A trio of Los Angeles City Council members from the Harbor Area and the San Fernando Valley proposed a plan Friday aimed at clearing away the mountains of trash that have cropped up on city streets, sidewalks and alleyways.
They want to use the homeless as forced labor to clean up the mess.
Source: LA leaders want to pay homeless to pick up trash from the streets – Daily News
If California Republicans were looking for political red meat, former Arizona lawman Joe Arpaio did not disappoint when he joined them Friday evening for a fundraiser.
Arpaio lionized President Trump, defended his own honor and questioned once more whether former President Obama was truly an American citizen.
The longtime Maricopa County sheriff was the star 
attraction for the sold-out Republican event.
Arpaio was convicted for actions related to alleged racial profiling of Latinos and then pardoned by President Trump.
Yup, same old racist Republicans.
A federal appeals court has overturned a teenager’s murder conviction, saying Los Angeles police violated his rights by denying his request for a lawyer and pressuring him into a confession.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that detectives in 2005 continued to question then-14-year-old Jessie Rodriguez about a gang-related shooting even after he requested an attorney.
Detectives threatened Rodriguez by telling him he was going to soon be charged with murder and suggesting that cooperating would result in leniency.
The court said Rodriguez’s subsequent confession was coerced.
Source: LAPD pressured murder confession from teenager, court rules in overturning conviction – LA Times
If you have ever felt that flight attendants treat you like a chump because you are seated in the economy section, you are not alone.
While fliers in first and business class sections pay for extras such as better food, drinks and roomier seats, a survey of more than 1,200 Americans found that most travelers feel the flight crew also show first-class passengers more courtesy and respect.
Anyone surprised?
Source: Most fliers feel airline crews treat first-class passengers better – LA Times
San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi faced off with a San Francisco Superior Court judge Friday while defending one of his own attorneys, who is accused by the judge of disobeying his orders in a previous court hearing.
John Paul Passaglia, an attorney with Adachi’s office, faces five days in jail and a $1,000 fine for allegedly failing to step away from his client after Judge Ross Moody ordered him to do so in a hearing Sept. 14.
Passaglia said he did not defy the judge’s orders, but that he was in shock and “reacted to an unethical demand” when his client was allegedly wrongfully taken in custody during the hearing. His client remained in jail Friday.
Passaglia also accused Moody — who presided over Friday’s hearing for Passaglia’s contempt charge — of retaliation against him and other attorneys who witnessed the incident.
The racist judge Moody twice threatened to jail his client, Michael Bayanos — a 55-year-old Filipino immigrant with limited English speaking skills — when Bayanos “took too long” to enter a plea.
A gripping documentary on the Vietnam War — described by many viewers as a masterful depiction of a prolonged conflict that divided the nation — has left many American and Vietnamese veterans feeling deeply disappointed, even betrayed.
Veterans of the South Vietnamese military say they were largely left out of the narrative, their voices drowned out by the film’s focus on 
North Vietnam and its communist leader, Ho Chi Minh.
American veterans say that the series had several glaring omissions and focused too much on leftist anti-war protesters and soldiers who came to oppose the war.
PBS did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Source: Veterans frustrated with Ken Burns’ film on Vietnam War
Denver Broncos linebacker Brandon Marshall says he appreciates NFL teams supporting the rights of their players to protest during the national anthem. He also suggests they show it by giving Colin Kaepernick a job .
“The dude, he’s in shape, he’s yoked, actually,” said Marshall, who saw his ex-college teammate on a TMZ video recently.
“He’s so strong. He’s ready to go. He told me he’s been working out when I last talked to him. He said he’s just waiting for a call. That’s the next step.”
Marshall is among many players who believe Kaepernick is being blackballed by NFL teams over the movement he started last year.
And of course, Marshall is correct.
Source: Marshall: NFL teams can show support by hiring Kaepernick – SFGate
The gubernatorial election is more than a year away, but the leading contenders have been busily raising money, taking shots at one another on the margins and collecting early endorsements from key interest groups and prominent politicians.
How about some substantive comparisons on where they stand on the big issues facing the state?
Source: California governor’s race: Let’s get substantive – San Francisco Chronicle
What a jerk.
