Over 15,000 UC health care workers could soon go on strike -- here's what we know
Sacramento Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "AFSCME Local 3299 announced Thursday morning that the 15,000 patient-care technical workers in its ranks voted to authorize a strike against the University of California after reaching a deadlock in labor contract negotiations."
"The strike vote received approval from 96 percent of AFSCME 3299 members, AFSCME leaders said, and the patient-care workers will be joined on the picket line by 9,000 employees in AFSCME’s service unit and 15,000 members of the UPTE-CWA union, who voted to join in solidarity."
California has 11 ballot measures to consider. These short videos will help you decide
Sacramento Bee's DAN SMITH: "Voting has started for the Nov. 6 election, and Californians face a long list of candidates for state and local offices — and 11 ballot measures on issues ranging from rent control to farm animals to daylight saving time."
"Watch these brief videos to learn what each does, how much each costs taxpayers and consumers and who’s for and against them."
State energy board adds new fee to customers of services like CleanPowerSF
The Chronicle's DOMINIC FRACASSA: "The expansion of San Francisco’s CleanPowerSF program could be scaled back after state energy regulators on Thursday decided to raise the fees customers pay when joining the program."
"The California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously to adjust an arcane formula that determines the so-called exit fees customers pay when they leave investor-owned utilities like Pacific Gas & Electric Co. in favor of government-run power programs like CleanPowerSF."
"For the average residential CleanPowerSF customer, the adjustment will increase their monthly bills by roughly 8 percent — or $5.08. The program’s 108,000 participants, including business customers, will together pay $40 million more per year following the state PUC’s decision, about 25 percent of CleanPowerSF’s annual revenues. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission plans to take steps to reduce what customers actually pay."
READ MORE related to Energy & Environment: Farms, food producers taking strides to save water -- and the climate -- Water Deeply's KIRSTEN JAMES
Trump defies California senators with 9th Circuit judge nominations
McClatchy DC's EMILY CADEI/KATE IRBY: "After months of negotiations and delays, the White House is moving to fill California’s three vacancies on the influential 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — over the strenuous objections of the state’s two Democratic senators."
"White House officials had been negotiating with Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris, both of whom sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, earlier in the year about filling these and other federal court vacancies in the state. But that dialogue collapsed this past summer, Senate aides said."
"On Wednesday night, the Trump administration announced it was nominating three attorneys to the Ninth Circuit, the largest and busiest federal appeals court in the country. Among the thorny issues the court has tackled or could decide on are the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program for undocumented young people brought to the country as children,the president’s travel ban on people from several Muslim-majority countries, and a lawsuit challenging the White House’s attempts to withhold federal funds from sanctuary cities."
California state worker union accepts contract with 10 percent pay hike
Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "A small California state employee union decided on Thursday that a contract with two more consecutive years of 5 percent raiseswas too good to pass up in the waning months of Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration."
"The California Association of Professional Scientists approved the contract by a vote of 802 to 339. It will give about 3,400 state scientists a 5 percent raise on July 1, 2019 and another 5 percent raise on July 1, 2020."
"State scientists have received a 5 percent general wage increase each year since 2016. A state salary survey that year reported that the state’s total compensation for environmental scientists was 34 percent below what their peers could earn in the private sector and 26 percent below what they could make working for the federal government."
Californians have new privacy protections. Google wants Republicans to weaken them.
McClatchy DC's EMILY CADEI: "Two weeks ago, the nation’s tech titans came to Washington to urge Congress to pass legislation that would override the data privacy law California’s legislature passed in June. On Wednesday, privacy advocates got their chance to push back."
"We understand this committee is considering a national standard for data privacy, but we implore you not to weaken or undo the safeguards (the new California law) has so recently put in place, which now cover 40 million Americans,” said Alastair Mactaggart, the wealthy Northern California real estate developer who spearheaded the campaign to enact the California Consumer Privacy Act."
"Other like-minded academics and policymakers echoed Mactaggart’s pleas to senators on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee."
$700 a year? Less than $10 a month? We analyze how much California's gas tax increase really costs you
Sacramento Bee's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "Two recent television ads illuminate the sharp contrasts in campaign approaches to Proposition 6, the effort to repeal fuel tax and vehicle fee hikes on the November ballot."
"The no side argues a numbers-heavy case that the measure represents an “attack” on road and bridge repair work. The proponents make an emotional appeal that these increases are simply too expensive for Californians to bear."
