Going electric

Jul 6, 2017

 

On the fence about buying an electric car? Let the state help you make a decision.

 

Sacramento Bee's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Amid the cows and corn dogs, visitors to the California State Fair this month will also have the chance to try out an electric car.

For three days, the California Plug-In Electric Vehicle Collaborative plans to bring a test course and as many as a dozen models to the fairground, including the new Chrysler Pacifica, the first plug-in minivan."

 

"Scores of these ride-and-drive events, from Fleet Week in San Francisco to the apple festival in Tehachapi, have put more than 4,000 Californians behind the wheel of an electric car over the past two-and-a-half years, according to the group, helping to propel interest in the nascent market."

 

READ MORE related to Transportation: New video shows dramatic Asiana Airlines crash in SF and frantic rescue effort -- LA Times' MATT HAMILTON

 

Marijuana laws are still largely foggy as both patient and recreational users alike drift through the smoke-and-mirrors of the cannabis penal code.

 

The Chronicle's SPENCER SILVA: "Wondering what the marijuana laws are in your city these days? It’s not surprising that you may not be sure."


"A Chronicle analysis of the Bay Area’s 114 cities and counties shows that jurisdictions have wildly different ways of implementing Proposition 64, which legalized recreational cannabis use in November. A patchwork of differing laws greet residents who want to grow a pot plant in their backyard, visit a medical dispensary or buy marijuana at a store when recreational sales can begin Jan. 1."


"Statewide legalization has hardly affected local laws in most communities. While some major cities, like San Francisco and Sacramento, have seen a surge in applications for dispensaries or farms, most communities are struggling to come up with basic regulations — and in many cases banning any pot commerce, as well as personal gardens."

 

READ MORE related to Economy: California Dungeness crab industry bounces back with a strong season -- The Chronicle's TARA DUGGAN; With California housing prices surging, developers say they can't build enough homes -- Valley Tribune's KEVIN SMITH; Silicon Valley has a new vision for the pizzeria. It involves lots of robots. -- LA Times' TRACEY LIEN

 

Daylight Saving Time isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

 

East Bay Times' KATY MURPHY: "Californians who cherish their sunny summer evenings need no longer fret about the prospect of losing Daylight Saving Time."


"A bill that could have ended the time change, setting the state’s clocks permanently on winter’s Standard Time, is now pushing in the opposite direction — everlasting Daylight Saving Time."


"New amendments this week to a closely watched bill come as a relief to Little League parents and others who count on the extra hour of sunlight in the evenings to enjoy the outdoors or simply to get home from work before dark."

 

READ MORE related to Environment: New wolf pups in California: Endangered species here to stay? -- East Bay Times' LISA M. KRIEGER

 

A high-ranking LA County prosecutor is accused of intimidating police after being arrested on suspicion of hitting his wife during an argument.

 

LA Times' RICHARD WINTON: "A high-ranking Los Angeles County prosecutor is on administrative leave after he was arrested last month on suspicion of hitting his wife during an argument at their Pomona home."


"Head Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Yglecias refused to cooperate with Pomona police and “puffed out” his chest in an attempt to intimidate one of the two officers who responded to a domestic violence call at the home, according to a report by one of the officers."


"No charges have been filed. The district attorney’s office declared a conflict, leaving the decision on whether to prosecute Yglecias up to the California attorney general’s office."

 

Gunshot victim Rep. Steve Scalise in serious condition and in intensive care.


AP: "The Washington hospital where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise is recuperating from a gunshot wound says he has been readmitted to the intensive care unit."


"MedStar Washington Hospital Center says the Louisiana congressman is back in intensive care because of new concerns for infection. Scalise was in serious condition Wednesday night."


"Scalise and four other people were injured last month when a gunman opened fire on a Republican baseball practice in nearby Alexandria, Virginia. U.S. Capitol Police and other officers returned fire and killed the gunman."

 

READ MORE related to Beltway/Kremlingate: Trump chides Russia, but doesn't condemn election meddling -- AP's KEN THOMAS/DARLENE SUPERVILLE; OP-ED: Trump's attack on a free press is unacceptable -- The Chronicle's ROBERT REICH; US, China grow further apart as NK threat rises -- AP's CHRISTOPHER BODEEN; In Warsaw, Trump

says Russia and 'others' meddled in election, warns NK -- LA Times' BRIAN BENNETT

 

Speaking of Trump, POTUS45's recently budgeted cuts to Medicaid threaten large numbers of children from pro-Trump states who have come to increasingly rely on the safety net.