President Donald Trump’s health secretary resigned Friday, after his costly travel triggered investigations that overshadowed the administration’s agenda and angered his boss.
Tom Price’s phony regrets and partial repayment couldn’t save his job.
A former GOP congressman from the Atlanta suburbs, Price served less than eight months.
Good riddance. Loser.
Source: Trump’s health secretary resigns in travel flap – San Francisco Chronicle
Surrounded by a crowd of Democratic mayors and legislators Friday morning, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a wid
e-ranging package of 15 bills designed to bring some relief to the statewide housing crisis.
Enthusiastic housing advocates and business leaders also joined the governor for the outdoor bill-signing ceremony in a pocket park at Hunters View, a new mixed-income housing development on the hills of Bayview-Hunters Point in San Francisco.
“This is the biggest bill-signing I’ve ever seen, and it’s because it deals with something as basic as shelter,” the governor said. “It was a big challenge, and we’ve risen to it this year.”
Source: Brown signs housing bills: ‘It was a big challenge, and we’ve risen to it’ – San Francisco Chronicle
Once again in California politics, the Republicans are no where to be found.
With the March filing deadline still well in the future, four serious candidates, all Democrats, already have emerged to replace termed-out Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, with the possibility of more contenders to come.
The lieutenant governor serves on both the UC Board of Regents and the Board of Trustees for the California State University system. The lieutenant governor is also on the State Lands Commission and chairs the California Commission for Economic Development.
Source: Democrats line up for lieutenant governor race – San Francisco Chronicle
It’s an inconvenient political truth in California that almost everyone wants to help homeless people get off the streets and into housing.
But almost no one wants to help when that housing happens to be next door.
So, it’s no surprise that residents of North Sacramento are livid over Mayor Darrell Steinberg’s plan to open a temporary emergency shelter and a permanent “triage” shelter in their neighborhood in the coming months.
“I just don’t see any upside for our area,” Shane Curry, chairman of the Del Paso Boulevard Partnership, told The Sacramento Bee’s Ryan Lillis. “It’s not like these people are going to become contributing, productive citizens.”
There you have it. From one of the most racist cities in America.
Source: On homelessness, Sacramento’s NIMBYs need to go | The Sacramento Bee
Even though weed will be legal in a few months, the illegal trade is still alive and well in Calfornia.
For example, Yolo County officials announced the seizure of $6 million worth of marijuana this week, continuing a string of enforcement actions in the Sacramento region.
The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office said deputies seized more than 2,000 plants at three locations during raids on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The raids followed seizures by officials in Yuba County, Roseville and Elk Grove this month, which netted more than 7,000 plants, according to the agencies.
The plants were seized from outdoor grows in Yolo, said Sgt. Matthew Davis, a Sheriff’s Office spokesman. Marijuana grows in other parts of the region this month were allegedly in houses.
As government regulation jacks up the price, expect the illegal market to continue to thrive.
Source: With legal pot looming, California counties seize thousands of illegal plants | The Sacramento Bee
California’s epidemic of sexual perverts in the classroom continues unabated.
Cosumnes Oaks High School geography teacher Monte Antonio Reed was arrested Monday for allegedly having sex with a 15-year-old student who attended the Elk Grove school and for allegedly molesting two other teens.
Reed, 40, of Elk Grove, had been under investigation since April 19, when Elk Grove Unified School District officials notified law enforcement of a complaint. Reed was placed on administrative leave and the school’s parents were informed the next day, according to the district.
Between Jan. 18 and April 19 of 2016, Reed allegedly had sex twice and twice engaged in an oral copulation with a 15-year-old girl. He also is suspected of penetrating the child with a foreign object. He was charged with five felony counts for the alleged acts against the girl.
Source: Elk Grove high school teacher arrested for sex with student | September 2017 | The Sacramento Bee
“This bill would be an enforcement nightmare,” said Jeff Volberg, a lobbyist for the California Waterfowl Association, a hunting group.
Opponents worry that someone could get arrested for carrying a long gun outside of a case if they were walking from his or her car to a gunsmith’s shop or gun range (both exempted from the open-carry ban) or while traveling to or from exempted forest lands.
