California takes on health giant Sutter over high costs
From Kaiser Healthline's CHAD TERHUNE and ANA B. IBARRA: "California’s attorney general sued Sutter Health, accusing the hospital giant of illegally quashing competition and for years overcharging consumers and employers."
"The lawsuit marked a bold move by state Attorney General Xavier Becerra against the dominant health care system in Northern California as concerns mount nationally about consolidation among hospitals, insurers and other industry middlemen."
“It’s time to hold health care corporations accountable,” Becerra said at a news conference Friday. “We seek to stop Sutter from continuing this illegal conduct.”
Some cities outsource their highest pension costs
Calpension's ED MENDEL: "Dozens of cities, many of them formed in recent decades, do not directly pay police and firefighter pension rates. They get their safety services though contracts with county sheriff departments and large fire districts."
"An example is Lake Forest, a community in Orange County formerly known as El Toro, which incorporated in 1991 and had a population of 77,264 in the last census. It’s one of the 14 cities listed by CalPERS as having a fully funded pension plan."
"The CalPERS employer contribution for Lake Forest’s non-safety or “miscellaneous” employees is not a heavy lift — 10.4 percent of pay for most employees next fiscal year and 7 percent of pay for employees hired after a cost-cutting state reform on Jan. 1, 2013."
CW Podcast: Mark DiCamillo
Capitol Weekly STAFF: "To anyone who follows California politics, Mark DiCamillo is a familiar name indeed. He directed the Field Poll for decades, and he now heads the Berkeley IGS Poll at the Institute for Governmental Studies at UC Berkeley."
"Mark recently penned a CA120 column about big changes in public polling, as pollsters confront a rapidly shifting technical landscape in which online surveying and other methods increasingly supplant traditional telephone calls — which were once the gold standard of opinion sampling."
"He sat down for the Capitol Weekly Podcast with John Howard and Tim Foster to talk about the latest trends in opinion surveying and how these may play out this election year."
Trump administration says a citizenship question on the census will help enforce voting rights. Sure.
LA Times's GEORGE SKELTON: "He went ahead and did it. Of course he did. Bashing California is way too much fun and easy for President Trump."
"California Democratic leaders shouldn't be shocked. Politically, they had it coming, proudly emerging as the president's chief antagonist while revving up their liberal and Latino bases."
"Not that Trump didn't deserve it. He has been feeding his political base by assailing California and immigrants in the country illegally since first running for president."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Trump pledges 'NO MORE' on deal for "Dreamers' -- The Chronicle's KATIE ROGERS; Advocates' advice for immigrants: If ICE knocks, don't open the door -- The Chronicle's HAMED ALEAZIZ
CA120: The hard truths about data
PAUL MITCHELL in Capitol Weekly: "It hasn’t been long since we learned of a presidential campaign that used personal information gleaned from Facebook apps to enhance voter files, and target voters and their friends with political messaging."
"This campaign was so sophisticated that they could identify people who would be swayed by particular messages, were more persuaded by messages about immigration, education, or health care, were likely or unlikely to vote, or even were likely to volunteer or donate money."
"Big databases were used to link this Facebook data to publicly available voter registration files and other public and private databases."
The Sierra Nevada snowpack will be 64% smaller by the end of this century. We need to prepare now
LA Times's ALEX HALL KATHARINE DAVID REICH: "Although recent storms have dumped heavy snow across the Sierra Nevada, Monday's snowpack measurement will almost certainly show that it is still well below average. Last week, the Sierra-wide reading put the total snowpack at 15.8 inches of water content, or 43% below normal."
"Here's an even more sobering reality. According to our new research, such spring snow measurements will be considered far above average in the decades to come."
"We have just completed detailed projections of the Sierra Nevada's future climate. Our findings tell the story of a snowpack on life support. If greenhouse gas emissions continue unchecked, by the end of this century, the Sierra snowpack in a typical April will be 64% smaller than it was at the end of the 20th century."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: New Yosemite leader Michael Reynolds faces challenges in valley he knows well -- The Chronicle's KURTIS ALEXANDER; Spring arrives for Los Vaqueros' nesting eagles -- The Chronicle's TOM STIENSTRA; In Idaho, a model for long-term groundwater recharge tastes sucess -- Water Deeply's MATT WEISER; Tracking ocean plastic pollution from space -- Oceans Deeply's MATTHEW O. BERGER
Trump's call for tariffs creating anxiety in the farm belt
AP's THOMAS BEAUMONT: "In Sioux County, where swine barns interrupt the vast landscape of corn-stubbled fields, exports of meat, grain and machinery fuel the local economy. And there's a palpable sense of unease that new Chinese tariffs pushed by President Donald Trump — who received more than 80 percent of the vote here in 2016 — could threaten residents' livelihood."
"The grumbling hardly signals a looming leftward lurch in this dominantly Republican region in northwest Iowa. But after standing with Trump through the many trials of his first year, some Sioux County Trump voters say they would be willing to walk away from the president if the fallout from the tariffs causes a lasting downturn in the farm economy."
"I wouldn't sit here today and say I will definitely support him again," said 60-year-old hog farmer Marv Van Den Top. "This here could be a real negative for him."
