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

After repeated U.S. bans on imports of food from China over the years, China returned the favor by banning, for the first time, imports of certain shellfish from Washington state, Oregon, Alaska and Northern California over high levels of arsenic and a toxin that causes paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). It will take a particular toll on Washington’s Puget Sound, where 5 million pounds of giant geoduck (pronounced “gooey-duck”) clams are harvested annually.   read more

Officer Luella Nelson’s 23-page report, which will be considered by the city’s Employee Relations Board, recommended that the challenge to a city council vote in October 2012, which established a new, lower-compensated tier of employees, be denied. The Coalition of L.A. City Unions was outraged that the council would vote on a contract that wasn’t reached through negotiation and said it was a violation of city and state laws.   read more

California’s newest incorporated city gave notice to the state this week that because of financial problems, it can’t meet a December 31 deadline to create a General Plan, the municipal blueprint required to maintain cityhood. Jurupa Valley, in Southern California, has been on the verge of financial ruin since the day it incorporated in 2011.   read more

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns said, although he did not personally agree, the court system has decided that the 43-foot-tall cross on federal land atop Mount Soledad implies a government endorsement of religion that violates the Constitution. He ordered that the cross come down within 90 days, but stayed his motion to give the Obama administration and supporters of the cross 90 days to appeal. Again.   read more

The non-profit Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed an environmental justice lawsuit and in a press release argued that it was wrong to put “the largest crematorium on the West Coast, emitting pollutants such as arsenic, hexavalent chromium, lead and mercury, onto a community of color.”   read more

The publishing unit is being systematically stripped of its assets and revenue streams, saddled with new debt and left to run a business with many of its centralized Tribune business functions lost. The SEC filing says that Tribune will extract an unspecified payoff from the new publishing unit, once it is spun off, and expects the “dividend” to be funded “with proceeds from debt financing that we anticipate arranging prior to the distribution.”   read more

San Jose voted to conjure up a complete regulatory framework within 90 days that will keep dispensaries 1,000 feet away from schools, parks, recreation centers, libraries and other marijuana vendors. They also can’t be within 500 feet of rehabilitation centers and 150 feet of residential properties.   read more

The deal settles two lawsuits filed in 2011 that alleged Captain Nancy Lauer required officers in the West Traffic Division to write at least 18 tickets each shift. Four out of five tickets were to be for major violations. When officers in the motorcycle unit resisted or missed their goals, their alleged harassment included being denied overtime assignments and having their schedules jacked around.   read more

Education joins a heavyweight list of horribles that includes: deteriorating infrastructure, escalating state employee pensions and health care, shaky emergency preparedness, inadequate workforce planning, an uncertain supply of electricity and suspect oversight of the state’s information technology.   read more

The Bay Area Council Economic Institute projected in 2010 that America’s Cup would increase economic activity in San Francisco by $1.37 billion, around three times the impact of hosting the Super Bowl, and net the city’s General Fund around $13 million. The Cup created only $364 million of activity and cost taxpayers $5.5 million.   read more

A survey of the 400 largest publicly-held corporations headquartered in the state found not a single company with a gender-balanced board and management team. About one-third of the companies didn’t have any women on the board of directors or in high management positions. Nearly 45% of boards lack a female presence. If a board does have a woman, she’s probably the only one. Only 21.8% have two or more.   read more

Federal authorities charged 18 current and former department members Monday with excessive use of force and obstruction of justice. The charges span five separate criminal cases that began as a probe of illegal conduct by deputies in jails and expanded to civil rights violations that included unlawful arrests. The U.S. Attorneys Office, in announcing the charges and 16 arrests, said that higher-ups are also implicated.   read more

Randi Rhodes, Thom Hartmann, Bill Press, Stephanie Miller and their fellow travelers will be replaced by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and others. As Larry O’Connor at the conservative Breitbart website gleefully noted, “When the dust settles, the landscape of the Los Angeles talk radio scene will be striking. The nation's #2 market will have four conservative talk radio stations with Salem's KRLA and Cumulus' KABC joining KFI and KTLK.”   read more

Judge Steven W. Rhodes, presiding over the Motor City’s Chapter 9 bankruptcy, ruled that longstanding pension agreements will not be off-limits during negotiations over how Detroit will cover billions of dollars in debt, despite a state constitutional protection similar to one in California. His decision ignited efforts to appeal the ruling, and set the stage for a showdown that pits bondholders, bond insurance companies and other creditors against municipal workers and retirees.   read more

The complaint, filed Friday, argues that AT&T has raised landline flat rates 115% and measured service 222% in the five years since the state deregulated basic rates. Inflation during that depressed economic time has been 14%. Some cynics think AT&T is jacking up landline rates and “essentially harvesting” its customers, who they would just as soon see move to wireless.   read more

In a change of policy, the department extended—from five years to 30—permits that protect companies from being penalized for killing the birds. The industry has sought the change for years, arguing that it needs the legal protection to attract long-term investment. Opponents fear that the extension makes it easier for companies to avoid seeking mitigation measures to lessen the killings.   read more