By Katelyn Caralle, U.S. Political Reporter For Dailymail.Com In Alpharetta, Georgia

04:14 01 Dec 2023, updated 08:02 01 Dec 2023

• DeSantis showed off an app where feces is ‘plotted’ in the California city 
• He jabbed Newsom for ‘cleaning up’ for the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping 
• Came at the end of a fiery debate between the red and blue state governors 

Ron DeSantis pulled out a map of human feces on the streets of San Francisco and tore into the homelessness and crime in the city in his fiery debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday night.

Newsom, a Democrat, claimed he had taken 68,000 people off the streets and closed 6,000 homeless camps when the Florida governor pulled out the visual aid.

‘You may be asking ‘what is that plotting?’ This is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco,’ Republican Gov. DeSantis detailed. ‘That is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had.’

He then took a jab at Newsom for cleaning it up for the visit of Chinese president Xi Jinping earlier this month as the testy showdown wrapped.

The pair went to war over COVID policies, the southern border, taxes, crime and book bans in the primetime head-to-head on Fox News .

Both governors accused each other of lying about many of their states’ policies in what was a display of two alternatives to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. 

Ron DeSantis pulled out a map of human feces in San Francisco and tore into the homelessness and crime in the city in his fiery debate with California Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday night

The end devolved into chaos when they called each other ‘bullies’ and shouted over each other while moderator Sean Hannity tried to intervene.

Along with the feces map, DeSantis’ campaign also unveiled on its website the sale of $37 brown socks with the words: ‘Newsom’s California Walking Socks. Watch your step.’

The description reads: ‘Thinking about visiting California? You’re going to need a pair of these. Order your California walking socks before you’re dodging feces in San Francisco!’

The two specifically sparred over some noticeable changes in California and Florida since they both become governors at the start of 2019. This included homelessness, drug use and crime.

In the U.S., 30 percent of those experiencing homelessness are located in California, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Of every 10,000 people in California, 44 are homeless, while only 12 of every 10,000 people in Florida are experiencing homelessness.

DeSantis started the debate by slamming his California counterpart by pointing to his hypocrisy during COVID-19 by going out to fine-dining restaurant The French Laundry and sending his children to in-person private schools while his residents were still under lockdown.

He said California ran out of UHaul moving trucks because so many people were moving out to head to red states – including Florida. He said among the new residents in Florida is the father of Newsom’s wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Newsom didn’t back down in the one-on-one debate in Alpharetta, Georgia on Thursday night, taking a dig at DeSantis by saying they both won’t be presidential nominees in 2024.

He also accused DeSantis of ‘trolling’ with his move to transport migrants out of border states to Democratic sanctuary cities – and said he’s trying to one-up former President Donald Trump with the antics.

‘You almost have to try to mess California up,’ DeSantis said during feisty opening remarks explaining why his state is superior. ‘That is what Gavin Newsom has done since he has been governor.’

‘He has imposed restrictions on his own people while exempting himself from those restrictions and going to the French Laundry while his people were suffering,’ the Florida governor said. ‘He led the country in school closures, blocking kids out of school while he had his own kids in private school in-person.’

Newsom has repeatedly said he has no plans to run for president in 2024 and has served as a surrogate for President Joe Biden since he launched his reelection campaign this year.

But DeSantis is among a group of Republicans who don’t take the California leader at his word, and believe he plans to launch a 2024 bid for president – especially if Biden for some reason is no longer in the race.

Newsom claimed he had taken ‘68,000 people’ off the streets and closed 6,000 homeless camps when the Florida governor pulled out the visual aid ‘You may be asking ‘what is that plotting?’ This is an app where they plot the human feces that are found on the streets of San Francisco. That is what has happened in one of the previous greatest cities this country has ever had.’ DeSantis’ website features a $37 pair of brown socks titled ‘Newsom’s California Walking Socks’, it says they are for making sure your feet are protected from feces on the city streets of San Francisco

‘I thought this was state versus state,’ moderator Sean Hannity of Fox News posed to the two men as they devolved into debate over national-level policies.

‘But it’s about the United States of America, I thought this guy was running for president of the United States,’ Newsom shot back.

‘You will not admit it,’ DeSantis said, demanding: ‘Admit that you’re running.’

DeSantis is currently in the middle of a heated primary election where he comes in distant second to former President Donald Trump. He will debate his fellow 2024 competitors on Wednesday – just six days after the one-on-one with Newsom.

