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U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy announced Monday that he’ll step down as Massachusetts' top federal prosecutor later this month, days before President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration.

Raise became the acting U.S. attorney for Massachusetts amid an ethics scandal in May 2023 When his predecessor, Rachael Rollins, resigned after multiple regulator investigations found she had committed ethics violations during her tenure. He was later nominated for the everlasting position by President Joe Biden and appointed by U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland in November 2024.

Levy said in an announcement that he would resign on Jan. 17.

“Serving as U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts has truly been the highlight of my career,” Levy said in an announcement. “Every day over the past three years, I have witnessed firsthand the unwavering commitment and extraordinary skills of federal prosecutors, support staff and law enforcement partners who work tirelessly to uphold the rule of law, keep our communities safe and protect civil rights . ”

In an announcement, his office noted that Levy's leadership led to “several” serious cases, including indictments within the death of Sandra Birchmore, the settlement of charges against McKinsey & Company for its illegal conduct in supporting Purdue's marketing of opioids Pharma and charges against two men for his or her alleged involvement of Iran within the procurement of drone technology that resulted within the deaths of three American soldiers. The Mass. National Guardsman Jack Teixeira was also sentenced to fifteen years in prison and 7 former eBay employees were sentenced to prison for web stalking a Massachusetts couple during his tenure.

The office also highlighted the creation of its Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Division.

Levy said the cases he handled throughout the three years he led federal prosecutors within the state “improved the lives of people in Massachusetts.”

“As I reflect on my tenure, I am equally proud of the thoughtful, deliberate process our team undertook in making the serious decision to bring a federal charge to ensure it was consistent with federal law enforcement principles,” he said.

policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald TrumpU.S. Defense Secretary-elect Pete Hegseth spent a second day on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, meeting privately with Republican senators as questions grew about his ability to effectively lead the Pentagon.

Hegseth told reporters he plans to sit down down with senators, including those that could also be skeptical of his nomination.

“We will meet with any senator from any area who wants to meet with us,” Hegseth said as he walked from office to office on Tuesday. “And we welcome their advice as we go through the consultation process.”

Trump named the Fox News co-host, who served within the Army National Guard, as his defense secretary, which is usually among the many first Cabinet posts considered for confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

But Hegseth is facing questions amid an allegation of sexual assault, which he has denied, and other emerging reports about his work behavior and past.

GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said among the reports were “disturbing.”

“I want to make sure that every young woman who joins the military feels respected and welcomed,” Graham told CBS News.

The South Carolina lawmaker later told the AP that he didn't know whether to consider the allegations, and Hegseth “has a chance to say that's true or not.”

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said he has seen the reports. “I will get the opportunity to speak to him and I am sure he will take it up,” he said. “But I believe that people should make their voices heard.”

Trump recruits from the ranks of loyalists to fill his administration and Cabinet positions, often surprising Washington with unusual decisions which can be provocative and test the senators who’re then asked to make them as a part of the recommendation and consent role to be confirmed by the Chamber.

Matt Gaetz, the previous Florida congressman, was one in every of the early candidates and abruptly withdrew from consideration when it became clear that Senate support was crumbling. The House of Representatives faced an ethics investigation into sexual misconduct against Gaetz, who was investigated but never charged in a federal sex trafficking investigation.

Trump's decisions can only afford to lose some critics within the Senate, where majority approval is required to be confirmed. Republicans could have a 53-seat majority in the brand new 12 months, meaning 4 GOP votes could sink a candidate if all Democrats oppose it.

Republican senators have been weighing their options. There were private discussions amongst senators in regards to the allegations and methods to handle the situation, in keeping with an individual granted anonymity to debate the private conversations.

During a closed session with a few dozen senators late Monday evening, nobody asked Hegseth in regards to the allegations against him.

“You know what? The American people care about restoring our military,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said after the meeting. He called the criticism of Hegseth “shameful.”

While Republican senators have been hesitant to ask questions publicly – and a few have flatly denied the reports – a lot of them suggested he could face tough questions in a confirmation hearing.

