Politically speaking, 1998 was a watershed year for California.

The 20th century was drawing to a close – a century in which Republicans had largely dominated the state’s politics, including three iconic governors: Hiram Johnson, Earl Warren and Ronald Reagan.

When Gray Davis won the governorship in 1998, he was the first Democrat to do so in 20 years and only the fourth in the entire century. However, his election marked the beginning of a new political era in which Democrats would become utterly dominant, acquiring all statewide offices and supermajorities in both houses of the Legislature and the state’s congressional delegation.

Although local offices in California are officially nonpartisan, Democrats also became dominant in county boards of supervisors, city councils and school boards. Meanwhile, the ranks of Republican voters and officeholders shriveled into irrelevancy.

Not only has the Democratic Party achieved hegemony at all levels, but it has moved decidedly to the left – so much so that in 2016 it refused to endorse a long-serving Democratic U.S. senator, Dianne Feinstein, for re-election and opted for her challenger, Kevin de Leon.

Self-proclaimed progressives dominate the Legislature and happily partner with history’s most outwardly left-leaning governor, Gavin Newsom, to enact policies and programs he describes as unique and potentially global in reach.

In his spare time, Newsom engages in verbal sparring matches with governors of states, such as Florida and Texas, that were sliding to the right as California was drifting to the left during the first decades of the 21st century.

While academics and pundits debate the reasons why California politics have changed so dramatically over the last-quarter century, new research indicates that it is not an isolated phenomenon.

Political polarization at the federal level is self-evident – such as the virtual 50-50 split in both houses of Congress between very liberal Democrats and very…

By Libor Jany | Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles police SWAT officer who was caught on body-camera video telling his colleagues “happy hunting” before a fatal police shooting last spring has received a two-day suspension following an internal investigation, according to Los Angeles Police Department disciplinary records.

The newly released records identify the officer by his rank — police officer III — but doesn’t name him because of state privacy laws. His remark was made while preparing with other SWAT officers to surround a man named Leron James, who was armed with a handgun and had barricaded himself in a downtown L.A. apartment building. Police say James, 54, fired down on officers from a window and the officers returned fire, killing him.

Department officials have said that the remark was caught on the body camera of another officer who happened to be walking past and was discovered during a subsequent review of video from the incident.

The episode was seized on by department critics, who said it reflected a culture of brutality and callousness within SWAT.

Greg “Baba” Akili, an organizer with Black Lives Matter Los Angeles, said that the two-day suspension was, at best, a slap on the wrist that sends the message that the department isn’t serious about holding officers accountable.

“We’re not seeking just to punish people, we’re seeking real accountability, because by having real accountability we can prevent this from happening,” he said Saturday.

The elite SWAT unit had been under scrutiny after a former sergeant sued the city alleging that the team operates under a “culture of violence” driven by a group of influential members known as the “SWAT mafia. ” The suit, brought in 2020 by former Sgt. Tim Colomey, alleged that certain problematic members of SWAT “glamorize the use of lethal force” and ensured that officers who “share the same values” are promoted in the unit while commanders turn a…

By Olivia Wynkoop | Bay City News Foundation

Local agriculture officials are seeking out state assistance in responding to the presence of Asian Citrus Psyllid, a pest known for spreading a detrimental disease to citrus trees.

On Thursday, Sonoma County Department of Agriculture representatives said they found the pest in a survey trap in a residential area east of Sonoma.

“Discovery of this pest in Sonoma County is serious and warrants a rapid and coordinated response, including cooperation from nurseries and farmers markets to temporarily regulate the movement of fruit and nursery stock,” said Andrew Smith, Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner. “While the pest has been encountered in Southern California citrus and there are numerous counties under quarantine, the associated disease has been limited in detection and spread due to early detection programs like in Sonoma County, as well as the concerted and collaborative efforts of property owners and local, state and federal agency partners.”

Their presence does not threaten Sonoma County’s entire agriculture industry, including the wine industry, said agriculture officials. Those most impacted will be county nurseries, farmers markets and producers that sell and move citrus.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture began an insecticide treatment program in December to eight volunteering properties in the county.

A suspect was arrested in connection with a shooting at a synagogue in San Francisco on Wednesday night, the San Francisco Police Department said.

That night, at around 7:20 p.m., a man entered the synagogue during a gathering, said something and pulled out a firearm. He fired several shots inside the building in the 2600 block of Balboa Street and then left, police said in a statement. No one was injured.

The synagogue reported the shooting the next morning and said they had been threatened the previous night. Bullet casings that police found at the synagogue appear to be blanks, authorities said.

Police said that a man with the same description was also connected to an earlier incident Jan. 31, when a man went to a theater in the 3600 block of Balboa Street and brandished a handgun at the theater’s employees. Police say it may be the same man who fired several rounds at the synagogue.

After investigating, police identified the suspect and detained him in the Richmond District at around 5 p.m. Friday. Police searched the man’s home and said they found evidence related to both episodes.

The man, who was not publicly identified, was booked into the San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of disturbing a religious assembly, brandishing an imitation firearm and causing another person to refrain from engaging in a religious service.

Although an arrest was made, police are continuing to investigate the two incidents, they said.

An Orinda man was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison on Friday after he was convicted of fraud and money laundering in connection with a debit card scam, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Alan Safahi, 62, was convicted on June 30, 2022, of one count of bank fraud, four counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering. According to a court order, he developed an elaborate fraud scheme with prepaid debit cards that allowed him to purchase an Orinda home and finance a lavish lifestyle.

Safahi would collect money from clients of his company, CardEx, and use the money to purchase the debit cards. He would then use a “funding on demand” scheme to defraud the banks that supported the cards and would divert the money to his own accounts. For example, a client of the company would purchase a $100 debit card and spend $10 of the card’s balance. Safahi would then report the remaining balance to the bank as being $10 instead of $100, allowing him to access the remaining $90 for his own use, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. He obscured the scheme from his clients by accurately reporting the remaining balances to them while misleading the banks involved.

The scheme fell apart on Sept. 25, 2014, when he directed an employee to report the accurate balances of the cards to the bank. According to evidence, Safahi previously reported a balance of $93,734 on the cards — however, the actual total, which was reported to the bank that day, was $2,774,953. Safahi had nearly $2.7 million in unfunded liability, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

He had been using the money from the fraud scheme to pay off old debts, fund his lifestyle and purchase a home in Orinda. Two days before reporting the accurate balance of the cards to the bank, he issued himself an $80,000 cashier’s check that he used to help pay for the home, which provided the basis for him to be convicted of money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

In addition to 40 months in prison,…