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

It received a request from Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) for a 12.6% natural gas rate increase—partially to pay for repairs to the troubled San Carlos pipeline—on the same day the agency fined the utility $14.35 million for mistakes that contributed to those problems.   read more

Adam Liptak at the New York Times in 2005 said Sander’s theory of “academic mismatch” had “ignited what may be the fiercest dispute over affirmative action since 2003, when the [U.S.] Supreme Court found some forms of it to be constitutional.” Sander argued that affirmative action reduced the number of black lawyers by helping place them in law schools that are too tough. At lesser schools, they would have thrived and passed the bar in larger numbers.   read more

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed the lawsuit with the National Center for Youth Law on behalf of four teenage students. Beneath the litany of indignities it detailed in the lawsuit, the ACLU alleged a foundation of broader discrimination. It cited data from the 2011-12 school year that the proportion of white students expelled in the district matches their enrollment numbers, but black and Native American students are suspended at three to five times the percentage.   read more

"Safety case" is a fan-favorite of industries that want a more streamlined regulatory system, but it has its critics among those who think it doesn’t work and is window-dressing for just letting companies regulate themselves. A critic says, “The problem simply devolves to defining what is ‘acceptable’ and to whom: to the producer of the system who is paying the cost of making it safe or to the potential victim?”   read more

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported that DTSC had issued an emergency cleanup order after finding dangerously heavy concentrations of metals in dust and soil samples near the facility. The agency said it was urgent that the materials be cleaned up by January 31 to avoid winter rains washing it into the Los Angeles River. It rained all day the next day.   read more

How can the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education ramp up its oversight while lightening its work load? The state’s independent Office of the Legislative Analyst (LAO) has a suggestion—stop worrying about educational quality at already-accredited schools and focus on the bad schools that are using suspect marketing and illegal business practices to rip students off.   read more

The state Senate Office of Oversight and Outcomes (SOOO) said the Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH) has been systematically deprived of the resources necessary to investigate the 20,000 new discrimination claims made to it each year. A “secret policy” that lets California’s governor derail any discrimination case pursued against a state or local public agency is just one of the ways the state’s landmark civil rights agency has been crippled over time.   read more

The preferential treatment involved a range of people that included relatives and friends of high officials, and candidates with spotty records. Sheriff spokesman Steve Whitmore said Baca knew of its existence. The applicants were screened by a separate group of veteran investigators. Although no precise numbers were available, the Times said 270 candidates were screened by the process from 2005-2007.   read more

The ham-handed satire about a fake teacher, atheist Paul Hunter, at the fake “Argon” Elementary in San Francisco was tweeted, linked to and spread via social media last week to every corner of the conservative blogosphere where indignation over the slighting of Christianity rages this time of year. Shortly after the story’s posting, angry phone calls and nasty email came pouring into the real school.   read more

Less than 5% of the 109,296 enrollees are enrolling in Spanish. Covered California does not know how many of its participants are Latinos who speak English, but 5% is considerably below the 29% of California Latinos who primarily speak Spanish. Although there have been problems in the various outreach programs, other problems exist. For instance, there is the lack of Spanish paper applications. Still. Ten weeks into Covered California’s launch.   read more

Earthjustice immediately filed a lawsuit on behalf of environmental groups who claim that the Navy estimate of damage to marine life is low and that mitigation measures are being ignored. The lawsuit cites NMFS estimates that 140 marine mammals will be killed, 2,000 will suffer permanent injury and 9.6 million marine mammals will have their migration, breeding, nursing, feeding and shelter disrupted. The Navy characterized the impact as “negligible.”   read more

Police arrested Seeman in June and he was charged with 32 felonies. Prosecutors also alleged he failed to include 40 property investments worth $1.4 million in mandatory judicial financial reports. A deal with prosecutors was struck in August and Seeman pleaded no contest to one count each of elder abuse and perjury.   read more

The companies argued that there were other causes of lead poisoning that weren’t related to lead paint. But the judge said generally-accepted scientific evidence indicated otherwise. “Each Defendant certainly knew or should reasonably have known that exposure to lead at high levels, including exposure to lead paint, was fatal or at least detrimental to children’s health,” Kleinberg wrote.   read more

The city’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner knows what killed her. Chronic alcohol abuse. It did not sit well with the family of 57-year-old Lynne Spalding or their lawyer. “This woman died of exposure—either from starvation or dehydration,” attorney Haig Harris told the San Francisco Chronicle. “To suggest alcoholism was involved is an outrageous, gratuitous comment.”   read more

Technically, the Orange County town with a heavy Vietnamese-American population isn’t throwing the party. The city turned the popular event over to the Vietnamese American Federation of Southern California a couple years ago for financial reasons and the federation doesn’t want any homosexual shenanigans at their festive occasion.   read more

Property owners are beginning to make way for a project that may not get built. The State Public Works Board (SPWB) voted 3-0 Friday to let the agency use eminent domain to make the first seizure of property it needs for the bullet-train. It won’t be the last. It has been estimated that 20% of the 370 or so parcels the state needs to obtain will end up being taken via this last resort.   read more