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Supreme Court lets stand ruling that protects homeless who sleep on sidewalk -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear a major case on homelessness, letting stand a ruling that protects homeless people’s right to sleep on the sidewalk or in public parks if no other shelter is available. David G. Savage in the Los Angeles Times$ Marisa Kendall in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Supreme Court leaves cities with only one option on homelessness: Build more housing -- For homeless advocates, Monday was a victory. Benjamin Oreskes in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

Santa Rosa struggles with biggest homeless camp in county history -- Kat MacKay is tired of screams erupting around her at night. She’s tired of the outbreaks of syphilis and stomach flu in the nearby tents, the stench of trash, the rats and mice chewing anything resembling food. Kevin Fagan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

More people are sleeping on sidewalks in Sacramento – even as federal spending rises -- More and more people are living on Sacramento’s streets, in makeshift encampments or their cars — or what the federal government calls “other places not suitable for human habitation.” Seventy percent of homeless people in Sacramento County were living in unsheltered conditions in the 2019 count, up from 56% in 2017 and 40% in 2015. David Lightman in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 12/16/19

PG&E protest in downtown San Francisco reroutes Muni buses -- A demonstration Monday morning outside the headquarters of embattled Pacific Gas and Electric Co. in downtown San Francisco blocked several Muni bus lines. Alejandro Serrano and Michael Cabanatuan in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

PG&E stock falls 14% after Newsom complicates bankruptcy plan -- PG&E Corp. stock fell about 14% on Monday as Wall Street grappled with Gov. Gavin Newsom’s rejection of the company’s plan to exit bankruptcy protection with a $13.5 billion deal it struck with wildfire victims’ attorneys. Shares of the San Francisco company were trading at $9.61, down 14.5%, and sank as low as $8.84 earlier in the morning on the New York Stock Exchange. J.D. Morris in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

Fashion Nova’s Secret: Underpaid Workers in Los Angeles Factories -- The online retailer makes fast fashion for the Instagram elite. The way many of its garments are made is much less glamorous. Natalie Kitroeff in the New York Times$ -- 12/16/19

Sears, Kmart closures to cost hundreds of jobs in Bay Area -- The shedding of retail jobs continues, with the latest round of Sears and Kmart store closures set to cost more than 1,600 Californians their jobs, including 304 at three Bay Area locations: a Kmart in Concord and Sears stores in San Jose and San Bruno. Levi Sumagaysay in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Popular sports website blames California labor law as it cuts ties with freelancers -- California-based writers and editors from SB Nation, a hub of sports blogs with team-by-team websites owned by Vox, announced on Monday that their company is ending their contracts because of the new California law. Andrew Sheeler in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 12/16/19

Kaiser mental health workers launch 5-day, statewide strike -- An estimated 4,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health workers launched a five-day, statewide strike Monday, Dec. 16 to protest understaffing, crushing caseloads and patient appointments that often aren’t available for months. Kevin Smith in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Kaiser touts mental health gains, but patients still struggle to get timely treatment -- After years of state sanctions and fines, Kaiser Permanente claims it has gone a long way toward improving its mental health care. Jenny Gold Kaiser Health News in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

Facing war with Trump, troubled California bullet train pushes biggest contract ever -- The California bullet train authority is moving ahead with an aggressive plan to issue its biggest contract in history, steering into sharp criticism by federal regulators and even the state-appointed peer review panel that it is overreaching. Ralph Vartabedian in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

California coastal waters rising in acidity at alarming rate, study finds -- Waters off the California coast are acidifying twice as fast as the global average, scientists found, threatening major fisheries and sounding the alarm that the ocean can absorb only so much more of the world’s carbon emissions. Rosanna Xia in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

Oxford University would anchor major Marin County development with hundreds of new homes -- But lately the dispute has taken on an unusually highbrow accent as word has spread that Oxford University, the prestigious institution that has educated British prime ministers and other world leaders for over 1,000 years, is in negotiations to open a center for advanced study on the property, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations. J.K. Dineen in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

Lori Loughlin wants FBI reports, says they would show her belief payments were legitimate -- Prosecutors are withholding evidence that would show Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, believed the $500,000 they paid to a college admissions consultant’s charity was a legitimate donation, not bribes that would ensure their daughters were admitted to USC as phony rowers, the couple’s attorneys wrote in a court filing. Matthew Ormseth in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

