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How ex-congresswoman helped squelch reports of secret government surveillance -- When two New York Times reporters learned in 2004 that the George W. Bush administration was secretly wiretapping Americans, and collecting their phone and email records, the reporters’ attempt to publish their findings were thwarted by the administration’s intense and successful lobbying of their editors. In that effort, the Republican president had an unlikely ally: Rep. Jane Harman of Los Angeles, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

Parents arrested after children found shackled and malnourished in Perris home -- A Perris husband and wife are in custody on suspicion of torture and child abuse after police found several of the couple’s children chained to beds in putrid surroundings, authorities said Monday. Joel Rubin and Paloma Esquivel in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

101 Freeway is expected to reopen in a week, Caltrans says -- The 101 Freeway, miles of which were transformed into a muddy, debris-filled river by the deadly Montecito mudslides, is expected to reopen next Monday, officials said. Joel Rubin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

Buried in mud, Montecito faces a daunting cleanup with no end in sight -- The cobbled parking lots outside boutiques are empty. The Italian trattoria known as Oprah Winfrey’s favorite haunt is shuttered, as is the Four Seasons resort owned by Ty Warner, the Beanie Babies tycoon. A place famous for coastal affluence and extravagance is now unlivable and grappling with one basic and primitive question: Where to put all the mud? Matt Hamilton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

Future floods will be in mind as California town rebuilds -- After power and drinking water return, and cleanup crews haul away the last of the boulders and muck that splintered homes like a battering ram, the wealthy seaside hideaway of Montecito, California, will start rebuilding with the possibility of another catastrophic flood in mind. Justin Pritchard and Christopher Weber Associated Press -- 1/15/18

Oakland coal lawsuit turns into money train for outside lawyers -- City Attorney Barbara Parker has spent nearly $1.4 million for outside attorneys to defend the city in a breach-of-contract lawsuit brought by developer Phil Tagami, who was prevented by the city from carrying out plans to move millions of tons of coal a year through a shipping terminal he wants to develop on the old Oakland Army Base. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

Big billboard company goes small with ads on San Francisco sidewalk screens -- As if screens weren’t already ubiquitous enough, a new generation of TV-size digital billboards has quietly become part of downtown San Francisco’s streetscape. Benny Evangelista in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

Could legal recreational pot boost your home price? -- As recreational marijuana sales ramp up throughout the Bay Area, could the newly legal drug end up creating an unexpected type of high — in our real estate market? Researchers looking at the impact of legalized recreational marijuana on Denver’s home prices found a surprising trend: dispensaries that began selling recreational marijuana had a “large positive impact on neighboring property values.” Marisa Kendall in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 1/15/18

Kevin McCarthy relishes role as Trump’s fixer, friend and candy man -- President Trump and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) were alone in the presidential suite on Air Force One, flying east toward Washington in early October, when the president reached for a handful of Starbursts, the fruit-flavored, box-shaped chewy candies. But instead of unwrapping all the treats, the president was careful to pluck out and eat two flavors: cherry and strawberry, McCarthy noticed. Josh Dawsey and Robert Costa in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

Jeff Flake isn’t just comparing Trump to Stalin. He’s comparing Republicans to Stalin’s enablers -- A sitting U.S. senator plans to give a speech this week comparing the president of his own party to Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. That in itself is remarkable. Amber Phillips in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

On MLK Day, President Trump visits Trump golf course -- President Trump's first stop Monday was Trump International Golf Club, apparently beginning the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday with golf rather than the charitable service the slain civil rights leader's family has urged as the best way to memorialize him. Anne Gearan in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Thousands gather to mourn Montecito mudslide victims as death toll climbs to 20 -- Soon after the sun set over Santa Barbara, Ann Hagan grabbed a marker and wrote a short message to the 20 strangers who died in the devastating Montecito mudslides. “In our hearts,” she wrote before signing her name on a whiteboard put up at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse. Michael Livingston and Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

Why Have More People Died in the Mudslides Than in the Thomas Fire? -- The unexpected intensity of the storm is part of what made it so deadly. “Nowhere in my mind did I think it was going to be as bad as it was certainly,” said Jayme Laber, a hydrologist with the National Weather Service. Emily Guerin KQED -- 1/15/18