“That’s what the trial is for,” said Rep. John Curtis of Utah, a freshman senator.

The questions on Hegseth and other nominees are: “Why a background check is important, why a committee investigation is critical,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins.

Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville said after meeting with Hegseth on Monday that he strongly supports the nomination.

But Tuberville said of the allegations: “If it goes to a certain extent, people won't vote to confirm him.”

Hegseth, 44, co-hosted Fox News Channel's “Fox and Friends Weekend” and had been an worker of the network since 2014. He developed a friendship with Trump, who appeared usually on the show.

Hegseth served within the Army National Guard from 2002 to 2021, deployed to Iraq in 2005 and Afghanistan in 2011, and received two Bronze Stars. He lacks senior military and national security experience and would oversee global crises from Europe to the Middle East.

A girl told police she was sexually assaulted by Hegseth in 2017 after he took her phone, blocked the door to a California hotel room and refused to let her leave, in keeping with a recently released detailed investigative report.

Hegseth told police on the time that the encounter was consensual and denied any wrongdoing.

policy

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump said Wednesday he’ll nominate Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida as his attorney general, naming a loyalist to the role of the nation's top prosecutor.

In choosing the congressman, Trump unnoticed among the more established lawyers whose names had been mentioned as candidates for the post.

“Matt will end the gun government, protect our borders, dismantle criminal organizations, and restore Americans' deeply shaken faith and trust in the Justice Department,” Trump said in an announcement.

This is a recent update. AP's earlier story follows below.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman and presidential candidate, as director of national intelligence, continuing to fill his Cabinet with loyal figures who complement his own, quite than long-term professionals in hers respective areas of experience.

“As a former candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she enjoys broad support in both parties – now she is a proud Republican!” Trump said in an announcement. “I know that Tulsi will bring the fearless spirit that has defined her illustrious career to our intelligence community by standing up for our constitutional rights and ensuring peace through strength. Tulsi will make us all proud!”

Gabbard, who served within the Army National Guard for greater than 20 years and was stationed in Iraq and Kuwait, would tackle the role as something of an outsider in comparison with her predecessor. The current director, Avril Haines, was confirmed by the Senate in 2021 after holding various top national security and intelligence positions for several years.

Gabbard has not worked directly within the intelligence community outside of House committees, including two years on the Homeland Security Committee. Like others Trump has chosen to guide his agency, she was amongst his hottest political surrogates, often drawing thunderous reactions from the gang when she campaigned on his behalf in the ultimate months of the campaign.

This is a recent update. AP's earlier story follows below.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday named Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state, fielding a former critic who has emerged as certainly one of the president-elect's fiercest defenders best diplomat within the nation.

The conservative lawmaker is a widely known hawk on China, Cuba and Iran and was among the many finalists for Trump's candidacy this summer.

On Capitol Hill, Rubio is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is pushing for a tougher stance against China and has targeted the social media app TikTok because its parent company is Chinese. He and other lawmakers argue that Beijing can demand access to users' data at any time.

“He will be a strong advocate for our nation, a true friend to our allies and a fearless warrior who will never give in to our adversaries,” Trump said of Rubio in an announcement.

Trump made the announcement as he flew back to Florida from Washington after meeting with President Joe Biden.

The selection is the culmination of a protracted, complicated history between the 2 men. During their intense competition for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, Rubio was particularly outspoken in his criticism of Trump, calling him a “fraud” and “the most vulgar person to ever seek the presidency.”

He tried to counter Trump's often crude attacks by joking concerning the size of Trump's hands in a nod to his masculinity. Trump responded by branding Rubio “Little Marco,” a nickname that stuck with the senator for years.

But like many Republicans searching for to keep up their relevance within the Trump era, Rubio modified his rhetoric. As speculation grew that Trump might select him as his running mate, Rubio sought to downplay tensions from 2016, suggesting that the heated tone merely reflected the intensity of a campaign.

