Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Alpine) pulled down a controversial painting that portrayed a police officer as a wild boar from a wall in the U.S. Capitol.

The artwork, painted by a Missouri high school senior, was on display as part of the national Congressional Art Competition. In the painting, the officer is pointing a gun at a protester, who is also depicted as an animal.

Hunter, a retired Marine, told Fox News that the painting made him angry and he decided to pull it off the wall. On Friday, he brought the painting to the office of Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), who sponsored the national Congressional Art Competition in his state.

With a confirmation hearing scheduled Tuesday, Republican lawmakers on the Assembly Special Committee on the Office of the Attorney General say they want to know what Rep. Xavier Becerra will do in the office on issues including crime prevention, guns and marijuana.

The law-and order issues are in contrast to Democratic lawmakers' expected questions to Becerra on how he will stand up to President-elect Donald Trump’s threat of mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.

All three Republicans on the nine-member Assembly committee say they are going into the session with an open mind and are not ruling out a vote for confirmation.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s aides are assuring lawmakers that his new budget will include a plan for boosting repair of the state’s crumbling roads and bridges similar to the one he floated last year that would have increased transportation funding by $3.6 billion annually.

That plan and others did not advance because they called for increased taxes, which requires a two-thirds vote.

“Just as he did last year, the governor will include in his budget the proposal he had last year or something similar,” predicted state Sen. James Beall Jr. (D-San Jose), who has talked to the governor’s staff. "Hopefully, it’s a little higher in the dollar amount.”

California's 2018 race for governor just might get a little more fearsome.

Former Los Angeles Rams football player Rosey Grier, who was a member of the famous “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line in the 1960s, says he plans to run for governor.

Grier, a Republican who lives in west Los Angeles and endorsed Donald Trump in the presidential election, said he expects to jump into the race in the near future though he hasn't launched a campaign.

On the heels of Abel Maldonado's visit with President-elect Donald Trump last week, major farm groups in California are urging the incoming president to pick the former lieutenant governor to lead the federal Agriculture Department.

Eight trade groups representing some of the state's most prominent agriculture interests, including strawberry growers, dairies and pistachio farmers, sent a letter Thursday to the Trump transition team, touting Maldonado's bona fides.

"California is the number one agriculture state in the nation producing over 400 commodities with worldwide distribution," the letter reads. "Abel is one of the 78,000 California farmers that makes this happen every day."

Three weeks after ride-hailing company Uber illegally debuted self-driving cars on San Francisco’s streets, a state lawmaker has introduced legislation to boost penalties on companies that defy the law.

The bill from Assemblyman Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) would fine any company that illegally operates such cars up to $25,000 per vehicle per day and prohibit the company from applying for a Department of Motor Vehicles permit to test the technology for two years.  

“I applaud our innovation economy and all the companies developing autonomous vehicle technology, but no community should face what we did in San Francisco,” Ting said in a release. “The pursuit of innovation does not include a license to put innocent lives at risk.”

In another challenge to the immigration crackdown proposed by President-elect Donald Trump, a California lawmaker proposed Thursday to greatly expand the number of students in the country illegally who can get discounted, in-state resident tuition at state universities.

“Despite national rhetoric, California remains resolute in integrating the most vulnerable into our society,” said state Sen. Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens), the bill’s author.

A 2001 law provides in-state tuition if immigrants in the country illegally attend three years of school and get a high school diploma. Otherwise, they face more costly tuition charged to students from out of the country.

Former L.A. city planning commissioner and longtime Boyle Heights leader Maria Cabildo has announced she's running for Rep. Xavier Becerra's congressional seat.

Cabildo is the 12th person to officially announce a run to succeed Becerra, who is expected to give up the 34th Congressional District seat if confirmed as state attorney general. 

"There are definitely a lot of candidates in the field, and I feel the district is really tired of career politicians and candidates that have really carefully crafted their careers around eventually running," Cabildo said. "That hasn't been me; my focus has been on doing work in the community."

State officials have failed to remedy problems that have contributed to a two-year delay for a new computer system and cost increases that are pushing its cost toward $1 billion, State Auditor Elaine Howle warned Thursday.

The system is being built to improve the state’s handling of its finances. The completion date has been pushed back from July 2017 to July 2019 and the total estimated cost has increased $237 million to $910 million, Howle said in a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown.

Howle wrote that the project team “has not remedied the project’s significant scheduling slippage,” and the project is “failing to promptly respond to its oversight entities’ concerns and recommendations, many of which have been outstanding for more than a year.”

The outgoing Obama administration on Wednesday tried to nudge forward Gov. Jerry Brown's proposal to build two giant north-south water tunnels for California. 

In an executive order, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell directed federal wildlife officials on Wednesday to release by Jan. 17 a preliminary environmental opinion that directs the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to assist as the $15.7-billion project seeks state and federal permits and other approvals. 

Brown welcomed Jewell's move, saying in a statement that “it commits the federal government to a timely review” of the proposed tunnels.