California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Harris’ support dipping below 10% — even in the Bay Area -- Former Vice President Joe Biden and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren lead the pack of Democratic presidential hopefuls in California with 24% and 23% support, respectively, according to a recent Public Policy Institute poll. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

California asks for clarity in clean car rollbacks. EPA’s answer might affect your commute -- The rule stripping California of its power to police climate-warming car pollution is supposed to take effect today. Still unknown is whether this affects 2021 vehicles or earlier editions — and what it means for California's commuters. Rachel Becker Calmatters -- 11/27/19

Threat of mudslides returns to California after devastating fires. How do they work? -- With parts of California yet again burned by severe fires, the state is facing a new winter of mudslides. Rong-Gong Lin Ii, Joseph Serna, Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Power outage at Oakland airport strands passengers on runways and in security lines -- A power outage at Oakland International Airport on Tuesday evening led to snaking security lines, planes waiting on runways and passengers stranded on one of the busiest travel days of the year. Soumya Karlamangla in the Los Angeles Times$ Dianne de Guzman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ George Kelly in the East Bay Times -- 11/27/19

Recall Gavin Newsom? The time is right, GOP activists say -- After less than a year in office, Gov. Gavin Newsom is already the target of a pair of recall efforts. But if history is any judge, he might not have to start packing up his Capitol office just yet. John Wildermuth in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

California Democratic leader says he will not seek re-election in 2020 -- Assembly Majority Leader Ian Calderon announced on Tuesday that he will not seek re-election next year in his Southern California district, saying he instead plans to spend more time with wife and young children. Hannah Wiley in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Cows don’t have fingers and can’t insult Devin Nunes on Twitter, court filing says -- A Democratic strategist is refusing to disclose communications that could reveal the identity of anonymous Twitter users who criticize Rep. Devin Nunes, arguing in a new court filing that the accounts are clearly satirical expressions of political speech. Hannah Wiley and Kate Irby in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/27/19

Union City mayor expresses outrage over killing of boys, 11 and 14 -- The mayor of Union City expressed grief and outrage at the fatal shooting of two boys outside a Union City elementary school over the weekend — a sentiment felt by residents of the city who recalled similar slayings occurring nearly a decade ago. Sarah Ravani in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

New 2020 law #3: California limits when police can use deadly force -- Starting Jan. 1, police can legally use deadly force only when “necessary in defense of human life.” That’s a higher standard than prosecutors apply now, when officers are permitted to use such force when it is “reasonable.” Byrhonda Lyons Calmatters -- 11/27/19

Supervisor Matt Haney demands city open bathrooms 24 hours -- Haney argues that reliable access to restrooms is a basic necessity for more than just SF’s homeless residents, citing night uses by “children, seniors, tourists, taxi drivers, couriers, Uber drivers, people leaving bars, neighborhood residents, anyone and everyone because all people poop and pee.” Adam Brinklow Curbed San Francisco -- 11/27/19

Do Trump’s interventions for SEAL Eddie Gallagher undermine military justice and commander authority? -- A crisis at the top of military leadership in the handling of a high-profile war crimes case has raised questions in the San Diego military community about the military justice system and what good order and discipline looks like. Andrew Dyer in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/27/19

Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions  

UC workers sue their union, saying it still charges fees struck down by Supreme Court -- A UC Davis Medical Center worker is suing his union, saying AFSCME 3299 made it difficult for him to leave and is still charging him fees. Wes Venteicher in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/27/19

Workers, city supervisors arrested at SFO during pre-Thanksgiving pay protest -- Police arrested 50 people at San Francisco International Airport on Tuesday — mostly airline catering workers, but also three city supervisors — as they protested for better pay and benefits in Terminal 2. Mallory Moench in the San Francisco Chronicle$ Kelly O'Mara, Kate Wolffe KQED -- 11/27/19

Farm labor contractor pays fine after picking foreign worker over local worker, officials say -- A California farm labor contractor has been fined for rejecting a local worker in favor of a foreign agricultural guest, among other abuses, the U.S. Labor Department announced. Geoffrey Mohan in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

