Saturday, 20 April 2024

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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced that the cities of Rohnert Park, Santa Cruz and South San Francisco have earned the state’s Prohousing Designation making them eligible for funding incentives and additional resources as a reward for their work to reduce barriers to building more housing – bringing the state’s total to 30 Prohousing communities.

“These cities are showing the local leadership California needs to tackle our state’s housing crisis,” Newsom said. “They stand in stark contrast to the handful of locals who are failing their constituents and refusing to help California families struggling with runaway housing costs. We will continue to celebrate cities like Rohnert Park, Santa Cruz and South San Francisco while holding bad actors accountable with executive action and in the courts when necessary.”

Newsom’s office said it is vital for local governments to cut red tape and implement policies that increase much-needed housing in California. 

Accountability measures and incentives like the Prohousing Designation are critical to help meet the state’s goal of 2.5 million new homes over the next eight years, with at least one million serving the needs of lower-income Californians.

“We commend Rohnert Park, Santa Cruz and South San Francisco for their commitment to housing forward policies that will remove barriers to building and preserving affordable housing,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “We are proud to work with these cities to create housing near jobs, transit, and other amenities to build a strong housing market and provide homes to working Californians.”

“I’m thrilled that we now have 30 communities that have achieved the Prohousing designation,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “The cities and counties are leading the way by reducing unnecessary barriers and red tape that discourage new housing production, instead they are signaling to developers that they are ready to support more housing production, faster.”

California is the leader in the Prohousing space. Last week the Biden-Harris Administration announced its own Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program designed to provide funding to local jurisdictions to assist them in removing barriers to housing production and preservation.
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SACRAMENTO — Assembly Bill (AB) 454 by Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), which provides greater flexibility to the California Rice Commission to maintain district representation of all rice farmers, has been signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The California Rice Commission, established in 1999, functions as a quasi-governmental entity within the Department of Food and Agriculture, providing for the orderly production, milling, and marketing of California rice and the associated environmental benefits.

The commission’s board is made up of rice producers and handlers. Previously, each board member had to actively produce or handle rice to maintain board eligibility.

Extreme drought and water shortages have severely constrained rice production in the Sacramento Valley.

As California farmers confronted a third year of catastrophic drought impacts in 2022, less than half the state’s typical 500,000 acres of rice were planted.

Due to the massive drop in rice production, many producers and handlers were no longer eligible to serve on the Rice Commission’s board.

Likewise, because of reduced acreage in production, the allocation of commission board seats by district was poised to be dramatically impacted.

AB 454 allows the Rice Commission to annually review and evaluate state drought conditions and, if warranted, issue a drought declaration.

Under a drought declaration, a commission member who is a rice producer or handler would be allowed to continue serving on the commission and vote to issue a declaration if they historically produced or handled rice or if they participated in the Prevented Planting Program at USDA.

“Year-after-year, our rural family farms, agricultural communities, and businesses face mounting pressure from unprecedented climate events,” said Aguiar-Curry (D- Winters). “It’s imperative that we not lose the input of our farmers and handlers because of catastrophic droughts that they can’t control. I want to thank the Rice Commission for continuing to be a close partner on public policy that affects our agriculture and rice industry communities. Their leadership is incredibly valuable to our State Department of Food and Agriculture, and to me as I continue to serve my farming constituents. The governor’s support will help us maintain the rural voices that are so important to instructing decisions made by our state government.”

“We greatly appreciate Asm. Aguiar-Curry’s support of the rice industry. We are still feeling the impacts of last year’s drought and this bill will help us include growers on our board who were not able to plant last year due to the lack of water,” said Tim Johnson, president and CEO of the CA Rice Commission.

Assemblymember Aguiar-Curry represents the Fourth Assembly District, which includes all of Yolo, Napa, Colusa, Lake Counties, and parts of Sonoma County.
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Christopher Ramos, 45, of Santa Rosa, was sentenced on Thursday to four years in prison after an investigation by the California Department of Insurance found he stole over $189,000 from consumers and left them uninsured.

Ramos was convicted of multiple felony counts of grand theft, theft of fiduciary funds and additional enhancements for theft over $100,000.