The California governor claims that despite DeSantis ‘playing political games,’ he is failing at trying to be the new Trump with policies more radical than the ex-president’s.

‘You’re trolling folks and trying to find migrants to play political games to try to get some news attention to out-Trump Trump,’ Newsom alleged of the Florida governor’s actions.

‘And by the way, how’s that going for you? Down by 41 points in your own home state.’ 

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The Democrats’ delicate majority in the U.S. Senate puts extra pressure on California Gov. Gavin Newsom to quickly pick a replacement for Sen. Dianne Feinstein after her death.

Already, names were being floated Friday in California circles. The situation is complicated and wrought with political risk for Newsom, a term-limited governor with national political ambitions of his own.

The Democratic governor has promised to appoint a Black woman. He has also promised to avoid the field of candidates already running for Feinstein’s seat, which was set to expire at the end of next year and includes Rep. Barbara Lee, one of the state’s most prominent Black women currently serving in elected office.

In filling the Senate vacancy, Newsom has the sole authority to name a successor. He could even pick himself, though that is unlikely.

Newsom made no mention of Feinstein’s replacement in a statement he issued marking her death Friday morning.

“Dianne Feinstein was many things – a powerful, trailblazing U.S. Senator; an early voice for gun control; a leader in times of tragedy and chaos. But to me, she was a dear friend, a lifelong mentor, and a role model not only for me, but to my wife and daughters for what a powerful, effective leader looks like,” Newsom said. “There is simply nobody who possessed the strength, gravitas, and fierceness of Dianne Feinstein.”

FILE – Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., smiles after announcing the introduction of a Senate bill to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, on Capitol Hill, March 16, 2011.

(AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)

On Capitol Hill, Feinstein’s death leaves Senate Democrats with no margin for error until a successor is appointed.

Democrats now have a functional majority of just 50 seats in the Senate, while Republicans hold 49. At the same time, many Democrats are calling for the resignation of the indicted Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., although the embattled Democrat has vowed not to step down.

And while Democrats continue to control Congress’ upper chamber, Feinstein’s absence will make it harder to advance Biden’s judge nominees in the Judiciary Committee.

Newsom’s choices all run political risks.

Should he follow through on his pledge to avoid picking from those already running in the Senate primary, he could select a true caretaker who would be replaced by whomever voters select in next year’s election.

A handful of Black women in office have been floated as possibilities, including Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell.

Lee and others lashed out at Newsom earlier in the month after he indicated he would select a caretaker instead of picking from the current slate of candidates.

“The idea that a Black woman should be appointed only as a caretaker to simply check a box is insulting to countless Black women across this country who have carried the Democratic Party to victory election after election,” Lee tweeted.

Some California Democrats are still upset about Newsom’s last Senate appointment.

He chose Alex Padilla, then California’s secretary of state, to replace Kamala Harris in the Senate when she was elected vice president. That process took more than six weeks. That made Padilla California’s first Latino senator, but it also left the Senate without a Black woman.

He later promised that if Feinstein’s seat became vacant, he would choose a Black woman to replace her.

“He made the commitment and I do not believe there is any wiggle room for the governor not to honor his commitment,” Kerman Maddox, a Los Angeles-based Democratic strategist and fundraiser, said before Feinstein’s death.

In a recent interview with Fox 11 TV in Los Angeles, Newsom said he was being swamped with recommendations for how to fill a possible Senate vacancy.

The decision for Newsom is clouded by his personal relationship with the late senator.

Newsom, whose father was a prominent judge in San Francisco, has known Feinstein since he was a child and has spoken recently about their personal connection. He interned in her office in college and said he considers her to be family. He said it wasn’t long ago that she would call him on the phone to discuss a variety of issues, from water policy to forest management.

“I have no objectivity whatsoever,” he said in a recent interview with NBC when asked about Feinstein and her decision to stay in the Senate.

He said he was hoping he would never have to make a decision to fill her seat.

___

Peoples reported from New York. AP writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed.

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Nigel Duara, Cal Matters

California’s best-known prison is being reorganized into a rehabilitation center under a plan the governor announced Friday — a move hailed as revolutionary by some prison reform advocates but derided by prison abolitionists as mere window dressing, rather than the more dramatic changes the you want to.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $20 million to begin restructuring San Quentin State Prison from a facility housing 3,300 inmates in a high-security San Francisco Bay Area location to a “center for innovation focused on… Education, rehabilitation and breaking the cycle of crime.”

