A federal judge ruled California's application of the death penalty as unconsitutional, setting into motion a possible review by the Supreme Court.
Erik Eckholm and John Schwartz report in the New York Times: "Calling it “a stunningly important and unprecedented ruling,” Elisabeth A. Semel, the director of the death penalty clinic at the University of California, Berkeley, law school, said that the “factually dense” and “well reasoned” opinion was likely to be cited in other cases in California and elsewhere."
'But its legal sweep will depend on the outcome of the state’s likely appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, she said."
With a third of its veteran population struggling to make ends meat, First Lady Michele Obama dropped into Los Angeles to call on local leaders to step up their efforst to help vets.
Brenda Gazzar reports for the Los Angeles Daily News: “"After everything they’ve done for us, the idea that any of our veterans are spending months or even years struggling to find a job is unacceptable,” Obama, a keynote speaker, said at the United Way of Greater Los Angeles’ Unite for Veterans Summit. “The image of even one of these heroes sleeping out in the cold huddled up next to an overpass, that should horrify all of us because that’s not who we are.”"
"The federal government is cutting red tape across agencies, starting new programs and strengthening old ones to support veterans, and the rate of homeless veterans in the country has fallen by 24 percent under President Barack Obama’s tenure, she said. But government officials need help, she said."
California public schooling systems will need a lot more than property taxes in order to garner som extra cash.
David Siders reports in the Sacramento Bee: "The announcement, contained in a brief letter to lawmakers, resolves a compromise that came out of disagreement between Gov. Jerry Brown and legislative leaders about how optimistic to be in their revenue estimates. The final budget promised $50 million each to the University of California and California State University systems for deferred maintenance projects if property taxes exceeded administration estimates."
"The budget agreement would have provided smaller amounts to address deferred maintenance in other areas, including state parks."
"The Department of Finance on Wednesday put local property taxes from the 2013-14 budget year for K-12 schools at about $12.9 billion, about $73 million less than anticipated."
Southern California is on the defensive over accusations of being the most water wasteful region.
Josh Richman and David E. Early report in The Mercury News: "Water agencies in Southern California say the single-month snapshot is easily skewed by things like leaks, new customers, varying temperatures and rebounding economies."
""When you look at a longer period of time, we're still using less water -- about 10 percent less -- than we were five years ago," said Francie Kennedy, water conservation coordinator for San Juan Capistrano, which ranked second on the state's list of water hogs.""
Five thousand more California students are considered biliterate this year over last, according to the Californai Department of Education.
Deepa Fernandes reports for KPCC: "Being biliterate is more than being bilingual."
""Biliteracy means that a child or an adult would have the ability to speak, read, write and communicate in at least two languages or more," said Jan Correa, Executive Director of the California Association of Bilingual Education. "Its not just the oral communication. Its having the academic ability to succeed in at least two languages.""
The "fracking" debate has made its way to the November ballot in Califonria.
Lauren Sommers reports for KQED: "Copying tactics that have worked in Colorado and New York, activists have qualified November ballot measures that would ban fracking in two counties and possibly others, trying a piecemeal approach to banning fracking in the state."
"California legislators have debated a moratorium on fracking for the past four years, but the bills have repeatedly failed."
Assemblyman Mike Gatto used crowdsourcing this year as a means to draft legislation. Now, he's trying to turn the method on cutting government waste.
James Nash reports for Bloomberg News: "The federal government embraced the concept in 2010 with Challenge.gov, a collection of contests from more than 50 federal agencies that include prizes for ways to identify asteroids from ground telescopes, enable citizens to report land mines with mobile applications and to ferret out bias in peer-reviewed scientific reports."
"Gatto’s bill to establish a California pilot program passed the state Assembly unanimously in May. The Senate hasn’t voted on it."
