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

Around 7,000 e-mails, released as part of a lawsuit settlement, documented how the PUC and Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) worked together to fend off criticism and investigators after the San Bruno pipeline explosion killed eight people and leveled a neighborhood in September 2010. A federal grand jury indicted PG&E in April on 12 counts involving safety violations leading to the San Bruno explosion.   read more

The Great Bull Run, attended by 2,500 paying customers, was just like the famed runs in Spain, except instead of hurtling through town from the stockyards to a bullring, they ran briefly around a racetrack. Unlike in Spain, there is no 700-year tradition and no bullfight and more animal abuse afterward. That is illegal. Around 40 animal rights protesters chanted slogans and waved signs near the entrance, but a crowd about to risk their lives dashing ahead of snorting bulls was not deterred.   read more

The move by the state Department of General Services (DGS) indicates workers will be stuck in a building described by the Sacramento Bee as having a “history of toxic mold, defective elevators, leaking windows, corroded wastewater pipes, floods, and exterior glass panels that spontaneously break or pop off. “Even though my lawyers told me not to say this, I don’t think it’s safe,” Board Chairman Jerome Horton told the Bee.   read more

The Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA) filed a complaint this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Compton, claiming that statewide fracking legislation passed last September in Sacramento pre-empted moratoriums and bans by municipalities. The suit also says the city violated the California Constitution when it banned well stimulation in other municipalities if the well’s bottom sat beneath Compton.   read more

The billboard is sponsored by Badideasca.com, which is a project of the Employment Policies Institute (EPI). The conservative non-profit “research organization” does a lot of work for the restaurant industry, according to Pando. The institute was featured in an article by Salon last November that ripped the media for accepting claims by industry public relations firms that they are respectable think tanks.   read more

The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) released a “Comprehensive Proposed Rulemaking” plan to increase the safety of the trains and improve emergency response after a wakeup call from Canada. Forty-seven people died in July 2013 when a train carrying 63 cars of Bakken crude from North Dakota derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. Meanwhile, California more than doubled the amount of oil-by-rail it usually receives in the first quarter of the year.   read more

The Public Policy Institute of California found that on one hand, 76% of those polled favor requiring that one-third of the state’s electricity come from renewable energy sources. On the other hand, only 30% see the wisdom of the move if it raises their electricity bill. Sixty-two percent of adult Californians believe that global warming has already started, but only 40% are “very concerned” about it.   read more

A new study published in the journal Plos One found that two of the densest food locations for blue whales lie across busy shipping lanes, contradicting earlier studies that said whales were widely dispersed and safer for it. But those studies were largely based on anecdotal sightings and limited data. The new study tagged 171 blue whales, the world’s largest creatures, and tracked them for 15 years using satellites.   read more

California just endured the hottest six months in its recorded history, but that didn’t stop state and federal government agencies from joining with the Yurok tribe to turn up the heat on marijuana growers blamed for sucking up the reservation’s water in Humboldt County. It is anticipated that tens of thousands of plants will be eradicated in the next 10 days.   read more

The owners of suburban Westlake Plaza, northwest of Los Angeles, bulldozed 170 treesl, taking advantage of a city ordinance loophole, opened in 2010, that allows the owner-planter of a tree to fell it. The destruction was over in a few days before public opposition could be registered. Afterward, the council passed a one-year moratorium on invoking the loophole.   read more

The 41-year-old Stanford law professor was born in Mexico before moving with his family to the U.S. when he was 14. A registered Democrat, Cuéllar worked in the Clinton and Obama administrations in various capacities. He specializes in administrative and immigration law, but has taught a broad range of courses, including international and criminal law.   read more

After using the department's official number of 109,000 Medi-Cal doctors in a story, the California Health Report was informed that the state only had 104,422 licensed physicians as of 2013. And not all of the licensed doctors accept Medi-Cal patients. Molly Weed, a spokeswoman for the Medical Board of California told Health Report reporter Hannah Guzik, “They don’t have any idea how many physicians are actually accepting new Medi-Cal patients.”   read more

California cities captured nine of the top 10 “hot spots” in the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) 2013 report of per-capita car thefts in the country. Spokane, Washington, was the only non-California city on the list at No. 7. California also snatched the No. 11, 14, 15, 16 and 18 spots. While conventional wisdom might point toward wealthy cities with expensive automobiles or port cities for quick shipment overseas, the top 3 cities were all in the state’s farm belt.   read more

When Alan Trounson announced he was quitting his job as president and CEO of the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), the official release said he was leaving to spend more time with his family in Australia. It was a short reunion. Within a week of his June 30 departure, he joined the board of StemCells, Inc, a recipient of $19.4 million from CIRM for Alzheimer's research.   read more

The Bakersfield Californian reported that the order from the Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) came on July 7, just days before it was announced that 95 other wells were also being looked at. ProPublica reported that officials indicated at least seven of the 11 wells shut down were probably pumping waste water into clean aquifers.   read more

Laura Whitney and her husband, Michael Korte, weren't quite sure what lesson to draw from the dual warnings. “My friends in Los Angeles got these letters warning they could be fined if they water, and I got a letter warning that I could be fined for not watering,” Whitney told the Associated Press. “I felt like I was in an alternate universe.”   read more