Capitol Alert: AM Alert: A San Francisco welcome for Obama

The latest on California politics and government

President Barack Obama heads to San Francisco today for a lunch fundraiser, but he may get a little more green than he bargained for.

Medical marijuana activists are using the occasion to slam the Obama administration for its recent crackdown on the cannibis industry. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, will hold a 10 a.m. press conference with politicians, patients and directors of medical marijuana dispensaries targeted by federal prosecutors.

An Ammiano release says the coalition will “discuss the ramifications of (the Obama) administration’s new attack on the medical marijuana community” while calling for federal policy changes.

Gov. Jerry Brown, meanwhile, will head Tuesday evening to Club Nokia at L.A. Live in Los Angeles. The concert venue hosts Cyndi Lauper next month and Wu-Tang Clan in January, but on Tuesday it’s all about nonprofits.

Brown speaks at the Annenberg Foundation’s 3rd Annual Alchemy Peer to Peer event. It includes a “Social Innovation Fast Pitch Competition,” in which nonprofits will compete for more than $100,000 in funding by giving three-minute speeches on their projects.

Elsewhere, an anti-death penalty coalition called SAFE California says it will begin gathering signatures today to end the death penalty and replace it with life sentences without parole. The group will hold press conferences this week around the state featuring law enforcement officials and crime victims.

“With the money in the bank and commitments we have we are not concerned at all and positive we will have the signatures needed to get on the ballot,” said spokeswoman Erin Mellon.

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Torey Van Oot of The Bee Capitol Bureau contributed to this report.

 

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