Democrats running for governor face off in San Francisco over health care, charter schools
LA Times' PHIL WILLON/SEEMA MEHTA: "Reeflecting a growing divide among California Democrats on single-payer healthcare and charter schools, California gubernatorial candidates landed on separate sides of those issues during a candidate forum in San Francisco Tuesday."
"The most heated exchange came in a clash between former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom over how to pay for a universal healthcare system that would cover all Californians and dramatically reshape medical coverage in the state."
Senate votes to kill new rule allowing class-action lawsuits against banks after Pence casts deciding vote
LA Times' JIM PUZZANGHERA: "The Senate voted Tuesday night to kill a controversial rule that would have allowed Americans to file class-action suits against banks instead of being forced in many cases into private arbitration."
"The move by the Senate followed a similar action by the House in July to rescind the rule. President Trump is expected to sign the repeal legislation, providing a major victory for the financial industry."
Suicide, investigation and a lawsuit follow booze-fueled UC Davis ag school retreat
Sacramento Bee's SAM STANTON/DIANA LAMBERT: "It was supposed to be a two-day retreat to Monterey, a chance for a small group of employees in UC Davis’ agriculture college to bond and tour a lettuce-growing operation in nearby Salinas."
"Instead, the event turned into an alcohol-fueled bender that one participant later likened to a “booze cruise” at the Intercontinental Hotel on Cannery Row, a hotel so expensive that some staffers were asked to share beds in their rooms with co-workers."
"One manager was accused of stripping naked and asking underlings to join him in a bathtub. Two others admitted they began drinking vodka and cranberry juice on the morning car ride down to Monterey while singing along to the movie “Footloose.”
California Republicans walking 'tough tightrope' on Trump headed into 2018
Sacramento Bee's ANGELA HART: "When Republican Rep. Ed Royce signed onto a bipartisan bill in Congress to ban bump stocks following the Oct. 1 shooting massacre in Las Vegas, it bothered Ryan Hoskins, a 27-year-old Yorba Linda resident and events director for Cal State Fullerton College Republicans."
"Hoskins, a constituent of Royce, saw it as counterproductive to advancing the Republican agenda in Washington, and a snub to President Donald Trump, who declined to discuss stronger gun control measures in the wake of the Vegas shooting."
“We need to pressure all Republicans in Congress to start working with President Trump to pass his legislative reforms...that includes Ed Royce,” Hoskins said. “We don’t want to lose our majority."
Voters like Brown, Feinstein, but also seek change
NIK BONOVICH in Capitol Weekly: "California is a solid Democratic state, Republicans in the foreseeable future have little chance of winning a statewide office, and Democratic icons Jerry Brown and Dianne Feinstein are viewed more positively than negatively."
"But voters still want change."
"Brown, 79, in an unprecedented fourth term, is termed out, so change will come. Feinstein, 84, is facing one of her toughest electoral challenges in more than 20 years, since she defeated Michael Huffington in a close 1994 Senate election."
READ MORE from Capitol Weekly: Judge tosses out $147M verdict in cancer case -- MYRON LEVIN in CW
California community college tuition still the lowest nationally; UC above average, study finds
EdSource's LARRY GORDON: "While California continues to have the lowest community college tuition in the county, the costs for UC rank above the average of other research universities, a new report shows."
"Listed at $1,430 for a full-time student, the tuition and fees for California’s community colleges are the lowest nationwide in 2017-18, as they have been for years, according to the study by the College Board. That annual price, before being adjusted for financial aid, is less than half the $3,570 national average, the survey found."
"California’s ranking as having the least expensive community colleges was not affected by plans in other states like Tennessee and New York that offer free college tuition in various forms and durations. The College Board noted that those states still establish a tuition level and that their programs are partly dependent on federal aid or cut off the grants for higher income students. California Gov. Jerry Brown last week signed a law that could make the first year of community college free to all if funding is allocated and the schools adopts key reforms. "
Back in the Beltway, few in Washington are saying #MeToo. California congresswomen want to change that.
McClatchyDC's EMILY CADEI: "The nation's capital has been MIA from the #MeToo moment."
"Actresses, athletes, media personalities and state lawmakers around the country continue to go public with their stories of sexual harassment. On Capitol Hill, there’s been mostly silence."
"Many female lawmakers have tweeted about #MeToo in recent days, but their spokespeople say they were using the tag to show their solidarity with harassment victims, not to signal they, too, have been harassed. Just four women senators participated in an Oct. 22 Meet the Press segment on NBC that asked them to share their #MeToo stories. None of the incidents related by Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., or Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, occurred in Washington."