In Montecito, Enclave of Wealth and Fame, Unimagined Tragedy -- Unimaginable tragedy struck this small, exclusive enclave, nestled between the mountains and the ocean and home to many celebrities, last week when a torrential downpour — a “once in 200 years” storm, officials are quick to say — set off deadly mudslides in a landscape that, just last month, was scorched from the state’s largest wildfire on record. Tim Arango in the New York Times$ -- 1/15/18

Devastated by wildfire, a California city weighs rebuilding amid a housing crunch -- Coffey Park is emblematic of many aging suburban neighborhoods in California. Its cul-de-sacs are populated by students, recent graduates in low-paying jobs and other house-sharing transients living next to busy young families with two incomes and little time. Now California’s urgent task of expanding affordable housing for a squeezed working class is shared by this city about 55 miles north of San Francisco. Scott Wilson in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

Pastor of First AME Church asks congregants to pray for Trump after vulgar remarks about immigrants -- At First African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Los Angeles on Sunday morning, Senior Minister J. Edgar Boyd was met with murmurs of disapproval when he urged his mostly African American congregation to pray for the president of the United States. Cindy Chang in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

California Atty. Gen. Becerra tells Fox News that Trump has been racist 'in every respect' -- “Let me put it to you this way: mental instability, mendacity, having any one of those in the White House is dangerous — having the combination, that is lethal,” Becerra said on “Fox News Sunday With Chris Wallace.” Jazmine Ulloa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

Ted Lieu to Trump: I support an immigration system like the one your grandfather used to come to US -- Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) on Sunday responded to President Trump’s calls for merit-based immigration by saying he would support a system like the one that allowed the president’s grandfather to immigrate to America. Brett Samuels The Hill -- 1/15/18

Rep. Issa's abandoned district shifting left with anti-Trump fervor -- North County resident Janis Newland faces a potentially tough decision in November’s mid-term election. Her preferred candidate for congress, Darrell Issa, announced this week that he would join the more than 30 House Republicans not seeking re-election. Most, including Issa and California Rep. Ed Royce, represent districts carried by Hillary Clinton in 2016. Joshua Emerson Smith in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 1/15/18

Democrats in droves seek to topple GOP in California’s congressional races -- For California Democrats, the flood of candidates looking to unseat GOP members of Congress could be too much of a good thing. There already are 43 Democrats, many of them with plenty of campaign cash, lined up to challenge Republicans in the top seven districts targeted by their party. And with more than seven weeks to go before the March 9 filing deadline, that number could grow. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

Skelton: Is Gov. Brown's proposal for a public online community college a good idea? Some educators say no -- Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to create a statewide community college that offers only online courses seems headed for a bruising legislative brawl. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/15/18

Walters: Setting the record straight on two politicians -- Notwithstanding the maxim about not speaking ill of the dead, sometimes it’s necessary, as historians often do, to complete the record and teach a lesson about human behavior. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 1/15/18

Black artists fighting for truth, justice and a role in superhero comics -- Classic Superman comic books: not many black characters, if any. Classic Batman: Name a black figure. Spidey: You’re getting the idea. The upshot? Black comix — a growing movement of artists and writers creating black-themed comic books and graphic novels filled with black heroes and heroines — and the three-day Black Comix Arts Festival, which runs through Monday in San Francisco. Nanette Asimov in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

Homeless  

About a dozen people arrested for feeding the homeless in El Cajon park -- El Cajon police officers arrested about a dozen people for feeding the homeless at a city park Sunday afternoon. The event was organized by a group called Break the Ban, which formed after the El Cajon City Council unanimously passed an emergency ordinance in October prohibiting the distribution of food on any city-owned property. City officials said the ordinance was a way to protect the public from hepatitis A, but critics have called it a punitive measure to dehumanize and criminalize the homeless. Lyndsay Winkley in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 1/15/18

Activists protest homeless crisis by camping outside Oakland mayor’s house -- A group of demonstrators pitched tents and camped Saturday night on the front lawn of Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf’s home to protest what organizers called her “empty promises” on helping the city’s homeless. Benny Evangelista in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/15/18

POTUS 45  

Trump says ‘I’m not a racist’ and denies ‘shithole countries’ remark -- President Trump said Sunday that he is “not a racist” and denied that he had used the term “shithole countries” to describe Haiti and some African nations. “No, I'm not a racist,” he told reporters. “I'm the least racist person you have ever interviewed.” Anne Gearan in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

