Brown signs overtime law for farm workers

Gov. Brown signed AB 1066 into law yesterday, which would give overtime pay to farmhands beginning in 2019.

JAZMINE ULLOA with L.A. Times: "With little fanfare, Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday signed historic legislation that would expand overtime pay for California farmworkers."

"Assembly Bill 1066, authored by Assemblywoman Lorena S. Gonzalez (D-San Diego), calls for a phase-in of new overtime rules over four years beginning in 2019."

"It would lower the current 10-hour-day threshold for overtime by half an hour each year until it reaches the standard eight-hour day by 2022. It also would phase in a 40-hour standard workweek for the first time. The governor would be able to suspend any part of the process for a year depending on economic conditions. "

An armed civilian response to violent crimes targeting Asian residents in South Sacramento is beginning to take foot by means of social media through an app known as WeChat.

RICHARD CHANG with Sac Bee: "Asian residents of south Sacramento say they’ve formed their own armed patrols to respond to a wave of robberies that has terrorized the community, where business owners report a steep drop in customers because people are afraid to go out after dark."

"Sacramento police, meanwhile, say they are weighing whether to classify some of the robberies as hate crimes."

"Restaurants and supermarkets in south Sacramento are closing early, with some managers escorting customers to their vehicles to prevent robberies in the parking lot. Some business owners have resorted to layoffs, as revenue declines hit 20 to 30 percent on average."

A parent's worst nightmare prompts a report that states we need an immediate rehaul of the emergency response system in California.

PADMA NAGGAPAN with California Health Report: "Baby Sebastian Caban’s parents were watching television in bed with him in suburban San Diego when his mother coughed, touching off a tragic series of events. The cough startled their dog, which then bit the child, only 3 days old, on the head. When the Cabans called 911 and were placed on hold, they rushed Sebastian to the hospital, where their newborn was pronounced dead."

"The hold time and ensuing delay in treatment signaled a larger, statewide problem. California’s Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) expects dispatch centers to answer 911 calls within 10 seconds at least 90 percent of the time, a standard suggested by the National Emergency Number Association. Yet news media reports show that callers in San Diego have waited for as long as 16 minutes this year."

"This problem extends beyond San Diego. Dispatch centers attached to police, fire and sheriff’s departments across the state have had challenges answering emergency calls within the first few seconds."

A small portion of California residents are still accessing water sources that could be tainted with arsenic. 

ERIK ANDERSON with KPBS: "More than 55,000 California residents get public water that's tainted with unsafe levels of arsenic, according to the nonprofit advocacy organization Environmental Integrity Project. The chemical is a carcinogen that's been linked to cancer, developmental difficulties, cardiovascular disease and diabetes."

"The longer you are exposed, the more likely you are to suffer serious health effects," said Eric Schaeffer, executive director of the Environmental Integrity Project. "As is done now with private well users, really you ought to take steps to protect your family and try to avoid the water until its clean again."

"Schaeffer argues California needs to stop suggesting water is safe if arsenic levels are high."

UCSF believe they have discovered a conspiratorial link between sugar industry reps and two Harvard scientists in the 1960s in which the latter allegedly were paid to discredit sugar as being unhealthy and instead blame fats and cholesterols for heart health issues.

VICTORIA COLLIVER in The Chronicle: "UCSF researchers believe they have uncovered a decades-old effort by the sugar industry to exonerate sugar as a dietary culprit for heart disease and shift the blame onto fat and cholesterol."

"In a paper published in Monday’s JAMA Internal Medicine, the researchers reveal a scheme in which the sugar industry’s main trade group paid two Harvard scientists to conduct a literature review in the mid-1960s that challenged emerging evidence linking sugar consumption to risk factors for cardiovascular disease."

"The Harvard scientists concluded there was “no doubt” that reducing dietary cholesterol and substituting polyunsaturated fat for saturated fat would prevent heart disease. Such recommendations helped persuade Americans to replace their butter with margarine and eat fat-free cookies and other sugar-laden treats."

Student body representatives for California's collegiate institutions discussed issues facing student bodies on today's campuses with EdSource. 

LARRY GORDON with EdSource: "David Lopez and Ralph Washington, Jr. were elected recently to positions as student leaders with enormous constituencies and responsibilities. As president of the California State Student Association, Lopez represents the 474,000 undergraduate and graduate students at the 23 CSU campuses and is the leading spokesperson for student causes at the system’s headquarters and the state Legislature. Washington has similar duties as president of the University of California Student Association, the leading voice for the 252,000 students at the 10 UC campuses."

"Each campus has its own student body president. But as representatives of each system, Lopez and Washington are allotted time to speak at meetings of their system’s respective governing body, the Cal State trustees and UC regents — an occasion their predecessors sometimes used to sharply criticize university policies."

"The two men have deep personal experience on their campuses. Lopez, 23, from Santa Barbara, is a graduate student in public administration at Cal State East Bay in Hayward, where he earned his bachelor’s degree. Washington, 32, of Sacramento, is a doctoral student in entomology — the study of insects, mosquitoes in his case — at UC Davis, where he earned his bachelor’s degree."

