Five years ago, police officers stopped Jose Armando Escobar-Lopez while he was driving to his home in Daly City near San Francisco with his partner and her brother. Without giving a reason for the stop, the officers questioned him about his immigration status and facilitated his transfer to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Escobar-Lopez’s 2019 brush with ICE illustrates…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
In September 2024, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) placed Dr. Rupa Marya on paid leave and threatened her medical license. These actions against Dr. Marya, a professor of medicine who has written extensively on the health impacts of systemic oppression, provoked many important questions.
After being approached by alarmed students, Dr. Marya raised concerns about the implications of admitting students who may have recently served in the Israeli Defense Force, which has credibly been accused of human rights violations, war crimes, and genocide in Gaza and the West Bank.
The post Demand The Reinstatement Of Dr. Rupa Marya At UC San Francisco appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Organizers and workers from across Alameda County, California, scored a major victory for the BDS movement on December 10th, successfully pressuring the Board of Supervisors to vote to develop an ethical investment policy that, when implemented, could move tens of millions of dollars in investments out of companies profiting off of Israel’s genocide and system of apartheid.
The County Treasurer, who is an independent elected official, also announced that he had already dropped $12 million in bonds in Caterpillar (CAT), which directly profits from Israeli apartheid and the ongoing genocide, after sustained organizing from county residents and organizations requesting him to do so. He further pledged to dump the county’s remaining CAT bond, worth $20 million.
The post Coalition Wins Victory For The BDS Movement In California appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
Organizers and workers from across Alameda County, California, scored a major victory for the BDS movement on December 10th, successfully pressuring the Board of Supervisors to vote to develop an ethical investment policy that, when implemented, could move tens of millions of dollars in investments out of companies profiting off of Israel’s genocide and system of apartheid.
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Despite the state’s Democratic majority, more than 53 percent of Californians voted against a ban on slave labor in state prisons. Proposition (Prop) 6 would have amended the state constitution by removing a provision that allows incarcerated people to be forced to work. Though it would not ban “voluntary” work in these facilities, it would prevent prison authorities from compelling an individual…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
The first LA Tenants Union meeting was a “renter’s rights workshop.” Soon, we realized, all three parts of that framework had to go.
“Renter,” because we had to broaden our understanding of the populations who live in antagonism to rent, including people who live outside. “Workshop,” because we couldn’t just offer resources to individual tenants and send them on their way. “Rights,” because what few tenants had weren’t easy to use and didn’t stop landlords from acting otherwise. And the right we want to win, the human right to housing, will take another kind of housing system, another kind of state, and another kind of world.
The post How The LA Tenants Union Fights Displacement With Community appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.
This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.
When Valentino Rodriguez started his job at a high-security prison in Sacramento, California, informally known as New Folsom, he thought he was entering a brotherhood of correctional officers who hold each other to a high standard of conduct.
Five years later, Rodriguez would be found dead in his home. His unexpected passing would raise questions from his family and the FBI.
Before he died, Rodriguez was promoted to an elite unit investigating crimes in the prison. His parents and his widow say he had been hoping for the position for a long time.
But once inside the unit, the job consumed him. From day one, his fellow officers began to undermine and harass him. Stressed and fed up with how he was being treated, Rodriguez reached a breaking point.
He left the prison, but his experiences there still haunted him—so he went in for a meeting with the warden. He didn’t know it would be his last.
This week on Reveal, we partner with KQED reporters Sukey Lewis and Julie Small and the On Our Watch podcast to explore what this correctional officer’s story shows about how the second-largest prison system in the country is failing to protect the people who live and work inside it.
This is an update of an episode that originally aired in March 2024. Listen to the whole On Our Watch series here.
This post was originally published on Reveal.
