Inside a secret 2014 list of hundreds of L.A. deputies with histories of misconduct
LA Times' MAYA LAU/BEN POSTON/CORINA KNOLL: "It was a critical piece of evidence: an inmate’s shirt, bloodied from a jailhouse brawl.
"When it went missing, Deputy Jose Ovalle had an idea."
"He picked out a similar shirt, doused it with taco sauce and snapped a photograph, which was booked into evidence with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, law enforcement records show."
READ MORE related to Public Safety & Law Enforcement: Santa Clara County correctional deputy arrested for relationship with minor -- The Chronicle's SARAH RAVANI
'These things add up.' Could recurring problems compromise safety of California dams?
Sacramento Bee's RYAN SABALOW/DALE KASLER: "When it comes to inspecting dams, California is second to none. A panel of national experts examined the state’s Division of Safety of Dams last year and declared it tops in the field, citing inspectors’ knack for flagging small problems before they turn serious."
"Getting dam owners to fix those flaws quickly is another matter."
"A Sacramento Bee investigation prompted by the nearly catastrophic failure of Oroville Dam’s flood-control spillway in February found that owners of some of California’s most important dams – those whose failure could cause residents downstream to lose their lives – often allow deficiencies to linger for years – even though these shortcomings get cited repeatedly in annual inspection reports."
READ MORE related to Environment: See the inspection reports for important California dams in your region -- Sacramento Bee's NATHANIEL LEVINE; Abalone diving banned next year to protect population on brink of collapse -- The Chronicle's TARA DUGGAN
Hunting down the 'ghost boats'
CHRIS AUSTIN in Capitol Weekly: "They lie washed up on the side of levees, they sit silently moored in the quiet sloughs of the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, sometimes drifting aimlessly down the middle of the waterways. There are hundreds of these abandoned recreational watercraft and commercial vessels in the Delta, and some of them have been slowly wasting away for 60 years or more. Many pose a danger to navigation and the environment."
"Ground zero is the Delta and the Bay, but this is a statewide problem,” Mitch Goode of the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) told a meeting of the Delta Protection Commission. “San Diego, Moss Landing, Morro Bay – everybody’s dealing with it."
READ MORE in Capitol Weekly, an OP-ED: June ballot's ACA1 a recipe for Capitol gridlock -- CHRIS CHAVEZ, Coalition for Clean Air.
Elite thoroughbred race horses killed in California wildfire
AP's ANDREW DALTON/JULIE WATSON: "Hundreds of elite thoroughbred race horses sprinted away from flames Thursday as one of California's major wildfires tore through a training center in San Diego County."
"Not all made it."
"There was no official count of how many animals were killed in the hazy confusion as both horses and humans evacuated, but trainers at San Luis Rey Downs estimated that at least a dozen had died, possibly far more."
READ MORE related to The West is Burning: Fire crews from Bay Area, beyond leap into battle against blazes in LA area -- The Chronicle's STEVE RUBENSTEIN/KEVIN FAGAN; 'We're not out of the woods yet': Some Skirball fire evacuation orders lifted after fire destroys 6 Bel-Air homes, burns 475 acres -- Daily News OLGA GRIGORYANTS/SANDY MAZZA; Here's the impact of Southern California's major wildfires in LA Ventura, Riverside and San Diego counties -- Daily News' RYAN FONSECA; As winds kick up again, tall flames menace communities far and wide -- LA Times' LOUIS SAHAGUN/SARAH PARVINI/RUBEN VIVES/JACLYN COSGROVE; Photos: Otherworldly scenes unfold as Thomas fire burns into the night -- LA Times; Interactive map: Southern California wildfires -- The Chronicle; PG&E prepared for Wine Country windstorm days in advance of fires, memo shows -- The Chronicle's DAVID R. BAKER
US employers add 228,000 jobs, unemployment rate stays 4.1 pct.
AP's CHRISTOPHER RUGABER: "U.S. employers added a robust 228,000 jobs in November, a sign of the job market’s enduring strength in its ninth year of economic recovery."
"The Labor Department says the unemployment rate remained at a 17-year low of 4.1 percent."
"The economy is expanding at a healthy pace, and in many cases employers are scrambling to hire enough qualified workers. Over the past six months, growth has exceeded an annual rate of 3 percent, the first time that’s happened since 2014. Consumer confidence has reached its highest level since 2000."
Why Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem is a big deal
The Boston Globe's MARTIN FINUCANE: "Here’s a look at why President Trump’s decision Wednesday to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is big news:"
"The debate over Jerusalem is a part of the larger debate over Israeli-Palestinian peace"
"The fate of Jerusalem has been one of the key issues in the larger conflict between the Israelis and Palestinians, which has been going on for decades. The Israelis say all of Jerusalem is their capital, including East Jerusalem, which Israel seized from Jordanian control in 1967. Palestinians want East Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state. Countries around the world have refused to recognize the hotly contested city as the Israeli capital. Now the United States has become the first country to do so."
Sacramento student bus fares are among the nation's highest. That could change soon.
Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK: "Sacramento’s main bus and light rail agency is proposing to drastically reduce student fares next month in hopes of boosting long-sagging ridership, especially among teens."
"The Regional Transit board on Monday will consider cutting the price of student passes from $55 per month to $20. Low-income students, who currently receive a discounted pass for $30 a month as part of the school free lunch program, also would see their monthly cost drop to $20 under the proposal. The passes are typically sold in half-month intervals."
