Gavin Newsom fulfills promise of medical aid to Israel. Aid to Gaza is still waiting.

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AS ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR RAGES ON, CALIFORNIA SENDS MEDICAL SUPPLIES

The war between Israel and the militant group Hamas has raged for more than a month now.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israeli civilians left around 1,400 dead and about 240 people kidnapped, prompting Israel to launch a counter-offensive that has led to a Palestinian death toll in excess of 11,000, according to NPR.

It was in the middle of that violence that California Gov. Gavin Newsom made a surprise visit to Israel, vowing to send support to both the people of Israel and the people of Gaza, where most of the fighting is taking place.

On Nov. 7, the governor made good on part of that promise, delivering to Tel Aviv 52 pallets of medical supplies, including hospital beds, support equipment, wound and IV kits, defibrillators, wheelchairs, personal protective equipment and other emergency supplies, according to Brian Ferguson, of the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

“The supplies sent by the state were deemed surplus and do not impact California’s ability to rapidly respond to any disasters that may occur on our home front,” Ferguson told The Bee in an email.

Aid to Gaza is more complicated, Ferguson said.

“The delivery of supplies to Gaza is dependent on the humanitarian corridor for aid,” he said. “California is working closely with both the United States Department of State and trusted international aid groups to ensure these supplies directly reach displaced civilians.”

Israel has agreed to daily, four-hour pauses in military operations to allow humanitarian aid into the area and for Palestinian civilians to escape from danger, according to Politico.

BIDEN COULD SOON SECURE MORE CALIFORNIA JUDGE CONFIRMATIONS

Via Gillian Brassil...

The Senate filled two California court vacancies with women of color last week. Today lawmakers will almost certainly send a Latina judge to the federal court that handles appeals. And two more women nominated by President Joe Biden could soon be considered by the Senate for life-time California judgeships.

Last week, the Senate sent both Judge Kenly Kiya Kato and Mónica Ramírez Almadani to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, which covers the Los Angeles area. The Senate will vote Monday on Judge Ana de Alba for the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The Ninth Circuit considers appellate cases for nine states, including California, and two territories.

Kato had been a U.S. Magistrate Judge for the Central District since 2014. In the decade prior, she was an attorney representing clients in civil and criminal cases. From 1997 to 2003, she was a deputy federal public defender in Los Angeles.

“As the daughter of Japanese-American parents interned during World War II, Judge Kato understands the power — and the fragility — of equal justice under the law on a deeply personal level,” California Sens. Alex Padilla and Laphonza Butler, both members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement.

Since 2021, Ramírez Almadani had been the president and CEO of Public Counsel, the largest provider of pro bono legal services in the U.S. She taught at UC Irvine’s School of Law and was a special counsel at Covington & Burling LLP. Ramírez Almadani was also a special assistant attorney general in the California Attorney General’s Office and an assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District.

“Ms. Ramírez Almadani has dedicated her career to the pursuit of equal justice and will bring important civil rights experience to the federal bench,” said Lena Zwarensteyn of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Last year, the Senate confirmed de Alba as a judge for the Eastern District, which covers from the Oregon border along the Nevada line through Bakersfield. Born to Mexican immigrant farmworkers in Merced County, de Alba was appointed by former Gov. Jerry Brown as a judge for the Fresno County Superior Court in 2018. She had worked as an attorney in Fresno for over a decade.

“Judge Ana de Alba’s career has been steeped in defending the rights of working people,” Zwarensteyn said, “and she brings experience as a fair-minded judge on the Eastern District of California — where last year she became the first Latina lifetime judge to serve.”

The president nominates potential federal judges. The Senate must confirm them after they are vetted by the Judiciary Committee.

Biden, a Democrat, has won approval of more than 150 nominees for life-time judgeships by the Senate, which has a slim Democratic majority. More than 100 have been women, and more than 100 of them have been people of color.

The Judiciary Committee has approved Biden’s nomination of Marion Gaston, a judge on the San Diego County Superior Court, to serve in the Southern District. The committee is still considering Eumi Lee, the first Korean American to serve on the Alameda County Superior Court, for the Northern District.

CHINO VALLEY UNIFIED’S LEGAL BILL TRIPLED AFTER TRANSGENDER OUTING POLICY IMPLEMENTED

The Chino Valley Unified School District board’s decision to enact a policy of outing transgender students to their parents has proved to be an expensive one.

The district’s legal fees to the firm Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo more than tripled between July (when the school board voted to enact the policy requiring school staff to notify parents if their child uses a different name or pronouns while at school) and August (when Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a civil rights investigation into the district that led to a lawsuit).

A San Bernardino County Superior Court judge has put most of the policy on pause while the legal challenge goes on.

According to public records, shared by opposition group Our Schools USA, the district paid the law firm $30,903 in July, but then $104,867 in August and $54,988 in September. That is in addition to more than $307,000 for the 2022-23 academic year.

The board voted Sept. 11 to retain conservative legal group Liberty Justice Center to represent them pro bono in the state lawsuit. The contract stipulates that Liberty Justice Center will not be liable in the event that the school district is ordered to pay damages, legal fees or costs.

In a statement, Liberty Justice Center Senior Counsel Emily Rae said that her organization provides all legal services for free, “so Chino Valley will never receive a bill.”

Rae said that Bonta’s lawsuit forced the school district to seek legal counsel.

“They have every right to defend themselves and their families, and the Attorney General should not act like a bully with impunity. The Constitution, common sense and public opinion are on our side including 84% of California voters who support such a policy. We will continue to defend all those he unfairly attacks,” Rae said.

Despite retaining the Liberty Justice Center’s services, the district continues to rely on Atkinson, Andelson, Loya, Ruud & Romo for legal representation in the case, according to Our Schools USA.

A spokesman for the firm referred The Bee to the school district for any comment.

School Board President Sonja Shaw told KCAL in an interview that the district “won’t pay a dime” to defend the policy. Shaw has gone on to tell other school boards to take up the fight as well, saying that the Liberty Justice Center will represent them free of charge.

In an email to The Bee, Shaw said that the Liberty Justice Center was retained in mid-September, after the August payments.

“LJC is doing this for absolutely free and we are not paying them a dollar. School Boards always have local counsel for a variety of issues. Additionally, maybe the Attorney General of California shouldn’t be suing taxpayers and school districts who pass policies by duly elected officials,” Shaw wrote.

In a statement, Our Schools USA co-founder Kristi Hirst accused Shaw of putting her own personal gain against the needs of people she’s elected to serve.

“Between CVUSD wasting money on lawsuits before, the forced outing policy that just lost in court, and Shaw inviting another lawsuit with the State of California with her book banning proposal, it’s clear this board is determined to squander significant taxpayer dollars on not educating our children once again,” Hirst said.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I endorse Ace Hardware.”

- State Sen. Dave Min, D-Irvine, via X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, responding to news that former Home Depot boss Bernie Marcus has endorsed former President Donald Trump.

Best of The Bee:

• The Roseville Joint Union High School District Board of Trustees voted unanimously Thursday night to approve a slate of new and revised policies covering parents’ rights and responsibilities, via Jenavieve Hatch.

• A Northern California environmental group filed a lawsuit Thursday against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over its approval of a logging plan that it says could lead to the deaths of hundreds of spotted owls and the birds’ potential extinction, via Sam Stanton.

• Congresswoman Doris Matsui has included an $850,000 appropriation for Capital Public Radio’s proposed move downtown in a House bill now under debate, but how the troubled operation will spend the money and whether it actually moves is still unclear, via David Lightman and Sam Stanton.

• Capital Public Radio donors said they earmarked hard-earned cash for the station because it delivered in-depth news. The same area residents expressed shock, anger and sadness after a blistering audit showed financial peril roiling the nonprofit, via Ishani Desai.

• A “suspicious mailing” sent to the Sacramento County Voter Registration and Elections office was intercepted by federal authorities before it arrived, county and state officials said Thursday, via Ishani Desai.

• This Republican is based in Oregon. That’s not stopping him from running against former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, in California’s 20th Congressional District. Matthew Piatt, a consultant for a tech company who runs a blog about politics, lived on-and-off in a Bakersfield motel early in his career while working for Chevron, via Gillian Brassil.

• Scientists in California state government plan to walk off the job next week in what would be California’s first-ever civil servant strike, via Maya Miller.