Edmund G Jr Jerry Brown

Former Gov. Jerry Brown said Thursday that a prison sentencing law touted as a historic reform when he signed it 25 years ago has been an "abysmal failure," saddling California with parolees who are ill-prepared for release, unremorseful and likely to commit new crimes.

It seemed like eavesdropping on a private conversation -- or reading a rival journalist's notes. But I eagerly did it anyway out of curiosity about Jerry Brown. What I found confirmed that the California attorney general hasn't changed a lot, at least in tone, since he was governor 30 years ago (1975-83). He's still argumentative, rebellious, inquisitive, self-confident, articulate, outspoken and egocentric. A reporter's dream. And it's a big reason -- along with the surname inherited from his late father, the revered Gov. Pat Brown -- that he has managed to survive 40 years in politics and now is the early front-runner to replace Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

One of every four judges appointed by Gov. Pete Wilson contributed to his gubernatorial campaign in amounts as high as $4,000 before being named, a Times review of Wilson's campaign records shows. Altogether, 17 of the 65 men and women whom Wilson placed on the bench or elevated to a higher court through April gave him campaign money, according to the records.

Gambling halls and arts education may make strange bedfellows. But over the last three years, five Los Angeles-area card clubs have showered more than $100,000 on a Bay Area school for the arts some 400 miles away. The gifts offered more than a chance to help inner-city kids. They were an opportunity to please the state official who asked for the money, directly oversees the clubs and is widely viewed as the front-runner to be California's next governor: state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary, earned $33,000 less in 1991 than the year before, according to income tax returns the Clinton presidential campaign released Friday. Clinton's rival for the Democratic nomination, former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. released a partial tax return Friday, showing that he paid $15,141 in federal taxes on an adjusted gross income of $117,340.

Shortly after James Buchanan, a courtly bachelor, moved into the White House in 1857, hiscritics began wondering if the treachery in his Administration was caused by his unmarried state. "Cain was a bachelor, and so was Judas Iscariot!" one newspaper warned. Buchanan left office as one of the least popular Presidents in American history, and the "experiment to elect a bachelor" was deemed a failure, with the newspaper noting: "For being freed from the cares of domestic life . . .

Bill Clinton called on former California Gov. Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. on Saturday to publicly release his tax returns, but the attempt to embarrass his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination was muted after aides acknowledged that the Arkansas governor had not released any of his own returns since declaring his candidacy. Brown, responding to Clinton's challenge, declared that his own tax records were already "out there."

On Day One of Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr.'s political rebirth, he introduced a new word: Tangibilitize . What it means, he explained as groggy Democrats scratched their heads at an early breakfast here Sunday, is making grass-roots political activity tangible by infusing it with the kind of big money usually spent on television ads and high-powered consultants.

A former California state policeman--a whistle-blower in another major case--has identified himself as the original anonymous source of allegations that Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. tolerated drug use at his Los Angeles home while he was governor. James C.

For more than 30 years of Jerry Brown's adventurous political life, the stylish, bald Frenchman with the designer tattoos and Zen haiku banter was Brown's soul mate and sounding board. People compared the relationship of Brown and Jacques Barzaghi to Don Quixote and Sancho Panza, the visionary knight and his faithful sidekick. To others, it was more like Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady, the bohemian buddies from Kerouac's classic novel "On the Road."

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has launched an investigation into the brouhaha over videotapes of a conservative group's sting operation against ACORN, the community organizing group credited with helping push Barack Obama to the presidency. Brown's office plans to look into circumstances surrounding both the making of the videos and any possible misdeeds by ACORN employees in California caught on tape. In what has become a staple of TV and radio talk shows in recent weeks, ACORN workers in several states were shown allegedly offering advice on tax evasion, human smuggling and child prostitution.

State Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown dropped the fiction that he was seeking reelection and filed papers Tuesday to explore a run for governor, a job that he first won in 1974 and has for months been fighting hard, if quietly, to recapture. Brown's move was born of necessity: Contributions to candidates for attorney general are capped at $6,500 per election for individual donors, but gubernatorial contestants can accept up to $25,900. "If he chooses to run, it will make him more competitive against a deep-pocketed Republican opponent," said Steven Glazer, a senior advisor to Brown, a Democrat.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown's decision to throw the weight of his office behind same-sex marriage has sparked debate over whether his arguments will actually do more harm than good for those hoping to overturn the initiative. Brown's request that the California Supreme Court overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriage -- arguing that it undermines fundamental liberties -- has been widely hailed as a victory in the fight for gay rights.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked the state Supreme Court on Friday to invalidate the voter-approved ban on gay marriage, declaring that "the amendment process cannot be used to extinguish fundamental constitutional rights without compelling justification." Brown's argument on Proposition 8, contained in an 111-page brief filed at the last possible moment before the court's deadline, surprised many legal experts.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown asked a bankruptcy judge to toss out Calpine Corp.'s "fatally flawed" debt-repayment plan because it would nullify a large electricity contract the San Jose power producer signed with the state during the 2000-to-2001 energy crisis.

Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, escalating California's legal war with the federal government over global warming policies, was in federal court Monday to challenge U.S. auto mileage standards. Joining other states, cities and environmental groups, California is suing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration saying it violated U.S. environmental laws by making only a "trivial" increase in auto mileage standards for model years 2008 through 2011.

Mobbed by fans, cameras, reporters, excitement and controversy--just like the old days--a beaming Edmund G. (Jerry) Brown Jr. Saturday night was elected chairman of the California Democratic Party, seizing his first important rung on the political comeback ladder. "Some would say this is a vindication.

Former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., all but proclaiming that he will run for the U.S. Senate in 1992, announced his resignation Monday as chairman of the California Democratic Party. The departure, which will take effect at the party's convention in March, was prompted by Brown's plan to establish an exploratory finance committee for the Senate race soon.

A national term limits group filed a lawsuit Wednesday against state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown, demanding that his office rewrite the title and summary of a ballot initiative that would alter California's term limits law and could extend the power of sitting legislative leaders. A lawyer for U.S. Term Limits, an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C.

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown is free to continue working in his new job, even though he was technically an inactive member of the State Bar during the five-year period before he was elected, a judge ruled Friday. State law requires attorneys general to be active members of the bar for the five consecutive years before an election.