• School Inoovation and Achievement
  • School Inoovation and Achievement

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Five people killed, 10 hospitalized in Rancho Tehama shooting -- Five people have been killed, including the shooter, in a mass shooting in a community about 15 miles southwest of Red Bluff. Undersheriff Phil Johnston with the Tehama County Sheriff's Office said the victim toll may rise. He confirmed two children were also shot and wounded, and the shootings happened at seven or more different spots. Jim Schultz in the Record Searchlight Jenna Lyons and Steve Rubenstein in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Frank Shyong, Sonali Kohli in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

‘We’re embarrassed’ by Trump’s climate hoax remark, Jerry Brown tells Chinese -- California Gov. Jerry Brown told Chinese environmental officials Tuesday that President Donald Trump’s dismissal of climate change as a hoax invented by their country was “probably the most absurd thing that has ever been said on the topic.” Christopher Cadelago in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

CHARTS: Here's How GOP's Tax Breaks Would Shift Money To Rich, Poor Americans -- So, $1.4 trillion is a lot of money. It's what all of the NFL teams together are worth, and then some. It's more than twice the Defense Department's 2016 budget. It's enough to buy nearly 3.2 million homes at the median U.S. home price right now. It's also roughly the amount that the proposed Republican tax overhaul would add to the deficit over 10 years — not even counting interest. Danielle Kurtzleben Capital Public Radio -- 11/14/17

Does tax bill help or hurt Californians? Republicans hearing it from both sides -- Millions of California voters opened their newspapers Tuesday morning to a scathing critique of the Republican tax bill currently under consideration in Washington. Emily Cadei McClatchyDC -- 11/14/17

The fight over health coverage for children, pregnant women -- Health insurance coverage for 1.3 million California children and pregnant women is at risk because of Congress’ delay in extending the Children’s Health Insurance Program. While the House recently approved a bill to extend the program for five years, the bill still needs approval by the Senate and a fight is expected about how to pay for the extension. Lisa Renner Capitol Weekly -- 11/14/17

California Throttles Down Pollution from Small Engines -- New California rules aimed at curbing the surprising amount of pollution coming from leaf blowers, lawn mowers and other small gas-powered machines cleared a final hurdle Monday, and are set to take effect on Jan. 1. Stuart Silverstein Fairwarning.org -- 11/14/17

Sacramento County could place homeless people in 15 rentals rather than central shelter -- After months of developing plans for a San Francisco-style “full service” homeless shelter housing 75 men and women under one roof, Sacramento County staff are recommending – at least in the short-term – a plan to put those homeless people in 15 rental homes scattered across the county. Ed Fletcher in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

P&E slapped with more lawsuits amid North Bay inferno probes -- PG&E was jolted Tuesday by a fresh round of lawsuits from victims of the lethal North Bay infernos, the latest challenge to the utility as state agencies look into what caused the catastrophe. The October wildfires in the Wine Country and nearby areas killed 43 people and torched at least 245,000 acres in six counties. The cause hasn’t yet been determined. George Avalos in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/14/17

Facing backlog, law enforcement review board considers dismissing 22 cases without investigations -- The citizens panel charged with reviewing deaths inside San Diego County jails or those who died while in Sheriff’s Department custody will consider a plan to summarily dismiss almost two dozen cases due to a long-running backlog. Jeff McDonald in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/14/17

GOP leaders threaten to expel Roy Moore from Senate if he wins Alabama race -- Amid new allegations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested teenage girls decades ago, GOP leaders intensified their calls Monday for him to quit the race, even threatening to expel Moore if he wins. Lisa Mascaro and Nina Agrawal in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

USC had many warnings about medical school dean's behavior but took little action -- For years, the troubling reports circulated among the faculty of USC's Keck School of Medicine: Their dean had a drinking problem. Paul Pringle and Adam Elmahrek in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

California Leads the Way Teaching LGBT History to Schoolchildren -- As goes California, so goes the nation—at least, that’s what LGBT advocates in the Golden State are hoping when it comes to a set of new, inclusive K-8 history textbooks. Samantha Allen The Daily Beast -- 11/14/17

