The conservative jurist whose powerful belief in individual liberty shaped some of most influential U.S. Supreme Court rulings of the past 40 years has blue eyes that flash and sparkle as he looks at you, and a life story that outlines the history, culture and politics of Sacramento, his beloved hometown.

California courts are partnering with communities to finalize adoptions, uplift kinship care, and support children’s paths to permanent homes.

Div. Three of the Fourth District Court of Appeal has held that an order in marital dissolution proceedings requiring that an elderly husband establish a $3 million trust to provide for the support of his wife, 13 years his junior, after he dies is authorized under the Family Code and is not precluded by a separate provision that specifies that alimony obligations terminate upon the death of either party.

Prosecutors in three Southern California counties have charged more than 13,000 people under Proposition 36, the tougher-on-crime law passed overwhelmingly a year ago this week, according to data collected by the Southern California News Group. The new law contributes to overcrowding in jails and increased caseloads across the state without providing the alternatives to incarceration that California voters expected, opponents say.