In the News

It’s natural to express love for children. Most everyone feels affection for innocents.
But what about a child convicted of murder? What about a kid who’s sentenced to grow up, grow old and then die in prison?

In California, 290 prison inmates are serving lifetime sentences for crimes they committed when they were children, when many were too young to drive, when all were too young to vote.

California legislators will have a chance next week to end a practice that most of the world long ago deemed wrong: Condemning children as young as 14 years old to life behind bars without the possibility of parole.
Monday, the Assembly is expected to take up legislation reintroduced by state Sen. Leland Yee, D-San Francisco, that restores hope to these imprisoned juveniles by permitting the courts, after a minor has served at least 15 years, to consider resentencing him or her to at least 25 years to life.

The California State Legislature is considering a bill that aims to re-examine juveniles’ life prison terms after 15 years.

A controversial bill headed for a vote in California has stirred up conversation again about whether life sentences for juveniles need to be re-examined.

Under the state bill, which received a key vote Wednesday to allow it to head to the Assembly floor for a vote, some juvenile offenders would get the opportunity for release.

Rebecca Bowe 

Christian Bracamontes was 16 years old and had never been in trouble with the law when he made a decision that landed him in a California prison, serving out a sentence of life without parole.

He was part of a tagging crew, and he and a friend had gone down to a wash to hang out and do graffiti. When his friend showed him that he had a gun in his bag, he was surprised. A group of kids came down to the wash and offered to sell them weed, but they refused. Then his friend got an idea. 

In a victory for accountability and transparency, the Assembly Governmental Organization Committee has approved state Sen. Leland Yee's bill compelling auxiliaries and foundations affiliated with California State University, University of California and California community college campuses to comply with state public records laws.

The bill, which applies to most financial records, contracts and correspondence, moves on to the floor of Assembly.

As the window closes for locating Bay Area passengers lost at sea when the charter fishing boat they were on capsized off the Baja California coast early Sunday morning, one local lawmaker is fighting to keep the search alive.

More than forty people, including a group of fisherman from various Bay Area cities who were on a trip together, were aboard the boat operated by the fishing excursion company Baja Sportfishing Inc. when it sank Sunday at 2:30 a.m.

By Tammerlin Drummond
Oakland Tribune Columnist

A 13-year-old cannot legally buy a magazine with nudity in it.

That's because in a landmark 1968 decision, Ginsberg v. New York, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government has the right to shield a minor from sexually explicit images that it deems unfit for children.

By Bill Silverfarb Daily Journal staff

A shopper weighs his selection at GameStop in the Hillsdale Shopping Center Monday afternoon. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled yesterday that retailers should not be fined for selling ultra-violent video games to children.

The U.S. Supreme Court shot down a California law yesterday that banned the sales of ultra-violent video games to minors.

The 2005 law, authored by state Sen.