 

LA Times' PRIYA KRISHNAKUMAR/NOAM LEVEY: "Communities like this aging West Virginia coal town along the Kanawha River were key to President Trump’s victory last year; more than two-thirds of voters in surrounding Fayette County backed the Republican nominee."


"Now, families in this rural county and hundreds like it that supported Trump face the loss of a critical safety net for children as congressional Republicans move to cut hundreds of billions of dollars over the next decade from Medicaid, the half-century-old government health plan for the poor."


"Much of the debate over Republican efforts to roll back the Affordable Care Act has focused on the impact cuts would have on working-age adults, millions of whom gained coverage under the healthcare law that President Obama signed in 2010."

 

And a federal judge has ruled that a Vallejo couple is within their rights to sue their city over the couple's alleged mistreatment.

 

Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "A federal judge has rejected efforts by Vallejo officials to toss out a lawsuit filed by the couple victimized in an outlandish 2015 kidnap case that generated worldwide headlines likening it to the novel and film “Gone Girl."


"In a 22-page order filed Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Troy L. Nunley refused to dismiss claims by Denise Huskins and Aaron Quinn that they had suffered emotional distress and other hardships because of declarations by Vallejo police that the kidnapping was a hoax."


"The couple sued the city in 2016 after the arrest of former Orangevale resident Matthew Muller, who had broken into their home, tied and drugged them, then abducted Huskins and sexually assaulted her. Muller, a Harvard-trained lawyer, later released Huskins and was arrested after being linked to another Bay Area home invasion."

 

Meanwhile, California and New Mexico have something in common: lawsuits.

 

The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "The Trump administration’s order to halt rules reducing emissions of climate-changing methane gas from oil and gas wells on federal lands is environmentally harmful and legally nonsensical, state Attorney General Xavier Becerra charged in a lawsuit Wednesday."


"Joined by New Mexico’s attorney general, Becerra challenged the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s June 15 decision to “postpone” regulations that had been approved by President Barack Obama’s administration in November, after a lengthy review, and took effect Jan. 17."


"The regulations required producers of oil and natural gas on federal and tribal lands to reduce flaring and venting that reduce gas production while leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas. In a separate case on Monday, a federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., rejected a Trump administration decision to suspend another rule requiring reduced levels of methane emissions from new oil and gas operations on private as well as public lands."

 

Governor Brown is ramping up the fight against climate change, making California one of the few environmentally conscious exceptions during the Trump anti-climate era. Now, Gov. Brown is expected to announce a videoconference addressing a 'global citizen festival' in Hamburg, Germany.

 

The Chronicle's LISA FRIEDMAN: "Even before President Trump took office, Gov. Jerry Brown let it be known he was ready to do battle over climate change, vowing in December that California would launch its own research satellite if Trump cut funding for federal space missions."


"On Thursday evening, Brown plans to mount a new challenge to the administration on climate change. In a videoconference address to a global citizen festival in Hamburg, Germany, where Trump and other officials will negotiate wording of a statement on the Paris climate change accord, Brown will issue a sweeping invitation to a global “climate action” summit meeting in San Francisco."


“Look, it’s up to you and it’s up to me and tens of millions of other people to get it together to roll back the forces of carbonization and join together to combat the existential threat of climate change,” Brown will tell the thousands of people expected to attend the festival. In the message, a preview of which was provided by aides, he will invite “entrepreneurs, singers, musicians, mathematicians, professors” and others who represent “the whole world” to the September 2018 conference in San Francisco."

 

Child-marriage opponents are seeking an effective marriage ban on juveniles.

 

The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "A Bay Area legislator was shocked when he learned from a young constituent that while Californians cannot legally consent to sex until they are 18, they can — with the permission of a parent and a judge’s order — get married at any age, even if their spouse is many years older."


"I thought, that can’t be true in California,” said state Sen. Jerry Hill, a Democrat from San Mateo. “We found that it is true in California and true in many states throughout the country."


"But Hill’s resulting proposal to bar juveniles from getting hitched has been watered down after it prompted strong objections from civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union."

 

A new type of baryon has been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe -- and scientists are excited.

 

AP's SETH BORENSTEIN: "Scientists have found an extra charming new subatomic particle that they hope will help further explain a key force that binds matter together."


"Physicists at the Large Hadron Collider in Europe announced Thursday the fleeting discovery of a long theorized but never-before-seen type of baryon."


"Baryons are subatomic particles made up of quarks. Protons and neutrons are the most common baryons. Quarks are even smaller particles that come in six types, two common types that are light and four heavier types."