“That's like asking a boxer why he punched someone in the face in the third round,” Rubio told CNN when asked about his previous comments. “That’s because they boxed.”

Rubio was first elected to the Senate in 2010 as a part of the Republican Tea Party wave that swept Washington. He quickly gained a status as someone who could embody a more diverse, welcoming Republican Party. He was a key member of a bunch that worked on a 2013 immigration law that provided a path to citizenship for thousands and thousands of individuals living within the country illegally.

But that laws stalled within the House, where more conservative Republicans were in charge, signaling the sharp rightward shift the party — and Rubio — would soon take. Now Rubio says he supports Trump's plan to make use of the US military to deport those within the country illegally.

“We have to do something, unfortunately we have to do something dramatic,” Rubio said in an interview with NBC in May.

He also repeats a lot of Trump's attacks on his opponents, in addition to his false or unproven theories about voter fraud. After Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in what New York prosecutors said was a plan to illegally influence the 2016 election, Rubio wrote in a column for Newsweek that Trump was “on trial for a political sham trial like this.” Communists are getting used against their political opponents in Cuba and the Soviet Union.”

Meanwhile, Trump has backed off his insistence as president on banning TikTok within the United States and recently opened his own account on the platform.

A bill that might require Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban within the United States was supported by Rubio, although Trump opposed the proposal.

Rubio's Democratic counterpart on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Chairman Mark Warner of Virginia, praised the alternative.

“I have worked with Marco Rubio on the Intelligence Committee for more than a decade, particularly closely in recent years in his role as vice chairman, and while we may not always agree, he is and will be smart and talented.” strong voice for American interests across the globe,” Warner said in an announcement.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump announced that his longtime adviser Dan Scavino would function deputy, without specifying a selected portfolio, campaign director James Blair as deputy for legislative, policy and public affairs and Taylor Budowich as deputy chief of staff for communications and human resources. All can have the rank of assistant to the president.

Trump also formally announced that Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, will turn into deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security adviser. Vice President-elect JD Vance had already confirmed this on Monday.

Blair was the political director of Trump's campaign and, after Trump became the Republican Party's presumptive nominee, the political director of the Republican National Committee. He previously worked on Trump's 2020 campaign in Florida and was a top adviser to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.

Scavino was a senior adviser to Trump's campaign and worked as social media director during his first term within the White House.

He began working for Trump as a caddy at certainly one of Trump's golf courses and was among the many small group of staff who accompanied the president across the country throughout the campaign. He steadily posts memes and videos of Trump's campaign trips online and catalogs the campaign from the within on social media.

Before joining the campaign, Budowich worked for the pro-Trump super PAC Maga Inc., and after Trump left office, Budowich served as his spokesman while working for Trump's political motion committee, Save America.

“Dan, Stephen, James and Taylor were best-in-class advisers in my victorious campaign, and I know they will serve the American people honorably in the White House,” Trump said in an announcement. “They will continue to work hard in their respective new roles to Make America Great Again.”

Miller is certainly one of Trump's most senior advisers, having worked for the White House in his first campaign. He was a senior adviser in Trump's first term and played a central role in a lot of his policy decisions, particularly on immigration, including Trump's move in 2018 to separate 1000’s of immigrant families as a deterrence program.

—

Editor's Note: Below is the total text of a letter Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price sent to East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell in August. The letter was shared with the Bay Area News Group by Protect The Win, a campaign to support Price and block the recall effort.

August 7, 2024
Congressman Eric Swalwell
Dear Mr. Hon. Representative Swalwell:

I hope this message finds you well. I’m writing to personally invite you to fulfill with me and my leadership team as soon as possible. I fear that our relationship as allied representatives of a shared community has been marred by significant misunderstandings. I believe a private note to introduce us will reassure you that we’re working diligently to serve the individuals who live, work and play in Alameda County.

As a former Alameda County prosecutor, I imagine you share our concern for the protection of Alameda County and the necessity to construct trust within the rule of law. I also hope that, based in your previous work with our office, you’ve gotten a shared understanding of the challenges we face and our commitment to our community.

