The Supreme Court appeared likely Tuesday to uphold the Affordable Care Act for the third time in eight years, even with the Trump administration urging its elimination before an emboldened conservative majority on the nation's highest court. After upholding the health care law in 2012 and 2015, the court was faced with a new Republican challenge stemming from Congress' elimination in 2017 of the penalty imposed on consumers who refuse to buy health insurance.

A panel of federal court of appeals judges ruled this week that Baltimore's controversial aerial surveillance plane program is in fact constitutional. The three judge panel, which ruled 2-1, found that the plane does help police combat crime without violating resident's right to privacy. In the opinion, judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III wrote: “In addition to not infringing a reasonable expectation of privacy, the AIR program seeks to meet a serious law enforcement need without unduly burdening constitutional rights."

Alabama Congressmen Mo Brooks, Bradley Byrne and Robert Aderholt have submitted an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Trump v. New York, a case to resolve whether illegal aliens should be counted for the limited purpose of allocating congressional seats and electoral college votes that determine the election of the president of the United States. 

A 19-year-old man who was 17 when he allegedly murdered a woman by stabbing her 38 times during the course of a burglary and then attempted to burn her body and her apartment, might be suitable for treatment in the Juvenile Court system, the Court of Appeal held Friday, declaring that a judge erred in transferring him to the criminal court based on an assumption that, in light of the gravity of the crime, he could not be rehabilitated.

Martin Jenkins, appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, won unanimous confirmation Tuesday to the California Supreme Court, becoming its first openly gay member and the fifth Black justice in the court’s history. A three-member judicial appointments commission confirmed Jenkins, 66, after an hourlong hearing. The State Bar of California issued a report finding Jenkins exceptionally well qualified, the association’s highest rating.

The US Supreme Court recently granted certiorari in an important climate change lawsuit, BP P.L.C. v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore. The lawsuit pits the Mayor and City of Baltimore against twenty-six multinational oil and gas companies that Baltimore claims are responsible for climate change. Baltimore alleges that the companies contributed to climate change by producing, promoting, and (misleadingly) marketing fossil fuel products long after learning of the climate-related dangers associated with them. 

San Francisco’s attempt to help cabdrivers who paid $250,000 for city permits by giving them preferences for passengers at San Francisco International Airport may not have been successful but it doesn’t appear to be illegal, says a federal appeals court. The city formerly issued the permits, known as medallions, without charge once drivers had cleared a waiting list, but imposed fees of about $1,000 a year before 2010, when officials started charging new applicants $250,000 for lifetime medallions allowing them to drive cabs in San Francisco.

Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Stephen Manley refers to defendants in his courtroom as “clients” - an indication of the unusually informal and conversational tenor of the Behavioral Health Court he created more than two decades ago. “It tends to break through a barrier,” Manley said in a recent interview with Capitol Weekly.

A young man who was 17 when he was arrested and charged with murder for allegedly stabbing a Richmond woman to death inside her apartment was on track to be tried as an adult, but a recent appeals court decision has thrown that into question. Kevin Pineda, 19, faces murder charges in the killing of 38-year-old Kishana Harley, a well-known Richmond activist who was passionate about social justice reform and police misconduct issues.

What seemed like the most likely possibility is now official: The U.S. Department of Justice won’t make a decision on whether to seek the death penalty against two Bay Area men accused of murdering federal Ofc. Patrick Dave Underwood until after there is a new attorney general in place. In a Wednesday order, U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers sided with the attorneys for both Steven Carrillo, 32, and Robert Alvin Justus, 30, who have opposed what they call a rush by federal prosecutors to decide whether the death penalty should be on the table for both defendants.

A Dayton church is continuing to fight at the U.S. Supreme Court level for what it says are violations of its First Amendment rights under Nevada’s COVID-19 rules. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys earlier this month filed a petition to halt what they claim are “Gov. Sisolak’s unconstitutional unequal treatment of religious gatherings.” In May, the church sued Lyon County and the state of Nevada in federal district court for prohibiting church gatherings of more than 10 people.

Libertas Christian School has asked a federal appellate court for an emergency injunction against county health officials who closed the school for failing to comply with coronavirus orders, including mask wearing. The school contends that “shut down orders” are unconstitutional. Libertas said the government violated rights to religious freedom under the First Amendment.

