Updating . .
FBI raids DWP, L.A. City Hall, serving search warrant -- The FBI conducted a search of the downtown headquarters of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and City Hall, officials said Monday. “There is a search taking place at the DWP building. The affidavit in support of the search warrant is under seal by the court,” said Rukelt Dalberis, an FBI spokesman in Los Angeles. Law enforcement sources said the FBI was also at Los Angeles City Hall. Dakota Smith, David Zahniser, Alene Tchekmedyian, Laura J. Nelson in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
California seizes $30 million in black market cannabis from illegal pot shops -- California authorities have tripled the number of raids on unlicensed cannabis shops in the last year and seized $30 million in pot products, but legal industry leaders say enforcement is still inadequate to break the dominance of the black market in the state. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
UC admits largest and most diverse class ever of Californian freshmen -- The University of California opened its doors to the largest and most diverse class of Californians ever for the fall semester of 2019, according to data released Monday. Teresa Watanabe in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
Caltrain maps out big growth and how to pay the $25 billion tab -- Caltrain, the Peninsula commuter rail that started chugging when Abraham Lincoln was president, may look a lot more like BART in the coming years. Rachel Swan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Erin Baldassari in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/22/19
San Bruno seeks housing, then rejects it: ‘I don’t know what you can get passed’ -- Over the past three years, developer Mike Ghielmetti did everything he was supposed to do to get a 425-unit housing project approved on El Camino Real in San Bruno. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/22/19
How to see if you’re entitled to part of the Equifax settlement -- Equifax is expected to pay up to $600 million in a settlement for a 2017 data breach that exposed the information of about 147 million people. Up to $425 million of the settlement will go toward restitution for consumers who were affected by the breach, which occurred from mid-May through July 2017 and was revealed in September 2017. Sophia Kunthara in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Levi Sumagaysay in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/22/19
California’s after-school programs still waiting on cannabis tax money -- Supporters of California’s publicly funded After School Education and Safety programs — which educate and care for nearly 500,000 low-income elementary and middle school kids — were encouraged in 2016 when they heard and read the ads that supported the state’s ballot measure to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Brooke Staggs in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/22/19
Gavin Newsom’s death penalty moratorium isn’t saving California money -- When Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order halting the death penalty in California, he argued the system has wasted billions of taxpayer dollars. But without cooperation from prosecutors, there’s no evidence his action is saving the state any money. Sophia Bollag in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/22/19
Mayor’s affordable housing czar to step down -- Kate Hartley, director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development in San Francisco, is stepping down at the end of the week. Hartley was appointed to lead the office charged with building affordable housing in San Francisco in 2017 by then-Mayor Ed Lee. Dominic Fracassa in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/22/19
Morals and money: Is conscience-driven investing Silicon Valley’s VC future? -- Successful Silicon Valley venture capital companies have turned Sand Hill Road, a Menlo Park boulevard lined with VC firms, into an icon of wealth, and sprinkled the region with palatial homes and gleaming Maseratis. But there’s a growing movement called “impact investing” that looks beyond financial returns to also deliver positive effects on society, the economy, the environment and corporate governance. Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/22/19
Trump is cracking down on China. Now UC campuses are paying the price -- UC San Diego professor Shirley Meng’s laboratory is a veritable United Nations of research, with 48 scholars from six different countries exploring how to improve battery storage for electric vehicles, robots and — someday — flying cars. But Meng and her colleagues worry that one country soon will be left out of the lab: China. Teresa Watanabe and Don Lee in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
How U.S. video game companies are building tools for China’s surveillance state -- Last October, software developers at Riot Games in Santa Monica fielded an unusual request. Like other video game makers, Riot’s success depends on its ability to make games that are compulsively playable, like its global hit “League of Legends.” But Tencent, the Chinese tech giant that owns Riot, needed a way to force some of its most enthusiastic customers to play less. James B. Cutchin in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
California Policy & Politics This Morning
3 members of California white power group who rioted in Charlottesville sentenced to prison -- Benjamin Daley, a founder of the now-defunct Rise Above Movement, was sentenced Friday to 37 months in prison. Thomas Gillen, a Redondo Beach resident, was sentenced to 33 months, and Michael Miselis, a member who worked as an aerospace engineer for Northrop Grumman, was sentenced to 27 months. A fourth defendant, Cole White, will be sentenced later. All four previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to riot. Brittny Mejia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
‘Close the camps’: Dozens in Palo Alto launch 3-week immigration protest -- Flabbergasted by the way the federal government is treating asylum seekers and children at the nation’s southern border, dozens of people kicked off a three-week protest Sunday on the sidewalks and pedestrian islands of one of Palo Alto’s main intersections. Joseph Geha in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/22/19