When Alameda County voters elected me to function district attorney starting in 2023, the county was already facing an alarming, pandemic-related spike in violent crime. The root causes of the rise in violence are complex and include the flooding of our community with guns throughout the COVID shutdown; dual housing and mental health crises; and Oakland's status as a hub within the billion-dollar international human slave trade, also generally known as human trafficking.

The district attorney's office also found itself in a crisis in its dealings with the broader public. The backlog in providing compensation and services to crime victims in Alameda County had develop into staggering, with too many victims having to attend a couple of yr to receive help. Many different communities felt disrespected by the office's perceived bias and failure to carry government actors accountable to the population. There was a persistent lack of trust among the many population within the administration of justice within the district.

I walked into an office in shambles. My successes were considerable.

RELATED: Rep. Eric Swalwell supports the recall of Alameda County Prosecutor Pamela Price

With the assistance of my talented leadership team, we now have hired committed, diverse talent at an unprecedented pace; expanded timely and culturally appropriate services for crime victims; We have expanded our collaborative courts to deal with the foundation causes of harm. including mental health crises and systems built to carry government actors – including my very own lawyers – accountable to the general public. But most significantly, I protected the community. I actually have proven that I’ll confront serious criminals. I’m committed to making sure that nobody is above the law and that the law is run fairly.

Recent comments in your personal social media suggest that it’s possible you’ll be unaware or misinformed concerning the progress of my administration. To assist you, I offer the next resources.

1. Annual Report 2023 – The report documents our work to revive the functionality of the Office with an eye fixed on law enforcement, accountability, transparency and justice.

2. Newsroom – We encounter serious crimes with serious consequences. My newsroom presents a weekly choice of probably the most serious crimes prosecuted by my government. Just last week, for instance, I announced the indictment of a person for the attempted murder of an Alameda County sheriff's deputy. This defendant was charged with multiple felonies for allegedly attempting to run over an Alameda County sheriff's deputy, including aggravated assault charges and for being out on bail on the time the alleged crime was committed.

To reassure you that the office is “in good hands,” I invite you to fulfill with me and my leadership team. We meet weekly on Fridays from 1 to three p.m. on the Oakland District Attorney's Office Oakport Branch. In the interest of furthering our shared mission to advance justice for all residents of Alameda County, I encourage you to simply accept our invitation. We value the open exchange of ideas and methods to make sure public safety, and I imagine our interests are higher served through collaboration than through public sparring.

Please contact me directly at pamela.price@acgov.org or ask your staff to contact our DAO Chief of Staff, LaTonia Peoples-Stokes, to rearrange a mutually convenient appointment.

In the meantime, my administration will proceed to approach the administration of justice in Alameda County with the utmost seriousness and determination to realize concrete and lasting ends in the interest of constructing public safety and confidence within the rule of law.

Sincerely,
Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price

Originally published: October 2, 2024 at 6:15 p.m

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday that he has filed a lawsuit against AHMC Healthcare, the operator of Seton Medical Center, over the temporary closure of its Coastside emergency room in Moss Beach.

AHMC, a key health care provider for northern and coastal San Mateo County, has struggled with operational difficulties since taking on the beleaguered hospital in 2020. In March, employees on the Daly City site protested changes to their health care advantages, and county officials criticized the prolonged closure of the Moss Beach emergency room for repairs attributable to last yr's storms.

Hospital officials expect the work to be accomplished by December 2024, which some residents say is taking far too long because it is the one emergency room within the coastal area.

As a stopgap measure, San Mateo County awarded the Dignity Health Medical Foundation $480,000 last June to expand its emergency take care of coastal residents.

AHMC acquired Seton from Verity Health Systems following bankruptcy proceedings. The hospitals function a security net for the region's low-income residents.

Then-Attorney General Xavier Becerra approved the sale on the condition that Seton's Daly City and Coastside centers remain open for not less than five and a half years and supply care to people earning lower than 250% of the federal poverty level while partially subsidizing the care other economically disadvantaged patients.