‘Very tragic’: Sonoma County Habitat for Humanity nears collapse after expansion -- Habitat for Humanity’s Sonoma County affiliate says it is suspending home-building and laying off most of the staff at the end of the year. The collapse follows a period of aggressive growth followed by a precipitous drop in donations. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

Grim Financial Reality Is Settling in at SANDAG -- Staffers at the San Diego Association of Governments have taken up a new routine. Every few months, they update board members on just how terrible the agency’s financial situation has become. Andrew Keatts Voiceofsandiego.org -- 11/27/19

Taxes, Fees, Rates, Tolls, Bonds 

Strained by wildfires, L.A. County firefighters want voters to approve a tax increase -- The Los Angeles County Fire Department plans to ask voters for more money next year, as commanders scramble for more resources to respond to increasingly destructive wildfires and a growing volume of medical calls. Matt Stiles in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Oakland seeks to overturn Measure AA parcel tax ruling -- Oakland is fighting to overturn an Alameda County Superior Court judge’s October declaration that a $198 parcel tax ballot measure did not garner enough votes to pass, despite the City Council deciding that it had. Ali Tadayon in the East Bay Times -- 11/27/19

Transit  

New start-up wants to fly Southern California commuters over gridlock traffic -- Flying over rush hour traffic might sound like dream, but a team of entrepreneurs in Southern California wants to make it a reality — shuttling thousands of long-distance commuters between airports from Santa Barbara to San Diego. Joshua Emerson Smith in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/27/19

In SF, bikes still aren’t a preferred means of travel. Can the city change that? -- In yet another effort to get people out of their cars, San Francisco is gearing up to install a record 100 new bikes racks a month in the coming year. How quickly the new racks fill up, however, remains to be seen. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

Report: BART cites more people of color for eating and drinking at its stations -- A public records request looking into BART's citations for eating and drinking at stations and trains shows that people of color are disproportionately given tickets. Dianne De Guzman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

Homeless  

To keep these mentally ill Angelenos housed, L.A. is looking to Sacramento for help -- Alarmed by the shuttering of dozens of board and care homes that serve low-income people with debilitating mental illness, Los Angeles officials are stepping up their lobbying efforts to secure more funding in next year’s state budget. Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Knight: Would you take in a homeless person? San Francisco hopes you’ll say yes -- Any walk around downtown San Francisco makes it abundantly clear City Hall can’t solve the homeless crisis on its own. So it’s reaching out to a seemingly unlikely pool of people for help: regular city residents with spare rooms and big hearts. Heather Knight in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

Housing  

Court says San Jose can’t make its own rules when it comes to housing -- Cities in California must comply with a state law that requires them to make surplus public land available for low-cost housing, a state appeals court ruled Tuesday. Bob Egelko in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

Earthquake

Cave fire: Residents thought they were safe, then flames and smoke ‘began to blossom’ -- At the Goleta Valley Community Center, residents forced to flee their neighborhoods just a few days before Thanksgiving awaited word about their homes as the Cave fire continued to chew through dry brush in Santa Barbara County. Leila Miller in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Wildfire  

When it comes to wildfires, should California be more like Australia? -- A principle of shared responsibility — government and citizens in partnership against fire — is the underpinning of the Aussies' approach. Residents typically have a "stay and defend" option. Julie Cart Calmatters -- 11/27/19

Cannabis 

California officials side with marijuana company in new fight over home deliveries -- Escalating a legal battle with California cities and counties over where marijuana can be sold, state officials are intervening in a new court fight over home delivery of cannabis in communities that have banned or restricted pot shops. Patrick McGreevy in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Rancho Cordova Says Focus On Illegal Pot Enforcement Has Yielded Results -- The Rancho Cordova Police Department says more attention to illegal cannabis operations has yielded results, but some in the pot community who say there are other options than enforcement. Bob Moffitt Capital Public Radio -- 11/27/19

Immigration / Border 

Asylum-Seeker Held Incommunicado For Three Weeks By Border Patrol -- A man in Border Patrol custody was held for three weeks while his family and lawyers had no idea where he was or if he was even alive. The 39-year-old man had been held at the Chula Vista Border Patrol station without being able to call his family or lawyer. Max Rivlin-Nadler KPBS -- 11/27/19