Two LA City Council candidates from the Valley. One big homeless problem. Two different ways to tackle it -- Los Angeles City Council District 12 is the only district in the city that has no bridge housing facility. But it doesn’t mean that homelessness is not a big issue here. Olga Grigoryants in the Los Angeles Daily News$ -- 7/22/19
Walters: Trump and California at it again -- President Donald Trump and the Democrats who dominate California politics are locked into a rather bizarre, symbiotic relationship. Almost daily, they fire political and legal bullets at each other across 2,728 miles – by highway – of American soil, each knowing that no matter how strange the missives may appear to ordinary folks, there’s no penalty to be paid. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 7/22/19
Politicians Tackle Surprise Bills, but Not the Biggest Source of Them: Ambulances -- After his son was hit by a car in San Francisco and taken away by ambulance, Karl Sporer was surprised to get a bill for $800. Mr. Sporer had health insurance, which paid for part of the ride. But the ambulance provider felt that amount wasn’t enough, and billed the Sporer family for the balance. Sarah Kliff and Margot Sanger-Katz in the New York Times$ -- 7/22/19
Schnur: All Californians should have safe, clean water. But how do we make it happen? -- When there are 1 million Californians without access to clean drinking water, doing the right thing shouldn’t be complicated. Dan Schnur in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/22/19
Calbuzz: Perils of Polling: Does Kamala Really Lead Joe? -- Fans of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris rejoiced last week when the well-known Quinnipiac University Poll found her leading former Vice President Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination in California. Jerry Roberts and Phil Trounstine CalBuzz -- 7/22/19
Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions
Who should keep an eye on Silicon Valley? -- The federal government's struggles to rein in Facebook are driving some Democrats and consumer advocates to a stark conclusion: The agency charged with regulating Silicon Valley is not up to the task. Nancy Scola and Margaret Harding McGill Politico -- 7/22/19
Wildfire
California, Wary of More Wildfires, Is Paying for Them Already -- Two thousand homes lost and two-thirds of the land burned: The residents of Lake County, a sparsely populated area north of Napa Valley, understand better than most the devastating cost of wildfires in recent years. Thomas Fuller and Ivan Penn in the New York Times$ -- 7/22/19
Cannabis
How Legal Marijuana Is Helping the Black Market -- When the new marijuana shop opened up just down the street from his own marijuana shop, Greg Meguerian, owner of The Reefinery in Los Angeles, kept an eye on it. When that shop stayed open past the legal closing time of 10 p.m. and sold customers over a quarter-pound of cannabis at once, four times more than the legal limit, Meguerian knew he wasn’t competing with a licensed dispensary. Natalie Fertig Politico -- 7/22/19
Immigration / Border
Migrant mental health crisis spirals in ICE detention facilities -- Federal inspectors visiting a California migrant detention center made a shocking discovery last year: Detainees had made nooses from bedsheets in 15 of 20 cells in the facility they visited. Renuka Rayasam Politico -- 7/22/19
Environment
Once Nearly Dead as the Dodo, California Condor Comeback Reaches 1,000 Chicks -- The California condor, North America's largest bird, once ruled the American Southwest and California's coastal mountains. The vulture-like bird was revered by Native Americans and was believed to contain spiritual powers. Scott Simon, Josh Axelrod NPR via KQED -- 7/22/19
Los Angeles County officials meet with community about Marina del Rey gas blowout -- Several months after an oil well on a construction site in Marina del Rey blew open, sending natural gas about 100 feet in the air, Los Angeles County officials met with angry residents to discuss the dangers posed by gas wells. Brittny Mejia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/22/19
Also . . .
30-plus people rescued in American River in one day. Many rode on pool inflatables -- Sacramento Metro Fire rescued at least 30 people during six trips in the American River on Saturday, including one rescue that involved 20 people, according to fire inspector Diana Schmidt. What the rescuees all had in common: none of them rode in river-compliant rafts. Many rode in pool inflatables. Elaine Chen in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 7/22/19
1960s prankster Paul Krassner, who named Yippies, dies at 87 -- Paul Krassner, the publisher, author and radical political activist on the front lines of 1960s counterculture who helped tie together his loose-knit prankster group by naming them the Yippies, died Sunday in Southern California, his daughter said. Christopher Weber and John Rogers Associated Press Sam Whiting in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/22/19
POTUS 45
Anbinder: The long, ugly history of insisting minority groups can’t criticize America -- All week, President Trump has been suggesting that black, Latina and Muslim congresswomen critical of his policies should “go back” to “the totally broken and crime infested” countries “from which they came,” even though all but one of the lawmakers he has been attacking were born in the United States. That made Trump just the latest in a long line of American politicians who have demonized ethnic and religious minorities for political gain. Tyler Anbinder in the Washington Post$ -- 7/22/19
Beltway
During America’s ‘most segregated hour,’ preachers grapple with Trump’s politics -- The Rev. Stephen Howard knew President Trump’s speech was going to be unsettling for his city and his mostly black church the moment he saw people had lined up at 4 a.m. Wednesday to get into the arena. These were his congregants’ neighbors and co-workers. Greg Jaffe and Cleve R. Wootson Jr. in the Washington Post$ -- 7/22/19
