Governor Jerry Brown | The Adobo Chronicles

Sacramento, California – Yesterday, the western span of the Bay Bridge was officially named Willie L. Brown Jr Bridge in honor of the former San Francisco mayor and speaker of the California State Assembly.

Well, that didn’t sit well with two-time California governor, former state attorney general and former Oakland city mayor Jerry Brown . “I have as many titles attached to my name – not to mention my longevity in public service – as my good friend Willie,” Jerry said, “so why am I not being afforded the same honor, at least as far as the new eastern span of the Bay Bridge is concerned?”

The new eastern span of the Bay Bridge (foreground)

Jerry is reportedly planning a personal visit with Oakland city officials, including incumbent mayor Jean Quan, to lobby for his own bridge of fame. Quan said that naming the eastern span of the bridge after Jerry Brown makes absolute sense. “If this happens, then people can call the entire bridge, both eastern and western spans, simply ‘the Brown Bridge,’ ” she added.

In the end, it is the state legislature, not local officials, that will make the decision.

We’d like to get our readers’ comments: Should the eastern span of the Bay Bridge be named after Californa Governor Jerry Brown? .

Sacramento, California – California Governor Jerry Brown has found a solution to the state’s prison overcrowding. The solution is in The Netherlands.

The Netherlands recently announced that it will close eight prisons because of a lack of criminals. The Dutch justice ministry said that declining crime rates in the Netherlands mean that although the country has the capacity for 14,000 prisoners, there are only 12,000 detainees. The decrease is expected to continue, the ministry said.

Earlier, Brown faced a serious dilemma on how to reduce California’s prison overcrowding to below 137 percent of capacity by the end of 2013, as ordered by the Federal Courts. A three-judge special panel ruled in 2009 that widespread overcrowding in California prisons is unconstitutional because it constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” The US Supreme Court upheld that ruling in 2011 and 2012 when the Department of Corrections had failed to act. A federal judge ordered the state to release thousands of low-level offenders before their sentences expired.

Prison facilities operated at 200 percent capacity for more than a decade.

“Building new prisons is not an option,” Brown said. “We can’t afford to spend taxpayer money to erect more jails which is only a temporary solution.”

So, rather than sending prisoners to various county jails which is opposed by most local governments, or releasing prisoners before their time is served, Brown said that California will lease the eight prisons in The Netherlands and transfer some 2,000 of its heavy offenders and those with longer jail sentences.

The Dutch government appears to be receptive to Brown’s idea and is contemplating on renting out the Dutch prisons to California at below market rates. Final negotiations are underway.