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

A contracting foreman in the heart of the Central Valley used his job to obtain names, Social Security numbers and other personal information about legal residents and U.S. citizens, and then gave the identities to undocumented workers. When the workers were invariably laid off after the growing season, he and his wife allegedly filed unemployment insurance claims in their names, picking up $1.8 million on 520 claims over a six-year period,   read more

U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr., in Sacramento, ruled that the state can continue to pursue its claim against Hyatt for a piece of the $40 million he earned in 1991 after being granted a patent he first sought in 1970. Interest and penalties have swelled California’s claim to $55 million. The state says Hyatt was a resident at the time of the windfall, but he claims he fled to no-tax Nevada just in time.   read more

Lawyers for four Californians are seeking class-action status in a suit against 28 wineries in the state for producing, manufacturing and/or distributing “wine in California that contains inorganic arsenic in amounts far in excess of what is allowed in drinking water.” Most of the affected wines cost less than $10 a bottle and much of it sold for under $5.   read more

“We have no way of enforcing” the ordinance, San Francisco Planning Department communications manager Gina Simi told the San Francisco Chronicle last week. The law does not require Airbnb and other hosting platforms to report the names of people renting out their places and other critical information. Without the booking data, the city can't check to see if rentals are registered.   read more

State law compels the AG to write a petition title and summary of no more than 100 words and ship it to the Secretary of State’s office for circulation by May 4. It has been characterized as a colorful way of fostering a discussion of free speech, an examination of the flawed ballot initiative system or a clever piece of performance art. It's a hate-filled rant that looks oddly out of place in California, but probably resonates with the Fox News demographic across America.   read more

British Petroleum North America agreed to pay $7.9 million and agreed that 90 of the 243 cleanup sites that had qualified for reimbursements would now be barred from the fund. BP, its insurers and whoever it can sue will now be responsible. That pencils out to savings of between $45 million and $135 million for the state.   read more

The flamethrower ignites 87-octane gasoline as it shoots 25 feet straight out. “You can use it for clearing snow and ice, or weeds, like with a propane torch. Pyrotechnic event displays, like they use at concerts,” according to co-developer Chris Byars. Or, “You can start bonfires from a great distance away, or it’s just something you can enjoy with friends—just a cool toy.”   read more

San Diego police dispatcher Daniel Weiss told U-T San Diego, “Anything that was deleted was due to inaccuracies as stated in the comments. Especially the ‘misconduct’ section, which had bad information and was not linked to the department in many circumstances.” Some of the “bad information” contained summaries of news stories in the Los Angeles Times and other mainstream media.   read more

The money will be spent on old ideas that were never properly funded in a state with intermittent bouts of water shortage. It won’t do much to address concerns that California’s world has changed and four years of drought are not the end of it. The governor acknowledged that: “When you're piloting a huge battleship, it turns slowly in the water. It takes a long time for people to grasp an unprecedented change.”   read more

The state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has repeatedly told members of California’s Department of Justice (DOJ) that state law forbids the sharing of driver’s license photos with outside sources, including the federal government, or subjecting them to facial recognition software. The DMV also said it would not be able to keep track of who accessed the photos and why, as required by law. But the DOJ continues to move ahead.   read more

Negotiations with lawyers for the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association, which opposed the high-density movement, resulted in a 2011 deal to preserve the Old Spaghetti Factory's façade in exchange for parking variances that saved the developer millions of dollars. The developer tore it down anyway with a demolition permit from the city and proceeded to build their high-rise, even as the judge made it clear they acted at their “own peril.”   read more

After mulling over Blue Shield of California’s $4.2-billion financial reserve and its business practices, the state Franchise Tax Board revoked the tax-exempt status of the not-for-profit health insurance behemoth. But the board decided last August, when it made the ruling, that there was no compelling reason to tell the public about it, and Blue Shield, which contests the decision, was in no hurry to disclose it—just months before the beginning of open enrollment.   read more

The entire state has been whipsawed by conflicting forces at the local, state and federal levels; in courts, legislatures, agencies and executive branches. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. But conservative San Diego has seen in its own particular kind of schizophrenic play out, especially in recent years. The city did not have an ordinance for regulating medical marijuana until last March.   read more

Church spokesman Larry Kamer said the system, which is just water pouring from a hole above the alcove, was supposed to act as a deterrent, with the assumption being that no one was so desperate for safe shelter that they would put up with being regularly doused. They were wrong. Homeless people huddled in them with umbrellas and plastic gear.   read more

The city and the port paid fines of $949,634 and coughed up $6.45 million to clean up the Shipyards Sediment Site, laden with Monsanto-manufactured PCBs, after the San Diego Regional Water Control Board held them responsible for dumping in the bay. They hope to recoup some of their costs in the lawsuit.   read more

Duncan recorded music with nasty lyrics for a CD featuring a gun and bullets on the cover. He also posed on social media websites with friends who were implicated in a 2013-14 crime spree that included nine shootings. Duncan was charged under provisions of Proposition 21, which allows the authorities to prosecute gang members who profit from crimes of other gang members, even if they aren’t directly involved.   read more