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

Documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times showed that 55% of the 296,030 appeals were approved by the judges between July 2012 and October 2013. EDD workers had denied benefits for a range of reasons, including alleged false statements on forms, quitting a job voluntarily, receiving benefits overpayments and not being available to work. Around 70% of the cases in which EDD employees said claimants had broken department regulations were reversed.   read more

Most of the software programs being used in the project are off-the-shelf commercial products that need few modifications. They will be used for accounting, procurement and cash management. But software that will replace the current process for creating the governor’s budget and legislative budget documents is not. That software is proprietary and requires significant configuration. Apparently, it has not gone well.   read more

The Los Angeles County South Bay school district has 6,600 students, so Fernandez’s compensation works out to about $100 per pupil. In comparison, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy has a total package of nearly $390,000, or about 60 cents per student. The former Inglewood city councilman makes more that President Barack Obama, thanks to a colossal package of perks on top of his $271,000 base pay.   read more

From now on, when two occupants disagree over letting police enter their home without a warrant, the cops can haul the obstinate one to jail and go on in. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 to narrow Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure by focusing on the presence of someone asserting that right. The ruling was a victory for law enforcement agencies.   read more

County District Attorney Dean Flippo said more than 200 vehicles were impounded over the past three and a half years and many were sold or given to police officers for free. One sergeant was said to receive a car for every 10 to 15 he had towed. “I’m not sure we know all the cars that were taken,” Flippo said.   read more

The original design for San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge, which opened 76 years ago, included a safety rail 5-feet, 6-inches high. The final design lowered that to 4 feet and people have been jumping off the bridge ever since—around 1,600 confirmed to date, according to the Bridge Rail Foundation.   read more

Two workers were burned when acid from a broken pipe splashed them. The next day investigators for the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) visited the refinery. They want to return to gather more information but Tesoro lawyers say it lacks jurisdiction. I can't think of another refinery or chemical plant that has taken a position that injuries aren't serious enough for us to investigate and that we lack jurisdiction,” CSB Managing Director Dan Horowitz told the Contra Costa Times.   read more

Imperial farmers are growing vast amounts of the hay for export to China and other countries. In doing so, the state is indirectly exporting billions of gallons of water overseas, due to alfalfa’s water-hungry biology. “It’s a huge amount. It’s enough for a year’s supply for a million families — it’s a lot of water, particularly when you’re looking at the dreadful drought throughout the South-west,” said University of Arizona's Robert Glennon.   read more

Rogers, 68, appointed last month by Governor Jerry Brown, replaced Therese "Terri" Delgadillo, who retired. The department he now heads has received an onslaught of criticism 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.   read more

A recently-released study of the country’s 50 largest cities by Alan Berube at the Brookings Institution lists San Francisco (2), Oakland (7) and Los Angeles (9) among the Top 10 with gaping economic disparities. San Francisco showed the largest increase in income inequality, by far, between 2007 and 2012.   read more

“I feel really angry, I feel exploited, almost like betrayed. ... And there wasn’t even a proper reason,” California State University, Long Beach freshman Miranda Ceja told U-T San Diego. Ceja described a four-stage competition for which she worked “two to four hours every day, working and working and working” only to be informed that her promised $14,000 scholarship had been reduced to $1,500. She told the Del Mar Times she broke down and cried when she got the letter.   read more

Heinrich, himself, explained to CIR why prison sterilization made sense (after being told the doctors were paid $147,460 by the state), “Over a 10-year period, that isn’t a huge amount of money compared to what you save in welfare paying for these unwanted children—as they procreated more.”   read more

The initiative was relegated to the back burner by supporters who will stop gathering signatures. It would have let people 21 and older buy less than an ounce of marijuana and grow up to six plants for personal use. It also would have levied a stiff 25% tax on pot sales. Alliance Deputy Executive Director Stephen Gutwillig said that waiting until 2016 has a lot of advantages. The population will be younger and their turnout will be higher in a presidential election year.   read more

Nationally, delinquencies from debt incurred through credit cards, mortgages, auto loans and home equity revolving accounts have all plummeted in recent years, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But student loan delinquencies continue to rise dramatically. Around 9% of the nation’s $11.5-trillion-dollar household debt is student loans; 70% are mortgages.   read more

Although Taitz is best known for her "birther" pronouncements, her 2012 political platform for the Senate race listed her pursuit of President Obama last. Still, it’s hard to forget her insinuation that the President had his gay lovers put to death. She also falsely said Obama has dozens of Social Security numbers; his real name is Barry Soetoro; and then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rigged American elections through the voting machine company he owns.   read more

A federal judge rejected a lawsuit Wednesday inspired by the National Rifle Association (NRA) to overturn a San Francisco ordinance passed last year that limits to 10 bullets the size of an ammunition magazine possessed in the city. The “right to bear arms,” protected by the Second Amendment to the Constitution, is not denied simply because a gun owner has to snap in another 10-bullet magazine in order to keep firing.   read more