As the legal battle between the FBI and Apple simmers, legislation requiring that cellphone service providers work with government agencies to access locked phones or face penalties was shot down Tuesday.
Sacramento Bee's Jeremy B. White reports: "A national debate over smartphone encryption arrived in Sacramento on Tuesday as legislators defeated a bill penalizing companies that don’t work with courts to break into phones, siding with technology industry representatives who called the bill a dangerous affront to privacy."
"The bill did not receive a vote, with members of the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection worrying the measure would undermine data security and impose a logistically untenable requirement on California companies."
"Disagreement over the balance between privacy and public safety exploded into public view in recent months when the FBI demanded that Apple unlock the phone of San Bernardino massacre perpetrator Syed Farook. Apple refused to comply and ultimately the FBI devised its own way in."
SEE ALSO: FBI hires professional hackers to crack iPhone amid lack of cooperation from Apple, from the LAT's Ellen Nakashima.
The high speed rail project is catching flack again, this time from angry San Fernando Valley residents who claim the rail line would ruin the rustic charm of their communities.
Ralph Vartabedian writes in LAT: "Another chapter in the war over the California bullet train erupted Tuesday at a board meeting of the state's high-speed rail authority as San Fernando Valley residents said the proposed routes would devastate their communities, jeopardize endangered species and cause visual blight."
"Residents said routes under consideration between Burbank and Palmdale would ruin the rural character of their neighborhoods, including many equestrian areas."
"A detailed plan released Friday that shows possible routes through the area "is a piece of garbage," said Gerri Summe, a Lakeview Terrace resident who appeared in a T-shirt that read Democrats Against High Speed Rail. "This train is a fiscal disaster."
In other news, a new poll indicates that Reeps in California have a grim outlook on this nation's future, with only 11% believing that the state and country are improving politically.
Sacramento Bee's Christopher Cadelago reports: "Californians are souring on the overall direction of the country, with a strong majority now believing the U.S. is seriously heading in the wrong direction, according to a new Field Poll."
"Amid the acrimonious presidential primary, just 32 percent now see the country as being on the right track. The grim assessment of the nation is being heavily influenced by downbeat Republicans, just 11 percent of whom believe things are improving, poll director Mark DiCamillo said Tuesday."
"Republican voters have long been displeased with the President Barack Obama and many of their representatives in Washington. However, the GOP presidential primary has helped foster a new level of resentment, DiCamillo said, pointing to the months of televised candidate debates."
As the presidential primary inches ever closer, Trump and his campaign prepare to take California by any means necessary.
Ben Adler writes for CPR: "Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has picked a veteran GOP strategist to run his California campaign just weeks before vote-by-mail ballots go out, leaving his campaign with a lot of work to do in very little time."
"Trump named Tim Clark as his California state director Monday. “I am pleased to bring Tim on board to organize what is a very important state,“ Trump said in a statement released by his campaign. “I know he will be an asset to the team and ultimately deliver a win in California.’’
“We intend to win 53 out of 53 congressional seats and deliver 172 delegates to the national convention for Mr. Trump,” Clark told Capital Public Radio in an interview Monday. ”We recognize there’s gonna be areas of the state where Mr. Trump is carrying a very large lead and other areas where his lead could be reinforced by volunteers and some other efforts. And we’ll certainly target very carefully.”
SEE ALSO: Anti-Latino Pro-Trump graffiti mars UC campus, sparks outrage; reported by Debbie Baker in the LAT.
A new bill presented to the Assembly would reduce California's gang database significantly as well as change the way registering offenders works.
Reveal's Ali Winston reports: "Legislation that would open California’s gang database to more public scrutiny advanced in the state Assembly today, despite significant opposition from law enforcement."
"The bill – AB 2298 by Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego – aims to provide adults with the right to be notified – and to appeal – if they are included in CalGang, remove people from the database if they go three years without a gang-related conviction and require the California Department of Justice to produce an annual report on the program."
"The secretive database currently includes more than 150,000 people – the vast majority of them Latino or black –entered by local law enforcement agencies based on criteria such as tattoos, gang-related clothing or admission of gang involvement to an officer. Adults never know whether they have been documented, yet can face harsher punishment if they are arrested later for a crime."
Speaking of public safety policy, the Police Commission has ruled that Officer Clifford Proctor is guilty of illegal use of force after a shooting last year left a homeless man dead.
LAT's Kate Mather reports: "After fatally shooting an unarmed homeless man in the back last year, Los Angeles police Officer Clifford Proctor explained his actions to investigators by saying he believed the man was trying to grab his partner’s gun during a struggle."
“I saw … his hand on my partner’s holster,” Proctor said."
"But video from a security camera at a nearby bar on the Venice boardwalk told a different story, according to an LAPD report made public Tuesday."
Sacramento's Mangan Gun range may be getting some help from the state after an investigative report found high levels of lead at the facility.
Ryan Lillis reports in Sacramento Bee: "Sacramento Assemblyman Kevin McCarty called Tuesday for the state’s toxic waste watchdog to investigate conditions at a city-owned gun range in south Sacramento that was closed in 2014 after tests found high levels of lead dust were leaking outdoors."
"McCarty, D-Sacramento, said he is also exploring whether the state Department of Toxic Substances Control can force the city to clean the facility under the Hazardous Waste Control Act. In the meantime, he said he wants the former range cleaned."
“I think it ought to be cleaned up for users of the park and adjacent property owners,” said McCarty, who sits on the Assembly’s Committee on Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials."
As sexual assault victims of Bill Cosby move forward to testify against him, California eyeballs the statue of limitations on sex crimes.
LAT's Liam Dillon writes: "After wrenching testimony that included accounts from three alleged victims of comedian Bill Cosby, a Senate committee on Tuesday gave its first approval to a bill that would allow sex crimes to be prosecuted no matter how long ago they occurred."
"The bill, SB 813, from state Sen. Connie Leyva (D-Chino), eliminates the current 10-year statute of limitations on rape cases. Leyva argued in the hearing that giving sexual assault victims more time to report incidents would hold more rapists accountable and provide closure to painful situations."
"A victim should always have the hope that they will be able to have justice,” Leyva said."
And now from the back pages of our "Water Wars" file we see that California isn't the only place in the world struggling with drought, as water-starved Thailand kicks off their national Songkran festival--a celebration of the New Year involving lots of H2O.
NBC's Eric Baculinao writes: "Thailand kicked off the world's biggest water fight Wednesday, with participants — willing or otherwise — subjected to attacks from hoses, balloons and water pistols in streets across the country."
"The Songkran festival celebrates the country's New Year and the water is said to clean people of their sins and misfortunes. It is described by Lonely Planet as "part a time of respect, and part riot."
"But this year there's an unhappy undercurrent to the joyous mayhem: The region is suffering its worst drought in decades."
Water, water everywhere ...