Investigators try to understand the motivations, desires and urges behind Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock
The Chronicle's MELODY GUTIERREZ: "As investigators look for a motive in the massacre of 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas, one thing is clear to criminologist Adam Lankford: The shooter knew an attack of this magnitude would draw worldwide attention to him."
"The pursuit of fame — or infamy — through mass murder has emerged as a factor in numerous mass shootings since two teens predicted on videotape that killing their classmates and teachers at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999 would win them respect and that movie directors would vie to tell their story."
"A man who killed nine people at Umpqua Community College in Oregon on Oct. 1, 2015 — exactly two years before the Las Vegas massacre — wrote admiringly of other killers in online posts before the shooting: “Seems the more people you kill, the more you’re in the limelight.”
READ MORE related to 'Sin City Slaughter': OP-ED: Banning full-auto devices on rifles is a start on gun laws -- Chronicle's EDITORAL BOARD; Gunman's secret life thwarts investigator's hunt for motive -- AP's MICHAEL BALSAMO/BRIAN MELLEY/KEN RITTER; High-stakes lifestyle where big bets buy the most luxury -- WaPo's KEVIN SULLIVAN/ELIZABETH DWOSKIN/KATIE ZEZIMA; The Las Vegas shooting is a reminder of the limits of stopping or preventing a sniper attack -- LA Times' RICHARD WINTON/GEOFFREY MOHAN/SARAH PARVINI/CORINA KNOLL; Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock was a CSUN graduate, university confirms -- Daily News' WES WOODS
An Alameda County Superior Court commissioner has been reprimanded by the state's judicial disciplinary agency over courtroom misconduct.
The Chronicle's BOB EGELKO: "The state’s judicial disciplinary agency reprimanded a longtime Alameda County Superior Court commissioner Wednesday for insulting and cursing at a court interpreter and allowing staff members to make racist and sexist comments in his courtroom."
"It was the third time the Commission on Judicial Performance had publicly disciplined Mark Kliszewski. The commission said Kliszewski was suspended without pay for two weeks in 1996 for “discourteous and improper treatment” of a female social worker in his courtroom, and he was suspended without pay for 120 days in 2000 for misconduct, including misrepresentations in his campaign literature, during an unsuccessful election campaign for Superior Court judge."
Sacramento-area 'Dreamers' scramble as deadline arrives for keeping immigration status
Sacramento Bee's STEPHEN MAGAGNINI/ANITA CHABRIA: "Sacramento “Dreamers,” young immigrants brought to the United States without documentation as children, scrambled this week to complete government applications as a final deadline loomed Thursday that threatened their tenuous immigration status."
"U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Sept. 5 that the government would phase out its Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, commonly called DACA. But it gave those holding the two-year work permits a chance to renew for another two years if their status was set to expire between September 2017 and March 2018. Applications, including a $495 fee, are due Thursday."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Immigration crackdown taking heavy toll on California students -- EdSource's CAROLYN JONES; I was 9 when my parents told me I was undocumented. With DACA ending, I have no idea what's next -- LA Times' BRIAN DE LOS SANTOS
The International Space Station got some new digits early this morning.
AP's MARCIA DUNN: "Spacewalking astronauts worked at giving the International Space Station's big robot arm a new hand Thursday."
"Commander Randy Bresnik and Mark Vande Hei tackled the job on the first of three NASA spacewalks planned over the next two weeks."
"The latching mechanism on one end of the 58-foot robot arm malfunctioned in August. It needs to be replaced before an Orbital ATK supply ship launches in November."
House Reeps are pushing a budget passage through in an effort to expedite their oft-heralded corporate/individual tax cut.
AP: "Republicans are focused on cutting taxes instead of deficits as they look to power a $4.1 billion budget plan through the House on Thursday."
"The 2018 House GOP budget promises deep cuts to social programs and Cabinet agency budgets but its chief purpose is to set the stage for action later this year on a comprehensive Republican overhaul of the U.S. tax code. The tax overhaul is the party's top political priority as well as a longtime policy dream of key leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan."
"The plan calls for more than $5 trillion in spending cuts over the coming decade, including a plan to turn Medicare into a voucher-like program for future retirees, slash Medicaid by about $1 trillion over the coming decade, and repeal the "Obamacare" health law."
READ MORE related to POTUS45/Beltway: Much more than washing machines at stake in a trade case that could test Trump's agenda -- LA Times' DON LEE; Republicans once railed against deficits. Now President Trump's tax plan piles on more than $2 trillion in red ink -- LA Times' LISA MASCARO
Ride share apps will be able to continue avoiding fingerprint checks under a proposed regulation.
The Chronicle's CAROLYN SAID: "State regulators declined to require biometric background checks, such as fingerprints, for Lyft and Uber drivers, but plan to require annual checks, codifying something the companies already do."
"A proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission, which oversees ride-hailing companies, would require them to ensure that companies that conduct the commercial background checks are accredited by an industry association, and to provide proof of that to the CPUC, as well as proof of annual screenings."
"However the CPUC said it was declining to require biometric screening “after much consideration and public comment ... finding that doing so would not add a greater level of safety.”
READ MORE related to Transportation: More power for electric vehicles -- VU CHAU in Capitol Weekly
Are California voters warming up to school vouchers?
Sacramento Bee's CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO: "A majority of California voters favor offering tax credits or vouchers to low-income parents for sending their children to private or religious schools, according to a new statewide poll."
"Poll Director Mark DiCamillo, of UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies, said their views were shaped by the belief that low-income families have few choices when it comes to what schools their children can attend. The tax credits or vouchers would presumably expand their options and allow them to send their children to a private or religious school rather than a public school."
Mobile home owners selling their domiciles now have an opportunity to avoid back tax
Sacramento Bee's HUDSON SANGREE: "Nearly 21,000 families in the four-county Sacramento region, and about a half-million across California live in homes that are theoretically mobile."
"For many, buying a home that’s up on blocks is one of the last opportunities for single-family homeownership in a state with some of the highest housing costs in the nation."
An English author, Kazuo Ishiguro, has received the Nobel Prize in literature.
The Chronicle's JOHN MCMURTRIE: "English author Kazuo Ishiguro has won the Nobel Prize in literature."
"A popular novelist around the world, Ishiguro is best known for his 1989 novel “The Remains of the Day,” which won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and was adapted into the 1993 film starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson. The story is narrated by a devoted and repressed English butler who looks back on his career in a country manor and his relationship with a housekeeper."
