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 San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station, shuttered in January, cost the state $165 million during its first six months of down time. Most of that, $117 million, was to pay for substitute electricity. The rest was for inspections and repair costs.   read more

The prosecution did not hide allegations that Lynwood city officials misused credit cards, inappropriately traveled out of the country, and received sexual favors at strip clubs—all on the city dime. But when two former city councilmembers were found guilty Tuesday, the crime they were found guilty of—illegally ratcheting up their salaries by making well-paid token appearances at city commissions—might have raised eyebrows in other corruption-riddled municipalities like Bell and Vernon.   read more

The California battle over voter ID began in earnest in 2009 when Republican state Senator George Runner unsuccessfully pursued getting the issue—which has been championed by Republican-controlled legislatures across the country—before the voters as a ballot initiative. It apparently ended this past week when state GOP officials quickly backed away from comments that party Chairman Tom Del Beccaro recently made about pushing for an initiative in the next election cycle.   read more

No one knows better than Governor Jerry Brown the harm that will be done if recent cuts in the state’s innovative prescription drug monitoring program force it to shut down, as predicted, by year’s end. Brown unveiled the internet-based database version of the tracking system, known as CURES, in September 2009 when he was attorney general.   read more

California mental health care is in a transitional stage, or disarray, depending on your perspective. Many of the changes to core government services—driven by enormous budget cuts during a dire economic environment—have come while the state is doling out billions of dollars generated by Proposition 63 for unusual preventive, wellness measures.   read more

After finding $54 million in its Department of Parks and Recreation pants pocket, the state is checking billion-dollar bulges in 560 other pockets scattered throughout its wardrobe. The San Jose Mercury News followed up on its report that the parks department had millions squirreled away unbeknownst to the Department of Finance, with a calculation that $2.3 billion might be sitting unaccounted for in 17 other departmental special funds throughout the government.   read more

After failing to pass legislation to control the controversial method of oil and gas extraction called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the state decided instead to conduct a listening tour to catalog complaints of residents around the state.   read more

Most adults think twice before they give their children at college a debit card. Fortunately, debit card companies can relieve parents of the burden of educating their children about debt by marketing their products, in cooperation with schools, directly to students. In California, the financial institution most likely to be servicing the campus is Higher One Holdings, Inc., which has contracts with half of the state’s community colleges and a number of other institutions of higher learning.   read more

Even before the theater shooting in Colorado set off a national frenzy of gun buying, California—home to some of the toughest gun laws in the nation—was headed toward a state record in weapons sales. Gun sales are expected to top 700,000 this year, double the total in 2005.   read more

Alameda County spends around $330,000 a year disposing of prescription drugs before they endanger public health or the environment. On Tuesday, it became the first county in the country to tell drug makers to pick up the tab for collecting their own product.   read more

The San Francisco Public Library—caught in a raging debate that invokes arguments over civil liberties, academic freedom and common decency—has put plastic shields on 18 computers, allowing customers, should they choose, to view pornography without flashing their fellow patrons.   read more

Can the critics call it the second coming of the Peripheral Canal if the conduit used to divert water around the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for shipment to Central Valley farmers and thirsty Southern Californians . . . is a tunnel?   read more

California, leaving no stone unturned in its hunt for budgetary savings, has suspended key elements of the state’s 58-year-old landmark open government act in order to save $96 million in 2012-13. The Ralph M. Brown Act, named for the Modesto Assemblyman who authored it, applies to state and local government and requires at least 72 hours notice for a public meeting, the posting of agendas ahead of time and limitations on conducting public business in private meetings.   read more

Hoping to fare better at nurturing the development of solar energy without enraging environmentalists, antagonizing financial interests and otherwise giving solar a bad name, the Obama Administration announced a change in strategy this week. Instead of encouraging that projects be built in locations scattered around six Western states, including California, the government will offer incentives for developers to cluster their projects in large, designated areas.   read more

The day after medical marijuana supporters in the Bay Area—with President Barack Obama in San Francisco—expressed their frustration over a statewide crackdown by federal authorities on state-approved sale of the drug, the Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously to put pot shops out of business. The 14-0 vote for a “gentle ban,” supported by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, could mean closure for the city’s 762 dispensaries by September.   read more

The government’s 500 “special funds” are only about 40% the size of the state’s $91.3 billion General Fund—where income and property taxes go to be spent—but they have something special besides their name going for them: they aren’t tracked very well.   read more