What that will look like in the end remains unclear for the time being. The new facility will be designed by an advisory committee made up of crime victims, ex-prisoners and academics, according to Newsom’s office. The democratically controlled legislature must also approve funding for the rehabilitation plan.

“This is certainly new, bold and ambitious, and I’m pleased to see it as a step in the right direction,” said Sharon Dolovich, director of the UCLA Prison Law and Policy Program.

“Sometimes it slips between cup and lip, so who knows how it will turn out. But the idea is right.”

Newsom’s office has not provided a final cost estimate for the facility’s restructuring. He marked four more state prisons to close since taking office in 2019, a trend made possible by the declining inmate population at California state prisons.

He said the increased emphasis on rehabilitation would better prepare inmates to rejoin their communities.

“We are here to do more and get better, to reconcile and to face the hard realities. We are as stupid as we want to be,” he said in a statement in prison. “Two-thirds of the people who get out of prison every year within three years violate a parole order or commit some other damned crime. Where’s the security in that?”

A Newsom spokesman said he does not expect to lay off prison staff as part of the change.

However, San Quentin is known as the home of California’s Death Row The state has not executed an inmate since 2006. Newsom in 2019 declared a moratorium on executions. In 2022, he announced a plan to disband death row and send convicted inmates to other locations.

The new plan would complete the closure of death row and shut down a prison industry agency camp. The facility would be renamed the San Quentin Rehabilitation Center.

Some of the larger questions about the reorganization will remain unanswered until the prison’s advisory committee makes a decision, including which inmates will be eligible for the rehabilitation center.

The new facility will also offer job training, according to the governor’s office, although the advisory committee must decide which jobs inmates will be trained for. In prisons in other states where job training is a priority, jobs include plumbing and long-distance transportation.

The plan for the new facility is based on prisons in Scandinavian countries, including Norway, which significantly improved its recidivism rate from 60% to 70% in the 1980s to around 20% today as it began to grant more freedom to prisoners and focused its prisons on rehabilitation.

In these prisons, inmates can wear their own clothes, cook their own food, and move relatively freely within the prison walls. This model has taken root in states as different as deep blue Connecticut and deep red North Dakota.

Conditions in San Quentin

As early as 1983, San Quentin was a symbol of California’s inability to safely house its inmates. A federal one Ministry of Justice report from that year pointed to overcrowded conditions, filthy facilities and “serious management problems.”

More than 20 years later, prisoners from San Quentin were among them to file a lawsuit against California’s prison system and claimed that the medical care they received was inadequate. As part of that lawsuit, a judge found that up to 10 deaths in San Quentin were due to preventable causes.

More recently, at least seven prisoners from San Quentin a hunger strike to protest what they described as dire conditions during a massive COVID-19 outbreak and quarantine at the facility in 2021.

Gangs could operate in San Quentin as they did in most California prisons. Even in his highest security unit, the Safe Housing Unit, which keeps particularly dangerous or influential inmates in solitary confinement for up to an hour or two a day, is a former member of a California prison gang CalMatters announced that he was able to lead a crew of Mexican mafia gang members out of the unit.

The prison, California’s oldest, also has a long list of maintenance needs that add up more than $1.6 billion in 2021. A report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office last month showed the state has the capacity to shut down up to nine prisons and eight yards by 2027, as California’s inmate population continues to shrink, and recommended closing those prisons with the greatest maintenance needs.

A model for rehabilitation in California

But San Quentin is also a center of opportunity for inmates, with a award-winning prison newspaper, the inmate-hosted podcast Ear Hustle, and a degree program that allows inmates to earn an associate’s degree in general studies after completing 20 classes.

Turning the few things that work at San Quentin on its head would be one of the downsides to restructuring the prison, said Brian Kaneda, associate director of Californians United for a Responsible Budget, which has a list of 10 prisons, the Newsom scheduled to close by 2027.

“One reason San Quentin isn’t on our list for closures is that it has good programming,” Kaneda said. “Well, there’s no such thing as a bad prison to close, we’d love for San Quentin to close, but what’s happening with the programming there?”

The broader plan, Kaneda said, set off “a major alarm bell” for prison abolitionists.

“The last thing California needs is a new incarceration philosophy spearheaded by (the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation) who have proven poor stewards of public trust,” Kaneda said.