Trump Shatters Longstanding Norms by Pressing for Clinton Investigation -- The request alone was enough to trigger a political backlash, as critics of Mr. Trump quickly decried what they called “banana republic” politics of retribution, akin to autocratic backwater nations where election losers are jailed by winners. Peter Baker in the New York Times$ -- 11/14/17

Jeff Sessions: 'Not enough basis' for special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton -- Jeff Sessions on Tuesday said there was “not enough basis” to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton, a day after reports surfaced that the attorney general had authorized senior prosecutors at the Department of Justice to evaluate an inquiry into the Clinton Foundation. Sabrina Siddiqui The Guardian -- 11/14/17

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Forget Donald Trump. Can anybody solve climate change? -- Meeting for annual climate talks, America’s political leaders are forcefully reiterating their commitments to the landmark Paris climate accord, despite President Donald Trump’s dismissal of the pact as a threat to the nation’s economy and sovereignty. Christopher Cadelago in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

California Gov. Jerry Brown to world climate leaders in Germany: ‘#WeAreStillIn’ -- Gov. Jerry Brown led a group of U.S. political and business leaders visiting Germany this week to make a sales pitch to the rest of the world: that most Americans don’t support President Trump’s agenda on climate change — or lack thereof. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

California may reach 50% renewable power goal by 2020 — 10 years early -- Two years ago, Gov. Jerry Brown signed an ambitious law ordering California utility companies to get 50 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. It looks like they may hit that goal a decade ahead of schedule. David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

California clears the way for testing of fully driverless cars. Local, federal interests have concerns -- Now, after this year's release of guidelines from the state Department of Motor Vehicles, the mood has changed. Californians should expect to see driverless cars tested on the state's roads early next year. Liam Dillon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

Some in state GOP delegation to Congress take soft stand on tax bill -- House leadership in Washington can’t count on the California delegation’s full support of the Republican tax bill now before Congress, as a half dozen California GOP members are either opposed to it, undecided or fearful to even express an opinion because they’re facing tough re-election fights. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

US Supreme Court to decide California law on ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ -- The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether California can require hundreds of antiabortion clinics, known as “crisis pregnancy centers,” to notify patients that the state makes abortion and other reproductive health care available at little or no cost. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

Trump refugee ban is stranding hundreds of relatives of Bay Area families, lawsuit says -- Jewish Family Services of Silicon Valley filed the lawsuit Monday along with other resettlement groups and individual refugees, arguing that restrictions on refugee admissions from 11 mostly Muslim-majority countries are unconstitutional. Casey Tolan in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/14/17

America's Wall -- This project is a KPBS and inewsource investigation about the existing barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border ahead of President Trump's promised wall. Using previously undisclosed government data, we reveal the impact of construction over time. Jean Guerrero, Leo Castaneda KPBS, inewsource -- 11/14/17

Taxes, Fees, Rates, Tolls, Bonds 

Repeal gas tax or end revenue for road repairs? It’s the same ballot measure -- The future of California’s new fuel tax — 12 cents a gallon for gasoline, 20 cents for diesel fuel — is likely to go before the voters in November 2018. What’s less clear is whether the official title on the state ballot pamphlet, an important source of voter information, will start by saying it “repeals taxes” or “eliminates ... revenues” for transportation and road repair. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

Silicon Valley fumes over Senate GOP proposal to tax vested stock options -- Startup founders and venture capitalists are up in arms over a provision in the new Senate tax reform proposal which seeks to dramatically change the way stock options are taxed. Seung Lee in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/14/17

Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions  

Uber employees could become overnight millionaires with SoftBank deal -- SoftBank plans to invest $1 billion directly in Uber and buy up to $9 billion worth of stock from existing shareholders — namely early investors and Uber employees who were granted stock options. While the vast majority of the money will go to institutional investors, many of the company’s 12,000 employees are likely to jump at the chance to cash out some of their stock options. Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

After Fires, California Wine Country Wants Tourists Back -- Buena Vista Winery in Sonoma Valley, founded in 1857, is considered the birthplace of California wine. The cavernous cellar, carved into a hill by Chinese laborers, has survived earthquakes, several owners and last month’s fires in Northern California. Farida Jhabvala Romero KQED Eric Risberg Associated Press -- 11/14/17