“The conditions established with AHMC should protect patients and ensure continued access to essential health services,” Bonta said. “Unfortunately, AHMC has failed to meet these obligations, endangering patient care and public health. This is unacceptable and we will hold them accountable.”

Bonta is asking the court to implement the agreement, impose fines and issue an order reopening Coastside facilities and restoring services at Seton Medical Center.

Under state law, the sale or change of control of a nonprofit health care facility requires approval from the attorney general. When AHMC purchased Seton, the corporate agreed to take care of services including emergency rooms, stroke certification, heart attack care and expert nursing facilities. According to Bonta's office, AHMC allowed key certifications to lapse and closed facilities, including Coastside's emergency room, without notifying the attorney general.

In response to the lawsuit, Seton spokesman and chief operating officer Tim Schulze said the emergency room closure was essential since the constructing remains to be “unsafe for human occupancy.”

“The attorney general is under the false impression that Seton Coastside could open its doors once the roof replacement is completed in early fall,” Schulze said. “Not like that. Even after the roof was replaced, the building was still unsafe for human occupancy, and there was no safe way to occupy the building while the other emergency repairs were still needed.”

He also said the lawsuit's claim that the upgrades were purely cosmetic and that the shutdown was to deal with deferred maintenance issues slightly than storm damage was “false and misleading.”

“We have diligently addressed these matters and made the necessary repairs to reopen the Seton Coastside emergency room and skilled nursing facilities and otherwise comply with the AG’s terms,” Schulze said. “We have also cooperated with the AG’s office’s investigation of these issues as they relate to the AG’s conditional approval of the sale of this distressed hospital in 2020, which faced closure had AHMC not purchased it.”

San Mateo County Supervisor Ray Mueller, who represents the coastal areas, insists Coastside's closure is “more than a breach of contract.”

“It was a violation of the trust that our community placed in them,” Mueller said. “The attorney general’s lawsuit lays the foundation for a lawsuit by the county that AHMC violated the terms of a multimillion-dollar loan provided to San Mateo County.”

Rep. Anna Eshoo, who represents parts of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, wrote to Bonta back in July, calling the shutdown “devastating” for her constituents. She noted that the county has spent $500,000 on emergency care for the reason that shutdown.

“I am very pleased that the California Attorney General has responded forcefully to my call to hold AHMC accountable for its blatant violations of the law and violations of the purchase agreement,” Eshoo said. “Today’s action underscores an important message: irresponsible actors must not jeopardize patients’ well-being.”

Originally published: October 2, 2024 at 12:46 p.m

Gov. Gavin Newsom announced plans Friday for military prosecutors to work with the California Department of Justice on certain East Bay cases, just weeks after an analogous agreement with Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price's office fell apart amid a rare public spat between the 2 Democrats.

Newsom said attorneys from CalGuard's Counterdrug Task Force would work with Attorney General Rob Bonta's office on Alameda County cases. Among those not involved is the county's top prosecutor, Price, whose dispute with the governor earlier this month resulted in “disappointment” on either side.

In an announcement announcing the move, Newsom portrayed it as a possibility to “help bring justice to the people of the Bay Area.”

“Today, we are strengthening accountability and justice for East Bay communities by quickly reaching an agreement to provide additional resources to prosecute criminal behavior,” Newsom's statement said.

In a separate statement, Price expressed her approval of this move.

“We hope that the swift agreement between the Department of Justice and CalGuard will produce equally swift results, and my office stands ready to support that effort in any way possible,” Price said within the statement.

She also appeared to query the outcomes of Newsom's much-vaunted increase within the variety of California Highway Patrol officers within the East Bay. Price as an alternative suggested that her office had received only a small fraction of the a whole lot of cases Highway Patrol officers have opened as a part of their deployments within the Oakland area this yr.

The reshuffle of state and military prosecutors was the newest twist in a months-long saga that took a bitter turn in mid-July.