Buttigieg says white supremacy could be 'issue that ends this country' -- South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg warned white supremacy could be “the issue that ends this country” in an interview with ABC News Saturday. "That is the only issue that almost ended this country. … We’ve had a lot challenges in this country, but the one that actually almost ended this country in the Civil War was white supremacy," Buttigieg told the network in Iowa. "It could be the lurking issue that ends this country in the future, if we don’t wrangle it down in our time,” he added. Zack Budryk The Hill -- 7/22/19
Trump adviser Stephen Miller says outrage over 'racist' remarks meant to 'silence and punish' -- Pushback against President Donald Trump's recent racist comments about four women of color in Congress is merely an effort by Democrats to "try to silence and punish and suppress" views opposite their own, White House senior policy adviser Stephen Miller said Sunday. Eleanor Mueller Politico -- 7/22/19
Republicans spent the week being asked about racism. Their definitions of it were all over the map -- A big question in the days following President Trump’s controversial tweets about four minority congresswomen has been: Why aren’t more Republicans unequivocally denouncing them as racist? Eugene Scott in the Washington Post$ -- 7/22/19
Clayton mayor responds to deli owner's 'send her back' Facebook post -- The mayor of a Contra Costa County town and the local community are responding to the Facebook post made by the owner of Clayton deli that seems to have referenced recent controversial statements made by President Donald Trump and his supporters. Drew Costley in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/22/19
Supreme Court Justice Thomas the leading edge of conservative wing -- States shouldn’t have to provide lawyers to criminal defendants who can’t afford them. Courts should allow discrimination by race and sex in jury selection. The constitutional separation of church and state shouldn’t apply to state governments. Those views don’t come from some radical conservative manifesto, but from the published opinions of the Supreme Court’s longest-serving member, Justice Clarence Thomas, in the 2018-19 term that ended last month. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/22/19
-- Sunday Updates
Should all teachers be credentialed? Charter school advocates say no -- More than 1,100 educators in California charter schools lack a teaching credential, the California Department of Education says. A lawmaker wants to change that. Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/21/19
Fight to change California’s landmark consumer privacy law fizzles — for now -- As a consumer, Dirk Lorenz says he understands the anxiety many people feel about online ads that seem to stalk their search and social media visits. He, too, finds the mass collection of personal data invasive. But as the longtime owner of Fremont Flowers, Lorenz said California lawmakers’ antidote to those concerns could be toxic for small retailers like him. Dustin Gardiner in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/21/19
L.A. says it got 21,631 homeless people into housing. Is that really true? -- In the pervasive gloom that has surrounded the results of L.A. County’s annual homeless count, officials have repeatedly pointed to one bit of bright news: A record number of people got off the streets and into housing last year. Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/21/19
Bed shortages at California mental health facilities leave inmates deemed incompetent in limbo -- Despite being found incompetent to stand trial, Samuel Eugene Johnson sits in the Butte County Jail, waiting for a bed to open at a California mental health facility. Johnson, a homeless man, was charged with the murder of 55-year-old Linda Blacksten in 2018 near the Chico State University campus. Jake Hutchison in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/21/19
Shelter directors feel pinch as more refugees languish in Tijuana -- Shelter directors in Tijuana say they are struggling to keep up with an overwhelming need after the Mexican federal government cut off funding for immigrants and the Trump administration implemented Monday a virtual ban on all foreigners filing for asylum in the United States. Wendy Fry in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 7/21/19
Did this student deserve admission to UCLA’s renowned gymnastics team? -- Even by the lofty standards of UCLA gymnastics, the team’s 2016 freshmen stood out. Nathan Fenno, Richard Winton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/21/19
ICE used Oakland Airport to deport and transfer tens of thousands of immigration detainees -- Despite being located in one of the nation’s most prominent sanctuary cities, Oakland International Airport served as the staging ground for nearly 1,000 flights chartered by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement between 2010 and 2018, carrying detainees on their way to deportation or transfer between detention centers. Cat Ferguson, Ali Tadayon and Ethan Baron in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 7/21/19
These ‘ghost’ legal clients are shaking down mom-and-pop businesses under the guise of disability rights -- In a new twist on an old ruse that some call legal extortion, a Los Angeles attorney is suspected of creating “ghost” clients who file hundreds of lawsuits under the Americans with Disabilities Act to extract settlements from Southern California businesses. Scott Schwebke in the Orange County Register -- 7/21/19
It’s free. It’s fun. Why Silicon Valley loves swag — and how it’s changing -- Scan your closets and drawers. Chances are, you’ll find T-shirts, tote bags and baseball caps emblazoned with logos and slogans of conferences you attended, products you bought, nonprofits you supported, companies that wanted to sell you stuff. Carolyn Said in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 7/21/19
Idyllwild prized its isolation. Now, with the roads into town wrecked, it feels all alone -- Now, the town of 3,380, which calls itself “the home of adventure, music, art and harmony,” is bereft of many of the visitors who power the tourist economy. It’s also missing the easy access to the supplies, services and labor provided by the “flatlands” below. Locals, who seemingly had outwitted madding civilization, now fret over doctors’ visits delayed, commutes doubled or tripled and cash registers rendered mute. James Rainey in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 7/21/19