By Laurel Rosenhall | CALmatters

Photo:  Gov. Jerry Brown delivers his final State of the State speech. Photo by Max Whittaker for CALmatters.

January 27, 2018 (Sacramento) -- As Gov. Jerry Brown neared the end of his last State of the State speech Thursday, he invoked a name that has become a frequent theme: August Schuckman, his own great-grandfather, who left Germany in 1849 and “sailed to America on a ship named Perseverance.”

By Miriam Raftery

October 17, 2017 (San Diego’s East County) – Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed Senate Bill 649, a bill by State Senator Ben Hueso, a San Diego Democrat whose district includes large portions of rural East County.  The bill would have allowed wireless technology companies to install 5G mini and micro cell sites on any government-owned property without county or city oversight.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo:  Governor's Office

October 2, 2017 (Sacramento) - Governor Jerry Brown has signed into law 15 bills that aim to ease the state’s affordable housing crisis, but which also restrict the abilities of local governments, environmentalists and neighborhood groups to block projects in their communities.

In a signing statement, the Governor says, “These new laws will help cut red tape and encourage more affordable housing, including shelter for the growing number of homeless in California.”

Here are summaries of the new laws:

East County News Service

Photo:  City of Poway tweeted this image of a boulder that shut down Poway Road

January 24, 2017 (Sacramento) — Governor Jerry Brown today issued an emergency declaration for San Diego County and 56 other California counties hard-hit by the recent winter storms. 

By Miriam Raftery, East County Magazine

Photo credit:  Joe McHugh, California Highway Patrol

January 24, 2017 (San Diego) -- Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today delivered his State of the State address, departing with the traditional practice of listing every issue and priority to instead address the "broader context of our country and its challenges."



The Governor vowed to "defend everybody - every man, woman and child - who has come here...and has contributed to the well-being of our state" and committed to protecting the state's gains on immigration, health care and climate change, guided by the principles that make California "the Great Exception" - truth, civility and perseverance.

Update March 31:  Both houses osf the Legislature have passed this measure, which is now on the Governor's desk for signature and is expected to be signed into law.

East County News Service

March 29, 2016 (Sacramento) -- A deal hammered out by labor leaders and Governor Jerry Brown would raise California’s minimum wage to $15 an hour without the need for a ballot initiative, if it is approved by the Legislature.

Under the agreement, most businesses would phase in the increase in wages gradually over several years, starting at $10.50 in January 2017, $11 in January 2018, then rising $1 a year until January 2022, when it would reach $15 an hour.  Businesses with less than 25 workers would have an extra year to meet the new wage requirements. (View full details here.)

By Liz Alper

Photo: Creative Commons by GamblinMan22

October 13, 2015 (Sacramento) - We see it every time we watch baseball: bored players in their team sweatshirts chewing tobacco during an at-bat or sitting in the dugout.  Even managers are caught on camera spitting out tobacco juice, providing far-from-exemplary role models to youthful fans.

East County News Service, courtesy of NBC News “Meet the Press”

August 24, 2015 (San Diego)--Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina spoke with “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd on a variety of issues, including the California drought.  Below is an excerpt of her remarks, including her response to criticisms of her stance raised by Governor Jerry Brown.

East County News Service

May 25, 2015 (Borrego Springs)--An emergency order issued by Governor Jerry Brown is having a harsher impact on some communities than others, since the slash-water-use requirements make no distinction between northern forested communities and places like Borrego Springs, which is located in the Anza-Borrego desert.

East County News Service

February 19, 2015 (San Diego’s East County) – University of California President Janet Napolitano has announced that UC will postpone a planned 5 percent tuition hike from the summer quarter until fall.  The decision comes after Governor Jerry Brown proposed an extra $119 million for UC funding in 2016, still $100 short of what regents have said is needed to cancel the rate hikes of 5 percent a year for the next five years that are set to kick in this year.

By Miriam Raftery

January 3, 2015 (Sacramento)—“I wish everyone bone-appetit,” quipped Assemblywoman Mariko Yamada, author of a bill signed into law by Governor Jerry Brown that now makes it legal for restaurants to allow patrons to bring their dogs for dining on outdoor patios, effective January 1^st of this year.

By Miriam Raftery

November 24, 2014  (San Diego) Updated November 25, 2014—A group calling itself “Concerned students of San Diego State University” has sent a letter to SDSU’s president, state legislators and Governor Jerry Brown urging an end to “rape culture.”

There have been at least seven reported rapes on campus in the fall 2014 semester, including five at fraternities, but no one has been arrested in any of those cases.

By Miriam Raftery

October 10, 2014 (San Diego’s East County) – With consumer activists clamoring for his impeachment, California Public Utilities Chairman Michael Peevey has announced he will not seek reappointment when his term ends at year’s end.   His replacement will be appointed by Governor Jerry Brown.

October 1, 2014 (Sacramento) – Governor Jerry Brown has signed two bills to regulate firearms, but vetoed a third.

Family members can now seek a temporarily restraining order in court to block gun use and purchase, short-term, by a person showing signs of mental instability.  Assembly Bill 1014 was prompted by the deadly shootings in Isla Vista near U.C. Santa Barbara, where family members had warned law enforcement that they feared the suspect was planning violence.

By Miriam Raftery

Photo: Donna Frye presenting Sunshine Award to CALAWARE’s Terry Francke

September 15, 2014 (San Diego)--Californians Aware, or CALAWARE, a nonprofit group that protects the rights of citizens and journalists to access public information, has sent a letter to Governor Jerry Brown urging him to veto Senate Bill 1300.