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Trump is a “liar, criminal, fool” on climate change says California Gov. Jerry Brown -- California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday opened an international climate summit by saying that history will not remember President Donald Trump well when it comes to his actions pushing for more coal power and looser pollution standards for power plants and vehicles. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/18
Cities, states and businesses want to cancel out Trump's climate rollbacks. But how much pollution can they actually cut? -- Two years ago, California and the federal government were close partners in the battle against climate change. Today, the state is at the center of a more fractured coalition. Tony Barboza in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Protesters gathering in San Francisco, say climate change leaders not doing enough -- Hundreds of demonstrators crowded the streets of downtown San Francisco Thursday morning, banging drums and chanting as they called on local and world leaders at the Global Climate Action Summit to do more to address climate change and pollution. Ashley McBride and Evan Sernoffsky in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
CalPERS hired a CEO without a college degree. Now the public pension fund is explaining why -- Marcie Frost did not claim to have a college degree when she applied to lead the California Public Employees’ Retirement System in 2016. She emphasized it in blue ink, writing “not degreed yet” in a box that asked about her education. Adam Ashton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
Feinstein sends mysterious tip about Kavanaugh to federal investigators -- Sen. Dianne Feinstein sent information she received about Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to federal investigators, she said Thursday, even as she refused to reveal details about the tip. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Jennifer Haberkorn in the Los Angeles Times$ Casey Tolan and Tracey Kaplan in the San Jose Mercury$ Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
It's not just Trump — California voters can thank themselves for the state's relevancy in this November's midterm election -- Hey, California voter, way to go! People may say you’re sun-baked, a bit too laid back and, when it comes to picking presidents, largely irrelevant. But thanks to you, the state is sitting dead center in the November fight for control of Congress. Mark Z. Barabak in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Trump rebuked after questioning number of deaths attributed to Hurricane Maria -- President Trump drew widespread rebukes Thursday — including from several fellow Republicans — after falsely claiming that the number of deaths attributable to Hurricane Maria had been inflated by Democrats to “make me look as bad as possible.” John Wagner and Joel Achenbach in the Washington Post$ -- 9/13/18
California Policy & Politics This Morning
Gavin Newsom piles up IOUs in swing through California’s red country -- Gavin Newsom spoke for 10 minutes at a Central Valley campaign stop Wednesday and barely mentioned himself or his candidacy for governor. That’s unusual, coming less than two months before election day. Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
In California governor’s race, Gavin Newsom doing his best to pretend he has no opponent -- A few days after his Republican opponent launched a pair of websites attacking him as a privileged, San Francisco elitist, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom boarded a campaign bus with something else in mind: Shifting the balance of power in Washington, and returning the Democratic supermajority to both houses of the state Legislature. Angela Hart in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
California Campaign Watchdog Investigates Gas Tax Campaign -- California's campaign watchdog said Wednesday it is investigating whether a campaign to preserve the state's recent gas tax hike violated finance rules. The Fair Political Practices Commission will look into a complaint filed by the opposing campaign that alleges state employees distributed fliers urging voters to keep the tax increase in place. Sophia Bollag Associated Press -- 9/13/18
Experts: California’s a climate policy leader, but with missteps -- Pose this question to any number of experts: Should California be a role model for responding to climate change? Expect any number of differing responses. Julie Cart Calmatters -- 9/13/18
Skelton: Jerry Brown may not be the ultimate climate crusader, but he's a lot closer than most politicians -- Gov. Jerry Brown is unquestionably one of America’s most outspoken climate warriors. Yet in his own state, activists protest that he’s an overrated slacker. That’s quintessential left-coast California. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Cole Harris’ campaign may be over, but his consultants aren’t finished with him -- Republican Cole Harris, a first-time candidate who spent $2.2 million of his own money only to lose his run for lieutenant governor in June, is learning that politics is a tough business. Dan Morain Calmatters -- 9/13/18
