I grew up on a small “ranch” in Penngrove, Sonoma County, that had two houses for people and about a dozen houses for chickens—over the years, family farming in the poultry industry became less and less profitable and my father got out of the chicken business altogether in the late 1960s. Since then the chicken houses are all gone and another house—for people—has been added to the top half of the five acres where I grew up.

Earlier this year we were privileged to travel to several California Counties to see how they are handling the biggest shift in the administration of justice in California in decades. AB 109, also known as Public Safety Realignment transferred authority for thousands of criminal offenders from the state to the county—in the belief that counties could do a better job of managing their rehabilitation. Is it working?

The very first story I ever covered as a paid journalist was a tour of the newly rented “Governor’s Mansion” in Sacramento’s Wilhaggin neighborhood prior to George and Gloria Deukmejian moving into it. The story reverberated locally because Governor Jerry Brown, in his first iteration in that post, lived in a small apartment near the Capitol, and land set aside for a new Governor’s mansion had been sold.

Riverside County covers more than 7,000 square miles, and includes some of the most sparsely populated landscape in the state. Keeping a county that big clean isn’t always easy, but Riverside County has a long-running jail inmate work program to pick up trash and maintain the landfills. It helps keep the roadsides clean and the inmates get some much-needed activity.

When there’s an emergency, like a flood or a toxic spill, communicating effectively can literally mean the difference between life and death. Knowing how, when and with who to communicate before the emergency happens can be immensely important. By definition, an emergency is unpredictable, except that you can predict that there will eventually be another one. You might not know when the next flood, fire, epidemic or earthquake will strike, but you can prepare for them. However, for immigrants language and cultural barriers can make disaster communication even more difficult.

Crime doesn’t pay — it costs. Anyone who has ever been a crime victim can tell you that, but so can county sheriffs and probation chiefs who are responsible for keeping track of many of the people who commit crimes in California. They will tell you that it is far more expensive to keep someone in jail than it is to supervise them in the community. The corollary to that is it is far less expensive to help someone so they don’t break the law again, than it is to have to put them back in jail if they do. And if they aren’t committing more crimes, they aren’t creating anymore victims either.

“Big Daddy” Jesse Unruh, the man who invented the modern role of the Speaker of the California Assembly, coined the phrase “money is the mother’s milk of politics” back in 1966. One could easily argue that it is still true today.

Campaign contributions and fundraisers are still a big part of the Capitol culture in Sacramento. The online publication, Capitol Morning Report has a section called “The Daily Bread” listing the day’s campaign fundraisers — most of them at various restaurants a short walk from the Capitol.

U.S. Communities – the Gold Standard for Cooperative Purchasing If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then U.S. Communities ought to be blushing. It was the first – and for a while the only – purchasing cooperative for local governments. Now, the field is crowded with wannabes that claim to save money and streamline purchasing for local governments. But seven key facts distinguish U.S. Communities from the others. 1. Significant Savings at No Cost to the Public Agencies: Since 2001, the program has saved public agencies over $1.7 billion. More than 55,000 public agencies use U.S.

The CSAC offices are located exactly one block north of the State Capitol, perfectly positioned to observe that hallmark of American democracy – the political rally. Many of them occur on the north steps of the Capitol—a long chip shot from the side door of the CSAC building. Today’s issue was health care – with those gathered arguing for a single-payer health care system in California.

As a reporter in the earlier part of my career, I covered dozens of political rallies at the Capitol.

The Governor has called a “special session” of the Legislature to work on implementing the Affordable Care Act (ACA).  When the ACA takes full effect in January 2014, about a million more people will be eligible for Medi-Cal and the Governor has outlined two possible ways to expand Medi-Cal coverage.

A ground breaking study of who actually gets arrested in four California metropolitan areas has some surprising results. It’s us.

I was lucky enough to squeeze into room 1190 at the Capitol on Tuesday for Governor Brown’s press conference regarding prison conditions in California. It was a virtuoso performance by one of the preeminent figures in the last half century of California politics.

The Governor, citing a significant reduction in the number of inmates and major improvements in physical and mental health care, officially ended the state of emergency in California prisons.

I am new to CSAC, but I’ve been in and around Sacramento for a long time and I am familiar with at least some of the issues on the county radar screen.