Transit  

A new train station just opened for Capitol Corridor commuters -- The Capitol Corridor passenger train system opened a new Fairfield/Vacaville station Monday to give more Solano County commuters a way to travel to Sacramento and the Bay Area by rail. Tony Bizjak in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

Wildfire  

Former San Francisco mayor to sue PG&E over Wine Country fires -- To the list of people suing Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over last month’s Wine Country fires, add the former top official of PG&E’s hometown — former San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan. David R. Baker in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

Architects brainstorm better ways to rebuild after Wine Country fires -- The rebuilding of Wine Country after last month’s horrific wildfires will require an army of building- department bureaucrats, not to mention thousands of carpenters, electricians and plumbers. But what role will architects play in the mad rush to rebuild the 8,889 structures lost in the Wine Country fires? J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

When Wildfires Broke Out, Only Two North Bay Cal Fire Dispatchers Were on Duty -- Cal Fire says its North Bay command center received more than 3,600 calls for help in the first 48 hours of what the agency has dubbed the “October Fire Siege.” Ted Goldberg KQED -- 11/14/17

Education 

An all-online community college: A solution to working class needs, or a dangerous move? -- A proposal that advocates hope will use online courses to help the job prospects of about 2 million working class Californians got its first hearing in Sacramento on Monday. Adolfo Guzman-Lopez KPCC -- 11/14/17

Gov. Brown's plan for online only community college provokes pushback -- Leaders within the California Community College system are objecting to Gov. Jerry Brown’s push to create a new online-only community college. Mikhail Zinshteyn EdSource -- 11/14/17

Sacramento State gets its largest donation: $6 million from former Sleep Train owner -- Sacramento State announced Monday that it has received the largest donation in its history – $6 million from former Sleep Train Mattress Centers owner Dale Carlsen – to pay for a center for innovation and entrepreneurship. Diana Lambert in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

Cannabis 

Recreational marijuana rules rile pot-friendly San Francisco -- Famously pro-cannabis San Francisco, where the 4/20 marijuana holiday is celebrated with a group smoke-out on Hippie Hill, is having a surprisingly difficult time establishing regulations for the broad legal pot market coming to California in January. Janie Har Associated Press -- 11/14/17

Water  

Californians slashed water use, but we still use more than the US average -- Between 2015 and 2010, Californians slashed their water use by seventeen percent, according to the US Geological Survey report. During that time, the state was gripped by the worst drought in modern times, and Governor Brown declared the first-ever mandatory water restrictions. Emily Guerin KPCC -- 11/14/17

Health 

‘We see them at their worst’: How L.A. County’s mental health team is working to end a stigma -- Long after he has helped them, the teenagers and the elder adults who want to take their lives tend to linger in the mind of Los Angeles Sheriff Deputy Rene Gonzalez. Susan Abram in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 11/14/17

AARP Foundation Sues Nursing Home To Stop Illegal Evictions -- A California judge could decide Tuesday if Gloria Single will be reunited with her husband, Bill. She's 83 years old. He's 93. The two have been married for 30 years. They lived in the same nursing home until last March, when Gloria Single was evicted without warning. Ina Jaffe NPR -- 11/14/17

Environment 

Benicia Still Looking for Answers from Valero Six Months After Refinery Outage -- When a massive refinery outage sent flames, black smoke and toxic gas shooting into the sky from Valero’s Benicia plant last spring, the city’s mayor said the local government had little information about what was going on. Ted Goldberg KQED -- 11/14/17

Also . . . 

FBI: Hate crimes jump 11.2 percent in California -- There were 60 more hate crimes last year than in 2015 in the Bay Area’s nine counties — with the most reported in Alameda, San Francisco and Santa Clara counties. Statewide, the number of hate crimes increased from 837 in 2015 to 931 in 2016, an 11.2 percent rise, the FBI numbers showed. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/14/17

Jury awards $5.5M to parents of man tased multiple times by LAPD -- A federal jury Monday awarded $5.5 million to the parents of a Marine veteran who died after an LAPD officer stunned him six times with a Taser three years ago during an incident in which other officers hit the man with their batons and fists, pepper sprayed and restrained him. Frank Stoltze KPCC -- 11/14/17

