At least 50 dead, more than 400 injured after shooting on Las Vegas Strip
WaPo's MARK BERMAN/TRAVIS M. ANDREWS: "A gunman in a high-rise hotel opened fire on a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip late Sunday, killing at least 50 people and injuring hundreds of others in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history."
"The gunman, identified by police as Stephen Paddock, was later found dead by officers on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during a news briefing. Paddock was 64."
"Lombardo said “over 50” were killed in the shooting, though that toll could rise, as he noted that police were still investigating the scene. Police said an estimated 406 people were taken to area hospitals after the shooting. Authorities did not immediately specify how many of the people were wounded by gunfire or injured in the chaotic frenzy."
READ MORE related to Music Festival Massacre: President Donald Trump to address the shooting in Las Vegas -- AP's CATHERINE LUCEY; Clark County Fire Department estimates that approximately 406 people were transported to area hospitals and 50 are dead -- AP; Who was Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock? -- Sacramento Bee's SCOTT BERSON
Progressives felt in deep-blue California
NIK BONOVICH in Capitol Weekly: "Meet the progressives, an outgrowth of California’s Democratic political landscape."
"As Democrats began their dominance in California over 20 years, they saw their electoral success expand out of urban centers into wealthier suburban enclaves, such as Pasadena, Calabasas, and Walnut Creek."
"With this change came the New Democrats, a name brought to fame by former President Bill Clinton. These were Democrats who supported workers, and social and civil rights, but who were attuned to business interests, businesses that provided jobs and commerce for communities. These policies often clash with labor, environmental, and consumer interests, but allowed for expansion of Democratic elected officials in the suburbs."
Why Trump's tax plan may be the best thing for California's rickety tax system
LA Times' GEORGE SKELTON: "President Trump believes people no longer should be allowed to deduct state and local taxes when calculating their federal income taxes. And they shouldn’t. He’s right."
"That may sound nutty and even disloyal coming from a Californian. Millions of state residents, after all, would be hammered by elimination of the state and local tax deductions."
"But let’s be intellectually honest. There’s no credible justification for the federal government subsidizing California’s highest-in-the-nation state income tax — or, for that matter, any local levy like the property tax."
READ MORE related to POTUS45/Beltway: Trump says Tillerson 'wasting his time' talking to North Korea -- AP
Few Californians have earthquake insurance, but interest has jumped since the Mexico quakes
LA Times' JAMES F. PELTZ: "Bill and Liz Barlak have carried earthquake insurance on their three-bedroom house in Burbank since the couple bought the property 30 years ago."
"It helps us sleep at night,” said Bill Barlak, 66, an engineer. “I wouldn’t buy a home without it."
"Which makes the Barlaks part of a minority in California."
READ MORE related to Environment: Mexico City earthquake toll hits 361; 8 still missing in collapsed building -- AP
The trick play that Nevada used to whisk OJ Simpson out of prison
LA Times' DAVID MONTERO: "It seemed to be the most anti-O.J. Simpson of moments."
"The famous — and infamous — football great disappeared into a waiting car outside a Nevada state prison on Sunday, newly paroled, and disappeared into the darkness of the desert where the media spotlight couldn’t find him."
"Nevada Department of Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Keast said that was by design."
Stem cell agency: $75 million for diabetes, brain cancer
DAVID JENSEN in Capitol Weekly: "The California stem cell agency yesterday handed out $75 million, doubling down on a couple of efforts to develop a stem cell therapy and a stem cell tool, plus funding an expansion of its Alpha Clinic network with two new, Northern California sites."
"The awards bring to $2.34 billion that the nearly 13-year-old agency has committed to stem cell research. The awards also leave the agency with $414 million in uncommitted funds. The state research program, formally known as the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), expects to run out of cash for new awards in less than three years."
"The clinical program awards yesterday targeted such afflictions as diabetes, brain cancer and sickle cell anemia. One award of $20 million set a new mark for one CIRM-funded project."
READ MORE related to Health: Why Medi-Cal enrollees gain coverage but not broad access to doctors -- Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON
Japanese Americans protest wall planned at WWII internment camp near California border
Sacramento Bee's STEPHEN MAGAGNINI: "A three-mile, 8-foot-high barbed-wire fence planned around a rural airport on the site of the old Tule Lake War Relocation Center has spawned a national protest by hundreds of Japanese Americans who say it would taint the place where many of their families were locked up during World War II."
"The new barbed wire fence stirs memories of pain, shame and anger among the descendants of the more than 20,000 Japanese Americans – about two-thirds of them U.S. citizens – imprisoned in the high desert five hours north of Sacramento after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Tule Lake is considered the most brutal of the 10 “internment camps” where the U.S. government sent 120,000 Japanese Americans, most for the duration of the war, said Barbara Takei, 69, whose mother was sent there along with her family."
"The fence is a desecration of a site we feel is spiritual, a site where people go to mourn, a site that is for remembrance,” said Takei, CFO of the Tule Lake Committee, which is leading the protest. “With the fence, we will be shut out from where our families lived and permanently reminded of the racism and hostility that put us there in the first place."
LA Times' DOUG SMITH: "Two Southern California school districts were giving conflicting messages over the weekend as they attempted to guide parents through a scare touched off last week by a state and federal investigation of a music specialist suspected of contaminating musical instruments with semen."
"Responding to the probe, the Saugus Union School District in Los Angeles County sought help from parents to collect evidence in the investigation, which it said “is focusing on workshops where students made ‘flutes’ out of PVC pipe with a specific individual."
"The message, signed by Supt. Joan Lucid, included a list of seven locations where the specialist, whose identity has not been disclosed, gave workshops and assemblies."