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 city of Compton in Los Angeles County says it will run out of cash September 1, becoming the fourth California municipality to join the bankruptcy conversation. San Bernardino, which voted its intention last week to file for Chapter 11 protection, declared a fiscal emergency Wednesday, clearing the way for it to skip months of mediation otherwise required by the state and speed toward bankruptcy.   read more

Not a lot was known about the California judiciary’s central bureaucracy outside the judiciary itself until the spectacular abandonment in March of a billion-dollar computer system under development for 10 years. But the failure of the Court Case Management System (CCMS), coupled with massive budget cuts, put the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) under the microscope and exposed to public scrutiny an uprising by judges against the system that governed them.   read more

Although both major parties to the record-setting $122.5 million damage settlement of the 2007 Moonlight Fire in Northern California seemed satisfied with the outcome, the fighting might not be over. “Typically, a settlement signifies the end of a dispute, but this is just the beginning,” Sierra Pacific Industries attorney William Warne said.   read more

After three and a half years of twisting in the wind, Tribune Corporation’s plan for exiting bankruptcy was approved by Judge Kevin Carey in Wilmington, Delaware. Lawyers have collected more than $400 million in fees from the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, already buried under $13.5 billion in debt by its previous owners. But the rocky ride for the remaining employees will continue over at least the next six months as decisions are made on how to carve up the remaining assets.   read more

More than a year after the city of Oakland junked its old, outdated police and fire communications system, it still can’t get the new one to work.   read more

Raising the specter of Enron’s intrusion into the California energy market a decade ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is investigating allegations that JPMorgan Chase & Co. manipulated the state’s market in 2010-11 for millions of dollars in windfall profits.   read more

Los Angeles officials have accused US Bank of being one of the city’s largest “slumlords” and filed a civil suit against it worth potentially “hundreds of millions of dollars” for its handling of 1,500 foreclosed residential properties.   read more

California has had a lot of shoddy schools for a long time. That’s why the state settled a landmark lawsuit, Williams v. California, eight years ago by setting up an $800 million repair fund to fix health and safety hazards, and improve dilapidated campuses (often in low-income areas). The Emergency Repair Program should be wrapping up about now, but instead it sits inert with half of its money unspent and hundreds of schools unsure if they’ll get funds already requested.   read more

An advocacy group for nursing home reform released reports on widespread abuse and neglect at 14 sites, compiled over a two-year period by the state but generally not publicized.   read more

Artists have been the core of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles since abstract painter Sam Francis led their spirited campaign to establish it in 1979, but there are no longer any artists on its board of directors following a mass resignation in protest of museum policies.   read more

Customers of Harborside Health Center in Oakland weren’t the only people distressed by the federal government’s announcement last week that it intends to shut down the nation’s largest medical marijuana dispensary. City officials were lamenting the possible loss of more than a million dollars in annual sales tax generated by the pot shop.   read more

Two years before the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion killed eight people and leveled a neighborhood in 2010, Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) was discussing internally a plan to downgrade 2,304 serious leaks to avoid repairs and save nearly $5 million, according to a memo uncovered by the San Francisco Chronicle.   read more

California wants to be perfectly clear about this. If you arrest somebody and take total control of their freedom, and then ask them for sex, it is NOT a consensual relationship. That wasn’t perfectly clear until Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation Friday nailing down the fine points of when law enforcement officials can have sex with their prisoners. The answer is “never.”   read more

The California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, whose baseball team has lost 237 straight games, was sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for allowing 30 academically ineligible student-athletes in 12 sports to compete.   read more

California is one of 39 states that bans texting while driving, but a new law that takes effect January 1 will allow people with voice-activated technology to send messages while they’re behind the wheel. However, it’s not clear who will be able to take advantage of it.   read more

A last-minute amendment to national farm legislation approved by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee Friday would block a California law that requires more humane treatment of egg-laying hens. But the proposal has implications beyond its application to California. It will prevent any state from setting its own standards for how crops and livestock can be produced. The House bill would have to be reconciled with an already-approved Senate version.   read more