Sacramento, California - The Sand County Foundation, the California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation are proud to announce the 2015 finalists for the prestigious California Leopold Conservation Award®, which honors private landowner achievement in voluntary stewardship and management of natural resources.

Los Angeles, California - Attorney General Kamala D. Harris announced the launch of OpenJustice, a first-of-its-kind criminal justice open data initiative that will release unprecedented data while being interactive and easy to use. The tool consists of two components: a Dashboard that spotlights key criminal justice indicators with user-friendly visualization tools and an Open Data Portal that publishes raw data from the California Department of Justice’s statewide repository of criminal justice datasets.

Sacramento, California - Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today issued a proclamation declaring September 2015 as "National Preparedness Month" in the State of California.

Oakland, California - Ebrahim Shabudin was sentenced today to 97 months in prison for his role in a securities fraud scheme and other corporate fraud offenses stemming from the failure of United Commercial Bank, announced U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag; Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Office of the Inspector General, Acting Inspector General Fred W. Gibson, Jr.; Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program Christy Goldsmith Romero; Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Office of the Inspector General, Inspector General Mark Bialek; and FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson.

Sacramento, California - As the September 19 and September 26 general deer hunting season openers approach, hunters across the state are gearing up to head out in search of deer in many of the most popular hunting areas. Deer seasons are already underway for archery and in zones A and B4.

Fresno, California - Former bank manager Sylvia Ochoa, 33, and Shanne Leavell, 23, both of Orange Cove, were arrested today for an embezzlement scheme that defrauded the Bank of America of over $600,000, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced.