Show of force in the capital + Newsom recall, the book + How the pandemic stresses moms

Adam Ashton, Lara Korte
·5 min read

Welcome back to work. Let’s get to it.

SHOW OF FORCE

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s show of force around the Capitol had its intended effect.

The ranks of California National Guard troops, California High Patrol officers and other law enforcement personnel kept the state Capitol clear despite worries that pro-Trump and anti-Trump activists might clash after the Jan. 6 riot that overwhelmed police at the U.S. Capitol.

It’s been a long, hard year on First Amendment detail for law enforcement in the capital.

As Molly Sullivan of The Bee reports, the Sacramento Police Department says 1,400 police officers have worked on demonstrations downtown since the November election. The PD says 11 of them were injured.

“For two months, two groups have been holding opposing demonstrations throughout downtown that have become increasingly confrontational and dangerous to the participants, the bystanders, and our officers,” said Sgt. Sabrina Briggs, spokeswoman for the department.

State lawmakers, meanwhile, are still taking in the threatening remarks directed their way during public comment at Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Committee hearing last week. Several anti-vaccine activists spoke of taking up arms.

“Keep threatening us. Keep taking our s--- away. Keep telling us we can’t do anything about it and see how much longer we’re going to sit here and wait to give public comment,” one of them said. “We didn’t buy guns for nothing,” one said.

Sure, you might be accustomed to that kind of language from the anti-vaccine activists who’ve halted hearings and votes of the past few years. But, it could be a sign of dark things to come, lawmakers and experts told The Bee’s Lara Korte.

“There have always been people with conspiratorial beliefs and at least some potential for violence lurking,” said Eric Schickler, co-director of the Institute of Governmental Studies at Berkeley. “But I do think what we’re seeing now is becoming a lot more prominent and people seem to feel more comfortable expressing, in some cases unfortunately acting, on these views.”

“I do think it’s a sign of the higher political temperature that’s in the air,” he added.

After the budget hearing, Senate President Pro Tem Toni Atkins announced the Senate would close it’s public gallery. “I would hope that these kinds of thinly-veiled threats stop—there is a distinct difference between making an argument and threatening violence,” she said in a written statement Friday.

And on that note, expect to see the police and National Guard out in force for the next couple of days.

HOW RELUCTANT?

Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley in a new self-published book that advocates for the removal of Gov. Newsom calls himself “recall reluctant.”

There’s nothing reluctant or hedging about the book’s title: “Recall Gavin Newsom: The Case Against America’s Most Corrupt Governor.” You can buy a copy at his website, where he also invites you to make a donation.

Kiley insists he didn’t come to his conclusion easily, although for months he has criticized Newsom’s coronavirus strategy and taken the governor to court to challenge an executive order.

“He has compromised our institutions of self-government — the rule of law, checks and balances, separation of powers, representative democracy, and the Constitution itself—to promote himself and the cash-flush Special Interests that put him in office,” Kiley writes. “It is Newsom’s abuse of extraordinary emergency powers for personal political gain, with a totalizing impact on California life, that makes this the most meritorious recall in our state’s history.”

Kiley’s book is the latest chapter in the recall effort, which was started in early 2020 and was initially dismissed by Democrats. The campaign has grown stronger in recent weeks as frustrations over the state’s coronavirus response — and the governor’s perceived hypocrisy — have grown.

Over the past several months, Kiley has repeatedly criticized the governor’s actions during the pandemic, even taking him to court with fellow Republican Assemblyman James Gallagher to protest what they said was an overreach of executive power. Kiley has written extensively about Newsom’s “disastrous actions” on his blog, which doubles as a fundraising platform.

The Newsom recall campaign needs just under 1.5 million signatures by March 10 to get a recall on the ballot, and as of Tuesday, organizers reported they had collected more than 1.1 million, but signatures need to be verified by county election officials before they can officially count towards the recall.

BE NICE TO MOM

You don’t have to be Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks hauling your baby to the Capitol for a critical late-night vote to know that moms are carrying a heavy burden in the coronavirus pandemic.

Many California moms find themselves trying to hold down their jobs and keep up with the bills while protecting their children from contracting a contagious virus.

The stress shows in a new UC Davis study of low-income Latina moms living in Sacramento and Yolo counties. It found that 52% of them have made economic cutbacks to weather the pandemic, leading to higher levels of stress, depression and anxiety.

About 31.4% of the women who made economic cutbacks held off on buying clothes, 18.6% missed rent, 11.4% missed a car payment, 15.7% bought less food and 2.9% skipped meals.

The Bee’s Kim Bojórquez spoke with several women in the study for this story today.

“As a single mom, I have to provide for everybody,” Silvia Alvarenga, 54, said. “Life is not the same.”

Check out Kim’s story, and then see what you can do to make life a little easier on a mom today.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I’m not saying goodbye. In many ways I’m saying hello as your vice president.”

- Kamala Harris in a video message to Californians

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