California's population declined last year for the first time ever
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — For the first time in state history, California's population declined in 2020.
The milestone followed a deadly pandemic, a long-term decline in births and former President Donald Trump's immigration policies that drove away potential newcomers, according to the California Department of Finance.
That combination contributed to a population decline of 182,083 residents, according to new data released by the state on Friday. That marks a .46% decline in the state's population, keeping it under 40 million residents.
The new data comes after the U.S. Census Bureau announced last month that California would lose a congressional seat for the first time in the state's 170-year history due to its slower population growth. As a result, the state is expected to send 52 members of Congress to the House of Representatives in 2022 instead of 53.
The COVID-19 pandemic contributed to 51,000 deaths in California last year, a 19% surge in average death rates over the past three years, according to the data. Fifty-one of the state's 58 counties saw rates of "excess deaths."
California's median home price in March stood at $758,990, a new record.
–The Sacramento Bee
NAACP, elections official push DeSantis to fill Alcee Hastings’ House seat sooner
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – The NAACP is joining with Broward Elections Supervisor Joe Scott in demanding that Gov. Ron DeSantis abandon his plan to leave the late U.S. Rep. Alcee Hastings’ seat vacant for more than nine months before a special election.
The civil rights organization and state Sen. Shevrin Jones said Friday they support Scott’s proposal for a special primary election on Aug. 31 and a special general election on Nov. 2 to fill the vacancy in the 20th Congressional District.
DeSantis said this week the primary would be Nov. 2 with a general election Jan. 11, and on Thursday he signed an executive order setting those dates. Under the governor’s schedule — which state law gives him the authority to set — the seat would be vacant for more than nine months. That’s far longer than other recent Florida congressional vacancies.
Scott said DeSantis’ dates “will not work for this community for a number of reasons.” Among them: a Jan. 11 special election would require early voting to start on New Year’s Day.
Marsha Ellison, president of the NAACP Fort Lauderdale/Broward branch and civic engagement chairwoman of the Florida state NAACP, called on DeSantis “to be the governor of all the people, even the people of the 20th Congressional District.”
Also on Friday, Elvin Dowling, one of the 10 Democratic candidates seeking to fill the vacancy left by Hastings’ April 6 death said he was amending a federal lawsuit he filed April 30 seeking to compel DeSantis to set election dates, which the governor did on Thursday.
Dowling said he’d now seek a ruling that the Nov. 2 primary and Jan. 11 general election are “unreasonable and politically motivated,” and have the effect of disenfranchising the Broward and Palm Beach County voters who live in the 20th District.
–South Florida Sun Sentinel
Idaho takes step toward its first execution in nearly a decade
BOISE, Idaho – For the first time in nearly a decade, Idaho might execute a man on death row.
A death warrant was signed Thursday for Gerald Ross Pizzuto Jr., who was sentenced to die in a capital punishment case in 1986 for two murders in Idaho County. Judge Jay Gaskill, the administrative judge for the Second Judicial District, signed the death warrant.
The execution is scheduled for June 2, according to a copy of the warrant obtained by the Idaho Statesman. It states that “no valid stays of execution are currently in place” for Pizzuto. With the death warrant being issued, the state has 30 days to execute him.
Pizzuto was sentenced in 1986 in the July 1985 murders of Berta Herndon and her nephew, Del Herndon, in Idaho County. According to an appeal filed to the U.S. Supreme Court in March 2020, Pizzuto forced the two into their mountain cabin while he held a .22-caliber rifle. He later tied up the two and bludgeoned them with a hammer.
Berta Herndon died from the hammer blows, and Del Herndon died after Pizzuto shot him in the head. Pizzuto stole money from the two and later bragged about the killings to associates, according to the Supreme Court appeal.
Idaho conducts executions by lethal injection, and the state has executed three people since 1994.
– Idaho Statesman
In a twist, tornadoes hit a 30-year April low across the country
In a more-than-welcome reversal from April 2020, confirmed tornado reports last month nationwide represented the lowest number for any April in 30 years, the government said Friday.
The 73 officially sighted constituted less than half the 30-year average for an April, which is 155. In addition, only one fatality was reported by the Storm Prediction Center, in Norman, Oklahoma. In the same month last year, 38 people were killed in tornadoes, and 271 twisters confirmed.
The relative gentleness was somewhat unexpected, said Matthew Elliott, the center’s warning coordination meteorologist. “Going into this year there was some talk that this would be an active April,” he said.
He added that the low numbers were all the more notable given that compared with 1991, observation tools are so much more sophisticated — not to mention the effects of social media’s ubiquity. These days, it is harder than ever for a tornado to spin in obscurity.
He said the big differences this year were the lack of long-lasting atmospheric patterns and the general inability of low-level moisture to penetrate into the Southeast and the lower Great Plains, the venues for some of the world’s most-fertile tornado spawning grounds.
– The Philadelphia Inquirer
