Ex-NBA star Johnson back in as Sac mayor
SACRAMENTO (AP) — Former NBA star point guard Kevin Johnson won a second term as mayor of Sacramento.
With all precincts reporting, Johnson was ahead Wednesday with 58 percent of the vote. His closest rival, city Parks Commissioner Jonathan Rewers, had 24 percent.
Johnson, a Democrat, declared victory late Tuesday at a downtown bar accompanied by his wife, former Washington, D.C., schools chancellor Michelle Rhee.
During his first term, Johnson, 46, struggled to win over some councilmembers to his ideas, including an attempt to increase the authority of the mayor, who has just one vote on the City Council.
Under his strong-mayor plan, Johnson would have been able to propose the city budget, appoint and fire top city officials and veto certain council decisions, giving him power similar to the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Oakland and Fresno.
In 2010, the Sacramento City Council rejected a proposal directing city staff to draft a November ballot measure for the strong-mayor plan, prompting an angry response from Johnson.
LA bans tents in parks, angering Occupy group
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles City Council has unanimously voted to ban tents from city parks in a move that has upset a group of Occupy Los Angeles activists.
City News Service reports the council strengthened an existing ordinance in a 13-0 vote Wednesday.
The new ordinance defines camping as erecting or maintaining a camp facility and defines a tent as a shelter that lacks an unobstructed view into the sheltered area.
City officials say the move was not aimed at the Occupy movement, which took over a park in front of City Hall for two months before it was dismantled by a police raid.
Occupy LA activist Ryan Rice called the move an assault on the Occupy Wall Street movement and said homeless people would be hurt by the ordinance.
Kern voters adopt medical marijuana shop limits
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Kern County voters have passed a ballot measure that restricts where medical marijuana dispensaries can be located, one of the first such limits to be approved by residents rather than lawmakers.
In a sign of how the easy availability of marijuana at storefront pot shops has weakened public support for allowing people to use it for health reasons, 69 percent of Kern voters endorsed Measure G on Tuesday.
The Bakersfield Californian reports that the law allows dispensaries only to locate on industrial land at least one mile from schools, day care centers, churches, public parks or other marijuana stores.
The limits don't leave pot collective and cooperatives with many options for where to go and will force nearly every existing shop to move or close, according to The Californian.
