Here's your morning briefing...
- Watching the detectives: Law enforcement agencies throughout California must digitally report all incidents where physical force occurs. The new requirement comes with the passage of Assembly Bill 71 and is meant to allow state officials to track possible racial disparities and to compare the rate of use of force incidents between individual police departments.
- Back to the drawing board: Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a measure that would have created a California Aging and Long-Term Care Services Coordinating Council, saying the proposed body would prove “unweildy.”
- But will it help? Footage of legislative hearings may now appear in political adverts. That’s thanks to Gov. Brown who signed a bill repealing a prohibition. We should know within weeks if this “urgency ordinance” which takes effect immediately makes for some compelling hit pieces as the political silly season reaches its apex in the weeks ahead of November’s election.
- And our next U.S. senator will be: Conflicting polls show state Attorney General Kamala Harris running away with the U.S. Senate race, opening up a 22-point lead according to the respected Field Poll. However, the just as highly regarded Public Policy Institute of California finds Orange County Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez closing the gap, trailing Harris by just seven percent. Both candidates are Democrats. All Republican contenders were eliminated in the primary. Under the state’s recently adopted open primary system, all candidates compete in a combined primary with the top two vote getters regardless of party advancing to the general election.
- Rude prank yields beating, felony charges: A man who struck Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson in the face with a coconut cream pie at a charity dinner Wednesday is expected to be charged today with felony assault. Sean Thompson says he pied the mayor because of disagreements over policies and priorities and an inability to be heard through peaceful activism. Johnson, a former NBA star, has been dogged by sexual assault allegations for decades, pummeled Thomson in the face and tackled him. Thompson, who needed nine stitches, is being held on $100,000 bail for assaulting a public official.