U.S. Customs officer loses job and citizenship over his Mexican birth certificate -- Raul Rodriguez had worked for U.S. Customs for 18 years when internal investigators confronted him last year with a document he had never seen before: His Mexican birth certificate. Molly Hennessy-Fiske in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Trump says U.S. to designate Mexican drug cartels as terrorist groups -- Mexican authorities were seeking a high-level meeting with their U.S. counterparts Tuesday following President Trump’s revelation that Washington planned to designate Mexican drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Patrick J. McDonnell in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Health 

Hackers Welcome: Why Federal Regulators Are Welcoming Simulated Hacks In Hospital Settings -- This isn’t an emergency room. It’s a simulation center at UC San Diego’s Simulation Training Center. And these doctors and actors are participating in a simulated ransomware attack. A patient’s health hangs in the balance. And hundreds of people downstairs are watching in an auditorium. Shalina Chatlani KPBS -- 11/27/19

Football Hall-of-Famer Kellen Winslow Sr. claims the sport led to brain injury -- Winslow played for the Chargers from 1979 to 1987. Attorneys for his namesake son, recently convicted of sex crimes, have said the younger Winslow has head trauma from pro football as well. Teri Figueroa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/27/19

Environment 

Court ruling on Martins Beach puts public access rights in doubt -- The bitter decade-long tussle over the right of beachgoers to access a sandy cove near Half Moon Bay took another twist this week when a state appeals court ruled that Martins Beach had not historically been public because the previous owners had charged a fee to go there. Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle$ John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/27/19

Fog brings poison mercury to Santa Cruz Mountains — mountain lions are suffering -- Three times as much mercury has been found in mountain lions in the Santa Cruz Mountains than in their inland brethren, and the likely culprit is coastal fog, a first-of-its-kind study by UC Santa Cruz has found. Peter Fimrite in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/27/19

UCSD and Stanford record the heart rate of a blue whale in the wild for the first time -- In a difficult breakthrough, researchers at UC San Diego and Stanford have, for the first time, recorded the heart rate of a blue whale as it swam in the wild off California. Scientists say the data indicates that the mammal’s heart may have been operating at capacity, which might explain why there has never been a species larger than the blue whale. Gary Robbins in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 11/27/19

Also . . . 

Deputy sitting in cruiser is punched, gives chase on foot, then is hit by DUI driver, officials say -- A 25-year-old Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was in critical but stable condition Tuesday after being struck by a suspected drunk driver while running after a man authorities said assaulted her in her patrol vehicle. Alejandra Reyes-Velarde in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

POTUS 45  

Trump Knew of Whistle-Blower Complaint When He Released Aid to Ukraine -- President Trump had already been briefed on a whistle-blower’s complaint about his dealings with Ukraine when he unfroze military aid for the country in September, according to two people familiar with the matter. Michael S. Schmidt, Julian E. Barnes and Maggie Haberman in the New York Times$ -- 11/27/19

Impeachment hearings haven’t changed many minds, polls show -- There’s also no indication that Democrats have suffered any political downside from impeachment, the way Republicans did two decades ago when they went after then-President Clinton. Overall, the public narrowly favors impeaching Trump and removing him from office, the new polls indicate. David Lauter in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/27/19

Two OMB officials resigned in part over concerns about Ukraine aid hold, official testifies -- Two officials at the White House Office of Management and Budget recently resigned in part over concerns about the holdup on Ukraine aid, a career employee of the agency told impeachment investigators, according to a transcript of his testimony released Tuesday. Erica Werner and Felicia Sonmez in the Washington Post$ Caitlin Emma and Andrew Desiderio Politico -- 11/27/19

Beltway 

As Trump cases arrive, Supreme Court’s desire to be seen as neutral arbiter will be tested -- The legal cases concerning President Trump, his finances and his separation-of-powers disputes with Congress are moving like a brush fire to the Supreme Court, and together provide both potential and challenge for the Roberts court in its aspiration to be seen as nonpartisan. Robert Barnes and Ann E. Marimow in the Washington Post$ -- 11/27/19

