Loose lips

May 17, 2024

Secret FBI files allege former L.A. city attorney lied to feds, likely obstructed justice. He denies it 

LAT's DAKOTA SMITH, MATT HAMILTON: "Then-Los Angeles City Atty. Mike Feuer lied to government investigators and probably obstructed justice during a massive federal inquiry into a fraudulent lawsuit orchestrated by his office, according to an affidavit by an FBI agent that was made public on Tuesday.

 

Feuer, who has not been charged with any crimes, maintained his innocence this week."

 

Capitol Annex Swing Space evacuated after arrival of suspicious package, California officials say

ISHANI DESAI AND LINDSEY HOLDEN, SacBee: "The California Capitol Annex Swing Space was evacuated Thursday evening after a suspicious package was delivered, according to memos sent by state Senate and Assembly officials.
Authorities tested the package and determined its contents were not dangerous, and the evacuation was lifted. The package “contained a threat that it contained Anthrax,” according to memos obtained by The Sacramento Bee sent shortly after 5 p.m. by Assembly Chief Administrative Officer Lia Lopez and Secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office is located at the Swing Space, 1021 O St. in downtown Sacramento."
The people’s lawmaking power versus the legislature’s
Capitol Weekly's CHRIS MICHELI: "I am tackling the age-old question in California lawmaking: “Who holds more lawmaking power – the People or the Legislature? What is the answer? Let’s take a look.
California’s Constitution provides the three branches of government, as well as the rights of direct democracy. Article III, Section 3 provides the separation of powers among the three branches of our state government: legislative, executive, and judicial."
Gig companies spent $224 million to write their own labor law. The state Supreme Court could throw it out
CALMatters's LEVI SUMAGAYSAY: "The California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments next Tuesday in a case that could change the fate of more than 1 million gig workers in the state — and perhaps the way we hail rides, order takeout or get groceries delivered.
Four years ago, voters approved Proposition 22, a ballot measure sponsored by Uber, Lyft, DoorDash and Instacart that allowed the companies to continue to treat their ride-hailing drivers and delivery workers as independent contractors. Prop. 22 was the industry’s response to Assembly Bill 5, a state law that codified a state Supreme Court decision that would have required the companies to classify those workers as employees."
Capitol Quick Hits: the suspense is over…for now
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "Budget deficit looms large on first ‘suspense day’ of the year: In Part I of the legislature’s annual suspense file tango, the Assembly and Senate Appropriations Committees acted on 1,009 bills today. Of those, lobbyist cand Capitol Weekly regular Chris Micheli reports the numbers break down like this: The Senate took up 341 bills and passed 254 (74.5 percent) of them, nixing the remaining 87 (25.5 percent). Meanwhile, the Assembly acted on 668 measures, endorsing 435 (65 percent) and rejecting 233 (35 percent). In all, the two chambers passed along 689 to their respective chamber floors and held 320. That equates to a 31.7 percent clip, well above the historic average of 25 percent. Which shows what a massive budget deficit will do for you.
Strike three for Wiener shrooms bill, single-payer health care: The third time was not the charm for California Sen. Scott Wiener’s efforts to legalize the use of psilocybin and certain other psychedelic drugs in a clinical setting. Wiener’s SB 1012 was held in the Senate Appropriations Committee yesterday. The measure, co-authored by Republican Assembly Member Marie Waldron, would have allowed for the use of psychedelics under the supervision of a licensed facilitator. The effort to establish a single-payer health care system was another multi-time loser, this time as AB 2200, which had almost two dozen co-authors.
More S.F. mayor’s race drama as one forum is canceled and a third candidate pulls out of separate debate
The Chronicle's JD MORRIS: "Chaos continued in the San Francisco mayor’s race Thursday when a local business owner canceled a forum he planned to host with two major candidates next week and a third candidate pulled out of a separate debate that was scheduled to occur simultaneously.
Manny Yekutiel, owner of Manny’s, a civic engagement space in the Mission District, told the campaigns of Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin on Thursday that he was scrapping plans for them to appear at his business Monday in conversation with Mission Local managing editor Joe Eskenazi."
Rebecca Grossman, top D.A. advisor shouldn’t have same lawyer, prosecutors argue
LAT's RICHARD WINTON: "Rebecca Grossman and a top advisor to the Los Angeles County district attorney who helped oversee the convicted murderer’s prosecution and is now facing felony charges herself should not be represented by the same lawyer, prosecutors said in a motion that will be argued in court Friday.
The motion comes at the same time a defense motion is seeking a new trial for Grossman, who was convicted in February of second-degree murder in the 2020 deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander."
$20 billion: The Delta tunnel’s new price tag
CALMatters's RACHEL BECKER: "California’s contentious and long-debated plan to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pump more water south finally has a price tag: about $20 billion.
The new estimate for the Delta tunnel project — which would transform the massive water system that sends Northern California water south to farms and cities — is $4 billion higher than a 2020 estimate, largely because of inflation."


California rivers are ‘running fast, running cold, running deep’. Here’s how to stay safe

The Chronicle's JACK LEE: "Spring is in full swing, with warm weather providing prime conditions for enjoying the outdoors in California. But it also brings safety concerns. Warm temperatures and an above-average snowpack can combine to produce deadly incidents on the state’s rivers and streams.

 

Recent flows are fueled by meltwater from California’s snowpack, which was just above average on April 1. While flood risk is generally lower than with last year’s 2023’s behemoth snowpack, there are still safety concerns this year."

 

Mobs of tuna crabs descend on Southern California waters. What’s going on?

JULIA DAYE, SacBee: "Little red crustaceans pepper the shallow depths by the San Diego shoreline. The tuna crabs are back. Tuna crabs, named after their most common predator — the tuna fish — have been seen by the thousands in Southern California in recent months.

