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

A recent report by the California State Auditor surveyed 34 courts that failed to give law enforcement authorities the names of at least 2,300 people between 2010 and 2012 who should be on a firearm prevention list because of rulings related to mental illness. Several courts told the auditor they had insufficient information to even tell how many reportable determinations of mental illness they failed to report.   read more

Fines ranging from $50,000 to $100,000 were meted out to medical centers in seven counties for incidents like the removal of the wrong kidney during an operation or a "leftover" surgical device left behind in a patient.   read more

A new study which found that only around one-third of students in fifth, seventh and ninth grades were physically fit. Only 37% of ninth-graders scored in the “Healthy Fitness Zone” for all six areas, and they were the fit ones. Only 32% of seventh-graders and 26% of fifth-graders were in the zone.   read more

Supporters argued that sentencing juveniles to life terms without a chance for review was outside international law and norms. It ignored neuroscience and accepted studies of adolescence about the undeveloped state of juvenile impulse control and critical thinking, which indicate kids are more readily rehabilitated.   read more

The Ellis Act allows landlords to evict tenants and sell the apartments as tenant-in-common units, on the way to becoming condos. It frees up a competitive marketplace at the expense of those who can’t compete. There were 114 Ellis Act evictions between March 2012 and February 2011, compared to 64 during the previous 12 months.   read more

Democrats, who overwhelmingly control both houses of the state Legislature, sent 18 gun-control measures to Governor Jerry Brown in the last session, mostly over the strident objections of Republicans. Brown signed 11 of them. At a press conference last week, GOP Assemblyman Tim Donnelly referred to the targeted lawmakers as “threats” who need to be “removed.” California is one of 19 states that lets voters remove such threats without any evidence of fraud or official misconduct.   read more

Until videos of screaming prisoners being doused with massive quantities of pepper spray surfaced in court last week, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) wasn’t considering changing its policy for handling combative prisoners. About one-third of California prisoners are mentally ill. The videos came to light in the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton, where a lawsuit challenging the state’s handling of mentally ill prisoners began this month.   read more

FPPC Chair Ann Ravel announced fines of $500,000 each for two non-profits involved in the convoluted plan that targeted Governor Jerry Brown's Proposition 30 tax hike for defeat and supported the anti-union Proposition 32 with $11 million in last-minute campaign donations. And the agency let slip out a surprising list of rich California donors who fueled their attempt to influence the election in November 2012.   read more

Valero Energy is ramping up its rail delivery system to refineries in Wilmington (L.A. area) and Benicia (Bay Area) for receiving crude oil from Canada, but denies it will be bringing in the dreaded tar sands product that produces more pollution. Skeptics think Canadian tar sands are inevitably heading toward California. As Brant Olson at the Natural Resources Defense Council put it, “For California, rail is the equivalent of the Keystone pipeline.”   read more

Part-time jobs are generally low-paying with few, or no, benefits unless you’re lucky enough to land that choice $1,094-an-hour gig as a San Mateo County harbor commissioner. That might seem like a longshot, but the San Jose Mercury News cross-checked its Public Employee Salaries database with government meeting minutes and found a lot of Bay Area public servants slaving away in part-time jobs for big per-hour bucks.   read more

The ex-campus cop who was fired for casually pepper spraying a group of protesters at the University of California, Davis in November 2011 while they sat docilely on the ground has been awarded $38,059 in workers’ compensation for his ensuing ordeal. The 21 students and alumni who got a faceful of abuse from John Pike each received a settlement of $30,000, $8,000 less than him. Another 15 claimants received an average of $6,666 apiece.   read more

Her lawsuit provides a detailed, almost daily, account of Yost’s requests to speak with someone in ICE about her claims of citizenship, and the Orwellian responses she received denying her inquiries. She filled out numerous Detainee Request Forms and gave the authorities relevant documents supporting her claim. The law is clear that persons who are picked up by ICE and claim U.S. citizenship must have those claims immediately addressed.   read more

The presence of oarfish on the beach in San Diego County’s Oceanside and floating dead in the water near Catalina Island jolted people who wondered weather global warming or some other human affront to nature was flushing the rarely seen eel-like creatures from their normal home, deep beneath the waves. In Japan there is an enduring belief that the “Messenger from the Sea God’s Palace” shows up before an earthquake.   read more

Lost data includes Social Security numbers, names, Medicare and insurance ID numbers, diagnoses and procedure codes, and insurance and payment records. The files were not encrypted. The California Attorney General’s office likes encryption and noted in a recent report (pdf) that more than half the 2.5 million victims of data breaches it surveyed in the state last year would have benefited from its presence.   read more

Voters overwhelmingly approved the measure to raise $63 million through a property tax assessment on those within a newly-designated special district encompassing the 4-mile route. Turns out, there was one more thing the Streetcar needed besides a vote—twice as much money as the ballot measure indicated. And judging by a Los Angeles Times review of documents and e-mails, city staffers knew the price tag was too low.   read more

While the state waits for recently-passed legislation that regulates fracking of oil and gas wells to take effect in 2015, a records search prompted by the Associated Press has found more than 200 previously unpublicized instances of its use at vulnerable offshore sites. One of the fracking sites was identified as Platform Gail, in federal waters of the Santa Barbara Channel. It is near Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary and Anacapa Island and has a long history of spills.   read more