Newsom won’t get into ‘back-and-forth’ over Trump + More cannabis cops + Meet our new reporter
It’s been a rough few days here in the Capitol. As always, we appreciate you reading.
NEWSOM AND TRUMP
Gov. Gavin Newsom, once a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, on Monday continued his policy of avoiding directly disparaging the commander-in-chief during the coronavirus outbreak.
Trump chastised governors during a teleconference Monday morning for their handling of protests over the death of George Floyd.
“Most of you are weak,” Trump said. “You have to arrest people.”
Newsom was asked, by the Capitol Bureau’s own Sophia Bollag, to respond to Trump’s remarks.
“My reaction is the meeting (with black community leaders) I just had. My reaction are the words that I just spoke. My reaction is my commitment to the people of this state, the most diverse state in the world’s most diverse democracy, to focus on the things that unite us, not what divides us,” Newsom said.
His comments referred reporters to his previous remarks in which he expressed empathy with protesters. He said, “For those of you out there protesting, I want you to know that you matter. To those who want to express themselves... God bless you. Keep doing it. Your rage is real.”
The governor said that he would provide resources, such as the California National Guard, to communities across the state as needed, but he said the state must focus resources on addressing systemic problems. They’re now deployed in Los Angeles and Sacramento.
Though Newsom declined to be “part of the daily back-and-forth” of critics of the president, some of whom are fellow Democratic governors, he did indirectly criticize Trump on Monday.
“I could choose to go back-and-forth and just be another voice in that cause. Or I can choose to focus a message that I think is so much more powerful and I hope more resonant to people watching. And that is I care more about them than some of the noise I heard on a morning phone call,” Newsom said.
Asked about Trump’s leadership, Newsom said, “Leadership can be found anywhere. In the absence of leaders in people in positions of formal authority, we have people that exercise their moral authority each and every day.”
You can read Hannah Wiley’s report on Newsom’s press conference here.
MORE CANNABIS COPS
California’s Bureau of Cannabis Control is looking to beef up its law enforcement presence.
The bureau in a new state budget request is asking lawmakers to let it build an 87-member police force that would enforce the 2016 law voters passed legalizing recreational cannabis. It’d create the law enforcement branch by absorbing 58 positions from another department, and hiring 29 more cannabis cops.
The department is trying to contain a black market that pervades the state three years after California’s first recreational marijuana stores opened.
In 2019, the bureau seized nearly 24 tons of illicit cannabis, while the California Highway Patrol in 2018 seized more than 80 tons.
Black market cannabis operators made an estimated $8.3 billion in sales in 2019, compared to the $3.1 billion the legal market made, according to projections from BDS Analytics and Arcview Market Research.
“Investigators have seized millions in untested products, including cannabis flower, edibles, tinctures, concentrates — all bypassing the state’s testing and labeling requirements,” said George Tiongson, president of the California Association of Criminal Investigators, an affiliate of the union that represents employees the bureau’s employees.
“Not only does this put the public in danger but it circumvents the control points set by regulations to ensure a safe product is available to the public, all while preventing access to youth under 18,” he said.
Read the full story here on the bureau’s plan to put some more muscle into its enforcement operations.
THE CAP BUREAU ADDS A MEMBER
Meet the newest member of our team in the Capitol Bureau, Kim Bojórquez.
Bojórquez, a Los Angeles native, started at the bureau on Monday, and will be covering Latino communities in California.
She comes to The Sacramento Bee by way of Report for America, a nationwide initiative from the nonprofit The GroundTruth Project that aims to put reporters in newsrooms across the country.
A 2019 graduate from Utah Valley University, where she majored in journalism and minored in Latin American studies, Bojórquez told the Bee that she is excited to cover an “often misunderstood” community.
“I’m really excited to join a newsroom where I’ll be focusing on Latino life in California,” said Bojórquez. “When I was in college I started writing for my college newspaper because I just felt that we weren’t highlighting Latino life.”
Bojórquez previously worked for Deseret News in Salt Lake City, where she also covered Latin American issues.
She was out last night talking with protesters in Sacramento’s Cesar Chavez Place. Email her at kbojorquez@sacbee.com and find her on Twitter @kimbojorque.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“The black community is not responsible for what’s happening in this country right now. We are. We are. Our institutions are responsible. We are accountable to this moment. Let’s just call that out.”
- Gov. Gavin Newsom, in his Monday press conference.
Best of the Bee:
Looting and vandalism hit the streets of midtown and downtown Sacramento late Sunday, the second straight day mostly peaceful demonstrations in the afternoon against Minneapolis police officers’ killing of George Floyd were followed by shattered windows and dumpster fires after nightfall, via Michael McGough, Tony Bizjak and Dale Kasler.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration moved quickly to place California state employees in positions as coronavirus contact tracers after his call for volunteers failed to come up with enough of them. Too quickly for some workers and their unions, via Wes Venteicher.
The citywide curfew announced Monday by Mayor Darrell Steinberg appears to be the first in Sacramento’s modern history, via Dale Kasler.