The Assembly’s Republican caucus did not immediately respond to messages from CalMatters seeking comment.

A bill passed by lawmakers last year would have created a similar pilot program on other prison campuses. News vetoed the bill and blamed his expense.

the author of the bill, Assemblyman Carlos Villapuda, a Stockton Democrat, said he traveled to Norway with CDCR officials this year to better understand how their prisons work. Villapudua’s proposal focused on trucking, an industry in his district that he said needed fresh blood.

The proposal he devised would have allowed people incarcerated to obtain their commercial driver’s license while still in prison.

“Before you are released, you will be tested by the state,” Villapudua said. “This will be the answer to many of our prayers.”

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fired the latest volley this week in his feud with his California counterpart, Gov. Gavin Newsom, calling San Francisco a “dumpster fire” and saying he doesn’t want Golden State businesses moving to Florida.

A video posted to Twitter by the news site The Recount shows DeSantis warning that California businesses that have moved from San Francisco to Austin also brought liberal employees with them.

“Those employees would vote the exact same way they voted that turned San Francisco into the dumpster fire that it is,” he said. “It’s a problem because I do think there’s a class of voters who would come to Florida and they would continue to vote the same way.”

It’s the most recent flash point between the two leaders, who are both stars in their respective political parties and have risen to national prominence as a result of their wildly different approaches to COVID-19 precautions, education and overall governing philosophies.

DeSantis made the comments several days after Newsom criticized him on Twitter for punishing Disney over its opposition to Florida’s new law banning discussion of sexual orientation in early grades. After the entertainment company criticized the law, DeSantis and Florida lawmakers moved to strip Walt Disney World park of the special governing status that gives it autonomy to regulate its own construction projects. Dissolving the special tax district that gives Disney its authority would also result in a big tax cut for the company, which will likely be shouldered by local taxpayers.

“Desantis’ Disney/Don’t Say Gay retail bill could increase a million Floridians’ property tax bill by 25%,” Newsom wrote. “But go ahead and keep telling us about ‘fiscal responsibility’ & your ‘business-friendly climate.’”

A few days earlier, Newsom had described the move to punish Disney as “authoritarian.”

“We protect free speech in California,” he wrote. “Punishing businesses for speaking out against hatred is the move of an authoritarian regime.”

It’s the latest example of Newsom picking a fight with a prominent GOP politician. While Donald Trump was in office, Newsom and the Republican president often criticized each other, even as they had to work together as fires raged through California. Political strategists said the fights helped both men boost support among their base voters.

San Francisco, meanwhile, has long been a favorite punching bag for conservatives who want to criticize liberal policies — and raise campaign cash. The city’s visible homelessness and crime issues have become frequent talking points for politicians on the right.

Some of them are much closer to home for Newsom than DeSantis. Michael Shellenberger, who’s challenging Newsom in the race for governor, has recently been embraced by the right as a result of his book “San Fransicko” slamming San Francisco’s progressive policies. Shellenberger is running with no party preference but is framing his candidacy around opposition to the city’s liberal policies.

Sophia Bollag is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sophia.bollag@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SophiaBollag

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The misery experienced on San Francisco’s sidewalks has long offered a case study in the failure of California’s mental health care system. Now, the dire situation is inspiring a proposal for a sweeping overhaul.

gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan, to be unveiled Thursday, seeks to tackle two big flaws in the system: the shortage of desperately needed care and the strict limitations on compelling treatment for people who are too sick to understand they need help.

His proposal, called Care Court, would create a mental-health-focused arm of the civil courts in every county. For the first time, the state would require counties to provide comprehensive treatment to those suffering from debilitating psychosis — and risk sanctions if they don’t. The people in the program, in turn, would be obligated to accept the care.

In an exclusive interview Wednesday, Newsom grew visibly angry as he discussed his hometown — the city he presided over as mayor more than a decade ago — which prides itself on its so-called compassion as it lets people wither and die on its streets.

Previous efforts to compel treatment have often run into opposition from mental-health advocates who worry about a return to institutionalization, and say governments should focus on expanding voluntary care. But the governor said there’s no more time to debate people’s civil rights as they endure degradation, and no more time to argue about how to fund the much-needed help.

“There’s no compassion with people with their clothes off defecating and urinating in the middle of the streets, screaming and talking to themselves,” Newsom said. “There’s nothing appropriate about a kid and a mom going down the street trying to get to the park being accosted by people who clearly need help.

