Brown calls for coastal drilling ban

"Silicon Valley overwhelmingly backed Hillary Clinton for president. Trump’s controversial remarks on immigration, race, and women clash with the liberal sensibilities of the Bay Area."

READ MORE related to PEOTUS: Governors of California and other western states uncertain about life under a Trump administration -- KURTIS LEE with LAT;  Scientists frantically copying US climate data, fearing it might vanish under Trump -- BRADY DENNIS with WaPo; Silicon Valley CEOs didn't hide their distaste for Donald Trump. Now comes the reckoning --  EVAN HALPER and DAVID PIERSON with LAT; Trump brushes off concerns that secretary of state pick is too close to Putin -- MICHAEL FINNEGAN with LAT; Tech CEOs criticized ahead of Trump meeting -- LEVI SUMAGAYSAY with Mercury News

Health care advocates are vowing to battle the repealing of Obamacare in California.

CLAUDIA BUCK with Sacramento Bee: "Ignore the political uncertainty swirling around Obamacare: If you want health insurance coverage in California starting Jan. 1, sign up this week."

"That’s the message Tuesday from officials at Covered California, the state’s official marketplace for the Affordable Care Act. They said about 139,000 new enrollees have signed up during the current open enrollment season, roughly the same as last year. In addition, 1.2 million who were previously enrolled have reupped their health coverage."

"It’s too soon to tell if enrollment has been affected by the uncertainty over President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to “replace and repeal” the health care law soon after his inauguration, officials said. Republican lawmakers haven’t yet clarified how quickly they plan to move against the health care law and what they might replace it with."

In Santa Clara County, statements rebuking President-elect Trump drew criticism at a board of supervisors meeting.

ERIC KURHI with Mercury News: "A Santa Clara County resolution rebuking campaign statements of President-elect Donald Trump’s drew sharp criticism at Tuesday’s board of supervisors meeting from Trump supporters and cheers from civil-rights activists."

"This Resolution is nothing more than pure politics, fear mongering, and unsubstantiated statements,” wrote Edward Sattler in an email to the board. “What good will this resolution bring if it is approved? The resolution is a clear display of ignorance, reactions of a sore loser, and blind politics."

"The resolution — which is similar to one unanimously approved by San Francisco supervisors two weeks after the election — states that Trump is poised to become president “notwithstanding his loss of the popular vote by over 2 million votes; and the President-Elect has repeatedly made statements offensive to women, immigrants, religious minorities, racial and ethnic minorities, veterans, the disabled, the LGBTQ community, and the general public."

Former state Senate leader Darrell Steinberg has been sworn in as Sacramento's 56th mayor.

ANITA CHABRIA with Sacramento Bee: "Six months after winning a decisive victory in the June primary, Darrell Steinberg became the 56th mayor of Sacramento on Tuesday night in front of a crowd of nearly 2,000 people."

"We are a confluence of two rivers coming together, a confluence of community, where diversity is celebrated, differences are respected, service is a way of life and, yes, neighbors always stand with neighbors,” Steinberg said in his first speech as mayor. “If you do your part, I promise you, I’ll give you everything I’ve got."

"Speaking at the California State Railroad Museum and visibly emotional after a 189-day wait to take office, Steinberg laid out his vision for the next four years."

Tiny insects have been causing an uproar in the Sierra Nevada.

ULA CHROBAK with EBT: "Western pine beetles, native inhabitants of Sierra Nevada forests, typically go unnoticed. The grain-of-rice-sized insects live a quiet life, spent mostly beneath the bark of weak, diseased or injured trees."

"But the beetles of late have been causing an uproar. They have been decimating ponderosa pine trees throughout the central and southern Sierra, turning entire hillsides red — the color the pines turn just before they die. Last month, the U.S. Forest Service reported that there are over 100 million dead trees in the Sierra — more than double the amount in 2015, when the dying trees prompted Gov. Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency."

Police in Sacramento have killed an unarmed elderly man who they believed to be armed.

AMANDA LEE MYERS and ANDREW DALTON with Sacramento Bee: "An unarmed 73-year-old man refused to take his hand out of his pocket and stop walking toward officers who believed he had a gun when they fatally shot him, the incoming police chief of Bakersfield, California, said Tuesday."

"Two different people who encountered Francisco Serna in the hours leading up to the shooting had believed he had a gun, and police were answering a 911 call of a man with a revolver, incoming Chief Lyle Martin said at a news conference."