“When you’re in prison, the retaliation starts. … I don’t think my judge sentenced me to go through this.” The U.S. government has agreed to pay a record-breaking amount of nearly $116 million to settle lawsuits brought by 103 people who survived sexual abuse and assault at a federal women’s prison in California. The facility, FCI Dublin, was shuttered earlier this year. Its former warden is now…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
“When you’re in prison, the retaliation starts. … I don’t think my judge sentenced me to go through this.” The U.S. government has agreed to pay a record-breaking amount of nearly $116 million to settle lawsuits brought by 103 people who survived sexual abuse and assault at a federal women’s prison in California. The facility, FCI Dublin, was shuttered earlier this year. Its former warden is now himself imprisoned after being convicted of sexually abusing incarcerated people under his care. Aimee Chavira, who was formerly incarcerated at FCI Dublin and is part of the class-action sexual abuse lawsuit against the Bureau of Prisons, says the settlement, while welcomed, “doesn’t change anything. No amount of money will change what was done to us and what did happen.” Community organizer Courtney Hanson helped advocate for survivors with the Dublin Prison Solidarity Coalition. She calls for “policy changes to ensure that this type of staff sexual abuse stops happening” in prisons across the country.
This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
A Californian man was sentenced to almost three-and-a-half years in prison on Monday for running a business that helped affluent Chinese tourists “hide their pregnancies” from immigration officials so they could give birth on American soil and grant their children U.S. citizenship.
The sentencing comes amid a proposal by President-elect Donald Trump to end birthright citizenship in the United States, and the “Run” movement that has seen a surge in Chinese immigrants arriving at the southern American border to seek asylum in the United States.
Michael Wei Yueh Liu, a 59-year-old man from San Bernardino county, was sentenced to 41 months in U.S. federal prison over the “USA Happy Baby” business he ran with his wife, 47-year-old Jing Dong, from January 2012 to March 2015, selling “birth tourism” packages.
Liu was found guilty of one count of conspiracy and 10 counts of international money laundering in September. Dong, who is now separated from Liu, is expected to be sentenced early next year.
The couple charged “tens of thousands of dollars” for the service, which included short-term housing in San Bernardino and maternity care to the mostly affluent women, who usually returned to China “within one or two months after giving birth,” a press release said.
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“Liu and Dong advised their customers on how to hide their pregnancies from the immigration authorities,” the press release said, adding that they later also helped in obtaining birth certificates.
The clients were instructed to wear baggy clothing and lie to immigration officials by saying they were visiting only for tourism and would only stay for one or two weeks. In practice, they remained in the country for months and gave birth.
“Liu and Dong or their agents also advised their customers to fly to ports of entry with perceived less customs scrutiny, such as Hawaii, before flying to Los Angeles, to wear loose fitting clothing, to favor certain lines at customs that they perceived to be less strict, and on how to answer the customs officials’ questions,” it explained.
Liu and Dong made several millions of dollars from the scheme, federal prosecutors had said in court.
Pleas for leniency
In federal court on Monday, Liu pleaded for leniency in sentencing, with his attorney noting that he was the sole provider for his 95-year-old father and 82-year-old mother, as well as he and his estranged wife’s 13-year-old son, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Prosecutors had sought a more than five-year prison sentence for the scheme that they said deliberately aimed to deceive U.S. immigration officials. His attorney argued he should face a 26-month term.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said he had reduced the sentence slightly to reflect Liu’s family situation but that his legal predicament was ultimately due to the “choices you make,” and not the court’s.
Liu’s lawyers had earlier argued he and Dong had not violated any U.S. laws because they had only helped the pregnant Chinese women give birth once they had arrived in America, and that other companies were responsible for helping them evade detection on their way in.
The women would have faced punishment under China’s one-child policy, which was eventually scrapped in 2015, had they been allowed to return home to give birth, Liu’s defense attorney told the court.
However, the California jury did not buy the story and found both Liu and Jong guilty of their offenses in September – almost a decade after their “maternity hotels” were raided by police in 2015 amid a wider crackdown on the lucrative “birth tourism” industry in the state.
It’s not illegal for women to visit the United States while pregnant, but it is an offense to lie to immigration officials about the reason for travel.