“I’m increasingly outraged by what’s going on in the streets,” he said. “I’m disgusted with it.”

Newsom, who has battled homelessness and mental illness in his official capacities for two decades — and has faced pressure to do more — sounded optimistic that this proposal could yield dramatic change.

Under his vision, people suffering from psychosis — whether from a mental illness such as schizophrenia or triggered by severe drug addiction — could be brought before a Superior Court judge under three scenarios: either they are suspected of a crime, an involuntary hold in a psychiatric emergency room is ending, or a family member or outreach worker believes they cannot care for themselves. A public defender would represent them.

A county clinical team would create a care plan with input from the person and their “supporter,” a county case manager who would help them navigate the process and make decisions.

The plan would likely include clinical services such as visits with a psychiatrist, prescriptions for medications and housing such as at a board-and-care facility. The person wouldn’t need to be homeless to qualify. If a judge ordered the plan, the county would be mandated to provide what’s needed and the person would be required to accept it.

If the person suffering from psychosis refused at any point to participate, their criminal case would proceed. If no crime was committed, they could face the existing state process, in which people who are gravely disabled or deemed to be a danger to themselves or others are placed under involuntary holds and eventual conservatorship. Medication could be court-ordered, but would not be forcibly given.

Failure to take mandated medications could mean the person reverts to the criminal court or eventual conservatorship. The idea is to help people long before either of those outcomes is necessary.

Care Court would need legislative approval, which Newsom hopes to secure by June for implementation in January. The legislative process will include debate over how much additional money to provide to the courts.

A loud contingent has fought increases in involuntary treatment and conservatorship for years—and may fight the governor’s plan, too. They include advocates for homeless and disabled people who say forcing people to accept treatment is cruel, as well as some politicians and mental health clinicians who say increasing the number of conservatorships without far more treatment beds and staff isn’t viable.

Newsom brushed off those concerns Wednesday, saying the status quo is intolerable.

It’s unclear whether his sweeping, expensive idea will pan out, but what’s certain is that the current system is failing miserably.

Every week in San Francisco seems to bring new, horrifying stories of people suffering because they are experiencing crippling mental illness or drug addiction. Last week, a homeless woman and mother of three whose ex-husband said she suffered from severe drug addiction, and whose friend said she had behaved erratically, died in a fire while taking shelter from the cold under a freeway overpass in Glen Park.

On Sunday, Leonard Krubner was riding a Muni train when another passenger shoved him, screamed about him being in the FBI, called him anti-gay slurs and brandished a switchblade. Krubner darted off the train and reported the incident to a Muni agent — who said a similar report had been made the night before.

“Hello! Someone, do something!” Krubner said in an interview. “I try to be sympathetic to people with problems. Nevertheless, we just can’t have them coming onto public transit and brandishing knives.”

On Saturday, a group of seven women and girls were celebrating a birthday at Ocean Beach when a man who said they seemed profoundly ill or high approached them, grabbed their food and threw it into the sand. He then grabbed a can of soda and hurled it into the face of Karla Flemmings, one of the celebrants, who passed out.

“I laid there and I literally asked, ‘God, am I dying today?'” Flemmings, 50, said. “Then I thought I’d lost my eye. I didn’t think it was even still there.”

A man sitting nearby called 911. Police responded and booked a 46-year-old man on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon and misdemeanor vandalism. He remains in jail.

Flemmings was diagnosed with a concussion and multiple fractures in her nose. Her face was severely swollen and her eye was shut for days. She spoke compassionately about the assailant, who said she appeared to be homeless and clearly needed help.

“I’m born and raised in San Francisco, and I’ve seen the drastic changes that have occurred firsthand,” she said. “So many people don’t have money when there’s so much wealth and opulence in the Bay Area. Something better has to be done — real services and real support.”

Last year, the state approved spending $12 billion to address homelessness and mental health. Newsom’s proposed budget for this year includes another $2 billion. Of the $14 billion total, $4.5 billion is tagged specifically for mental health treatment.

The state’s Mental Health Services Act, a 1% income tax on the wealthy that passed in 2004, will provide another $3.8 billion this year to counties for treatment, a pot that’s grown significantly from last year as incomes of the wealthiest Californians have soared.

Whether the money will be enough to provide the huge amount of care Newsom envisions is a big question, but the governor’s team says the program would save money elsewhere in pricey jails and hospitals.

