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 Coastal Commission would like to put the project through a review process because it and the area around it have changed dramatically, but the Navy refused to participate. Last week, the commission sued in federal court to have its way. The lawsuit is the latest shot in the running battle between the commission, the Navy and would-be developer Manchester Pacific Gateway LLC, with whom the state is already fighting in court.   read more

Geoff Rabone, a project manager for Yuba County Water Agency, told KQED reporter Molly Samuel that his agency is working on 44 separate reports related to its Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) license extension application for the giant New Bullards Bar Dam northeast of Sacramento. But none of the reports have anything to do with climate change.   read more

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is using an anti-terrorism device that indiscriminately sweeps up cellphone communications of innocent bystanders during burglary, drug and murder investigations. LA Weekly wrote back in September that the police agency purchased Stingray technology in 2006 using Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funds, and is deploying the portable equipment for routine police operations.   read more

Trial court records that are routinely made available to the public and press could be delayed for weeks if the Judicial Council of California accepts an innocuous looking proposed change in its Rules of Court. Under the proposal, an (electronic) e-filing would not be considered filed, and therefore available to the public, when initially received. Instead, it would first have to be processed and reviewed before being designated “officially filed,” a process of indeterminate length.   read more

UC Berkeley professor Harley Shaiken, upon seeing the latest report on union membership from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, told the Los Angeles Times last week that “reports of labor's death have been greatly exaggerated.” But other than a faint pulse in California and similar signs of life in 13 other states, organized labor continued to show a stead decline in health.   read more

The public has one more week to comment on proposed state rules governing hydraulic fracturing, the controversial oil and gas drilling process known as fracking, but the Center for Biological Diversity isn’t waiting to see the finished product, expected in the fall. The environmental group filed a lawsuit alleging that the state is not providing legally required oversight of the growing practice that may be about to dramatically expand.   read more

Nearly a year after word began to surface that the California Department of Parks and Recreation might be sitting on millions of dollars in hidden money, it looks like a criminal prosecution is not in the immediate offing. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s office announced Thursday that it would not be going after any bad guys because the case turned over to it by the state attorney general did not identify any broken laws or possible criminal targets.   read more

California government has gone from crummy to crummier in providing its residents with a clear view of how the state spends its money, but its cities are among the nation’s best and worst, according to a study by the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG).   read more

Time Warner Cable subscribers who never watch a minute of sports are likely to see their cable bills go up when the Los Angeles Dodgers finalize a long-term deal for broadcasting their games. The agreement is expected to net the team $7 billion to $8 billion over 20 years which, if history is a guide, will be paid for with increased subscriber charges.   read more

A Southern California school district police force has obtained 14 assault weapons without knowledge of the school board and stashed them around the district in case of an armed attack. Fontana school police didn’t need to clear the purchase with the board because the total price of $14,000 fell below the $25,000 reporting threshold.   read more

Ten California Republicans in the House of Representatives voted against providing aid to victims of Hurricane Sandy last week. Five of those 10 found that whatever their objections were to funding the relief effort under a Democratic president, they had no compunction about voting for aid to Katrina victims in 2005 when a Republican was president.   read more

Cardinal Roger Mahony, former archbishop of Los Angeles, is “sorry.” It is possible that he is sorry that hundreds of children were sexually assaulted by priests on his watch, or that he knew about it, facilitated it and covered it up. But what Mahony actually expressed sorrow and regret for on Monday when publicly released files showed his complicity in all of the above was this: He was sorry that he didn’t realize that children really, really don’t like being molested.   read more

Millions of dollars are doled out annually to influence public policy in Sacramento, but it is virtually impossible to track how the money for lobbying is being spent despite an array of disclosure laws. A study by the Sacramento Bee found that interest groups routinely obscure the purpose of spending by their lobbyists—even as they identify the objects of their affection—by lumping many of their expenditures into one big category: “other.”   read more

Thanks to once-in-a-decade redistricting, one in 10 Californians will be without a state senator for the next two years, while other residents will have two state senators. Many of the newly-drawn districts now overlap the old districts, thrusting 4 million citizens into limbo and leaving their representation in the senate as an informal agreement among senators to share constituent services.   read more

California median household income peaked at $65,027 in 2007, and then over the next four years it plummeted 11.9% to $57,287 while the cost of an AT&T landline more than doubled. According to the PUC, AT&T landline phone service went from $10.69 per month to $23. That’s for the flat rate. Measured lines that have a fixed rate for low usage but charge for extra use soared 222%, from $5.70 a month to $18.35.   read more

The state Department of Developmental Services (DDS), which oversees the Sonoma Developmental Center, announced last week that it has informed the federal Centers for Medicaid and Medicare that ongoing deficiencies at four of the facility’s 10 residential units aren’t going to be fixed in time to maintain required certification.   read more