A key backer of the $5 billion stem cell bond planned for 2018 has rescinded support, ending the bond's chance at a ballot appearance for voter approval.
Capitol Weekly's DAVID JENSEN: "Plans to ask California voters in 2018 to approve a $5 billion bond issue to finance the California stem cell agency have been shelved, a director of the agency said Thursday."
"Jeff Sheehy, a San Francisco county supervisor, said that the key backer of the proposal had informed him that no bond measure would be offered to voters before 2020, presumably at the presidential general election."
"Sheehy said that Bob Klein, who led the 2004 ballot campaign that created the agency, had told him by telephone that a 2018 bond measure was now off the table."
California's controversial law on high-capacity magazine restrictions has been blocked by a San Diego judge.
Sacramento Bee's ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "A federal judge has temporarily blocked a voter-approved California law that would have forced gun owners to get rid of high-capacity ammunition magazines by this Saturday."
"U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, who is based in San Diego, issued a preliminary injunction Thursday that found the law was likely unconstitutional because it prevented people from using firearms that employed “whatever common magazine size he or she judges best suits the situation.” The law would have barred people from possessing magazines containing more than 10 bullets."
"The State of California’s desire to criminalize simple possession of a firearm magazine able to hold more than 10 rounds is precisely the type of policy choice that the Constitution takes off the table,” the injunction read."
Californians may soon start seeing dramatic physical evidence of climate change.
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER/RYAN SABALOW: "When it comes to California and climate change, the predictions are staggering: coastal airports besieged by floodwaters, entire beaches disappearing as sea levels rise."
"Another disturbing scenario is brewing inland, in the sleepy backwaters of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It’s a threat to the Delta’s ecosystem that could swallow up a significant portion of California’s water supply."
"Scientists from government and academia say rising sea levels caused by climate change will bring more salt water into the Delta, the hub of California’s water-delivery network. As a result, millions of gallons of fresh water will have to be flushed through the Delta, and out into the ocean, to keep salinity from inundating the massive pumping stations near Tracy. That will leave less water available for San Joaquin Valley farmers and the 19 million Southern Californians and Bay Area residents who depend on Delta water – eventually as much as 475,000 acre-feet of water each year, enough to fill Folsom Lake halfway, according to one study by the Public Policy Institute of California."
Volkswagen is no stranger to controversy, and now the automobile giant is moving its base of operations for its electric car program from Los Angeles to Sacramento.
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER/RYAN LILLIS: "Sacramento motorists probably know this already: For all its sprawl and lengthy commutes, the city is far more manageable then Los Angeles."
"Which is why Sacramento, and not Los Angeles, is about to be showered with a fleet of electric cars supplied by Volkswagen."
"The carmaker announced Thursday it has chosen Sacramento as its first “Green City,” the place where it plans to spend $44 million building an electric car-sharing service, a slew of vehicle-charging stations and other benefits."
Donald Trump's immigration hardline sees friendly support in the House on Thursday.
McClatchy DC's KATISHI MAAKE/ANSHU SIRIPURAPU: "Sanctuary cities would have a tougher time protecting undocumented immigrants. Immigrants who try to re-enter the country illegally would find stiffer punishment."
"That’s the sort of get-tough-on-immigration policies President Donald Trump has eagerly sought, and Thursday, the House went along, largely on party line votes. It approved two measures to implement his plan; the bills now go to the Senate, where they appear in for a tougher time."
"The road will be bumpier, if not impossible, in the Senate because 60 votes will be needed to cut off debate, and Republicans control 52 seats. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who in the past worked to fashion a bipartisan compromise on immigration, said he had “no idea” of the bills’ prospects."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Travel ban, with qualification, is underway again after Supreme Court ruling -- The Chronicle's HAMED ALEAZIZ; Civil rights lawyers and protestors return to LAX as the new Trump travel ban takes effect -- LA Times' ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN/SARAH PARVINI; Feds will now target relatives who smuggled in children -- AP's Garance Burke
The Wall Street Journal reported there was a connection between Russian hackers targeting Hillary Clinton and Trump's former NatSec Advisor. Michael Flynn.
AP: "Russian hackers discussed during the 2016 presidential campaign whether they could obtain emails pilfered from Hillary Clinton and ultimately get them to an adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, according to a report published Thursday by The Wall Street Journal."
"The Journal said investigators probing Russian meddling in the election have examined intelligence agency reports about how hackers wanted to get emails from Clinton's server to an intermediary and then to Mike Flynn, a retired lieutenant general and senior adviser to Trump who went on to serve briefly as his national security adviser. The newspaper also references a Republican operative who was convinced emails missing from Clinton's server were in the hands of Russian hackers, and who implied in conversations that he was working with Flynn."
"The newspaper said it was not clear whether Flynn played any role in the quest of the operative, Peter W. Smith, who died shortly after speaking with the newspaper. The Journal said Flynn did not respond to requests, the White House declined comment, and the campaign said Smith never worked for it and that any such action undertaken by Flynn, if true, was not on its behalf."
A history of chiropractic treatment in America has its roots in a man who claimed to learn the techniques from a spirit during a seance.
LA Times' DAVID LAZARUS: "The American Chiropractic Assn. estimates that the nation’s roughly 77,000 chiropractors treat more than 35 million Americans every year.
I suspect most if not all those patients have no idea that the $15-billion chiropractic industry owes its existence to a ghost."
"Daniel David Palmer, the “father” of chiropractic who performed the first chiropractic adjustment in 1895, was an avid spiritualist. He maintained that the notion and basic principles of chiropractic treatment were passed along to him during a seance by a long-dead doctor."
California is the world's 6th largest economy, but one of it's biggest exports is also one of its lesser-talked about: campaign contributions. Now some Democrats are making efforts to reroute that cash back home.
LA Times' MARK Z. BARABAK: "California feeds the world with its bounty, fuels the economy with its innovation, fires the imagination with its creativity."
"There is one export, though, that is far less celebrated: the unceasing torrent of outbound campaign cash."
"For political fundraisers, California has long been the Big Rock Candy Mountain, excavated, mined and, ultimately, shafted by candidates of both parties who use the boodle to run for president in Iowa or New Hampshire, or Congress in East Podunk."
Those with pre-existing conditions are now worried about their health care security as Obamacare faces systematic dismantling from Senate Republicans.
Kaiser's CHARLOTTE HUFF: "Cheasanee Huette, a 20-year-old college student in Northern California, is worried. Two years ago, knowing she was protected by the Affordable Care Act’s guarantees of coverage for preexisting conditions, she decided to find out if she carried the same genetic mutation that eventually killed her mother."
"She tested positive for one of the cancer-related mutations referred to as Lynch syndrome."
"Now, as congressional Republicans advance proposals to overhaul the health law’s consumer protections, she frets that her future health insurance and employment options will be defined by that test — and that the mutation documented in her medical records and related screenings could rule out individual insurance coverage."
And for the person who had the Worst Week in Califfornia, #WorstWeekCA, we picked Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, after his entire family reportedly received death threats because he declined to allow the Assembly to consider the single-payer health care bill that the Senate already approved.