In February, Newsom announced plans to send prosecutors and military prosecutors to work directly with the Alameda County District Attorney's Office as part of a bigger effort to curb crime across the East Bay. The effort was modeled on an analogous agreement with the San Francisco District Attorney's Office and got here amid a surge of state troopers within the Oakland area to combat a wide selection of crimes, including shoplifting and automotive break-ins.

However, the move failed as a result of a series of delays, with Newsom and Price blaming one another for failing to agree on the terms of the partnership.

One of Newsom's Cabinet secretaries identified to Price in a letter last month that the Attorney General's Office took too long to conform to a memorandum of understanding that might have paved the way in which for the prosecutors' arrival. The letter claimed the Attorney General's Office had not taken “initial” steps to finalize such an agreement or appoint National Guard lawyers to work in its office, regardless that Newsom's office had complied with Price's team's requests for resumes and interviews, it said.

But Price said the governor's office didn’t begin that process until April. She also said the unique plan to send three prosecutors to Alameda County has been reduced to at least one, and the one remaining prosecutor is not going to be available after mid-August as a result of “another commitment.”

The issue culminated in competing press conferences on July 12, when Newsom publicly withdrew his offer of aid.

“(The governor) has the right to do whatever he deems appropriate,” Price said on the time, adding that her office had received “mixed messages about what (the governor) would do” and that she was “disappointed” the governor's office had not reached out to her on to share its concerns.

Originally published: August 2, 2024 at 12:31 pm

Alameda County voters will determine in November whether to recall District Attorney Pamela Price after county supervisors decided against spending as much as $20 million on a special election this summer, with no vote within the history of the case Counties, if any, would have had a precedent.

Instead of putting the query before voters, the county Board of Supervisors opted Tuesday to position the recall query on the Nov. 5 ballot, together with an expected rematch between the country's last two presidents in addition to a plethora of state races and native level.

The move is consistent with the suggestion of Alameda County Registrar of Voters Tim Dupuis, who provided a protracted list of reasons for postponing the query for six months. The most vital factor was the expected price tag of holding a special election in August or September: estimates ranged from $15 million to $20 million.

That's a very difficult query, some supervisors said, considering the county faces a looming $68 million budget deficit in the subsequent fiscal yr, which begins July 1. And the county could have to funnel tens of thousands and thousands of additional dollars to the Alameda Health System, which is facing its own yawning deficit.

“The bottom line is the fact that I cannot in good conscience support a special election that will cost the county nearly $20 million,” said Nate Miley, the board’s president, adding that such a move “would be for “I'm irresponsible.”

Elections director Elisa Márquez also said she wanted the recall question to be asked in a general election, similar to what Price was elected in 2022, because more voters typically cast ballots in such contests.

But Supervisor Keith Carson went further, questioning the wisdom of removing a district attorney so soon after his election – especially when that one person is just a cog in a complicated legal system with so many moving parts.

“Holding a single individual completely responsible for all aspects of the system and respecting their beliefs or feelings is not the way our system works,” Carson said. Referring to the incontrovertible fact that he first heard calls for Price's removal barely three months after she took office, he added: “Whether I support her or not, whoever that prosecutor is, whoever that person is, who was duly elected, I think. “They deserve at least a reasonable amount of time to figure out what their job entails.”

The vote was 3-0. Supervisors David Haubert and Lena Tam were not present at the vote.

After the board vote, recall organizers expressed confidence that voters would remove Price from office in November. For weeks, recall supporters had implored county supervisors to put the question before voters as quickly as possible, arguing the potential $20 million price tag paled in comparison to the impact of Price's policies.

“As long as there's an election, that's an important thing,” said Carl Chan, a campaign organizer and Oakland Chinatown leader, who promised the Nov. 5 campaign would be “very successful.”

The district attorney's campaign said it would host a news conference Wednesday about the panel's vote. It described the panel's decision as “a victory” because it “allows more voters to forged their votes and provides voters more time to tell themselves concerning the facts.”