Craig DeLuz, spokesman for the Firearms Policy Coalition, said the biggest issue is that in urban areas, such as in Los Angeles County, it would become almost impossible to carry a firearm – openly or otherwise – because local law enforcement agencies often refuse to give out concealed carry permits.
“For some, openly carrying a long gun is the only way in which they can exercise their right to bear arms,” DeLuz said. “Now that is being taken away.”
A Santiago Canyon College center, closed five years because of building violations, could become the largest homeless shelter in Orange County.
The 50,000-square-foot Orange Education Center is being considered by the county as a shelter and homeless service center to entice transients away from encampments along the Santa Ana riverbed, Supervisor Todd Spitzer said Thursday.
The daughter of U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is said to have signed on as a regular co-host of the ABC daytime talker, according to Variety. She’ll replace Jedediah Bila, who announced her exit last week.
ABC declined to confirm or comment Thursday on McCain’s casting.
“The View” has had its fair share of lineup changes over the years. Executive producer and former panelist Barbara Walters retired in 2014, and the show has included Rosie O’Donnell, Nicolle Wallace, Rosie Perez, Raven-Symoné, Michelle Collins and Candace Cameron Bure among its panelists.
Source: Former Fox News host Meghan McCain to join ABC’s ‘The View’ – LA Times
Twitter says that they’ve found around 200 accounts linked to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The company said in a statement that 22 accounts were closed after they were found to be linked to separate Facebook pages previously shown to have spread Russian-bought ads during the presidential campaign that focused mostly on social issues such as race, guns and immigration.
An additional 179 Twitter accounts were “related or linked” to the Facebook pages, Twitter said, adding that it closed “the ones we found in violation of our rules.”
Source: Twitter finds 201 accounts linked to Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election – LA Times
The unassuming space about 30 miles south of Barcelona is where Spanish police believe radicals planted the seed a dozen years ago for the kind of terrorist attack seen last month in Barcelona and Cambrils.
The Islamic State extremist group claimed responsibility for a van attack on pedestrians in Barcelona and a knife attack in Cambrils, which together killed 16 people.
The suspects in the August attacks — 12 men in their late teens and early 20s, all of Moroccan origin — grew up about 95 miles north of the Al Furkan mosque in Ripoll, a tidy village of about 10,000 people in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains.
More than 200 Islamist terrorism suspects have been arrested in Spain since the country raised its terrorism alert level to 4, out of 5, in 2015, with most of the arrests occurring in northeastern Spain’s Catalonia region.
There are 268 registered mosques in Catalonia.
Source: In Spain, police suspect the seed for recent Islamic State attacks was planted years ago – LA Times
Microsoft, poised for expansion into north San Jose, has bought 65 acres of empty land along State Route 237 between Alviso and Milpitas, signaling that the site fits into its plans to widen its reach in cloud and internet technologies.
The Redmond, Washington-based tech titan paid $73.2 million for the land on the western banks of the Coyote River.
Proposals have been submitted to the city for constructing four office buildings, which could total 437,000 square feet. Typical zoning rules could allow 2,200 people to work in those buildings.
Adios open space.
Source: Exclusive: Microsoft buys north San Jose land, campus eyed
San Francisco’s voters have over the years created a slew of spending mandates that lock up a sizeable portion of the budget for specific services.
The practice, which has significantly increased in recent years, is coming under greater scrutiny.
Last year alone, three new set-asides — the most in any single year — were approved by voters after being placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors, bringing the total to 19. Only half of the 19 mandates have expiration dates, which is when the board and voters will have to decide whether to renew them and make changes.
Sitting in an Orange County cafe a few blocks from his home, state Sen. Josh Newman appears remarkably calm, often funny, for someone who is likely facing a recall less than a year after being elected.
Then again, little fazes the Democrat. He’s not a career politician. The Yale graduate served in the Army and is a veterans advocate and a former tech worker. Perhaps most telling, he’s a guy who dressed up in a bear costume during his campaign and danced around Orange County intersections holding a sign that said, “Newman.”
“I knew I had tapped something when I saw a UPS driver coming down the street waving at me and smiling like he was a little boy,” Newman said.
Hey, when you’ve got no name recognition and less money, and your party is ignoring you during the primary because it thinks you haven’t “waited your turn” to run for a seat, you get creative.
