De Leon pressured as sexual misconduct scandal creeps into US Senate race
The Chronicle's MELODY GUTIERREZ & JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Two days after state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León announced he would challenge fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in next year’s election, a sexual harassment scandal broke under his roof."
"More than 140 women in and around the state Capitol signed an open letter on Oct. 17 and launched the We Said Enough campaign decrying the pervasive sexual harassment and abuse they have faced in their jobs in politics. But it didn’t take long for the women to hear the theory that their efforts were part of a well-oiled Feinstein machine kicking back an insurgent de León campaign."
"Yep, we’ve heard that rumor,” said Samantha Corbin, a leader in the We Said Enough campaign."
High housing prices are forcing hundreds of Sacramento State students into homelessness
Sacramento Bee's DIANA LAMBERT: "A $200 a month rent increase pushed Sacramento State senior Elizabeth McGuire into homelessness on a recent Sunday afternoon."
"Now, here I am with no money, no place to live and no car,” she said. “I was really lucky because I have a good friend who said I could stay on her couch."
"McGuire, 45, is among the 3,600 or so students at Sacramento State that campus officials estimate are homeless, based on a California State University study. The report found that one in 10 students in the system are homeless and that one in five are food insecure, according to Sacramento State spokeswoman Dixie Reid."
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Stem cell agency: $16 million-plus in grants
DAVID JENSEN in Capitol Weekly: "The California stem cell agency has handed out $16.4 million in research grants seeking therapies for afflictions ranging from gum disease and cancer to vision loss and Parkinson’s Disease."
"The award for Parkinson’s was relatively tiny — only $150,000 — but represented a rare case in which the agency’s governing board overturned its reviewers, who make the de facto decisions on awards."
"The reversal came after one board member, David Higgins, of San Diego, who has Parkinson’s, noted that the most common drug that Parkinson’s patients take is 70 years old. He told the board."
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What happened when North Carolina cut taxes like the GOP plans to for the country
WaPo's TODD C. FRANKEL: "For a peek into a world after a massive tax cut, visit North Carolina and ride along with factory owner Eric Henry."
"Conservative groups have hailed North Carolina as a model of a tax overhaul since it began slashing state corporate and individual tax rates four years ago. And one of the effort’s main architects, Thom Tillis, is now in the U.S. Senate, where early Saturday he joined 50 other Republican senators in voting for a $1.5 trillion federal tax overhaul — a plan that employs many of the same tactics already in use here."
"But as Henry drove through the conservative, rural county he’s called home all his life, he had trouble seeing many benefits of the tax cut. Business was good, but it wasn’t good enough that he could give his 20 workers significant raises."
Trump lawyer says president knew Flynn had given FBI the same account he gave to vice president
WaPo's CAROL D. LEONNIG/JOHN WAGNER/ELLEN NAKASHIMA: "President Trump’s personal lawyer said on Sunday that the president knew in late January that then-national security adviser Michael Flynn had probably given FBI agents the same inaccurate account he provided to Vice President Pence about a call with the Russian ambassador."
"Trump lawyer John Dowd said the information was passed to Trump by White House counsel Donald McGahn, who had been warned about Flynn’s statement to the vice president by a senior Justice Department official. The vice president said publicly at the time that Flynn had told him he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian diplomat — a statement disproved by a U.S. intelligence intercept of a phone call between Flynn and then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak."
"Trump was aware of the issue a couple of weeks before a conversation with then-FBI Director James B. Comey in which Comey said the president asked him if he could be lenient while investigating Flynn, whom Trump had just fired for misleading Pence about the nature of his conversations with the Russian."
Feinstein says an obstruction of justice case against Trump is building
Sacramento Bee's ROS KRASNY: "A Senate investigation into connections between Donald Trump's presidential campaign and Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. election suggests that a potential case of obstruction of justice is developing against the president, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Sunday."
"What we're beginning to see is the putting together of a case of obstruction of justice," Feinstein, D-Calif., the ranking minority member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said about the committee's investigation."
"We see this in the indictments, the four indictments, and pleas that have just taken place, and some of the comments that are being made," said Feinstein, who is also a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "I see it in the hyper-frenetic attitude of the White House: the comments every day, the continual tweets."
Trump: 'We need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama'
WaPo's PHILIP RUCKER: "President Trump on Monday offered his most explicit endorsement to date of Roy Moore, the embattled Republican Senate candidate in Alabama who stands accused of making unwanted sexual advances on teenage girls when he was in his 30s."
"We need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,” Trump declared in an early morning tweet, leaving no question that he was supporting a Senate nominee that many other Republican leaders have repudiated and called upon to quit the race."
"Trump tweeted: “Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama. We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!"
End-of-semester course evaluations can impact instructor pay, administrators say
Daily Californian's SOPHIA BROWN-HEIDENREICH: "As the semester comes to an end, students are asked to complete course evaluations, the results of which can impact an instructor’s career advancement and pay, according to Benjamin Hermalin, vice provost for the faculty."
"The required end-of-semester course evaluations, completed either in class or online, provide feedback not only for the instructor, but are also reviewed by supervisors. The evaluations are used to help determine promotions, pay and class assignment. According to Hermalin, the evaluations play an important part in the “performance review” of professors and graduate student instructors, or GSIs."
"Poor teaching can and has led to faculty receiving smaller pay increases than they otherwise would have or even being denied promotions,” Hermalin said in an email. “Excellent teaching can and has been rewarded by faculty receiving greater pay increases than they otherwise would have."
Absent fed action, SF, other locals target menthol cigarettes
Capitol Weekly's PAUL FELDMAN: "Anti-smoking groups, frustrated by federal inaction on restricting menthol cigarettes, are taking matters into their own hands."
