"The current two-year session of the Legislature officially ends on Nov. 30, and lawmakers have left talks on a multi-billion transportation plan in limbo since adjourning in August."
"Brown joined Senate President pro Tem Kevin de León (D-Los Angeles) and Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Paramount) in ending any speculation of a late effort to bring current lawmakers back to the state Capitol."
"Proposition 66 intends to speed up executions by designating trial courts to hear petitions challenging death row convictions, limiting successive petitions and expanding the pool of lawyers who could take on death penalty appeals. As of Monday, the proposition was leading with 51.3% of the vote and on Tuesday, an Associated Press tally of votes found the proposition had received enough votes to pass."
"For much of 2016, many companies appeared to be boycotting the state’s emissions-trading system known as cap and trade, uncertain whether the regime would survive. In May, when the state held its quarterly auction of greenhouse gas permits, only 11 percent sold."
"On Tuesday, state officials reported the results of the year’s last quarterly auction, held Nov. 15 — and they showed a dramatic rebound. This time, companies snapped up more than 88 percent of the current-year permits offered, the best performance of any quarterly auction since February."
LA County supervisor is calling to galvanize a task force to protect immigrants.
SUSAN ABRAM with LA Daily News: "Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis held a rally Tuesday to announce initiatives to keep vulnerable communities safe from bullying and harassment — and called for a task force that would help protect immigrants — following a reported rise in post-election hate crimes."
“It seems that standing up for our people’s constitutional rights is going to fall on the hands of state and local governments,” Solis said Tuesday."
"Flanked by civic leaders and clergy at Grand Park in downtown L.A., Solis said the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a motion that asks the Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement agencies “to proactively contact communities likely to be targeted to reassure them of support of their policy of not inquiring about immigration status of victims or witnesses.”"
SEIU Local 1000, California's largest state employee union, has announced a strike for December 5th.
JIM MILLER with Sacramento Bee: "California’s largest state-employee union announced Tuesday that it will go on strike Dec. 5 in response to what union leaders complain is “unlawful conduct and egregious unfair labor practices” during negotiations for a new contract."
"The union, which represents 95,000 workers in nine of the state’s 21 bargaining units, has been in talks with the Brown administration since April, with no agreement. Membersvoted to authorize a strike last week."
"The union has denounced the administration’s proposed wage increase of 12 percent over four years as inadequate because it fails to address what it contends are gender pay inequities in the state workforce. It also objects to the administration’s proposal that employees pay more for their health benefits."
Issa declares a re-election win in the 49th district.
MARTiN WISCKOL with OC Register: "Fending off an unexpectedly strong Democratic challenger, Republican congressman Darrell Issa appears to have secured re-election with Tuesday night’s update of ballot tallies."
"Issa held a 3,234 vote lead over retired Marine Col. Doug Applegate with about 6,000 ballots left to count. Applegate would have to win more than 75 percent of the remaining ballots to catch up, prompting the Issa campaign to declare victory in the 49th Congressional District."
"This was the hard fought campaign on both sides in a very unusual political year,” said Phil Paule, Issa’s campaign manager. “I am pleased that congressman Issa will continue to be a watchdog for the taxpayers."
The sleepy town of Avenal has a storied and somewhat tumultuous economic history.
PETER H. KING with LAT: "It’s long been common practice in California-speak to identify every new big thing as the next Gold Rush. And this little town on the western flank of the San Joaquin Valley, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, has been at the center of several of the new golds."
"The black gold of oil cannonballed Avenal into existence in 1928, first as a tent city, then as a prosperous Standard Oil company town, after a wildcatter unearthed a gusher in the sere Kettleman Hills."
"The liquid gold of imported water, carried from the north by the California Aqueduct, gave it a second, if tenuous, life as a migrant farm laborer town."
Embattled Mountain View teacher eyes retirement after a Trump/Hitler comparison was taken out of context.
BETH WILLON with KQED: "After teaching history and special education at Mountain View High School for 40 years, Frank Navarro can barely get the words out of his mouth. They came haltingly, in fits and starts."
"I will not be coming back, and it’s very hard for me to say that,” Navarro said. “I love this job. I mean, I feel like I can learn something from it every day."
"Navarro said he’s retiring in June because the Mountain View Los Altos High School District showed him little respect by putting him on paid leave on Nov. 10 to investigate a complaint about his world history lesson comparing Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. Navarro returned to school on Nov. 14 after significant public outrage and a change.org petition calling for his return generated thousands of signatures."
STDs in California are on the rise.
SAM RICHARDS with Mercury News: "Sexually transmitted diseases — chlamydia, gonorrhea, and early (infectious) syphilis — have mostly been on the rise in the Bay Area over the past six years, according to state Department of Public Health statistics."
"One local health official said the trend reflects fewer people using condoms and increased reporting of the diseases by medical clinics."
"These numbers are going up across the country, as well as in the state, and Contra Costa is following the trend,” Christine Leivermann, HIV/AIDS/sexually transmitted diseases program director for Contra Costa County Health Services, said Tuesday."
Beekeepers face more hurdles after a court rejects lawsuit over seed coating pesticides.
GEOFFREY MOHAN with LAT: "A federal court on Tuesday dealt a setback to efforts by beekeepers and consumer groups to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencyto regulate insecticide coatings on crop seeds."
"The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said it was well within the discretion of the federal agency to exclude chemical-coated seeds from pesticide rules that already cover the compounds in their other uses."
“The Court is most sympathetic to the plight of our bee population and beekeepers,” Judge William Haskell Alsup wrote. “Perhaps the EPA should have done more to protect them, but such policy decisions are for the agency to make.”
The city of Fresno has settled a police shooting lawsuit for $2.2m.
PABLO LOPEZ with Fresno Bee: "The city of Fresno has agreed to pay $2.2 million to settle a federal civil rights lawsuitfiled by the parents of a Fresno man who was fatally shot by police four years ago."
"With the settlement comes major changes for the Fresno Police Department, said Oakland attorneys Michael Haddad and Julia Sherwin, who represented the parents of Jaime Reyes Jr., 28, who was shot while climbing a fence at Aynesworth Elementary School in southeast Fresno in the afternoon of June 6, 2012."
"Haddad said Tuesday that if the lawsuit had gone to trial, the evidence would have shown that Officer Juan Avila shot Reyes near the top of the fence. Once Reyes toppled to the ground, Avila shot him three more times in the back as he lay wounded, face down on the ground, Haddad said."
Trump: "The president can't have a conflict of interest."
ISAAC ARNSDORF with Politico: "Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he faces no legal obligation to cut ties with his businesses, even as he described how winning the presidency has made his brand “hotter” and acknowledged advancing his business interests during a conversation with a British politician."
"The law's totally on my side, the president can't have a conflict of interest,” Trump said in an interview with New York Times editors and writers."
"Trump said he was surprised by how little was legally required of him. "In theory I could run my business perfectly and then run the country perfectly. There's never been a case like this,” he said. "I'd assumed that you'd have to set up some type of trust or whatever and you don’t."
READ MORE related to POTUS45: Donald Trump's NYT Interview (Full Transcript) -- New York Times; Are Trump towers and hotels across globe now terror risks? -- KEVIN G. HALL with McClatchy DC; Clinton's popular vote lead is 1.7million and growing -- BEN ADLER with KPCC
