California prison population drops below 100k for first time in 30 years
The Chronicle's ANNA BAUMAN: "The California prison population dropped below 100,000 people for the first time in three decades on Thursday, officials said.
There were 99,929 people incarcerated at state prisons as of Thursday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
“The last time that number was below 100,000 was in 1990, when CA's overall population was 10 million less,” the agency said."
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California tax revenue plummeted, but not by as much as Newsom projected
Sac Bee's MACKENZIE HAWKINS: "The easy days of California budget surpluses are long gone with tax revenue plummeting in the new coronavirus recession.
But as bad as the outlook stands, tax collections across the board so far are coming in a little better than Gov. Gavin Newsom projected in the $203 billion state budget he signed last month.
The figures suggest to economists that high-earning workers are still employed and that the financial assistance Congress provided at the start of the outbreak in March helped Californians buy necessities."
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Feds add bribery and money laundering charges against LA Councilman Jose Huizar
LA Times's EMILY ALPERT REYES/JOEL RUBIN: "Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar, who was arrested and charged with racketeering last month in an ongoing pay-to-play probe, now faces additional charges including bribery and money laundering, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
The new charges were included in a 34-count grand jury indictment expanding on earlier allegations that Huizar headed up a criminal enterprise that leveraged his power at City Hall for financial gain, aiding real estate developers who handed over bribes including cash, free flights, casino chips and other perks.
The 113-page indictment also includes claims that others conspired with Huizar in the scheme, including a former deputy mayor who previously headed the Department of Building and Safety. Federal prosecutors allege that Huizar agreed to accept at least $1.5 million in illicit financial benefits."
Who's social distancing? UC Davis study shows income levels, stay-at-home orders are factors
Sac Bee's ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "How much are Americans staying home or maintaining social distancing? It depends heavily on income, a new UC Davis study suggests.
Published Thursday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study found that wealthier communities decreased their mobility “significantly more” than poorer communities. Those findings stem from anonymized data from mobile device location pings from across the United States captured between January and April 2020.
The study found that while there was substantial social distancing after the stay-at-home orders were issued, it “dramatically increases in intensity with income."
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California Supreme Court forbids pension spiking, but upholds other retirement protections
Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "The California Supreme Court on Thursday ruled against public employee unions that were trying to beat back part of former Gov. Jerry Brown’s pension overhaul law.
The court’s ruling prohibits so-called pension spiking, a strategy in which county public workers took extra shifts, worked odd hours at higher pay or cashed out accumulated leave at the end of their careers to inflate their pensions in retirement.
The Alameda County Deputy Sheriff’s Association filed a lawsuit in 2012 over Brown’s law, the Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act, known as PEPRA, to try to keep counting those types of pay as pensionable. A Merced County union filed a similar lawsuit, and was among the plaintiffs in the case."
SF Mayor Breed, unions in standoff over $250M in raises for city workers -- layoffs possible
The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "San Francisco Mayor London Breed is locked in a standoff with labor unions representing the city’s 37,000 employees over $250 million in pay raises scheduled to kick in over the next two years.
For weeks, negotiations over the raises have played out against the backdrop of the city’s $1.5 billion budget deficit, the result of the ruinous economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
As city officials race to close that gap — a balanced budget proposal is due to the Board of Supervisors by Saturday — Breed has asked the leaders of the city’s 35 unions to postpone raises for their workers for two years in an effort to stave off service cuts, or layoffs, which Breed’s administration says will happen without deferrals."
After this week's heat wave, there's relief in sight for SoCal
LA Times's PAUL DUGINSKI: "An upper-level high bringing heat to Southern California through Sunday is expected to weaken and move away from the state Monday through Thursday, the National Weather Service said.
A weak upper-level trough will replace the high, bringing a return of onshore flow, with gradual cooling and more marine layer.
Extended outlooks from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center show below-normal temperatures favored for Southern California in early August."
Caltrans using old bottles to resurface NorCal highway in eco-friendly trial
Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "California is resurfacing a section of a Northern California highway with an unusual but promising eco-friendly product — recycled plastic bottles.
It’s an experiment in sustainable highway construction, Caltrans officials say. The project involves grinding up the top 3 inches of the road’s asphalt surface, adding repurposed plastic to the mix in the form of a liquid bond, and then laying it back down in place and packing it with a roller.
State Department of Transportation officials say it’s a first on a California highway, and if it proves to be durable, they’ll do more of it around the state, saving time, money and reducing truck emissions by eliminating the need to have trucks bring new material in."
(OP-ED) Lawmakers: Don't trash food recycling efforts
OSCAR GUTIERREZ in Capitol Weekly: "Reducing the amount of organic waste that is buried in California landfills is an environmental imperative. As state policy mandates, something has to be done to choke back the production of methane, the gas that is generated when table scraps, yard clippings and other organic materials decompose underground.
Methane, classified as a super-pollutant, is 84 times more harmful than carbon dioxide as a global warming gas.
If someone were to present to state policymakers a plan that would remove a major source of organic material from the waste stream in a way that is environmentally superior to other options, lower costs for California businesses and farms, and reduce the expenditures local governments must make to comply with state organic-waste mandates, you can be sure they would jump at the chance."
Trump can't delay the election. But many states are unprepared for this year's changes
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "President Trump’s tweeted suggestion to delay the Nov. 3 election is a nonstarter — that decision is up to Congress, and the Democratic-controlled House would never go for it.
But while Trump has no basis to claim that the widespread mail balloting that will be needed during the coronavirus pandemic will be tainted, there is a troubling possibility that voting in several key states will be chaotic.
Of course, that’s partly because of the president’s ceaseless efforts to undermine mail voting as a “rigged” system that benefits Democrats. What’s more, neither he nor other Republicans have supported nearly $4 billion in election-system aid included in a coronavirus stimulus bill that the House passed in May."
Chinese researcher arrested by FBI when she left consulate for medical care
Sac bee's SAM STANTON: "The Chinese researcher who sought refuge in China’s consulate in San Francisco after being questioned by the FBI was arrested after she left the compound to seek medical care, newly filed court documents say.
Juan Tang, who entered the United States in December to work as a visiting cancer researcher at UC Davis, has been charged in federal court in Sacramento with lying about her ties to the Chinese military and communist party as part of a nationwide investigation into the activities of Chinese researchers at American universities.
Tang, 37, was questioned by the FBI at her Davis apartment in June, then left Davis and went to the consulate, where she remained for a month before her arrest last week."
John Lewis' funeral, a rhetorical master class, shows that great speeches still matter
LA Times's MARY MCNAMARA: "Befitting the man it memorialized, Thursday’s funeral of John Lewis in Atlanta was an oratorical symphony, a rhetorical masterwork of pride, praise and calls to continue the great man’s work.
Three former presidents spoke, all with emotional admiration for the 80-year-old civil rights leader and longtime Democratic congressman from Georgia’s 5th District, who died on July 17.
Barack Obama delivered the rousing, heartfelt keynote, in which he called on Americans to pay their respects to Lewis by continuing his work at a time when Black lives and voting rights remain at risk, but Bill Clinton and George W. Bush spoke just as powerfully and well of a man who always put truth before politics."