READ MORE related to Transportation: Gas prices jump 20 cents last month. Here's where to buy cheap gas -- Sacramento Bee's VINCENT MOLESKI; California agency fines BART $1.3M over track worker deaths -- The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN; Major projects at risk if voters kill California gas tax hike, officials say -- The Chronicle's RACHEL SWAN
Obituary: Former lawmaker Tom Hannigan
Capitol Weekly's JOHN HOWARD: "Tom Hannigan, formerly a major legislative leader, director of California’s Department of Water Resources and an avid marathon runner, has died of natural causes. He was 78."
"Hannigan, a Marine Corps veteran who fought in the Vietnam war, is the father of Solano County Supervisor Erin Hannigan, who announced his death on her Facebook page."
"The tall, quiet, self-effacing Hannigan, a Democrat, was a key lawmaker in the state Capitol, serving four years as chair of the powerful Assembly Revenue and Taxation Committee. He then served as majority leader, the No. 2 position under then-Speaker Willie Brown. The latter move, engineered by Brown, caught people by surprise"
READ MORE related to Tom Hannigan: Former California legislator Tom Hannigan dies -- The Tribune's ANDREW SHEELER
Devin Nunes is attacking his district's newspaper before the midterm election. It's a page from Trump's playbook
LA Times's JAZMINE ULLOA: "For years, Rep. Devin Nunes and the Fresno Bee got along just fine. But now, facing his first serious election challenge in years, the Central Valley congressman is on the attack — not against his Democratic opponent, but his district’s largest newspaper and what he calls its “band of creeping correspondents."
"The Republican from Tulare is bashing the Fresno Bee in TV and radio ads and a glossy, 40-page mailer after the newspaper angered him with harsh editorials and less-than-flattering news stories. In one ad, he looks into a camera and accuses the paper — which had endorsed him in the last eight elections — of “working with radical left-wing groups to promote fake news stories."
San Diego will appeal costly pension ruling to SCOTUS, citing former mayor's free-speech rights
LA Times's DAVID GARRICK: "San Diego will make one last legal attempt to keep the city’s 6-year-old pension cuts in place by filing an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court on 1st Amendment free-speech grounds."
"The City Council voted 8 to 1 this week in a session closed to the public to file the federal appeal, which could overturn a state Supreme Court decision in August ruling that the pension cuts were not legally placed on the ballot in 2012."
So many people have had their DNA sequenced that they've put other people's privacy in jeopardy
LA Times's DEBORAH NETBURN: "Everyone’s DNA sequence is unique. But for those who wish to maintain their genetic privacy, it may not be unique enough."
"A new study argues that more than half of Americanscould be identified by name if all you had to start with was a sample of their DNA and a few basic facts, such as where they live and how about how old they might be."
"It wouldn’t be simple, and it wouldn’t be cheap. But the fact that it has become doable will force all of us to rethink the meaning of privacy in the DNA age, experts said."
Former inmate sues Alameda County Sheriff's Office deputies for alleged 'gassing'
Daily Californian's JENNY WENG: "A former Santa Rita Jail inmate filed a lawsuit Monday alleging that the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office and four former deputies had repeatedly assaulted him with feces and urine and broke his arm."
"Fernando Miguel Soria accused the deputies of excessive force, denial of medical attention and a conspiracy to violate his civil rights."
"Soria spoke about the matter in a press conference Tuesday outside the Alameda County courthouse in Downtown Oakland. He said he had been sprayed with human waste — known as “gassing” — about seven to eight times from September to November 2016 but is not sure why he was targeted."
Teacher who recounted Trump aide eating glue as a child is suspended
LA Times's HOWARD BLUME: "A teacher who recounted how a senior aide to President Trump ate glue as a third-grader is in trouble with her employers."
"The Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District has placed veteran teacher Nikki Fiske on “home assignment” while it decides what to do, if anything, about disclosures she made about a young Stephen Miller."
"Miller, 33, has grown up to be a senior advisor to Trump. But his prospects did not appear so promising to Fiske when Miller was a student in her classroom at Franklin Elementary School."
Turks tell US officials they have audio and video recordings that support conclusion Khashoggi was killed
LA TImes's SHANE HARRIS/SQUAD MEKHENNET/JOHN HUDSON/ANNE GEARAN: "The Turkish government has told U.S. officials that it has audio and video recordings that prove Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul this month, according to U.S. and Turkish officials."
"The recordings show that a Saudi security team detained Khashoggi in the consulate after he walked in on Oct. 2 to obtain an official document before his upcoming wedding, then killed him and dismembered his body, the officials said."
