I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

These days, children can text on their cell phone all night long, and no one else is seeing that phone. You don't know who is calling that child.

You got to take care of yourself. If I exercise or I eat proper foods, am I indulging myself? That's called feeding your body.

I've been a proud mentor to many women seeking public office, because I believe we need more women at all levels of government. Women have an equal stake in our future and should have an equal voice in our politics. These are challenging times, but I believe getting more women to run for office is a big part of the solution.

Everybody will make mistakes, and for some that mistake will rise to the level of being a crime.

Doing nothing while the middle class is hurting. That's not leadership. Loose regulations and lax enforcement. That's not leadership. That's abandoning our middle class.

We need to incorporate that age-old concept of redemption into the work that we do in the criminal justice system in California.