fire station for the announcement by the Attorney General and former two-term governor -- who is strongly considered likely to run for a third gubernatorial term in the 2010 election. The move comes just days after Brown expressed what was described in a Calbuzz interview as "tepid" support for...

LIVE WEBCAST - 03/05/09 California Supreme Court Oral Arguments on Proposition 8 - Same Sex Marriage 9:00AM (PST) http://www.calchannel.com The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Thursday, March 5, 2009, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., in three cases challenging the constitutionality of Proposition 8, a statewide ballot initiative that was passed by a majority of California voters in November 2008. The California Channel will broadcast this event live via your local cable provider and on our website*.*Due to the high demand we expect for this event, if you have problems connecting then the server has reached its...

Not this again. With Democrats in control of Washington, the possibility of the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine is getting stronger and the rhetoric is getting bolder. But this time, it's getting attention on the state level - the biggest state. Former Democratic California governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown appeared on conservative talk host Michael Savage's radio show on Feb. 13. One of the issues the two debated was the possibility of the renewal of the Fairness Doctrine. During the interview, Savage noted that Brown sounded as if he wanted state control over the media. "Well, a little...

Not this again. With Democrats in control of Washington, the possibility of the reinstitution of the Fairness Doctrine is getting stronger and the rhetoric is getting bolder. But this time, it’s getting attention on the state level – the biggest state. Former Democratic California governor and current Attorney General Jerry Brown appeared on conservative talk host Michael Savage’s radio show on Feb. 13. One of the issues the two debated was the possibility of the renewal of the Fairness Doctrine. During the interview, Savage noted that Brown sounded as if he wanted state control over the media. “Well, a little...

The California Supreme Court announced Tuesday it will hear arguments on the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the state's ban on same-sex marriage, in San Francisco on March 5. The high court's written ruling on whether the voter initiative should be struck down will be due 90 days later. The measure, enacted by voters on Nov. 4, amended the state Constitution to provide that "only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California." It overturned a decision in which the court said by a 4-3 vote in May that gay and lesbian couples have a constitutional...

34 years later, Jerry Brown runs for governor again The 'reformed reformer' wants to be governor again -- 34 years after first winning the post. By Michael Finnegan February 2, 2009 It was 1974 when Jerry Brown ran for governor as a dashing 36-year-old reformer, the embodiment of change in Watergate's aftermath. "I was the new spirit," Brown recalled. "That was my slogan." No one would mistake Brown for a new spirit today. At 70, he occupies a prime spot among the elders of California politics. His career has spanned four decades, with three failed tries for the White House...

01-05) 18:27 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- State Attorney General Jerry Brown was "profoundly wrong" and "invented an entirely new theory" when he urged the California Supreme Court to invalidate Proposition 8's same-sex marriage ban because voters can't be allowed to overturn fundamental liberties, attorneys for the measure said Monday. Brown's reasoning would confer upon the state Supreme Court power it has never had, attorneys Kenneth Starr and Andrew Pugno said in their response to the attorney general's December brief. Brown "is inviting this court to declare a constitutional revolution," the attorneys argued in the 29-page response. "His extra-constitutional vision is...

A generation ago, then-Gov. Jerry Brown's conscientious stand against the death penalty prompted a revolt in the Legislature and eventually spurred voters to throw out his appointee as chief justice of the California Supreme Court. Now the 70-year-old attorney general and would-be 2010 gubernatorial candidate is stirring a new storm by his legal challenge to voters' approval of a measure banning gay marriage in California. It's a move that could pay political dividends in a June 2010 Democratic primary against another likely gubernatorial candidate, San Francisco mayor and gay marriage champion Gavin Newsom. After initially indicating his office would defend...

In an unprecedented move, California Attorney General Jerry Brown, has declared that he will not fulfill his statutory obligation to defend all the laws of the state. The issue prompting this dereliction of duty is, of course, the recently voter-passed constitutional amendment declaring that only a union of a man and woman shall be recognized as a marriage under state law. “It came down to a choice between doing what the law requires and what I personally think is right,” Brown announced. “While the case could be made that defending the laws of the state—whether enacted by the legislature or,...

