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

Now that the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors has voted 4-1 to secede from California and form their own state, all that remains is similar action from sympathetic neighboring counties and approval from the state Legislature and Congress. They want to form a union with other like-minded rural counties north and south of the border with Oregon, and call their new state, Jefferson. They already have a Wikipedia page and are planning their next move.   read more

The Little Hoover Commission noted that Texas drew down 30% more in benefits per veteran that California. It's the tiny services division, which gets 2.6% of the CalVet operations budget, and other lackluster providers where the commission sees a lost opportunity to capture federal dollars. The bottom line was this: pay a few extra dollars to find out who needs assistance and hire people to go get the money from the federal government.   read more

Enthusiasts envision its future use in grocery stores, banks, hospitals and just about anywhere that an enhanced ID with the capability to access stored information on an individual might come in handy. Civil libertarians envision RFIDs as tracking devices by the authorities to monitor the movements of law-abiding citizens.   read more

McClintock does not believe that funding cuts to the Forest Service contributed to the fire. But he did have a culprit in mind—anti-logging interests. McClintock is an enthusiastic supporter of the logging industry, and used the fire as an opportunity to pitch for more commercial activity near the Stanislaus Forest and the Lake Tahoe area, just to the north.   read more

Six years later, only one of the construction projects has been completed and only a handful have been started.The state Legislative Analyst’s Office reported in February that three of the 22 approved projects were scheduled to be completed this year, another in 2014, four in 2016 and one in 2018. When complete, the projects would add 10,894 beds in county jails.   read more

Wilms and Ridley-Thomas trained hundreds of UCLA undergraduates to mediate disputes and then sent them to middle and high schools. There, they taught the younger kids how to use peer mediation techniques to solve problems like bullying and potential suicides peacefully, while also serving as role models.   read more

Last June, SAIC paid $11.75 million to settle allegations filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico that it charged the federal government inflated prices to train anti-terrorism first responders between 2002 and 2012. As usual, the settlement did not involve an admission of guilt. SAIC paid $500.4 million in May 2012 to settle claims that it defrauded New York City over a payroll project that ran amok. A $60 million project ballooned to $690 million.   read more

The judge’s ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed in June 2011 alleged the VA violated federal law when it leased portions of its West Los Angeles campus to 11 businesses and organizations that had nothing to do with helping veterans. The VA argued that the revenues it received indirectly helped the vets by swelling the government coffers. Judge Otero agreed with the plaintiffs and voided nine lease agreements, pending further action.   read more

The law, which is apparently the first of its kind in the U.S., requires makers of prescription drugs sold or distributed in Alameda County to fund and operate product stewardship programs allowing consumers to turn in unused medicines safely, rather than flushing them down the toilet and into the water supply or letting them hit the streets. Failure to comply carries up to a $1,000-per-day fine.   read more

Edison sent a cease-and-desist letter (pdf) two weeks ago to presente.org, the creator of a video that mocks the utility. The letter claims that “Edison Hates Rooftop Solar” constitutes false and misleading advertising by saying the utility’s business plan is to force people to buy “dirty energy” from “dirty power plants” that “poison poor communities.” If truth is a defense, the utility might have trouble making that allegation stick.   read more

The law did not ban subversive groups from doing their subversive thing, including attempts to overthrow the government. It just required that groups register with the state and not pass their subversive materials to nonmembers. Violation of the law was a felony, punishable by a fine of up to $10,000 and/or imprisonment.   read more

A woman imprisoned in 2007 for embezzling thousands of dollars from the state while working as a procurement analyst for the Department of Child Support Services, was later hired by the California High-Speed Rail Authority. Moore first came to the attention of authorities when she was suspected of using her position to embezzle $320,000 worth of merchandise, including a hot tub, a gazebo, electronics, porn videos, handcuffs, whips and chains. She sold some of the stuff to buy a Lexus.   read more

During a five-year period, 78% of the 13,684 arrested juveniles referred to the Alameda County Probation Department were black youths. Of the total number of youths arrested, 56.6% were not pursued. But 78% of all the non-sustained arrests were African-American. The study’s conclusion was that police were arresting black juveniles for non-serious, non-criminal conduct, which should have been handled through professional intervention that didn’t involve the police.   read more

“I don't think anyone in this courtroom seriously thought the city was anything but insolvent,” Judge Meredith Jury said Wednesday in granting San Bernardino bankruptcy protection, and then set her sights on the city’s largest creditor, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). “If CalPERS gets all the money they want, under what they say is their statutory right, who isn't going to get paid? All the employees? How is that going to help CalPERS?” she said.   read more

Months after saying that her office could not post comprehensive campaign and lobbying financial data online in a searchable database, Bowen did the next best thing. “Next best thing” might be a bit of an overstatement. In this case, the next best thing is a zip file that takes more than an hour to download. It comes loaded with 80 data files that can be sucked into a database or spreadsheet and four pdf files that explain how to set the whole thing up. It is not for amateurs.   read more

The department she heads has received an onslaught of criticism this past year for its stewardship of the state’s five board-and-care institutions, where 1,500 patients with developmental disabilities, such as mental retardation, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism, are cared for. A scathing report in July from the California State Auditor said the department’s in-house police force, called the Office of Protective Services (OPS), was underfunded, ill-prepared and did a lousy job.   read more