By Jamie JoaquinMay 15, 20250 comments

SACRAMENTO, CA – In a notable reversal, Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision budget proposal includes the closure of another California state prison by October 2026—a move advocates are calling a critical step toward fiscal responsibility. According to a press release from Sacramento Press List on Wednesday, the updated budget reduces California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) funding by $700 million—an even deeper cut than the $493 million reduction proposed in the January budget.

The May Revision builds upon the earlier proposal by recommending further capacity reductions, including the shutdown of additional prisons, as the state attempts to address a projected $12 billion deficit.

“Given the state’s fiscal situation and the projected decline in the prison population, the May Revision proposes to close one additional prison by October 2026,” the budget reads. “Upon full closure, the state will achieve an estimated savings of about $150 million General Fund annually,” according to the Sacramento Press List.

Amber-Rose Howard, Executive Director of California United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)—a coalition of more than 100 organizations committed to reducing incarceration and expanding community care—expressed cautious optimism. “I’m relieved that Governor Newsom has taken a step in the right direction by announcing an additional prison will close in 2026,” Howard said in the Sacramento Press List release. “In the midst of an extremely difficult political moment, where Californians are suffering budget cuts to life-affirming programs, prison closures are a smart solution to offset some of those cuts.”

The announcement follows years of advocacy from impacted families, community leaders, and fiscal watchdogs. Newsom had previously stated that no additional prison closures were possible, making this reversal a notable shift. However, CURB warned that unless prisons are fully decommissioned, they remain costly liabilities and environmental risks.

The Sacramento Press List cites a recent audit by California’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG), which found that the state’s prisons are dangerously unprepared for climate disasters. Many lack adequate evacuation plans, despite being located in areas prone to wildfires, extreme heat, and flooding.

Although three state prisons have been deactivated since 2021, California has already spent more than $300 million maintaining these shuttered facilities in what is described as “warm shutdown”—meaning the prisons remain staffed, funded, and operational despite being empty.

“This announcement is a necessary step, but it will mean little if closed prisons remain in warm shutdown—wasting public dollars and leaving some of them vulnerable to federal takeover as migrant detention centers,” said Dax Proctor, CURB’s Statewide Coordinator, in the Sacramento Press List release.

CURB is urging the Newsom administration to collaborate with advocates and local communities to ensure that the next prison closure is executed efficiently, transparently, and with long-term community reinvestment in mind.

“California can lead by example at a time when the federal social safety net is under attack,” said Brian Kaneda, Deputy Director of CURB. “I’d love to work with the Governor and Legislature to ensure these savings are reinvested into our communities. It’s vital we demonstrate to Californians that the government can work—and that public dollars are going toward improving the places where they live.”

Advocates view this closure as an opportunity to deepen the state’s commitment to long-term savings and reinvestment. With California’s prison population continuing to decline, many argue that this is the right time to plan for more closures.

Howard echoed this point in a statement included in the Sacramento Press List release: “I strongly encourage the Governor and the California Legislature to think about closing more prisons as the prison population continues on a downward trend. We’ve got to be smart on public safety, and we’ve got to continue to stride toward building a responsible budget.”

Properly closing these facilities, advocates argue, would free up funds to support vital programs facing cuts—such as CalWORKs, which provides home visits, mental health services, and substance use support. The May Revision includes reductions to numerous safety-net programs that serve some of California’s most vulnerable residents.

Advocates maintain that responsible and complete prison closures offer a path forward to reinvest in public health, education, housing, and other foundational services—ensuring the state’s budget decisions reflect care over incarceration.

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Highest Jeffrey Pines Ever Recorded Reflect a Warming Climate in the High Sierra

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UC Davis Professor Hugh Safford was hiking for pleasure in California’s High Sierra when he stumbled upon a new elevation record for the Jeffrey pine, which may now be the state’s highest-altitude tree. His serendipitous finding is published in Madroño, a journal of the California Botanical Society.

Last September, at timberline along the south slopes of Mount Kaweah in Sequoia National Park, Safford paused to admire a foxtail pine, then a lodgepole pine — trees he expected to see at such high elevations.

“Then I thought, ‘What’s that?’” said Safford, a forest ecologist in the UC Davis Department of Environmental Science and Policy. “I walk over, and it’s a Jeffrey pine! It made no sense. What is a Jeffrey pine doing above 11,500 feet?”

