U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said, although he did not personally agree, the court system has decided that the 43-foot-tall cross on federal land atop Mount Soledad implies a government endorsement of religion that violates the Constitution. He ordered that the cross come down within 90 days, but stayed his motion to give the Obama administration and supporters of the cross 90 days to appeal. Again.   read more

The non-profit Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed an environmental justice lawsuit and in a press release argued that it was wrong to put “the largest crematorium on the West Coast, emitting pollutants such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury, onto a community of color.”   read more

San Jose voted to conjure up a complete regulatory framework within 90 days that will keep dispensaries 1,000 feet away from schools, parks, recreation centers, libraries and other marijuana vendors. They also can’t be within 500 feet of rehabilitation centers and 150 feet of residential properties.   read more

After looking through “two confidential federal complaints against the school” and other documents, the newspaper said the school should also have copped to 27 more unreported alleged assaults in 2012. School officials and faculty told the Times that Dean of Students Barbara Avery told them there were 34 assaults that year. The school only reported seven.   read more

The state’s numerical rating was 77 out of 100, earning it a “C.” No state received an “A” or “B.” Forty-two states and the District of Columbia received failing grades, with awful levels of transparency making it hard to find relevant public records on potential lapses. Three states—Montana, Utah and Idaho—require no judicial disclosure.   read more

Physicians at the veterans’ hospital in San Francisco have been caught renewing highly addictive painkillers to patients without seeing or talking to them first. The IG reviewed 264 opiate prescription renewals and learned that in 53% of cases, the physician renewing the medication had not communicated personally with the patient. The IG report also says there were seven opiate overdoses among patients at the hospital, and that doctors “did not consistently monitor patients for misuse.”   read more

A Malaysian professor, educated at Stanford and barred from this country for eight years, has apparently become the first person to drag the federal government into a trial over the no-fly list. Whether her lawyer or the judge gets them to actually participate remains to be seen.   read more

Their reluctance to back a new study is based on the dam’s safety. “The dam is essentially overbuilt,” DWR chief of dam safety David Panec said. If he’s wrong and a quake brought down the dam, the result would be catastrophic. Water from the second largest reservoir in the state would flood the city of Oroville and other communities downstream, including Yuba City and parts of Sacramento.   read more

Starr, who is black, said he was stabbed 23 times by Latino gang members and claimed the sheriff was responsible for procedures and security deficiencies that led to his assault. The appellate court agreed and last week the county Board of Supervisors approved a $722,000 settlement of a civil lawsuit that claimed the sheriff’s “deliberate indifference” to the jail’s unsafe condition.   read more

Child-rights advocates have long argued that police are brought into student disciplinary situations too early and too often. A study by the Center for Public Integrity found that 43% of the 10,200 LAUSD tickets issued in 2011 went to students 14 or younger. Civil rights groups have argued that thrusting kids into the criminal justice system early creates a system that sets kids along a path likely to increase their chance of being involved in criminal behavior later in life.   read more

Anthera was also required to survey all patients six months after the end of the trial period to see if they were still alive. But the company collected that data for only 31% of the patients, which made it impossible to gauge whether the drug increased the risk of death. The trial was terminated by a safety monitoring committee after early results showed patients who got the drug actually had a higher risk of cardiovascular problems, mainly heart attacks, than those who received a placebo.   read more

The State Lands Commission is reportedly investigating the city for allegedly misusing around $5 million it received from the plant since 2005. The newspaper said that $525,000 annual payments from plant owner Dynegy Energy Co. made their way to the city’s general fund although the city’s own website clearly states, “Under the Tidelands Grant Statute, all revenues received from the Tidelands must be used for operation and improvement of the tidelands.”   read more

The district was reluctant to release results of testing conducted under the supervision of the Malibu Schools Environmental Task Force until they were peer-reviewed. But that triggered accusations of a cover-up at a school board meeting. Three teachers who worked in the building were recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer and three other educators may have thyroid problems, according to NBC Los Angeles. Other teachers and staff have reported migraines and skin rashes.   read more

When the California Public Utility Commission (PUC) agreed to let NRG Energy build a network of electric car charging stations at a cost of $100 million to repay the state for ripping it off on electricity during the energy crisis a decade ago, critics said the company’s “punishment” was too small and amounted to winning a $100 million no-bid development contract.   read more

Although it’s hard to find a news story about the plant that isn’t filled with jokey cracks about the owner feeling the heat, it was no joke to members of the community who complained of headaches, inflamed asthma, burning eyes, sore throats and heartburn. The judge said in his ruling that he did not find “credible evidence” the odor posed a health threat, but he did say the city was likely to prevail if it pursued a declaration that the plant was a public nuisance.   read more

An ordinance passed in the upscale Bay Area city a year ago formally took effect last week, establishing what may be the strictest restrictions on smoking in the country. The law is aimed at reducing contact with second-hand smoke and requires smokers who live in homes that share walls, a ceiling or ventilation with other homes to leave their domiciles and get 20 feet away from the building before lighting up.   read more