California Attorney General says to tackle foster care abuse

By Sharon Bernstein SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) - California Attorney General Kamala Harris said on Thursday she would take on the state's troubled foster care system as part of a new initiative to combat crimes related to children and youth. Harris, a Democrat who is running for the U.S. Senate seat to be vacated in 2016 by Democrat Barbara Boxer, said she would also tackle other issues, including truancy, human trafficking, juvenile justice and childhood trauma. She said she is starting a Bureau of Children's Justice within the Attorney General's office, and one of its first tasks would be "to look at enforcement gaps in the foster care system and ensure that government agencies are held accountable to those entrusted in their care." In November, a 2-year-old Sacramento-area child died in foster care, and the safety of the system has long been an issue in Los Angeles. "As officials and employees in positions of public trust, we all have a duty to care for and protect the children placed into foster care in California," Harris said in a letter to the county social service agencies that run foster care programs in the state. The bureau, which will be staffed with civil rights attorneys as well as criminal lawyers, will also take on discrimination and inequalities in the state's massive public education system, Harris said. (Reporting by Sharon Bernstein; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)