ICE agents have reportedly claimed to be police officers to gain consent to enter a person’s home – a tactic that is viewed as unethical, but within the powers granted to the officers. Civil rights groups supported Kalra’s bill, looking to stymie the Trump administration’s promise to use any and all available tools to deport undocumented immigrants who have committed crimes. Many groups fear Trump will expand deportations to include all undocumented immigrants, their families and relatives.   read more

The feds cut off money for the additional 10 weeks when the state’s three-month average of unemployment dipped below 9%. The state’s Employment Development Department (EDD) said 100,000 Californians who are already on the third tier of federal benefits will be the first to feel the pain.   read more

Acidization injects large amounts of hydrochloric or hydrofluoric acid into wells to dissolve rock formations and allow easier access to gas and oil. It would be especially effective if California moves forward on tapping the Monterey Shale in Central California, where an estimated 15.3 billion barrels of oil trapped in porous rock has energy industry officials and politicians salivating.   read more

Stanford Chief Financial Officer Randall Livingston warned that “the school does not yet know the scope of the intrusion,” but the hacker taking credit for the invasion, “Ag3nt47,” tweeted a claim to have downloaded the whole database. If true, health information, personal financial information and Social Security numbers could be compromised.   read more

In 1980, there were only 24 of the birds in the area and they were considered a “species of special concern” in California, according to MSN News. Now larus californicus are said to number more than 53,000 and continue to breed at a quickening pace. Cheryl Strong, a biologist with the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge, told the San Jose Mercury News that the gull population could double in the next few years, but said, “I don’t want to think about that.”   read more

Auditors found that compensation levels for intervenors were not too high, and in fact chastised the PUC for underpaying in some cases because it wasn’t applying market rates. The auditors found the intervenors to be uniformly suitable to assist consumers and were, in many cases, consumers themselves. It called the process of determining their compensation “robust” and thorough.   read more

The public’s right to know how its money is spent collided with an individual’s right to privacy when the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) announced two weeks ago that it plans to post pension information online about its 500,000 retirees. The database was scheduled to go live the week after the announcement but an outcry from retirees and talk of a lawsuit gave CalPERS officials pause and they delayed releasing the information.   read more

Deitch had been under the gun almost from the moment the board, led by billionaire and founding Chairman Eli Broad, picked him to head the museum in 2010. Deitch had carved out a reputation in New York for promoting art that relied on more popular forms of expression like graffiti art, fashion and commercialism. He replaced an artist favorite, Jeremy Strick, and immediately clashed with longtime chief museum curator Paul Schimmel.   read more

On Tuesday, the California Supreme Court rejected a plea from San Diego County Clerk Ernest J. Dronenburg Jr. that performances of gay marriage be put on hold until it has pondered his arguments as to why Proposition 8 is still the law despite a crushing defeat in the U.S. Supreme Court last June.   read more

The president’s popularity held steady at 57% since the last time the question was asked in February, with 35% expressing a negative impression. But approval by California registered voters of his performance dropped 10 percentage points, from 62% to 52%. The overwhelming source of that drop was disenchantment by his own supporters.   read more

Nury Martinez defeated Cindy Montanez in a runoff for the Sixth District seat to re-establish a female presence on the council that has been historically thin and intermittent at best. Only 17 women have been elected to the council, with almost all of them coming after 1953.   read more

If the city council approves acceptance of a $2 million federal grant at its July 30 meeting, the Domain Awareness Center would look beyond the port for data streams—to schools, the Coliseum, law enforcement agencies, license plate readers, digital license plates, private security cameras, red-light cameras, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, the state Department of Transportation and others.   read more

if you really want to know “how much is being spent on lobbying” you either have to buy a CD-ROM of the raw database from the state, wait until next Labor Day when, the Secretary of State promises, a copy of the database will be available for download, or rely on the kindness of strangers. Last week, the Sacramento Bee made available a rudimentary online form for accessing some of the data about lobbying of state government, sufficient to glean a few lists of who did what for who.   read more

“They just seem so paranoid to let any information out about what’s going on,” Jim Ewert of the California Newspaper Publishers Association told KPCC, a public radio station. KPCC was denied permission by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to tour any of the four state security housing units where prisoners are held in solitary. Last week, prison officials banned prominent inmate attorney Marilyn McMahon from talking to prisoners.   read more

The Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Marine Fisheries Service took turns, in a 44-page report, blasting the EIR produced for the Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP) as “biased,” “insufficient” and “confusing.” The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the only member of the group that is not a designated lead agency in the project, had eight specific criticisms but expressed them in a less harsh fashion.   read more

California has successfully fought the issuance of new offshore drilling leases since the disastrous Santa Barbara oil spill in 1969, but the U.S. Air Force is processing a request by oil companies to use its Vandenberg base for slant drilling out into the ocean.   read more

Drones are best known for their use by the military for surveillance and delivering missile attacks on targets in Afghanistan and the Mideast. But they are increasingly being used for domestic border patrol and by local law enforcement. California Highway Patrol Officer Andrew Barclay told CBS that the signs were a distraction for drivers, but assured the reporter that it was all a farce.   read more