Billions of dollars at stake in toll road suits
From RICH EHISEN in Capitol Weekly: "Skipping out on paying a highway or bridge toll has long been a surefire way to get hit with a big fine. But if a raft of pending lawsuits seeking to overturn how toll operators share information about scofflaws is successful, California toll operators say taxpayers may end up taking the biggest hit."
"Consumer groups contend that a legislative attempt to thwart the litigation constitutes one of the most important measures of the year – and one that has flown almost entirely under the public’s radar."
"California has 200 miles of toll roads and bridges that handle 1.4 million mostly-routine transactions a day: a driver goes through a toll station and either pays cash to an attendant or has the toll automatically debited from a personal account, such as FasTrak."
Redistricting commission extends deadline as diversity of applicants lags
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "Facing concerns about a lack of ethnic and gender diversity, State Auditor Elaine Howle announced Monday that she will extend the application deadline for the California Redistricting Commission by 10 days."
"Two weeks ago, the statistics were telling us we really needed to step up our outreach” to ethnic communities around the state, Howle said in a telephone news conference. “Now we’re seeing some momentum and we don’t want to cut that off by the end of the week."
"The application deadline for the 14-member citizens’ commission, which will draw the new lines for all of California’s legislative and congressional districts after the 2020 census, originally was set for Friday. The new deadline is 5 p.m. Monday, Aug. 19."
The biggest recycling store chain in California just closed its doors. Here's why.
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "The largest bottle and can recycling center chain in California, rePlanet, shut its doors Monday, terminating its entire workforce and creating a massive gap in recycling availability in the state."
"With the continued reduction in state fees, the depressed pricing of recycled aluminum and PET plastic, and the rise in operating costs resulting from minimum wage increases and required health and workers compensation insurance, the Company has concluded that operation of these recycling centers and supporting operations is no longer sustainable,” a company spokesman said in a statement Monday."
"The company has shut doors at 284 sites throughout the state."
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Amid fire season, PG&E eyes its infrastructure
From JOAQUIN ROMERO in Capitol Weekly: "As California confronts a new fire season, the state’s largest utility says it has inspected hundreds of thousands of structures and made repairs on its sprawling infrastructure system."
"In data released July 15 by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., the investor-owned utility reported there were 9,671 problems with infrastructure in areas of the state most at risk for wildfires, especially northern California."
"The report identified an array of possible wildfire hazards, ranging from decaying equipment to damage caused by woodpeckers. A majority of the problems came from aging equipment, with the highest concentration of hazards located in Sonoma, Shasta, Butte and Tuolumne counties."
More than 1,000 public pensions in California are so big they exceed IRS limits
Sacramento Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "Nine years ago Lee McDougal retired as the manager of a small Southern California city and started collecting the pension he earned over 38 years in public service."
"Today, his retirement earnings top a list of 1,200 public pensions in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System that exceed federal limits, according to data kept by CalPERS, which administers the plans."
"Last year McDougal’s pension was about $337,000 — nearly a third more than the federal maximum for public pensions. The excess portion comes out of his former employer’s annual budget instead of the state’s public retirement system."
California lawmaker brings back $25 gun tax plan after multiple mass shootings
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "In the wake of multiple recent mass shootings, a California lawmaker announced Monday that he is reviving his bill to tax firearm sales in the state."
"No more thoughts and prayers. The time for action is now,” Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-Greenbrae, said in a statement."
"His Assembly Bill 18 would apply a $25 excise tax on all sales of handguns and semiautomatic rifles. It stalled in a committee in May, which usually signals a bill’s failure."
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Trump won't get a citizenship question on the census, but Latino kids may still be undercounted
LA Times's KURTIS LEE/SANDHYA KAMBHAMPATI: "Jeanette Silva still hasn’t decided what she will do when a census packet arrives at her home a few miles from the banks of the Rio Grande."
"The 40-year-old pastor feels conflicted — torn between what she sees as the benefits it could offer her community, including her daughter, along with the potential risks for her undocumented husband."
"My little girl will have more support,” said Silva of the couple’s 4-year-old, Deborah. “But there is always an uneasiness, a fear — especially right now — of federal officials.”"
Former DMV employee sentenced for fraudulently upgrading licenses
Sacramento Bee's ASHLEIGH PANOO: "A former Department of Motor Vehicles employee has been sentenced for granting commercial licenses to drivers who did not pass their tests, according to the Tulare County District Attorney’s Office."
"Jose Hernandez, 53, on Thursday was ordered to spend 270 days in Tulare County Jail. Judge Brett Aldredge also sentenced Hernandez to four years of suspended state prison, which he could serve if he doesn’t meet the conditions of his probation."
Five puppies were raised by California prison inmates. Now they're certified service dogs.
Sacramento Bee's CAROLINE GHISOLFI: "After two years in a maximum-security cell, Dean the yellow Labrador recently received his diploma from Mule Creek State Prison, leaving his cellmate and trainer David Navarro behind."
"A 62-year-old inmate serving a life sentence, Navarro will “miss the hell out of him,” but Dean is moving on to a new occupation: He’ll work as a service dog in a Chico public elementary school, helping at-risk kids affected by the 2018 Camp Fire focus in class, take tests and stay in school."
"Dean was one of six Labradors and golden retrievers graduating July 26 from Mule Creek’s Prisoners Overcoming Obstacles & Creating Hope program — POOCH for short."
Meet the neglected 43-year-old stepchild of the US military-industrial complex
LA Times's RICHARD READ: "The icebreaker Polar Star was 1,000 miles out of its home port of Seattle last December, three days into its yearly voyage to resupply scientific bases in Antarctica, when a powerful swell hit its bow and flooded the deck."
"The ship shuddered."
"The roar of the ventilators in the galley quit as Joseph Sellar, a stocky 25-year-old Coast Guard culinary specialist from New Hampshire, watched seawater explode from the ceiling."
Trump wants to take guns from people in crisis. Will 'extreme risk protection' laws work?
California Healthline's LIZ SZABO: "In his response Monday to mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, President Donald Trump called for an expansion of state laws that temporarily prevent someone in crisis from buying or possessing a gun."
"A flurry of states have recently passed such laws — known as extreme risk protection orders — which allow a court to intervene when someone shows warning signs of impending violence. Although the laws are widely supported by gun control groups and mental health advocates, others note that the measures alone won’t solve the nation’s gun violence epidemic."
"Trump said the shooter in the Parkland, Fla., massacre last year “had many red flags against him, and yet nobody took decisive action; nobody did anything. … We must make sure that those judged to pose a grave risk to public safety do not have access to firearms, and that if they do, those firearms can be taken through rapid due process."
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