The first civil jury trial following the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic is expected to be held early next year, the San Diego Superior Court announced Thursday. While criminal trials were given priority to resume amid the pandemic due to constitutional requirements, San Diego County's courts are gearing up to bring jurors into the courthouses for civil trials as well, and targeting January for its first civil jury trial since the start of the pandemic.

Walmart Inc must face a proposed class action lawsuit over its refusal to accept returns during the COVID-19 pandemic without notice, a California federal judge has ruled. U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal in Los Angeles on Friday largely denied the retail giant’s motion to dismiss the case, though he ruled that relief for the plaintiffs would be limited to money damages and could not include any injunction.

Terminally ill plaintiffs, who were supposed to be guaranteed expedited trials in light of their deteriorating medical conditions, are still waiting for their day in court, according to an NBC Bay Area investigation. Those who are dying are supposed to be granted preferential treatment when it comes to scheduling their trials. That's the law in California, but COVID-related closures have crippled state courts.

Convicted murderer Scott Peterson appeared in a San Mateo, Calif. court via video conference on Friday when he spoke briefly to the judge and waived his right to a speedy trial, effectively pushing his court date back to January 2021. “Yes, your honor,” Peterson told the judge when asked if he was indeed waiving the right to the expedited proceedings. If he had not done so, his trial would have been set to have begun on Nov. 29. Instead, it will now be held starting on Jan. 21, 2021.

Los Angeles District Attorney-elect George Gascón outlined the initiatives for his upcoming term including stopping the practice of trying minors as adults and ending the use of the death penalty. After serving eight years as district attorney for San Francisco, Gascón was elected as the new Los Angeles County district attorney, replacing Jackie Lacey who had served in the position for eight years.

Nine felony charges have been filed in Santa Maria Superior Court against a Los Angeles woman whose alleged shooting spree snarled traffic on Highway 101 Monday night. Chappinette Lelani Martin, 33, was taken into custody after California Highway Patrol officers found her near a vehicle stopped on the side of the highway south of the Alvin Avenue overcrossing. 

Up and down the ballot this election season there have been several hotly contested races, but among key prosecutor face-offs one decisive winner was criminal justice reform, a trend that experts expect will continue in future elections. Progressive newcomers were elected to top prosecutor posts in Los Angeles; Austin, Texas; Orlando, Florida; Detroit; Aurora, Colorado; and Columbus, Ohio; as well as what were considered local presidential battlegrounds, like Michigan's Oakland County, a suburb of Detroit.

Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten will retire from his post early next year after serving 18 years as head of the agency, his office announced Tuesday evening. Over the past three weeks, an unexpected opportunity came Totten's way to be a leader of the California District Attorneys Association, a Sacramento-based professional society that, among other things, trains prosecutors and influences policy.  

In his first public meeting as DA-elect last night, George Gascón told the families of people shot by police in L.A. that he would review their cases to see if the officers should face criminal charges. The extraordinary meeting was organized by the L.A. chapter of Black Lives Matter and was held in the basement of the McCarty Memorial Christian Church in the West Adams District.

Federal prosecutors want a Los Angeles venture capitalist to spend years in prison and pay millions in fines for an array of crimes, including obstructing an investigation into President Trump’s inaugural committee and concealing work he did lobbying for foreign groups. In a filing this week in U.S. District Court, prosecutors asked a judge to sentence Imaad Zuberi, 50, to between 10 and nearly 13 years in prison.

Federal prosecutors on Tuesday, Nov. 10, said they plan to recommend a federal prison sentence of no more than 18 months for a former Torrance police officer who admitted in a plea agreement to selling dozens of guns without a license. Lindley Alan Hupp, 32, of Long Beach, pleaded guilty to engaging in the business of dealing firearms without a license and making a false statement in a federal firearm licensee’s records during purchase of a firearm, Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S. District Attorney’s Office said.

Five years ago, two Alameda County sheriff’s deputies chased a car theft suspect across the Bay Bridge, from Castro Valley to an alley in San Francisco’s Mission District. There, they tackled him and beat him with batons, giving him a concussion and breaking bones in his hands and arms. The incident drew national outrage after former San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi released surveillance footage showing the two deputies - Luis Santamaria and Paul Wieber - knocking Stanislav Petrov to the ground, punching him and bludgeoning him, even after he appeared to surrender. 