Ugly scenes from the Raiders’ final crushing loss in Oakland -- Extra security limited the ugliness after Jaguars’ heart-crushing victory at Coliseum. Harold Gutmann in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Visa warns credit cards at risk of gas-pump hacks -- If you use your Visa credit card to pay at the pump for your gas, you might want to take a closer look at your next card statement just in case something appears off. Rex Crum in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

How Kevin McCarthy kept Republicans in lockstep behind Trump on impeachment -- The House minority leader has brought his hard-line critics into the fold. For now. Melanie Zanona and John Bresnahan Politico -- 12/16/19

Why Trump’s path to reelection is totally plausible -- As impulsive and erratic as the president may be, his campaign is relying on the same advantages that helped reelect George W. Bush and Barack Obama. John F. Harris, Alex Isenstadt and Daniel Lippman Politico -- 12/16/19

 

California Policy & Politics This Morning  

Mike Bloomberg, Tom Steyer try to convince California they’re not just rich -- New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker noted that at this week’s Democratic presidential debate, “there will be more billionaires than black people.” Joe Garofoli in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

Skelton: Presidential candidates rarely discuss California’s issues. They should try at the next debate -- Democratic presidential candidates are slated to debate again Thursday, this time in Los Angeles. It would be nice if they discussed some specific needs of California. Just one or two, maybe three, questions about problems particularly acute in this state. That shouldn’t be too much hassle. George Skelton in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

Schnur: California must shift its priorities in 2020 to focus on solving the education funding crisis -- In a state ravaged by wildfires, frustrated by the worsening homelessness emergency, and consumed by highly-charged debates over criminal justice, income inequality and health care, the slower-moving crisis of California’s struggling public schools is often marginalized in the state Capitol. Dan Schnur in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 12/16/19

Walters: A blast from the past -- A brief procedure in a San Francisco courtroom this month was a blast from California’s political past. Terry Goggin, a former Democratic state assemblyman, pleaded guilty to federal charges that he had misused money that investors gave him to expand Goggin’s coffee shop chain. Dan Walters Calmatters -- 12/16/19

Feds forbid bullet train bids for track, systems. State moves ahead anyway -- Over the objections of federal regulators, the agency tasked with building California’s ambitious bullet-train project is moving forward to seek bids from companies to lay steel tracks and install required operating systems for a 119-mile stretch of the line through the central San Joaquin Valley. Tim Sheehan in the Fresno Bee -- 12/16/19

Economy, Employers, Jobs, Unions, Pensions  

Commercial Dungeness crab season gets cracking after delay -- Crabs began doing on Sunday what humans love for them to do best: crawling into crab traps and getting hauled in small boats to Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Steve Rubenstein and Catherine Ho in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/16/19

Black Sunday: Oakland’s diehard Raiders fans say one last goodbye before Vegas -- Raiders bid adieu to the Oakland Coliseum and devoted fans as they reboot in Las Vegas. Elliott Almond, Jerry McDonald in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Out: M.P.G. In: Kilowatt-Hours. Classic Cars Get an Electric Jolt -- A California company has developed a “crate motor” to relatively simply (but not so cheaply) convert gasoline cars to modern electric engines. Lawrence Ulrich in the New York Times$ -- 12/16/19

Education 

Burbank middle school removes mural of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi -- Burbank Unified school officials have removed a mural of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi from a local campus, the action coming the same week that the Nobel Peace Prize laureate appeared at the International Court of Justice to denounce genocide charges levied against her country’s military. Andrew J. Campa in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/16/19

There’s a new front in the college cheating scandal: Online classes -- The case of Newport Beach socialite Karen Littlefair paying $9,000 for a surrogate to complete online courses for her son has exposed another university fraud control weakness as well as what experts have argued is a particular vulnerability in the surging realm of remote online learning. John Woolfolk in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/16/19

Water 

‘The water wars have begun.’ Some wonder how water plan will impact Merced County farms -- Agricultural and urban groundwater users in Merced County may soon have to sacrifice for the future, if a new state-mandated sustainability plan that limits consumption moves forward. Abbie Lauten-Scrivner in the Merced Sun Star -- 12/16/19

Also . . . 