Edited by Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Alex Willemyns.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Juana Valle never imagined she’d be scared to drink water from her tap or eat fresh eggs and walnuts when she bought her 5-acre farm in San Juan Bautista, California, three years ago. Escaping city life and growing her own food was a dream come true for the 52-year-old. Then Valle began to suspect water from her well was making her sick. “Even if everything is organic, it doesn’t matter…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Conor Smyth (FAIR.org, 1/19/24): “The history of debates over the minimum wage is filled with claims about the detrimental effect of raising the wage floor that have repeatedly flopped in the face of empirical evidence.”
In September 2023, California passed a law requiring fast food restaurants with more than 60 locations nationwide to pay workers a minimum of $20 an hour, affecting more than 700,000 people working in the state’s fast food industry.
Readers will be unsurprised to hear that corporate media told us that this would devastate the industry. As Conor Smyth reported for FAIR (1/19/24) before the law went into effect, outlets like USA Today (12/26/23) and CBS (12/27/23) were telling us that, due to efforts to help those darn workers, going to McDonald’s or Chipotle was going to cost you more, and also force joblessness. This past April, Good Morning America (4/29/24) doubled down with a piece about the “stark realities” and “burdens” restaurants would now face due to the law.
Now we have actual data about the impact of California’s law. Assessing the impact, the Shift Project (10/9/24) did “not find evidence that employers turned to understaffing or reduced scheduled work hours to offset the increased labor costs.” Instead, “weekly work hours stayed about the same for California fast food workers, and levels of understaffing appeared to ease.” Further, there was “no evidence that wage increases were accompanied by a reduction in fringe benefits… such as health or dental insurance, paid sick time, or retirement benefits.”
Judd Legum (Popular Information, 12/3/24): “The restaurant industry provided a distorted picture of the impact of the fast food worker wage increase.”
In June 2024, the California Business and Industrial Alliance ran a full-page ad in USA Today claiming that the fast food industry cut about 9,500 jobs as a result of the $20 minimum wage. That’s just false, says Popular Information (12/3/24).
Among other things, the work relied on a report from the Hoover Institution, itself based on a Wall Street Journal article (3/25/24), from a period before the new wage went into effect, and that, oops, was not seasonally adjusted. (There’s an annual decline in employment at fast food restaurants from November through January, when people are traveling or cooking at home—which is why the Bureau of Labor Statistics offers seasonally adjusted data.)
The industry group ad starts with the Rubio’s fish taco chain, which they say was forced to close 48 California locations due to “increasing costs.” It leaves out that the entire company was forced to declare bankruptcy after it was purchased by a private equity firm on January 19, 2024 (LA Times, 6/12/24).
As Smyth reported, there is extensive academic research on the topic of wage floors that shows that minimum wage hikes tend to have little to no effect on employment, but can raise the wages of hundreds of thousands of workers (CBPP, 6/30/15; Quarterly Journal of Economics, 5/2/19). Media’s elevation of anecdotes about what individual companies have done, and say they plan to do, in response to the minimum wage hike overshadows more meaningful information about the net effect across all companies in the industry.
The Wall Street Journal (12/28/23) said last year that “it defies economics and common sense to think that businesses won’t adapt by laying off workers.” Since that hasn’t happened, does the Journal need better economists—or more sense?
And what about agency? The Wall Street Journal (12/28/23) contented that “it defies economics and common sense to think that businesses won’t adapt by laying off workers” in response to the new law. But why? Is there no question lurking in there about corporate priorities? About executive pay? About the fact that consumers and workers are the same people?
The question calls for thoughtfulness—will, for example, fast food companies cut corners by dumping formerly in-house delivery workers off on companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats, which are not subject to the same labor regulations? How will economic data measure that?
That would be a story for news media to engage, if they were interested in improving the lives of struggling workers. They could also broaden the minimum wage discussion to complementary policy changes—as Smyth suggested, “expanded unemployment insurance, the Earned Income Tax Credit, a job guarantee, and universal basic income.”
The narrow focus on whether a Big Mac costs 15 cents more, and if it does, shouldn’t you yell at the people behind the counter, is a distortion, and a tired one, that should have been retired long ago.