But now Newman has to get creative again. Even though he’s got a great attitude, he is in a bad political spot that could affect statewide politics.
Source: The legislator who stares down a recall with a smile — and a bear costume – San Francisco Chronicle
Sunsara Taylor, a Refuse Fascism co-founder who lives in New York, said she flew here to combat vile, divisive and hate-filled commentary with her message: This nightmare presidency is normalizing fascism and white supremacy and it must be stopped.
But she also came to drum up support for her organization’s future plans: Refuse Fascism is organizing daily nonviolent protests against the current White House administration that are scheduled to begin Nov. 4. Taylor expects several thousand people to participate in demonstrations in the Bay Area and in cities such as Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.
You read that right — daily protests.
Source: Antifascist explains why she protests Trump fans – San Francisco Chronicle
A 36-year-old youth probation counselor for Santa Clara County was arrested Thursday on suspicion of having sex with two inmates at a boys’ ranch in Morgan Hill.
Tricia Caparra will be charged with 15 felonies counts in connection with the assaults last year on the two teenagers — one of them a minor — at William F. James Boys Ranch, according to a statement from the probation department.
The charges include having sex with a consenting adult inmate or ward, having unlawful sex with a minor and oral copulation with a minor. In addition, she will be charged with illegally obtaining computer data, according to a statement from the Santa Clara County district attorney’s office.
Caparra is a nine-year veteran with Santa Clara County who earned $101,000 last year as a probation counselor.
Source: Youth probation counselor accused of having sex with 2 inmates – San Francisco Chronicle
It was just six years ago that Brown signed a bill, with just three “no” votes in the entire Legislature, that moved the presidential primary election back to June after three different and largely unsuccessful attempts to jump the line and give California voters more clout when it comes to picking presidential nominees.
But this time for sure it’s going to work, the bill’s supporters promise.
While legislators are eager to boost California’s political power, there are probably 49 other states that don’t want to see it happen, which could leave the state facing the same troubles it did the other times the primary date was shifted.
Source: California’s past moves to earlier presidential primaries often flopped – San Francisco Chronicle
Federal immigration officials in the Bay Area arrested 27 people this week, most with past criminal convictions, as part of a national sweep targeting cities that prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said Thursday.
The arrests in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Morgan Hill — and more than 100 in Los Angeles — were part of a four-day sweep that began Sunday. Overall, ICE officials acting in eight states and Washington, D.C., arrested 498 people from 42 countries who were in the United States illegally.
“Sanctuary jurisdictions that do not honor (detention requests) or allow us access to jails and prisons are shielding criminal aliens from immigration enforcement and creating a magnet for illegal immigration,” ICE Acting Director Tom Homan said in a statement. “As a result, ICE is forced to dedicate more resources to conduct at-large arrests in these communities.”
The arrests come as California Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to sign SB54, which would prevent police from arresting people for immigration violations without a warrant, among other prohibitions.
Source: ICE sweep targeting sanctuary cities snares 27 in Bay Area, 498 overall – San Francisco Chronicle
The public has a tough message for Facebook: The social-media giant needs to stop fake news — especially when it’s funded by Russia.
According to a new poll commissioned by the Factual Democracy Project, a group trying to fight the spread of intentionally fabricated news stories on social media, 73 percent of voters says Facebook should not allow foreign powers to run ads targeting Americans during an election.
It’s not just Russian-linked fake news the public is concerned about either: 78 percent of people said they want Facebook to prevent inaccurate stories from being widely shared on its platform.
Source: Poll: Americans blame Facebook for fake news | The Sacramento Bee
Today, most Americans aren’t clamoring for lower taxes, probably because most of us don’t pay very much in federal income taxes. Our tax burden has rarely been lower. The latest data show that the 60% of families in the middle of the income distribution — those between about $32,000 and about $140,000 — pay an average of just 2.5% of their income in federal income taxes.
Nearly half of Americans owe no federal income tax at all, but they do pay taxes: payroll taxes to fund Social Security and Medicare, tariffs, excise taxes, corporate taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, state and local income taxes, and so on. If they have a problem with taxes, it’s not with the federal income tax.