"Officer Reagan Selman, who had been on the force about 16 months, fired seven shots at Serna as he walked toward them in a neighbor's driveway early Monday, said Martin, an assistant chief whose tenure as chief had been slated to begin Wednesday."

READ MORE related to Public Safety: Sheriff's deputies had gone to apartment complex twice before Monday night shooting -- NASHELLY CHAVEZ with Sacramento Bee

SEIU's latest contract proposal includes a nice salary bump for many workers.

ADAM ASHTON with Sacramento Bee: "A proposed contract for state government’s largest union includes dozens of special pay raises for certain workers that could increase their salaries by as much as 19 percent next year, according to new details released this week by the bargaining units."

"The biggest gains would go to financial experts working for departments like CalPERS, as well as workers with specialized training in competitive career fields."

"Most actuaries next year would receive a 15 percent salary bump on top of the standard 4 percent raise that all workers represented by SEIU Local 1000 would gain. In general, they’re financial planners working for CalPERS who earn between $7,300 and $10,000 a month."

Lake Davis is set to be filled again a decade after invasive fish were chemically wiped out from the water source.

RYAN SABALOW with Sacramento Bee: "Nearly a decade after state officials last dumped chemicals into a Plumas County lake to kill off nonnative predatory fish, state water regulators are going to allow the reservoir to fill to the brim this winter."

"The Department of Water Resources lowered Lake Davis near Portola in the 1990s to prevent storms from washing predatory northern pike into the waterways below the dam and begin killing native fish."

"In 2007, state fisheries officials used a chemical in the 84,000 acre foot reservoir to kill the fish. The lake was kept low in the following years as a precaution. A similar chemical treatment was conducted in 1997, but the pike were again found in the reservoir in two years later."

Highway 50 near Apple Hill will be getting some upgrades.

TONY BIZJAK with Sacramento Bee: "State highway officials are laying the groundwork for a $50 million safety upgrade of Highway 50 east of Placerville, a continuation of decades-long efforts to modernize one of the oldest mountain highways in the state."

"The key element will be installation of two miles of concrete median divider to separate oncoming traffic in the winding and mountainous section between Placerville and the popular Apple Hill area."

"Caltrans officials previously added safety features to Highway 50 west of Placerville and improved highway efficiency through the town, although there still are three traffic lights on the highway."

Parents are facing custody issues over their cannabis use.

BROOKE EDWARDS STAGGS with O.C. Register: "Nathaniel Rudd didn’t know he was going to be a dad until the mother of a woman he’d dated months before — nine months, to be exact — called him from the hospital."

"The next day, Rudd, 31, drove from his home in Twentynine Palms to hold baby Peter for the first time."

"He learned from a social worker that Peter’s mother wouldn’t be able to take him home. So Rudd immediately began petitioning for custody."

White supremacist gang houses in L.A. have been targeted by the San Fernando city attorney.

ELIZABETH CHOU with Daily News: "Nuisance abatement lawsuits were filed in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this month to evict alleged white supremacist gang members and their associates from two San Fernando Valley homes, while a third alleged criminal hub for the group was shut down, City Attorney Mike Feuer said Tuesday."

"City attorneys contend in court papers that single-family homes at 16440 Index St. in Granada Hills and 7244 Loma Verde Ave. in Canoga Park are frequented by members of the San Fernando Valley Peckerwoods, a criminal street gang with ties to the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang."

"City attorneys point to multiple arrests at those homes during recent months in connection with possession of firearms and drug sales, as well as vehicle and identity theft crimes. They allege the homes, which are near schools, have become public nuisances, so injunctions are needed to prevent gang members from going onto the properties. The requested injunctions would also order the property owners to remove any structures that prevent search warrants from being served and prohibit surveillance cameras."

Journalism noteable Bernard Taper has passed away at the age of 98.

MALINI RAMAIYER with Daily Californian: "Former UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism professor Bernard Taper, who previously worked at The New Yorker and as one of the Monuments Men after World War II, died Oct. 17 of a bacterial infection. He was 98."

"Taper began teaching at UC Berkeley in 1970, two years after the Graduate School of Journalism was refounded, according to former journalism school professor Andrew Stern."

"He was an exceedingly kind, generous and accomplished professor and journalist,” said Tom Goldstein, Taper’s colleague, who was the dean of the journalism school from 1988 to 1996."