"I think the results would be horrible if the tests had been counted this year," Elizabeth Topkis, the testing coordinator at the Los Angeles Center for Enriched Studies, told the Los Angeles Times. In addition to dealing with an entirely different test that focuses on a range of learning skills other than rote memorization, kids are tested in areas teachers weren’t trained to prepare them for. And there are no bubbles to fill in with a No. 2 pencil. They will use computers.   read more

While earthquake-prone California weighs the future of expanded quake-linked fracking in the state, a new report says that humans have already raised the seismic threat-level through groundwater extraction. A study of the San Joaquin Valley published in the journal Nature last week found the valley floor has been sinking for decades while the surrounding mountains rise as wells suck water out of the region's aquifers. The activity causes stress to the San Andreas Fault and others nearby.   read more

Caltrans senior engineer Brian Maroney confirmed this week that more than 200 steel rods anchoring the main cable and tower on the bridge's new east span could be at risk in an earthquake. The rods have shifted since first installed and are close to metal plates with sharp edges nearby. “This is sacred ground,” Maroney said. “The cable and the tower are the backbone and the spine, critical elements to this bridge. I don't want to be worrying about the cable system.”   read more

In short order, gay Oscar-winning screenwriter Dustin Lance Black accepted a re-invitation from the college and the city suspended Public Health Director Eric Walsh with pay pending a review of his homophobic and otherwise controversial online remarks. Black didn't wait for the review and accepted a job running a six-county district in the Georgia Public Health Department   read more

Obama said, “This may look like a typical Walmart, but it's not” because of its solar panels, LED lighting and refrigeration systems. Former U.S. Labor Secretary and UC Berkeley professor Robert Reich said it looked like a typical Walmart to him: “Walmart is one of the nation's largest and worst employers—low wages, unreliable hours, few benefits, discrimination against women, and anti-union.”   read more

Known for its rich-and-famous residents, the city does have some experience with oil drilling. Venoco Inc. has operated a small cluster of oil wells on the campus of Beverly Hills High School for many years. The ban, which goes into effect June 6, applies not only to drilling operations within the city, but also those outside its jurisdiction that would extract oil or gas buried beneath Beverly Hills.   read more

The draft is for students at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach who gather in traditional sports coats to flirt with Lady Luck and do a bit of bartering for a date on prom night. Boys draw random numbers for the draft but can pony up more money to get a better pick. “They probably believe it's not offensive or objectionable,” District board trustee Katrina Foley told the Times. “A lot of this stuff comes back to wealth and being responsible with that wealth.”   read more

The UN’s human rights office and an array of international human rights organizations vehemently oppose the new penal code and now so do Jay Leno, Ellen DeGeneres, Richard Branson, Sharon Osbourne, Stephen Fry and a host of other celebs. They are not crazy about spending time in a place owned by a guy whose country just legalized stoning adulterers and homosexuals to death.   read more

The drones can be seen and heard daily in the national park, soaring over pristine and otherwise quiet wilderness, snapping photographs, shooting videos, buzzing sensitive wildlife and otherwise entertaining their operators. With summer approaching and complaints mounting, the park service said it was invoking a regulation that makes the use of drones “illegal under all circumstances” within park boundaries. Critics say it doesn’t apply to drones at all.   read more

A coalition of labor, environmental and tenant activists filed a lawsuit last week challenging a new San Francisco ordinance that lets private shuttles use public bus stops to transport residents to work at tech companies throughout the Bay Area. The lawsuit argues that the ordinance violates CEQA, which requires an environmental impact report to assess damage it may cause to roads, the air, bicyclists, pedestrians and human health in general.   read more

The lawsuit argues that limitations on the number of pot shops will force “thousands of patients” to drive great distances to buy pot, causing traffic and air pollution, and should have triggered an environmental impact report. Some areas will be more heavily impacted than others, with no mitigation measures in place to relieve the burden.   read more

No report was filed with the state on at least 47 fracking jobs in Southern California during the first two months of the year, the group alleged. Those reports are required to be filed with the state within 60 days of fracking. Dozens more were posted late, and only then after the center notified the state of the lapses. Other reports were missing information about the chemicals used in the fracking and where the fracking waste water was disposed of.   read more

When Pasadena City College unceremoniously dumped Oscar-winning screenwriter and PCC graduate Dustin Lance Black as commencement speaker three weeks ago over the presence of scandalously sexual images of him on the Internet, school officials hoped to put the affair behind them by picking a safe replacement. Robin Abcarian at the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that didn't work out too well when it picked Pasadena Department of Public Health Director Dr. Eric Walsh.   read more

“What is sad,” he said, “is that when this case is done Albany will have destroyed a rare and admirable community of people society calls homeless. On the Bulb they had homes! Now many of them will be back on the street. I’m glad we got some of them bit of compensation. That’s more than they usually get when kicked out of town. But the fact that they’re getting kicked out of town is the problem. And that struggle isn’t over.”   read more

After a year and a half of secret, limited excavations by archaeologists, developers in Marin County are paving over an extraordinary 4,500-year-old American Indian site said to hold an unexamined treasure trove of more than a million artifacts. As per agreement with the tribe, which by law pretty much has the last say on how the remains are examined and disposed of, there was no DNA testing and objects were reburied at an undisclosed place onsite.   read more

An oil pumping facility in a Los Angeles residential neighborhood that sickened residents for years and “horrified” Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) when she toured the area just before its closure last November might resume operations when it completes $700,000 worth of upgrades. Allenco voluntarily closed after being hit with a series of citations for violating the federal Clean Water and Clean Air Acts.   read more