How a man’s first-ever tweet, about Obama’s respect, proved more popular than Trump’s bluster -- Donald Trump sent the 2,559th tweet of his presidency on Saturday. Like many before, it was combative and vague and quite popular. Avi Selk in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

Beltway 

In planned speech, Sen. Jeff Flake compares Trump’s media attacks to comments by Stalin -- A spokesman said that Flake, who will retire after this year amid intense political pressure sparked by his criticism of the president, plans to deliver the speech Wednesday before Trump announces the winners of his self-described “fake news” awards. Ed O'Keefe in the Washington Post$ -- 1/15/18

The next GOP panic: Governors races -- Buoyed by November election results, a surge in fundraising and expectations of a massive liberal wave, Democrats are preparing for an assault on one of the GOP’s most heavily fortified positions: governors mansions. Gabriel Debenedetti, Daniel Strauss Politico -- 1/15/18

 

-- Sunday Updates 

Trump says program to protect ‘Dreamers’ is ‘probably dead’ -- President Donald Trump said Sunday that a program that protects immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children is “probably dead,” casting a cloud over already tenuous negotiations just days before a deadline on a government funding deal that Democrats have tied to immigration. Darlene Superville Associated Press -- 1/14/18

Trump opens new front on legal immigration -- Expressing a fondness for Norwegian immigrants and disdain for those from poor and swarthy nations, President Trump seemed last week to be channeling the infamous national-origins quotas that sharply reduced U.S. immigration from 1924 to 1965, all but blocking arrivals from anywhere but Northern Europe. Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/18

With end of program protecting Salvadoran immigrants, a Valley city faces a crisis -- Buenaventura Peneda was waiting to get paid after a day of pruning pomegranate trees. Like he does every two weeks, he’ll send $500 of his earnings to his wife and family in El Salvador. “If not for me, they would suffer,” he said in Spanish on Friday. “I maintain the family there.” Mackenzie Mays in the Fresno Bee -- 1/14/18

Death toll from Montecito mudslides climbs to 20, as authorities continue search for the missing -- The death toll in the Montecito mudslides climbed to 20 on Sunday, as officials continued to work to clear the mud and debris-strewn 101 Freeway, which has been closed indefinitely. The body of the latest victim, who has not been identified, was discovered as authorities continued to search for several people still missing from the deluge, officials said. At least four other people are still unaccounted for. Louis Sahagun, Harriet Ryan and Michael Livingston in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/18

Mud, darkness and destruction turned Montecito into death trap -- The realization that houses might simply vanish didn’t start to set in until a 30-foot tree trunk barreled by. Trina Grokenberger stared out the upstairs window of her white Colonial house Tuesday morning, as a river raged through her front yard. It was 3:58 a.m. Joe Mozingo, Brittny Mejia and Matt Hamilton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/18

Oprah would trounce Trump in California, poll says -- If Oprah Winfrey ran for president against Donald Trump, she’d win hands down — at least in California, according to a new KPIX-SurveyUSA poll. The talk show host and media mogul bested the former reality TV star-turned-president by 24 points, 56 to 32 percent, in the phone poll of 909 California voters conducted from Jan. 7-9 — after Winfrey’s tour de force speech at the Golden Globes awards ceremony. Matier & Ross in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/18

Myers: Don't expect Jerry Brown to tackle Proposition 13 in his final year as governor -- On this last lap as California’s chief executive, a job he’s held longer than anyone in history, Gov. Jerry Brown seems to relish his reputation as a teller of political truths. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 1/14/18

Sacramento’s transit future: Order a bus to your front door -- Sacramento’s Regional Transit agency is about to launch an experiment that many say could open a dramatic new future for mass transportation – one that doesn’t involve walking to a bus stop and wondering when the next bus will arrive. Tony Bizjak in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 1/14/18

Airbnb loses thousands of hosts in San Francisco as registration rules kick in -- Thousands of San Francisco hosts on Airbnb and rival home-stay sites have stopped renting their homes and rooms to tourists. Many others are scrambling to register their vacation rentals with the city as a Tuesday deadline looms for Airbnb and HomeAway to kick off unregistered hosts. Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 1/14/18