ReportWire

Tag: gov. newsom

  • Watch: Memorial service honors Rep. Doug LaMalfa in Chico; House speaker, Gov. Newsom are attending

    [ad_1]

    A public memorial service to honor the late Congressman Doug LaMalfa is being held at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico on Saturday.Watch the video leading this story for a livestream of the service beginning at noon.House Speaker Mike Johnson and a delegation of members of Congress are among the attendees honoring their Republican colleague. The gathering is also bipartisan with Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff in attendance.LaMalfa died on Jan. 5 while in surgery at Enloe Hospital following a medical emergency at his home.Memorial Service Updates The memorial began with a color presentation by the Unified Northstate Honor Guard and the singing of the National Anthem by Alexandria Jones.Mark Lavy, a second cousin of LaMalfa, was the first speaker at the service. He recalled LaMalfa’s life story, including how he met his wife Jill, the moment he knew he would be a Republican and key moments in his political career.Other speakers at the memorial include: Speaker Johnson; Ray Sehorn, LaMalfa’s sixth grade teacher; former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy; LaMalfa’s congressional chief of staff Mark Spannagel; Paradise Mayor Mark Spannagel; David Reade, LaMalfa’s former chief of staff in the Assembly; and Assemblymember James Gallagher.LaMalfa’s wife and his children were also set to deliver a family tribute.LaMalfa represented California’s District 1 in Washington for more than a decade and was the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus. The district includes a large portion of California’s northernmost area, including Oroville, Yuba City, Chico, Redding and the California-Oregon state boundary.As a fourth-generation rice farmer, LaMalfa heavily advocated for his agricultural constituents. The congressman also worked to provide wildfire victims and survivors in his district with relief and recovery efforts and to bolster the state’s water resources.Before being elected to the U.S. House in 2012, LaMalfa served in the California State Assembly and State Senate. Earlier this month, a bill previously championed by LaMalfa advanced in the California Assembly. AB 1091 would allow Californians to purchase eight-character license plates.LaMalfa is survived by Jill, his four children, one grandchild, two sisters and a host of cousins.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    CHICO, Calif. —

    A public memorial service to honor the late Congressman Doug LaMalfa is being held at the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds in Chico on Saturday.

    Watch the video leading this story for a livestream of the service beginning at noon.

    House Speaker Mike Johnson and a delegation of members of Congress are among the attendees honoring their Republican colleague. The gathering is also bipartisan with Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff in attendance.

    This content is imported from Twitter.
    You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.

    LaMalfa died on Jan. 5 while in surgery at Enloe Hospital following a medical emergency at his home.

    Memorial Service Updates

    The memorial began with a color presentation by the Unified Northstate Honor Guard and the singing of the National Anthem by Alexandria Jones.

    Mark Lavy, a second cousin of LaMalfa, was the first speaker at the service. He recalled LaMalfa’s life story, including how he met his wife Jill, the moment he knew he would be a Republican and key moments in his political career.

    Other speakers at the memorial include: Speaker Johnson; Ray Sehorn, LaMalfa’s sixth grade teacher; former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy; LaMalfa’s congressional chief of staff Mark Spannagel; Paradise Mayor Mark Spannagel; David Reade, LaMalfa’s former chief of staff in the Assembly; and Assemblymember James Gallagher.

    LaMalfa’s wife and his children were also set to deliver a family tribute.

    LaMalfa represented California’s District 1 in Washington for more than a decade and was the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus. The district includes a large portion of California’s northernmost area, including Oroville, Yuba City, Chico, Redding and the California-Oregon state boundary.

    As a fourth-generation rice farmer, LaMalfa heavily advocated for his agricultural constituents. The congressman also worked to provide wildfire victims and survivors in his district with relief and recovery efforts and to bolster the state’s water resources.

    Before being elected to the U.S. House in 2012, LaMalfa served in the California State Assembly and State Senate.