December 23, 2008, 4:00 a.m. Gross Dereliction of DutyBy the Editors As attorney general of California, Jerry Brown has a duty to defend the state and its laws in court. That duty requires him to offer the best grounds in defense of any law that may reasonably be defended. In a brief he filed last Friday in the case challenging Proposition 8 — the ballot measure that amended California’s constitution to ban same-sex marriage — Brown grossly violated that duty. On Election Day, California voters approved Proposition 8. Opponents of Proposition 8 then rushed to court to invalidate it...

Attorney General Jerry Brown's legal challenge to California's constitutional ban on same-sex marriage marks the first time that the state's top lawyer has refused to defend a newly enacted ballot measure since 1964 - another epic discrimination case that eventually reached the U.S. Supreme Court. In November 1964, an overwhelming 65 percent majority of the state's voters approved Proposition 14, a constitutional amendment that overturned a fair-housing law and allowed racial discrimination in property sales and rentals.Attorney General Thomas Lynch - newly appointed to succeed Stanley Mosk, a Prop. 14 opponent who had just been named to the state Supreme...

It was an early scene from The Matrix, but even Keanu Reeves began to figure out things had just gotten really weird. He discusses said predicament with his wasted buddy, Choi. Neo:You ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming? Choi: All the time. It's called mescaline, it's the only way to fly. Wikipedia describes Mescaline as a naturally occurring psychedelic alkaloid that is used to enhance transcendental practices. Apparently, serving as Attorney General, in The Great State of California, offers the office holder opportunities to experience transcendence; even without the pharmaceutical props. At...

On Friday, California attorney general Jerry Brown decided not to honor an earlier promise to defend the constitutionality of Proposition 8, the state marriage amendment approved by voters on November 4. California voters were denied even a pro forma defense of the measure by the government official constitutionally charged to enforce state law — because he just changed his mind. In a December 19 press release, the attorney general said: “Proposition 8 must be invalidated because the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification.” He thus endorsed the idea that marriage, as it has...

SAN FRANCISCO - California's attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now joining forces with homosexual activists to overturn the results of Proposition 8. In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters. But Brown said he reached a different conclusion "upon...

Calif. AG Urges Court to Void Gay Marriage Ban SAN FRANCISCO – The California attorney general has changed his position on the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8. In a dramatic reversal, Attorney General Jerry Brown filed a legal brief saying the measure that amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman is itself unconstitutional because it deprives a minority group of a fundamental right. Earlier, Brown had said he would defend the ballot measure against legal challenges from gay marriage supporters. But Brown...

SAN FRANCISCO -- California Attorney General Jerry Brown has changed his position with respect to the state's new same-sex marriage ban and is now urging the state Supreme Court to void Proposition 8. Brown filed a brief Friday saying the measure, which amended the California Constitution to limit marriage to a man and a woman, is itself unconstitutional because it deprives gay couples of a fundamental right.

Attorney General Jerry Brown made noises like a 19th-century states' rights zealot last week in opposing a looming federal court order requiring the state to spend up to $8 billion to improve health care in its much-overcrowded prison system. As Brown depicted it in his appellate filing opposing the order obtained by federal receiver Clark Kelso, the order violates a federal law barring courts from ordering states to build new prisons as well as constitutional guarantees of state sovereignty. "In ordering the state to fund the receiver's massive prison construction program, the district court clearly violated federal law, and its...

OAKLAND — Police internal affairs detectives investigating the handling of journalist Chauncey Bailey's slaying will have state investigators present when they interview members of their department's command staff. Investigators from the attorney general's office will be there to monitor the interviews, according to a letter the Department of Justice sent to Mayor Ron Dellums in November. But the Justice Department won't take over the whole investigation — which is apparently what Oakland internal affairs investigators wanted, the letter stated. "We do not believe, as has been suggested by the Police Department's Internal Affairs investigator, that the Police Department investigation be...

Oakland, in the Jerry Brown years, practiced an unofficial policy of what might be called “community cleansing.” This is not to be confused with “ethnic cleansing,” the horrific activity in parts of, say, Eastern Europe or Central Africa where whole ethnic populations are violently and bloodily removed, either through exile or actual genocide. No, Mr. Brown’s “community cleansing” policies were far more genteel, involving little violence (though some—that’s what the whole Oakland Riders police scandal was about) and targeting not whole ethnic groups, but rather portions of the population that were considered as being “undesirables.” Part of this involved harassment,...