L.A. mayor ousts Native American DWP commissioner; Indigenous groups outraged
LA Times, LOUIS SAHAGUN: "Cynthia Ruiz, the first Native American ever to serve on the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners, got some bad news from City Hall recently.
Ruiz said a deputy mayor called her on May 26 to say she was being removed after serving just one year on the panel that oversees the Department of Water and Power."
Lawmakers weigh bill forcing giant state pension funds to divest fossil fuel stocks
The Chronicle, GRACE GEDYE: "Climate activists and retirees have pushed retirement funds in Maine and New York to sell their stocks in fossil fuel companies. The push is called “divestment” and is a move that the University of California has embraced as well.
Now, divestment may be coming to more pensions near you."
Why a California legislative measure underestimates older adults (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, LAURA L. CARSTENSEN, PAUL IRVING: "On June 15, World Elder Abuse Day, launched by the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and the World Health Organization at the United Nations, raised awareness about the abuse and neglect of older persons around the world. Among the many challenges faced by older adults, financial exploitation looms large.
Financial fraud is perpetrated on adults of all ages, but older people are more likely to be targeted, largely because they hold more wealth than younger people. Evidence that older people are especially susceptible to scams is mixed; in fact, some studies have found that older people are more resistant to financial scams than younger people. Nevertheless, when frauds are successful with older people, the losses they incur can be devastating, not only because older people have more money to lose, but because they also have shorter time horizons to recoup those losses."
The Budget: Winners and Losers, with Chris Hoene
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Facing the first deficit in a decade, legislators finished hammering out a Budget deal with the governor last week. While the final document (as it stands now, trailer bills and tweaks notwithstanding) does not feature the catastrophic cuts some had feared, funding for some of Gov. Newsom’s high priority projects did see reductions, including funds aimed at reducing homelessness and supporting the transition to clean energy.
In a win for the administration, legislators agreed to include some of the governor’s CEQA reform proposals – reversing the Sen. Budget Committee’s earlier rejection of the proposals. The Delta Tunnel project was not included in the deal, a setback for Central and Southern Water Districts and agriculture interests, who have seen a series of defeats on the issue since the end of the Brown Administration."
As California fire season begins, debate over wildfire retardant heats up
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "As the first heat wave of summer plunges California into yet another wildfire season, some environmental groups are taking aim at a commercial fire retardant that most residents have grown all too familiar with during recent, devastating fire years.
Phos-Chek, that neon-pink goo that airplanes dump over wildfires, is a sticky slurry of ammonium phosphate designed to coat vegetation and other fuels to deprive advancing flames of oxygen. Fire authorities swear by the product, calling it indispensable."
Class of 2022 back on track and moving beyond the Covid pandemic
EdSource, DIANA LAMBERT: "Tatiana Torres had everything stacked against her. She spent most of her time in high school learning from home after an accident left her with persistent headaches and sensitivity to light.
She had just returned to Heritage High School in Brentwood full-time when the Covid-19 pandemic closed schools. Despite these challenges, she will transfer this fall as a junior to UC Berkeley to major in political science. She had completed her general education credits in just one year at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg."
Alameda July Fourth parade brings patriotism and politics to 3-mile-long event
The Chronicle, J.D. MORRIS: "Minutes before she hopped on an electric bicycle to ride in her city’s jubilant Fourth of July Parade Tuesday morning, Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft stopped to say hello to a group dressed up like a life-sized produce basket.
They were volunteers from the local food bank dressed as a strawberry, snap peas, a banana and milk carton, respectively. All of them were at the head of the huge parade because Cindy Houts, the Alameda Food Bank’s retiring executive director, was riding in a pedicab as one of this year’s grand marshals."
Elon Musk supports limiting the rights of nonparents to vote
The Chronicle, ROLAND LI: "Elon Musk wrote on Twitter in support of limiting the rights of nonparents to vote, in the latest controversial stance for the tech billionaire.
On Sunday, Musk wrote “Yup” in response to Twitter user @fenasyl, who said, “Democracy is probably unworkable long term without limiting suffrage to parents. Helps solve the procreation problem, too.”"
Skiing in July: Photos show huge crowds mobbing Tahoe slopes
The Chronicle, STAFF: "As the Tahoe ski season drew to a close Tuesday, last-minute skiers didn’t let the dwindling snow deter them during a festive day at the Palisades Tahoe resort in Placer County.
Crowds appearing to number in the thousands gathered to mark the end of the ski season, as well as the Fourth of July. It was a flag-waving, costume-wearing, bikini- and Speedo-clad affair."
United Methodist congregations trying to leave amid LGBTQ+ schism say they’re being held for ransom
LA Times, ERIC LICAS: "A number of Southern California churches whose congregations disagree with the California-Pacific Conference of the United Methodist Church’s inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community into its leadership want to leave the organization but say they’re being held for ransom.
There are 22 churches in the region attempting to cut ties with the denomination in a process called “disaffiliation.” Two Orange County churches, Surf City in Huntington Beach and the Fount in Fountain Valley, are among them."
‘Disturbing’: LASD opens probe after video shows deputy throwing woman to the ground
LA Times, GABRIEL SAN ROMAN: "Cellphone footage of a deputy throwing a woman to the ground by her neck during an incident in Lancaster last month has prompted an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
On June 24, Lancaster sheriff’s station deputies responded to a reported “in-progress robbery” at a WinCo Foods grocery store when they encountered a man and woman who matched the description of the suspects given by store security guards on the 911 call."
A California city was making a difference on homelessness. Then the money ran out
CALMatters, MARISA KENDAL: "A new homeless outreach program pairing a social worker with a police officer in Grass Valley, a small town in the Sierra Nevada foothills, seemed to be working.
The state-funded effort sent the team to homeless encampments, where they helped build trust among vulnerable people and persuaded them to accept help, according to nonprofit Hospitality House, which ran the program."
The Hill, JULIA SHAPERO: "Former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham said on Saturday that she saw former President Trump show classified documents to people on the Mar-a-Lago dining room patio.
"I watched him show documents to people at Mar-a-Lago on the dining room patio," Grisham, who served as Trump's chief spokesperson from July 2019 to April 2020, said in an interview on MSNBC."