The government of California is the governmental structure of the U.S. state of California as established by the California Constitution. California uses the separation of powers system to structure its government. It is composed of three branches: the executive, consisting of the governor of California and the other constitutionally elected and appointed officers and offices; the legislative, consisting of the California State Legislature, which includes the Assembly and the Senate; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, cities, special districts, and school districts, as well as government entities and offices that operate independently on a constitutional, statutory, or common law basis. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall and ratification.
Abscam, sometimes written ABSCAM, was an FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress and others for bribery and corruption. The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent business people, but later evolved into a public corruption investigation. The FBI was aided by the Justice Department and convicted con-man Mel Weinberg in videotaping politicians accepting bribes from a fictitious Arabian company in return for various political favors.
Willie Lewis Brown Jr. is an American retired politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as mayor of San Francisco from 1996 to 2004, the first African American to hold that office.
Patrick James Nolan is an American lawyer, politician and conservative activist.
William Westwood Lockyer is a retired American politician from California, who held elective office from 1973 to 2015, as State Treasurer of California, California Attorney General, and President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate.
The Jungles faction of the Black P. Stones street gang is a division ("set") of the Bloods gang alliance in Los Angeles. Originating in Los Angeles' Baldwin Village neighborhood in the 1960s, the Black P. Stones became one of the largest gangs in the city. The gang has been linked to various crimes, including murders, assaults, robberies, narcotics violations and firearms violations, and has been the subject of numerous FBI and LAPD investigations.
Public Enemy No. 1, also known as PENI Death Squad, is a prison and street gang formed in Long Beach, California and now based in Orange County, California. In 2004, the California Department of Justice described PEN1 as "one of the most powerful and fastest-growing gangs inside and outside prison", and reported it had about 200 members statewide. The gang's main activities include identity theft, credit card fraud, and methamphetamine sales.
In the United States, a common definition of terrorism is the systematic or threatened use of violence in order to create a general climate of fear to intimidate a population or government and thereby effect political, religious, or ideological change. This article serves as a list and a compilation of acts of terrorism, attempts to commit acts of terrorism, and other such items which pertain to terrorist activities which are engaged in by non-state actors or spies who are acting in the interests of state actors or persons who are acting without the approval of foreign governments within the domestic borders of the United States.
SK Foods L.P. was a California-based agribusiness company, with two packing and processing plants in Williams, California, and Lemoore, California, respectively. It was a major tomato processor. SK Foods, Ingomar Packing Co. and Los Gatos Tomato products formed the California Tomato Export Group, (CTEG), which collectively produced over half of the U.S. supply of tomato products at the time of the group's formation in 2005. The company's Williams plant has employed hundreds of people each summer to can and process tomatoes during harvest season.
Shannon Lee Grove is an American politician, who represents California's 12th State Senatorial district, encompassing the southern Central Valley and parts of the High Desert. A Republican, she served as the minority leader of the California State Senate from 2019 to 2021.
John Barry Mockler was Secretary of Education in California and former Executive Director of the California State Board of Education. Mockler was the chief architect of California Proposition 98 (1988).
Patricia "Pat" Carmody Bates is an American Republican politician who served in the California State Senate, representing the 36th Senate district, which encompasses parts of Orange and San Diego counties. She left office on December 5, 2022. She served as the Senate's minority leader from 2017 to 2019. She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2007 to 2014, and the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2004. She also served as the first mayor of Laguna Niguel, California following its incorporation in 1989, and continued to serve on the city council until 1998. Before serving as mayor, she had been employed as a social worker in Los Angeles County.
Frank C. Hill III is a former American politician and convicted felon. A Republican, he served in the California State Assembly and California State Senate between the years of 1982 and 1994, where he represented Whittier, California.
Paul Bruce Carpenter was an American psychologist and politician.
August Alan Post worked for 28 years (1949–1977) as California's legislative analyst.
The 2017–18 United States political sexual scandals saw a heightened period of allegations of sexual misconduct, harassment and assault, and resulted in the subsequent firings and resignations of American politicians. Some of the allegations are linked to the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases starting in October 2017 amid the wider MeToo movement.
Supporters of Donald Trump, the 45th president of the United States, held small-scale armed protests and demonstrations at U.S. state capitols in the five days leading up to the inauguration of Joe Biden on January 20, 2021, in opposition to the results of the 2020 United States presidential election, which continued after the failure of the violent January 6 attempt to overturn the election in Trump's favor. Pro-Trump groups failed to stage organized dissent or affect the transition of power in an environment of deterrence and heightened security.
Joseph Bernardino Montoya Jr. was an American politician who served in the California State Legislature from 1973 to 1990. He served in the State Assembly from 1973 to 1978 from 50th and 60th districts, and in the California State Senate from the 26th district from 1978 until his resignation in 1990. Prior to that, he was a member of the La Puente City Council and served as Mayor of La Puente.
