California Professional Firefighters

In a decision that could pad Wall St. bottom lines and devastate local public safety, a federal bankruptcy judge has ruled that Stockton could, if it chooses, sever its ties with CalPERS. Stockton lawyers say such a move could provoke the loss of 60% of its police and firefighters.

A sudden and explosive wildfire near the Oregon border has destroyed 100 homes just south of Weed, at the base of Mt. Shasta. Nearly 2,000 have been forced to evacuate and some 800 firefighters are on scene battling the blaze.

It's official: An effort to wipe out secure public pensions in Ventura County is dead. Anti-retirement ideologues have dropped a legal effort to force the measure back on the ballot.

 While the fight is still far from over, Ventura County firefighters and public workers are praising a judge's has ruled that a county initiative eliminating defined-benefit pensions violates state law and should be removed from the November ballot.  

A well-funded Ventura County ballot initiative, backed by outside interests including the Koch Brothers, has put the very concept of a secure retirement on trial. The measure, ticketed for the November ballot, would eliminate all defined benefit pensions, including those providing for the survivors of fallen firefighters and law enforcement officers.  

Anti-retirement hard liners are acknowledging that their well-funded ballot campaign in Ventura County is part of a bigger agenda to eliminate secure pensions everywhere. "This is meant to be a template for other counties," says Jon Coupal of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

Children of fallen firefighters can apply for up to $2,000 in scholarship grants through the Daniel A. Terry Scholarship Program. The 2014 deadline for applying is July 30. 

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation honoring the sacrifice of California’s fallen public safety heroes. Assembly Bill 1561 by Assemblymember Fred Rodriguez (D-Los Angeles) extends the current voluntary tax check-offs for the California Firefighters Memorial and the California Peace Officers Memorial to 2021.

The California fire service has come together to call for a Safety Stand Down this Thursday, July 3, 2014 The Stand Down encourages departments to review critical wildfire safety procedures ahead of what promises to be a blistering fire season.