Yesterday's Roundup headlined a story reported by the Mercury News involving labor issues at California's Tesla motors -- and later in the day, Tesla issued a response.
Tesla Motors: "At Tesla, we aspire to operate on the principles of hard work and exceptional performance, but always tempered by fairness, justice and kindness. There are times when mistakes are made, but those are the standards to which we hold ourselves. With respect to the person at the center of this weekend’s article in the Mercury News, those standards were not met. We are taking action to address this individual's situation and to put in place additional oversight to ensure that our workplace rules are followed even by sub-subcontractors to prevent such a thing from happening again."
"Gregor Lesnik was brought to the Tesla factory by a company called ISM Vuzem, a sub-contractor brought in by Eisenmann, the firm that we hired to construct our new, high-volume paint shop. We contracted with Eisenmann for the simple reason that we do not know how to build paint shops and they are regarded as one of the best, if not the best, in the world. In our dealings with them, we have found them to be an excellent company, run by good people."
The Clinton campaign held a gun violence forum on Monday in Los Angeles with former Arizona congress woman Gabrielle Giffords, a victim of gun violence.
David Montero with LA Daily News: "The Hillary Clinton campaign sought to sharpen its differences with rival Bernie Sanders on gun control with a forum Monday in downtown Los Angeles that featured gun violence victims, including former Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords."
"The high-profile event, held at Homeboy Industries, came the same day the Sanders campaign announced the Vermont senator would be at Cal State Dominguez Hills for a rally Tuesday night, his third trip to California in a little more than a week."
"It’s a flurry of activity that, for now, has kept California in the spotlight ahead of the June 7 primary, despite Clinton’s solid status as the Democratic front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination."
Anti-tobacco advocates have pushed a new ballot initiative aimed at increasing Tobacco tax to $2 a pack from the current 87 cents.
CPR's Ben Adler writes: "It looks like California voters will be asked again this fall whether to increase the state’s tobacco tax. Anti-tobacco advocates say they’re submitting signatures to qualify an initiative for the November ballot."
"California currently places an excise tax on cigarettes of 87 cents a pack – with an equivalent tax on most other tobacco products. This ballot measure would raise the tax by $2 a pack – and extend that tax to e-cigarettes, which are not currently covered by it."
"Most of the tax revenues would go toward increased payments to doctors from California’s health care program for the poor."
Gov. Brown is now pushing a $10 million portion of the state budget to be allocated towards developing an early-warning system for earthquakes.
Rong-Gong Lin II in LAT reports: "In a major reversal, Gov. Jerry Brown is seeking state funds for a fledgling earthquake early warning system for California, which would allow for a limited rollout of alerts by 2018."
"The governor has supported creation of the system, which can give as much as a minute of warning before shaking from a big earthquake hits urban areas. But until now, Brown and the state Legislature opposed providing funds from the state’s budget, arguing instead the money should come from only private and federal sources."
"Brown changed his public stance in his revised state budget, asking the Legislature to allocate $10 million toward the system, which is being developed by the U.S. Geological Survey and university researchers."
As the campaign for LA County Supervisor rolls on, public safety interests have begun to invest nearly a million dollars in Mike Antonovich's chief-of-staff, Kathryn Barger.
LAT's Abby Sewell writes: "Unions representing Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies and firefighters have pumped at least $800,000 into an independent expenditure committee supporting Kathryn Barger, chief of staff to county Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, in her bid to replace him."
"Campaign finance statements posted Monday show that the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs and Los Angeles County Firefighter Local 1014 have each contributed $400,000 to the outside committee set up to support Barger."
"The committee, First Responders Supporting Barger for Supervisor 2016, reported spending about $328,000 as of last week on consultants, mailers and radio and television ads."
Speaking of public safety, two officers have been found guilty by a federal jury in the brutal 2010 assault of a mentally ill inmate.
Joel Rubin with LAT: "A Los Angeles federal jury on Monday found two Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies guilty of beating an inmate and falsifying reports to cover up the attack, the latest in a series of convictions connected to the county's jail abuse scandal."
"Bryan Brunsting, 31, and Jason Branum, 35, were each convicted of three charges in connection with the March 10, 2010, incident, including conspiracy to violate the inmate's civil rights, depriving him of his civil rights under color of authority and falsifying records."
"The case revolved around allegations made by a former recruit who said he was only days on the job at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility when he was summoned by his training officer, Brunsting, and told that the inmate had left his cell without permission and mouthed off to jail staff."
Orange County sees its first-ever Dem-only congressional race as the county's Republican representatives are edged out of the June primary.
Christine Mai-Duc reports in LAT: "Orange County, which for decades held a reputation as the bastion of California conservatism, this year could see Republicans shut out of a congressional race for the first time."
"Rep. Loretta Sanchez’s (D-Orange) decision to run for U.S. Senate has attracted eight candidates hoping to replace her in the House. Thanks to California’s relatively new top-two primary — and a crowded field of Republicans expected to split dwindling GOP votes — it’s likely the June 7 primary will leave voters with a choice between two Democrats: Lou Correa and Joe Dunn."
"Both are former state legislators, and both were elected to those seats in part because of help from Sanchez. They have amassed more money than the rest of the candidates combined."
And now, from the "Don't try this at home" file ...
An artist gives an interesting demonstration on how to 'paint' with fire.
"You're probably familiar with painting with watercolors, but Wyoming-based artist Danny Shervin uses a more unique medium to create his animal portraits. According to DesignTaxi, the artist learned about gunpowder art in college and began to experiment with it, shaping the powder into pointillistic images and finishing each work in dramatic fashion—with a controlled flame."
"The portraits take multiple hours, with each tiny gunpowder particle carefully positioned, Shervin writes on his website. On Facebook and Instagram, the artist shares photos and videos and responds to fan questions about his process. "I don't paint with anything tacky," he said to one follower, "it's just a tedious process in getting the powder placed and burned before anything bumps it."
"Watching the flame ignite the powder and move across the works of art in waves is memorizing, but the process is also dangerous. Enjoy Shervin's videos below, but please do not try this at home."