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

The San Mateo Union High School District is now suing ETS and the College Board on behalf of 286 students at Mills High School whose exam scores were thrown out. ETS and College Board take the position that because students were facing each other, they had the opportunity to cheat, even if there was no evidence that they had actually done so.   read more

Last Wednesday, Wells Fargo Bank and Deutsch Bank made good on threats by the financial industry to take legal action and sued in federal court. On Friday, the FHA said it would instruct U.S.-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “limit, restrict or cease business activities” in any area that used eminent domain to seize underwater properties. That would be a death sentence for any city.   read more

Nearly 40 years after an earthquake destroyed most of Los Angeles—in a movie—the city continues to consider large building projects in poorly mapped areas thought by many to be at risk. One twin-tower project, Millennium Hollywood, was abruptly put on hold two weeks ago when California’s state geologist said that a nearby earthquake fault is active and might be running under the site.   read more

Moore is, indeed, gay. Openly gay. And, while he has no problem with people knowing he is gay, it is not an “affliction” that should be showing up on medical records. His doctor did not agree. Moore told NBC Southern California that she said treatment of homosexuality was still open for debate and that the orientation was still “thought of as a disease.”   read more

Greenhouse gas emissions have increased from 1990 to 2010; the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases in coastal areas is greater; and acidification of coastal waters is rising. Average temperatures are up 1.5 degrees in California since 1895. Extreme heat events, especially at night, are more common everywhere in the state since 1950. The winter chill, a critical element in the productivity of fruit trees, has been decreasing the past 60 years.   read more

The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that the county is, indeed, responsible for the crap that runs through the Los Angeles River on its way to the Santa Monica Bay. The flood control district maintains it is not the responsible party because it doesn’t generate the pollution. Local governments essentially argued that so many communities along the rivers were dumping so much stuff in them that it was virtually impossible to assign blame to anyone for the pollution.   read more

The city’s 200 employees, who have been without a contract since March, were offered across-the-board 5% pay cuts. Top-step employees would get an additional 5% cut if they weren’t ranked “outstanding” in their next performance evaluation. New hires would start at 10% less. Employees would pick up all future health care cost increases and give up the right to be warned they are getting laid off.   read more

Yes, the FBI was spying on the Muslim community in Southern California and, yes, it lied to a federal judge about the existence of documents relevant to a case regarding that surveillance. But, no, the FBI shouldn’t be sanctioned for its behavior. That was the ruling by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which disagreed with U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney.   read more

The lawsuit argues that CalPERS had given them no warning of the announced rate hike in February, or told them that the program was “grossly underfunded” and hadn’t enrolled any new members since 2009. “Now more than 125,000 Class Members, many of whom are elderly and on fixed incomes, are placed in the untenable position of either allowing their policies to lapse or paying CalPers increased premiums that they simply cannot afford,” the suit complains.   read more

“Despite the 250+ emergency eradication projects that have been directed against these pests by state and federal agencies, a minimum of five and as many as nine or more tephritid species are established and widespread,” researchers warned in a study published this week in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.   read more

Until now, only states could receive a waiver from the 2002 law passed under President George W. Bush, and California had been rejected, based on its unwillingness to accept certain federal standards, including the use of standardized student test scores as part of teacher and administrator evaluations. The decision potentially cost the state millions of dollars in federal aid.   read more

A three-audit report on bankrupt Stockton by State Controller John Chiang identifies chaotic mismanagement in the swirl of economic upheaval, but fails to find corruption ala the city of Bell. Stockton City Manager Bob Deis thought the audits were nitpicking, unnecessary and conducted in an unprofessional manner.   read more

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has spiffed up its website devoted to the Hunt for Truth “behind the assault on traditional lead ammunition,” where it has compiled lists of “propagandists” and purveyors of “faulty science” it must overcome to defeat proposed California legislation. The San Diego Zoo is apparently a “primary” environmental activist in an “influential and well-funded network” intent on misleading people about lead ammunition.   read more

Inflating the credit-worthiness of dicey Wall Street financial securities was a winning strategy for the nation’s top ratings agencies before the financial collapse of 2008 put a crimp in their style. But despite multiple multi-billion-dollar lawsuits filed by the federal government and more than a dozen states—including one in California—Standard & Poor’s (S&P) is revisiting those discredited practices, according to a study commissioned by the New York Times.   read more

The legislation, which was heavily amended during its short six-month life, would have required schools to provide a platform that would make use using of a statewide mechanism to access online courses being marketed by outside groups, including for-profit companies. It’s an evolving concept in search of a business model that has been pushed hard by cash-strapped school administrators and governments while being derided by skeptical educators who see it as a cheap dumbing down of academia.   read more

The firing came days after a photo of the wedding appeared on the front page of the local Daily Bulletin newspaper, but years after students and staff at the all-girl school knew of Bencomo’s sexual orientation. Bencomo and Christopher Persky were among the first gay couples to line up July 1 at the San Bernardino County Assessor-Recorder's Office to get married after the U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way for same-sex marriages to resume in California.   read more