Source: This tax cut isn’t for the middle class, which only pays 2.5% now – MarketWatch
A new study from financial watchdog group Truth in Accounting found that “41 states do not have enough money to pay all of their bills, and, in total, the states have racked up over $1.5 trillion dollars in unfunded state debt.”
Not surprisingly, the Golden State did not fare well in the analysis, ranking 43rd in terms of debt per taxpayer, and comprising one of nine states to earn an “F” grade.
“Repeated decisions by state officials have left the state with a staggering debt burden of $255.1 billion,” the report concluded. “That burden equates to $21,600 for every California taxpayer.”
Source: Will California ever pay off its massive debt? – Daily News
Authorities are investigating the death of an inmate who became unconscious after he was pepper-sprayed.
The inmate began to feel ill and became unconscious.
A nurse assisted with the CPR until Los Angeles City Fire Department personnel arrived, but paramedics were unable to resuscitate the man. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
Source: Pepper-sprayed inmate dies at downtown LA jail – Daily News
An Antioch policeman who played an active role in an identity theft ring, recruited others into it and destroyed evidence when a cohort was arrested received a sentence of 60 days in jail last week.
Gary Bostick, 39, pleaded guilty to five felonies in June — four counts of wire fraud and one count of conspiracy.
U.S. attorneys, citing several similar cases where defendants received lengthy prison terms, had asked White to sentence Bostick to four years and three months in federal prison, according to court records.
The conspiracy involved Bostick, his wife, Robinson and others obtaining personal financial information from dead people and using it to cash fraudulent checks.
Source: Former East Bay cop sentenced to jail for identity theft
The landlord of the Ghost Ship warehouse where 36 people died in a fire Dec. 2 has avoided prosecution, but she’s set to collect at least $3.1 million in insurance payments.
Adjusting Group has reserved $3.1 million to pay Chor Ng, who owns the Fruitvale District warehouse and adjacent properties, to cover her basic property loss and liability policy. The document indicates she has received more than $670,000 so far, likely to cover her attorney’s fees and facility security costs.
Source: Ghost Ship owner: No criminal charges AND she could collect more than $3 million in insurance
In a standoff with city officials, Google is demanding more office space for its futuristic new “Charleston East” campus and is threatening to block nearly 10,000 units of critically needed housing if it doesn’t get its way.
The company’s move could derail a plan — given preliminary approval by the Mountain View City Council early Wednesday morning and which Google says it still supports — for construction of 9,850 homes in the North Bayshore development anchored by Charleston East. The Mountain View search giant had earlier told the city it would work with partners to have 9,600 housing units built on its property, said Vice-Mayor Lenny Siegel.
But during a marathon council meeting starting Tuesday night, Google warned that it would not allow that housing unless the city approved another 800,000 square feet of office space, beyond the 3.6 million contained in the draft North Bayshore plan, Siegel said.
Source: Google demands more office space, threatens to block North Bayshore housing
A San Jose woman will receive a $6.7 million settlement from the city of Santa Clara after her leg was broken trying to prevent police officers from entering her home without a warrant to arrest her teenage daughter.
The settlement resolves a federal civil-rights lawsuit filed on behalf of Danielle Burfine, who was injured on April 12, 2016 at her home.
A shocking video shows obvious excessive force, wrongful entry without a warrant, and extreme callousness as Danielle broke her ankle and cried in pain.
Source: Santa Clara pays $6.7 million to woman injured by police
As poll after poll finds that housing costs are driving Californians to pack up and move, a new survey paints a detailed portrait of the anti-growth mindset that has been widely blamed for the short supply of homes underlying the problem.
What the survey found surprised veteran pollster Mark Baldassare: Nearly two-thirds of adults in California — and 70 percent in the Bay Area — favor building in their cities to meet the need.
“Obviously we asked this question because Californians are so often associated with NIMBY-ism, Not in My Backyard, but maybe because we’re at such a crisis point with housing costs that so many people recognize that it’s a problem — and for so many people it is a problem for them,” said Baldassare, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that conducted the poll.
There seems to be some regret going around when it comes to host Megyn Kelly’s first outings on “Today.”
Actress and activist Debra Messing of “Will & Grace” told a follower on Instagram that she wasn’t informed she’d be on Kelly’s first show, saying, ““Honestly I didn’t know it was MK until that morning. The itinerary just said Today show appearance. Regret going on.