    Earlier this month, a bill previously championed by LaMalfa advanced in the California Assembly. AB 1091 would allow Californians to purchase eight-character license plates.

    LaMalfa is survived by Jill, his four children, one grandchild, two sisters and a host of cousins.

    See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel

    [ad_2]

    Source link

  • Newsom to seek court order stopping Trump’s deployment of California National Guard to Oregon

    [ad_1]

    Gov. Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he intends to seek a court order in an attempt to stop President Trump’s deployment of California National Guard troops to Oregon.

    Calling the president’s action a “breathtaking abuse of power,” Newsom said in a statement that 300 California National Guard personnel were being deployed to Portland, Ore., a city the president has called “war-ravaged.”

    “They are on their way there now,” Newsom said of the National Guard. “This is a breathtaking abuse of the law and power.”

    Trump’s move came a day after a federal judge in Oregon temporarily blocked the federalization of Oregon’s National Guard.

    The president, who mobilized the California National Guard amid immigration protests earlier this year, has pursued the use of the military to fight crime in cities including Chicago and Washington, sparking outrage among Democratic officials in those jurisdictions. Local leaders, including those in Portland, have said the actions are unnecessary and without legal justification.

    “The Trump Administration is unapologetically attacking the rule of law itself and putting into action their dangerous words — ignoring court orders and treating judges, even those appointed by the President himself, as political opponents,” Newsom said.

    In June, Newsom and California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed a federal lawsuit over Trump’s mobilization of the state’s National Guard during immigration protests in Los Angeles. California officials are expected to file the court order over Sunday’s deployment using that existing lawsuit.

    Newsom has ratcheted up his rhetoric about Trump in recent days: On Friday, the governor lashed out at universities that may sign the president’s higher education compact, which demands rightward campus policy shifts in exchange for priority federal funding.

    “I need to put pressure on this moment and pressure test where we are in U.S. history, not just California history,” Newsom said. “This is it. We are losing this country.”

    [ad_2]

    Daniel Miller, Melody Gutierrez

    Source link

  • In an effort to create more affordable homes, Gov. Newsom signs package of housing bills

    In an effort to create more affordable homes, Gov. Newsom signs package of housing bills

    [ad_1]

    Gov. Gavin Newsom Thursday signed a package of bills designed to alleviate the state’s housing affordability crisis.

    The new laws aim to boost the availability of housing in a variety of ways, including streamlining the approval process for certain projects and requiring that local municipalities create plans to house the most vulnerable Californians.

    “The original sin in this state is affordability,” Newsom said at news conference. “That is the challenge we are trying to address.”

    The bill signings Thursday follow a number of actions lawmakers have taken in recent years to make housing more affordable.

    There have been big ticket items like eliminating most single-family only zones to allow duplexes and so-called accessory dwelling units, as well as more under-the-radar efforts that have boosted ADU construction and chipped away at the ability local governments have to block housing developments.

    One of those lesser known laws is Assembly Bill 2011, a law from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) that streamlined the approval process for housing projects on certain types of commercial land if developers reserve some units for lower-income residents.

    On Wednesday, developer Thrive Living and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass celebrated the groundbreaking of what was billed as the first AB 2011 project to move forward in the city. The Baldwin Village development will consist of 800 apartments on top of a ground-floor Costco store. Just over 180 of those units will be for low-income households.

    In his news conference Thursday, Newsom said the total housing package includes 32 bills and he signed seven at the event that tweak a number of existing rules to try to spur more housing.

    One measure from Wicks, AB 2243, amends the law that Thrive Living used in Los Angeles. Under the new rules, developers will be able to receive the streamlined approval in more areas than they do now, including regional malls and land closer to freeways.

    Another bill, AB 3093 from Assemblymember Chris Ward (D-San Diego), requires that local municipalities plan for housing that will be available to households making up to 15% and up to 30% of the area‘s median income.

