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ByBrianMelley TheAssociatedPress LOS ANGELES Former California state Sen. Ron Calderon was sentenced Friday to 3½ years in prison in a corruption scandal in which he ac- knowledged taking bribes in exchange for his influ- ence in Sacramento. U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder imposed the sentence in Los Angeles after listen- ing to Calderon emotion- ally ask to remain under house arrest or "at least get me home to my fam- ily sooner." Federal prosecutors had asked for a 5-year prison term in a blistering brief that mocked Calderon for making false and mislead- ing claims about bribes he accepted and distorting his previous admissions in court. "Defendant asks this court to endorse his view that an elected official who repeatedly and egregiously abuses the trust of the elec- torate warrants essentially the lowest possible sanc- tion for a federal convic- tion," Assistant U.S. Attor- ney Mack Jenkins wrote. "Defendant's requested sentence would permit (Calderon) to continue to trivialize his corrupt ac- tions, as he does through- out his sentencing posi- tion, and continue to evade true accountability." Calderon was ordered to report to prison Jan. 3. The sentencing brought an end to an ugly chapter in California politics that saw three state Democratic senators indicted in 2014. It also tarnishes what was a Calderon political dy- nasty in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Calderon, 59, pleaded guilty to a single count of mail fraud in June and ad- mitted to soliciting more than $155,000 in payments or financial benefits in ex- change for supporting or blocking legislation. He took $12,000 worth of trips to Las Vegas from an undercover FBI agent who posed as the owner of a Los Angeles movie studio seeking his support for film tax credits, though the leg- islation never passed, ac- cording to his signed plea agreement.Theagenthired Calderon's daughter for a $3,000 a month no-show job and paid $5,000 toward his son's college tuition. Calderon also acknowl- edged helping a hospital owner maintain a massive health care fraud scheme in exchange for hiring his son for $10,000 over three summers for no more than 15 days of work a season filing papers. The defendant's brother, ex-Assemblyman Thomas Calderon, was also caught up in the FBI investigation. Thomas Calderon, 62, a political consultant, pleaded guilty to launder- ing some of the bribes and was recently sentenced to 10 months in prison. Half of that term was to be served at home. SACRAMENTO Ex-state senator gets prison for taking bribes By Janie Har The Associated Press OAKLAND The Black Pan- thers emerged from this gritty Northern California city 50 years ago, declar- ing to a nation in turmoil a new party dedicated to defending African-Ameri- cans against police brutal- ity and protecting the right of a downtrodden people to determine their own future. In the group's short life, it launched an ambitious breakfast program for children and opened free health clinics to screen for sickle-cell anemia. At the same time, party members scared mainstream Amer- ica with their calls for rev- olution that were at odds with Martin Luther King Jr.'s insistence on peaceful protest. The Panthers eventually imploded, weakened by in- ternal fighting and by a gov- ernment effort to under- mine the group. FBI Direc- tor J. Edgar Hoover said the party represented the na- tion's "greatest threat to in- ternal security." The Nixon administration moved to shut it down. The anniversary comes as new tensions between black communities and law enforcement have given rise to another social-justice movement with Oakland ties — Black Lives Matter. Hundreds of Panthers from around the world are expected in Oakland for a four-day conference that started Thursday. Two days later, co-founder Bobby Seale will celebrate his 80th birthday with a roast sponsored by the National Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party. Nationally, African- Americans continue to lag whites in jobs, housing and health. And Oakland, once a heavily black city, is losing its African-Amer- ican population as soaring home prices propelled by the technology boom drive out poorer residents. "The only change is that time has passed," said Elaine Brown, a former party chairwoman who remains politically active in the San Francisco Bay Area. "We are the poorest. We have the least economic interests in the country, and consequently we are an op- pressed people. We remain an oppressed people." Bobby McCall was 20 when he left Philadelphia for Oakland to help give away 10,000 sacks of free food. He agrees that con- ditions have not improved. "That's why we have the movement Black Lives Matter," McCall said. "Only they're not as organized as we were. They don't have a free breakfast program like we had. They have to start developing programs." The generally accepted date of the party's found- ing is Oct. 15, 1966, al- though Seale said it was a week later, on his birthday. It was an era of Vietnam War and civil rights pro- tests when Seale and Huey P. Newton drafted the par- ty's 10-point platform. The document called for decent housing and employment. It demanded black self-re- liance. They named their group the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense after a black civil rights group in Al- abama, adopted the be- ret worn by the French resistance to Hitler and launched armed patrols. In response, Califor- nia lawmakers in 1967 re- pealed the law that al- lowed people to carry loaded weapons in public. The Panthers gained na- tional attention when they carried guns into the state Capitol in protest. White Americans were used to King's nonvio- lent campaign against rac- ism, but they were not ac- customed to seeing black Americans with guns. Today, a tart-tongued Seale bristles at all the talk of free breakfasts and fire- arms without what he calls critical context. He formed the party, he said, to elect minorities to political seats. The "survival programs" such as food and clothing giveaways were linked to voter registration drives, he said. As for the violence that included shootouts with police, he said, "The power structure was violent. The Ku Klux Klan was violent. They came and they at- tacked us. If you shoot at me, I'm shooting back. So are you going to call this right to self-defense or are you going to call this ag- gressive violence? It's not aggressive violence." The Oakland Museum of California's exhibit "All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50" documents the party's reign from 1966 to 1982. The party's decline included Nixon administra- tion efforts to undermine the group with informants and misinformation. "The FBI inspired raids on Panther offices. There was a general campaign to portray them as a negative, violent organization," said Rene de Guzman, the mu- seum's director of exhibi- tion strategies and senior curator of art. ANNIVERSARY 50 years later, Black Panthers look back at party's founding WALTZEBOSKI—THEASSOCIATEDPRESSFILE Armed members of the Black Panthers Party stand in the corridor of the Capitol in Sacramento in 1967. Allbanksa not the same... "CornerstoneCommunityBankisheldtohigherstandards. These standards are not set by government regulations or congressional oversight committees. They come from our customers, who live in the cities and towns that we also call home. 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