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

American Bridge/Fluor, the project’s main contractor, won’t be completing repairs agreed to in July when the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) was fielding complaints about misaligned rods, rusting steel and leaking infrastructure. There was loose talk back then of a $25,000-a-day fine if the $3 million contract for repairs fell short. Right now, there is just grumbling.   read more

Aggravated assaults were up 24.2% in 2014 compared to the year before. Rapes jumped 13.9% while robberies and homicides moved slightly up. Overall, violent crimes were up 12.4%. Aggravated assaults were at the heart of the Times investigation, published in August, which found police reports littered with mistakes that were either egregious errors or willful deceit.   read more

On Monday, two-term Democratic state Senator Alex Padilla will be sworn in as California’s first Latino Secretary of State, replacing Debra Bowen, whose last months in office were plagued by a debilitating struggle with depression but were preceded by years of controversy. He will take the reins of an office that has struggled to provide campaign finance transparency, make better use of technology and handle nonelection responsibilities related to corporations.   read more

It cost the alliance $3 million to generate the groundswell of support for continuing to litter the landscape and ocean with dangerous and nonbiodegradeable plastic. But if the signatures are certified, the law would be suspended until after voters get their say. Californians Against Waste say that 16-month delay alone is worth an estimated $145 million to the industry.   read more

Danny R. Wooten, a preacher and a former analyst with the city’s Department of Public Works, was charged in a 60-count felony indictment. City Manager Michael J. Beck called it “a complete breakdown of our internal controls.” Wooten allegedly fabricated 300 invoices, generating 189 checks to four fake vendors over 11 years.   read more

The suspensions with pay were made after the California Highway Patrol (CHP) delivered a preliminary report on their follow-up to an accusation by ex-Battalion Chief Orville “Moe” Fleming’s estranged wife, Meagan, that she had seen a tape of firefighters and prostitutes having sex on fire trucks at the Cal Fire Academy near Sacramento. Fleming is in jail, charged with murdering his girlfriend.   read more

Governor Jerry Brown has had the final say on paroling 1,963 prison inmates serving life sentences. Of those, 33 have ended up back in prison, according to data gathered by the Los Angeles Times. The newspaper called it a “disturbing increase in revocations,” but a recidivism rate of 1.7% sounds pretty low even if the final tally isn’t in.   read more

The $9 million toilet-to-tap project, as some critics refer to it, was supposed to go online December 22, but the Cambria Community Services District cited paperwork and the posting of a bond for the delay. While those final details are attended to, the aquifer and wells that Cambria relies on are refilling.   read more

Kish and lawyers from two other firms won a $21 million settlement from Walmart contractor Schneider Logistics Transloading and Distribution Inc. in May over the retailer’s alleged abuse of minimum wage and overtime payments to warehouse workers in Eastvale. The National Law Review found the settlement amount “staggering” but said its true significance lay in the “courts’ willingness to untangle multi-level business operations and hold all involved entities liable for wage and hour violations.”   read more

Commissioner Jones told the Los Angeles Times that 95,000 people were being illegally booted out of Covered California. “The law is very clear,” Jones said. “They can't cancel people” except for specific reasons, like fraud. Health exchange spokeswoman Amy Palmer disagreed. “The law requires us to seamlessly move people from one program to the other,” she said.   read more

A state appellate court won’t make the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) change its vehicle impound policy, which helps undocumented immigrants by ordering officers not to take advantage of state law that lets them grab an unlicensed driver’s ride for an expensive 30 days. A three-judge panel of California’s Second District Court of Appeal made its unanimous ruling last week, four months after giving a hard time to plaintiffs during oral arguments.   read more

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported Happy Valley-related illnesses in 10 states. One of the deaths was in California. The products are probably no longer in stores, but could be sitting in pantries or stuffed away with months-old fruitcake. The family of Californian Shirlee Jean Frey, 81, filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Santa Cruz County Superior Court against Safeway after she bought caramel apples from one of their stores in Felton and died.   read more

The DMV knew it wasn’t capable of conjuring up the rules, according to the Associated Press, so it asked the industry if anyone wanted to create a program. Four companies came forward, two from Europe and two from Ohio, but no one felt comfortable creating a program for technology that doesn’t actually exist yet in a finished state.   read more

A new lawsuit filed this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court cites a known, and growing, list of toxic transgressions in alleging that a cover-up by top employees at Exide endangered the health of 60 children living near the plant. Earlier this month, U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Kevin Carey told Exide shareholders they were hosed and weren't going to get back any of their investments, according to Bloomberg.   read more

Superior Court Judge Robert H. O’Brien issued a temporary injunction against Nestdrop, blocking the service, after Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a lawsuit. The company, an alcohol-delivery service that launched a pot option in the summer, uses a smartphone app to bring together a network of medical marijuana dispensaries and connect them to customers.   read more

Sixty-five of those pardoned, including Glen Williams Carnes before his was withdrawn, were convicted of drug-related crimes. That’s 61.9% of the total. Forty-three of the offenses were for possession of enough drugs to merit a mention of sales. Twelve of the pardoned were convicted of drug transportation for sale, five for drug cultivation and five for drug manufacture.   read more