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

KPCC reported Wednesday that LAUSD attorney David Holmquist wrote in a letter to the computer manufacturer, “While Apple and Pearson promised a state-of-the-art technological solution for ITI implementation, they have yet to deliver it. . . . As we approach the end of the school year, the vast majority of students are still unable to access the Pearson curriculum on iPads.”   read more

Last year, 24 of the 27 bills targeted by the chamber ended up in “The Graveyard,” despite a distinct minority of Republican lawmakers. So, the April release of its preliminary list of 16 new targets is not without interest, although the moniker may not be appropriate. A study analyzing 381 "job killer" stories in mainstream media concluded that fewer than 10% justified use of the term,   read more

The U.S. Department of Education announced it had found 947 instances of Heald's parent, Corinthian, misstating its placement rate of students after graduation, information used in recruitment that current students probably relied on in choosing the school. The department said, “Heald paid companies to hire graduates for temporary positions as short as two days, asked them to perform tasks like moving computers and organizing cables, and then counted those graduates as ‘placed in field.’ ”   read more

Last week, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) announced a record 31 deaths in 2014 from West Nile Virus out of 801 cases, the second-highest number ever. California had 379 cases in 2013 and just 111 in 2010. The new numbers confirm a prediction by UCLA researchers in February 2014 that climate change would dramatically increase West Nile in the state.   read more

The city copped to a dozen screwed-up meters—ones near the courthouse—and around 90 bogus tickets, which had been contested and cleared. The dozen meters have been disabled while city officials talk to the vendor about a fix. Otherwise, the city is responding on a case-by-case basis as people protest their tickets from the 1,900 smart meters.   read more

The crucial forage fish’s population is known for being chronically volatile, but its drop from a high of 1.42 million metric tons in 2007 to 97,000 by next season has become hard to ignore. Geoffrey Shester, Oceana’s California campaign director, said the damage would be felt for decades and told the San Francisco Chronicle, “There’s a management failure here."   read more

Thirty years ago, California lawmakers created rules requiring state agencies to return any money to the General Fund not spent on positions vacant for more than six months, So state agencies transfer employees internally to fill vacant positions before the deadline so they show up as occupied on ledger sheets. That means the budget-strapped agencies are getting paid for more positions than were actually occupied, so they take the extra money and spend it on other things.   read more

Aviles climbed on to a fire escape and entered an apartment. He took off his shoes and shirt, and crashed on the couch. When he came to, he grabbed a backpack and loaded it with items, including an earthquake kit and a woman’s passport. Aviles testified he thought his long hair looked like hers and the document would guarantee his seat on the spaceship he thought was docked atop the space station/apartment building.   read more

The DOJ exit signaled that great strides had been made in fixing civil rights abuses and generally rancid conditions in the 16 camps housing juvenile offenders. The L.A. County Auditor-Controller looked at seven of the more important 73 reforms signed off on by the feds to see if compliance had, indeed, been met. Sadly, six did not meet standards.   read more

The sheriff noted that “it’s hard to manage your adrenalin when you get to the end of a pursuit after driving at high speeds, through crazy situations, blowing stop signs, near collisions, and ultimately running on foot after a suspect. . . . Not that that’s an excuse.” He concluded, "At the end of the day, it appears to be excessive.”   read more

Campbell was not participating in the Zombie Walk, but was taking photographs of the undead while standing in a crosswalk. Pocci, who is deaf, found his car blocked by the zombie walkers. When he began to get rattled by the strange scene in front of him, he blew his horn and tried to drive ahead. That angered the zombies, who jumped on his car and broke his windshield. Becoming even more concerned for his safety and that of his passengers, he inched forward, struck Campbell and ran her over.   read more

Shortly after the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) announced its decision, President Michael Picker said that he questions whether even a record penalty can influence the highly-profitable utility to change its evil ways. “If PG&E is failing to establish a safety culture, and we continue to see more accidents and violations, what are our tools?” Picker reportedly told those attending the commission meeting.   read more

The Associated Press surveyed 31 of the busiest airports in the United States, including five in California, and found 268 incursions between 2004 and 2014. Eighty-two of them were in California. San Francisco International Airport had the most, 37, and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) was third, with 24. Mineta San Jose International Airport was fifth, at 18, but the San Francisco Chronicle noted that five of those were in the last 11 months.   read more

Judge Kelly said at the sentencing that the punishment was “grossly disproportionate” to the crime because “there was no violence or callous disregard for (the victim’s) well-being.” He called the longer sentence “cruel and unusual punishment.” She “appears to be a happy healthy girl,” the judge said, “so it’s hard to gauge how this crime may affect her mental state in the future.”   read more

State and local governments have put a lot of time and effort over the years into turning traffic courts into a replacement source of funding lost to economic downturn, lower taxes on upper-income folks and suspect spending priorities. The result in California, according to a new study from five civil rights groups, is increased income inequality as the extraordinary burden of cascading fines and fees leads to millions of driver’s license suspensions for poorer people.   read more

The two judges boinking in the courthouse were disciplined for their dalliances, sort of, but they were the rare exception when the commission considered the 1,174 complaints filed against the judiciary last year. The commission’s report was consistent with previous years: judges are rarely disciplined in any meaningful way for their behavior on the bench.   read more