Votes are being counted right now, and the reactions from former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump are very different Wednesday. Former Vice President Joe Biden, who has won more votes than any presidential candidate in U.S. history, is confident he will be sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, while Trump's campaign is now filing lawsuits to stop counting.

George Gascón will be the next district attorney of Los Angeles County after incumbent Jackie Lacey conceded the race Friday morning, losing in her effort to obtain a third term in the position. In an emotional news conference, Lacey acknowledged that she would not have the votes to overcome the deficit she currently faces. 

Shortly after Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey conceded defeat Friday, Nov. 6, in her bid for a third term, her replacement, former San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon, vowed to end prosecuting children as adults, stop seeking the death penalty and reopen several police shooting investigations as soon as he takes over. Gascon said voters had given him a “tremendous honor,” and he recognized he worked for the people.

Los Angeles County residents elected reformer George Gascón for district attorney and approved Measure J, which would require the county to invest 10 percent of its locally generated, unrestricted revenues in the general fund. Through community investment and alternatives to incarceration, that money would address the disproportionate effect of racial injustice. Measure J would also prohibit use of those funds for carceral systems or law enforcement agencies. 

Criminal justice reform was a key issue in Tuesday night’s elections, from the presidential race all the way down to municipal ballot initiatives. One exciting indication of just how far the movement to end mass incarceration has come? On Election Day it used to be possible to round up all reform-related electoral results in a few bullet points, but this week, there were so many criminal justice victories that it is impossible to summarize them all in a few paragraphs.

The Republican Party of Pennsylvania asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to halt an ongoing count of mail-in ballots received in that state after Election Day, a move that came hours after Democratic nominee Joe Biden overtook President Donald Trump in the vote tally there. The party also asked the Supreme Court to order the Pennsylvania secretary of state to log and segregate those ballots, but to take no other action, including counting them, for now.

President Trump gave a brief, alarming speech in the White House Press Room Thursday evening, where he claimed - without any evidence - that the election is being “stolen” from him. He also suggested that he may have an ace in the hole. “We think there’s going to be a lot of litigation because we have so much evidence, so much proof, and it’s going to end up perhaps at the highest court in the land,” Trump said. 

Right now, we are on the brink of welcoming a new president - and one that isn't actively destroying the rights of marginalized people across the U.S. And while both celebrations (and protests) have already ramped up across, we still face another, inescapable political reality: Biden will likely be running a Republican-majority Senate for the next two years. While cynics might like to believe, maybe rightfully so, that the “blue wave” never actually came, there’s still a lot to be proud of in the way of progressive wins - especially in the realm of criminal justice and policing. 

It is almost impossible to pigeonhole. She is neither white nor black, neither conservative nor progressive. A feminist but not a member of the movement, she favors a strong hand against crime, although she fights so that the prisons are not full of black men. Kamala Harris was a rare bird within the platoon of Democratic presidential candidates in the primaries and will continue to be for the next four years as Vice President. It will also make history, is the first woman to reach that position.

It has been nearly a month since federal prosecutors in Northern California secured an indictment against Texas billionaire Bob Brockman, alleging tax fraud of epic proportions. At this point, there’s nothing the former CEO and accused money launderer can do to stop the prosecution. But if he has his way, it will occur in the Friendship State, not the Bay Area.

“How do you start changing the systematic racism found in housing policies, when the systems you’ve put in place are not working? You repeal the laws. Take them off the books.” This is the question and answer Tia Boatman Patterson, executive director of the California Housing Finance Agency (CalHFA), gave as she reflected on how to effectively address social inequities that have been perpetuated in the state’s housing policies.

The federal judge overseeing a lawsuit dealing with the homeless crisis criticized Thursday the slow pace of moving indigents into housing despite an agreement in which the city and county of Los Angeles promised to provide 6,000 beds by next spring. U.S. District Judge David Carter told parties involved in the suit that production of homeless housing is too slow in light of the threat of the coronavirus and the rise in deaths on city streets.

California State Senator Holly Mitchell is set to become the fifth member on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, marking for the first time in the county an all-woman board, which will oversee roughly 10 million Angelenos. As a county supervisor, Mitchell, 56, will represent the city of Inglewood, Ladera Heights, the neighborhoods of Crenshaw and Watts in LA, a portion of downtown LA and other neighborhoods with predominantly Black and Latino residents.

A Los Angeles police officer is suing the city, alleging she was subjected to sexual harassment and belittled as a woman, eventually forcing her out of a coveted position working with the homeless. Brenda Nix’s Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit also alleges discrimination and retaliation. She seeks unspecified damages in the suit filed Nov. 2. “Plaintiff’s male subordinates shunned her, treated her with disrespect and were regularly insubordinate,” the suit alleges.

What some in West Hollywood had hoped would be a quiet removal of a dead escort from Democratic megadonor Ed Buck’s apartment quickly morphed into a public relations nightmare for all associated with Buck, including members of City Council and the Stonewall Democratic Club’s Steering Committee. From my previous article: Ashlee Marie Preston, a trans-activist on the Steering Committee, broke ranks to write a withering article condemning Ed Buck... Preston included a screenshot of Buck’s Adam4Adam profile, which makes Buck’s fetishes explicit in writing.

The LAPD said it will attempt to keep detectives and officers with unique skills working within their areas of expertise as the department reorganizes in response to current and anticipated budget cuts, though some officials said they worried about a loss of knowledge in handling certain delicate or complex cases. One such group, the sexual assault unit at the Robbery Homicide Division, will be dissolved under initial reorganization plans, with its dozen detectives and one lieutenant reassigned. 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted 3-2 to look at options for removing elected Sheriff Alex Villanueva as the county's top lawman, rather than waiting to see if voters will do so in 2022. Supervisors Kathryn Barger and Janice Hahn dissented, saying the matter should be left in the hands of Los Angeles County voters. 

Several members of the Los Angeles City Council have asked the city to study the feasibility of using the Los Angeles Convention Center, which has gone dark during the COVID-19 pandemic, to shelter homeless people. This move is a reflection of the increasingly desperate situation thousands of homeless people face living on the streets. 

Los Angeles County coroner’s officials said Tuesday that they will conduct an independent inquest into the shooting death of an 18-year-old man at the hands of sheriff’s deputies that sparked large-scale protests this year. The county Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner released autopsy findings in July that showed Andres Guardado was shot in the back five times after he was chased by Sheriff’s Deputies Miguel Vega and Chris Hernandez in Gardena on June 18.

Los Angeles Police Chief Michel Moore emailed officers over the weekend to say that he was sorry for some of the public statements he’d made following protests about policing and he pledged to do better. “I apologize to those of you who I failed by my actions or words,” Moore wrote. “I believed in my heart each action was the right thing to do.” The Chief told NBC4 in an interview late Monday that he hadn’t intended for the message to become public.

The Biden-Harris Transition Team released members of the incoming administration’s agency review teams that will evaluate operations of government agencies and offer guidance to ensure a smooth transfer between the Trump and Biden Administrations.  The Biden-Harris Transition Team described the agency review teams as being composed of “highly experienced and talented professionals with deep backgrounds in key policy areas across the federal government.”

At the Compton sheriff’s station, it’s called a ghost gun: a weapon a deputy says he spots on a suspect but that is never found when colleagues respond to the scene and search for it. That’s because the call-out is based on a lie. The deputy didn’t actually see a gun, but his suspect could turn out to be armed and an arrest or recovered firearm could pad his reputation.

On June 6, 2019, two Los Angeles County deputies fired nearly three dozen rounds into a white Kia Forte as its driver reversed through an apartment complex parking lot in Willowbrook. While the passenger of the sedan, Daimeon Leffall, was not hit by the gunfire, the deputies killed the driver, Ryan Twyman, a 24-year-old father of three. Twyman and Leffall were both unarmed.

It is no longer unusual to see the fifteen fiefdoms called City Council Districts magically vote 15-0 on virtually everything. Without, of course, violating public meetings act requirements. What is unusual, however, is to see them voting 15-0 to undermine the very Charter which created our Neighborhood Councils. 

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted on a motion to explore options for removing Sheriff Alex Villanueva, including an amendment to the state’s Constitution. The 3-2 vote directs county officials to examine ways in which they could impeach Villanueva from his position, or, at least, scale back his responsibilities. One of those options proposed would amend California’s Constitution to make county sheriffs be appointed, rather than elected.

The Los Angeles Police Department in coming months will downsize its specialized units and stop responding in person to traffic collisions and other minor incidents as part of a broad reorganization aimed at preserving patrol and community engagement functions amid new fiscal constraints. Although specific figures weren’t available Friday, the reshuffling will reduce the size of the vaunted but troubled Metropolitan Division, as well as cut the air support, robbery and homicide and gang and narcotics divisions. 

A Los Angeles man has been arrested and booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail on five counts related to a crime spree on Halloween. Scott J. Manser, 32, is a suspect in a triple hit-and-run collision in the area of North Milpas and East Anapamu streets. The incident occurred around noon on Oct. 31 when Manser is suspected of driving a silver Land Rover SUV over a curb and into the front of residential properties, according to Marylinda Arroyo, a spokeswoman for the Santa Barbara Police Department.

An Oxnard man was found guilty of performing lewd acts on a child under 14 years old on Friday. District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced that a jury found Anthony Robert Ultreras 39, from Camarillo guilty of lewd acts with a child under 14 and child molest. Ultreras had previously pled guilty to a charge of possession of child pornography and admitted a prior conviction for lewd acts with a child under 14.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of murder for allegedly running over and killing a 67-year-old man - in that victim's vehicle - following a traffic crash the two were involved in Sunday in unincorporated Compton. The death was reported at approximately 5:40 a.m. in the 19000 block of South Laurel Park Road. The 67-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Information Bureau reported. 

A man and woman were shot to death Saturday night in East Los Angeles. The shooting was reported at 7:30 p.m. in the 3900 block of East Olympic Boulevard, according to Deputy Grace Medrano of the Sheriff's Information Bureau. The two victims were found unresponsive in a parking lot at Olympic Boulevard and Indiana Street, Medrano said. The man was pronounced dead at the scene and paramedics took the woman to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead, she said.

Simi Valley officials want businesses to know they can call police if any customers cause disturbances in refusing to wear required COVID-19 masks. "Businesses in Simi Valley ... may report those individuals for removal by contacting the Simi Valley Police Department," the city says in a release on its website's home page. Deputy City Manager Samantha Argabrite said Monday that police won't make it a high priority to respond to businesses merely because of customers who aren't wearing masks without incident.

The investigation into the murders of a man and woman along Highway 395 was responsible for the closure of the highway for 17 hours on Monday. A CalTrans snowplow driver spotted two bodies along the shoulder of the highway around 10 miles north of Bridgeport. The highway was closed immediately while Mono County Sheriff’s detectives and California Highway Patrol officers responded to the scene.

The Government of Canada continues to take action to prevent the importation of unauthorized or illegal health products at border crossings across Canada. On Thursday, the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), Health Canada and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) announced the results of a Government of Canada initiative to combat unauthorized or counterfeit goods attempting to enter Canada through British Columbia.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warned the public against the proliferation of fake over-the-counter medicines that it said could cause adverse health effects if ingested. In an advisory, FDA director general Eric Domingo said the public should only buy medicines from licensed establishments, especially after they have verified that four popular drug brands had been counterfeited.

Ahead of the holiday shopping season Border Patrol agents at the Dallas-Fort Worth Port of Entry say they discovered more than $9 million dollars worth of counterfeit merchandise. The items allegedly come from China and were heading to McKinney. The counterfeit items were in boxes labeled ladies sweaters and ladies sweatpants. Inside the boxes agents found poorly packaged footwear, handbags and more with designer labels, such as Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, and Adida’s Yeezy designer footwear line.

Amazon on Thursday filed a lawsuit against two influencers and nearly a dozen third-party merchants for allegedly advertising, promoting and facilitating the sale of counterfeit goods. The influencers and sellers worked together in a sophisticated scheme to skirt Amazon's anti-counterfeit tools by promoting the knockoff goods via Instagram and TikTok accounts, among other means.