Darrell Steinberg, the Sacramento mayor who authored the Mental Health Services Act when he was in the state Legislature, said he supports the Care Court concept because it would finally compel counties to provide services on the state’s dime.

“Everything that cities and counties are called upon to do in providing help and treatment is voluntary and optional,” Steinberg said. “We don’t say to our local communities, ‘You know, provide a free public education to kids or don’t, whatever you choose.’ We require it.”

Clearly, the up-to-you approach for counties when it comes to mental health isn’t adequate. Under Laura’s Law, the program designed to compel outpatient treatment for seriously mentally ill people, just 218 people in the entire state were subject to enter court-ordered treatment in 2018-19, according to the governor’s office.

The foundation for mental health treatment remains the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, signed by Gov. Ronald Reagan in 1967 in a bid to empower people experiencing mental illness. It allows for short, involuntary psychiatric holds if a person is deemed potentially dangerous, and allows a judge to appoint a longer-term conservator to make decisions for people who are “gravely disabled.”

But in 2019-20, though there were more than 55,000 short-term holds around the state, just 5,584 long-term conservatorships were put in place. Some of those could have been renewals in cases that are years or even decades old.

Last year, judges found 4,531 people incompetent to stand trial on felony charges, meaning they couldn’t understand the nature of their case or assist in their defense. Two-thirds of them were homeless, and nearly half had received no mental health treatment in the previous six months.

In June 2019, San Francisco opted into a controversial state law to expand eligibility for conservatorship to include those suffering from severe drug addictions and mental illness. But nearly three years later, just two people have been preserved.

Newsom called all of these initiatives “small ball” compared to Care Court, asserting that many of them involved years of fights for few results.

“This is a moral exercise,” he said. “The risk here is not taking one.”

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Heather Knight usually appears Sundays and Wednesdays. Email: hknight@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hknightsf

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The goal is to turn the section at San Quentin State Prison into a “positive, healing environment.”

“We are starting the process of closing death row to repurpose and transform the current housing units into something innovative and anchored in rehabilitation,” corrections department spokeswoman Vicky Waters told The Associated Press.

California, which last carried out an execution in 2006, is one of 28 states that maintain death rows, along with the US government, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. While other states like Illinois have abolished executions, California is merging its condemned inmates into the general prison population with no expectation that any will face execution anytime in the near future.

Oregon similarly transferred its much smaller condemned population to other inmate housing two years ago.

RELATED: Gov. Newsom plans to halt executions in California

Newsom, a Democrat, imposed a moratorium on executions in 2019 and shut down the state’s execution chamber at San Quentin, north of San Francisco. Now his administration is turning on its head a 2016 voter-approved initiative intended to speed up executions by capitalizing on one provision that allowed inmates to be moved off death row.

Corrections officials began a voluntary two-year pilot program in January 2020 that as of Friday had moved 116 of the state’s 673 condemned male inmates to one of seven other prisons that have maximum security facilities and are surrounded by lethal electrified fences.

They intend to submit permanent proposed regulations within weeks that would make the transfers mandatory and “allow for the repurposing of all death row housing units,” Waters said.

The ballot measure approved six years ago also required condemned inmates to participate in prison jobs, with 70% of the money going for restitution to their victims, and corrections officials said that’s their goal with the transfers. By the end of last year, more than $49,000 in restitution had been collected under the pilot program.

Newsom’s proposed budget for the fiscal year starting July 1 seeks $1.5 million to find new uses for the vacant condemned housing.

It notes that death row and its supporting activities are in the same area as facilities used for rehabilitation programs for medium-security San Quentin inmates. The money would be used to hire a consultant to “develop options for (the) space focused on creating a positive, healing environment to provide increased rehabilitative, educational and health care opportunities.”

San Quentin’s never-used $853,000 execution chamber is in a separate area of ​​the prison, and there are no plans to “repurpose” that area, Waters said.

Copyright © 2022 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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San Francisco royalty, the Getty family, took over their hometown for a big wedding last weekend – Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly attended during his lengthy public absence – which was very strange.

Reported in detail by Vogue, the luxury affair celebrated the wedding of Ivy Getty, the great-granddaughter of oil magnate J. Paul Getty, and photographer Tobias Alexander Engel.