"The new fares, if approved, would go into effect Jan. 1. They are considered a test, however, and are scheduled to last for only six months. If student ridership numbers increase enough, agency officials said they will consider making the lower fares permanent."
READ MORE related to Transportation: California looks at dumping gas tax for per-mile fee as cars use less fuel -- Sacramento Bee's TONY BIZJAK
Roy Moore slams America, says 'maybe Putin is right'
HuffPo's ED MAZZA: "Roy Moore, the Republican candidate from Alabama vying for the U.S. Senate, once slammed the United States for promoting “a lot of bad things,” and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin."
"In an interview over the summer that’s getting renewed attention this week, The Guardian quoted President Ronald Reagan as once calling the Soviet Union “the focus of evil in the modern world.” Reagan made the comment during his “evil empire” speech in 1983."
"You could say that very well about America, couldn’t you?” Moore said. “We promote a lot of bad things."
READ MOORE: Roy Moore once said the last time America was great was 'when we had slavery' -- Law & Crime's COLIN KALMBACHER
The 19 women who have accused Donald J. Trump of sexual misconduct
The Atlantic's MATT FORD: "It’s been two months since the reckoning began. In early October, The New York Times and The New Yorker first published the alarming accounts of women who said they’d been assaulted by Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein. Rare is the day since then that women, and some men, haven’t come forward with accounts of sexual misconduct from famous and not-so-famous men alike."
"Lurking in the background of the roiling debate about harassment and assault in American society are the allegations made against President Trump by at least 19 women, many of whom came forward after the release of the Access Hollywood tape in October 2016. Trump vociferously denies any wrongdoing. “Is the official White House position that all of these women are lying?” a reporter asked Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, in late October. “Yeah, we’ve been clear on that from the beginning, and the president’s spoken on it,” Sanders replied."
"Some of the women’s stories date back to the 1980s when Trump’s personal relationships were fixtures of the New York City tabloids; others begin after he returned to the public eye with his NBC series The Apprentice. Their accounts describe a wide range of alleged behavior, including lewd remarks, overt harassment, groping, and sexual assault. One woman, Summer Zervos, is currently suing the president for defamation after he repeatedly called her and the others liars. What follows are details from each accuser—listed alphabetically—and the president’s corresponding defense."
READ MORE related to Boy's Club/#MeToo: Now that Al Franken is gone, Democrats need to hold hearings on Trump -- The Nation's JOAN WALSH; House Ethics Committee opens new investigation into Rep. Farenthold over harassment allegations -- Townhall's LAURETTA BROWN; Is flirting sexual harassment? -- National Review's MONA CHAREN; Does innocent until proven guilty still matter in the age of #MeToo? -- Sacramento Bee's MARCOS BRETON; In Franken's fall, sudden Senate pickup chance for GOP -- AP's KYLE POTTER/THOMAS BEAUMONT
People can't stop reading a professor's theory of a Trump-Russia conspiracy -- true or not.
WaPo's AVI SELK: "As Seth Abramson tells it, Donald Trump’s alleged collusion with the Russian government is not in doubt, not hard to understand and happens to read like a crime thriller."
"The University of New Hampshire professor has become virally popular by reframing a complex tangle of public reporting on the Russia scandal into a story so simple it can be laid out in daily tweets — and so dramatic his fans can’t stop reading, even if critics point out the plot holes."
"It goes, in short, like this:"
READ MORE related to KremlinGate: WikiLeaks faces four US probes into its 2016 election role and CIA leaks: sources -- Reuters' MARK HOSENBALL; (VIDEO) Russian media report confirms cyber attack on US election -- MSNBC's RACHEL MADDOW; (VIDEO) Republican plot to discredit SCO's Robert Mueller -- MSNBC's CHRIS HAYES
Collins considers changing vote on tax bill over amendments
The Hill's JOSH DELK: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Thursday that she may change her vote on the final version of the GOP tax reform bill if her proposed amendments are not included in its final version. "
"I would. I'm going to look at what comes out of the conference committee meeting to reconcile the differences between the Senate and House Bill. So I won't make a final decision until I see what that package is," Collins told CBS WABI 5 when asked if she would consider changing her vote."
"The House and Senate are currently in conference working out the differences between their two bills, and could include unique provisions from both in the final version."
READ MORE related to Death & Taxes: 'Evil' tax cuts? Nope, it's blue-state panic -- National Review's HEATHER WILHELM; Pelosi, Schumer lay out demands in White House talks over spending bill -- The Chronicle's CAROLYN LOCHHEAD
U.K., EU claim Brexit breakthrough; eye talks on future ties
AP: "Britain and the European Union hammered out a deal early Friday that allows Brexit talks to finally move on to the all-important issues of trade and the future relationship between the two. But some of the details appeared contradictory and many of the toughest issues remained unresolved."
"The last stumbling block had involved the border between Ireland — an EU member — and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom. After Britain leaves the EU, that will be the only land border between the two."
"The Northern Ireland party that has been holding up a deal now says it is satisfied. Negotiators also reached broad agreement on the rights of British citizens in EU countries and EU nationals in the U.K., as well as on Britain’s future financial obligations to the European Union."
The territories and states devastated by the recent spate of natural disasters are still in desparate need of aid. Here's how you can help.
--
The Roundup is compiled by Associate Editor Geoff Howard. Questions? Comments? Feedback? Email him at geoff@capitolweekly.net