    Currently, the lowest income bracket communities must plan for is less than 50% of area median income, meaning in theory that cities could fulfill those goals by building housing just for people making 49% of local income.

    Officials say that by adding the new, lower income categories it will help create more housing for people who are homeless or at greatest risk of losing their homes.

    Local municipalities will also face stricter penalties if they reject housing projects in ways that state law does not allow them to do.

    Under Senate Bill 1037, from State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco), communities will face civil penalties up to $50,000 a month for as long as a violation persists. The money will be deposited into a state fund and used to develop income-restricted housing in that community.

    [ad_2]

    Andrew Khouri

    Source link

  • Gov. Newsom seeks faster review of insurance rate hikes. What to know

    Gov. Newsom seeks faster review of insurance rate hikes. What to know

    [ad_1]

    With insurers continuing to pull back from the California’s homeowners’ market, Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to speed up the process by which the companies have their requests for rate hikes reviewed.

    The governor said Friday that he is backing a bill that would require the Department of Insurance to complete reviews of proposed premium increases within 60 days to halt any more exits from the market. Here’s what to know:

    What exactly did the governor say?

    Newsom said that immediate steps need to be taken to stabilize the market, which has seen insurers not renew existing policyholders, stop writing new policies or pull out of the market entirely — sending many homeowners to the insurer of last resort, the state’s FAIR Plan, which is now on the hook for more than $300 billion in payouts. Newsom said he was “deeply mindful” of the burdens placed on the plan.

    The governor said he had considered issuing an executive order, but instead is proposing a bill that would require the Insurance Department to speed up its review process of premium rate-hike requests.

    “We need to stabilize this market. We need to send the right signals. We need to move,” he said.

    Isn’t there already an insurance reform package being hashed out in Sacramento?

    Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is holding hearings on his Sustainable Insurance Strategy, a set of comprehensive regulations intended to stabilize rates and make it more attractive for insurers to write homeowners policies, especially in wildfire areas such as hillsides and canyons.

    However, these regulations won’t become law until the end of the year — a deadline sought by the governor, assuming it can be met.

    “It should not take this long for emergency regulations,” Newsom said. “We can’t wait until December.”

    How would this bill fit into the larger set of reforms?

    Lara has reached a grand bargain with the insurance industry to make the market more attractive, though details are still being worked out.

    The plan would allow insurers to include the cost of reinsurance they buy to protect themselves from large fires and other catastrophes into premium costs. It also would allow them to set rates using sophisticated algorithms to predict the risk and cost of future fires, rather than just base them on past events. It’s unclear how an insurer’s application for an expedited rate approval this year would fit into the proposed reforms.

    Has Lara reacted to the governor’s proposal?

    The commissioner tweeted Friday that his department has taken “significant steps forward” to implement his planned reforms but more needs to be done — and that his department is working with the governor and the Legislature “on critical budget language that keeps us on track to get the job done.”

    What do consumer groups have to say?

    Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog, said he didn’t understand the proposal, worrying that it would be a “rubber stamp” on proposed rate increases.

    He noted that Proposition 103, the landmark 1988 initiative that gives the insurance commissioner authority to review rate hikes, already mandates that they are conducted within 60 days except in certain circumstances. Those circumstances include requests for rate increases exceeding 7% for homeowners insurance, which allow consumers to seek a hearing, or the commissioner’s own decision to conduct a hearing.

    What is the insurance industry’s reaction

    Rex Frazier, president of the Personal Insurance Federation of California, a trade group of property and casualty insurers, said despite the promise of 60-day rate reviews under Proposition 103, they are taking longer. He said the Insurance Department will often request that insurers waive their rights to a speedy decision or face an administrative hearing, which can lead to extensive delays. However, Frazier withheld comment on the governor’s proposal until the draft language is released.

    What are the next steps?

    Newsom’s office will release the draft bill, which will be carried by a member of the Legislature and be included in the process for adopting the state budget, which the Legislature must approve by June 15. Newsom made his remarks Friday in outlining plans for a revised $288-billion budget, which calls for a series of cutbacks to close a nearly $45-billion shortfall.

