California's legislative agenda this year sees the state's housing crisis as a top priority.
Daily News' JEFF COLLINS: "Rents are too high. Home prices are out of reach. Decent listings and rentals are hard to find. Homeless encampments are growing. And many residents are cutting back on food, clothing and medical care to keep a roof over their heads."
"Now, after years of inaction, Sacramento may be on the verge of doing something about the state’s “housing crisis.”
"More than 130 housing bills surfaced this year as of the last count, many of them aimed at addressing the state’s housing shortage, lack of affordable housing and protecting those at risk of losing their homes."
READ MORE related to Local: Pressure grows to boost housing, opportunies for young homeless -- The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN; Democrat in state party chairmanship race says he's been targeted by false rumors that he molested boys -- LA Times' PHIL WILLON; Life and Combat for Republicans at Berkeley -- NY Times' THOMAS FULLER
The state's representatives have some words about the AHCA bill passed in the house just days ago.
KQED's STAFF: "After the House voted Thursday to narrowly approve a Republican-drafted bill that would eliminate many of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act, KQED collected statements made by California’s members of Congress explaining why they voted the way they did."
"We gathered comments made via social media and on the floor of the House, as well as from press releases sent out by each member’s office. We included links to their Twitter and Facebook pages where you can see some of their statements, plus additional comments they’ve made."
"For California’s congressional representatives, the vote split along party lines: all 14 Republicans voted in support of the bill; all 38 Democrats against (an additional seat remains vacant after Xavier Becerra was named the state’s attorney general). We have included a searchable table of the votes at the end of this post."
READ MORE related to Health: At a stop in Beverly Hills, Bernie Sanders vows Obamacare repeal bill 'is never going to pass' in Senate -- LA Times' CHRISTINE MAI-DUC
The first Santa Ana Unified graduate to attend Harvard University happens to be a DACA student, who also will be the first to receive a Claremont Graduate doctorate.
Daily News' BEAU YARBROUGH: "This is not the first time Gloria Montiel will be breaking new ground."
"When she graduated high school in 2005, Montiel was the first student from Santa Ana Unified to attend Harvard University. In addition to earning a bachelor’s degree in English Literature and language, she went on to complete a master’s degree in Learning and Teaching from Harvard a year later."
"On May 13, she’ll be making history again, when she is scheduled to become the first Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, recipient to graduate with a doctorate degree from Claremont Graduate University. The DACA program allows undocumented youths to live and work in the United States if they entered the country before they were 16 years old and before June 2007."
Climate change isn't the only thing threatening Delta marine life: Delta tunnels also may be an aquatic assassin.
Sacramento Bee's MATT WEISER: "California’s ambitious plan to tunnel under the West’s largest estuary has always had two primary goals: to restore imperiled native fish and to improve water deliveries to farms and cities."
"An early analysis by federal wildlife agencies, however, indicates the project might make life worse for fish."
"The so-called WaterFix project calls for building two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a tidal estuary that nurtures the largest salmon run on the West Coast. The tunnels, each 40 feet in diameter and 35 miles long, would shunt a portion of Sacramento River flows out of the estuary and directly to existing water distribution canals south of the Delta, near the city of Tracy."
The International Olympic Committee is considering LA Mayor Eric Garcetti's bid to have his city host the 2024 event.
Daily News' SCOTT M. REID: "As Barry Maister, an International Olympic Committee member from New Zealand, walked off a plane at Los Angeles International Airport last year, he was shocked to find Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti waiting for him, hand extended."
"Dr. Robin E. Mitchell, an IOC member from Fiji, received a similar greeting from Garcetti when he traveled through LAX."
“They were blown away; they could not believe the mayor of Los Angeles was there to shake hands and say welcome to my city,” said U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Larry Probst."
READ MORE related to Economics: California: The state where people don't move -- Daily News' JONATHAN LANSNER; Price tag for State's road-wrecking winter: $1.4B and counting -- KQED's DAN BREKKE; UC secret salary fund sparks bill to curb autonomy -- The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV
Silicon Valley isn't just for techsperts (technological experts), it's also becoming an enclave for Beltway veterans.
LA Times' SEEMA MEHTA: "A grraying man — once the baby-faced press wrangler for Sen. Barack Obama’s nascent presidential campaign — nursed an absinthe cocktail as he mingled near a former spokesman for President George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection bid."
"Nearby, one of Sen. John McCain’s most aggressive public advocates in his 2008 presidential campaign huddled with a man who spent the last several years as former President Bill Clinton’s liaison with the public."
"The scene could have taken place over oysters at the Old Ebbitt Grill, a mainstay for politicos in the nation’s capital. But it unfolded in an exposed-brick bar in the South of Market district of San Francisco as veterans of President Obama’s administration who launched a marketing and communications firm in the nation’s capital celebrated the opening of their West Coast office. Like many veterans of high-profile campaigns in recent months, they had been drawn west by the opportunities in Silicon Valley."