The Jeffrey pine grows in upper montane areas throughout the Sierra Nevada and is the most common tree found around Lake Tahoe and Mammoth Lakes. It is not considered a traditional subalpine tree species, which inhabit the most extreme high elevations. Yet, Safford recorded Jeffrey pines as high as 12,657 feet elevation. That is 1,860 feet higher in elevation than the highest Jeffrey pine on record and even higher than lodgepole, limber and foxtail pines.

To date, none of the six traditional subalpine forest species have been collected above 12,034 feet. This suggests the Jeffrey pine is California’s highest tree — at least for the moment. Safford’s work indicates that other species are growing higher than commonly used databases suggest.

The discovery signifies a changing climate amid California’s highest peaks. As snow melts earlier and air temperatures rise, Jeffrey pine seeds are germinating on land they previously found frozen and inhospitable.

Moving on up

During his hike-turned-science-expedition, Safford found and examined 14 Jeffrey pines above 11,800 feet elevation, some of which were at least 20 years old. At least a dozen others were visible, but he was unable to visit them. He and researchers from his lab will return to the southern Sierra Nevada this summer to further research Jeffrey pines in the subalpine zone and what is driving their movement.

For now, Safford strongly suspects a bird — the Clark’s nutcracker — is lending its well-known, high alpine gardening skills to the task of planting Jeffrey pine trees in the area. Much as this nutcracker does for whitebark pine trees, preliminary evidence suggests the bird carries fleshy Jeffrey pine seeds up the mountain from thousands of feet below, storing them in the High Sierra’s “refrigerator” for an early summer snack.

Earlier snowmelt and warmer temperatures enable some of these Jeffrey pine seeds to not only germinate but to establish themselves as a new population on the mountain.

Leapfrogging trees

Species attempting to stay ahead of climate changes by moving uphill are doing so far too slowly to keep pace, climate modeling literature suggests. Yet the models do not account for the role of seed dispersals by birds and other species amid shifting windows of ecological opportunity.

“I’m looking at trees surviving in habitats where they couldn’t before, but they’re also dying in places they used to live before,” Safford said. “They’re not just holding hands and walking uphill. This crazy leapfrogging of species challenges what we think we know about these systems reacting as the climate warms.”

Jeffrey pine trees are tolerant of both cold and drought, so while their lives along the slopes of Mount Kaweah are harsh and somewhat unexpected, their persistence is promising, Safford said.

Trees in real life

The discovery underscores a need for scientists to couple powerful technologies with direct observation. The trees Safford encountered were not detected by any available database, artificial intelligence platform, satellite or remote sensing technology.

“People aren’t marching to the tops of the mountains to see where the trees really are,” Safford said. “Instead, they are relying on satellite imagery, which can’t see most small trees. What science does is help us understand how the world functions. In this case, where you see the impacts of climate change most dramatically are at high elevations and high latitudes. If we want our finger on the pulse of how the climate is warming and what the impacts are, that’s where it will be happening first. We just need to get people out there.”

This summer, Safford and his students will be out there, hiking along Mount Whitney, Mount Kaweah and Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, identifying seedlings, measuring and identifying trees, and helping to develop models of accurate elevations to better understand the changing landscape of the High Sierra.

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In front of Department 3 – Vanguard with Counsel Jennifer Mouzis, Peggy Dev, Sanjay Dev and Ajay’s parents.

By David GreenwaldMay 17, 20255 comments

Woodland, CA – In a stunning reversal, Yolo County Superior Court Judge Janene Beronio granted habeas corpus relief to Ajay Dev on Friday, overturning his 2009 conviction for sexually assaulting his adopted daughter. Dev, who has always maintained his innocence, had been sentenced to an extraordinary 378 years and four months. A bail hearing is scheduled for next Friday, and Dev is expected to be released pending that outcome.

This decision marks the end of a grueling, years-long evidentiary hearing that began in 2018 and faced delays due to changing counsel, the COVID-19 pandemic, and challenges in securing witnesses. Closing arguments were delivered last month by Jennifer Mouzis, Dev’s current attorney, and Steve Mount, the original prosecutor who came out of retirement for the case.

In her detailed ruling from the bench, Judge Beronio noted the legal standard guiding her decision: whether, by a preponderance of the evidence, the original trial failed to deliver a just and fair outcome.

