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 study said there was a direct connection between a 9.0 earthquake in Japan in 2011 and a swarm of smaller quakes in a West Texas oil field that used fracking. A 4.1 quake near fracking wells in Prague, Oklahoma, was linked to an 8.8 quake in Chile in 2010. The Chile quake also shook the ground in Trinidad, Colorado, near natural gas fracking sites.   read more

A stream of emails, many from Japan, protested the city’s decision, reflecting a surge in revisionist sentiment which denies that the women, many of them not yet adults, were coerced into being prostitutes, and if they were, it was, to quote Japan’s Osaka Mayor Tōru Hashimoto, “necessary.”   read more

The auditor found that health care staff members didn’t always let OPS know about an incident in a timely fashion, and that once informed, “law enforcement personnel did not consistently follow established procedures for investigations of alleged resident abuse. Specifically, OPS often failed to collect written declarations from suspects and witnesses, take photographs of crime scenes or alleged victims, and attempt to interview alleged victims, particularly residents said to be nonverbal.”   read more

Jules Lobel, the president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, told the New York Times the inmates won’t settle for the promises of reform they received in 2011 when 6,000 prisoners participated in a hunger strike that stretched over several weeks. “This could become a very serious situation over time, because it seems we have a substantial group of people who are prepared to see it to the end if they don’t get real change,” he said.   read more

Tribune announced a $2.7 billion deal last week to add 19 television stations to the 23 it already owns, taking on billions of dollars of new debt less than a year after emerging from a tortuous 5-year bankruptcy. The company would package them with radio, online and real estate holdings and keep the name Tribune Corporation, while the newspapers would be on their own as the Tribune Publishing Company.   read more

Dr. James Heinrich, Valley State Prison’s OB-GYN in 2006, explained to CIR why prison sterilization made sense (after being told the doctors were paid $147,460 by the state), “Over a 10-year period, that isn’t a huge amount of money compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children—as they procreated more.”   read more

The lawsuit opens with a statement that captures the state of San Diego politics. “San Diego Mayor Bob Filner and City Attorney Jan Goldsmith are locked in what appears to many onlookers like a no-holds-barred political death spiral, with each trying to undermine or humiliate the other on practically every aspect of the other's essential job functions.”   read more

The document allegedly brought the managers up to speed on other known facts about Hispanics: “Not everyone dances to salsa” and “not everyone wears a sombrero.” Cubans are more likely than Mexicans to be educated and political refugees with legal status, while some Mexicans may be undocumented. All of them “may say ‘OK, OK’' and pretend to understand, when they do not, just to save face.”   read more

Not all the whales behaved the same, but in general, most of it wasn’t good. Some whales stopped eating, some increased their speed and others fled. They temporarily avoided areas where they heard the sounds and modified their diving behavior. The study concluded that, “Sonar-induced disruption of feeding and displacement from high-quality prey patches could have significant and previously undocumented impacts on baleen whale foraging ecology, individual fitness and population health.”   read more

Last month, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit (pdf) against FlightCar, Inc. in San Francisco County Superior Court for renting cars to airport travelers without paying fees usually associated with the business. The recent startup says it won’t pay because it’s a hybrid ride-sharing/off-site parking enterprise, not a car rental company.   read more

The agency that controls Orange County’s 51 miles of failed toll roads in Southern California wants to restructure its $2.4 billion debt and delay by 13 years, until 2053, the date when the freeways become free for drivers. Last week, a report (pdf) out of state Treasurer Bill Lockyer’s office recommended the Foothill/Eastern Corridor Transportation Agency get the green light, otherwise, it will probably default on its existing bonds.   read more

Pummeled by the economic crisis in 2009, California elected to help balance its budget by cutting off Medi-Cal coverage for poor adults who received health care from dentists, podiatrists, chiropractors and eye doctors. Last Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District ruled (pdf) they could that to people who use hospitals, but shouldn’t have done that to folks who get their care at rural clinics and federally-qualified health centers.   read more

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) wants to test the water at 26 sites in the northern suburb and figure out a) what’s poisoned, b) what the poisons are, c) how it got there and d) where it might be going, before building the world’s largest water treatment center on top of a Superfund site.   read more

The Luna Rossa contingent, which is backed by Prada fashion billionaire Patrizio Bertelli, claimed that the rule changes were unnecessary and designed to favor Oracle Team USA. In the ensuing spat, Oracle Team USA CEO Russell Coutts called Luna Rossa “a bunch of spoiled little rich kids dressed in Prada,” according to the Mercury News. Luna Rossa skipper Max Sirena responded, “He can say what he wants. He’s way more rich than me, trust me.”   read more

What does California have in common with the poorest states in the nation, located in the Southeast, Southwest and Appalachia? Together, they are the 17 lowest-ranked states when it comes to taking care of kids, according to a report (pdf) by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. California ranked 41st out of 50 states in child well-being.   read more

She was prematurely outed as the future director of the proposed Department of Human Resources by DPA Director Ron Yank in February 2012. Yank sent out a memo announcing Chapman would replace him as director while the reorganization plan that would rename the department was still in the works.   read more