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

The California State University school said that hackers stole the names, addresses and Social Security numbers of 6,037 people, mostly faculty and staff members who had been with the school between June 2001 and August 2013. Around 500 people had their birth dates stolen, too. The hack apparently occurred last year but was only discovered in August.   read more

Most of the L.A. County parents that invoke the exemption live along the coast and a good many of them have kids in private schools. Around 25% of the private school kindergartners were in schools with a vaccination exemption rate below the herd safety level, compared to 10% in 2007. Public school rates jumped from 5% to 11% during the same period.   read more

The five-day event includes a two-day trade show with the latest weaponry, surveillance equipment and gear on display. “Urban Shield” is ostensibly aimed at disaster-preparedness with a heavy dose of counterterrorism activities. But a 2012 promotional video bears a striking resemblance to police encounters with Occupy Oakland protesters, sprinkled with “No War for Oil” and “Peace, Not Drone War” signs.   read more

The four justices decided that the franchisee was an independent contractor, with autonomy as a manager and an employer themselves. The decision was diametrically opposed to one made by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) a month ago. The board declared that it will treat McDonald’s as an employer in determining if its franchises had committed 43 labor violations.   read more

The school came under fire last November when an “appalled” American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) complained that the bearded, snarling, giant-hook-nosed character in traditional headdress was a “harmful form of ethnic stereotyping.” The committee said the high school was the only one in the nation with a demeaning Arab mascot.   read more

The judge acknowledged that energy company Kinder Morgan and its regulator, the Bay Area Quality Management District (AQMD), did not inform the public in July 2013 when a permit was issued to expand an ethanol facility to accept crude oil, but said the law did not require them to be forthcoming. Nonetheless, that is when the clock started ticking on the six-month period to register an objection.   read more

The package of incentives amounts to $1.25 billion over 20 years, compared to the roughly $500 million California was prepared to offer. Governor Jerry Brown and some lawmakers were also willing to fast track legislation allowing the factory to bypass critical elements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires a detailed environmental impact report.   read more

Bowen told the Los Angeles Times she has moved out of the home she shares with her husband, California’s Department of Conservation Director Mark Nechodom, and into a rented trailer after a difficult episode of the problem she has wrestled with since college. She is currently working from her new home. “I know this territory,” she said. “Work is anyplace I have a telephone. Just because I'm physically not in the office doesn't mean I don't know what's going on and that I'm not participating.”   read more

The crop contributes $1.8 billion a year to the state’s economy and helps generate 25,000 jobs. California is the country’s number one agricultural state and rice is one of its top 10 crops. “Virtually every piece of sushi made in America is made with California rice,” according to the USA Rice Federation.   read more

Illegal immigrants contribute $130 billion to the state’s gross domestic product, which is around $1.9 trillion. They make up 38% of the agricultural workforce and 14% of the construction industry. Those numbers might be higher if 117,000 illegals had not been deported since 2009. Half of them have been in the country for at least 10 years and nearly 75% live in a household with a U.S. citizen. Around 58% lack health insurance.   read more

So far this year, 181 cases and eight deaths in 22 counties have been reported in the state, compared to 101 cases and six deaths at this time last year. Although most people who are infected do not display serious symptoms, about 1% can develop devastating neurologic illness, like meningitis or encephalitis.   read more

The judge said releasing one week of data would jeopardize investigations and interfere with legitimate police work. It would reveal patrol patterns and hot-list comparisons to criminals, and also perhaps endanger third-parties. He weighed that against the public’s right to privacy and its inability to assess what the LAPD is doing with the data without access, and decided “a balancing of public interests works in favor of non-disclosure.”   read more

Auditor Elaine Howle reviewed claims that were denied by the state Employment Development Department (EDD) during the past four years and found nearly half of those who appealed the decision won. The audit said the department improperly denied claims that may have been in error but weren’t screwed up on purpose.   read more

63-year-old Pamela Devitt died in May 2013 when four of Jackson’s pit bulls attacked her in the small Southern California town of Littlerock. Prosecutors said they had evidence that Jackson’s dogs were involved in at least seven other incidents prior to the Devitt attack. Horseback riders told stories of the dogs biting their horses, nipping at their boots and chasing them down a trail. Mail carriers had nothing good to say about them.   read more

The judges, whose decision could be appealed to the five-member California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), found that PG&E committed 3,708 violations of federal regulations, engineering standards and state rules, many of them over a number of years. When added up, PG&E was in violation 18,447,805 days. That works out to a $76-penalty-per-fine-per-day.   read more

The EPA wrote that building a couple of giant tunnels to divert freshwater from the Sacramento River around the Delta will probably threaten the habitat by increasing its content of salt, chloride, pesticides and other bad stuff. Local farmers and urban areas relying on water directly from the Delta stand a good chance of being harmed. The EPA also warned of harm to several endangered fish in the Delta   read more