SACRAMENTO – Gov. Jerry Brown will decide whether to eliminate California’s 10-year time limit to bring rape and child molestation charges after several women were precluded from bringing cases against actor Bill Cosby.

A measure the Senate approved unanimously Tuesday evening would apply only to crimes committed in the future. It would not allow Cosby’s accusers to seek prosecution for sexual assault they say he committed decades ago.

Cosby has repeatedly denied the allegations made by dozens of women around the country.

Democratic Sen. Connie Leyva of Chino says victims should always have the opportunity to seek justice after such violent acts.

Read more: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/cosby-727498-bill-victims.html

The county has agreed to pay $2.3 million to the family of a man who died in San Diego’s central jail in 2012 from a drug overdose, the second time in less than two years that taxpayers have funded a multimillion-dollar settlement over an inmate’s death.

The parents of Bernard Victorianne sued the sheriff’s department in 2014, claiming that jail staff knew the 28-year-old swallowed a baggie of methamphetamine and then failed to act on obvious signs of medical distress for days.

Both sides agreed on Aug. 2 to settle the case. Later that day, in a closed session meeting, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to approve the settlement.

The lawsuit, filed by attorneys Julia Yoo and Eugene Iredale, argued that Victorianne’s death was the result of "a systemic failure to investigate incidents of misconduct and deaths in the jail.”

Read more: http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/2016/aug/30/bernard-victorianne-settlement/

A tentative agreement has been reached between state government’s legal corps and Gov. Jerry Brown.

“This (Memorandum of Understanding) reflects an agreement designed to benefit all members of Bargaining Unit 2, address the structural pay concerns our unit has faced for years, and fix classification issues that have restricted promotional opportunities,” the union’s board wrote in the email to members and obtained by The Sacramento Bee.

The agreement includes, among other things, a 14 percent salary increase for the state’s lawyers phased in over the next two years.

A spokesperson for the California Attorneys, Administrative Law Judges, and Hearing Officers in State Employment confirmed Wednesday that an agreement was out for ratification by the union membership and that it contained the 14 percent pay bump but would not elaborate further. CASE represents nearly 3,500 legal professionals.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article97970307.html

AUSTIN — Half of the 10 people who run Texas Child Protective Services' regional offices have been fired or have retired, an agency spokesman confirmed Tuesday.

George Cannata, who runs the North Texas or Region 3 office in Arlington, will keep the director job he was given last spring.

But five others will be replaced, including one in far West Texas who chose to retire rather than reapply for her job and be re-evaluated, CPS spokesman Patrick Crimmins said.

In June, newly installed CPS chief Henry "Hank" Whitman, the former head of the Texas Rangers, announced a 10-point plan for improving the agency, which has come under intense fire this year for shoddy case work and poor management.

Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20160830-half-of-texas-child-protective-services-10-regional-directors-are-fired-or-retire.ece

Responding to complaints from gun-rights advocates pushing for greater access to public buildings, the Texas attorney general has sued a southeast Texas county that tried to ban guns from its courthouse.

“A local government cannot be allowed to flout Texas’s licensed carry laws, or any state law, simply because it disagrees with the law or doesn’t feel like honoring it,” Republican Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton said in a statement announcing the lawsuit Tuesday against Waller County, about 55 miles west of Houston. “I will vigilantly protect and preserve the 2nd Amendment rights of Texans.”

Waller County Judge Trey Duhon said the announcement wasn’t a surprise: Earlier this month, the attorney general’s office substantiated a complaint about the county’s action and notified Waller officials that if they didn’t respond in 15 days, they could face a lawsuit.

“We fully expected it to be filed, and we look forward to a hearing on the merits,” Duhon said. “We believe we are fully complying with what the Texas Legislature intended.”

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-texas-guns-20160830-snap-story.html

Conservatives already love to bash Austin — that bag-ban loving, Uber-hating, Democrat-electing enclave in the center of the most Republican mega state in the country.

Now the Texas capital city is poised to get the biggest target yet on its back: it is likely to become the first true “sanctuary city” in GOP-ruled Texas.

In a move that would defy not just Republican orthodoxy but also the Obama administration’s policy on deporting criminal immigrants, the county where Austin sits is on the verge of ending cooperation with the federal government on immigration matters.

That’s because the Democratic candidate for Travis County sheriff, Constable Sally Hernandez, has promised to get U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, out of the county jail. More specifically, she says she won’t hold inmates for ICE when the federal agency seeks to remove them from the country.

Read more: https://www.texastribune.org/2016/08/31/austin-poised-become-first-sanctuary-city-texas/

The Federal Aviation Administration has threatened legal action against Santa Monica over its effort to reduce flight operations at the city’s airport, force out aeronautical tenants and close the historic facility within two years.

In a strongly worded letter Monday, the FAA reminded Mayor Tony Vazquez of what it termed as the city’s obligations under federal agreements to keep the airport open at least until 2023 and treat aviation tenants and aircraft owners fairly.

“The FAA is prepared to pursue all legal remedies at its disposal if the City Council takes concrete actions to restrict leases or operations without complying with applicable federal law,” wrote Kevin C. Willis, the agency’s director of airport compliance.

In a statement, Vazquez said Tuesday that city officials were not surprised by the FAA’s letter.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-faa-letter-20160830-snap-story.html

A Northern California strawberry grower has been fined $2.4 million and ordered to repay kickbacks and rent he demanded from Mexican workers he hired under a federal visa program for agricultural employees, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

Gonzalo Fernandez, who operated Fernandez Farms Inc. on about 50 acres southeast of Watsonville, demanded payments of more than $1,600 apiece from several hundred foreign workers over two picking seasons as reimbursement for transportation and other costs of bringing the laborers from villages in Mexico, according to a decision issued last week by Administrative Law Judge Richard Clark.

Under the federally supervised H-2A work visa program, which was designed to help offset seasonal shortages of domestic workers, employers must pay all of those costs and provide free housing.

“If you really need foreign workers, this is a cost you should be bearing,” said Abigail Daquiz, senior trial attorney in the Labor Department’s Seattle office, who worked on the case. “We’re finding that in lots of different ways, employees are having to pay that back, being forced to kick it back.”

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-farm-worker-fine-20160830-snap-story.html

A New York Democratic hopeful has vowed to fight to ban images of same-sex couples from school textbooks and voiced his opposition to same-sex marriage.

Queens candidate S.J. Jung, who is challenging incumbent Senator Toby Ann Stavisky in the September 13 primary, made the comments earlier this year to a Korean religious group.

At the same meeting last March, Jung asked for prayers “so I can get elected to the New York State Senate to stop {same-sex marriage and others issues of concern} from happening.”

In a statement to the NY Daily News, Jung did not deny raising the issue of seeking to keep pictures of gay couples out of textbooks. He also confirmed that he opposes same-sex marriage because he believes “in the Bible’s teaching that marriage is between a man and a woman.” He added that his opposition to marriage equality is a “matter of distinction, not a matter of discrimination.”

Read more: http://www.towleroad.com/2016/08/sj-jung/

TUCSON, AZ (Tucson News Now) - A Tucson hospital was locked down on Tuesday night, Aug. 30, after reports of a shooting in an adjacent parking area.

Tucson police say a woman was shot in the northeast parking garage. She was taken to Banner-University Medical Center for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.

It was not immediately known if the woman was an employee of TMC or a visitor or patient.

The hospital was placed on lockdown until shortly after 11 p.m.

Read more: http://www.tucsonnewsnow.com/story/32935487/tucson-police-shooting-reported-at-tucson-medical-center?clienttype=generic&sf34741281=1