The California Republican Party is heading to Burlingame to kick off its three-day spring convention.
Seema Mehta reports for the Los Angeles Times: “California Republicans will gather in the Bay Area this weekend to discuss efforts to rebuild their beleaguered state party, hear from a collection of national speakers and be courted by GOP candidates who hope to take on Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown in the fall.”
”Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Texas Rep. Pete Sessions will speak during dinner banquets and a luncheon.”
The state’s plan to move Northern California’s fresh water to the South has been dealt a new hurdle by an appellate court ruling.
Denny Walsh reports in the Sacramento Bee: “On a 2-1 decision, a three-justice appeal panel in Sacramento ruled the California Constitution bars the state from entering private properties to do preliminary soil testing and environmental studies unless it wants to condemn affected sections of the parcels through its power of eminent domain.”
“The ruling on soil testing affirms a 2011 decision by a retired Superior Court judge sitting in San Joaquin County. The ruling on environmental studies reverses a separate 2011 ruling by the same judge.”
Arguing a lack of necessary staffing, California’s Employment Development Department ignored federal help in recovering overpaid unemployment benefits.
Jim Miller reports in the Sacramento Bee: “Thursday's report by the Bureau of State Audits estimates that EDD will have missed out on an estimated $516 million in overpayments from February 2011, when the federal program took effect, to September of this year, when the EDD expects to belatedly begin to participate in it. ”
In his campaign to unseat a Democratic incumbent, Ro Khanna is using President Obama’s data-driven campaign tactics to reach out to voters.
Josh Richman reports in the Mercury News: “Call it what you want: "big data" analysis, "predictive modeling," "nanotargeting" or -- as some critics dub it -- "stalking." Whatever the name, it means gobbling up all the digital bread crumbs voters leave behind -- not just the party registrations and voting histories of old, but things like the Web pages they browse, the things they buy, the cars they drive and all they share about themselves on social media. The goal: to predict which voters are most likely to be swayed.”
California lawmakers are raising concerns over the level of scrutiny given to higher education accrediting agencies.
Carla Rivera reports in the Los Angeles Times: “Congresswoman Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) raised the prospect that the accrediting system and the government's oversight of it is flawed in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.”
"Educators and faculty have raised concerns that accreditors are largely self-regulated and seem to act with impunity," Speier wrote. "Specifically, the Accrediting Commission for Junior and Community Colleges' conduct has raised concerns regarding not only its practices, but whether sufficient oversight and accountability mechanisms are in place at the federal level to oversee accreditors."
Secretary of State Debra Bowen is at odds with a major non-profit over the number of unregistered eligible voters in California.
Jim Miller reports for the Sacramento Bee: “Bowen and David J. Becker, the director of election initiatives for the Washington, D.C.-based Pew Charitable Trusts, shared a panel during a Senate hearing this week on science and innovations to improve voter participation.”
“The two disagreed soon after sitting down. Becker, citing U.S. Census data and other research, said 8.2 million Californians are eligible but do not register to vote, a number greater than the populations of all but 13 states.”
Dan Schnur was once a star of the California Republican Party, but don’t expect him at this week’s convention.
Carla Marinucci reports in the San Fransisco Chronicle: “The former head of the state's Fair Political Practices Commission shocked the political establishment by abandoning his party to become an independent three years ago. Now he's running for secretary of state, hoping to be the first independent candidate ever elected to statewide office.”
California’s Asian Americans are expressing concern over a bill to allow the use of affirmative action in the public university admission process.
Katy Murphy and Jessica Calefati report for Inside Bay Area: “A planned referendum sailed through the state Senate in January without fanfare on a party-line vote, but three Asian-American Democrats who initially backed the measure are now calling for it to be "tabled" before the state Assembly has a chance to vote on it -- a highly unusual move. And it seems unlikely to get the two-thirds majority in the Assembly without the support of the five Asian-Americans in the lower house.”
A national report is shedding light on the racial disparities in school suspensions.
Susan Frey reports for Ed Source: “In schools across the nation, African American boys receive harsher penalties than white students for the same offense; there is no evidence that “bad” students need to be removed from class so “good” students can learn; and poverty does not fully explain racial disparities in discipline, according to the findings of a series of reports released Thursday.”
A Los Angeles assemblyman is preparing to introduce the first-ever Wiki-bill.
Rick Orlov reports for the Los Angeles Daily News: “As an outgrowth of his probate draft legislation page, he hopes to submit a measure that would either allow people doing estate planning to designate a guardian for a pet or change state law on eligibility for a charitable trust.”
“These are both topics that are fairly in the weeds of government, but they are important to certain people,” Gatto said.”
Lobbyists are joining the fight against a legislative push to ban orca shows.
Mike Gardner reports for UT-San Diego: “SeaWorld has hired a lobbyist with ties to the energy industry to fight recently introduced legislation that would end performances of orcas at entertainment parks.
Pete Montgomery of Montgomery Consulting was at one time director of government affairs for BP North America and had served as chief of staff for former Sen. Bruce McPherson, R-Santa Cruz.”