Later, Jane Fonda snapped at the host after a question about plastic surgery.
Did D.A.’s office tip off L.A. gang member to witness’ address where two people were later shot?
Investigators are looking into whether a gang member suspected of shooting two people this month was targeting a witness who was expected to testify against him in an assault case.
President Trump plans to slash the number of refugees allowed in the United States by more than half, pressing a longer-term goal of limiting legal immigration and imposing tougher vetting procedures for foreign visitors.
The Trump administration has told Congress it will limit refugee admissions to about 45,000 in the fiscal year that starts Sunday.
That’s down sharply from the 110,000 cap in President Obama’s last year in office.
The new plan would set the lowest cap since the 1980s, after Congress gave the president authority to set a maximum number of immigrants allowed to resettle in the U.S.
Source: Trump plans to slash refugee admissions by more than half – LA Times
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health last week declared an outbreak of hepatitis A, citing 12 cases as of Monday.
Only four are cases in which people acquired the disease locally, but that’s enough for officials to sound the alarm. And few populations are more vulnerable to acquiring it — and suffering more severe cases of it — than the homeless community.
More than three-quarters of the cases identified here have been among homeless people.
This highly contagious liver disease is acquired when an uninfected person ingests food or water that has been contaminated with the feces of an infected person.
Commonly, it is transmitted after an infected person goes to the bathroom, doesn’t thoroughly wash his or her hands with soap and water and then prepares or touches another person’s food.
California Gov. Jerry Brown has expressed interest in banning cars that burn fossil fuels, the state’s top climate change regulator said in an interview published Tuesday.
“I’ve gotten messages from the governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’” Mary Nichols, chair of the California Air Resources Board, said in an interview with Bloomberg News.
California has, for years, pushed automakers to offer cars that produce no emissions, turning the state into the nation’s largest market for electric cars. It has not, however, proposed an outright ban on cars running on the internal combustion engine.
France and Britain will bar sales of new gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040. Norway is aiming for 2025, even though the country remains a major oil producer. India has targeted 2030. Chinese officials are working on a ban but have not announced a timetable.
Source: Could California ban gasoline cars? – San Francisco Chronicle
California will move its primary elections from June to March under a bill signed by Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday that seeks to maximize the state’s relevance in presidential primaries.
The law takes effect in 2019 and means California’s next presidential primary will be on March 3, 2020 — Super Tuesday — just after Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina head to the polls and on the same day as some Southern states like Texas and Virginia.
The move by California lawmakers is intended to increase the state’s impact in selecting the presidential nominee by making the state one of the first to vote, versus one of the last.
Source: California moves presidential primary from June to March – San Francisco Chronicle
Likely California voters don’t think Sen. Dianne Feinstein should run for re-election next year, according to a Public Policy Institute of California survey released Wednesday.
The poll found that while 54 percent of likely voters approve of Feinstein’s job performance, a majority of independents (55 percent) and Republicans (69 percent) don’t think she should seek re-election.
Source: Half of likely voters don’t think Feinstein should run for re-election – San Francisco Chronicle
Federal fisheries regulators have approved a controversial plan opposed by environmental groups that would allow for more pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta this fall.
Environmental groups fought the plan, saying requirements federal scientists use to set pumping rates dictate more water go to habitat for critically endangered Delta smelt. The fisheries agency tweaked the proposal to allow for slightly more water to go to fish habitat, but it didn’t satisfy environmentalists.
Source: US Fish and Wildlife Service approved Delta pumping increase | The Sacramento Bee
Last year set national and state records for sexually transmitted disease.
Gonorrhea rates are up just as drug-resistant strains threaten to render the disease untreatable in the near future. Syphilis has increased, particularly among bisexual men, gay men and women.
CALIFORNIA HAD THE NATION’S THIRD-WORST RATES OF INFECTIOUS PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SYPHILIS. A THIRD OF THE BABIES BORN NATIONALLY WITH CONGENITAL SYPHILIS WERE HERE.
Congenital syphilis – a completely preventable but lethal infection passed from pregnant mothers to babies – surged 28 percent from the year before to more than 600 cases, resulting in deaths and severe complications among newborns.
