Dear Subscribers,
This is Follow Our Courts’ inaugural news blast.
Covering our courts and legislature is an important part of our democratic society, and with newsworthy and interesting work being done in the Inland Empire, there’s great enthusiasm on our end to get to it. We are starting to build our reporting team, and our website launch date is in sight.
My name is Toni, and I am the editor of this new venture. Right now that means trying to be everywhere, learn everything and meet everyone — which is great fun for me.
In the past month or so I have attended presentations at the Riverside County Bar Association Installation Dinner (RCBA donated 100% of the proceeds from the dinner to The Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, which has broken ground on a museum to recognize remarkable civil rights pioneers from the Inland Empire,) and the San Bernardino County State of the County update (home sales are up 27% over last year countywide, and in 2021 the county saw $3.8 billion in travel spending).
Over Zoom I learned about the Inland Counties Judicial Mentorship Program (currently 19 judges serve as mentors to help possible future judges navigate the application process in Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial counties,) two weeks ago; and last week I listened to the judge who officiated at the pleading and discovery of what is widely known as “the Erin Brockovich case,” (and who played himself in the movie) tell his story at the program for the Hon. Joseph B. Campbell Inn of Court meeting.
On Friday I got updates on state legislation from two state senators (the Legislature passed almost 900 bills this year, and 92% of them were signed by the governor,) at the Legislative Summit presented by the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce.
The keynote was delivered by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who said that the California household income increased $164 billion last year. He said, “That’s more than (he named several states faster than I could write — Texas was one of them) combined.” But, he said, 6 million Californians still live in poverty, and about 40,000 small businesses shut down during the pandemic.
I could’ve written an entire column about any one of these events, which is one of the reasons I was so eager to start getting content to you. The longer I waited, the more recap I would’ve wanted to pack into this introduction message.
Next week I will have room to stretch out and talk about a single presentation or topic.
Meanwhile, I hope you will also talk to me.
If you have an interesting case, a position on a bill, an event coming up or a desire to build a relationship between your firm/advocacy group/professional organization, send me an email.
Thank you for being part of our beginning.
Toni
