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

Using Southern California Edison’s own numbers, an independent analysis estimates that restarting the San Onofre Nuclear Power Generating Station this summer would cost customers three times as much money as keeping it shut and buying energy elsewhere. The analysis, conducted by M.Cubed of San Francisco for the Friends of the Earth, was filed with the state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as part of an emergency motion contesting Edison’s request for a partial restart of the reactors.   read more

“Frackademia” hasn’t made the dictionary yet, but critics use it to describe the promotion—by corporations with an agenda—of seemingly legitimate, independent, academic and scientific inquiries into fracking. Examples seemingly abound.   read more

A little-noticed judicial fee tucked into Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed budget threatens to limit public access to documents and make it far more difficult for journalists to review critical files. A $10 fee would be imposed on anyone requesting a court file, a seemingly small amount until one considers that journalists covering the courts routinely request access to 10 or more documents in the course of a day. That adds up in a hurry.   read more

Good grades and high test scores weren’t enough to save three charter schools from a closure order by the Oakland Unified School District board. The board voted 4-3 Wednesday to close the American Indian Model Schools (AIMS) on June 30 primarily because of financial irregularities, although all three schools rank among the state’s top charter schools academically.   read more

California Treasurer Bill Lockyer has asked Attorney General Kamala Harris to issue a formal opinion on whether school districts are illegally contracting with bond underwriting firms for pre-election campaign services in exchange for exclusive contracts to market the bonds later. “It's troubling,” Lockyer told the Voice of San Diego Tuesday. “I think it may well violate current law that limits quid-pro-quo transactions.”   read more

The California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) has developed, in recent years, a tool for measuring a range of factors that helps better define the impact environmental pollution has on a community. Not surprisingly, the state’s Central Valley dominates the CalEnviroScreen list of communities (identified by zip codes) that have the highest health risks.   read more

Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), whose political career was forged during the turmoil of the 1978 assassination of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk while she was on the board, was more than a little perturbed when her proposal was removed from the broad package. “You'd think the Congress would listen, but they clearly listen to the National Rifle Assn.,” Feinstein said after Reid’s decision.   read more

Is one of our toxic Superfund sites missing? An estimated 110 tons of deadly DDT, lying for years on the ocean floor off the Palos Verdes coast, has been recalculated to be around 14 tons, according to a report in Environmental Health News. And no one is quite sure what happened.   read more

The early results are in and one out of every six voters is out. Around 300,000 voters who were listed on the rolls but hadn’t voted since 2010 were sent postcards after the election requiring them to respond or face removal. Only 20,000 returned the card, O.C. Registrar of Voters Neal Kelley told the Orange County Register. Those purged can still vote, if they re-register.   read more

Like many Americans, Peter Dietrich took a pay cut last year after his employer encountered some financial setbacks. In fact, they shuttered the facility he oversaw in January 2012. Dietrich, chief nuclear officer for Southern California Edison (SCE) since 2010, oversees the beleaguered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station where his compensation last year was $1.9 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents reviewed by the Associated Press.   read more

L.A. County Superior Court is closing 21 of 26 courts that handle “unlawful detainers,” actions that require a landlord to follow a strict eviction procedure for protecting the Fifth Amendment rights of a tenant. By restricting unlawful detainer access to just five courthouses, some tenants could have to travel as far as 32 miles for a court appearance.   read more

Now, California legislators are pondering legislation that would add a new wrinkle to our schizophrenic attitude about drunk driving. State Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 635 last month, which would give local governing bodies authorization to extend the sale of alcohol in bars and restaurants from 2 a.m. to 4 a.m., like Miami, New York and Las Vegas.   read more

Just about the only thing transparent in California state government is its lack of transparency, a point just made by at least a couple of good-government groups during Sunshine Week. A report card published by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation gives the state Legislature a “D” overall for how it makes its data available to the public.   read more

The solutions proffered include: more mechanization and switching to crops that can make use of it; new laws to encourage seasonal guest-workers; and offering a path to citizenship based on workers signing a multi-year employment contract. John Carney at CNBC calls it the “campaign to avoid paying farm laborers market wages.”   read more

When the Oakland Police Department put Chau Van on its most-wanted list last year for a brutal attack in February, at least one person cowered in his home, afraid that he could be the next victim of a violent assault. That man was Chau Van, an accountant incorrectly identified by the police as a wanted criminal and kept on the list for six months despite the city’s knowledge that they had made a mistake.   read more

Medical marijuana users in San Diego who don’t mind obtaining special scannable prepaid identification card, and are OK with having their picture taken and fingerprints checked, might be able to pick up their stash from vending machines soon. But first the city council has to approve an ordinance making dispensaries legit.   read more