This post was originally published on FAIR.
Sacramento, California — A growing number of people — many of them older and homeless — are freezing to death during winter. Hypothermia from exposure to cold temperatures was the underlying or contributing cause of death for 166 Californians last year, more than double the number a decade ago, according to provisional death certificate data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Bureau of Prisons closes California facility and suspends operations at six others as rights activists call for clemency
The US Bureau of Prisons (BoP) announced on Thursday it was permanently closing a California women’s prison plagued by staff sexual misconduct scandals, and suspending operations at six other federal institutions.
The shutdowns come as the federal agency is facing intensifying scrutiny surrounding guards’ rampant sexual abuse of incarcerated residents, a crisis of suicides and preventable deaths across its prisons and reports of severe medical neglect.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
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The post SCOTUS weighs challenge to Tennessee’s ban on transgender health care for minors; California AG vows to protect immigrants against Trump’s pledge for ‘mass deportations’ – December 4, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
The California state legislature began a special session this week, called for by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, to address ways the government can “Trump-proof” the state ahead of Donald Trump re-entering the White House in January. Newsom called for the special session just days after Trump won the 2024 presidential election against Vice President Kamala Harris, citing a need for the state…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
GEO Group, one of the nation’s largest private prison contractors, filed a federal lawsuit last month against California officials to strike down a state law allowing local public health officials to inspect immigration detention facilities. The Florida-based company argued in a filing that California’s law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in August, is unconstitutional because it steps on the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
A video clip of California governor Gavin Newsom emerged in Chinese-language social media posts alongside a claim that it shows Newsom threatening to withhold hundreds of billions in federal taxes as leverage in negotiations with the incoming Trump administration.
But the claim is false. The voiceover in Chinese does not match what Newsom actually said in the video. The governor never made such a remark. His office dismissed the claim. U.S. states cannot “withhold” federal income taxes because they neither collect nor pay them.
The video was shared on X on Nov. 11, 2024.
The 59-second video shows what appears to be a media interview of Newsom. The voiceover in Chinese can be heard throughout the clip.
“The governor announced he would withhold more than US$250 billion in federal taxes as leverage in future negotiations with the Trump administration,” said the Chinese voiceover.
“This would be a major step towards California’s independence,” the post reads.
The claim began to circulate online after former President Donald Trump secured a second, non-consecutive term by defeating Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 U.S. presidential election on Nov. 5.
There has been collective dismay at Trump’s victory in California, a stronghold of progressive values and a Democratic Party bastion, with some groups even suggesting that California leaves the United States and becomes a separate nation.
The same claim was also shared on Weibo here and here.
But the claim is false.
A reverse image search found the video published on Newsom’s official X account on Nov. 10. It was his first on-camera interview following the U.S. presidential election.
A review of the video found no mention of withholding federal income taxes.
The interview was about a request for the California state legislature to convene a special session to implement state policies protecting “reproductive freedoms” including women’s right to abortion as soon as possible.
Newsom’s office told AFCL the claims were “absolutely false” and referenced a statement the governor made on Nov. 6 in response to election results as a clear signal of the governor’s intent.
“California will seek to work with the incoming president — but let there be no mistake, we intend to stand with states across our nation to defend our Constitution and uphold the rule of law” the governor said in the statement.
State vs federal taxes
There are two types of annual income taxation in the U.S – state and federal taxes.
The former are collected by each state’s government and the latter by the federal government.
States cannot “withhold” federal income taxes because they neither collect nor pay them. The federal government collects them by levying payrolls directly from individuals and corporations.
Tax filing season in the U.S. typically begins with people receiving a statement of their past year’s wages along with W-2 tax forms from their employers which they use to report their income, file refunds, or pay back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service. Federal, state, and local income is reported separately during this process.
Article VIII of the U.S. Constitution regulates the federal government’s ability to tax states, while the 16th Amendment clarified that Congress can directly tax citizens of any state on their income.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook , Instagram and X .
