Updating . .
More than 60 deaths in fires, floods exposes weaknesses in California's emergency planning -- A reckoning on public preparedness long in the making is underway in California after a year that saw unprecedented death, destruction and loss from disasters set off by extreme weather. Paige St. John and Joseph Serna in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
California to get first female and first LGBT Senate leader -- San Diego Sen. Toni Atkins will make history Wednesday when she becomes the first woman and first lesbian to hold the California Senate's top job. Jonathan J. Cooper Associated Press -- 3/18/18
If D.A. Jackie Lacey won't charge the LAPD officer who shot Brendon Glenn, some ask: When would she prosecute? -- If there was ever a police shooting that would bring criminal charges against a law enforcement officer in Los Angeles, the killing of Brendon Glenn near the Venice boardwalk looked like it could be the one. Cindy Chang, Kate Mather and Marisa Gerber in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
California's anti-abortion pregnancy centers want the Supreme Court to overturn state notice law -- At a faith-based pregnancy center here, rooms are crammed with baby supplies, both new and used, for expectant mothers, and a medical office contains equipment to allow pregnant women to view their fetuses. "Life is not about waiting for the storm to pass," reads a saying on a wall, "but learning to dance in the rain." Maura Dolan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
Adam Schiff: Facebook Should Testify Before Congress Again -- Following reports that data analytics firm Cambridge Analytica harvested information from the Facebook profiles of more than 50 million users without their permission, Rep. Adam Schiff is calling for the social media company to appear before Congress again. Jeremy Siegel KQED -- 3/18/18
Nancy Pelosi Wants to Lead. House Democratic Candidates Aren’t So Sure -- A few hours after Conor Lamb, the Pennsylvania Democrat, claimed victory in a House race with a vow to oppose his party’s leader, Nancy Pelosi, the once-and-perhaps-future speaker was explaining to a group of female congressional candidates why she did not retire after 2016. Jonathan Martin and Alexander Burns in the New York Times$ -- 3/18/18
California Politics Podcast: This week: President Trump comes to California, and the political world sizzles -- Plus, filing season is now over for statewide and regional races in the Golden State. And some developments on the debate over healthcare reform in Sacramento. Plus, the best of tweeted questions for our lightning round. With John Myers and Melanie Mason of the Los Angeles Times. Link here -- 3/18/18
Trump fumes at Mueller probe; some Republicans warn him not to move against special counsel -- President Trump stepped up his attacks against Robert S. Mueller III on Sunday even as some Republican allies cautioned the president against any move to fire the special counsel, who is carrying out a broad investigation arising from Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election. Laura King in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
Republicans warn Trump to back off Mueller -- But they don’t say what, if anything, they might do if the president fires the special counsel. Kyle Cheney Politico -- 3/18/18
Graham calls for hearing on McCabe firing -- Sen. Lindsey Graham on Sunday said the Senate Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ firing of FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, telling CNN’s “State of the Union” that the decision merits extra scrutiny “to make sure it wasn't politically motivated.” Louis Nelson Politico -- 3/18/18
Fact-checking Trump’s error-filled tweetstorm about the Mueller probe -- In a series of tweets March 17 and 18, President Trump made a number of inaccurate or misleading statements about the investigations into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. As a reader service, here’s a quick guide to his claims. Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post$ -- 3/18/18
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Stashing cash for a rainy day isn't as easy as it sounds for California government -- Few ballot measures have ever been more resoundingly embraced by Californians than Proposition 2, the 2014 constitutional amendment championed by Gov. Jerry Brown requiring that more state tax money be put aside for rough economic times. John Myers in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
Walters: How pension costs clobbered one small city -- When Santa Cruz, a picturesque and funky coastal city, first started to feel the pinch of rising retirement costs for city workers, it took several steps to limit the fiscal pain. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 3/18/18
Santa Cruz plots path into and out of city’s dire fiscal straits -- In less than three months, Santa Cruz voters will consider upping their bill at the cash register, with a proposed new city sales tax measure on the June ballot. The quarter-of-a-percent increase, bringing city sales taxes up to a state-controlled 9.25 percent cap, is one of several ways the city is looking to curb a looming budget shortage projected to build to a $21 million shortfall by 2022, without proper intervention. Jessica A. York in the Santa Cruz Sentinel -- 3/18/18
Willie Brown: Tweets of terror: Trump is getting busy at the chopping block -- President Trump has brought the TV reality show “The Apprentice” to the West Wing, along with its signature phrase, “You’re fired.” Willie Brown in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 3/18/18
Senator demands Mark Zuckerberg testify before Senate committee over massive data leak -- A U.S. senator is demanding that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after reports that a company employed by President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign accessed profile data from more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 3/18/18
White supremacists hang banners at visible locations to promote ideology and recruit, new ADL report says -- White supremacist groups in Southern California and other parts of the country are using giant banners over rooftops and across freeway overpasses to bring attention to their ideology and to recruit more members, according to a report released Friday, March 16, by the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism. Deepa Bharath in the Orange County Register -- 3/18/18
Denham among eight running for Congressional seat -- Political drama is thick in this year's race for the 10th Congressional District, where a host of challengers eager to unseat Rep. Jeff Denham think they smell blood in the water. Garth Stapley in the Modesto Bee$ -- 3/18/18
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Trump campaign consultants' misuse of Facebook users' data shows lax security -- Yes, Cambridge Analytica, the data analysis firm that helped Donald Trump win the 2016 election, violated rules when it obtained information from some 50 million Facebook profiles, the social media company acknowledged late Friday. But the data came from someone who didn't hack the system: a professor who originally told Facebook he wanted it for academic purposes. Sarah Frier in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/18/18