He was homeless, mentally ill and addicted to drugs. Now, he listens -- Bill Shaner helps mental health patients in the emergency room of Mercy General Hospital every day. He’s not a doctor or a nurse. He doesn’t prescribe medicine. He just talks to people and listens carefully. Molly Sullivan in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/14/17

Amid the stress of L.A. traffic, fake street signs aim to help people chill out and get Zen -- Los Angeles-based multimedia artist and fabricator Scott Froschauer has left his mark all over Glendale, and his 20 pieces of street art will challenge the community to subvert their everyday expectations of signs and language. Jeff Landa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

POTUS 45  

Trump ready to put his own mark on tax debate -- The president, who's been in touch with senior members of Congress, tweeted on Monday with specific proposals – none of which are reflected in the proposed legislation. Nancy Cook and Nolan D. McCaskill Politico -- 11/14/17

The Secret Correspondence Between Donald Trump Jr. and WikiLeaks -- The transparency organization asked the president’s son for his cooperation—in sharing its work, in contesting the results of the election, and in arranging for Julian Assange to be Australia’s ambassador to the United States. Julia Ioffe The Atlantic -- 11/14/17

Donald Trump Jr. confirms communicating with WikiLeaks -- The private exchanges began in September 2016. According to the screenshots shared by Trump Jr., the president's eldest son did not respond to most of the inquires from WikiLeaks. Brent D. Griffiths Politico -- 11/14/17

Trump asked Chinese leader to help resolve case involving UCLA basketball players -- President Trump has asked China’s leader, Xi Jinping, to help resolve the case involving three UCLA basketball players being detained at a hotel in Hangzhou for allegedly shoplifting. Brian Bennett and Matthew DeButts in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/14/17

AP analysis finds little diversity in Trump’s judicial picks -- President Donald Trump is nominating white men to America’s federal courts at a rate not seen in nearly 30 years, threatening to reverse a slow transformation toward a judiciary that more closely reflects the nation’s diversity. Catherine Lucy and Meghan Hoyer Associated Press -- 11/14/17

Beltway 

The judicial nominee who’s never tried a case is also married to a Trump administration lawyer -- Brett J. Talley, the young lawyer nominated by President Trump for a lifetime federal judgeship in Alabama, was asked by a Senate committee to disclose family members who are likely to present potential conflicts of interest if he is confirmed. Kristine Phillips in the Washington Post$ -- 11/14/17

 

-- Monday Updates 

More political groups pressure California Republicans on tax bill -- Red to Blue California, a PAC seeking to unseat seven vulnerable GOP lawmakers, began running digital ads Monday casting the tax bill as "billionaire tax cuts" and urging voters to on call their members of Congress to oppose the plan. Christine Mai-Duc in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17

CalPERS wants broke cities to deliver bad news to out-of-luck pensioners -- The California Public Employees’ Retirement System would like someone else to deliver the bad news when local governments quit paying their bills and put a retiree’s pension in jeopardy. Adam Ashton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/13/17

Emily's List makes its picks for three statewide races in California -- Emily’s List, an influential Democratic organization that promotes women running for office, on Monday endorsed three candidates running for statewide office in California. Phil Willon in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17

‘I hate everything.’ Is Jerry Brown enjoying himself in Europe? -- Nine days into his European trip, Jerry Brown might have been enjoying himself. Christopher Cadelago in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/13/17

Two Orange County congressmen among most vulnerable in country, says prominent news site -- When the venerable Washington, D.C., political news site Roll Call released its list of the top 10 most vulnerable House members, it was yet another sign of the key role Orange County plays in Democratic efforts to take control of the lower chamber after next year’s elections. Martin Wisckol in the Orange County Register -- 11/13/17

Homeless UC Berkeley student lives in refurbished school bus -- Hash Khan lives in a school bus. Transforming it from an ordinary, yellow bus into a sky-blue, mobile house, Khan's home is charming, if not alluring, to those of us who have settled for cramped rooms at steep rental costs. Katrina Fadrilan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/13/17