Here’s a roundup of the strangest things that happened, from IV fluids to famous bridesmaids.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, will meet with reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday, October 12, 2021. (AP Photo / J. Scott Applewhite)J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press

A premier officer

House spokeswoman Nancy Pelosi, a San Francisco-born daughter, presided over the wedding. The affair took place in the San Francisco City Hall, which was decorated with pink and blue-green Persian carpets for the occasion. Even the massive rotunda was carpeted.

According to Vogue, attendees were asked to put on their masks before Pelosi’s performance.

Anya Taylor-Joy poses for a portrait in Belfast’s Titanic area in Northern Ireland on Tuesday October 6, 2020. Taylor-Joy has been named one of The Associated Press’ Groundbreaking Entertainers of 2020. (AP Photo / Peter Morrison)Peter Morrison / Associated Press

A famous bridesmaid

Anya Taylor-Joy, who rose to superstar as the leading actress in “Queen’s Gambit”, is said to have served Ivy Getty as the bridesmaid. Apparently she led the bridal shower in a dance through the altar to “Miracles Can Happen” (the song from “Princess Diaries,” also set in San Francisco) sung by Myra.

Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference in Oakland, California on October 27, 2021.

Jeff Chiu / Associated Press

Well-known politicians present

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and California Governor Gavin Newsom reportedly attended the wedding. You can read more about Newsom’s appearance at the wedding during an extended absence from the public here.

A dog ring bearer

Ivy Getty’s Chihuahua Rescue Blue served as ring bearer. He was apparently lured in by none other than Pelosi.

IV is dripping on the log cabin

After a nightly “Mod-Party” on Friday, via Vogue, the wedding celebration began on Saturday morning with a picnic in the Log Cabin on the Presidio.

“Infusions were available for anyone who needed help recovering from the night before,” reports Vogue.

Ann Getty was sitting in the living room of her home in San Francisco in 1977.

Horst P. Horst / Conde Nast via Getty Images

An unusual subject

The motto of the wedding was Ivy Getty’s grandmother, who died in 2020, philanthropist and interior designer Ann Getty.

“The theme of my entire wedding is the house and my grandmother,” Ivy Getty told Vogue.

Various works of art from Ann Getty’s home were incorporated into the invitations, and Ivy Getty borrowed jewelry from her grandmother’s collection to incorporate into her wedding look. Even Getty’s ring contained diamonds that were given to her by her grandmother when the bride was a teenager.

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One month before California votes on whether or not to remove Governor Gavin Newsom, and days before people get their postal ballots – if they haven’t received yours yet – Newsom is running a four-day campaign tour encouraging voters to, ” Choose No. “

While many people in Newsom state may not like or long for change amid the pandemic crisis, right now with “yes” and “no” voters, almost even in polls, the situation is kind of scary. And given the alternatives on the ballot, Democrats must be afraid to vote against the dismissal and make sure everyone they know votes, as that ultimately comes down to voter turnout. Just a few months ago, Newsom was way ahead in the polls and a clear majority of Californians were happy with his job as governor.

Newsom met with volunteers and held an event in San Francisco on Friday at 10 a.m., KRON4 reports, and it will fly across the state today holding separate events in Los Angeles and San Diego.

The message he’s spreading is that if you don’t vote no, you have a Republican in the governor’s office and very likely a self-proclaimed libertarian radio host and Fox News expert, Larry Elder, who swore all pandemic – Revoke mandates if elected. In case you haven’t heard, Elder, who is black, does not believe in systemic racism and wants to abolish the minimum wage.

That alone should scare everyone into voting.

President Joe Biden today made a strong statement of support for Newsom, and Politico reports that the White House is considering sending him and Vice President Kamala Harris to California to promote the “no” side.

“Governor Newsom is leading California through unprecedented crises,” said Biden. “He is a key partner in fighting the pandemic and providing economic aid to working families, helping us rebuild our economy better than ever. He takes on the climate crisis and campaigns for the rights of women, immigrants and the LGBTQ community. He knows how to get his job done because he did it. And to keep him at work, registered California voters should vote no by September 14th and move California forward. “

Senator Elizabeth Warren previously ran a Stop the Republican Recall ad that you may have seen on television. And more ads from big names in the party may still follow.

According to an exclusive poll, according to KRON4, 46% of voters said they would vote for Newsom’s removal and 48% said they would vote against removal. 6% were undecided which makes this a dead race.

The special elections will take place on September 14th and the early voting will begin on Monday.

Related: You saw Elizabeth Warren’s ad, now wait for Biden, Sanders, and others to assist Newsom in the recall

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez / Getty Images

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