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 folks who run 99 Cents Only Stores have often relied on humor—advertising being open 9 days a week, celebrating the 99th birthday of famous people, briefly selling television sets for 99 cents—to help move merchandise and brand their stores as the spunky little guy taking on the mega-retailers.   read more

Jerry Brown’s director at the Department of Social Services, Will Lightbourne, landed in Sacramento in 2011 and was immediately immersed in controversy over his pay package, which topped that of the man who appointed him.   read more

The Franchise Tax Board estimates that 90% of taxpayers pay their fare share of income and corporate taxes. But those who don’t pay account for millions of dollars in lost revenues that would go a long way toward covering the state’s chronic budget deficit. The board announced last week that it is sending out notices to more than 100,000 businesses that didn’t pay taxes in 2010.   read more

U2 guitarist David Evans, known professionally as The Edge, called his plan to build five mansions on a rugged ridgeline above Malibu “Leaves of Wind.” Peter Douglas, Coastal Commission executive director at the time, called it “one of the three worst projects that I've seen in terms of environmental devastation” and in June 2011 the commission rejected the proposal, 8-4.   read more

The U.S. Catholic Church, which has paid out an estimated $3 billion in settlements and monetary awards, has received the most publicity among religious institutions accused of abetting the sexual abuse of children, and deservedly so. But the Jehovah’s Witnesses in Fremont, California, last week were ordered to pay nearly half of an unprecedented $28 million judgment for allowing an adult member of the church to molest a child in the mid-‘90s.   read more

Grass roots efforts to stem the tide of rising tuition or, perhaps, ban tides entirely have begun the process of bringing the issue to a vote at the polls. One initiative, submitted to the Secretary of State’s office in April, would prohibit increases in tuition or general fees for all students in good standing at the University of California, California State University or a community college. It needs 807,615 signatures by September 6, 2012.   read more

U.S. District Court Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers had a novel idea when she released Otis Mobley, Jr., on $150,000 in May. Mobley, who was accused of trying to rob undercover agents while they were buying a grenade launcher from him, could remain free as long as he wore a GPS ankle bracelet, spent an hour a day reading books and another half-hour writing book reports. The judge would provide the reading list.   read more

California’s giant pension funds, California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS), have been putting their money in JPMorgan Chase since 1973 and don’t appear to be in any hurry to alter the relationship in the wake of the investment bank’s recent multi-billion-dollar trading loss.   read more

In what may be a precursor of life with Obamacare minus the individual mandate, a class-action suit has been filed against Blue Shield of California over claims that it is forcing older, sicker policyholders into low-benefit, high-deductible coverage by manipulating the state’s dual-regulator health insurance system.   read more

One million Californians have a history of cancer and while the cancer rate for adults is going down, the rate for children is going up. In a report that tracks cancer in the state for two decades, between 1989 and 2009, the California HealthCare Foundation noted a 9% decrease in new cancer cases among adults—from 456 per 100,000 residents in 1989 to 413 per 100,000 in 2009—which epidemiologists largely attribute to a decline in California smokers.   read more

“Do as I say, not as I do.” Not exactly the lesson one wants their children to learn in their early, formative years, but one the parents at Lenicia B. Weemes elementary school are no doubt hoping will stick after a brawl erupted at the Los Angeles pre-school graduation ceremony.   read more

The California Senate and Assembly each passed a $92.1 billion budget Friday, beating a midnight constitutional deadline but leaving unanswered a number of questions about how it will be paid for. Governor Jerry Brown is pushing for an intiative on the November ballot to raise $5.9 billion by temporarily raising the sales tax and increasing taxes on the wealthy. If rejected, the state would slash billions from education.   read more

Although California has the highest concentration of immigrant small-business owners in the nation, a company called Blueseed has floated a plan to house more offshore where immigration laws can be legally skirted.   read more

Fed up with state budget cuts to its university, UCLA’s business school has decided to forego public financing and become a privately-funded institution of higher education. The switch to private financing was all but certain after UCLA’s Academic Senate voted 53-46 last week in favor of the plan for the Anderson School of Management.   read more

Federal prosecutors indicted six people June 14 on drug conspiracy and possession charges for their connections to three medical marijuana dispensaries in Southern California that the government ordered shut down last year. Those indicted include the co-founders of G3 Holistic Stores in Upland, Colton and Moreno Valley.   read more

At his website, James E. Enstrom likens California Air Resources Board Chairman Mary Nichols to Soviet Union scientist Trofim Lysenko, who early in the 20th century doctored studies of plants to make a case for rejecting the groundbreaking theories of Gregor Mendel that underlie much of genetics. The embrace of Lysenko’s theories had a devastating effect on Soviet agriculture for decades. Enstrom calls actions of the board “draconian” and its research “bad science.”   read more