Why conservative headliners are teaming up to challenge Maxine Waters in Los Angeles
LA Times' SARAH D. WIRE: "Republican Omar Navarro is trying again to unseat Rep. Maxine Waters, but this time, he has a new set of high-profile friends. Trump confidant Roger Stone is a campaign advisor, former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio calls weekly, and far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones hosted him on his popular show."
"Now a group of major GOP donors that spent millions on ads to elect President Trump also plans to take on the Los Angeles congresswoman in next year’s midterm election."
"Either Trump supporters see a path to victory in a southern Los Angeles district where 60% of voters are registered Democrats, or they just want to punish one of the president’s most vocal detractors, a longtime legislator who is a darling of anti-Trump liberals."
California drivers disagree on when, how to merge on freeways
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "We asked Bee readers last week about a common but controversial freeway moment: When faced with a sign saying, “Lane ends ahead, merge left,” should you merge immediately or scoot ahead, passing other cars, until your lane ends?"
"No surprise. We got no consensus. Drivers are adamant on both sides."
"Pat Longest says she gets in her lane early, and is angered by those who zoom by in the other lane. They’re rude, she says. You can read her lips as you pass by. “I say it out loud."
READ MORE related to Transportation: $1 million bail for Sacramento man arrested in crash that killed four -- Sacramento Bee's STEPHEN MAGAGNINI; Drone pilot arrested for dropping leaflets over NFL games -- The Chronicle's JK DINEEN
California business push for 2017 immigration fix in Congress, but hopes fade
McClatchy DC's FRANCO ORDONEZ/EMILY CADEI/ANDREA DRUSH: "With prospects dimming for a deal this year to prevent young undocumented immigrants from deportation, California business leaders and other sympathetic groups are planning a massive push over the next few weeks to force the issue to the top of Washington’s agenda."
"Activists see their December bid as their last, best shot to save some 800,000 immigrants, known as “Dreamers,” who are participating in the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. DACA has enabled those young people – more than a quarter of whom live in California – to gain temporary legal status and protection from deportation. That protected status expires March 5, 2018, putting their worker permits in jeopardy and making them vulnerable to deportation."
"In California, the impact on the economy would be significant. Business groups estimate the state has 188,000 DACA workers. “Our employers are worried about what happens if we no longer have the DACA protection,” Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Gary Toebben said last week on a call with other California business leaders. “They’ve hired these young people and they want to keep them as part of the workforce."
Guns were Black Friday must-have, judging by the record number of FBI background-check requests
WaPo's CLEVE R. WOOTSON JR: "For decades, the term “Black Friday” has conjured up distinct images: Turkey-stuffed consumers awake at insanely early hours of the morning, bursting into big-box stores to fight over flat screen TVs."
"But in a muzzle flash, it seems, a new image may be replacing that stereotype. It involves a trigger and, possibly, a scope."
"On Friday, the FBI received 203,086 requests for instant gun background checks, according to USA Today - nearly a 10 percent increase from the year before and a new record for background checks in a single day."
California AG investigating troubled SF charity
The Chronicle's CYNTHIA DIZIKES/CAROLYNE ZINKO/KAREN DE SA: "The California attorney general’s office has begun investigating a San Francisco charity that claimed to serve the developmentally disabled, after a Chronicle exposé that found the nonprofit veered from its mission for years, doing little more than funding its director’s high-society lifestyle."
"The rare audit by the state’s top legal office is the most significant review of Helpers Community Inc.’s finances. It comes as the once-celebrated nonprofit is launching new efforts to house and train adults with developmental disabilities, including plans to reopen three former group homes that have been shuttered for 15 years."
"In August, the $6 million charity fired its longtime director, San Francisco socialite Joy Venturini Bianchi, and hired a replacement amid a flurry of new grant-making."
California winces at Trump's turn back to 'bad old days' of health plan associations
California Healthline's PAULINE BARTOLONE: "Just a few decades ago, small businesses in California often banded together to buy health insurance on the premise that a bigger pool of enrollees would get them a better deal."
"California’s dairy farmers did it; so did car dealers and accountants."
"But after a string of these “association health plans” went belly up, sometimes in the wake of fraud, state lawmakers passed sweeping changes in the 1990s that consigned them to near extinction."
Consider grabbing some tax deductions before GOP takes them away
The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER: "Year-end tax planning will take on extra significance — and complexity — this year, given the likelihood that congressional Republicans will try to get a tax bill passed before Dec. 31 to claim a legislative victory for 2017."
"The normal year-end tax advice goes like this: Figure out if you will be in a higher or lower income tax bracket next year."
"If your tax rate is likely to go up next year, try to accelerate any income you can into this year and defer deductions until next year, so that your taxable income is higher this year and lower next year than it would be otherwise. If your tax rate is likely to go down, do the opposite."
READ MORE related to Death & Taxes: OP-ED: Brown comes to taxpayers' defense on pensions -- East Bay Times & Mercury News' EDITORIAL BOARD; GOP tax plan could hurt homeowners, banks, real estate sector -- East Bay Times' STEVE BUTLER
Bill Cosby case provides defamation warning for Trump, Roy Moore
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama has promised to sue the Washington Post for printing a woman’s accusation that he molested her when she was 14 and he was 32. The threat is reminiscent of presidential candidate Donald Trump’s vow last year to sue the 16 women who accused him of making unwanted sexual advances."