"In recent months, cities ranging from Oakland and Los Gatos, Calif., to Minneapolis and St. Paul have passed laws limiting the availability of menthol cigarettes, which health advocates say have a particular appeal to beginning smokers. St. Paul is the latest, voting this month to restrict sales to adult-only tobacco and liquor stores."
Rich residents who got SF street back will pay 12 cents a year in taxes
The Chronicle's MATIER & ROSS: "Not only did the residents of San Francisco’s exclusive Presidio Terrace win back their gated street — they also get to keep their bargain-basement tax rate of $4.28 a year for the private roadway and sidewalks."
"That works out to 12 cents a year in property taxes for each of the 35 homeowners who once again jointly control the street, now that the Board of Supervisors has voted 7-4 to rescind the city’s tax-default sale of the property to a South Bay couple."
"Nullifying the city treasurer’s 2015 tax sale means that Tina Lamand Michael Cheng of San Jose will get back the $90,100 that they paid for the street in an online auction in 2015."
Despite pledge, Trump company works with a foreign entity. Again.
Sacramento Bee's ANITA KUMAR: "A construction company owned in part by the governments of Saudi Arabia and South Korea plans to build a Trump-branded luxury resort development in Indonesia despite a vow from Donald Trump that his family business would not make any deals with foreign government entities while he serves as president."
"Trump’s partner, MNC Land, recently entered into a preliminary agreement with Posco E&C Indonesia to become the main contractor for the first phase of the development — billed in promotional material as a “Trump Community” that includes a Disney-like theme park, a six-star hotel and a golf course."
"MNC Land, through its subsidiary PT Lido Nirwana Parahyangan, and Posco E&C Indonesia officials signed a memorandum of understanding on Nov. 11 at a ceremony in Jakarta that was attended by several high-level government officials from Indonesia and South Korea and was widely covered in the foreign media."
House Republicans prepare to move gun bills as Democrats ready attacks
Sacramento Bee's EMMA DUMAIN: "House Republicans are preparing to vote in the days ahead to loosen gun laws, hopeful the optics are friendlier now that the national political conversation has turned away from the recent mass shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas."
"The current Republican gambit is to bring three bills to the House floor this month as a single package."
"One measure, the most controversial, would allow concealed-carry permits to be treated like driver’s licenses, considered valid from state-to-state. Republicans hope the two other measures, largely supported by Democrats, will soften the political blow."
Stanford sex assailant Brock Turner appeals conviction, outraging activists
The Chronicle's KIMBERLY VEKLEROV: "Brock Turner, the former Stanford student whose three-month jail stint for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman drew national condemnation, has filed an appeal that has reinflamed anger among activists and advocates of women who have endured sexual violence."
"The 172-page brief submitted Friday in California’s Sixth District Court of Appeal alleges prosecutorial misconduct and deprivation of due process. Turner’s lawyer focuses much of his appeal on the alcohol consumption of the victim, known only as Emily Doe. And the brief argues that descriptions by prosecutors of the assault happening “behind a dumpster” were misleading “propaganda” intended to prejudice the jury."
"“Regardless of whether it happened behind the dumpster or adjacent to the dumpster or the dumpster didn’t exist, he committed sexual assault,” said Jess Davidson, managing director of the group End Rape on Campus. “Turner clearly still does not get it."
Internet provider Sonic expands gigabit fiber service in East Bay
The Chronicle's BENNY EVANGELISTA: "Internet service provider Sonic is expanding its highest-speed Internet service in the East Bay."
"The Santa Rosa company, which is trying to lure customers away from giants like AT&T and Comcast, said Monday that it is bringing its gigabit fiber service to Berkeley and Albany, and parts of Oakland, El Cerrito and Kensington."
"Sonic has added service in San Francisco this year in the Mission, Noe Valley, Castro, Dolores Heights, Glen Park, Potrero Hill and Sunnyside neighborhoods. It also serves Brentwood and Sebastopol. The latest expansion is the company’s biggest of its kind, CEO Dane Jasper said."
Your DNA kit begins a 'journey of discovery' -- but are results in safe hands?
Sacramento Bee's TIM JOHNSON: "Test kits to check one’s DNA heritage have never been cheaper. Prices have skidded to less than $50, and in at least one instance, thousands of people were offered free tests."
"It’s a commercial brawl, but one that stretches far beyond the marketplace to raise sensitive issues of privacy and personal identity. And it is likely to intensify. Some 10 to 15 million Americans have already taken the DNA tests, and the number is rising quickly."
"For many Americans, the tests are fodder for cocktail conversation, revealing exotic aspects of their heritage, perhaps native American blood. For others, results can help track lost relatives or build a family tree."
Sacramento refuses to clean lead-tainted lawns near guin range, says airport is to blame
Sacramento Bee's RAN LILLIS: "The city of Sacramento is refusing to remove lead-contaminated soil from residential yards near a shuttered city gun range, blaming high levels of lead instead on small-engine airplanes landing and taking off from nearby Sacramento Executive Airport."
"In separate letters to Mangan Park residents and the Sacramento County Environmental Management Department, city officials said leaded fuel used by aircraft was the likely cause of elevated lead levels found outside 15 homes near the James G. Mangan Rifle and Pistol range. The airport, which borders working-class neighborhoods south of Fruitridge Road, was listed among the highest emitters of lead of any airport in the nation in a 2008 report by the federal Environmental Protection Agency."
"The city’s claims run afoul of the county’s environmental watchdog, which has led the cleanup response since The Sacramento Bee reported that high levels of lead were found inside and outside the range last year. The county has ordered the city to develop a plan for cleaning lawns near the toxic gun range where a ventilation system sent unfiltered air into the environment."
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