READ MORE related to Development & Economy: Could a tax incentive pry empty nesters from their oversize homes? -- The Chronicle's KATHLEEN PENDER; Groundbreaking for SF hotel marks milestone for Mission Bay -- The Chronicle's JK DINEEN; Clippers Foundation to donate $10M to renovate LA's basketball courts -- LA Times's MELISSA ETEHAD; China raises tariffs on US pork, fruit in trade dispute -- AP's JOE MCDONALD
With Stevante Clark's pain laid bare to the world, a family friend pleads for help
Sacramento Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "Stevante Clark's pain is naked for Sacramento – and suddenly, the world – to see."
"The brother of 22-year-old Stephon Clark has seemingly been everywhere in the days since his brother's death March 18 at the hands of police – one of the most visible and visceral symbols of a community's and a family's anguish."
"Stephon Clark was shot dead by Sacramento police in his grandparents' Meadowview backyard two weeks ago Sunday. In words raw with emotion at a downtown Sacramento rally Saturday for his brother and a call for unity, a family friend tried to explain why Stevante Clark is hurting."
READ MORE related to Stephon Clark Shooting: Signs of progress emerge as Sacramento protests over Stephon Clark's killing remain tense -- WaPo's ROB KUZNIA/SAWSAN MORRAR; What you should know about protester hit by a sheriff's SUV at a Stephon Clark march -- Sacramento Bee's ELLEN GARRISON/ANITA CHABRIA/RYAN LILLIS
Here's why pot sellers are paying prime rents for warehouse and storefront space
LA Times's ROGER VINCENT: "Growing up in Minnesota, Stephanie Smith dreamed of being a golf pro. Instead, the mother of five who lives in Pacific Palisades has ended up in the unlikeliest of trades."
"She claims to be one of the largest marijuana-industry landlords in the state in a business that is growing chaotically as cities begin to allow recreational pot sales after passage of Proposition 64 two years ago."
So who could be the next LA schools superintendent?
LA Times's HOWARD BLUME: "The search for the next superintendent to lead Los Angeles' public schools moves into high gear this week as the school board starts to interview and discuss candidates Monday and Tuesday."
"The process is confidential, and it's not clear that anyone has the inside track. Still, advocates who have influence with L.A. Unified's elected Board of Education are pushing certain names."
"The decision will hinge in large measure on what the board views as the most pressing challenge for the nation's second-largest school system: lagging student achievement or looming financial pressures."
Meet Cali, California's new deputy first dog
Sacramento Bee's TARYN LUNA: "While you were away, Gov. Jerry Brownannounced the appointment of his new pup, Cali Brown, as deputy first dog."
"The 2-month-old Standard Poodle and Border Collie mix will "assist First Dog Colusa Brownin herding staff at the State Capitol and will lend a paw around the family ranch in Colusa County," according to Brown's press office."
"Cali joins the Brown family more than a year after Sutter Brown, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi given to Brown by his sister, passed away after battling cancer. Brown and his wife, Anne Gust Brown, promoted Colusa, a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and Border Collie mix, to first dog after losing Sutter. The dogs have provided a rare public glimpse of the 79-year-old (he turns 80 on Saturday) governor's softer side."
READ MORE related to Prisons & Public Safety: Cal Fire's new helicopters cost twice as much as the Legislature expected -- Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON
Bill Cosby faces his retrial in the #MeToo era
LA Times's VERA HALLER: "When Bill Cosby's sexual assault retrial opens with jury selection Monday, two major factors will be at play that were absent at his first trial, which ended in a mistrial when jurors failed to reach a verdict on whether he had drugged and molested a woman 14 years ago."
"At his first trial in June, prosecutors were limited to calling one additional woman who alleged abuse. This time, jurors will hear from five who say they were similarly abused by Cosby, the 80-year-old actor once known as "America's dad" for his portrayal of a fatherly doctor on TV's "The Cosby Show."
"The other big change is the rise of the #MeToo movement, which exploded in October — months after Cosby's first trial ended — drawing attention to women's accounts of sexual abuse and harassment by men in power, such as movie mogul Harvey Weinstein."
At a turning point, Trump is increasingly defiant, impatient and calling his own shots
WaPo's PHILIP RUCKER/ROBERT COSTA: "President Donald Trump began the past workweek cutting into steaks at the White House residence on Monday night with his political soldiers, including former advisers Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie, strategist Brad Parscale, and son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner."
"He ended it dining on the gilded patio of his Mar-a-Lago estate with eccentric boxing promoter Don King, who said he vented to the president about the Stormy Daniels saga. "It's just utterly ridiculous," King said he told a nodding Trump on Thursday evening as the president began his holiday weekend in Palm Beach, Florida."
"Nowhere to be seen was John Kelly, the beleaguered White House chief of staff and overall disciplinarian - nor were the handful of advisers regarded as moderating forces eager to restrain the president from acting impulsively, who have resigned or been fired."
READ MORE related to POTUS45/KremlinGate: Trump shuts up about Stormy Daniels. It's doing him good -- The Chronicle's WILLIE BROWN; Trump proposed Putin visit Washington in March 20 phone call, Kremlin says -- WaPo STAFF; 'Fat Leonard' affected Pentagon's pick to lead Joint Chiefs -- WaPo's CRAIG WHITLOCK
