Today, November 28, is Giving Tuesday - a day to support nonprofit organizations. Open California, the nonprofit organization that produces Capitol Weekly, The Roundup, The Capitol Weekly Podcast and many other nonpartisan projects is taking part in this year’s event, and we have received an incredible offer:
The Tribal Alliance of Sovereign Indian Nations has graciously offered to MATCH all donations we receive today, up to $2,500! The value of your donation will be DOUBLED if received by midnight tonight!
We hope you will take this opportunity to support informed, nonpartisan public policy journalism from Capitol Weekly and Open California. Thank you!
Supreme Court’s abortion, gun rulings prompted 9th Circuit judge to retire
Bob Egelko, THE CHRONICLE: "The Supreme Court’s 2022 rulings that overturned the right to abortion and rolled back the government’s authority to restrict firearms or greenhouse gas emissions delighted conservatives but horrified supporters of reproductive rights, gun control and environmental regulation. For one judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the cases sent a message that it was time to leave.
It was clear that “in most of the high-profile areas in which the court was going to issue major decisions, my own views as a judge would be out of sync with what the Supreme Court was deciding in area after area,” former Judge Paul Watford told the Chronicle last week. “It led me to start rethinking whether I would want to stay on the bench for the rest of my career.”"
Speech is freer in California than in Florida, watchdog warns ahead of Newsom-DeSantis debate
Noah Bierman, LA TIMES: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is due to debate California Gov. Gavin Newsom later this week about whose state offers a better model for the country, is leading an “assault on free expression in Florida” that is “almost without peer in recent U.S. history,” a watchdog warned in a pair of reports released Tuesday.
Pen America, which defends the rights of authors and others around the world to write and speak out without fear of government reprisals, has written detailed reviews comparing the two states’ recent policies and proposals on campus speech codes, book bans, curriculum fights, diversity and inclusion, internet freedom and other 1st Amendment issues in the interstate feud between DeSantis, a Republican, and Newsom, a Democrat."
The tangled web of California cardrooms and third-party proposition players
Brian Joseph, CAPITOL WEEKLY: "The Commerce Casino in Commerce, Calif. is only about a half-hour drive north of the Gardens Casino in Hawaiian Gardens. But, for a time at least, the two Los Angeles-area cardrooms were authorized to be much, much closer than that.
In fact, you might argue that their finances were once allowed to be so interconnected that they could have actually operated as a single gaming entity rather than two separate facilities, despite having completely independent ownership groups."
Life after Twitter: Where do California news junkies go now? ((PODCAST)
Staff, CAPITOL WEEKLY: "Just a few years ago, people following California public policy news were the beneficiaries of what was in retrospect an online media renaissance: Joining traditional legacy media, new sites like CalMatters and Politico California Playbook offered greatly expanded capitol coverage, and a whole series of newsletters and other aggregators devoted to California government and politics made tracking news easier.
All of the above were augmented and amplified by Twitter, which emerged as an essential tool of newsgathering. The platform offered a unique and very robust minute-by-minute conversation, often driven by elected officials and other newsmakers. No one benefitted from this lively Twittersphere more than political reporters who used the platform for sourcing, following breaking news and for sharing their stories as soon as they were published."
It’s a family thing. How some state workers land jobs, and why civil service became a calling
Maya Miller, SACRAMENTO BEE: "Ask any California state worker what piqued their interest in state service, and they’ll probably say a relative told them to apply.
To an outsider, state work can feel like its own world with its own rules, its own culture and even its own secret language. Having a family member or close friend who knows how to navigate that world is a huge benefit."
California State Bar accuses Bay Area attorney of defrauding client
Bob Egelko, THE CHRONICLE: "A veteran criminal defense lawyer has been accused by the State Bar of California of wrongfully taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from a client who was convicted of human trafficking in Bay Area day care centers owned by the client and his family.
The attorney says the bar is relying on a complaint by his former client, who was found by a jury to have defrauded his employees."
READ MORE -- Prominent Bay Area lawyer hit with state bar disciplinary charges, allegations he cheated client out of hundreds of thousands -- Nate Gartrell, BANG*Mercury News
Scientists discover a hidden stash of carbon off California coast
Joseph Howlett, THE CHRONICLE: "A Pacific rock crab scuttling along the ocean floor will one day become a part of a vast, critical stash of carbon that lies off the coast of Northern California, which scientists have now measured for the first time.