Ramos was also sentenced to five years of mandatory supervision and ordered to pay $189,526 in restitution to his victims.

Ramos worked as an insurance broker from 1999 until 2015 under the business names See Solutions Insurance Brokerage LLC and CDR Insurance Agency LLC.

The department’s investigation found between 2014 and 2016, Ramos collected money from his victims that was intended to be premiums to pay their respective insurance carriers, but Ramos failed to remit the money to the insurance carrier and kept it for his personal use.

Ramos also created fraudulent certificates of insurance so his victims would be unaware that policies were not placed with insurance carriers. His actions resulted in the victims’ policies being canceled, which they did not discover until the investigation began.

Ramos’ insurance license was suspended and eventually revoked in 2019. The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted this case.
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California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Tuesday launched an independent investigation into the redistricting process of Butte County.

The investigation by the California Department of Justice, or DOJ, will seek to determine whether Butte County violated the California FAIR MAPS Act and other voting rights laws during the county's 2021 redistricting process to redraw election district boundaries.

"In a democracy, every eligible voter deserves fair and equal representation,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The allegations raised regarding the redistricting process in Butte County are serious and warrant a thorough investigation. We must ensure that the voting rights of all communities are protected and upheld. Our goal is to maintain the integrity of the redistricting process, and promote a fair and inclusive electoral system for all Californians."

Under the California Constitution and Government Code, the attorney general has broad authority to investigate any potential violations of the law, and ensure the laws of the state are uniformly and adequately enforced.

At this stage, the investigation will be conducted by California DOJ’s Racial Justice Bureau within the Civil Rights Enforcement Section.

During the course of the investigation, state attorneys will work diligently to consider all relevant information related to Butte County’s 2021 redistricting process and adopted map.

However, it is important to note that the Office of the Attorney General has made no determination at this time with regard to specific complaints or allegations related to the conduct of those involved in the county’s redistricting process. California DOJ is committed to conducting a thorough and independent investigation.
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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA — On Thursday, Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-04) announced that two water storage and conveyance projects in Northern California, Sites Reservoir and Los Vaqueros Reservoir, are receiving $30 million and $10 million respectively in funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

“Reliable sources of water are vital to our communities as we face extreme drought and weather events,” said Thompson. “The funding for Sites and Los Vaqueros announced as part of the Investing in America agenda will help provide our families, farmers, and communities with the water resources we need to combat drought and live healthy lives. When I was in the State Senate, I appropriated the first funds for the Sites Reservoir, and this funding will help move the project forward. Proud to have voted for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that is part of the largest investment in climate resilience in our nation’s history.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is providing:

• $30 million for the Sites Reservoir Project to pursue off stream storage capable for up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water in the Sacramento River system located in the Coast range mountains west of Maxwell, California. The reservoir would utilize new and existing facilities to move water in and out of the reservoir, with ultimate release to the Sacramento River system via existing canals, a new pipeline near Dunnigan, and the Colusa Basin Drain.
• $10 million for the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Expansion Phase to efficiently integrate approximately 115,000 acre-feet of additional water storage through new conveyance facilities with existing facilities. This will allow Delta water supplies to be safely diverted, stored and delivered to beneficiaries.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is investing a total of $8.3 billion over five years for water infrastructure projects, including water purification and reuse, water storage and conveyance, desalination and dam safety.

The Inflation Reduction Act is investing an additional $4.6 billion to address the historic drought.

Thompson representS California’s Fourth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma and Yolo counties.
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NORTH COAST, Calif. — The Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the discovery of human remains over the weekend.

On Saturday, July 8, at 7:53 p.m., the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office Emergency Communications Center received a call regarding skeletal remains found by California Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists in the Mattole River near the Ettersburg bridge.

A Humboldt County Sheriff’s deputy responded to the scene and took custody of the remains, which were identified as a human jawbone or mandible. No additional remains were located.

On Tuesday, sheriff’s deputies are conducting a ground search of the surrounding area in an attempt to locate additional remains.

Identification of the remains has not been made at this time.

Anyone with information about this case is encouraged to call the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office at 707-445-7251 or the Sheriff’s Office Crime Tip line at 707-268-2539.

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04.20.2024 10:00 am - 3:00 pm
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