New California legislation attempts to create sanctuary "safe zones" for undocumented immigrants.
ALEXEI KOSEFF with Sacramento Bee: "Ahead of an expected hardline approach on illegal immigration under President-elect Donald Trump, California officials are proposing to further restrict the ability of federal authorities to detain and deport the approximately 2.3 million undocumented immigrants living in the state."
"Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León, D-Los Angeles, on Wednesday announced a bill that would prohibit state and local law enforcement, including school police and security departments, from using their resources for immigration enforcement."
"Senate Bill 54 would also create “safe zones” at public schools, hospitals and courthouses where immigrant enforcement would be banned, and require state agencies to update their confidentiality policies so that information on individuals’ immigration status is not shared for enforcement purposes."
READ MORE related to Immigration/Sanctuary Policies: Sacramento school district may become 'safe haven' fighting deportation, hate speech -- LORETTA KALB with Sacramento Bee; Schools try to calm new fears over deportation -- MIKE MCPHATE with NYT
California's election tally is officially over, and Clinton leads Trump in the Golden State by a massive disparity.
JOHN MYERS with LAT: "California elections officials completed their work tallying votes from the Nov. 8 election on Wednesday, submitting a final report of more than 14.6 million ballots cast in races from president to seats in Congress and the state Legislature."
"Hillary Clinton, whose presidential bid came up short in the electoral college, handily beat President-elect Donald Trump in California by more than 4.2 million votes — almost double the number of ballots cast for Trump, helping boost her lead in the national popular vote."
"Secretary of State Alex Padilla must certify the presidential vote by the end of this week and fully certify the election results next week."
A local chaplain talks about his experiences the day the Ghost Ship warehouse fire in Oakland claimed 36 lives.
SAM WHITING with The Chronicle: "When the second alarm buzzed his cell phone at 11:31 p.m. Friday, the Rev. Jayson Landeza got out of his bedclothes and into his “turnout” in the rectory of St. Benedict in East Oakland."
"By the time he’d driven his black Crown Victoria 10 minutes to the Ghost Ship fire, he’d transformed himself from Catholic priest to “minister of presence."
"That’s his own patented job description where no sermonizing or administering of last rites is required. What he does is stand there with his coat open so his clerical collar is visible collar, with an open expression on his face to show that he’s approachable."
READ MORE related to Oakland 'Ghost Ship' Warehouse Fire: Oakland fire search completed while cause remains a mystery -- PATRICK MAY with Mercury News; Rising prices in Oakland push artists into risky housing -- CONOR DOUGHERTY and JULIE TURKEWITZ with NYT; Officials announce that no evidence suggests arson caused Oakland fire -- CHANTELLE LEE and CASSANDRA VOGEL with Daily Californian
In a bizarre turn of events, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt has been asked by President-elect Trump to head the EPA -- the same agency Mr. Pruitt is currently suing for its climate change science.
CHRIS MOONEY, BRADY DENNIS, and STEVEN MUFSON with WaPo: "President-elect Donald Trump is expected to nominate Scott Pruitt, the attorney general of the oil and gas-intensive state of Oklahoma, to head the Environmental Protection Agency, a move signaling an assault on President Obama’s climate change and environmental legacy."
"Pruitt has spent much of his energy as attorney general fighting the very agency he is being nominated to lead."
"He is the third of Trump’s appointees who have key philosophical differences with the missions of the agencies they have been tapped to run. Ben Carson, named to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has expressed a deep aversion to the social safety net programs and fair housing initiatives that have been central to that agency’s activities. Betsy DeVos, named education secretary, has a passion for private school vouchers that critics say undercut the public school systems at the core of the government’s mission."
A new bill introduced to the state legislature would designate any attack on a police officer as a hate crime.
MELODY GUTIERREZ with The Chronicle: "Violence against a law enforcement officer or his or her family would be a hate crime in California under a bill introduced Tuesday in the state Legislature."
"Assemblyman Jay Obernolte, R-Big Bear Lake (San Bernardino County), said increasing violence against officers prompted him to author AB2, which would increase sentences for violence targeting an officer or his or her immediate family by one to three years in state prison."
"Similar bills in other states have also been introduced since Louisiana earlier this year became the first state to make violence against officers and first responders a hate crime under what has been called “blue lives matter” legislation."
California Democrats are in 'the midst of a generational renewal' post-election.
ADAM NAGOURNEY with NYT: "Democrats are reeling after Republicans captured the White House and Congress. In Washington, the infighting has begun. And potentially most alarming for the party about to be out of power, there is a paucity of younger Democrats ready to run for office: Hillary Clinton is 69. Bernie Sanders, her main opponent in the Democratic presidential primary, is 75."
"The answer for Democrats may be to look West. California Democrats (and to a lesser extent, Republicans) are in the midst of a generational renewal, as some of the old lions of the party – Gov. Jerry Brown, 78; Senator Barbara Boxer, 76; Senator Dianne Feinstein, 83; and Nancy Pelosi, the house minority leader, who is 76 – approach the end of their public careers. And there is no shortage of rising Democratic figures ready to take the reins in California."