 

Charlotte Seid from Scripps Institution of Oceanography told NBC 7 San Diego that while this migration used to happen once every few years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, it has been happening far more often in recent years."

 

Should California doctors report domestic abuse to police? Here’s how physician lawmakers voted

CALMatters's RYAN SABALOW: "Should doctors be required by law to notify police immediately if they suspect a patient is the victim of domestic violence?

 

That question divided three physicians holding seats in the California Assembly when it came up for a vote this week."

 

Police remove protesters from UC Berkeley building, dismantle encampment

 The Chronicle's ELI ROSENBERG, DANIEL LEMPRES, JESSICA FLORES: "

At least 12 pro-Palestinian protesters who participated in a takeover of an abandoned UC Berkeley building near the campus were arrested Thursday after police cleared the encampment, which was set up a day earlier. 

 

More than 50 officers with the university, Oakland, California Highway Patrol and Alameda County Sheriff’s Office tore down barricades protesters had placed around the abandoned building, Channing Hall, on Bowditch Street and Channing Way, just before 7 p.m. Officers pushed away protesters who were outside the building, entered the building and began removing protesters who were inside."

 

Social media app banned at some colleges made its way to an S.F. high school: ‘Recipe for disaster’Social media app banned at some colleges made its way to an S.F. high school: ‘Recipe for disaster’

The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "When the social media app Fizz first hit university campuses, college coeds signed up in droves to post anonymously about their professors, roommates, frat parties, or whatever else popped into their brains, which not surprisingly veered at times into bullying, racism, harassment, sexism and other online abuse.

 

The platform, founded by two Stanford University dropouts in 2021, eventually became so troublesome that some colleges in Florida and North Carolina banned it."

 

California public school enrollment drops again, but transitional kindergarten is up

LAT's JENNY GOLD: "Enrollment at California’s public schools continued to decline this year, but by only .25%, or 15,000 students, state data showed, a much slower pace than the steep declines experienced during difficult pandemic years when classes were forced online.

 

A total of 5,837,690 students were enrolled in the 2023-24 school year, according to data released Thursday from the state Department of Education. During the 2020-21 academic year, California experienced the largest drop in 20 years, losing 160,000 students."

 

These California schools connect kids to community services. Will they survive budget cuts?

CALMatters's CAROLYN JONES: "Budget cuts may be looming for many California programs, but one multi-billion-dollar initiative has so far evaded the ax: an ambitious push to bring medical and dental care, counseling, parenting classes, cultural activities and other services to public schools.

 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has so far spared what’s known as the community school initiative, which pairs schools with local nonprofits and other government agencies to provide services to students and their parents. The goal is to transform schools into social service hubs with strong ties to families and the community – an approach that research shows can boost student attendance, reduce suspensions and raise test scores."

 

LAUSD police deployment to 20 schools collapses after one day amid opposition, confusion

LAT's HOWARD BLUME: "A plan to return police to 20 troubled Los Angeles campuses amid an alarming crime spike — an action approved by schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho — began to collapse after one day amid opposition and confusion.

 

The deployment of officers would have marked the largest shift to date since a Los Angeles Unified school board decision to ban officers from campuses and move toward eliminating the department."

 

This California city is the fifth fastest growing in the U.S.

The Chronicle's CHRISTIAN LEONARD: "Double the people, double the housing.

 

That’s just what happened to Lathrop, a suburban city about 10 miles south of Stockton, over the last decade. Its population rose from just over 19,000 in 2013 to nearly 40,000 in 2023, according to estimates released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau. That boom of residents included an increase of about 4,800 people from 2022 to 2023, a 14% rise that made Lathrop the nation’s fifth-fastest growing city with at least 20,000 people."

 

Sacramento, Northern California tribes seek land back for ‘cultural survival’

EMMA HALL, SacBee: "Along the gentle rolling foothills nearby Nevada City is a village known as Yulića. Across the 232 acres of this land, there are man-made ponds, two creeks that barely trickle through and, on top of a small mountain, a medicine rock used to grind medicine by Nisenan people.

 

This was once Nisenan land."

 

A new area code is coming to Northern California. Who gets access to the new phone numbers?

JAQUELINE PINEDO, SacBee:"Starting next year, residents and business owners in northeastern California will have access to a new area code.

 

The 530 area code — which includes Davis, El Dorado Hills, Oroville, Placerville, Red Bluff, Redding, South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, Woodland, and Yuba City — will see a new overlay area code, The California Public Utilities Commission said in a Thursday news release."


San Mateo County to launch mental health ‘CARE Court’ to bring homeless people off street

BANG*Mercury News's ETHAN VARIAN: "San Mateo County plans to launch a mental health court this summer aimed at compelling homeless people and others with severe, untreated psychotic disorders into treatment plans and facilities.


The initiative is part of California’s new county-level CARE Court program spearheaded by Gov. Gavin Newsom as part of a broader overhaul of the state’s mental health system."

 

Mayor Bass orders police ‘surge’ on Metro bus and rail routes amid spike in violence

LAT's RACHEL URANGA: "Mayor Karen Bass ordered a “surge” of law enforcement inside the region’s hundreds of buses and miles of subway system, saying Metro riders don’t feel safe after a spate of violent attacks that have roiled an agency already struggling to improve safety and increase ridership.

 

The move by Bass, who heads the board of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority, marks a significant departure for the agency, which opted not to beef up law enforcement’s presence to reduce drug use, crime and disruptive behavior. Critics are coming from all sides. Some say the move is too little too late; others call the tactic doomed to fail and say it will only criminalize people who have drug addictions, serious mental illness and no housing."