by Brian Leubitz [courtesy of Calitics - Front Page]

Under current law, prosecutors can incarcerate domestic violence victims to make them testify against the perpetrator.  Unfortunately, this has the effect of scaring many victims out of testifying. The practice was previously banned for sexual assault victims. Well, today, consider that practice an historical one for domestic violence victims as well:

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-Los Angeles) today signed into law a bill that victim advocates believe will result in more women coming forward to law enforcement after falling victim to domestic violence.  Senate Bill 1356, authored by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo), protects domestic violence survivors from the threat of incarceration when they refuse to testify against their abuser in court.   The law mirrors an existing statute for sexual assault victims.

Full Press release over the flip

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

Part 1: University workers, education, the delta, and transportation
Part 2: Transparency in government, flood protection, her record working in a bipartisan manner, and the needs of local government

By Doug Paul Davis
People's Vanguard of Davis

In a lengthy interview, the Vanguard sat down on April 18 with Assemblywoman Lois Wolk, candidate for the State Senate, 5th District. In November she will face Republican Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian.

In the first segment of a three-part interview, the Assemblywoman discusses the agreement by the University to make Sodexho Workers full-time employees, the educational crisis in California, the Delta, and transportation.

In the second segment, the Assemblywoman discusses the transparency in government, flood protection, her record working in a bipartisan manner, and the needs of local government.

Stay tuned for the final interview to be published.

Part 1: University Workers, Education, the Delta, and Transportation

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Sumayyah Waheed
Policy Director
Books Not Bars
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights

California's crisis-ridden adult and youth prison systems break families up and harm the people in their care. Families consistently report that bureaucratic and financial barriers frustrate their attempts to maintain contact with loved ones who are held in state youth prisons. Children are also permanently cut off when a parent is sent to prison, residential drug treatment, or is hospitalized for a time period that surpasses current law’s inflexible timetables for the termination of parental rights. Decades of research demonstrate that such policies are not only inhumane, but also counter-productive, as regular family contact while in prison leads to far greater success rates for youth and adults post-release. Earlier this month, Senator Leland Yee and a representative of Assembly Speaker-Elect Leader Karen Bass joined community groups to unveil legislation that would keep families together and help rehabilitate incarcerated youth and adults.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Randall Hagar
Co-coordinator
The California Treatment Advocacy Coalition
It’s been seven years since 19-year-old Laura Wilcox was shot to death at a Nevada County mental health clinic by Scott Harlan Thorpe, a man with paranoid schizophrenia who consistently refused treatment. It’s been five years since California passed Laura’s Law in her name, allowing counties to provide court-ordered community mental health treatment, otherwise known as assisted outpatient treatment (AOT), to people with severe mental illnesses who would otherwise be lost to the symptoms of their illnesses.

Back when Laura’s Law was passed it was considered landmark mental health legislation by California standards. New York had enacted a similar law four years before and was experiencing remarkable results and 40 other states had already adopted assisted outpatient treatments laws.

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

Less than a day after the final presidential debate before the February 5 primaries, Senator Barack Obama received a spate of important endorsements:

[courtesy of The California Majority Report]

"The problem with the 58-year-old Yee is his troubling tendency to do the wrong thing, for the wrong reasons, when he thinks no one is paying attention," wrote the San Francisco Chronicle last year when it endorsed Yee's opponent for the State Senate in 2006.

And now it appears Yee has once again done the wrong thing for the reasons.

But this time, everybody noticed. Including State Senate President pro Tem Don Perata.

Yee surprisingly announced his opposition to the Democratic health care bill co-authored by  Don Perata on Tuesday in a press conference sponsored by the California Nurses Association, one of his major campaign contributors. That was enough get Perata to tweek Yee in his opening statement to the Senate Health Committee for making his decision before the hearing and before reviewing the Legislative Analyst's opinion of the bill. As Capitol Weekly's "Roundup" put it on Tuesday: "... Leland Yee might want to make sure those keys to his office are still working this morning... ," a reference to Perata's changing the locks on the doors of other moderate State Senators who crossed the Democratic Caucus position on a key issue last year.

There's more...

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

There are a few tasty morsels from the day that can’t wait for morning.

First of all, Governor Schwarzenegger is going to endorse a yes vote on Prop 93 on term limits. The LA Times broke the story earlier this afternoon and the Sacramento Bee has confirmed it, giving the added detail that the Gov will have an opinion piece in the Times tomorrow. (If only he wrote here, I could have broken that story.)

Secondly, the only person those of us in the politicosphere thought had a chance to be competitive with Jackie Speier for the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat being vacated by Tom Lantos at the end of his term—State Senator Leland Yee—has announced he is not running. Just before 5 p.m., Yee released this statement: