Landmark Calif. Sentencing Law Back Before Voters
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LOS ANGELES, Oct 4  - Californians who a decade  ago voted in a landslide for a "Three Strikes" measure imposing  long prison terms on career criminals are being asked to scale  back that law by those who say it has unjustly snared  small-time offenders.
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By Martin Kasindorf  LOS ANGELES -- Eleven states are giving voters their first chance this fall to override last year's Supreme Court ruling that allows local governments seeking more tax revenue to seize private property and give it to developers.
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Sacramento -- The last time Californians saw the issue of gambling on a ballot, the question was whether to allow big-time casinos on Indian land.
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Some experts predicted that the Supreme Court decision on sentencing guidelines would renew a struggle between Congress and the judiciary.
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More than 2,700 recently paroled sex offenders in California have been told they have to move because they are violating a new law that bars them from living near schools and parks.
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If she were a prosecutor anywhere else in California, San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris wouldn't get a second look for using the state's tough "three-strikes" law against a man who spent more than six years in prison after setting his 6-year-old son on fire.
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California officials are unveiling a proposed bill that would make it a crime to drop off hospital patients on the street.
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By Kevin Howe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.  Feb.
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California will vote on a broad campaign-finance measure that includes limits on corporate donors.
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California voters will decide next week whether to amend a New Deal-era law giving consumers the power to file suit over unfair business practices, a statute that has been used to target businesses from Philip Morris to Microsoft Corp.
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A bitter campaign ends with voters divided and lawyers waiting in the wings. The world holds its breath. People vote early at the Kern County elections office in Bakersfield, Calif.
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A controversial California ballot measure that would fund a decade of stem cell research with &#36;3 billion in state money was headed for a resounding victory on Wednesday, initial returns showed.
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By Craig Tenbroeck, North County Times, Escondido, Calif.
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A federal judge ruled on Friday that California's present method of execution through lethal injection is unconstitutional but said it could be fixed by changing the procedure.
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By DON THOMPSON  SACRAMENTO, Calif. - California's corrections secretary said Friday that the state will create a commission to review sentencing guidelines for felons, potentially a key step in Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to relieve prison overcrowding.
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Proposition 36, the voter-enacted law that substitutes treatment for jail time for low-risk drug offenders, fails to provide adequate treatment for those it serves, according to a study published today.
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A U.S. appeals-court ruling on Friday could open the way for more than $1 billion in refunds to Californians who experienced power outages and soaring energy prices in 2001, state prosecutors said.