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

NRDC attorney David Pettit expressed surprise and a marked cynicism upon learning that 11 of the 52 measures agreed upon in 2003 were not completed, saying he “never thought for a second that they wouldn't happen. My belief is the port has known for years that the mitigation wasn't happening and didn't tell anybody.”   read more

Last week, the justices voted 4-3 against hearing the appeal of a 10-year-old boy convicted of shooting his abusive, drug addicted neo-Nazi father to death while he slept in 2011. The boy was initially found guilty in juvenile court of what would have been second-degree murder if he were an adult and committed to the state Division of Juvenile Justice for seven years.   read more

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) is warning residents to be wary of mosquitoes that bite in the middle of the day or comfortably fly around the interior of a home. That’s not normal behavior for most mosquitoes, but these infectious pests are special—they can transmit yellow fever, dengue fever and chikungunya.   read more

Jeffrey Callison, a spokesman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) told the Los Angeles Times, “As of Sept. 30, it was 1,441 inmates out of a total of 3,732 in the fire camps. It’s actually a mixture of serious and violent crimes, but principally violent crimes.” Cal Fire spokesperson Janet Upton told the Associated Press that her department did not know violent felons were working side by side with unarmed firefighters.   read more

A year ago, when it was discovered that California’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) didn’t really monitor the state’s injection wells, 23 were shut down and a survey of the other 50,000 commenced at the behest of the EPA. DOGGR is in the California Department of Conservation. All but two of the 33 new closed wells are in Kern County.   read more

Last week, the East Bay Municipal Utility District identified the worst water scofflaws and Bay Area sports fans were crestfallen. It wasn’t surprising that the list was headed by a retired Chevron executive and a venture capitalist/CEO. But third on the list was Billy Beane, Oakland A’s executive and a guru of baseball analytics who was portrayed in the movie “Moneyball” by Brad Pitt. Beane’s Moneyball philosophy is that one must be innovative when having to make do with fewer resources.   read more

The lawsuits claim religious beliefs and moral convictions as the basis for their position and argue that AB 775 compels them to violate foundational principles. The so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPC), accused of misleading clients seeking abortion information, don’t want to put a notice on the wall, hand out flyers to clients or send them an electronic warning about any options other than the ones they are presenting.   read more

There were really 7% more violent crimes and 16% more serious assaults than reported, according to an investigation by the Los Angeles Times. The Times found a lot of the mistakes by searching through reports for words like “knife” and “stab.” If they were innocent errors, one would expect to find a similar pattern in less serious crimes. But that was not the case.   read more

On the same day last week that the state agency in charge of regulating the oil and gas industry in California released a critical internal review detailing how bad a job it was doing, Governor Brown appointed an oil executive to head one of its key offices. Bill Bartling, 61, is the new Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources’ (DOGGR) area district deputy for Bakersfield.   read more

It was generally thought that Los Angeles lacked the legal authority to investigate complaints from neighbors of sickening fumes, respiratory ailments, dizziness, nosebleeds and other afflictions. But the Los Angeles Times found that agreements signed years ago by many of the oil drillers gives the city enormous power and responsibility to protect the public. L.A. just wasn't exercising it.   read more

The bridge experts said there was no doubt dehumidifiers would work and should be installed immediately unless someone has a good reason not to. They didn’t mention the cost, but it is expected to run into the tens of millions of dollars.Committee chairman and BATA Executive Director Steve Heminger told the Chronicle.“We asked for advice. We don’t have to take every bit of advice we get.”   read more

Governor Brown signed Assembly Bill 30, which requires any school using the controversial name—there are four in the state—to change it by January 2017. The law also prohibits any school from switching to that the name, which denigrates Native Americans and is considered offensive by many.   read more

“Doc shock” has been an issue with Covered California from day one. The new law will require the Department of Managed Health Care and the Department of Insurance to develop uniform standards for directories and weekly updates by next July. That will be too late for open enrollment beginning November 1.   read more

Three public interest groups sued the Forest Service on Tuesday, seeking a halt to water diversions that occur at 11 locations at or near Strawberry Creek. The groups argued that the 1988 special permit Nestlé operated under required the company to be in compliance with federal and state environmental laws. Since the permit has been extended annually, for a fee of $524, without any review, there is no basis for asserting that compliance.   read more

One week after California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) spokesman Bill Sessa told the Sacramento Bee and other media outlets about a plan to fill a shortfall in firefighting inmates by using violent offenders, the idea was temporarily shelved. “We need to rethink that,” Sessa told Bee reporter Jon Ortiz.   read more

SB 660 was considered the flagship of the bunch. It would have made it harder for regulators and utility officials to have secret meetings during rate-setting cases. One bill would have established an inspector general in the State Auditor’s Office to monitor the commission. Another made it easier to sue the commission for not providing information in public records. Another would have given lawmakers an opportunity to oversee any legal defense spending by the commission.   read more