Guns
Del Mar gun show crowd, protesters illustrate national division over gun rights -- The line began to form Saturday well before the 9 a.m. opening of the Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, despite the morning rain that left huge swaths of the parking lot a virtual lake. Greg Moran in the San Diego Union-Tribune -- 3/18/18
Homeless
Orange County agrees to case-by-case extensions for homeless leaving motels, plan unveiled to help people living at Civic Center -- An unusual court session held in a packed City Hall council chambers Saturday, March 17, ended in a compromise to extend some expiring motel stays for homeless people relocated from the riverbed and a surprise announcement that the county and the city of Santa Ana will work together to soon house about 150 homeless people at the Civic Center. Theresa Walker in the Orange County Register Thy Vo and Spencer Custodio VoiceofOC.org -- 3/18/18
Housing
San Jose lags on affordable housing as home prices soar beyond $1 million -- Last year, the nation’s 10th largest city issued building permits for just 475 affordable units — 20 percent of its target number for the year. During the same time, the city allowed 2,622 homes to be built at the market rate — now north of a million dollars for a single-family home — reaching 162 percent of its goal for the year. Emily DeRuy in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 3/18/18
Wildfire
Hundreds of vacant lots placed on the market after October wildfires -- The cul-de-sac above the first green of the Fountaingrove golf club has become a land of broken dreams. At the southern tip of Deauville Place, near a meadow where the new grass shimmers green, five adjacent lots have been offered for sale. Each one has been cleared of debris after the homes there burned in the October wildfires. Robert Digitale in the Santa Rosa Press Democrat -- 3/18/18
Education
Former McClatchy High student says she was gang raped by classmates. She plans to sue district -- Now an 19-year-old graduate, she says the district never gave her information as a 17-year-old student about her civil rights or told her she had the right to press criminal charges against the boys. She also says the district didn't provide resources or support services. Diana Lambert in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 3/18/18
Immigration / Border
Immigrant held in San Diego reunited with child months after separation by feds -- A Congolese mother has been reunited with her 7-year-old daughter months after they crossed the California-Mexico border seeking asylum and were separated by the U.S. government, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer said Saturday. Associated Press -- 3/18/18
Also . . .
Searchers to bring in drone, airplane to aid in search of missing East Bay skier -- Since Thomas Mullarkey was reported missing late Wednesday night after skiing at Bear Valley, the resort has received six feet of snow, hampering search efforts, an Alpine County Sheriff’s Office spokesman said Saturday. Matthias Gafni in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 3/18/18
Andrew McCabe was just offered a job by a congressman so he can get his full retirement. And it just might work -- That's one way of protesting Andrew McCabe's firing as deputy FBI director, roughly a day before he was set to retire: At least one Democratic congressman has offered McCabe a temporary job so he can get full retirement benefits — and McCabe appears to be considering. Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) announced Saturday afternoon that he has offered McCabe a job to work on election security in his office, “so that he can reach the needed length of service” to retire. Amber Phillips in the Washington Post$ -- 3/18/18
POTUS 45
Trump and the Truth: A President Tests His Own Credibility -- When President Trump told donors at a fund-raiser this past week that he had invented a fact during a conversation with Canada’s prime minister, the surprise was not that America’s leader makes things up, but that he openly admitted it. Or maybe admitted is the wrong word. He actually seemed to boast about it. Peter Baker in the New York Times$ -- 3/18/18
-- Saturday Updates
In California's rural, conservative north, there are big dreams for cleaving the state -- The two young, blond women in figure-flattering ball gowns hoisted whiskey and shotguns. An auctioneer rattled off bids. Above the stage in the banquet hall hung a green flag for the 51st state of Jefferson, with its pair of Xs called a “double-cross” representing a sense of rural abandonment. Hailey Branson-Potts in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/17/18
A voter profiling firm hired by Trump likely grabbed data for tens of millions of Facebook users -- Facebook revealed on Friday that a voter profiling firm hired by Donald Trump and other Republicans had improperly used data from 270,000 users of the social media platform. But what Facebook didn’t say may be more important: The number of people affected by this aggressive form of data grabbing likely numbered in the tens of millions. Craig Timberg and Elizabeth Dwoskin in the Washington Post$ -- 3/17/18
How Trump Consultants Exploited the Facebook Data of Millions -- The firm had secured a $15 million investment from Robert Mercer, the wealthy Republican donor, and wooed his political adviser, Stephen K. Bannon, with the promise of tools that could identify the personalities of American voters and influence their behavior. But it did not have the data to make its new products work. Matthew Rosenberg, Nicholas Confessore and Carole Cadwalladr in the New York Times$ -- 3/17/18
Facebook suspends Trump election data firm that accessed millions of user profiles -- Facebook Inc. has suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data company that helped Donald Trump win the presidential election, for receiving and failing to delete as many as 50 million Facebook profiles without their owners' permission. Sarah Frier in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/17/18
ACLU asks in lawsuit: Why is the TSA searching digital devices on domestic flights? -- U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents have increasingly searched digital devices carried by travelers on international flights, as they look for data in cellphones, laptops and other electronic gadgets that can provide clues to possible terrorist attacks. Now, the American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the Transportation Security Administration demanding to know why TSA security officers also are looking at data stored in digital devices carried by passengers on domestic flights. Hugo Martin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/17/18
Hearing today will weigh what’s next for homeless moved from Santa Ana River trail and into area motels -- The future of hundreds of homeless people recently removed from the Santa Ana River trail in Orange County and temporarily housed in area motels will be the focus of a federal judge's hearing Saturday in Santa Ana. Hannah Fry in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 3/17/18
Young woman’s ‘dying declaration’ a rare path to justice, law enforcement says -- Lizette Cuesta’s last words could come back to haunt her alleged killers. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 3/17/18