California  Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill to restore $ 16.3 million to domestic violence shelters today.

CODEPINK, an anti-war female advocacy group, cancelled “A Walk in her Shoes”—a rally they planned to hold at Los Angeles’ Town Hall on Friday—in protest of the Governor’s decision to gut funding for shelters last July.

After Gov. Schwarzenegger line-item vetoed all public funding for domestic abuse programs this summer, six shelters in the state closed. Others scaled back the hours they provided services or cut staff.

Money from a vehicle technology fund–that California will have to find a way to repay in 3 years—will refund the shelters.

Introduced by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco), the bill received the support of 2,600 people who joined a SAVE Domestic Violence Shelters Facebook page.
The musician Moby, who’s mother is a survivor of domestic abuse, voiced his support of the bill at three California concerts this week. He donated the proceeds  to shelters in the state.

Read more…

The past months have left an indelible print on the issue of civil rights in America.  After the gay marriage ban passed in California, the issue of gay marriage was once again thrust into the mainstream conversation.

The California Supreme Court upheld the proposition on Tuesday, at the same time protecting the 18,000 marriages which occurred when gay marriage was briefly considered legal.  In the wake of the legal decision, which will likely go to the U.S. Supreme Court, two well-known, partisan civil rights attorneys have joined together to file a Federal lawsuit against Prop 8.
Read more…

Always wanting to be a step ahead of other states and currently in the middle of a terrible budget deficit to the tune of $16 billion due to the recession, California may become the first state in the U.S. to legalize marijuana for recreational use and therefore make a killing off of taxes on the drug.

The Snitch, the San Francisco Weekly’s blog, broke the news yesterday that Assemblyman Tom Ammiano will introduce legislation to legalize marijuana in all forms, removing “all penalties in California law on cultivation, transportation, sale, purchase, possession, or use of marijuana, natural THC, or paraphernalia for persons over the age of 21,” according to Ammiano’s press secretary Quintin Mecke.

Read more…