Affordable housing deal appears dead for the year

Good morning and TGIF! The legislative session drew one day closer to its conclusion — and it appears that one of the biggest outstanding policy issues is done for the year.

A deal to spur the construction of low-income housing statewide has apparently fallen apart, according to multiple media reports.

Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount, said talks have died for the year, largely because of Gov. Jerry Brown’s insistence on including provisions that would speed up development by relaxing requirements in the approval process — an idea that angered many local government officials.

CalWatchdog has more. 

In other news:

• “A new federal court ruling offers some reassurance that no federal authority can pull the plug on state-approved medicinal pot use,” writes CalWatchdog.
• Stockton’s mayor has “pleaded not guilty to criminal charges connected to a strip poker game with teen counselors at a summer camp for underprivileged children,” writes The San Jose Mercury News/AP.
• “A controversial bill that would decriminalize prostitution for minors squeezed out of the California Assembly on Thursday and is now headed back to the Senate for a final vote,” writes the Los Angeles Times. 
• “Kern High School District officials began allowing non-employee concealed carry weapon permit holders to bring firearms on campus Wednesday, but with a cost that at least one trustee said presents ‘obstacles’ to armed citizens,” reports The Bakersfield Californian. 

Assembly:

• In at 9 a.m.

Senate:

• In at 9 a.m.

Gov. Brown: 

• No public events announced.

Tips: matt@calwatchdog.com

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Well, one part California’s economy is booming, even exporting to other states: The Crips gang:

“The Crips, one of the largest and most violent street gangs in the United States, has spread its network of crime into high schools across the country, including Virginia, where gang leaders recruited young girls as prostitutes with promises of “lots of money” and then maintained their allegiance through beatings, threats, assaults and an endless supply of drugs.

“With over 35,000 members in an estimated 800 individual gangs or “sets” in more than 30 states and 120 cities, the Crips recruited the girls — some of them runaways — after approaching them on the street or at Metro stations and by making contact with them through Facebook and DateHookUp.com.

“Most of the girls are 15 and 16 who, according to documents unsealed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, became reluctant to report their “pimps” to the police after what law enforcement authorities described as violent and frequent beatings and threats.”

It gives a whole new meaning to President Bush’s “No Child Left Behind.”

According to Wikipedia’s article on the Crips:

They were founded in Los Angeles, California, in 1969 mainly by Raymond Washington and Stanley Williams.

For his murders, “Tookie” Williams was executed by the state of California in 2005.

This is another reason to shut down the government schools. Teach your kids at home, or at private schools. Even wandering wild in the streets they would be less likely to get roped into crime than if they’re forced into the Gang Factories called public schools.

March 30, 2012