California News by Ben Vandermeer

Sacramento City Councilman Kevin McCarty has filed a statement of intent to run as a Democrat for the Assembly seat being vacated in 2010 by 9th District Assemblyman Dave Jones (D-Sacramento).

McCarty, on the council since 2004, was elected to fill Jones' seat after Jones was elected to the state Assembly that year.

Before that, McCarty was policy director for then-Lieutenant Gov. Cruz Bustamante, and also served as a consultant to the Assembly Budget Committee.

President-elect Barack Obama has bypassed state Air Resources Board chief Mary Nichols for a post leading the Environmental Protection Agency, tabbing a woman who previously held a similar position in New Jersey instead, according to media reports Wednesday.

Nichols, reportedly one of the top two choices for the job, lost out to Lisa Jackson, former New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection commissioner who also worked at the federal EPA.

After a judge cut his bail amount in half, the son of former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez (D-Los Angeles) was released Tuesday on bail related to a murder charge against him, according to media reports.

Esteban Nuñez, 19, was released from San Diego Central Jail Tuesday evening with a bail amount of $1 million. A judge originally set the amount at $2 million in his initial court hearing last week.

Stanislaus County Supervisor Thomas Mayfield, weeks away from the end of his tenure on the board, died Tuesday in Modesto, the Modesto Bee reported Tuesday.

Mayfield had been on the board since 1992, and had chosen not to run for re-election this year to another four-year term. The Bee reported that he died of lymphoma, and would've turned 78 on Friday.