The most critical factor, she ruled, was the failure by Dev’s trial counsel to authenticate official records from Nepal indicating that the alleged victim, Sapna Dev, had falsified her birth certificate to gain immigration benefits. This failure rendered key evidence inadmissible and, had the correct age been used, would have invalidated at least a dozen charges tied to underage sexual conduct.

Judge Beronio concluded that Dev’s trial attorney rendered constitutionally deficient performance, amounting to ineffective assistance of counsel.

She also reviewed new evidence from multiple witnesses who testified that Sapna had fabricated the allegations after a family dispute. The judge dismissed prosecution claims of witness tampering, stating there was no evidence of any conspiracy or misconduct by the defense.

While she found one defense witness lacking credibility, she determined that two others—who independently corroborated each other—were “credible, reliable, and non-cumulative.” One described a pregnancy scare that undermined Sapna’s claims of repeated unprotected sexual assaults, while another recounted Sapna admitting she had lied after being cut out of Dev’s will and sent back to Nepal.

On the crucial issue of the pretext call—long held by the prosecution as an implied confession—Judge Beronio was unequivocal. She said the recording had never been properly enhanced or clarified. Once it was, the call revealed no sexual content and no admission of guilt.

“By the end of the call,” she noted, “it was clear that Sapna didn’t believe she had received a confession.”

The court found that allowing Sapna to characterize the call as a confession amounted to the presentation of false testimony, and the defense’s failure to enhance the tape further demonstrated ineffective assistance.

After the ruling, the following written statement was given to the Davis Vanguard, which was prepared before the judge’s ruling and not read aloud in court:

“First and foremost, I want to thank Your Honor for your patience, diligence, fairness, and perseverance over the past six years during this evidentiary hearing.”

“I am deeply grateful to my attorney, Jennifer Mouzis, for stepping into this complex case mid-hearing. She believed in my innocence and has fought tirelessly on my behalf.”

“To my family, friends, and all those who stood by me—even traveling from across the country—thank you for your unwavering support.”

“To my aging parents: your unconditional love sustained me. To my two children: you are the true innocent victims in this case. I have missed you every single day, and I can’t wait to come home.”

“I hold no hatred toward Sapna. I pray for her peace. I also hold no ill will toward the prosecutor. Anger and hatred consume the soul; forgiveness and compassion are the values my parents instilled in me. I choose their path.”

During closing arguments, Mouzis argued that Dev’s trial had been irreparably flawed. She cited changes to California law—specifically SB 97—that lowered the threshold for habeas relief based on new evidence. The proper legal standard is now whether the new evidence is “sufficiently material and credible that it more likely than not would have changed the outcome of the case.”

Mouzis forcefully rebutted the prosecution’s allegations that she and other attorneys, including appellate expert Cliff Gardner, were engaged in a conspiracy. She accused the state of resorting to baseless accusations against not only attorneys but also family members, community supporters, and even press figures associated with Dev’s case.

“Every individual who has ever supported Mr. Dev is accused of lying,” Mouzis stated. “But they bring no evidence—only paranoia. Their position is transactional: if a fact supports conviction, it is true; if it supports innocence, it must be false.”

She highlighted the inconsistency in the prosecution’s treatment of Michael Rothschild, Dev’s original trial attorney—depicting him alternately as competent and forgetful depending on which argument benefitted their case. Mouzis also criticized the DA for invoking cultural bias and dismissing valid testimony from Nepali witnesses simply because of their national origin or family ties.

Among the witnesses targeted by the prosecution were a retired headmaster, Bhabendra Yadav, and schoolteacher Schweta Deo—both of whom testified that Sapna had privately admitted fabricating the allegations. Mouzis noted that the DA’s office, which routinely pays for witness travel, tried to discredit these witnesses solely because their travel to testify was funded by the defense.

Mouzis concluded by urging the court to consider the overwhelming weight of evidence pointing to Dev’s innocence—not just the failures of trial counsel, but the subsequent efforts by the state to preserve a conviction at all costs.

Judge Beronio scheduled a bail hearing for Friday, May 23, where Dev’s defense will argue for his release on his own recognizance (OR). While the district attorney may seek to retry the case or appeal the habeas ruling, such moves appear unlikely given the strength of the judge’s findings and the evidentiary issues identified.

“I believe he may be innocent,” Judge Beronio said in court, indicating she was disinclined to keep Dev in custody pending further proceedings.

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