This reserve holds untold millennia worth of the would-be greenhouse gas, according to a study released by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of National Marine Sanctuaries. The Pacific Ocean seafloor has exceptional carbon-caching prowess, highlighting the importance of leaving this hidden reservoir undisturbed, scientists say."
READ MORE -- The Salton Sea has even more lithium than previously thought, new report finds -- Sammy Roth, LA TIMES;
California vs. Florida: The surprising answer to which state handled COVID better
Rong-Gong Lin II, Luke Money, Sean Greene, LA TIMES: "When California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis take the stage Thursday for their much-hyped televised debate, it will be perhaps the starkest visual representation of the divide between the two states.
While many social, political and economic factors contribute to that gulf, perhaps no topic better encapsulates the bicoastal conflict than the states’ respective responses to the COVID-19 crisis — the ramifications of which are still resonating and being debated half a year after the end of the pandemic’s emergency phase."
Carolyn Jones, CALMATTERS: "As California’s fund to fix crumbling schools dwindles to nothing, lawmakers are negotiating behind the scenes to craft a ballot measure that would be the state’s largest school construction bond in decades.
But some beleaguered school superintendents say the money will not be nearly enough to fix all the dry rot, leaky roofs and broken air conditioners in the state’s thousands of school buildings. And it won’t change a system that they say favors wealthy, urban, left-leaning areas that can easily pass local bond measures to make needed repairs."
Report finds Chico State followed existing policies in investigating embattled professor
Thomas Peele, EDSOURCE: "Chico State University followed proper procedures in how it handled the sex investigation of suspended professor David Stachura and its lengthy aftermath, including not informing faculty and students that Stachura allegedly threatened gun violence on campus, an independent investigation has found.
The 20-page report by San Diego lawyer Nancy Aeling was released late Monday afternoon by the university, nearly a year after EdSource first reported on findings that Stachura had an inappropriate sexual relationship with a student and allegedly threatened to shoot two colleagues who cooperated in an investigation of the matter, and was later named the university’s Outstanding Professor of the 2020-21 school year."
Failing to report child abuse is a crime. Why are Bay Area school officials rarely punished?
The Chroinicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: " In dozens of lawsuits now being fought across the Bay Area, former students claim that teachers or other school staff members did not alert authorities to possible cases of abuse so that they could be investigated and the perpetrators held accountable.
Yet failing to report suspected child abuse — a crime in California that can carry up to six months in jail — is almost never punished locally, the Chronicle found."Flaring at Richmond refinery sends clouds of smoke over San Francisco Bay
Migrants struggle against the elements in San Diego’s open-air desert camps
Melissa Gomez, LA TIMES: "For the last three months, residents in this remote border community in southeastern San Diego County have seen their population nearly double, climbing from 600 to 1,200 as migrants from around the globe cross over from Mexico.
They cross into the punishing desert terrain at a point where the 30-foot steel border wall erected across the county in the Trump era abruptly ends, transitioning to erratic fencing and boulders riddled with gaps."
Bill Gates lays out a bold path to a 3-day workweek
The Street, IAN KRIETZBERG: "ChatGPT's celebrity has brought concerns about artificial intelligence to the public forefront. And with that, AI hype has been brought to the forefront as well.
The tech sector is currently a mix of executives who say that superintelligent AI will lead to a new golden age for humanity, and others who, in addition to that, say there is a nonzero chance that a superintelligent AI will destroy all of humanity."
Ron Jeremy’s alleged victims share fury, acceptance after latest twist in court case
LA Times, JAMES QUEALLY: "When Alana Evans found out Ron Jeremy’s rape case would end with him being released to a “private residence,” she said it left her emotionally drained and completely derailed.
A longtime adult film entertainer and president of the Adult Performance Artists Guild, Evans testified before the Los Angeles County grand jury that indicted Jeremy on more than 30 counts of sexual assault in 2021 and spent years working with women in the porn industry who decided to speak out against one of its most legendary figures."
Ben Christopher, CALMATTERS: "In the minds of most Californians, accessory dwelling units — ADUs, short — bring to mind words like “small,” “subtle” and “cute.”
None of which describe the side-by-side ADU duplexes on E Street."
L.A. Airbnb operators would need police permit under proposed law
Dakota Smith, LA TIMES: "The Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday will consider a new law that would require hosts of short-term rentals, including Airbnbs, and hotels to obtain a police permit.
City Council President Paul Krekorian and other backers of the proposal said the permit requirement will help the city crack down on party houses and properties that draw illicit behavior."
Questions? Comments? Got a story you think would fit in a future edition of The RoundUp? Contact editor Geoff Howard.