Infant killed after San Joaquin County deputy crashes patrol car on I-5, CHP says -- An infant died Saturday after a San Joaquin County sheriff’s deputy rear-ended a vehicle with his patrol car on Interstate 5 in Stockton, according to the California Highway Patrol. In a news release, the Stockton-area CHP said the deputy was driving northbound on I-5 near Charter Way just after 10:30 p.m. when it struck a Ford sedan for unknown reasons. Vincent Moleski in the Sacramento Bee$ -- 12/16/19

POTUS 45  

Trump goes after Pelosi’s teeth as the House gears up for impeachment vote -- President Trump opened a new, dental front Sunday in his periodic feuding with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, suggesting on Twitter that her teeth were falling out as she answered a reporter’s question about why bribery was not made an article of impeachment. The jab comes just days before the House is expected to impeach Trump. Karoun Demirjian in the Washington Post$ -- 12/16/19

Beltway 

A Senate impeachment trial is expected. How it will work is very uncertain -- As the House prepares to vote this week to impeach President Trump, leaders of the Senate began sparring Sunday over which witnesses each party might call in a trial, with both sides aware that opening a spigot of testimony could result in damaging counterattacks. Laura King in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/15/19

Schumer calls for testimony from Mulvaney, Bolton in proposal to GOP on parameters for Trump impeachment trial -- The top Senate Democrat on Sunday called for subpoenaing several senior Trump administration officials who have yet to testify in the House’s impeachment probe as witnesses for President Trump’s likely trial — part of an opening salvo in negotiations that could determine the parameters for the Senate proceedings next month. Seung Min Kim, Karoun Demirjian and Steven Mufson in the Washington Post$ -- 12/16/19

 

-- Sunday Updates 

Solar power required for all new California homes starting Jan. 1 -- California already generates more electricity from solar power than any other state. But now a dramatic expansion is about to begin as new building codes take effect Jan. 1 requiring all newly constructed homes statewide to be powered by the sun. Paul Rogers in the San Jose Mercury$ -- 12/15/19

California’s high-voltage battle between utilities and rooftop solar could impact electric bills -- Utilities say rooftop solar customers aren’t paying their fair share. Advocates say power providers are trying to undermine clean energy. Joshua Emerson Smith in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 12/15/19

Battery dangers got little attention from Coast Guard despite red flags before Conception fire -- Nearly a year before 34 people were killed in a fire aboard the dive boat Conception, a second vessel owned by the same charter company began a three-day voyage around the Channel Islands. Mark Puente, Richard Winton, Leila Miller in the Los Angeles Times$ -- 12/15/19

Oakland Raiders fans prepare to bid farewell, again -- Sean Camacho cut his typical game-day figure in the Coliseum parking lot last Sunday — sombrero, black-and-silver face paint, football uniform complete with shoulder pads, giant mug in hand. Matt Kawahara in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/15/19

All eyes on SF’s Embarcadero as Navigation Center opens in hostile territory -- The curtain rises on the Embarcadero Navigation Center this week. And standing at center stage is Mayor London Breed, who’s staking a lot of her credibility on what is likely to be the most watched homeless center on the West Coast. And she knows it. Phil Matier in the San Francisco Chronicle$ -- 12/15/19

Remain in Mexico has a 0.01 percent asylum grant rate -- It has been almost a year since the government began sending asylum seekers back to Mexico and only 11 people have been granted asylum. That accounts for a grant rate of less than one percent Gustavo Solis in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 12/15/19

Inspire charter school says it sometimes struggles to monitor student work -- School leaders within Inspire — a homeschool charter network targeted for a state audit into alleged fiscal malfeasance — recently described how it’s difficult to ensure students meet statewide learning standards because parents choose which curricula and resources to use. Kristen Taketa in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 12/15/19

San Diego proposing streamlined permit renewals for marijuana dispensaries to avoid closures -- San Diego officials are trying to avoid a major disruption to the city’s marijuana industry next year with a proposal allowing dispensaries with expiring operating permits to get streamlined five-year renewals. David Garrick in the San Diego Union-Tribune$ -- 12/15/19

Volunteer rescuer, 32, dies during search for Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy -- A nine-year veteran of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department volunteer search-and-rescue team died Saturday, Dec. 14, after apparently falling during the hunt for a missing Irvine hiker on Mt. Baldy. Brian Rokos in the Orange County Register -- 12/15/19

Senate GOP defends Trump, despite oath to be impartial impeachment jurors -- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler accused Senate Republicans of violating their oath to be impartial jurors in an impeachment trial, as GOP senators defended their right to work for President Trump’s acquittal. Karoun Demirjian and Steven Mufson in the Washington Post$ -- 12/15/19