Walters: Two education bills do the right things -- The numbers associated with public education in California are truly immense. Nearly 10 million students, the vast majority of them children, attend kindergartens, elementary schools, high schools and colleges supported by upwards of $100 billion from taxpayers each year. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 9/13/18
Surf the crest or batten down the hatches? California insiders predict Dem wave -- The biggest question hanging over the November election: Will Democrats be able to ride a blue wave of anti-Trump enthusiasm back into national political relevance? We surveyed political insiders in California, and most of them are putting on life jackets. Ben Christopher Calmatters -- 9/13/18
GOP hopeful has Trump’s ‘enemy of the people’ lines down – but not his endorsement -- California GOP Congressional candidate and former Assemblyman Tim Donnelly took to Twitter Wednesday to attack a favorite target — the media — using a phrase popularized by President Donald Trump. Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
Uprising to establishment: For east valley Latinos, struggle for representation led to political pipeline -- 15 years ago, a group of young, motivated latinos disrupted the Coachella Valley political establishment. Now they're the establishment. Alena Maschke in the Palm Springs Desert Sun -- 9/13/18
City threatens to yellow-tag San Francisco’s sinking Millennium Tower if demands not met -- San Francisco has given the managers of the sinking Millennium Tower until the end of the week to comply with a number of safety measures, as officials search for the reason a window on the high-rise’s 36th floor cracked Sept. 2. Failure to meet the deadline could result in the tower being yellow-tagged, which could limit access to the building until it’s deemed safe. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
San Francisco board votes to remove ‘Early Days’ statue showing fallen American Indian -- A controversial sculpture in San Francisco’s Civic Center depicting a vaquero and a missionary standing over a fallen and nearly naked American Indian could be coming down as early as next week following a unanimous vote by the city’s Board of Appeals Wednesday night. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Stores keep closing. Bay Area retailers still can’t find workers -- With brick-and-mortar stores closing at an alarming pace, you’d think there would be a glut of workers with retail skills pounding the pavement. Kathleen Pender in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
Can Southern California’s electric bike companies survive Trump’s tariffs? -- When President Donald Trump slapped a stiff duty on 279 categories of Chinese goods last month, Don DiCostanzo was ready. The CEO of Pedego Electric Bikes, based in Fountain Valley, had figured the new 25 percent tariffs on $16 billion worth of Chinese imports would cost him $1 million by the end of the year. Margot Roosevelt in the Orange County Register -- 9/13/18
‘Things got a little rowdy.’ Sun-Maid plant reopens amid labor strife -- Several dozen temporary workers and non-union employees were put in place Wednesday to reopen the strike-plagued Sun-Maid plant in Kingsburg. Robert Rodriguez in the Fresno Bee -- 9/13/18
Environment
San Francisco mayor urges global leaders to join city in climate change fight -- Mayor London Breed called on cities around the world Wednesday to join San Francisco in making the fight against global warming a top priority as she welcomed delegates from six continents to the city for the Global Climate Action Summit. Kurtis Alexander in the San Francisco Chronicl,$ -- 9/13/18
‘It’s literally drill, baby, drill’: Did Jerry Brown’s climate crusade gave Big Oil a pass? -- When Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills last weekend that aim to block an expansion of oil drilling in federal waters off the coast of California, he proclaimed it a message to President Donald Trump that the state would “not let the federal government pillage public lands and destroy our treasured coast.” Alexei Koseff in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
Can climate-friendly cuisine help save the planet? Welcome to Zero Foodprint week -- No one was surprised that the cows were a major culprit. But quail eggs? That was unexpected. Evan Halper in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
UC San Diego gets $20 million to explore the biggest wildcard in climate change — sea spray -- UC San Diego is getting $20 million to more deeply explore one of the most difficult, crucial and least-understood questions in climate science: How does the spray from breaking waves affect the formation and behavior of clouds, which in turn control the amount of sunlight that reaches the surface of a warming planet? Gary Robbins in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Housing
