California's water wars, a story with legs now and forever, are under the spotlight after the Interior Department's inspector general vowed to investigate funding irregularities related to the delta tunnels.
The Chronicle's Carolyn Lochhead reports: "The Interior Department’s inspector general has opened an investigation into possible funding irregularities involving the proposed delta tunnels, a $15 billion plan to dig giant twin pipes to siphon water directly from the Sacramento River and send it underground to farms and cities in the southern part of the state."
"The decision, made public Monday, came after a nonprofit called Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a complaint alleging that federal money intended to go for fish and wildlife was spent instead on planning for the tunnels."
SEE ALSO: SoCal secures rights to portions of the Delta islands after spending $175 million on 'water real estate' in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Dale Kesler and Ryan Sabalow report in Sacramento Bee.
Many are now questioning the efficacy of transparency in relation to police misconduct -- how much information should the public be entitled to?
From the LAT's Liam Dillion: "On Tuesday morning, one of the most sweeping policing bills in the Capitol will get its first test."
"Sen. Mark Leno's bill to unwind some of the state's longstanding restrictions against the disclosure of police misconduct records will face a legislative committee hearing. Leno, a San Francisco Democrat, says his bill will improve police-community relations, something he says recent high-profile incidents have left frayed around the country."
"But even among Leno's Democratic colleagues in the Legislature, there's a push to go in the opposite direction and make more officer information confidential. This mirrors a debate in statehouses across the country over how much the public should know about police officers whom departments have found to have behaved badly."
OSHA, the federal workplace safety agency, is in hot water after federal investigator-whistleblower Darrell Whitman contends there is corruption within the agency's Whistle Blower Protection program.
From FairWarning's Stuart Silverstein in Capitol Weekly: "For nearly five years, Darrell Whitman was a federal investigator who probed whistleblowers’ complaints about being fired or otherwise punished for exposing alleged corporate misconduct."
"He wanted to help whistleblowers, viewing them as a crucial line of defense against employers who violated health and safety standards or wasted taxpayer dollars."
"But now Whitman, 70, is blowing the whistle himself. And he is accusing the agency where he used to work, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the branch of the Labor Department whose duties include protecting whistleblowers."
The lack of rehabiliation in correctional institutions is getting re-examined after Gov. Brown announces plans to reform the way the state deals with nonviolent felons.
AP's Don Thompson writes in the OC Register: "California Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that the initiative he is promoting for the November ballot would help fix a mistake he made nearly 40 years ago that has sent too many offenders to prison for decades with little hope of rehabilitation."
"The Democratic governor wants voters to approve a ballot measure that would increase early release credits for inmates who complete rehabilitation programs and allowing earlier parole for nonviolent felons."
"He told criminal justice reform advocates gathered for a convention in Sacramento that the initiative would partly reverse the determinate sentencing system that he signed into law in 1977 when he was governor the first time. That law largely dictates criminals' prison sentences, leaving little room for incentives that Brown says can improve inmates' behavior."