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by Rita Cheng for Asia Fact Check Lab.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Members of the press were ejected by sheriff’s deputies from a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in Redding, California, on Nov. 7, 2024. The deputies claimed that the room was cleared for safety reasons as they arrested a protester who had seated herself in front of the dais.
The protester, one of two, held a sign supporting a county official who had been criticized over election monitoring practices. When the board chair called a recess and ordered the public to leave the room, three journalists remained — Doni Chamberlain of A News Cafe, Annelise Pierce of Shasta Scout and David Benda of the Record Searchlight.
The second protester soon left, but the first refused. Pierce told County Counsel Joseph Larmour, who had also ordered the reporters out of the room, that she was staying to document a citizen’s actions, the Shasta Scout reported. Larmour responded that the protester was “a ‘target’ of law enforcement and therefore didn’t ‘count’ as a citizen.”
A group of sheriff’s deputies then entered, some of whom arrested the remaining protester. Another joined security guards in ordering the journalists to move further back in the room, telling them that safety issues and an “ongoing investigation” required that they leave and threatening them with arrest. The lights in the room were also turned off as the arrest proceeded.
Pierce and Benda left the room; Chamberlain was grabbed and forcibly removed by a sheriff’s deputy. After the protester was removed, the meeting reconvened and the journalists reentered.
Later, Supervisor Tim Garman posted an apology on Facebook to media forced out of the meeting room.
“The constitution protects their rights to be where the news is happening, and someone being arrested in a public building is certainly news,” he wrote. “There was zero safety threat inside the board chambers.”
Meanwhile, the Shasta County Sheriff reiterated in a news release that the meeting room had been cleared “for safety,” and announced that “this incident remains under investigation and other individuals who failed to obey lawful orders to exit the chambers may also face charges.”
The board also issued its own news release, alleging that press had been removed under “a protocol that has been in place for more than a year.” Shasta Scout reported that in response to a request for documentation of the protocol, Larmour acknowledged it had “not been memorialized in writing.”
It was the second time reporters were ordered to leave the room during a protest at a supervisor’s meeting. The first was in July, when the same woman protested. That time, journalists remained to report on her arrest.
After that arrest, the board announced a new media policy under which media must stay sequestered in a separate room, watching the meetings through glass windows and only hearing audio spoken through a microphone, Shasta Scout reported. If press chose to stay in the main room, they would be ordered to leave during any “disruptions.”
The policy was rescinded days later, after criticism from the public and advocacy group First Amendment Coalition, which called it a violation of California’s open meetings law and the First Amendment.
Reporter Chamberlain told the Tracker she saw Nov. 7’s events as a reaction to press coverage of the earlier protest.
“I believe Chair Kevin Crye and Sheriff Mike Johnson were angry and embarrassed by our reporting about (the protester),” Chamberlain told the Tracker. “I believe they decided they would not allow press access to report what happened again.”
In a Nov. 12 letter to the board and sheriff’s office, the First Amendment Coalition criticized the media’s removal from the Nov. 7 meeting as another violation of open meetings law and the Constitution, noting that there was little justification for clearing the room at all, let alone ordering the press to leave.
Pierce told the Tracker that she was surprised that the deputies would engage in such “a clear violation of First Amendment rights,” but that “there have been ongoing indication of threats to press freedom under our new board majority,” a reference to the media policy enacted in July.
Chamberlain mentioned that several militia group members showed up at the Nov. 7 meeting and stood along the back wall, “which made for an intimidating sight.”
“Shasta County law enforcement has a history of colluding with the militia,” Pierce added. “For this reason, I found the arrival of individuals, some known to be militia members, particularly concerning.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Journalist Doni Chamberlain was grabbed and forced out of a Shasta County Board of Supervisors meeting in Redding, California, by a sheriff’s deputy on Nov. 7, 2024.
Chamberlain, publisher and owner of A News Cafe, an online news magazine, reported that she was one of several journalists ejected from the meeting after law enforcement began the arrest of a protester who had seated herself in front of the dais. Chamberlain told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker she believed that the ejection was intended to prevent them from covering the protest and subsequent arrest.