    [ad_2]

    Laurence Darmiento

    Source link

  • Gov. Gavin Newsom pans talk of banning Donald Trump from presidential race in California

    Gov. Gavin Newsom pans talk of banning Donald Trump from presidential race in California

    [ad_1]

    Many leading California Democrats have been clamoring to jettison Donald Trump from the state’s election ballot, but Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it clear he is against the move.

    “There is no doubt that Donald Trump is a threat to our liberties and even to our democracy,” Newsom said, “but in California, we defeat candidates at the polls. Everything else is a political distraction.”

    Newsom’s terse statement on Friday runs counter to the position taken by Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and nine state lawmakers, who have pushed to remove the former president from the California ballot. The campaign gained momentum this week when the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Trump ineligible for spurring on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

    Political opinions on Trump’s eligibility ultimately are expected to be of little consequence on a novel question of the law that will almost certainly have to be settled by the U.S. Supreme Court. If the high court agrees to take the case, election law experts said its decision would probably affect primary and general election ballots across the country.

    “I think Newsom is showing that — in a state dominated by Democrats, who might easily succumb to their partisan interests — he is being the grown-up in the room,” said Sara Sadhwani, a political science professor at Pomona College and sharp critic of Trump’s attempts to overturn the 2020 election. “We have institutions, the courts, to answer these questions. And political meddling in elections does not lead to stability for our democratic institutions.”

    Jessica Levinson, a constitutional law professor at Loyola Law School, predicted that the U.S. Supreme Court will overturn the Colorado court, with the justices probably loath to give the appearance that they are “throwing the 2024 presidential election or putting their thumb on the scale in the 2024 presidential election.”

    Levinson said that that does not mean the Colorado high court’s decision was unreasonable, given the 14th Amendment’s provision that individuals could be deemed ineligible for office if, as an “officer of the United States,” they engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the United States or aided its enemies.

    As a strict legal question, Levinson said, “if you give aid or comfort to those who engage in insurrection, then you are not eligible for the ballot in my view.”

    Trump’s disqualification from the Colorado ballot would not necessarily block him from returning to the presidency. He lost the state by 13 percentage points in 2020 and could find a path to 270 electoral votes without the state’s 10 electoral votes. He also won the presidency in 2016 without California’s huge electoral trove, which now stands at 54.

    But the campaign to remove Trump from the ballot is continuing in many other states, provoking charges from the candidate and other Republicans that Democrats are trying to rig the 2024 election.

    In the swing state of Michigan, which Trump carried in 2016 and lost in 2020, some voters have sued to keep Trump off the ballot.

    Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows, a Democrat, is considering arguments from both sides as to Trump’s eligibility for the 2024 ballot.

    California has picked Democrats for president in eight consecutive elections since it went for Republican George H.W. Bush in 1988. Trump trails badly in early California polling for the 2024 presidential contest.

    But several of the state’s top Democrats have said that Trump should be disqualified from the March primary ballot.

    Kounalakis, a Democrat who is running for governor in 2026, wrote to California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, who oversees elections, asking her “to explore every legal option” to keep the former president off the March 5 ballot.

    “This decision is about honoring the rule of law in our country and protecting the fundamental pillars of democracy,” Kounalakis wrote, citing the Colorado Supreme Court’s 4-3 decision.

    Assemblyman Evan Low, who represents the Silicon Valley, heads a group of nine Democratic legislators who asked state Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to drop Trump from the ballot. They say the action would force the courts to determine the former president’s eligibility.

    “No one is above the law,” Low said in an interview this week, “and the courts should enforce the Constitution. Period. Full stop.”

    Jaime Regalado, professor emeritus of political science at Cal State Los Angeles, viewed Newsom’s stand for keeping Trump on the ballot as the governor’s latest gambit to differentiate himself from California’s liberal orthodoxy.