READ MORE related to #MeToo: Actress Heather Lind accuses George H.W. Bush of groping her -- AP
Bay Area heavyweights form coalition for fire relief, benefit concert with Metallica
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI/PETER HARTLAUB: "A coalition of Bay Area business and community leaders have joined forces to organize a major fundraising campaign supporting recovery efforts for the recent firestorm that swept through Northern California, kick-started by a concert featuring Metallica, G-Eazy and Dave Matthews at AT&T Park scheduled for Nov. 9."
"The group, which calls itself Band Together Bay Area, has collected $6.5 million, and hopes to raise much more for short, intermediate and long-term relief for low-income families, immigrants and other North Bay fire victims."
'Let's fix it.' Hundreds attend EG town hall after hate note targets black salon
Sacramento Bee's ELLEN GARRISON: "Sharie Wilson arrived one morning last month at her Elk Grove hair salon to find a note telling her that a “hunt” was “coming soon” and referring to African Americans with a nasty slur."
"Despite that, Wilson said Monday she is willing to give people the benefit of the doubt. Sometimes she doesn’t see racist acts as evil."
"And I want to do this out of love because I don’t believe that everyone really understands that when they do racial acts, that it’s a racial act,” she told more than 200 fellow residents at a city-organized forum on race. “I really don’t think so. And I think sometimes it’s ignorance. Sometimes they just don’t know any better. So I really want this conversation to really be out of love, you guys. And let’s fix it.”
Winter shelter for homeless gets city approval, but key part of controversial plan is delayed
Sacramento Bee's RYAN LILLIS: "The Sacramento City Council approved a controversial proposal Tuesday night to open a 200-bed winter homeless shelter near Del Paso Boulevard in North Sacramento."
"After more than two hours of public testimony and City Council debate, the council voted unanimously to spend $997,000 to lease a warehouse at 1900 Railroad Drive for a shelter that will operate from December to April. The city will partner with Volunteers of America to operate the 24/7 shelter and provide services to the homeless."
"The council also approved funding for two existing homeless shelters in the River District north of downtown and a shelter serving young people in Oak Park."
Lake County rampage started with gunman killing his father, authorities say
The Chronicle's SARA RAVANI: "One of the two people fatally gunned down in a rampage Monday in the Lake County town of Clearlake Oaks was the 85-year-old father of the gunman, who also shot and wounded a woman and a California Highway Patrol officer, authorities said Tuesday."
"Investigators have yet to determine why 61-year-old Alan Ashmore went on the deadly shooting spree, but said it started just after 11 a.m. at the home of his father, Douglas Ashmore."
"Alan Ashmore fatally shot his dad with a semiautomatic handgun outside the elderly man’s home in the 13000 block of Anchor Village in the Clear Lake Keys area of Clearlake Oaks, said Lt. Norm Taylor of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. The suspect also shot a 22-year-old Middletown woman in the foot during an argument inside the house, Taylor said."
Clinton camp helped fund Trump dossier research, source says
AP: "Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee helped fund political research into President Trump that ultimately produced a dossier of allegations about his ties to Russia, a person familiar with the matter said Tuesday night."
"The revelation is likely to fuel complaints by Trump that the dossier, which the president has derided as "phony stuff," is a politically motivated collection of salacious claims. Yet the FBI has worked to corroborate the document, and in a sign of its ongoing relevance to investigators, special counsel Robert Mueller's team — which is probing potential coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign — weeks ago questioned the former British spy, Christopher Steele, who helped compile the claims in the dossier."
Trump administration announces new vetting rules for refugee admissions
LA Times' JAWEED KALEEM: "The Trump administration said it would resume admitting refugees to the U.S. after the expiration Tuesday of a four-month ban on all resettlement but increase vetting, and announced a new partial ban on refugees from 11 countries."
"The new vetting rules, which would apply to all new refugees admitted under a 45,000 per year cap that became effective Oct. 1, could slow the refugee approval process and halt admission for certain groups, according to resettlement groups and government officials."
"Department of Homeland Security and State Departmentofficials would not give details about exact changes in vetting — which currently takes years for many refugees — or name the 11 “higher-risk nationalities” whose refugees would be subject to “case-by-case” approval."
Sentencing to begin in Bowe Bergdahl's court-martial
LA Times' JENNY JARVIE: "The puzzling saga of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, who abandoned his command post in Afghanistan eight years ago and was swiftly taken captive by the Taliban, draws closer to an end this week as a military judge decides his punishment."
"The 31-year-old from Hailey, Idaho, pleaded guilty last week to two charges: walking off his combat outpost in Afghanistan in 2009 and endangering the lives of his fellow troops. It was a “naked plea,” meaning he reached no deal with prosecutors to limit his punishment."
