Welcome to my office. On nice mornings, anyway, I'll do my prep work for The KFBK Afternoon News in my back yard---a mug of coffee, a laptop, Cristina Mendonsa and Sam Shane on The KFBK Morning News streaming on the iHeartRadio app and a full inbox from overnight. Let's see what's new in our state and our world today:
- Sixty-five degrees in the backyard at 7:00 a.m. Oh, that feels nice! We get a few days' break from the triple-digit heat, with the Weather Service saying 92 for Sacramento today, 88 Friday, 86 Saturday and 92 Sunday. Best of all, nighttime temperatures will be in the mid-to-upper 50s, making for pleasant evenings, good sleeping and really nice mornings.
- A disturbing but important read in today's Sacramento Bee about how murder in local jails has risen by 46 percent in the last eight years. What's changed? California's realignment policy, which sends many violent convicted felons to county jails---formerly populated by people awaiting trial and entitled to the presumption of innocence--- instead of state prisons. Meaning people in jail for relatively minor offenses are sharing space, and in some cases, cells, with people convicted of far more dangerous crimes.
- More notes from behind bars: The 3rd District Court of Appeal here in Sacramento has overturned pot possession convictions against five Sacramento men who were inmates. The court ruled that Prop 64 legalizes possession, and doesn't exclude inmates from that right. A Catch-22: California law does specifically prohibit ingestion or smoking cannabis. And prisons can regulate possession, the same as with alcohol or tobacco---they just won't be able to add time for mere possession.
- Just in: California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has filed a motion, along with the Attorney General of the State of New Mexico, asking a court to find that President Trump's diversion of $2.5 million in funding to the border wall is illegal and permanently block the action.
- We are nine months from the California Primary (it's been moved up to March), and a new UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll shows former Vice-President in the lead, but not dominating in the way he has been in national polls. Poll director Mark DiCamillo says it's a "wide-open race" between the top three--Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders---here. The poll is troubling for California Senator Kamala Harris, who comes in fourth and doesn't dominate any single constituency.
- Fodor's, the travel guide publisher, has come out with an inaugural list of the best and worst airports around the world. Both the best airport in the U.S. and the worst in the world are here in California.
Let me hear from you on these stories or others. There's a "comment" button at the bottom.
I hope you'll join Kitty O'Neal , Dana Hess, Kelly Brothers and me today from 4:00 to 7:00 on The KFBK Afternoon News at 93.1 FM, 1530 AM and on the iHeartRadio app.