In an Op Ed in Monday’s LA Times, Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstin of CalBuzz, analyze the two declared candidates for California governor, Republican eBay diva, Meg Whitman, and Insurance Commissioner, Steve Poizner —and the undeclared candidate, the once and maybe-would-be governor, Jerry Brown.
I can at least answer one question that Roberts and Trounstin pose:
Q: When will Jerry formally announce?
A: This Tuesday. (Call it an informed bet.)
UPDATE: Like I said.
For me the other question to be answered is this: now that Jerry’s spent the last two years madly courting every law enforcement organization, agency and union in California, how progressive will he have the nerve to be on criminal justice issues in a state that desperately needs wise criminal justice management and reform?
On an unrelated topic, Marc Cooper’s ongoing commentary on the Chilean earthquake has been excellent.
Wonder what Jerry Brown our Attorney General has to say about these hard working “undocumented farmers”?
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100301/ap_on_re_us/us_drug_war_pot_farms
SEQUOIA NATIONAL FOREST, Calif. – Not far from Yosemite’s waterfalls and in the middle of California’s redwood forests, Mexican drug gangs are quietly commandeering U.S. public land to grow millions of marijuana plants and using smuggled immigrants to cultivate them.
“Just like the Mexicans took over the methamphetamine trade, they’ve gone to mega, monster gardens,” said Brent Wood, a supervisor for the California Department of Justice’s Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement. He said Mexican traffickers have “supersized” the marijuana trade.
Interviews conducted by The Associated Press with law enforcement officials across the country showed that Mexican gangs are largely responsible for a spike in large-scale marijuana farms over the last several years.
Local, state and federal agents found about a million more pot plants each year between 2004 and 2008, and authorities say an estimated 75 percent to 90 percent of the new marijuana farms can be linked to Mexican gangs.