Browse Primary Sources

Subject is exactly California

"Undercover Video of Cows Being Shocked, Shot, Prompts USDA to Shut Calif. Slaughterhouse" - Tracie Cone - Associated Press

 "The case is reminiscent of a 2008 undercover operation by the Humane Society of the United States at the Hallmark slaughter plant in Chino, California, that led to the largest-ever recall of beef and the conviction of two people found to have treated the cows cruelly. In that case, video showed downed cows being prodded with a forklift. . ."  

The Associated Press  2012-08-21

Editorial: "What to do about 'Sweatshop'" - Unsigned - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

What Herald Examiner staff writer Merle Linda Wolin's "Sweatshop" expose has revealed (aside from sometimes inexcusable working conditions in the Los Angeles garment industry and the seeming governmental impotence in improving them) is one incontestable fact: Just as it took an awful lot of people to get the garment industry into the state of decay it is in, it is going to take an awful lot of people to get it out of trouble. Cleaning up our sweatshops will require that everyone - citizen groups, government agencies, and espeically the industry itself - pitch in as a team and help. 

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-02-08

XV-"Brown: 'It's wrong for a civilized society...'" - Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald Examiner

From the beginning of the conversation, it was clear that Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. knew little about the machinations of the state's $3.5 billion garment industry. But he seemed eager to learn.  "What's going on in this industry?" he asked at the beginning of the interview. "Do the laws work to protect the workers? Is everyone making minimum wage? Who is responsibile for the violations?"  I told him my story about rampant labor and health code abuses.  He seemed slightly incredulous.  Could this still be going on in California?  And then he appeared upset to hear that a bill recently signed into law would not solve the problem.  "Why couldn't my people get manufacturers held jointly liable with contractors for all the violations?" he asked indignantly. Standing in the living room of his sparsely furnished home in Laurel Canyon, Brown reached for the telephone.  Within moments, Don Vial, the director of California's Department of Industrial Regulations, and a member of Brown's governing Cabinet, was on the speakerphone.  Now it was a three-way conversation. 

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-30

XIV-"Bradley: 'I wouldn't want to speculate...'" -Merle Linda Wolin - Los Angeles Herald-Examiner

As far as Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley is concerned, the violations in the city's garment industry are nothing to get excited about - a belief his critics charge is part of the problem.  "The mayor's office does virtually nothing to enforce the laws 0that apply to the garment industry)," said state Sen Joseph B Montoya, D-San Gabriel Valley, the legislator best known in Sacra-mento for his efforts to legally protect the garment worker.  "He showed interest only where there was a media event.  Why? There's a lot of money involved, a lot of contributions. You don't want to hamper your political campaign fund,  That's what it boils down to."   "It's kind of lonely out here," said state Labor Commissioner James Quillin who, as head of California's Concentrated Enforcement Program, tries to curb abuses in the garment industry. "The (city) Fire Department and the (city)  Building and Safety Department ought to be out here... but Bradley will talk about his reluctance to take any steps that might be construed as punitive agaist the industry. He'll say it is such an economic factor in the city."   Surprisingly, even manufactur-ers complain about the mayor, citing his reluctance to impose requirements on contractors beyond a $21 business tax and registration permit.  "I asked Mayor Bradley if there would be something these people (garment contractors) could read in five languages that would explain what their obligations are as employers," said Bernie Brown, the spokesman for California's Coalition of Apparel Industries,  the most powerful manufacturers' lobby in the state. "I never heard from him.  No one has the answer yet."  

Los Angeles Herald-Examiner  1981-01-29

VI-VIDEO: "ACORN San Diego Child Prostitution Smuggling" - Project Veritas - James O'Keefe

Youtube description: Undercover investigation featuring smuggling and Child Prostitution at ACORN in San Diego.

"County Jail Reform Urged" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

". . .A group of top men in Government, experienced in penology, have made concrete proposals on what we can do to remedy the shameful conditions now existing. Governor Earl Warren told me of his concern for the problem. 'The very large part of the inefficiency, much of the degradation and practically all of the brutality that you can find in the jails can be attributed to prisoner mismanagement . . .' "

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-08

"Behind California Bars" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

"The league found some employers who would hire released prisoners. Several large railroad companies agreed to hire men for laboring work. The league talked to labor unions. In some cases labor unions waived initiation fees for six months so an ex-prisoner could get a job and get on his feet. . ."

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-07

"A Little San Quentin" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

". . .Last week, with Sheriff Dan Gallagher, I visited the county jail west of the Skyline boulevard in San Bruno. As we walked through the massive, clean establishment, he told me: 'This is a fine plant. But if we had it all to do over again, I think we would build it a lot differently ... a lot differently' . . ."

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-06

"'Shame of County'" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

". . .Lieutenant Jim Gibbons, who is in charge of the jail, turned to me and said: 'One thing we do here is feed well. There's about nothing else you can say for the place' . . ." 

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-05

"Alameda Jail -- 'Best in Nation'" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

". . .Today, after five years of what Captain Creel describes as 'trial and error,' he believes that the Center is the 'best damn county jail setup of its kind in the country.' And he may be right. . ." 

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-04

VII-"A Brutal Beating In the Kern Jail" - Pierre Salinger - San Francisco Chronicle

A man, moaning loudly somewhere outside my cell block, woke me suddenly that Saturday night in the Kern County Jail at Bakersfield.

San Francisco Chronicle  1953-02-03