    “I think that, at least in part, this is a way to distance himself from the left a little bit and to move a little bit toward the political middle,” said Regalado. “We don’t expect him to be challenging Biden. But at the same time, we expect him to be a candidate soon for national office.”

    [ad_2]

    James Rainey

    Source link

  • L.A. con man who posed as attorney, rubbed elbows with Gov. Newsom is sentenced to 6 months

    L.A. con man who posed as attorney, rubbed elbows with Gov. Newsom is sentenced to 6 months

    [ad_1]

    An admitted L.A. con artist who rubbed elbows with powerful politicians and presented himself as the right hand of a powerful Armenian crime figure was sentenced to six months in prison Monday, after spending years testifying against his former mentor and several corrupt law enforcement officials.

    Edgar Sargsyan, 42, will serve the short prison sentence and then spend an additional six months confined to his home after his 2020 plea to four counts of bank fraud, bribery and lying to federal agents, according to his attorney, Robert Dugdale.

    The public was barred from Sargsyan’s sentencing hearing in federal court on Monday, after Dugdale was heard expressing concerns about his client’s safety.

    Sargsyan rose from humble beginnings to become a regular at the members-only Grand Havana cigar club in Beverly Hills, where he regularly socialized with celebrities. Penniless when he immigrated to the United States from Armenia in 2004, Sargsyan settled in Glendale, home to a large Armenian diaspora.

    There, he scratched out a living collecting finder’s fees for bringing clients to attorneys — and also committing bank fraud. Court records show Sargsyan admitted he was part of an identity theft ring that racked up phony charges in the names of foreign exchange students who were no longer living in the United States.

    Sargsyan went from small-time fraud artist to prolific criminal after meeting Levon Termendzhyan in 2010 at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel’s BLVD restaurant, court records show. Termendzhyan put forward a public facade of a wildly successful entrepreneur in the oil and gas industry, but within the Armenian community, Sargsyan testified, he had “the reputation of a mafia figure.”

    Sargsyan became something of an advisor, confidant and younger brother to Termendzhyan, who is now serving a 40-year sentence for fraud and money laundering. Through Termendzhyan, Sargsyan met two corrupt law enforcement officers: John Saro Balian, a narcotics detective for the Glendale Police Department, and Felix Cisneros Jr., an agent of Homeland Security Investigations.

    Sargsyan also cultivated relationships with public officials by donating lavishly to their campaigns. At his office in Beverly Hills, where he held himself out as a lawyer, Sargsyan posed for a photograph with Gov. Gavin Newsom before heading to a fundraiser for the governor at a members-only cigar lounge. Newsom and his political aides previously declined to discuss his relationship with Sargsyan, though a campaign official said all of his donations were rerouted to a charity.

    Like much of Sargsyan’s life, the lawyer facade was a lie. After failing the California bar exam several times, Sargsyan paid an attorney $140,000 to take the test for him. Sargsyan didn’t admit to the scheme for years, failing to tell federal prosecutors about it until the eve of a trial in which he was set to testify.

    Sargsyan said he’d held back about the bar exam scheme because he was “ashamed and embarrassed” to confess he wasn’t a lawyer.

    Sargsyan testified against Babak Broumand, telling the jury he gave $10,000 a month to the decorated FBI agent in exchange for secret information about investigations into Sargsyan and his associates. Broumand, who worked for two decades on a national security squad in San Francisco, was convicted of accepting bribes and is serving six years in federal prison.

    During a brief conversation outside the courtroom on Monday, Sargsyan lamented that a 2022 Times retelling of his wild life story had “destroyed his character” and used an expletive in reference to the reporter who wrote it.

    “Report facts … that’s the beauty of journalism,” said Sargsyan, shortly before walking into court and accepting a plea deal based on an admission that he was a prolific liar.

    [ad_2]

    James Queally, Matthew Ormseth

    Source link