Free Republic

SACRAMENTO - As the nation prepares to celebrate Problem Gambling Awareness Week, the head of California's small program is preparing to move on. Steve Hedrick, director of the state's Office of Problem Gambling, will be joining the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation in its division of addiction and recovery services. Hedrick presided over the formative years of an operation that has subsisted on a meager, $3 million budget and drawn persistent criticism for being ill-equipped to deal with a problem believed to afflict more than 1 million California adults and their families. On Hedrick's watch, the office conducted the...