Lex Steppling and his team of criminal justice activists knew they wanted to undo California’s law abolishing cash bail. They said it would merely replace one oppressive system with another, worsen racial inequities and give too much power to algorithms and judges. They were convinced they were right. But he didn’t think they’d actually defeat Proposition 25 - especially not by a nearly 11-point margin.

California’s most popular amusement park has become the focal point of a struggle over how best to contain the coronavirus while keeping the economy afloat. California’s Democratic leaders have tied the fate of Disneyland - “the Happiest Place on Earth” - to the health of the people who live around it, who have been hit hard by the virus. But conservative Orange County officials want to ease restrictions to allow for the reopening of the lucrative tourist attraction, saying the economic health of all residents depends on it. 

Waiting periods. Magazine restrictions. Age limits. California gun owners are optimistic all of these state gun control laws - and more - could soon be ruled unconstitutional. “It’s going to be earth shattering,” Sam Parades, the executive director of the Gun Owners of California, said of Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the United States Supreme Court. “A whole sea change. Everything will be challenged. Waiting periods, handgun restrictions, magazine restrictions, the so-called assault weapons ban. Open carry will become standard.”

Speculation about who California Gov. Gavin Newsom would choose to fill out the rest of Kamala Harris' U.S. Senate term if she got elected vice president began almost the moment Joe Biden announced her as his running mate. Now that Harris is vice president-elect, filling her Senate seat is not a matter of if, but who and when. And what are the qualities Newsom should consider as he makes his most important political decision yet as governor?

California has been a one-party state for the last decade, with Democratic governors and supermajorities in both legislative houses doing pretty much as they pleased without paying any attention to the relative handful of Republican legislators. However, one-party rule gave way to one-man rule eight months ago when Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an emergency due to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus empowering himself to govern by decree and suspend any laws that stood in his way.

Governor Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced that he has granted 22 pardons, 13 commutations and four medical reprieves. The California Constitution gives the Governor the authority to grant executive clemency in the form of a pardon, commutation or reprieve. A clemency grant recognizes a person’s subsequent efforts in self-development or the existence of a medical exigency. 

Dallas will use CARES Act funding to add street lights and convert to brighter LED lighting in high-crime and/or high poverty areas areas. The city is also soliciting input on the next police chief.

The Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today filed a federal lawsuit against the State of California in a challenge of its recently-expanded ban via its so-called “Roster” laws. Joining SAF and CCRKBA are the Firearms Policy Coalition and San Diego County Gun Owners along with two private businesses and nearly a dozen individuals. 

Fire season in California has been particularly devastating this year. Some of the biggest wildfires the state has ever seen raged across the state and almost 4.2 million acres burned. Among the firefighters battling to keep our communities safe are state prisoners, which prompted Bay Curious listener Brittany Powers to ask this question: "Why are prisoners fighting California wildfires [paid so little] and why are they unable to get jobs in this field after they've served their sentences?"

Sentencing was rescheduled Friday to Jan. 8 for a reputed high-ranking Coachella Valley gang member facing a possible sentence of 50 years to life for shooting his cousin in the back of the head in Indio. An Indio jury last month found Fernando Carlos Lopez of Coachella guilty of one count each of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon for shooting Gabriel Arevalos on the afternoon of Nov. 4, 2017, at a residence in the 44300 block of Cassia Drive.

A former Southern California financial adviser who stole millions of dollars from professional athletes among his clientele was sentenced Friday to more than three years in federal prison. Ash Narayan, 55, of Irvine received the 37-month sentence and was ordered to pay $18.8 million in restitution, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. Prosecutors contend that Narayan stole more than $30 million in savings from pro athletes including San Francisco Giants pitcher Jake Peavy, Denver Broncos quarterback Mark Sanchez and retired Houston Astros pitcher Roy Oswalt.

A Mexican immigrant in the country illegally pleaded guilty under a deal with prosecutors in an emotional hearing Thursday to killing a Fiji-born California police officer in a case that President Donald Trump used to bolster his call for tougher border security. Paulo Virgen Mendoza admitted fatally shooting Cpl. Ronil Singh of the tiny Newman Police Department during a traffic stop early Dec. 26, 2018.