In all, more than 2 million Americans were diagnosed last year with a sexually transmitted disease – including chlamydia, the most common.
Some of the biggest statistical surprises were in tolerant, health-conscious California.
Source: Record STD rates show need for more talk about sex | The Sacramento Bee
A federal jury took less than than two hours Wednesday to award $6.5 million to the family of Johnathan Rose, a schizophrenic man shot and killed in his home by a Sacramento County sheriff’s deputy who’d been called by Rose’s parents to help their agitated son.
Rose’s father, Ted Rose – who had said he could feel the bullets enter his son’s body as he tried to restrain him – filed the wrongful death lawsuit against Deputy David McEntire and Sacramento County but died last week on the eve of his scheduled testimony in the case.
“An unarmed, mentally ill young man was killed in his home for no reason,” said attorney Dale Galipo, who with Sacramento attorney Stewart Katz represented the Rose family.
Source: Jurors award $6.5 million to family of mentally ill man shot by deputy | The Sacramento Bee
Orange County’s mess ensnarled the California Attorney General’s office, too.
Like his predecessor U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, AG Xavier Becerra possesses the legal authority, if not the moral obligation, to pursue charges when a cop is caught brazenly lying under oath.
More than 30 months ago, during Harris’ watch, the office opened an investigation into sheriff’s department antics, including the perjury.
This supposedly ongoing probe appears to have been nothing more than a sham
Source: California Attorney General Lets OC Sheriff’s Department Get Away With Perjury | OC Weekly
By Chris Micheli
In the California Legislature, generally committees deal with legislation before passing measures to the Floor of either the Assembly or Senate. However, there are rare instances where legislators choose to return a bill to committee when it is pending on the Floor, and there are times when legislators desire to pull a bill out of committee and place it on the Floor. There are rules governing these processes in each house.
ASSEMBLY
Pursuant to Assembly Rule 96(a), a legislator can make a motion to withdraw a bill or resolution from committee, or to re-refer a bill or resolution from one committee to another committee, during the regular order of business on the Floor. A motion to re-refer a bill from the Floor to a committee may be debated only as to the propriety of the reference of the bill to committee, and a successful motion requires an affirmative recorded vote of 41 or more Assembly Members.
Under Subdivision (b) of Rule 96, a bill or resolution may not be withdrawn from committee and placed upon the Daily File unless a motion to withdraw has been heard by and has been approved by a majority vote of the Committee on Rules. However, this subdivision does not apply to a bill in a fiscal committee that has been amended so as not to require its reference to a fiscal committee, as indicated by the Legislative Counsel’s Digest.
Moreover, under Assembly Rule 97, a motion to re-refer a bill or resolution that is on the Assembly Daily File to committee may be made during the regular order of business. The motion is debatable only as to the propriety of that bill being referred to committee and the motion requires an affirmative recorded vote of 41 or more Assembly Members to be successful.
SENATE
Pursuant to Senate Rule 28, a bill or resolution may not be withdrawn from committee except upon written notice being first given to the Committee on Rules and the motion to withdraw requires 21 votes of the Senators to be successful.
There is also the provision of Senate Rule 29.2, which provides that a motion to strike any bill, resolution, or other question from the Daily File requires 21 affirmative votes from Senators. That bill, resolution, or other question may not be acted upon again during the session if it has been struck from the Daily File.
These procedural motions are necessary to conduct business in an orderly fashion. They are sometimes used by minority party legislators to force a public vote on a bill that was defeated in a policy committee that they would like to see debated on the Floor.
However, those motions are rarely successful. But the rules in each house are available for those instances when a bill needs to get to the Floor in a hurry, or when a bill is appropriately returned to a committee for further or additional review.
Chris Micheli is an attorney and legislative advocate at the Sacramento governmental relations firm of Aprea & Micheli, Inc. He serves as an Adjunct Professor at McGeorge School of Law in its Capital Lawyering Program.
Score one for plain words in California politics. A Sacramento judge is stepping in to rewrite the misleading words that Attorney General Xavier Becerra used to summarize a gas tax repeal now making the signature-gathering rounds.