"Neither man has followed through on the threat — and there can be hazards for well-known people who strike back at their accusers. The dangers were underscored last week by a California appeals court, which allowed a model to sue both Bill Cosby and his lawyer for branding her a liar after she accused the former TV star in 2014 of having drugged and raped her in 1982."
"Cosby argued that he had only been stating his opinion — that the woman, Janice Dickinson, was a liar based on her reputation — and not making any factual claims. But the Second District Court of Appeal in Los Angeles said Cosby had “repeatedly and unconditionally asserted that Dickinson lied about Cosby having raped her,” a potential basis for a libel suit."
LA Times' NOAM N. LEVEY: "The Senate Republican plan to use tax legislation to repeal the federal requirement that Americans have health coverage threatens to derail insurance markets in conservative, rural swaths of the country, according to a Los Angeles Times data analysis."
"That could leave consumers in these regions — including most or all of Alaska, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada and Wyoming, as well as parts of many other states — with either no options for coverage or health plans that are prohibitively expensive."
"There are 454 counties nationwide with only one health insurer on the marketplace in 2018 and where the cheapest plan available to a 40-year-old consumer costs at least $500 a month. Markets in these places risk collapsing if Congress scraps the individual insurance mandate."
Suit challenges Trump's pick of Mulvaney for consumer financial bureau
AP's BERNARD CONDON: "President Donald Trump’s appointment of his budget director as interim director of a consumer financial protection agency championed by Democrats was challenged in a lawsuit filed in federal court Sunday night."
"Leandra English, the federal official elevated to the position of interim director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by its outgoing director, filed the suit against Trump and his choice, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney."
"The suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asked for a declaratory judgment and a temporary restraining order to block Mulvaney from taking over the bureau."
READ MORE related to Feds: Consumer bureau's deputy director sues to stop Trump appointee from taking temporary control of agency -- LA Times' JIM PUZZANGHERA
Unique home in Yountville treats young vets with combat stress
The Chronicle's SAM WHITING: "The Pathway Home, an independent residential treatment facility for post-9/11 veterans with combat stress, sits amid thousands of acres of trees and lawn in Yountville. But all one Marine named Jack needed of the outdoors was the exit staircase across the hall from his room."
"He’d come out of an intense group class, grab his Camel Blues, and by the time he got out on the landing, it was already packed as tight as a Humvee, with 10 or 15 others with post-traumatic stress disorder huddled together and drawing deeply on the nicotine to calm their nerves."
"Devil Dog, How you doing?” they’d greet Jack, using the nickname for his rifle company. “I’m doing,” he’d say."
Sacramento rushed to approve gun violence program -- and then waited
Sacramento Bee's ANITA CHABRIA: "In late August, the city of Sacramento faced a crisis: Gun violencein certain neighborhoods seemed out of control."
"The police department was investigating five open gun-related homicides, and 13 people in the city had died from gunshots during the year. The latest incident was a drive-by shooting in Meadowview, linked to an online battle of insults between local rap artists with gang ties. It quickly became the breaking point in a summer of bloodshed. Community activists and city leaders stood in the park where the shooting happened and agreed on one thing: What was being done to stop gun crime wasn’t effective."
"Sacramento’s City Council called a special meeting on Aug. 29 and unanimously voted to approve a three-year, $1.5 million contract for Advance Peace, a controversial mentoring and intervention approach to curbing gun violence that was pioneered in Richmond, Calif."
It's a brutal end for these salmon, but it replenishes oceans and feeds families
Sacramento Bee's HUDSON SANGREE: "Thousands of salmon make the grueling journey from the Pacific Ocean up the American River each fall. The spawning run ends for many with a whack on the head at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery, where salmon eggs are gathered and fertilized."
"The salmon would normally die a slow death after spawning. But at Nimbus, they’re quickly dispatched in a process viewed annually by hundreds of children and adults through big glass windows at the hatchery in Gold River."
"What becomes of the dead salmon is less well known. While the ending isn’t happy for the adult fish, their offspring repopulate the oceans, and tens of thousands of pounds of salmon fillets feed hungry families in northern and central California during the winter months."
Kevin Durant's epiphany about being black in America
East Bay Times' LOGAN MURDOCK: "Kevin Durant walked into the north entrance of Oracle Arena ahead of Game 1 of the 2017 Western Conference Finals with a subtle message etched across his t-shirt.
"Stay Black"
"For Durant, the two-word phrase acts not only as a reminder of his identity but a manifesto of the spiritual journey the 10-year veteran has embarked upon over the last year and a half."
Marin belies laid-back image, looks down on pot shops
The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE: "There was a time when Marin County was a capital of cannabis hipsterism, a New Age outpost of ganja in a weed-hostile world, but when recreational sales of marijuana become legal Jan. 1, the county that rarely abstains will be sitting out."
