Controversies
10 Deputies Too Busy Beating Suspect Senseless to Notice News Chopper Filming Them
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
California Welcomes 200,000 New Immigrant Drivers into System that Annually Suspends Half a Million Licenses
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
Black Woman Faces Lynching Charge for Sacramento Activism
A 1933 law defines felony lynching as simply, “The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer.” The law was passed to discourage vigilante mobs from seizing blacks detained by the police and hanging them. But since not a lot of that goes on in California these days and it’s a shame to waste a good law, police have taken to applying it to protesters. read more
Aquifer-Polluting Oil Industry Injection Wells to be Closed, Maybe, Starting in Six Months
The wells were identified after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) told state regulators last year that unpermitted drillers, and drillers with permits they shouldn’t have been given by the state, were plentiful. The state has already closed 23 of the most egregious wells and regulators admit they handed out 500 permits they shouldn’t have. But they are loath to close the 2,500 with improper or nonexistent permits. read more
Orange County Bar Assn. Accuses DA of Retaliating Against Judge in Feud
Judge Goethals kicked the DA's entire office off a mass-murder penalty-phase case last month over misconduct allegations. Prosecutors then requested that the judge be disqualified from 57 of their cases since February 2014, compared to just five in the three previous years. That is known in the trade as “papering a judge.” read more
Death Row Runs Out of Room
California hasn’t executed any inmates since 2006, but voters overwhelmingly reaffirmed in 2012 that it wants to keep the death penalty. Consequently, the list of condemned prisoners has grown from 646 that year to 751. Twenty are women, housed at the Central California Women's Facility near Chowchilla. The state would like to keep all the men at San Quentin, but Death Row only holds 715 people. read more
No, Malibu, Guest Houses Are Not Low-Income Housing
Judge Richard L. Fruin, Jr. invalidated Malibu’s state-mandated housing plan for violating laws that require a minimum number of housing units for the less fortunate. “Housing stock that is made available only to family members or domestic employees does not qualify as low-income housing,” he wrote in his decision. read more
Public Defender Likens S.F. Jail Fights to “Game of Thrones”
Public Defender Jeff Adachi and chief attorney Matt Gonzalez sent a letter to Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi alleging “serious misconduct” by deputies that included allegations of forced gambling, threats of physical violence and other abuse. According to Adachi and a report from a private investigator engaged by the public defender, Deputy Scott Neu forced 150-pound Ricardo Palikiko Garcia to fight 350-pound Stanly Harris twice while others watched. read more
Critics Said New S.F. Airbnb Law Was “Unenforceable” and Now the Planning Dept. Agrees
“We have no way of enforcing” the ordinance, San Francisco Planning Department communications manager Gina Simi told the San Francisco Chronicle last week. The law does not require Airbnb and other hosting platforms to report the names of people renting out their places and other critical information. Without the booking data, the city can't check to see if rentals are registered. read more
Renters Being Evicted from New Hollywood Skyscraper over Developer Misdeeds
Negotiations with lawyers for the La Mirada Avenue Neighborhood Association, which opposed the high-density movement, resulted in a 2011 deal to preserve the Old Spaghetti Factory's façade in exchange for parking variances that saved the developer millions of dollars. The developer tore it down anyway with a demolition permit from the city and proceeded to build their high-rise, even as the judge made it clear they acted at their “own peril.”
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San Diego, the State’s Second-Largest City, Has Its First Legal Pot Shop
The entire state has been whipsawed by conflicting forces at the local, state and federal levels; in courts, legislatures, agencies and executive branches. Marijuana is still illegal under federal law. But conservative San Diego has seen in its own particular kind of schizophrenic play out, especially in recent years. The city did not have an ordinance for regulating medical marijuana until last March. read more
Berkeley Health Center’s Abrupt Closure Abandons Patient Records
Medical records were stacked on shelves and sitting in boxes on the floor when investigators from the California Department of Justice searched the building last week. The clinic closed seven months after its parent, the Bay Area Consortium for Quality Health Care, filed for bankruptcy amid allegations of mismanaged public funds. read more
State Triples Rejection Rate of Anti-Psychotic Prescriptions for Medi-Cal Kids
State regulators rejected 1 in 5 prescription requests on behalf of poor children, including foster home youth, in an effort to rein in the profligate use of the drugs. The number of antipsychotic prescription requests dropped from 16,915 in October to 6,950 in January, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH). The rejection rate rose from 6% to 18%. read more
California Schools Suspend Use of API Tests as They Prepare for the Great Unknown
The board is still trying to shape a system, called “Smarter Balance,” that will correspond to the national Common Core standards, which focus on critical thinking rather than rote memorization. Many observers thought the board’s decision was a foregone conclusion, with the inevitable switch in one year and the chaos already existing throughout state schools. read more
Airbnb Squeezing Already-Tight L.A. Housing Market as City Ponders Options
A report on the outside-the-box business model says it is squeezing the already-tight Los Angeles housing market and is being gamed by entrepreneurs, who are anything but mom-and-pop renters and homeowners. “The 7,316 units taken off the rental market by Airbnb is equivalent to seven years of affordable housing construction in Los Angeles,” according to “Airbnb, Rising Rent, and the Housing Crisis in Los Angeles.” read more
Six Hospitals at Risk after Sale to Prime Healthcare Falls Apart
Essentially, Harris was requiring that the chain commit to keeping the hospitals open and provide the same level of care that the Daughters of Charity have. A key condition, and one cited by Prime as the deal killer, required compliance with terms of the agreement for 10 years, not the five negotiated with Daughters. read more