It appears Flint, Michigan isn't the only area with a potential water crisis as a new federal report slams the EPA for lax oversight in California, which has allowed wastewater from oil companies to be dumped in state aquifers.
AP's Ellen Knickmeyer reports: "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is failing in its mandate to protect underground drinking water reserves from oilfield contamination, according to a federal review singling out lax EPA oversight in California, where the state routinely allowed oil companies to dump wastewater into some drinking water aquifers."
"The U.S. Government Accountability Office review also sampled EPA operations around the country before concluding federal regulators were failing to collect paperwork and make on-site inspections necessary to ensure states are enforcing the Safe Drinking Water Act when it comes to oilfield operations."
"The takeaway overall is that the EPA doesn't collect and states don't provide the information for the EPA to exercise the oversight that's its job," said Kassie Siegel, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups critical of state and federal regulation of oilfield waste and drinking water."
SEE ALSO: From groundwater contamination to the financial risks of climate change, Big Oil is having a hard time in California -- reported by Asaf Shalev with the LAT.
Donald Trump will speak during his guest appearance at California's GOP convention, where he hopes to secure his success in the polls come election time.
From the Bee's David Siders: "Donald Trump will address California Republicans at the state party’s spring convention, joining Ted Cruz and John Kasich at the Bay Area gathering ahead of the state’s critical primary, the party announced Wednesday."
"Trump, the frontrunner in California, said in a prepared statement that “California, like much of the rest of the nation, has struggled to regain its full economic success.”
"California’s June 7 primary is expected to play a decisive role in the Republican nominating contest, likely determining whether Trump can amass the 1,237 delegates necessary to secure the nomination."
SEE ALSO: Ted Cruz does everything in his political power to thwart The Donald's progress in the polls -- Washington Post's Ed O'Keefe reports; Even the Reep's National Committee chairman has had enough of the Trumpster's foibles -- Jason Dick writes in Roll Call.
The past year has focused a lot on gender equality in the work place, in regards to pay, and now in regards to California's political scene -- where females are 'losing ground.'
LAT's Phil Willon writes: "The calls to Encino attorney Janice Kamenir-Reznik came every few weeks, pleading for her to run for the California state Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Fran Pavley."
"Pavley, champion of California’s groundbreaking efforts to curtail carbon emissions and one of the most influential women at the Capitol, was being forced out because of term limits. With the number of female state legislators already on the decline, Kamenir-Reznik was being pressured to run and help stem the losses."
"She resisted, mostly because of her commitments to the nonprofit she cofounded."
Sacramento has long been hailed as a melting pot and one of the most culturally diverse cities in the nation. Unfortunately, that's making it all the much harder to gather signatures for voter registration.
CaliforniaCounts' Bed Bradford reports: "The effort to mobilize voters to go to the polls is a grueling process. Over Spring Break, the Sacramento State Civic Engagement Center took high school and college students door-to-door to register voters in one of Sacramento's historically low voter turnout neighborhoods."
"Take a walk with some of the students."
"Myles Cobb, a high school senior, walks down a residential street in the low-income Sacramento neighborhood of South Oak Park. He and other students knock on doors."
Ex-Fresno police Deputy Chief Keith Foster and six others have been offered plea deals that involve prison time for their collusion involving the distribution of drugs.
"Federal prosecutors are offering plea deals to former Fresno police Deputy Chief Keith Foster and five others indicted on drug-trafficking charges, a document filed in U.S. District Court reveals."
"So far, plea offers have been made to defendants Ricky Reynolds, Randy Flowers and Rafael Guzman. Plea offers to Keith Foster, Dennis Foster and Jennifer Donabedian will be finalized by Friday, the document says.
SEE ALSO: California police can't seem to catch a day off after
a veteran officer is criminally charged when a video contradicting his statement involving a violent arrest surfaces.
LAT's Richard Winton reports.
Jason Song reports in
LAT: "Some parents were alarmed recently to learn that a school district near Sacramento allowed administrators and staff to bring guns to campus, but it turns out the district is one of at least three in California that permit select employees to pack heat."
"The 20,000-student Folsom Cordova Unified School District has allowed some staff to bring guns to their jobs since 2010, but revealed the practice last month when the superintendent, Deborah Bettencourt, sent a letter to parents explaining the policy as a safety measure."
"Our narrow practice of allowing select, law-abiding employees to securely store and access a firearm in the event of an emergency is a legal and appropriate safety measure given the unfortunate reality of violence in our society today," she wrote.
Sex offenders may find themselves wearing their own version of the Yellow Badge if a law requiring their passports be visually marked comes to fruition.
AP's Sudhin Thanawala reports in The OC Register: "A federal judge declined Wednesday to immediately block a law that requires a marker to be placed in the passports of people convicted of sex offenses against children."
"Since the marker provision has not yet gone into effect, deciding whether to block it over constitutional issues would be premature, U.S. District Court Judge Phyllis Hamilton said."
"It is not clear, for example, what form the identifier will take, which citizens will be required to carry a passport with the identifier, or whether the identifier will appear on the face of the passport or will be readable only by a scanner," she said."
Some believe in the game theory when voters cast ballots, and it may be true: Lax laws skirt partisan identification and make ballot crashing all the more easier.
Capitol Weekly's Paul Mitchell reports: "One of the recent story lines in the presidential contest is the idea of voters casting their ballots strategically. This media narrative suggests that voters will cast a ballot for a candidate — not because they support that candidate, but because it is the best strategic option toward a desired outcome."
"This game theory analysis of elections has been most used in states with fully open primaries, same day registration, or relaxed laws with regard to partisan identification."
"In these states, Democratic-leaning voters, determining that their vote isn’t going to make a difference in deciding the Democratic nomination, switch to the Republican primary in order to vote against Trump."
And now, from our "I want to believe" file ... Who needs Roswell, N.M, when you can break the space-time continuum over Yellowstone National Park?
Joshua Nevett with The Mirror reports: "UFO hunters are getting excited over eerie footage which may show a glowing alien spacecraft 'jumping through space and time' over Yellowstone National Park."
"The clip, captured on a webcam, shows a pulsating orb of light veering through the pitch black night sky above the 3,500 square-mile Wyoming park."
"In the video, which has been viewed more than 82,000 times, the unidentified object travels diagonally across the sky before soaring out of view."