Of some $200 billion in nationwide transportation funds, about $13 billion will head to California's  very own Bay Area, where a desperate transportation overhaul is underway -- one that experts say our state's economic growth depends on.

ERIN BALDASSARI with Mercury News: "Transportation infrastructure has reached crisis levels across the country — and perhaps nowhere is that more true than in the Bay Area, where voters in November’s election will be asked to contribute close to $14 billion to shore up the region’s aging public transit systems and improve roadways to relieve traffic congestion."

"Leaders across the region said the stakes couldn’t be higher."

"Our economic growth and our future is literally choking in traffic,” said San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in an interview Monday. “It is always expensive to expand transit infrastructure and to maintain our streets and roads, but the alternative is far more costly."

READ MORE in Transportation: UC Berkeley, San Francisco to continue urban transit collaboration -- GIBSON CHU and KATHERINE YEN with Daily Californian

A report released investigating the San Bernardino terrorist attack last year has left some details ommitted, but this is due to a non-corroboration of evidence, say officials.

JOE NELSON with The Sun in Daily Bulletin: "Law enforcement officials on Monday said reports of three San Bernardino County employees rushing gunman Syed Rizwan Farook during the deadly Dec. 2 terrorist attack could not be corroborated, which is why that information was excluded from the official after-action report on the mass shooting released Friday."

"The U.S. Department of Justice released its 162-page report, “Bringing Calm to Chaos,” on Friday, hours after two news organizations published stories based on an earlier draft of the report leaked to those organizations."

"San Bernardino Police Chief Jarrod Burguan said Monday he and other law enforcement officials who vetted the report were not 100 percent sure if the three county employees were charging their assailants or were attempting to flee the Inland Regional Center when they were shot. So that information was excluded from the final report, he said."

An influential person in the politics of L.A. and beyond, Stanley Sheinbaum, has passed away at the age of 96.

ELAINE WOO with L.A. Times: "For more than four decades, Stanley Sheinbaum regularly gathered moguls, presidents, celebrities and activists in his Brentwood living room to sip wine and debate the issues of the day. King Hussein and Queen Noor of Jordan, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Norman Lear, Barbra Streisand and Warren Beatty were among the many famous faces who participated in the vibrant salons Sheinbaum and his wife, Betty, held at their art-filled home on exclusive Rockingham Avenue."

"But more than a high-powered host, Sheinbaum often was a change agent, whose fingerprints can be found on a remarkable array of notable events."

"In the 1960s he engineered the release of Andreas Papandreou, the Greek leader who had been imprisoned by a military junta. In the 1970s he was the chief fundraiser for Daniel Ellsberg’s defense in the Pentagon Papers trial. In the 1980s he led a delegation of American Jewish leaders who persuaded Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to renounce terrorism and accept Israel as a state. And in the 1990s he headed the Los Angeles Police Commission after the beating of motorist Rodney King and helped drive controversial police Chief Daryl Gates from office."

SEE ALSO in Life Celebrations: Ed Edelman, crusading L.A. County supervisor, dead at 85. -- Jocelyn Y. Stewart in the LA Times.

With the November election just around the corner, the campaign dynamics have shifted from policy to personal. Experts say that such a transition is necessary because it gives an insight into how a nominee will behave in office.

JOE GAROFOLI with The Chronicle: "Instead of discussing the economy and foreign policy, which affect every voter, the presidential campaigns now are talking just about each other, specifically the health of each candidate, how much they’re paying in taxes and how secretive they are."

"It may seem an odd detour from the kitchen-table issues that voters want to hear discussed — especially now, less than two months before election day. But analysts say a candidate’s transparency provides insight into how that person will behave in the White House."

“There is a fundamental democratic value that basic questions about the president are a matter of public interest, because of all the power in the presidency,” said John Wonderlich, interim executive director of the nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation, which analyzes transparency and the intersection of money and politics."

READ MORE related to Beltway: Secrecy about ailments can be harmful to a candidacy's health -- JOHN WILDERMUTH, LIZZIE JOHNSON and JOE GAROFOLI with The Chronicle

Gov. Brown has accused opponents against his Proposition 57 initiative of spreading propaganda and trying to scare the voting public.

DAVID SIDERS with Sac Bee: "Gov. Jerry Brown on Monday accused California district attorneys of spreading propaganda to “spook people” into voting against his November ballot initiative to make nonviolent felons eligible for early parole, while suggesting Proposition 57’s controversial classification of “nonviolent” crimes was based on language the district attorneys themselves once approved."

"Brown’s remarks, at an editorial board meeting at The Sacramento Bee, come amid an ongoing feud over what type of inmates Brown’s measure would affect. The California District Attorneys Association and other critics have labored in recent weeks to publicize crimes that, while considered “nonviolent” in state law, are nevertheless serious, including assault with a deadly weapon and certain kinds of rape."

"Brown said Monday that “ ‘eligible’ is the key word here,” with parole boards unlikely to release the type of felons that his opponents have featured on trading cards under the headline, “Meet your new neighbor.”

READ MORE: California's Citizens United ballot measure -- LAT's Sarah D. Wire.