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

Ridge Global, the former Pennsylvania governor’s consulting firm, was commissioned to do the report by Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), which has had a rival plan to build a stadium complex downtown for more than a decade. It warns that if Inglewood goes ahead with plans to build a $1.86-billion stadium, its close proximity to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), around 3 miles, would present a “terrorist event ‘twofer.’ ”   read more

It’s a goal, not a rule. The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) has until March 2016 to decide if it wants to adopt 1 ppb as a standard for toxic perchlorate in drinking water. There is no national standard, although the toxic chemical has been strongly linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women and young children.   read more

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board compared notes with the state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) last year and made an unhappy discovery. The state had records on a lot more unlined pits than the board had issued permits for. They have been around for decades and became more popular after the practice of dumping wastewater in drainage canals servicing agricultural fields fell out of favor in the 1980s.   read more

The San Francisco-based ride-sharing company disclosed on Saturday that a third party hacked from its database the names and driver’s license numbers of 50,000 current and former drivers, 21,000 from California. Uber said the breach occurred in May 2014, it discovered the hack in September and has now begun alerting folks that they have been in harm’s way for nine months.   read more

By an 861-293 vote, the state GOP officially sanctioned the 38-year-old group at its biannual gathering of the party faithful over the weekend. It is perhaps one thing to be wanted and another to be accepted. John Briscoe, president of the socially conservative California Republican Assembly (CRA), amplified the conflict. “I have a hard time understanding how we’re going to charter an organization that’s in opposition to our platform,” he said.   read more

The EPA noted that at the core of the report was a calculation from July 2012 that the state would need 20,000 megawatts of power generated by large-scale wind, solar and geothermal projects in the desert and inland valleys. However, “the sharp decline in the cost of rooftop solar-powered electricity; the growing demand for, and deployment of, energy storage; and Governor Brown’s recent proposal to raise State’s renewable portfolio standard” changed that.   read more

“In every year since it began graduating students, except 2013, CAVA has had more dropouts than graduates,” according to a report (pdf) from In the Public Interest, a Washington, D.C.-based research group. CAVA’s graduation rate was 36% for the latest three years available, 2010-11 through 2012-13. That compares rather unfavorably to state averages of 78% during the same period.   read more

Although woodrats, western gray squirrels, deer and other small mammals are generally considered the most likely creatures to host the western black-legged ticks that carry the bacteria responsible for Lyme disease, birds might give them a run for their money. Researchers looked at 623 birds at 14 sites in Mendocino County and found 284 juvenile ticks on 100 of them. Fifty-seven of those birds had Lyme disease spirochetes. Twenty-three of 53 bird species tested were infected.   read more

A draft report found that narcotics arrests in L.A. County dropped 38% during the two-month period after the law passed, compared to the same time frame a year earlier. The jail population dropped 15%, and would have dropped more if the Sheriff hadn’t taken advantage of the situation to hang on to the worst offenders longer.   read more

A report from the Peace and Justice Commission to the city council in April 2014 warned that drones weren’t safe, their usability was limited, their surveillance capability presented a “slippery slope” toward “mission creep” that would threaten civil liberties, and they imperiled the constitutional right of privacy. The 7-1 vote, with one abstention, still allows the fire department to use drones for disaster response.   read more

A new report published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives found a stronger association in some cases between heart disease deaths and long-term exposure to UFPs than with fine particles, which are subject to both state and federal emissions regulations. UFPs are subject to neither.   read more

The lone dissenter among the Santa Clara supervisors, Joe Simitian, addressed his concerns in remarks to Sheriff Smith at Tuesday’s meeting, according to the San Jose Mercury News: “Just to be clear, we're being asked to spend $500,000 of taxpayers’ money, plus $40,000 a year for a product the brand name of which you are not sure, the specs you don't know, a demonstration you haven't seen for which there is no policy in place, for which you have a nondisclosure agreement.”   read more

This month’s report from California’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC) reiterated findings in previous reports that Kaiser has not resolved the “significant and serious concerns” that resulted in a $4 million fine by the state in 2013. Patients are forced to wait too long for appointments with therapists and psychiatrists, and they are given incorrect information about services available to them.   read more

The independent Legislative Analyst’s Office said the deal could cost the state $1.5 billion over 35 years. When Jerry Brown was elected governor in November 2010, he cancelled the “short-sighted” sale that “would have cost taxpayers billions of dollars in the long-run.” When California First sued, the state added a claim that the group had missed a payment.   read more

The Hardest Hit Fund doled out $7.6 billion and earmarked $2 billion for California. Although the money was a tad belated, Keep Your Home California, as the program was called in the state, was still desperately needed by underwater borrowers. Five years later, California has spent less than half of its allocation.   read more

Many SoCal Gas customers received a packet of information from HEIS under the letterhead of The Gas Company’s parent, Sempra Energy, warning of dire things that could happen to their home and the danger of being underinsured. Four dollars and ninety-five cents a month buys $3,000 worth of protection and billing is included on the gas bill. So, is this an endorsement of HEIS by The Gas Company. No. But a lot of people won’t know that by just reading the sales pitch.   read more