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

An informant who played a critical role in the arrest of four suspected Southern California terrorist wannabes was paid $250,000 and given certain “immigration benefits” to infiltrate the group. He is the primary source of incriminating statements and actions made by the men since he joined the group in March.   read more

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has allowed churches to engage in partisan advocacy while also not enforcing nonprofit rules on them, according to a lawsuit filed by a religious freedom group. In its civil complaint, the Freedom From Religion Foundation claims the IRS is failing to collect $100 billion a year by permitting churches to maintain tax-exempt status, even though many are violating rules that prohibit tax-exempt entities from engaging in electioneering speech.   read more

A survey by the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has definitively proven that if you want to come up with scary numbers about drug and alcohol use among drivers, the best time to question them is on a Friday or Saturday night during roadside police checks.   read more

Before a raucous crowd of partisans, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted 6-5 to ban public nudity, except at designated parades, street fairs and festivals―like the annual gay pride event, the Bay to Breakers race and the Folsom Street Fair, which celebrates sadomasochism and other sexual subcultures.   read more

At least six ancient stone carvings known as petroglyphs―considered sacred by Paiute/Shoshone tribal members―were hacked, sawed and ripped from cliffs by thieves in the Eastern Sierra Mountains outside Bishop, California. Dozens of other petroglyphs were also damaged.   read more

Atheists and Christians, whose nose-to-nose battle last year over holiday displays at Santa Monica’s Palisades Park in Los Angeles County received national attention, won’t get a chance to reprise their clash this year. A federal judge this week upheld Santa Monica’s ban on all unattended private displays in city parks, effectively ending a 60-year tradition of colorful nativity scenes along the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   read more

When gasoline prices in California spiked in May and October, the energy industry said it was a supply problem and blamed refinery outages for a shortage of gasoline production. But a study released last week by McCullough Research “contradicts the industry explanations.”   read more

Trucks bring hazardous and nonhazardous material to the Kettleman landfill from all over California, and when accidents happen they are apparently duly noted by the facility’s operator, Chemical Waste Management (CWM). The waste company, however, doesn’t always share this information with the state and is facing heavy fines for its lack of diligence.   read more

Orange County’s Great Park in Southern California bills itself on its website as “The First Great Metropolitan Park of the 21st Century.” But at the pace it’s going, development of the former Marine Corps Air Station El Toro into a park will still be ongoing in the 22nd Century.   read more

A strategy used by Wal-Mart to pressure cities in the Golden State into sidestepping environmental restrictions and approving their superstores was soundly rejected by a three-judge California appellate panel.   read more

A Southern California beef supplier agreed to pay a record fine of nearly $497 million to settle slaughterhouse animal abuse allegations, but the company is bankrupt and won’t be making any payments.   read more

Richard Boylan won election to the Mother Lode Union School District Board in Northern California with the support of the Democratic Party, but it was his close affiliation with the High Council of Star Nations as Earth’s counselor that may have led to his decision not to take the seat.   read more

A unit of JPMorgan has been suspended from trading in the California Energy Market for six months, but in a nod to the fragility of the system the company was given five months to make a strategic withdrawal. The suspension of JPMorgan Ventures Energy Corp. by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Wednesday was a first for the agency, which has announced 11 investigations of traders for manipulating the state’s power market.   read more

The question before the California Coastal Commission this week was whether Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) needed to blast underwater air cannons near Morro Bay―with a lethal impact on threatened and endangered marine animals―to properly map earthquake fault lines near the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant in San Luis Obispo. The answer was not only a resounding 10-0 vote “No,” commission members questioned why the surveys were even necessary.   read more

The headline on the Associated Press story may have overstated the case―“Young voters turned the tide for Brown's Prop 30”―but the news service’s exit poll certainly gave proper respect to the youth vote for passage November 6 of the governor’s requested tax benefiting education. Four days later the director of the Field Poll took the accolades down a notch, according to the Sacramento Bee. “It helped the margin of victory, but it didn't change the outcome,” Mark DiCamillo said.   read more

California has 6 million people living in poverty and a poverty rate of 16.3%, slightly higher than the national rate of 15.1%., according to statistics compiled over three years by the U.S. Census Bureau. Those numbers don’t offer much comfort, but they could be much worse. And now the Census Bureau says they probably are.   read more