San Francisco Mayor Sees PG&E Assets as a ‘Great’ Opportunity
From Bloomberg's ROMY VARGHESE: "San Francisco Mayor London Breed wants to use PG&E Corp.’s bankruptcy to take over some of the company’s assets for the city’s power needs, a move that would shake up California’s largest utility and remake the state’s energy landscape."
"Breed said she sees an opportunity to deliver clean power to her residents while keeping rates as low as possible. She’s awaiting the release of a study later this month that would outline the feasibility of assuming control of PG&E’s local infrastructure."
"I’m pretty excited about it, and I am hopeful that we are able to do it,” Breed said in an interview with Bloomberg News Wednesday at City Hall. “It could be great. It could be significant for the future of our city and for the future of renewable energy here.”
Former California water lobbyist, Trump's Interior Secretary, under investigation
CHUCK MCFADDEN in Capitol Weekly: "The inspector general of the U.S. Interior Department has opened an investigation into Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s past work on behalf of California’s huge Westlands Water District and other organizations."
"The action follows requests from a number of people and organizations, including Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-New York), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts) and Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut). The senators asked Interior’s inspector general to investigate, among other things, Bernhardt’s involvement in proposals that would revise rules protecting the delta smelt, a California fish. The investigation covers Bernhardt’s time as the No. 2 official at Interior."
"California environmentalists and farmers have been at war for years over the legal river water the delta smelt and other fish need to survive and farmers need for their crops. Fresno-headquartered Westlands is the country’s largest irrigation district, roughly the size of Rhode Island, supplying water to farms in the western San Joaquin Valley."
READ MORE from Capitol Weekly: PODCAST: Paul Mitchell eyes the 2020 elections -- STAFF; (OP-ED) Dynamex ruling sparks confusion -- JOHN KABATECK in Capitol Weekly
Ninth Circuit denies Trump attempt to block California sanctuary law
McClatchy's EMILY CADEI: "The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dealt another blow to President Donald Trump’s immigration agenda on Thursday, rejecting the administration’s bid to block two California “sanctuary” laws that limit local cooperation with federal immigration enforcement efforts."
"The San Francisco-based appeals court upheld a lower court ruling that denied the administration’s request for an injunction, which would have the effect of immediately blocking Senate Bill 54, also called the California Values Act, which restricts how and when state law enforcement can interact with federal immigration authorities. The statute quickly became a flashpoint between the Trump administration and state lawmakers."
"The three-judge panel also upheld the lower court decision denying an injunction against Assembly Bill 450, which created rules for how employers must handle federal immigration audit requests, commonly called I-9 audits. Both bills were passed in 2017."
California politicians weigh in after Mueller report on Trump released
McClatchy's ANDREW SHEELER: "California’s leading politicians were quick to react on social media Thursday, after the U.S. Department of Justice released a heavily redacted version of the report compiled by Special Counsel Robert Mueller."
"Mueller’s report detailed his investigation into allegations that President Donald Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government to manipulate the 2016 election; the report concluded Russia had interfered heavily in the election, but found that while Trump may have obstructed justice, there was no evidence of collusion with the Kremlin."
"The president greeted the report’s release with a pair of tweets, a video with the headline “No Collusion - No Obstruction” and an altered image inspired by the HBO show “Game of Thrones."
READ MORE related to Mueller Report: The Mueller report is out, but Nunes' calls for investigations are just beginning -- Sacramento Bee's KATE IRBY/ADAM ASHTON; Mueller finds no conspiracy, but report shows Trump welcomed Russian help -- LA Times's CHRIS MEGERIAN
Campaign for Rep. Duncan Hunter reports spending at cigar lounge, liquor store, Trump hotel
Union-Tribune's MORGAN COOK: "In the first three months of this year, the campaign for Rep. Duncan Hunter spent about $30,000 on lawyers and paid hundreds of dollars more at the Trump International hotel in Washington, D.C., and at a liquor store on Hunter’s birthday."
