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

When San Jose voters overwhelmingly approved Measure B on the ballot in June, they had been told that unless pension costs were reined in immediately taxpayers would be on the hook for $650 million by 2015. The California State Auditor now says that number is “unsupported and likely overstated.”   read more

They are cozy, not cramped. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is considering a developer-backed ordinance that would allow the minimum living space of an apartment to shrink from 290 square feet to 220, about the size of a one-car garage. That is also about four times the size of a typical prison cell and about one-fortieth the size of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s Upper East Side townhouse.   read more

The Clovis Unified School District has been sued in Fresno Superior Court for failing to administer a qualified sex education programs as required by the state. Apparently the district is not alone in its behavior.   read more

That crackling out behind the brush in rural California isn’t necessarily the sound of approaching fire; it could be residents bristling with outrage over new bills for fire protection that are popping up in their mailboxes.   read more

Daniel Larsen has had two years in prison to think about the meaning of habeas corpus, while waiting to find out if a ruling by the federal courts—that he is innocent of crimes he was convicted of years ago—would lead to his freedom. He’s going to have to wait a bit longer.   read more

Seven months ago, the U.S. Supreme Court told California to butt out when it comes to regulating slaughterhouses. Justices unanimously ruled in National Meat Association v. Harris that a state law, which attempted to keep out of the food supply animals that couldn’t walk, was pre-empted by federal law that wasn’t as strict.   read more

The U.S. Chemical Safety Board, after reviewing the August 6 Chevron refinery fire in Richmond that sent a cloud of black smoke billowing into the air before spreading out, said the city survived a “close call.” But it is hard to say how close a call nearby residents survived because monitoring at the site proved wholly inadequate to the task of measuring what toxic gunk made it into the air that people were breathing.   read more

Growers in California are complaining that there are too few farm laborers available to pick crops in the country’s largest agricultural state. They point to stronger border controls, a crummy domestic economy and a lackluster guest worker program as reasons for a situation characterized by farmer Craig Underwood as “the worst it’s been, ever.”   read more

The federal government knows a good moniker when it sees it. Operation Mountain Sweep was the name of the 2002 U.S. military campaign conducted by the 82nd Airborne Division to hunt down Al-Queda and Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan. Now the government is hunting for domestic bad guys across seven states, including the hills of California.   read more

When the Santa Clara Water District wrote a ballot initiative for November’s election, asking voters to approve a $548 million property tax measure to fund trails, creek restoration and dam maintenance, who knew that two words could scuttle the whole effort? Actually, the Santa Clara County registrar knew, the Silicon Valley Taxpayers Association knew and the water district should have known.   read more

A vote on California’s ground-breaking Proposition 37, which would require the labeling of genetically modified products, is months away, but Monsanto’s toxin-spliced sweet corn may be on your dinner table this summer courtesy of Walmart.   read more

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2010 that life without parole for juveniles not convicted of murder was unconstitutional cruel and inhumane punishment, but that didn’t stop judges in California from conjuring up sentences that were, in effect, for life. Last Thursday, the California Supreme Court put a big dent in that practice by unanimously overturning the 110-year sentence of Rodrigo Caballero, who was a 16-year-old gang member when he was arrested for attempted murder.   read more

The San Francisco Chronicle hit a wall last year when it went hunting for documents at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as part of an investigation of dangerous pipelines owned by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) that were running beneath Bay Area neighborhoods. A 60-year-old state law made the documents, which are routinely available in other states, off-limits in California unless the PUC votes to release them.   read more

As beleaguered cities wrestle with the dilemma of choosing between legitimate obligations to both workers and bondholders, Moody’s Investors Service has weighed in with a threat to municipalities that making the wrong choice could hobble them forever. “We are considering . . . potential across-the-board adjustments of debt ratings for California cities to reflect the new fiscal realities and the governmental practices in addressing them,” Moody's said in a report released last week.   read more

The state of California has reimbursed local governments for certain mandatory programs it requires since 1979. Until recently, that meant cities, counties and special districts that did the good government thing—preparing agendas, reporting on closed-session decisions and providing documents to the public under the Ralph M. Brown Act—were reimbursed by the state for their efforts.   read more

Sixty years ago, planning began on an extension of State Route 710 to plug a 4.5-mile gap between freeways in metropolitan Los Angeles. It never got built, but the planning didn’t stop. And neither did property acquisition by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) until 1973 when public controversy and a federal injunction brought it to a close.   read more