Hollywood Ghost Ship: Dozens found living in squalid conditions at abandoned building -- More than 60 people who were living illegally in a vacant building without electricity on Hollywood Boulevard were removed by police early Wednesday morning. Hannah Fry and James Queally in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Santa Monica offers cash to seniors to help with rent -- Rumors of seniors straining to pay their rent started making the rounds at Santa Monica City Hall two years ago so officials surveyed its elderly residents. “We had one household where the participant was eating every other day,” said Lisa Varon, senior analyst with the city of Santa Monica. Amita Sharma KPBS via Calmatters -- 9/13/18
Transit
BART ad from anti-Semitic group prompts outrage -- A Holocaust denial group has paid BART $6,400 to display an ad at two BART stations in San Francisco that read: “History matters.” The advertiser is the Institute for Historical Review, based in Fountain Valley in Orange County, and is listed by the Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group. Gwendolyn Wu in the San Francisco Chronicle$ George Kelly in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/18
BART staff ignored board to spy on riders, sent info ICE could access -- For eight months last year, BART collected some riders’ license plate information and sent it to a database ICE can access, employing surveillance technology the BART board had declared should not be used, according to documents obtained through a public records request. Erin Baldassari in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/18
Immigration, Border, Deportation
Family Arrivals Surge at US-Mexico Border in August -- U.S. border authorities arrested dramatically more immigrant families at the Mexico border in August compared to previous months in a spike that a Trump administration official said Wednesday was the result of "legal loopholes" allowing children to avoid immediate deportation to their homelands in Central America. Elliot Spagat Associated Press -- 9/13/18
For immigrant families without biological parents, separation might be permanent -- “Grandma Rosy” is back home now, in El Salvador, living alone, without the 12-year-old granddaughter she is raising. Earlier this year the pair spent a month traveling on foot and by bus to get to the United States to seek asylum. But last month the grandmother was deported. Roxana Kopetman in the Orange County Register -- 9/13/18
Actress Alyssa Milano highlights lack of legal representation in immigration court during San Diego visit -- Identifying herself as only Wendy B., the teenager described escaping a childhood of sexual and physical abuse at the hands of caretakers in her homeland of El Salvador, only to enter a complicated legal system in the U.S. that she could not comprehend. Kristina Davis in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
Detention of Migrant Children Has Skyrocketed to Highest Levels Ever -- Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded — a significant counternarrative to the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the number of undocumented families coming to the United States. Caitlin Dickerson in the New York Times$ -- 9/13/18
Education
Judge sides with California, faults DeVos for delaying student borrower protection -- A federal judge ruled Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Education’s delay of rules meant to protect student loan borrowers from predatory practices was “arbitrary and capricious,” granting a legal victory to the state of California and borrowers who say their colleges defrauded them. Felicia Mello Calmatters -- 9/13/18
Sac High boss resigns, blasts St. Hope leaders for ‘history of neglect’ -- Sacramento Charter High School’s top administrator has resigned just days after students left classes in protest and she blasted St. Hope administrators for what she said was the school’s “sustained history of neglect from above” and their “reactionary finger-pointing” in their handling of the student walkout. Darrell Smith, Hector Amezcua and Michael McGough in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/13/18
Teachers getting help to buy homes in California's hot housing market – The school year has gotten off to an exciting start for Kennedy High Media Arts teacher Mitzi Perez, who with her fiancé recently moved into their first home in the district where she teaches during the same week she welcomed new students into her classroom. Theresa Harrington EdSource -- 9/13/18
Health
Juul Labs co-founders say they’re working toward a world without smokers -- Before the surging popularity of e-cigarettes, two Stanford University graduate students worked together on a product design master’s thesis that aimed to disrupt the long-established cigarette industry. Seung Lee and Levi Sumagaysay in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 9/13/18
Chronic Loneliness Is A Major Cause Of Suicide For Seniors, Especially in Rural California -- To get to Heather Saxton’s house in Fiddletown, Ursula Tocher takes hairpin turns up narrow streets into what seem like endless brown hills. She arrives at a small cottage, where Saxton, 72, lives with her cat, Flower. Sammy Caiola Capital Public Radio -- 9/13/18
Also . . .
