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

California’s arguably largest cash crop, marijuana, is becoming a cash-only purchase at medical marijuana dispensaries, escalating a fight between the state, which regards them as legal, and the federal government which considers the product they sell illegal.   read more

California, compelled by the U.S. Supreme Court last year to reduce its prison population, is nine months into the shift of inmates from state facilities to local jails and just beginning to gauge the ramifications. Research analyst Priscilla Hamilton at the Milken Institute says that, for now, don’t count on help from rehabilitation.   read more

In recent years, California spent more money on political campaigns than any other state and the winner almost always had more money—usually twice as much money. And the incumbent always won.   read more

The big banks bailed out after the 2008 crash they helped precipitate have mostly paid the government back, but small banks have struggled, especially in California, and Washington is threatening to cut them loose. Twenty-eight banks in California still owe money loaned them through the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), more than in any other state.   read more

Whistle-blowers at the San Onofre Nuclear Plant, shut down in January after tubes that carry radioactive steam were found to be decaying, are more vulnerable than other state workers because the facility sits on land leased from the federal government.   read more

City College of San Francisco, the largest community college in California, is fighting for its life after receiving official notice that its accreditation will be yanked in June 2013 if it doesn’t correct a number of long-standing problems.   read more

Pasadena has joined a growing list of cities which have turned off the red-light cameras that enraged drivers and raised revenues for cash-strapped state and local governments.   read more

A federal judge has upheld a finding by a magistrate that a Modesto man—locked up for 15 years after being convicted in a deadly arson fire—is innocent, but he’ll have to remain in prison while appealing his original conviction on technical grounds.   read more

After months of very public debate, California lawmakers passed legislation by the narrowest of margins which all but assures folks from Bakersfield to Madera that one day soon they will be riding on high-speed rail through the sparsely-populated outposts of the Central Valley. The rest of the state will be waiting to see if the federal government can extend the project to them.   read more

In August 2010, a deteriorating economy, bad poll numbers and a worried Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger compelled the Legislature to pull an $11.1 billion water bond measure from the ballot and delay it until November 2012. Nothing has really changed since then—other than a new worried occupant in the governor’s office—and last week the Legislature voted again to pull the measure, delaying it until 2014.   read more

Before it nearly imploded and was bought out by Bank of America during the 2008 financial crisis, Countrywide Financial used a VIP program to loan money to members of Congress as a way to influence their decision-making. At least seven current and former lawmakers, three from California, accepted loans from the mortgage company, according to a report from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.   read more

Fresh from confrontations with students over tuition and fee increases, the University of California, Berkeley police have decided to cancel their order for an 8-ton military vehicle from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.   read more

Governor Jerry Brown’s appointee to head the Department of Corporations, Jan Lynn Owen, has extensive experience in government and the financial industry, with strong ties to big banks that make some consumer advocates nervous.   read more

California has just finished building two brand new nursing homes for veterans and has lots of empty beds in its six other facilities. It also has a list of more than 1,400 old, sick and disabled veterans who want to get in but can’t because of cuts in the state budget.   read more

Officials in the tiny industrial city of Vernon—under fire for pension irregularities, accused of rigged elections, slammed by public corruption charges and the subject of a disincorporation campaign—lashed out at a June report by the highly respected California State Auditor for its “lack of objectivity” and misrepresentation of facts.   read more

Scientists predicted 12 years ago that “without protection and intervention the white abalone is likely to go extinct in California within 10 years.” They were wrong. It took about 12 years to reach the precipice.   read more