Chamberlain began livestreaming the meeting when two protesters seated themselves on the floor at the front of the room, one holding a sign supporting a county official who had been criticized over election monitoring practices. When the board chair called a recess and ordered the public to leave the room, three journalists, including Chamberlain, remained.
Security guards asked Chamberlain to leave the room several times and stood in front of her phone camera as she livestreamed the protesters. Chamberlain told him that she had the right to remain there as a journalist.
The second protester soon left, but the first refused. A group of sheriff’s deputies then entered, some of whom arrested the remaining protester. Another joined the security guards in ordering the journalists to move further back in the room, telling them that safety issues and an “ongoing investigation” required that they leave and threatening them with arrest. The lights in the room were also turned off as the arrest proceeded.
“Clearly, law enforcement’s goal was to move the press as far from their dealings with (the protester) as possible, so we couldn’t see, hear, or report,” Chamberlain told the Tracker.
The two other reporters left the room, leaving Chamberlain standing in the open doorway. A sheriff’s deputy ordered her into the foyer; Chamberlain again refused, saying that she had a right as a member of the press to remain there as long as the protest and arrest were ongoing in the board chambers.
The deputy gestured at a colleague, who grabbed Chamberlain’s cellphone, causing her Facebook Live feed to go dark. He then let go of her phone and took hold of both of her upper arms, pushing her out of the room.
She reported that her arms were sore after being “roughly grabbed,” but that her phone was not damaged.
Chamberlain told the Tracker that the security guard and sheriff’s deputies “absolutely knew I was a member of the press, because I repeatedly verbally identified myself as a journalist who had a protected First Amendment right to remain in the room where a peaceful protester was being dealt with by multiple deputies.”
She said that she typically doesn’t wear a press pass because she’s well-known in the county after 30 years of journalism, but added, “From now on, I’ll start wearing a press pass to all events.”
Chamberlain also explained that she prefers to attend the board’s meetings in person because the online livestream is turned off during recesses or if a problem arises — and such situations are “not rare.” “This means anyone watching the livestreaming video is suddenly, literally, in the dark about what’s happening,” she said. So when the livestream stops, Chamberlain said she starts streaming the meeting on Facebook Live for the benefit of the public.
After the ejection, Supervisor Tim Garman posted an apology on Facebook to media forced out of the meeting room.
“The constitution protects their rights to be where the news is happening, and someone being arrested in a public building is certainly news,” he wrote. “There was zero safety threat inside the board chambers.”
Chamberlain told the Tracker she intends to file a complaint with the Sheriff’s Office against the deputies and another with the Shasta County Administration Office against the board chair. She also said that she reported the incident to the ACLU and the First Amendment Coalition, and is looking for an attorney.
Meanwhile, the Sheriff’s Office reiterated in a news release that the meeting room had been cleared “for safety,” and announced that “this incident remains under investigation and other individuals who failed to obey lawful orders to exit the chambers may also face charges.”
Chamberlain mentioned that several militia group members showed up at the meeting and stood along the back wall, “which made for an intimidating sight.” Chamberlain was assaulted in July 2023 while attempting to document a meeting of a group of conservative activists planned by Jesse Lane, one of the militia members present at the Nov. 7 meeting.
“After these two assaults, I feel less and less safe working as a journalist,” Chamberlain told the Tracker. “These are scary days to be a journalist.”
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Pamela Edwards — a former clerk for the San Joaquin County Superior Court in Stockton, California — was charged on Nov. 13, 2024, with allegedly releasing a sealed search warrant to a reporter a year prior.
In November 2023, sheriff’s deputies searched the home of the Stockton Unified School District board president and the school board’s headquarters as part of an investigation into the official’s alleged misuse of a school district credit card, witness intimidation and other misconduct.
Later that month, Stockton Record reporter Aaron Leathley reported on various details from the search warrant, a copy of which the paper had obtained from the San Joaquin County Superior Court.
