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Shopping in the 21st century is rapidly changing as more and more people discard the malls for the ease of buying online — often from complete strangers. These exchanges, however, can be fraught with danger and lead to harm or even death. As buying online is becoming the new norm, it will take 21st-century thinking to protect consumers from potential risk.

The word “home” can mean different things to different people. One’s home can be a stationary building, such as a house or an apartment. Or, increasingly so, it can be on wheels. The “tiny home” movement promises flexibility to move your home from one place to another. One can choose to live alone in a home or with family or friends. And for some, they don’t have much of a choice at all about where they call “home” and having one is something they dream of and work tirelessly towards.

I’ve been a proud member of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department for almost 37 years. I’ve witnessed a lot during those decades: Acts of heroism by deputies willing to risk their lives for perfect strangers, and tragedies often too horrific to describe.

We asked Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo to reflect on the differences, similarities, rewards, and challenges of serving in state and local government.

After proudly serving in the California State Assembly for six years, the transition from the State Capitol to county government as a new Monterey County Supervisor has been a smooth one for me. While in Sacramento, I was proud to have authored 76 bills and 16 resolutions, including landmark laws to allow immigrants to obtain drivers licenses, to raise California’s minimum wage and to modernize our complex groundwater adjudication laws and procedures.

Update: Late Thursday night the author of AB1250 pledged amendments so the onerous new contracting requirements will now apply only to Counties. If this policy was bad enough to remove cities from having to comply, it’s bad enough that counties shouldn’t have to either. This bill will raise costs and hurt some of the most vulnerable people that need county services, including; mental health, public health and emergency management services to name a few. Read more here.

Homelessness affects every county in the state. No matter how many people live there or what the economy looks like, there are people in your community who do not have a stable place to live. Homelessness has many causes, but we know that a significant number of homeless people suffer from mental illness, emotional disturbance and/or substance addictions that make finding a place to live even more difficult.

Tree mortality has not gone away with the wet winter we’ve had and neither have the dangers it presents for many California counties. We still have millions of dead trees and some of them still pose direct hazards to homes and infrastructure. The potential for a wildfire in those stands of dead trees is enough to keep me awake at night. California has many issues to deal with, but this one should stay near the top of the list. Please keep reading to find more about what’s happening in my home county of Amador, and also to hear from Mariposa County Supervisor Kevin Cann, Tulare County Supervisor Steve Worthley, and Tuolumne County Supervisor Randy Hanvelt.

Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione recently wrote a blog entry about sharing a podium with Rusty Bailey, the Mayor of Riverside, whom he first met when he was coaching the then-four-year-old soccer player. This is Mayor Bailey’s Response.

I read with great fondness the words of Supervisor John Tavaglione as he reflected on how, nearly 40 years ago, he first came into my life as a soccer coach. I was especially moved by the way he warmly described the bond we have shared ever since. I can assure you that this relationship has been far more beneficial to me than it has been to him.

Please click here to watch a brief video about the program.

If you research competitive mock trials on the Internet, you learn that they take place in numerous countries around the world. In the United States, students participate in them at the college, high school and even middle school levels.  But finding anything about mock trials involving incarcerated youths is a search that begins and ends with San Bernardino County.