Enrollment of first-time foreign students dips in the U.S., but California is still No. 1 -- California remained the nation’s most popular destination for foreign students, with 157,000 coming to the state in 2016-17. They made up nearly 16% of more than 1 million international students in the United States that year, according to the survey of more than 2,000 institutions released Monday by the Institute of International Education. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17

More homeless arrested following hepatitis A outbreak -- Arrests of homeless people in downtown San Diego have spiked in recent months as the city tries to fight a deadly hepatitis A outbreak, and there’s no sign things will change with the planned opening of large tents that will shelter hundreds. Gary Warth in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/13/17

San Diego leaders rejected calls for higher volume of restrooms downtown, but built one for $2 million -- The City of San Diego helped install an aesthetically pleasing structure on its signature waterfront in 2014, designed by an artist to invoke “Jonathan Livingston Seagull,” the popular 1970 novella about a seagull who wanted to be special. Its function? A restroom. Its cost? Two million dollars. Morgan Cook in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/13/17

550,000 homes in Southern California have the highest risk of fire damage, but they are not alone -- On a cataclysmic fall day in 2003, David Mead stood on the roof of his house using a garden hose to fight off an undulating river of embers that floated down his street. Doug Smith and Nina Agrawa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17

San Francisco may have deal on where recreational pot can be sold -- “We may have a pathway to an agreement,” said Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who has floated the idea of granting permission for the city’s existing 46 medical marijuana dispensaries and delivery services to also sell for adult recreational use. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/13/17

A call to action: thousands to brainstorm the Bay Area’s housing crisis -- The goal is to inspire a wave of advocacy and innovation around a seemingly intractable Bay Area problem. Organized by the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the region-wide conversation begins Wednesday and has a name: “On the Table.” Richard Scheinin in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/13/17

Justices add anti-abortion counseling to free-speech lineup -- The Supreme Court will hear a free speech challenge to a California law that targets anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers, adding to a term that is loaded with First Amendment disputes. Mark Sherman Associated Press -- 11/13/17

Colin Kaepernick is named Citizen of the Year by GQ magazine -- Colin Kaepernick has become a very polarizing figure in our society. The editors of GQ magazine are very clear about where they stand on the quarterback who hasn’t been able to find a job in the NFL a year after he started the movement of kneeling during the national anthem to protest social injustices. Chuck Schilken in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17

CA120: Will the wave hit California’s shores? -- With Tuesday night’s Democratic wins in traditional bellwether gubernatorial elections in Virginia and New Jersey, a massive pickup-in the Virginia Legislature, wins in several mayoral races and other assorted gains, the pundits appear locked into the narrative that we are headed for a wave election. Paul Mitchell Capitol Weekly -- 11/13/17

Capitol Weekly podcast: Paul Mitchell -- Political Data whiz Paul Mitchell joins the Capitol Weekly podcast to talk about last week’s results and what they do — or don’t — portend for California in 2018. We also chat about the strengths and weaknesses of polling. John Howard Capitol Weekly listen here -- 11/13/17

• Video shows first hours of the Tubbs fire in Santa Rosa in nine minutes -- A heartbreaking nine-minute compilation video by Press Democrat photographer Kent Porter documents the first hours of the devastating Tubbs fire the early morning of Oct. 9. Watch here -- 11/13/17

Fox: Jerry Brown Meets Doc Brown: Has California Gone “Back to the Future” on Taxes and Crime? -- Despite changing demographics and a sharp veer to the ideological left, is it possible that California could take a political trip back to the future as two staples resurface that drove the state’s politics in the more conservative 1980s and 1990s? Look around and you’ll see indications that even in this liberal bastion on the left coast, the issues of taxes and crime are stirring again. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 11/13/17

Security Firm Says Extremely Creepy Mask Cracks iPhone X’s Face ID -- Less than a week after the iPhone X release, a Vietnamese security firm says it done what others couldn’t — trick the phone’s facial recognition software. How’d they do it? One very creepy mask. Laurel Wamsley KQED -- 11/13/17

The Clampers: A historical drinking society or a drinking historical society? -- Everyone had forgotten about the Butt Lake Dinky by the time workers in 1996 dredged up the rusty H.K. Porter steam locomotive that had been submerged in a reservoir for eight decades. Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/13/17