The fed-up judge is going after the partisan sleight of hand that attorneys general use to confuse voters and aid partisan causes in the way they write the summaries that sit atop signature-gathering petitions and the ballot if they qualify.
Depending on the spin, the title and summary can undercut or boost a brewing campaign. It’s an artful dodge that past attorneys general from both parties have used for decades.
The attorney general’s wording is “misleading” to the point where “an ordinary, reasonable elector, who is otherwise unfamiliar with the initiative, would not be able to discern what the initiative would do,” wrote Judge Timothy Frawley of Sacramento County Superior Court. The words “tax” and “fees” are missing from the summary, though those levies are the entire point of the would-be ballot measure.
Twitter anger has been palpable, casting a pall over a wealthy athletic establishment that jacks up prices way beyond the reach of average workers and clutters games with mind-numbing, commercial timeouts.
Many feel that, with political issues inserted into the games, a type of entertainment contract has been broken.
On top of that, rule changes and less-experienced quarterbacks have combined to dull down the game.
The issue for many Americans is not the right of these walking tattoo pillars to express themselves. Social injustice, world hunger and these days a brash Trump are legitimate causes, if you need a cause to sit down.
It’s the timing and placement of these protests.
NBC’s “Sunday Night Football” is down 7 percent this year, Fox down 11 percent, CBS 19 percent.
Source: Trump appeals to his base by jumping on NFL controversy | The Sacramento Bee
Most Californians think women still trail men when it comes to equality of the sexes, adding to their perception that it’s a better time to be a man than a woman in today’s America, a new survey concludes.
Sixty-four percent of Californians canvassed in a statewide survey said women still haven’t achieved full equality in work, life and politics.
Nearly 70 percent of women surveyed said they felt they still lacked parity with their male counterparts, and 75 percent of all respondents said they believe men still hold more positions of power in society.
Source: It’s better to be a man – especially a white one, say Californians | The Sacramento Bee
In this time of never-ending campaigns, politicos game the presidential races for 2020 and beyond. And so Sen. Ricardo Lara, D-Bell Gardens, pushed Senate Bill 568 to move the presidential primary to the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March.
The bill is on Governor Brown’s desk.
A March primary would help any candidate from California, whether it’s Sen. Kamala Harris, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti or some rich entrepreneur.
Californians make up 12 percent of the nation’s population, are the most ethnically diverse, and have the largest number of military veterans. Yet they cede clout to Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, which have a combined population that is less than the combined populations of Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Source: California should move up its presidential primary | The Sacramento Bee
A Rocklin police officer was arrested Tuesday evening on charges that he assaulted a DUI suspect with his baton.
Officer Brad Alford was arrested on charges that included assault with a deadly weapon with an enhancement for causing great bodily injury, assault under the color of authority and filing a false police report.
Source: Rocklin police officer arrested for excessive force | The Sacramento Bee
Since taking office in June 2016, Duterte has waged a war on illegal drugs that has been condemned by the United Nations, the European Union and human rights advocates. While Duterte administration officials place total deaths at more than 3,400 as of July 26, Human Rights Watch estimated earlier this year that more than 7,000 people had been killed, including at least three mayors.
The survey also found that 78 percent of Filipinos believed that the current economic situation was good, while 57 said they were satisfied with the direction of the country. That was a 21 percentage-point increase from the last time Pew asked the question in 2014.
Source: Broad Support for Duterte’s Drug War in Philippines, Pew Finds – Bloomberg
Richard Smith, CEO and chairman of Equifax, abruptly retired Tuesday following a data breach at the credit-reporting service that affected the personal information of 143 million people, according to the company’s board.
Three other executives, including the chief financial officer, have drawn scrutiny for selling $1.8 billion of company stock just days after the breach was discovered internally but weeks before it was announced to the public.
Smith’s salary for 2016 was $1.45 million and his bonus was $3.045 million.
Source: Equifax CEO retires following an epic data breach affecting 143 million people
After months of taunting congressional Russia investigators from afar, Roger Stone, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump, arrived Tuesday on Capitol Hill to meet them face-to-face for what he had promised would be “epic” testimony debunking charges of collusion between the Kremlin and Trump associates.
The Republicans won’t allow the hearing to be public.
www.CalNews.com 