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

Among the problems, there was no process in place for patients returning from outside hospitalization to ensure that hospital discharge summaries were seen by the registered nurse case manager and the primary care provider (PCPs). “The PCPs failed to sign and date any of the hospital discharge summaries to indicate they reviewed these documents,” the report said. Consequently, several patients suffered “serious lapses in care.”   read more

No story of the family’s plight failed to mention Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Stella Creasy, a Labor Party member in the British Parliament, told NPR, “U.K. Muslims believe they are ‘being Trumped,’ ” referring to his declaration a couple weeks ago that if elected President he would, at least temporarily, stop all entry of Muslims into the country.   read more

The staff at the State Board of Water Resources Control said it wasn’t reacting to the weather when it announced a draft proposal Tuesday to scale back the cuts to 22% overall and shift the burden around. Sara Aminzadeh, executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance, wondered what the hurry was. “It sends the wrong message to move back from the conservation target.”   read more

The award in the civil rights lawsuit is more than double San Jose’s previous largest payout. Lam has been a wheelchair-bound paraplegic since being shot in January 2014 during a domestic dispute at home with his boyfriend. Someone called the police and reported a man was acting as if he were having a mental breakdown. Lam was standing with a knife pointed at his own stomach and no one else around when an officer shot him in the back twice.   read more

San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr tried to fire the officers in April, nine months after the text messages became public, but was blocked while the court considered the officer objections. Although the public didn’t find out about the texts until last year, law enforcement knew about them as part of a separate police-corruption investigation for three years.   read more

The foundation did not rely solely on California’s accomplishments in the area of lead abatement in reaching its decision. “California is the epicenter for lawyers trolling to bring disability access lawsuits against small businesses and ridiculous class action lawsuits against food and beverage companies,” the report said. “Certain areas of the state are also a hotbed for asbestos litigation.”   read more

After years of intractable acrimony over how to manage the Klamath River in Northern California and Southern Oregon, all the warring parties reached an accord last year to take down four dams. But last week, it was reported that legislation had been submitted by Representative Greg Walden (R-Oregon), a supporter of the agreement from the Upper Klamath Basin and the House’s third-most-powerful member, that would probably wreck it.   read more

The judge was removed from 46 of 49 cases between February 2014 and September 2015 in a practice known as “papering the judge.” O.C.’s Supervising Superior Court Judge Richard King is not fond of the practice and on December 3 rejected the request to disqualify Goethals from a murder case, People v. Tejeda, in a scathing 49-page ruling.   read more

Two of the monstrously large creatures (8 inches long, 5 inches wide) were found on wooden pallets from American Samoa at the Port of Oakland this month, raising the spectre of a voracious pest with no known predators set loose upon California which, in the words of the Chronicle, “eats crops and homes.” U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents said this is the second time in two months, snails have been found at the port.   read more

On Tuesday, an administrative judge for the CPUC put a smile on the face of many of those critics by leaving intact, for the most part, a net metering system that pays solar-using homeowners for their excess energy. On Thursday, the commission voted 4-1 to nearly double a fee charged to community choice customers.   read more

The staff complaint process and inmate appeals system don't work, according to the report. The most vulnerable members of the population are regularly exposed to physical danger and inmates are pitted against each other. This dysfunctional system exists within an “entrenched culture of self-protection” among officers. “There is evidence that a perception of insularity and indifference to inmates exists at High Desert State Prison.”   read more

Tests showed the brain-damaged animals couldn’t remember where their food was and the imaging showed they had a shrunken hippocampus, a region known to affect navigational abilities and memory. Previously, the clinical effects of the toxin were known, but this study showed the behavioral effects in the wild.   read more

Tony Barboza reported that China Shipping North America, which operates a giant 130-acre terminal near Vincent Thomas Bridge, received a waiver from the port that let it ignore an agreement requiring ships to plug into on-shore electrical outlets instead of belching out pollutants while their diesel-engines idle. The waiver was issued shortly after an environmental impact report was approved for the terminal expansion in 2008.   read more

Comcast was accused of dumping personal records in landfills since 2005 without any shredding or redaction of sensitive information, including customer names, addresses and telephone numbers. The complaint was filed after a whistleblower came forward in 2010.   read more

Google wants to develop a robot car that doesn’t need controls tacked on for a human, but the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) said the product released to the public should be equipped with all of them. That would include a steering wheel, brakes and an accelerator for openers. Google said in a statement, "We are gravely disappointed."   read more

The decision to close the schools and send 640,000 bewildered students home to frantic parents was made by LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines, who said he had no choice. New York Police Commissioner William J. Bratton, a former chief of LAPD, decided it was a “hoax” and chided L.A. for its “significant overreaction.”   read more