The state auditor has uncovered billions mismanaged in no-bid contracts.
Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "It didn’t take long for the cost of a technology contract in California’s unemployment office to increase twelvefold."
"Two changes to the contract – added without bidding – swelled the deal to $8 million within a year. Then, the Employment Development Department submitted a request to add another $2 million worth of work to the arrangement without soliciting new bids from other companies."
"That project is one of nine that State Auditor Elaine Howle highlighted in a new report released on Tuesday that urges California government to be more cautious in awarding high-value contracts without seeking competitive bids."
CW's PAUL MITCHELL: "We are just getting used to the current districts, but once again redistricting is about to rear its decennial head."
"Few political activities are more partisan, more bitter than the once-a-decade process drawing of boundaries for lawmakers’ districts. Just this week, national attention was again directed at redistricting as he U.S. Supreme Court announced it was going to hear a case that will decide if partisan gerrymandering is constitutional. We will watch this case, but the fact is that it shouldn’t have much, if any, impact on California, which has taken partisanship out of the process."
"To provide a preview of what is to come in California, we have created an interactive map of the state’s congressional districts using current census projections and voter registration data. This tool allows you better understand the mid-decade projections and project to what could be the factors in the 2021 redistricting."
The UC system is paying 'top dollar' to investigate President Janet Napolitano's office.
The Chronicle's MATIER & ROSS: "In keeping with its tradition of big-name and big-bucks investigations, the University of California will pay up to $210,000 for an independent look into allegations that President Janet Napolitano’s office interfered with a recent state audit into its spending habits."
"UC will pay the law firm of Hueston Hennigan a “blended” rate of $595 an hour for partners who work on the investigation and $395 an hour for associates. The tab will be capped at $165,000, unless the UC regents give the OK to spend more."
The most expensive House race in history finally reached its dramatic conclusion last night.
AP's BILL BARROW/KATHLEEN FOODY: "Republican Karen Handel won a nationally watched congressional election Tuesday in Georgia, and she thanked President Donald Trump after she avoided an upset that would have rocked Washington ahead of the 2018 midterm elections."
"Returns showed Handel, a former Georgia secretary of state, winning about 52 percent of the vote over Democrat Jon Ossoff, who won nearly 48 percent in Georgia's 6th Congressional District."
"A special thanks to the president of the United States of America," she said late Tuesday night as her supporters chanted, "Trump! Trump! Trump!"
A newly minted prenatal genetic test can help parents calculate the risk of exposure or rates of contraction for various maladies.
AP's SAMMY CAIOLA: "Dorian Gray has aged into a happy 5-year-old boy, but he still doesn’t speak much. When his mother, Rosalinda Gray, asks him questions, he squeaks out a “yes” or a “no” before returning to his toy cars. If the question is about food, he breaks out an ear-to-ear grin, exaggerating the wide face and slightly slanted eyes that distinguish many children with Down syndrome."
"The Woodland woman has never thought twice about giving birth to Dorian, she said, even after a prenatal genetic test revealed a high risk for Down syndrome – a diagnosis associated with physical and cognitive delays that might cause some parents to terminate a pregnancy. As technology evolves and prenatal tests become available for more conditions, she and other parents wonder if more families will hold back on raising disabled children such as Dorian, and what that means for society at large."
“A lot of parents who have the testing done and have never been around a child with any special needs, they are truly scared because they don’t know if it’ll be a complete life change, and there are parents who say, ‘OK, it is what it is and I’ll help,’ ” Gray said. “When Dorian was born, I totally immersed my life into, ‘How can I help, how can I make him stronger?’ … I would have never thought I would be here, but he’s changed us all."
Mandatory evacuations near Big Bear Lake are in place as a heat wave-driven wildfire continues to engulf land in flames, unabated.
LA Times' JOSEPH SERNA: "Firefighters continued battling a wildfire Tuesday in the San Bernardino Mountains as flames spread into the rugged terrain amid a sweltering heat wave."
"Mandatory evacuations were briefly issued for the area of Holcomb Valley Road and Highway 18 in Baldwin Lake, but the orders were lifted by 5:30 p.m., according to the Big Bear Fire Department."