Moments after the panel's vote, supporters of the district attorney again condemned the very prospect of overturning the election, calling it “illegitimate.” They repeated allegations from Price's campaign that the county did not properly follow election laws when verifying recall petition signatures.

Ahead of the board's decision, Price's supporters used the public comment area to denounce the expected costs of a special election and lamented the idea that fewer people might vote in the summer than in a general election that would decide the White House goes . They called the idea of ​​a recall so soon in Price's first term a “travesty” and stressed that she needed more time to implement her policies and make an impact on crime rates across the East Bay.

“Essentially, District Attorney Price is being scapegoated,” said a caller named Ginny Madsen. “I am outraged that an expensive special election is even being considered. A special election is designed to distort voter turnout… and will do the county a disservice. Please don’t set a dangerous precedent that I think everyone will eventually regret.”

But supporters of the recall effort, who also spoke out during public comment, railed against Price's efforts to overhaul the East Bay's criminal justice system, calling her approach too soft on crime.

“How much does a life cost? “Is there really a price?” asked Oakland resident Elizabeth Kenney. “Please honor the lives of victims and victims of violent crime and give us a special election now.”

The price of a special election was a recurring theme Tuesday.

Ahead of the board vote, Dupuis said calling the special election would cost the county $19 to $21 per voter in postage costs. In addition, up to 400 new employees and 1,700 poll workers would have to be hired to help mail ballots and staff voting centers. That compares to the cost of a general election, which can be as low as $4 to $6 per person, Dupuis said, especially because the county can share that cost with other municipalities and governments.

Dupius also warned that holding a special election in August or September could put the county at risk of not having its voting equipment ready in time for the November election. That's because the equipment would have to be decommissioned and recertified within a few months. And if someone decides to file a lawsuit challenging the results, the equipment could become completely unavailable.

“We have just enough equipment to hold a statewide election one time,” Dupuis said. “We don’t have enough equipment to hold two national elections.”

Recall organizers appear to be entering the six-month recall race with a significant fundraising advantage. Donations to the two leading political organizations pushing the recall effort have dwarfed those made directly to Price's Protect the Win campaign since last summer, campaign finance filings show.

The recall effort, called “Save Alameda For Everyone,” raised nearly $569,000 in donations in the first three months of 2024, according to campaign finance forms filed May 1. This is in addition to the approximately $1.1 million raised in 2023.

Much of that money came from a single political action committee, Supporters Of Recall Pamela Price, which contributed $545,330 from January to March, along with about $694,000 in 2023. The group has since been suspended following allegations from the California Fair Political Practices Commission is investigating Price's campaign for failing to properly disclose its contributors.

In comparison, Price's “Protect the Win” campaign raised just over $36,000 in the primary three months of 2024. This is along with the $82,000 in donations raised in 2023.

Moon is the brand new prosecutor

The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously appointed Rebecca Moon as Sunnyvale's latest city attorney, effective May 12. She has worked for the town for greater than 22 years and has served as interim attorney since January. After a nationwide hiring process, she replaces John Nagel, who retired Jan. 19 after eight years as a prosecutor.

Before coming to Sunnyvale, Moon worked at a civil litigation law firm in San Jose for seven years. She joined the Sunnyvale City Attorney's Office in May 2001. She has particular experience in state housing and environmental law. She can be acquainted with government transparency, conflict of interest and employment laws.

Moon has served as chairman of the Fair Political Practice Commission of the League of California Cities for the past two years. This committee advises city officials throughout the state on compliance with the Political Reform Act, commission regulations and other financial conflict of interest laws.

Moon's annual salary is $293,000.

Interim city manager named

Kirby has been with Sunnyvale for 29 years and commenced his profession with the town in 1995. He became deputy finance director in 2013 and finance director in 2016.

“I have spent my entire career at Sunnyvale and am committed to pursuing this new role,” he said in a press release.

Kirby's tentative salary will probably be $383,259. Staff expects city manager recruitment to start by the tip of May.