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 wealthy East Bay city of Piedmont, totally surrounded by the not-so-wealthy city of Oakland, passed an ordinance last week to deploy cameras on every road leading into town to snap pictures of license plates. Piedmont is one of the few towns that is setting up cameras to shoot pictures of everyone entering and leaving town.   read more

Before Democratic state lawmakers and Governor Jerry Brown reached agreement Monday on key state budget items, they fended off GOP legislators, huddled with lobbyists, negotiated with interest groups, studied polls and gathered anecdotal evidence of the popular will. But they lacked what the once-bankrupt city of Vallejo had for its budget deliberations—a Top 12 list of preferences from the residents.   read more

In 2004, about 13,000 acres were consumed in the Power Fire in the Eldorado National Forest, east of Sacramento, which began after a crew of workers were careless with their cigarettes in a heavily wooded area under extreme hazardous fire conditions. It cost Quanta Services Inc., which PG&E had hired to trim trees and brush around a utility distribution line, $45 million.   read more

Calegalmags.com, which is not listed by name as a defendant in the suit, explains to its California enthusiasts the proper way to handle their “rebuild”—not repair—kit. “You can assemble your rebuild kit into a magazine when you are outside of CA or at a location at which you are legally allowed to possess a high capacity magazine. For example: You can take your rebuild kit from California to Arizona, assemble it, use it, and take it apart before you return to California.”   read more

Five California charities made the Top 50 list, based on the money paid to fundraisers. Their average rank is 37.8. Not the worst of the worst. However, the five charities are more prominent in the %-Direct-to-Cause category. Their average rank is 22.2, based on the percentage of funds going directly to the cause.   read more

Conservationists think the move is premature. “This is like kicking a patient out of the hospital when they’re still attached to life support,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director with the Center for Biological Diversity. Gray wolves remain scarce or non-existent in California, New England, upstate New York and parts of the Northwest where researchers say they would thrive if given a chance.   read more

As for the financial side of things, the Los Angeles Times had this to say in a Q&A summing up issues surrounding the San Onofre closure: How much will this cost? “It remains unclear.” Who will pay for these costs? “It has not been determined.” What is known is that customers and taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars if Edison manages to avoid picking up the tab.   read more

Judge James C. Chalfant ruled that the city couldn’t sign leases with oil companies to drill on 1,280 acres in the Whittier Hills because it had purchased the land using funds from Proposition A, a 1992 Los Angeles County ballot measure aimed at preserving natural lands and open space. “When the parties say we want this for open space . . . that is inconsistent with having an oil derrick on it,” Chalfant reportedly said from the bench.   read more

Following up on his trip to China, the governor met with Chinese officials this past week in California to talk about economic development opportunities. Meanwhile, Japanese troops are coming to California to participate in joint military exercises. China, which is fighting with Japan over islands they both claim, is not happy.   read more

The U.S. Senate, House and Obama administration are battling over competing plans as a July 1 deadline approaches that will trigger doubling of the current, subsidized 3.4% Stafford loan rate. That would cost 550,928 California college student loan borrowers $543.8 million (or $987 each) annually, according to the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG).   read more

The larger the median, the larger the ideological disparity between the parties. The congressional median is around 1.2. Louisiana is the least divisive state at 0.5. California is literally off the grid, which only goes up to 2.5. California’s score looks to be around 3.0. The next closest to California is Colorado at 2.2.   read more

To average 87,000 gallons a day, Kreusser’s pipes would have to leak the equivalent of an Olympic size swimming pool under her property every seven days. Someone probably would have notice the resulting sinkhole. When Kreusser protested, the utility offered to cut the bill in half. Instead of paying, she sued the city for $300,000.   read more

The food fight took a right turn when it was revealed that the owner was receiving legal assistance from Cause of Action, a group with close ties to the ultra-conservative billionaire Koch brothers. Suddenly, the primary issue pushed to the fore was the demand by private interests for the right to operate commercial enterprises on public lands.   read more

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) crunched federal data from 2010 and found the state disparity was only half that of the nation as a whole, and considerably less than most states. Blacks are 6.7% of the California population, but make up 16.3% of the pot arrests. The disparity between blacks and whites in the state was 2.2x, the seventh-best mark in the survey.   read more

They confiscated the book from Martinez, claiming it was obscene and likely to incite violence. But after a careful reading, Justice James Richman found the book’s explicit sex and violence—and its depiction of a love affair between a werewolf and a female werewolf hunter—did not mean it lacked serious literary value and was, therefore, protected by the First Amendment.   read more

SB 332 would still keep contracts confidential for a year, but some stuff would be made available to the public immediately. Minutes of board meetings, information on employee training, research, staff and board strategy sessions, and research—currently state secrets—would be public. Information in contracts that relates to rates would remain secret for four years.   read more