"The $69,400 in disbursements were disclosed in a report filed with the Federal Election Commission this week. The campaign reported raising $92,599."
"It was the weakest first quarter of fundraising for Hunter’s campaign since 2009, when it raised $88,963. In the first quarter of 2018, the campaign raised $210,268."
California's improved vaccination rates are keeping measles at bay
The Chronicle's ERIN ALLDAY: "The United States is in the middle of what may end up the largest measles outbreak in two decades."
"Dozens of new cases are being reported each week. As of April 11 — date of the most recent data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — 555 cases had been confirmed."
"That’s just 112 shy of the number of cases reported for all of 2014, the worst year on record since measles was eliminated in the U.S. in 2000. The current outbreak was triggered at multiple spots around the country, but it’s being fueled almost entirely by one source: large pockets of unvaccinated people."
Supporters of SB50 fire back after ads equate housing bill to 'Negro removal'
The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN: "A provocative mailer by a deep-pocketed Los Angeles activist equates a state housing bill with “Negro removal,” a comparison that prompted state Sen. Scott Wiener and San Francisco Mayor London Breed to fire back Thursday."
"The ad, paid for by Michael Weinstein, appeared on cable television, snowballed on social media and popped up in mailboxes throughout the city this week. It features a picture of famous black author James Baldwin with a quote about San Francisco’s urban renewal policies, which displaced thousands of African Americans from the Fillmore."
"San Francisco is engaging ... in something called urban renewal, which means moving the Negroes out. It means Negro removal,” says the quote, attributed to Baldwin in 1963."
These parents could help expose UCLA, USC roles in college admissions scandal
LA Times's MATTHEW ORMSETH/RICHARD WINTON: "No one was looking at Bruce Isackson."
"Seated in a Boston courtroom recently among a dozen other parents implicated in a scheme to defraud half a dozen top universities, Isackson — a real estate investor from Northern California — was overshadowed by his more famous co-defendants."
"A few rows ahead of him sat actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, the designer J. Mossimo Giannulli. Across the aisle was another actress, Felicity Huffman, whose gaze did not once meet the pack of reporters who trailed her out of the courthouse, then to the car that waited to whisk her away."
Sacramento scraps plan for homeless shelter at Florin light rail station
Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "Sacramento city officials have scrapped a controversial proposal to open a homeless shelter at the Florin light rail parking lot."
"Officials are now eyeing a new spot in Councilman Larry Carr’s district, which includes the south Sacramento neighborhoods of Meadowview, Parkway and North Laguna Creek, Carr said."
"If the new Sacramento site opens, the city will not open a second large shelter in south Sacramento that would be operating at the same time, Councilman Jay Schenirer said."
READ MORE related to Homelessness & Housing: A big homeless shelter could go in this historic downtown Sacramento building -- Sacramento Bee's THERESA CLIFT
SF police get an earful from city supervisors about leaked Adachi report
The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "San Francisco supervisors castigated the city’s Police Department Thursday over a pair of recent stumbles in which sensitive private information — including an incident report related to the death of former Public Defender Jeff Adachi, a vocal police critic — was improperly released to the public."
"Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer first called for the hearing following the improper release of a confidential police report documenting Adachi’s death that was obtained by multiple news outlets, including The Chronicle, in the days after he was pronounced dead. Adachi’s widow, Mutsuko Adachi, attended the hearing and called the police department’s actions “despicable."
"Police Commander Greg McEachern said the Adachi family deserved an apology, “and I’m offering that today.” Adachi died Feb. 22."
How Russia used FB and Twitter to influence the 2016 election
McClatchy's ANDREW SHEELER: " The United Muslims of America were neither Muslims nor Americans."
"That fictional organization was one of several Facebook groups Russian agents created to sow discord among American voters during the 2016 presidential race, according to Special Counsel Robert Mueller III’s investigation into election interference."
"His investigation released on Thursday concluded that President Donald Trump did not directly coordinate his political campaign with the Russian government, but it left no doubt that the Kremlin sought to influence the campaign in Trump’s favor."