"County officials recently rejected all 10 applications for licenses to operate medical marijuana dispensaries. That’s despite the fact that nearly 70 percent of Marin voters approved Proposition 64, the 2016 initiative that legalized recreational cannabis, and that county supervisors previously passed an ordinance allowing up to four medicinal shops on unincorporated land."
"It turns out that many residents are fine with the idea of cannabis capitalism, as long as it isn’t happening in their backyard."
Single Oakland mom finds brighter future after years in foster care
East Bay Times' PETER HEGARTY: "As someone who spent her childhood moving among foster homes, Dajonna Benjamin has faced challenges from the very start in life."
"But now with a little help, the 22-year-old single mom is overcoming perhaps the biggest of all for a person with her background: Building a productive future."
"In May, Benjamin secured a place for herself and her 5-year-old daughter at an East Oakland transitional home that supports young mothers as they exit the foster care system."
US Marshals arrest second courthouse fugitive from San Leandro
East Bay Times' GEORGE KELLY: "The second of two fugitives from a South Bay courthouse earlier this month was detained and arrested, authorities said Sunday."
"John Bivins, 47, was arrested by a U.S. Marshal-led task force around 9:30 a.m. at the Fairmont Inn, 16320 Foothill Blvd., according to a U.S. Marshal statement Sunday afternoon."
"Officials who saw Bivins, 47, of East Palo Alto, walking out of the Fairmont came up to him and ordered him to surrender, but he refused to comply and was forced into custody. Bivins could face more state and federal charges, including attempting to escape, being a felon in possession of a firearm and attempted murder of a federal agent."
Prince Harry & Meghan Markle are engaged
East Bay Times' MARTHA ROSS: "The rumor mill has been buzzing for months, but now it’s official: Prince Harry is engaged to American actress Meghan Markle and the couple will marry in the spring."
"The announcement came via a tweet from Harry’s father, Prince Charles."
"The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince Harry to Ms. Meghan Markle."
UC Irvine grad expected to recover following shark attack in Monterey Bay
OC Register's SHARON NOGUCHI: "Armen Azatian was surfacing from a spearfishing dive in Monterey Bay when he heard a bloodcurdling scream."
"It was his 25-year-old son, who had just fought off what he said was a great white shark that ripped into his thigh and lower leg."
"The elder Azatian didn’t witness the Friday attack, but realized immediately something catastrophic had happened — his son had never cried since he was a baby."
READ MORE related to Education: Fizz! Pop! Bang! Teachers find new science standards fun, but costly -- EdSource's CAROLYN JONES; Declaring a truce in the charter versus district school wars -- EdSource's DON SHALVEY
Silicon Valley chip companies making tasty acquisitions
East Bay Times' REX CRUM: "Winter may be on the way, but Silicon Valley chipmakers are having their moment in the sun."
"Semiconductors are the brains, heart and guts of just about every electronic gadget you own, and the companies that make them are famous for roller-coaster highs and lows as they seek to stay relevant in a fast-changing market. But as chipmakers pursue an acquisition binge, the recent deal wrangling is generating excitement from investors. After all, it was silicon chipmakers that gave Silicon Valley its name."
"Marvell Technology inked a big deal this month to buy San Jose-based Cavium, while Broadcom — another chipmaker with roots in San Jose — is pursuing what would be the biggest-ever acquisition deal in the technology industry. Broadcom’s intended target, San Diego-based Qualcomm, argues that Broadcom’s overture undervalues the company."
Newport Beach expected to yank Banning Ranch approvals this week
OC Register's LAUREN WILLIAMS: "A long-planned development of hundreds of homes and expansive retail space this week likely will lose the approvals it received from the Newport Beach City Council five years ago, dealing the controversial project yet another blow."
"On Tuesday, the Newport Beach City Council is expected to vote to vacate all approvals for the Newport Banning Ranch project, which has been proposed for the 401-acre historic oil field that sits in an unincorporated area at the intersection of Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach."
"The item to vacate all approvals of the Banning Ranch project is a consent calendar item on Tuesday’s council agenda. Such items are typically not discussed and approved en masse."
READ MORE related to Economy & Development: Orange County office buildings sell at record fast pace at record high prices -- OC Register's JONATHAN LANSNER; Who's really No. 1? Why economic rankings don't always add up -- OC Register's JONATHAN LANSNER
'I am their family.' In Tunisia, one man's mission to bury the migrants who die at sea
LA Times' MOLLY HENNESSY-FISKE: "Despite his injured ankle, he ran as best he could in his rubber boots to reach the graves."
"Chamseddine Marzoug was in a hurry, taking advantage of a break in torrential rains to check the swelling cemetery he has spent the last dozen years building for hundreds of African migrants who never made it to Europe."
"Marzoug, 51, paused to catch his breath this month in a field littered with Berber brand beer cans and reeking of manure. He pointed about a half-mile north, across trash-strewn olive groves bordering the town dump, to two red-brick pillars that marked the entrance to the soccer-field-size cemetery on a finger of land stretching toward Italy."
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The Roundup is maintained and curated by Associate Editor Geoffrey Howard. Questions, concerns, feedback? Email him at geoff@capitolweekly.net.