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

His final report was a scathing takedown of the department, coming just months after Sheriff Lee Baca resigned under fire and new oversight reforms were revved up but barely underway. The board created a new Office of Inspector General last year and its boss has already complained that he is being blocked by the sheriff’s department from monitoring it. The board voted 3-2 last week not to add an additional civilian oversight commission to the mix.   read more

A swarm of reporters at the newspaper poured through 94,000 officer reports between October 2012 and September 2013 and concluded that 2,000 serious crimes by FBI standards—these numbers go to Washington—were misclassified as minor. Seventy percent were violent and the rest were property crimes. After running a sampling of its data past a team of experts, the paper reduced the number to 1,200 and showed the results to LAPD officials, who concurred and said they would fix the reporting.   read more

An agreement hammered out in April between the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and leading Silicon Valley companies, which paid 64,600 employees a pittance for being victims of salary collusion, was tossed out last week by U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh, who said the corporations conducted an “overarching conspiracy” and should really pay for it or argue their case in court.   read more

The city council approved a schedule of increases in the municipal minimum wage on July 28 that would take it 50 cents higher than the state’s $10 level by January 2016. It would go up another $1 an hour a year later and be indexed to the local Consumer Price Index starting in 2019. The state minimum wage rose from $8 to $9 on July 1. The ordinance also included a provision requiring that employees receive five days of sick leave annually.   read more

Bound my nondisclosure agreements and motivated by institutional sneakiness, law enforcement agencies across the country are secretly deploying new technology to track people’s cellphones without court oversight. When the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office was identified by the media months ago as one of the agencies using Stingrays to spy on residents, they refused to comment. But last week they came clean. Or at least tried to spiff up their image.   read more

People are whispering about Chief Beck's job being in jeopardy over a “misstatement” he made about his involvement in the department’s purchase of a horse from his daughter, Brandi (Scimone) Pearson, who is also a cop. It comes on the heels of allegations that he intervened in an internal investigation of a sergeant for having an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, Officer Pearson.   read more

She reportedly snuck onto the plane in San Jose by staying close to a family, but it wasn’t explained how she bypassed two security checkpoints where authorities ask to see identification and tickets. She was discovered onboard during a head count. In April, a 16-year-old boy climbed a fence, walked across a San Jose airport runway and crawled into the wheel well of a jet bound for Hawaii. He miraculously survived the long, cold flight.   read more

Charity Navigator, a respected charity evaluator, calculated that Move America Forward spent a large percentage of its money, 38.9%, on administrative costs in fiscal year 2012 and another 7.7% on fundraising. ProPublica calculated that $2.3 million, or 30%, of the charity’s expenses went to Russo or his consulting firm for advertising and management, and found evidence that money may have been used to support their other activities.   read more

San Jose police knew that law enforcement purchase of drones was a contentious issue. The apology sends a mixed message about what the department plans to do with the drone. After saying it was purchased primarily “to access potential explosive devices and avoid exposing police bomb squad personnel to possible hazards,” the department suggested another possible use: the all-encompassing threat to “public safety.”   read more

The economic recoveries of Stockton and San Bernardino ranked 149 and 150, respectively, among the nation’s 150 largest cities, using criteria based on 18 “essential metrics.” Bankruptcy was a heavily-weighted factor, which both cities have suffered through. No California city made the Top 10. The median ranking of California’s 29 cities was 114, below the midpoint of 100. The average was 102.   read more

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky—a slightly mellowed, one-time liberal firebrand who is being termed out of office this year—joined with two conservative colleagues, Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe, to reject the proposal. He said that there were already a number of parties looking into the department and another one could be more hindrance than help.   read more

A Bee analysis of data from the past five years found that Altria and R.J. Reynolds quadrupled their contributions to Democrats and seem to have been rewarded for the effort. Consequently, “legislation to ban smoking on public school campuses, in apartment buildings, and at state parks and beaches withered in committee. Proposals to raise taxes on cigarettes went nowhere. One bill to limit Internet sales of electronic cigarettes was shelved."   read more

A new report from the Downtown Women’s Action Coalition DWAC) found women in the 50-block area are much older and, consequently, in poorer health than they were a decade ago. The group’s 2013 survey of 324 women found the median age had jumped from 44 to 50 since 2001. Nearly 11% of the women were 62 or older, 39.1% were 51-61, 23.7% were 41-50, 17% were 31-40 and 9.2% were 30 of younger. Four women were over 70 and one topped 80.   read more

A study by UCLA researchers in the online journal Health Affairs went a step beyond other studies, which established poor people have lousier access to preventive care, and showed that, perhaps not surprisingly, the medical outcomes are much worse, too. Patients in poor San Fernando had 10 times as many amputations as upscale Hermosa Beach.   read more

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) approved a chromium-6 standard of 10 parts per billion this year, around 500 times higher than that recommended by the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA). As a result, Hinkley water was deemed sufficiently unadulterated and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board gave PG&E permission to end the bottled water and water filtration program that it was forced to provide in 2010.   read more

Roche was filmed by a TV camera crew responding to orders to help clear 1,000 demonstrators who had gathered at City Hall in a peaceful protest. Ex-Marine Scott Olsen was standing motionless alongside another ex-soldier, between protesters and police, when his skull was shattered by a bean bag fired from 20 feet away. As people rushed to his aid, Roche tossed tear gas at them.   read more