 

-- Tuesday Updates 

Cave fire swells to 4,100 acres overnight, threatening homes in Santa Barbara County -- Firefighters on Tuesday continued to battle a wind-driven brush fire that erupted a day earlier near Highway 154 in Santa Barbara County and burned quickly downhill, threatening thousands of properties and sending residents fleeing from their homes. Leila Miller, Hannah Fry, Jaclyn Cosgrove in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/26/19

PG&E is testing technology that could prevent wildfires its equipment causes -- Distribution Fault Anticipation, as the technology is called, uses a predictive algorithm to assess electric systems and identify potential equipment failures, not unlike how a modern vehicle’s on-board computer works by “telling you everything there is to know of what’s wrong with the car,” said B. Don Russell. Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 11/26/19

Exclusive: Trump’s top border official broke FBI rules to fund happy hours -- President Trump’s top border official broke federal ethics rules in a previous job by seeking sponsors to buy alcohol and fancy food for FBI happy hours, according to a watchdog report exclusively obtained by The Chronicle. Mark Morgan, acting commissioner of the Customs and Border Protection agency, continued asking the outside entities to pay for the social events even after being warned it was against federal rules, the Justice Department’s inspector general found. Tal Kopan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/26/19

Cost of citizenship would rise 60% under Trump plan -- The proposed new rule, published on November 14 by the Federal Register with a month-long comment period, would raise the naturalization application fee for most eligible immigrants by more th an 60 percent, from $725 to $1,170. It also would eliminate a fee waiver now available to low-income applicants. Erica Hellerstein Calmatters -- 11/26/19

Elite climber survives El Capitan fall at Yosemite with help of ‘Free Solo’ climber -- An elite professional climber “pin balled” down Yosemite’s El Capitan — 3,000 feet of sheer vertical rock — on Sunday, sustaining scrapes and bruises but surviving with assistance from the climber whose ascent of the same cliff is profiled in the Oscar-winning film “Free Solo.” Anna Bauman in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 11/26/19

L.A. could have 30 new homeless shelters, but the county is refusing to pay for them -- It took months to get off the ground, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s plan to build a homeless shelter in every City Council district has taken off. Benjamin Oreskes, Doug Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/26/19

Lots of baby boomers will sell their Bay Area homes — here’s when that might affect the market -- A flood of houses for sale could be headed toward desperate Bay Area homebuyers. But don’t hold your breath — baby boomers won’t be leaving their roosts in earnest for at least another decade, according to a new Zillow survey. Louis Hansen in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 11/26/19

Ojai gets its first new apartment complex in over 10 years -- The small city of Ojai has many features that attract potential residents: a bustling downtown filled with local businesses, nearby hiking and bike trails, and views of surrounding mountains. But those looking to move to Ojai might have difficulty finding a place to rent. Erin Rode in the Ventura County Star -- 11/26/19

Most city workers pay $0 in healthcare premiums. Garcetti said he’d change that. He hasn’t -- In a major policy reversal that critics say will cost the city and taxpayers millions of dollars, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has abandoned his long-stated goal of getting the city’s public employee unions to pay a portion of their healthcare costs. Dakota Smith in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/26/19

Med school free rides and loan repayments — California tries to boost its dwindling doctor supply -- Primary care doctors are a hot commodity across California. Students are being lured by full-ride scholarships to medical schools. New grads are specifically recruited for training residencies. And full-fledged doctors are being offered loan repayment programs to serve low-income residents or work in underserved areas. Elizabeth Aguilera Calmatters -- 11/26/19

Column One: How befriending Mister Rogers’ widow allowed me to learn the true meaning of his legacy. Amy Kaufman in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 11/26/19

Fox: Contradictory California and the Governor’s Approval Rating -- Gavin Newsom’s approval rating as measured in the recent Public Policy Institute of California poll is mixed at best and just might reflect attitudes toward the contradictions that abound in California. Joel Fox Fox & Hounds -- 11/26/19