A day after the article was published, the Record reported, a public information officer for the court emailed Leathley to tell her that the warrant had been released accidentally and ask her “to prevent any further dissemination of this document by copying, sharing, or using it for further publication.” The sheriff’s office also said at the time that the warrant should not have been released, according to the Record.
A statement from the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office called the warrant “highly sensitive” and said Edwards had violated a court order by releasing it.
“At no time was the warrant ‘unsealed’ and its release may have negatively impacted our investigation,” the statement said. “We consulted with the District Attorney’s Office, and we are in agreement that we could not allow this egregious violation of trust and criminal act by a 27-year veteran of our justice community (who knew better and is held to a higher standard) not to be accountable for her actions.”
Two deputies visited Stockton Record reporter Aaron Leathley at her Stockton home on Aug. 30, 2024, to question her about the release of the search warrant and a “cease and desist” they claimed she was sent. When contacted at the time, a sheriff’s department spokesperson told the Tracker that there was an ongoing investigation.
Edwards was ultimately arrested in November and charged with willful disobedience of a court order, according to a news release from District Attorney Ronald Freitas.
“Violating the sanctity of a Court Order, especially a sealed warrant, is not only an assault on our justice system but puts law enforcement and potential witnesses in harm’s way,” Freitas said. “We will hold all those involved in this case fully responsible for this violation of our courts and our justice system.”
Edwards’ arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 4.
This content originally appeared on U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database and was authored by U.S. Press Freedom Tracker: Incident Database.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
Amid the onslaught of dismal news on Election Day, Californians passed a “tough-on-crime” ballot initiative that will lengthen sentences for some theft and drug crimes — a policy that equity-focused advocates warn will vastly increase incarceration rates in the state. Proposition 36 — also known as the Homelessness, Drug Addiction, and Theft Reduction Act — passed overwhelmingly 70-30 at the…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Prop 6, which would have banned involuntary servitude in prisons, fails in blow to criminal justice reform advocates
California voters have rejected a ballot measure to prohibit forced prison labor, in a major disappointment to advocates of criminal justice reform and many of the 90,000 people incarcerated in state prisons.
Proposition 6 would have amended the state’s constitution to ban involuntary servitude for people in prison. The proposition would instead have allowed people in prison to chose their jobs, with a related proposal that would have created voluntary work programs within the prison system.
Continue reading…This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) has vowed that his office will defend abortion rights following Donald Trump’s presidential win on Tuesday, saying that state leaders have developed a plan to respond to a potential federal abortion ban or restrictions on sending abortion pills by mail. “We’ve been preparing since the Dobbs decision dropped,” Bonta told KFF News in October…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Every fall, Mary Bull prepares for the olive harvest at her small-scale permaculture farm, Chalice Farm, in Sonoma County, California. She expects this year to be their biggest harvest yet, with more than 50 volunteers coming to help harvest over a thousand pounds of olives to make premium olive oil. Along with olives, Chalice Farm also grows perennial vegetables, fruit and nuts on their…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
When he was in second grade, Alexis Jaimes asked his undocumented parents who they would be voting for in the upcoming elections. “They said they couldn’t, and I found that so strange,” Jaimes, now a 30-year-old teacher, told Truthout. “Why can’t they, but others could?” On election day, Santa Ana, a city in the greater Los Angeles region, will be voting on whether its 24 percent…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
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The post California voters to decide on Prop. 4 bond measure for climate initiatives – October 31, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.
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This week, representatives of the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe and the Pit River Nation used the 16th United Nations Conference on Biological Diversity, or CBD, in Cali, Columbia to champion the creation of the Kw’tsán National Monument, the Chuckwalla National Monument, and the Sáttítla National Monument. The proposed move would protect around 1 million acres in California from extractive…
This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.
Comprehensive coverage of the day’s news with a focus on war and peace; social, environmental and economic justice.
The post California workers could see wage increases if Proposition 32 passes in November – October 25, 2024 appeared first on KPFA.
This content originally appeared on KPFA – The Pacifica Evening News, Weekdays and was authored by KPFA.
This post was originally published on Radio Free.
