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

Senate Bill 1253 requires a 30-day public review and amendment process after an initiative is introduced. Sponsors get an extra 30 days (a full six months) to gather signatures, but must notify lawmakers when they have 25%, who can then conduct hearings on the measure. Proponents would have the option of amending their initiatives based on that input. The state will notify the public who the top 10 donors are on each side of the issue.   read more

It is possible that a significant statewide decline in Superior Court case filings means Californians are becoming less litigious and crime is abating. But the 9.7% decline in case filings “coincides with two other trends that have occurred as result of budget cuts to the judicial branch: the increase in court filing fees to offset General Fund budget cuts and closure of courthouses and/or the reduction of hours at our courthouses.”   read more

Brown signed Senate Bill 270 on Tuesday, echoing laws already passed in 127 California cities and counties. The American Progressive Bag Alliance (APBA) immediately announced it was beginning an effort to gather signatures to put repeal of the law on the 2016 ballot.   read more

The state’s drought has helped introduce the non-native plants that produce the iconic nuisance to areas that were once too moist to support them. The result is a statewide infestation of green spindly bushes that threaten farming, and the dry, prickly tumbling tumbleweeds that are beginning to plague more urban areas. After a decade of research scientists are ready to unleash two fungi—Colletotrichum salsolae and Uromyces salsolae—from the steppes of Eurasia that are known to kill tumbleweeds.   read more

Keith Carls at KCOY wrote that opponents have raised $1,950,000, compared to $95,000 by supporters, but didn’t provide a breakdown on the figures. It’s safe to say that the oil and gas industry is a significant contributor to the “No on P” campaign. Backers of the measure want to limit oil extraction techniques that employ hydraulic fracturing, steam injection and well acidization in unincorporated county areas.   read more

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) went operational with its Next Generation Identification System (NGI) earlier in the month, clearing the way for state and local authorities to hook up their growing databases of biometric information about residents—iris scans, photos for facial recognition, voice recordings, DNA profiles, fingerprints, etc—with the FBI, creating an awesome repository of data that will include people who have not been convicted of anything.   read more

It looked for awhile like California might be able to patch up its differences with the Sacramento-area-based company and include its Vision Service Plan (VSP) in the state’s federally-subsidized health care exchange. But Governor Jerry Brown vetoed Assembly Bill 1877 last week, upsetting VSP President and Chief Executive Rob Lynch, who thought he had a deal after threatening to move a part of his operations elsewhere. “We are surprised and shocked,” Lynch said.   read more

Around 73% of students already borrow money to pay for their J-school education. “We estimate that worst case, their average debt repayment on a 10-year loan would rise by $152 per month,” Dean Ed Wasserman said. J-school students are obviously not the only kids being whipsawed by the skyrocketing price of education and diminishing returns in the job market. But few industries have been whacked as badly by changing technology as publishing, and newspapers in particular.   read more

While Brown thought the legislation too restrictive, some civil libertarians thought it too broad. For instance, the bill prohibits weaponizing the drones—“unless authorized by federal law.” Bill author Assemblyman Jeff Gorell (R-Camarillo) said, "It's disappointing that the governor decided to side with law enforcement in this case over the privacy interests of California.”   read more

California regularly sterilized women in institutions for much of the 20th Century before deciding that having a eugenics program that inspired Nazis in Germany probably wasn’t a good thing and essentially banned the practice. Or so the public was led to believe. Now, presumably, it has. Governor Jerry Brown signed Senate Bill 1135 a year after the Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) revealed that dozens of female inmates had been sterilized in recent years and the practice had not ended.   read more

The companies were told not to offer services that provide individuals with a shared ride, like a shuttle bus. Real ride sharing, not the "shared economy" kind, is a regulated transportation activity, which the cities say hasn’t been approved for the new kids on the block. Sidecar was defiant. “We’re going to continue to operate Shared Ride,” CEO Sunil Paul told the San Francisco Chronicle.   read more

Generating that much electricity is not without environmental costs. The report says: “The development of large-scale renewable projects in Development Focus Areas would also impose dramatic visual changes to high-value recreational areas. Over 40 percent of the Development Focus Areas for any of the action alternatives are within 5 miles of Legally and Legislatively Protected Areas,” including Death Valley, Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve.   read more

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) waived its 2007 ban on commercial use of drones Thursday to allow six filmmaking companies to send cameras airborne on vehicles that have not been certified for flight. Secretary of Transportation Anthony R. Foxx made it clear it won’t be the last waiver granted.   read more

The letter to Benicia complained that the city’s draft environmental impact report considered only a small section of rail the trains will be traversing and underestimated the danger of an accident. Oil-laden trains will pass through downtown Roseville, Sacramento, West Sacramento, Davis and other cities on their way to the Benicia refinery.   read more

In a letter to the council, the commission said the city’s abysmal turnout—23% in the 2013 mayoral election—could be substantially boosted by offering incentives for people to vote. The commission proposed a lottery of sorts for people who cast a ballot. Anticipating legal problems down the road, the prizes could not be offered in elections when candidates for federal office are on the ballot.   read more

CalPERS became one of the first to announce it was divesting itself of the controversial financial vehicles. The pension fund emphasized the move was made because of high hedge fund fees, not the crummy returns. But it also could have had as much to do with optics. Hedge fund managers got as much grief as bankers after the stock market crash in 2008-2009.   read more