SFPD can seek discipline of officers for racist texts -- The state Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for San Francisco to seek disciplinary action against a group of police officers who exchanged racist, sexist and homophobic text messages in 2011 and 2012 — calling African Americans “monkeys” and encouraging the killing of “half-breeds,” among other slurs. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/13/18
Six dead, including gunman and his wife, in Bakersfield shooting rampage -- A gunman killed five people in back-to-back shootings in Bakersfield on Wednesday evening before turning the gun on himself when he was confronted by a deputy, authorities said. Alene Tchekmedyian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
City officials recommend monument status for three Los Angeles Times buildings -- A campaign by preservationists to garner monument status for three buildings the Los Angeles Times occupied for decades will have the support of city staff when the Cultural Heritage Commission meets next week to consider the issue. Roger Vincent in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/13/18
POTUS 45
President Trump has made more than 5,000 false or misleading claims -- On Sept. 7, President Trump woke up in Billings, Montana, flew to Fargo, N.D., visited Sioux Falls and eventually returned to Washington. He spoke to reporters on Air Force One, held a pair of fundraisers and was interviewed by three local reporters. In that single day, he publicly made 125 false or misleading statements – in a period of time that totaled only about 120 minutes. It was a new single-day high. Glenn Kessler, Salvador Rizzo and Meg Kelly in the Washington Post$ -- 9/13/18
Beltway
GOP senators: No Sessions replacement could get confirmed -- The possible axing of Jeff Sessions is giving Republican senators a migraine. Burgess Everett and Eliana Johnson Politico -- 9/13/18
-- Wednesday Updates
How far can California push the nation — and the world? Jerry Brown's climate summit may provide the answer -- Even as California forged its own path for years to battle global warming, pressing forward whether Washington agreed or not, skeptics have persistently scolded that it is just a state — it can’t set policy for the nation, much less the world. Evan Halper in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/12/18
California’s poverty rate is still the highest in the nation, despite state efforts -- Newly released federal estimates show California’s poverty rate remained the highest in the nation, despite a modest fall, and the state’s falling uninsured rate slowed for the first time since before Medicaid expansion. Michael Finch in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/12/18
Fearing earthquake destruction, California considers requiring lists of buildings most likely to collapse -- Structural engineers and seismic experts can drive along a street and quickly identify at least some buildings most vulnerable to collapse in a major earthquake. There are some telltale signs: parking spots under apartments, brick walls that have not been reinforced, first floors held up by flimsy poles. Rong-Gong Lin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/12/18
San Francisco e-cigarette maker Juul has 60 days to show FDA how it will reduce youth sales -- San Francisco’s Juul and other e-cigarette makers have 60 days to tell federal regulators how they plan to reduce sales to teens — or face having their products taken off the market, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 9/12/18
You can get a job at Caltrans in two days. It still has 1,100 openings -- Forget the stereotypes of California state government’s painfully slow process for hiring new workers. This summer, it was possible to walk into a Caltrans hiring fair and leave with a job offer. Adam Ashton in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 9/12/18
In response to Trump policies, some Californians open their homes to asylum seekers -- When it comes to fighting the Trump administration’s immigration policies, California has two “resistances.” There’s the official one, conducted by politicians, that includes the state’s landmark “sanctuary” law. Then there’s the unofficial resistance, which includes people like Ann and Kent Moriarty. Andrea Castillo in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/12/18
Del Mar board votes to suspend fairgrounds gun show up to a year -- The family-owned company that has operated the gun shows at the Del Mar Fairgrounds for nearly 30 years failed to overcome growing public concern about gun violence nationwide and questions about its owners’ legal troubles. Phil Diehl in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 9/12/18
Fire Chief: Downed PG&E Power Line Caused Marin County's Irving Fire -- Marin County's top fire official says a downed PG&E power line sparked a wildfire that burned more than 150 acres and threatened dozens of homes near the community of Lagunitas. Ted Goldberg KQED -- 9/12/18
Lopez: Taxpayers could foot the bill when coastal officials are accused of wrongdoing -- Where’s Oliver Hardy when you need him? If Laurel’s partner were still around, and paying attention to the long-running California coastal corruption case, he’d have the perfect line at the ready. “This is another nice mess you’ve gotten us into.” Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 9/12/18
Fox: Californians Aboard State’s Fight Over Climate Change—So Far -- Costs and economic concerns have not derailed Californians majority support for the fight against climate change. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 9/12/18