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

Even by California standards, where the average prison psychiatrist makes $300,000 a year, Dr. Mohammad Safi was doing exceedingly well―until he was suspended. The Afghan-educated doctor earned $822,302 in 2011, making him California’s highest-paid state employee. Most of Safi’s money, $503,000, was on-call pay for being available in case of emergency.   read more

The inherent conflict between promoting tourism and conservation at the Catalina Island Conservancy has been present for years and coming to a head in recent months. The result has been an exodus of talent from the 40-year-old nonprofit conservancy, the oldest and largest private land trust in California, because they believe that conservancy President and CEO Ann Muscat is focusing too much attention on tourism.   read more

Hundreds of patients with cerebral palsy, severe autism and mental retardation could be looking for a new home after the state’s Sonoma Developmental Center lost its primary license to operate Tuesday.   read more

Twelve years after the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) unsuccessfully begged the state to buy its beleaguered private toll road system, state Treasurer Bill Lockyer is launching an inquiry into whether they are financially viable.   read more

Designers of the new University of California logo are being schooled for creating a visual image that some think looks less like a symbol for an institution of higher learning than it does a “flushing toilet.”   read more

Only nine of the 7,238 whistleblower communications received by the California State Auditor over a 15-month period of time ended in substantiated allegations of improper governmental activities, but it would be hard to call it a failed enterprise.   read more

Two years ago, the San Jose Mercury News reported that a lobbyist trying to influence a city council member’s vote on an issue while the council was in session accidentally texted information to the wrong lawmaker. It was part of a series of stories examining the cozy relationship between lobbyists and the council.   read more

Around 100 brightly lit Los Angeles digital billboards―considered a blight by those whose yards and homes are bathed in the intrusive light, and a boon by cash-strapped city officials―were ordered removed by an appeals court on Monday.   read more

Marc Keyser of Sacramento wanted to be “provocative” and get a “reaction” from people when he sent them packets of sugar labeled “Anthrax” and a copy of his self-published book (on CD) about the deadly toxin he was promoting.   read more

The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) went on a California shopping spree earlier this year to Walmart, Target, Kmart, Babies R Us and other major retailers, and returned with a host of baby products it claims are tainted with a cancer-causing flame retardant and lacking a required state warning label.   read more

An independent review of the state’s $3-billion, taxpayer-financed stem cell funding agency released last week raised conflict-of-interest questions, addressed issues of mismanagement and called for major restructuring.   read more

Last week, Judge Steven Jahr, administrative director of the courts, set off alarm bells when he wrote in a memo that Governor Jerry Brown was planning to grab $200 million from judiciary reserves a year earlier than the state’s 2012-13 budget indicated. Jahr warned that the cuts would have a “disastrous impact” on court operations and “would further cripple our justice system.”   read more

After a year of serious saber rattling in Washington, the troubled Oakland Police Department proclaimed last week it had dodged a bullet and wouldn’t be taken over by the federal government. While it’s true that the department won’t be in federal receivership, the city’s settlement with attorneys seeking enforcement of decade-old mandated reforms forces it to hire a “compliance director” with broad powers that include the power to fire the police chief.   read more

U.S. Senator Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) took a swipe at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) last week for wasting money on local law enforcement projects, including one that involved California zombies. A dogged fiscal conservative, Coburn had his staff spend a year combing through the department’s grant programs, all of which are supposed to help local and state governments be prepared for terrorist attacks.   read more

California lawmakers, bidding a fond adieu to automobile perks axed in April last year by the state’s Citizens Compensation Commission, awarded themselves a few parting gifts, according to a report by Don Thompson at the Associated Press. Numerous legislators rushed to have repairs, paid for by the state, done to state-provided vehicles before giving them up by the first of the year, and then bought the refurbished vehicles back from dealers who had purchased them from the state.   read more

With Governor Jerry Brown sitting in the audience at San Francisco’s Commonwealth Club, James Hansen, a NASA scientist and leading authority on climate change, called California’s newly-launched cap and trade program a “half-assed” way to deal with global warming.   read more