"The evacuation order was prompted by an abrupt shift in winds, and the sheriff’s station in Big Bear urged residents to be prepared in case of another sudden change."
Placer County officials are attempting to institute another road tax hike this year after it was rejected last year.
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "When Placer County tried to raise sales taxes last fall for freeway expansions in the booming suburbs of Roseville and Rocklin, voters in the more rural parts of the county defeated the measure."
"Now, some Placer officials say they want to try a transportation tax again, this time with a more focused battle plan."
"Placer County Transportation Planning Agency officials propose dividing the county into three taxing districts, then moving forward with a vote in a south county district that likely would cover Roseville, Rocklin, Lincoln and unincorporated west Placer County. The spending focus would be on reducing congestion on Highway 65 and building a new Interstate 80 interchange."
A local brewery is now capable of making home deliveries, prompting patrons to shift their gaze towards a special-release can designed specifically for this moment.
Sacramento Bee's CARLA MEYER: "Starting Friday, June 23, Sacramento’s popular Track 7 Brewing Co. will makes its coveted special-release cans available for home delivery."
"Though the process is not as simple as calling up the brewery and having a van pop by your house with beers the same day, it no doubt will be a welcome service for beer fans who cannot get to Track 7’s tap rooms on Saturdays for special releases."
"Customers can go online this Friday to order special-release cans that otherwise would only be available in the tap rooms Saturday. Three four-packs of these cans will be packed into a foam-lined shipping box with ice packs. The customer can either pick up the package Monday at Track 7’s Natomas tap room (826 Professor Lane, Sacramento) or have it shipped Monday for Tuesday home delivery."
Many are worried over the ACA repeal and what the means for critical anti-opioid and harm-reduction programs across the states.
LA Times' NOAM N. LEVEY: "There weren’t always strollers jamming the lobby of First Step Home, one of this city’s growing number of drug treatment centers."
"But as the opioid epidemic has swept through Ohio, mothers with babies and small children have flocked to an aging block of brick homes just outside downtown Cincinnati. “It’s been breathtaking,” said Margo Spence, president of First Step Home, which nearly tripled the number of mothers it treats since 2013."
"Now the future of this care is in doubt as Congress moves to roll back the Affordable Care Act and slim down or terminate health coverage for millions of Americans."
LA Times' TRACEY LIEN/PARESH DAVE: "Travis Kalanick, co-founder and chief executive of ride-hailing company Uber, resigned Tuesday, just a week into a leave of absence meant to quell concerns about his management style."
"I love Uber more than anything in the world and at this difficult moment in my personal life I have accepted the investors request to step aside so that Uber can go back to building rather than be distracted with another fight,” Kalanick said in a statement given to the New York Times."
"The San Francisco start-up, valued at near $70 billion, has been rocked this year by allegations of a corrosive culture that allowed bad behavior and sexual harassment to go unchecked for years."
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LAUSD's board members approved a $7.5 billion budget on Tuesday that also promises workforce cuts.
Daily News' ANTONIE BOESSENKOOL: "Los Angeles Unified School District board members approved a $7.5 billion budget on Tuesday, bringing with it cuts, layoffs, looming uncertainty and concerns over declining enrollment."
"The board passed the budget with a vote of 5 in favor, including the board’s President Steve Zimmer. Board member Richard Vladovic was the sole vote against, and board member George McKenna abstained."
"As part of passing a budget for the coming fiscal year, the members approved layoffs for 114 school district employees, reassignments for 180 more and “separations” for an additional seven employees."
A Richmond police officer's firing for anti-gay behavior will not be repealed, a local court rules.
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "A federal appeals court has upheld the Richmond Police Department’s firing of a longtime employee who claimed the department discriminated against her because of her religious disapproval of homosexuality."
"The Police Department had valid reasons for dismissing records clerk Loudesia Flanagan, including her mistreatment of a volunteer intern who was lesbian, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Monday. Any rights Flanagan had to express her Christian viewpoint at work were outweighed by the department’s need for “maintaining a discrimination- and harassment-free work environment,” the court said."