"This new class of Democratic leaders seems likely to reshape the political face of California for a generation. But for national Democrats, they also represent a potential talent pool of leaders who can help pull the party out of the worst crisis it has faced since 2005, the last time the Republicans controlled the White House and both houses of Congress. California also stands ready to become a laboratory for Democratic policy that, it seems fair to say, will have little chance for enactment in Washington, at least for the next two years."
The California stem cell agency has approved a $15m proposal to expand into new research.
DAVID JENSEN with Capitol Weekly: "After a hiccup last month, the California stem cell agency this week coughed up $15 million for a quartet of researchers looking into Alzheimer’s disease, cartilage repair, arthritis and sickle cell disease, but not before lopping off a big chunk of one proposal."
"Action by the governing board of the $3 billion agency came after a snafu at its Nov. 17 meeting. The proposals, all previously approved by the agency’s reviewers, hit a roadblock when the budgeted cash was not enough to fund all four. The session last month also stalled as a result of quorum problems and research priorities."
"Normally applications approved by reviewers during their closed-door sessions slip through the later public meetings of the agency board with no discussion. But this time around, reviewers approved the four applications, but gave one of the researchers a sizable, financial “hair cut.”Despite concerns about fairness and imposing new conditions on applicants, the board stripped $1.6 million from a $3.7 million application to develop a stem cell therapy for osteoarthritis by Ankasa Regenerative Therapeutics of La Jolla."
California cannabis icon Eddy Lepp has returned home after an 8 year bid in federal prison.
LISA M. KRIEGER with Mercury News: "Free after eight years of federal imprisonment, one of the nation’s most celebrated cannabis convicts came home to California on Wednesday, walking off a United Airlines flight into the warm embrace of supporters — and a profoundly changed world."
"Charles “Eddy” Lepp, a defiant 64-year-old Vietnam vet and ordained Rastafarian minister, was convicted on federal felony charges in 2007 for doing something that California now considers legal because of last month’s passage of Proposition 64: growing marijuana."
"“I’m very honored. I’m very humbled. Thank you so much for caring,” Lepp told friends and family at San Francisco International Airport, tears streaming down his creased cheeks."
A recent Glassdoor survey has given accolades to the Bay Area for having some of the best workplaces in the nation.
GEORGE AVALOS with Mercury News: "Facebook, Google, Apple and Clorox were listed among the best places to work for 2017, according to a Glassdoor survey released Wednesday."
"Silicon Valley companies in the top 10 of Glassdoor’s list included Menlo Park-based Facebook at No.2, Mountain View-based Alphabet unit Google at No. 4, Mountain View-based LinkedIn at No. 8 and San Jose-based Adobe Systems at No. 9."
"Boston-based Bain, an investment firm, was No. 1, Glassdoor reported."
LA County's CPS Agency head will be retiring early 2017.
RICHARD WINTON and MATT HAMILTON with LAT: "Philip L. Browning, the director of Los Angeles County’s child protective services agency and a veteran of county government, announced Wednesday that he is retiring early next year, capping a career in which he brought stability to a department plagued by high leadership turnover."
"Browning, 70, said he recently came to the decision to retire and noted that he is the second-longest serving director for the Department of Children and Family Services. "
A USC security officer has plead no contest to the manslaughter death of a graduate student in 2015.
MATT HAMILTON with LAT: "A USC campus safety officer pleaded no contest Wednesday to vehicular manslaughter in connection with the 2015 death of a student, whose car was struck by the officer’s speeding cruiser."
"Appearing in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom, Miguel Guerra, 37, entered the plea to the misdemeanor count and issued a formal apology to the family of Kelsey Dresser, the first-year graduate student who was killed."
"A judge sentenced Guerra to 30 days in jail, 45 days of community labor, and three years of probation, according to Frank Mateljan, a spokesman for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s office. "
Sacramento's 'real-time crime center' is a new state-of-the-art security hq being employed by local police.
ELLEN GARRISON with Sacramento Bee: "Eighteen video feeds of intersections across Sacramento fill the video wall in the Sacramento Police Department’s “real-time crime center."
"Those are just SPD cameras – on the other side of the room, a bank of TV screens displays Regional Transit’s camera feeds of light-rail tracks. Sacramento police unveiled their $500,000 experiment in technology-aided police work Tuesday. The center has been in use since June, but the department had some kinks to work out before unveiling it to the public, officials said."
"Chief Sam Somers Jr., who will leave his post at the end of the week, said the center is the cornerstone of a technology push he’s been working for since he assumed his position in 2013. He said the department has incorporated “the latest, greatest” technologies in police vehicles, installed Police Observation Device cameras at city intersections to detect stolen vehicles and added ShotSpotter microphones to alert officers to gunshots."
Linda Katehi, former UC Davis Chancellor, may be the new leader of the school's 'Feminist Research Institute.'
DIANA LAMBERT with Sacramento Bee: "Former UC Davis Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi is in position to lead the school’s Feminist Research Institute."
"The program, established in 2015, funds and promotes the study of how gender, sexuality, race and other social structures affect research, according to its website."
"The Feminist Research Institute board filed a request in November to name Katehi its new director, said UC Davis spokeswoman Dana Topousis. The decision will be made by interim Vice Chancellor for Research Cameron S. Carter and isn’t likely to happen until next year, she said."