A Southern California woman who intentionally ran over and killed a bicyclist and tried to run down two others was sentenced Tuesday to 16 years in state prison, authorities said. Sandra Marie Wicksted, 63, of Claremont, was sentenced immediately after pleading no contest to voluntary manslaughter and assault with a deadly weapon and two counts of attempted murder, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said in a statement.

For Keiana Aldrich, freedom felt like sand between her toes. Late Thursday night, after being released from the California Institution for Women after nearly a decade behind bars, the former sex trafficking victim dug her feet in the coastline at Huntington Beach, exhilaration hitting her like the waves coming on shore. “It still feels unbelievable,” Aldrich, 25, said Friday morning, a breakfast burrito in her stomach. “So unreal.”

An inmate who walked away from a detention camp in San Bernardino County has been found, prison officials announced late Friday morning. Raul Martinez, who left Pilot Rock Conservation Camp in Crestline on Thursday evening, was found at approximately 12:30 a.m. Friday at an undisclosed location, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. He was taken into custody without incident, prison officials said.

Otay Mesa Detention Center is facing a second coronavirus outbreak after the virus swept through the facility in the spring, infecting more than 200 people in custody and leaving one man dead. The facility holds Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees who are waiting for immigration court cases or their deportations as well as U.S. Marshals Service inmates who are awaiting trials or sentencing in federal criminal cases.

California authorities are investigating the stabbing death of an inmate at a state prison as a homicide. Isaac McCuan died Saturday at Salinas Valley State Prison, according to a statement from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. The 40-year-old's cellmate, Juan Hernandez, has been identified as the suspect, the statement said. It wasn't known Sunday if Hernandez has an attorney.

The California state prison system has resumed inmate transfers, something that was halted during the Coronavirus pandemic. According to Humboldt County Sheriff William Honsal, 30 inmates were recently transferred to North Kern State Prison. Since March, the county has had between 30 and 40 inmates who had been sentenced to prison terms, but were being housed locally at the Humboldt County Correctional Facility. 

In the wake of nation-wide protests against police brutality and violence this year, some commentators proposed the creation of a national police force to replace or aid local law enforcement organizations. A YouGov survey conducted at the time found little public backing for such a move - just 28% support the idea of a national police force, compared to 55% who are opposed. We asked Chat users to dig deeper and tell us why they would support or oppose the creation of a national police force in addition to state and local police. 

Donald Trump came to use the line often at his campaign rallies. “Can you imagine if you lose to a guy like this?” he would say of Joe Biden. “It’s unbelievable.” It’s not so unbelievable now. Despite record turnout, and a tighter than expected race, the US president’s blind faith in the power of positive thinking appears to have collided with the reality of a coronavirus pandemic, a chaotic campaign and the uprising of a democratic and Democratic resistance.

President Trump has 10 weeks to exact revenge on his political foes, pardon his friends and make life difficult for President-elect Joe Biden, who bested him at the ballot box and turned him into something he hates: a loser. Now a lame duck, Trump is continuing to push political norms and stoke partisan passions by refusing to concede, repeating the same blatant falsehoods he made after the election - that he had won but Democrats “stole” the race through fraud, neither of which was true.

Despite likely seeing California Sen. Kamala Harris inaugurated as vice president alongside a Democratic president for whom an overwhelming majority of Californians voted so dutifully, California is looking to be the biggest loser of the 2020 contest. Our state’s most pressing problems, which were unaddressed in the run-up to the election, are getting worse. If California-style government continues to creep across America, as it will if Harris and running mate Joe Biden win, we can expect similar problems to creep nationwide.

Law enforcement unions are maybe the most powerful force in politics that most voters never think twice about. By quietly dumping millions of dollars in key prosecutor elections and ballot initiative fights, these organizations manage to affect everything in the criminal legal system’s orbit, usually while flying well beneath the political radar. Police unions are sort of like gravity, if gravity played a significant role in enabling agents of the state to systematically terrorize communities of color without facing meaningful consequences.

Goldman expects Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine candidate - and perhaps a few others in the pipeline - to receive emergency authorization from the FDA by January, with enough doses available to vaccinate the U.S. population in the first half of next year. That development is key to the economy’s expected v-shaped recovery, which Goldman analysts said should continue in 2021 with estimated GDP growth of 5.3%, compared to a predicted loss of 3.9% this year. 

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