Campus violence erupted in California when a murder-suicide at UCLA left two dead Wednesday morning.
Ryan Kartje in Daily Bulletin: "Minutes before an alert went out Wednesday to every corner of UCLA’s campus, informing its more than 43,000 students that an active shooting situation was underway, Jordan Scharf turned to take his usual shortcut through the Engineering IV building. It was just before 10 a.m., the morning of his last college final exam."
"He arrived early, but at the front door of the building, a police officer told Scharf that Engineering IV was locked down. Outside, a cluster of students whispered among themselves, unsure of where to go. They cycled through social media for details, and it was on Facebook that Scharf and those near him first gleaned the first snippets of the news. Before long, a text alert had confirmed the horror: A shooting had taken place on campus, inside the building Scharf had, minutes before, tried to enter."
"This was supposed to be my last day here,” he said. “I just don’t know how to feel.”
SEE ALSO: UCLA professer slain in murder-suicide identified -- Brenda Gazzar and Susan Abram in Daily Bulletin; UCLA students and staff struggled with unlocked doors during shooting -- Amanda Lee Myers and Alina Hartounian with Associated Press.
Bernie Sanders, crisscrossing the state, takes his presidential campaign to Davis.
From the Bee's Christopher Cadelago: "Bernie Sanders, traipsing across far-flung regions of California as he seeks a comeback victory here next week, swatted at likely Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for minimizing the state’s water shortage and the effects of climate change."
“The people of California perceive that there was a drought here, and Donald has come to tell you that you’re wrong,” Sanders said. “You thought there was a drought, but Donald, who has studied this issue intensely for decades, has reached the conclusion there is no drought.”
Speaking to a crowd of more than 9,000 on the campus of UC Davis, Sanders sounded familiar themes about income inequality, broken criminal justice and campaign finance systems, the predatory nature of student loans and the need for universal health care and expanded Social Security.
Donald Trump came to the Sacramento area, too.
From the LAT's John Myers:"Donald Trump suggested on Wednesday that he intended to wage a summer and fall campaign against both Hillary Clinton and former President Bill Clinton, a one-two attack that drew cheers from a boisterous crowd here."
“These are crooked people,” said the presumptive Republican nominee. “They’ve been crooked from the beginning.”
"Trump, who stepped off his private jet to a podium staged inside a hangar on the grounds of Sacramento International Airport, laid out a narrative of alleged mistakes both personal and professional by the Democratic front-runner and the former president."
Meanwhile, Hillary and Bill Clinton have a schedule spanning 30 events over the next 5 days. Talk about busy!
Evan Halper reports in LA Times: "Faced with the prospect of what would be a demoralizing loss in California that would end the Democratic primary season on a low note for her, Hillary Clintonis launching a barnstorming tour of the state in an effort to stop her rival’s momentum."
"She and former President Bill Clinton plan to hold more than 30 campaign events starting Thursday in a scramble to eke out victory in a state they once were projected to win handily."
"The two arrive in California as polls show a dramatically tightened race. Clinton has much deeper ties to California than does Democratic rival Bernie Sanders, as well as the backing of almost the entire state Democratic establishment. Yet the latest poll released Wednesday, a Marist College survey for NBC and the Wall Street Journal, shows her leading just 49% to 47% among likely Democratic primary voters, a statistical tie considering the poll’s margin of error."
California is going to be getting more developer friendly under Gov. Brown's new housing plan, which would reduce complications that sometimes add years to a project's timeline.
L.A. Times' Liam Dillon reports: "Robert Tillman owns a coin-operated laundromat in San Francisco’s Mission District, a neighborhood at the epicenter of California’s housing crisis. Over the last 2½ years, he’s spent nearly $500,000 on plans to tear down the business to build apartments. But although the city has zoned the property for apartments, Tillman hasn’t gotten very far."
"Local residents can file a formal complaint to the city to hold up Tillman’s project because they don’t like how it looks, how tall it is or where people will park, starting a chain of appeals leading all the way to the Board of Supervisors. Environmental lawsuits could add years of delay amid exploding demand for new homes in a region with six times as many new jobs and people as housing units added from 2010 to 2015, according to a study by the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley."
"Everything is a negotiation,” Tillman said of trying to build houses in San Francisco. “There’s no single person you can negotiate with who has the ability to make a deal."
Candidates competing for Silicon Valley's 24th Assemdly District seat continue to see campaign contributions bolster their efforts before ballot time.
Mercury News' Jacqueline Lee reports: "Money continues to roll in for eight candidates vying to represent District 24 in the state Assembly, bolstering their campaigns ahead of the primary on Tuesday."
"The two candidates receiving the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, will be on the November ballot."
"The latest campaign contribution filing deadline was May 26 for the period between April 24 and May 21."
Meanwhile, the location of an application seems to play a role in deciding whether or not aslyum is granted to an immigrant.
AP's Amy Taxin writes: "For unaccompanied immigrant children seeking asylum in the U.S., where they apply seems to make a world of difference."
"Youngsters whose applications are handled by the U.S. government’s regional offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles are far more likely to win approval from asylum officers than those applying in Chicago or Houston, according to data obtained by The Associated Press under a Freedom of Information Act request."
"The figures offer a snapshot of how the government is handling the huge surge over the past two years in the number of Central American children arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border unaccompanied by adults. Tens of thousands of youngsters — many of them fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras — have overflowed U.S. shelters and further clogged the nation’s overwhelmed immigration courts."
Caltrans aims to help clean up the Bay Area's pollution emissions by providing over $16 million in funding towards public transit improvement and pollution reduction.
Erin Baldassari in Bay Area News Group: "Caltrans awarded East and South Bay transit agencies more than $16 million for projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve public transit, the agency announced Wednesday."
"The 12 projects are part of 131 statewide totaling $74.6 million for transit improvements funded through the Low Carbon Transit Operations Program, which aims to curb climate change and is intended to prioritize projects that serve disadvantaged communities, according to Caltrans officials."
"Caltrans Director Malcolm Dougherty said the projects would provide very real benefits for local communities and help municipalities build a more sustainable transportation system."
'Second-chance' individuals are having an impact through a program known as 'Downtown Ambassadors'-- a project aimed at providing hospitality and cleaning services to the downtown environment.
Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks in Daily Californian reports: "Robert Walker’s cheery disposition and warm “good mornings” to passersby in Downtown Berkeley make it hard to imagine that seven years ago he came to the city homeless."
"A recovering addict nearing eight years of sobriety, Walker is now the field operations manager of the Downtown Berkeley Association’s ambassador program, a hospitality and cleaning services program that aims to create a more inviting Downtown environment. Managed by Block by Block, theambassador program is one of several the company operates throughout theBay Area and country."
"Walker, 57, is a second-chance individual — someone who is formerly homeless, recovering from addiction or has prior arrest records — providing the same services he once received to people living on the streets in Berkeley.He started working as an ambassador for a similar city program in 2010 before joining the then-newly launched Block by Block ambassador program in Downtown Berkeley two years later."
And now from our "Wouldn't Hump Trump" file ...
The Donald may be winning the heart of Republicans around the world, but even massive amounts of money isn't enough for many women (or men) to find him physically desirable.
Huffington Post: "Donald Trump likes to brag about how he’s doing in the polls, but this is one he probably won’t mention."
"A new “indecent proposal” poll of 1,000 adult Americans by 360couponcodes.com reveals that 53.1 percent of women wouldn’t have sex with the Donald for $1 million."
"According to the sex survey, conducted May 26-27, nearly 55 percent of men wouldn’t hump Trump for a million bucks either."