Documents show attorneys, journalists and advocates among those monitored by U.S. border officials
From the Union-Tribune's KATE MORRISSEY: "Documents published Wednesday indicate that the federal government has monitored a group of journalists, attorneys, advocates and activists who interacted with a migrant caravan that arrived in Tijuana late last year."
"As recently as a week ago, an attorney with Al Otro Lado, a legal services organization that has been supporting migrants in Tijuana, was stopped when trying to enter Mexico in what some believe is targeting of people who either worked with the caravan or covered the story of its journey to the border."
"NBC7 in San Diego
published leaked
documents Wednesday indicating that the U.S. government has kept dossiers on a group of 59
advocates, activists,
attorneys and journalists it is investigating in relation to the migrant caravan that arrived in Tijuana in November. Many of those in the dossier appeared in previous articles by
The San Diego Union-Tribune, the
Los Angeles Times and
The Intercept talking of frequent interrogations at the border or being denied entry to Mexico."
READ MORE on surveillance: Source: Leaked Documents Show the U.S. Government Tracking Journalists and Immigration Advocates Through a Secret Database -- TOM JONES, MARI PAYTON and BILL FEATHER
State workers’ hoarding of vacation days builds up a $3.5-billion debt for taxpayers
From the LAT's MELODY GUTIERREZ: "After 36 years as a California government transportation engineer, Bijan Sartipi retired with much more than a goodbye party: He was paid $405,000 for time off he never used — one of more than 450 state workers who took home six-figure checks when they left their jobs last year."
"And Sartipi didn’t top the list — a prison surgeon in Riverside pocketed $456,002."
"In a trend that stems from lax enforcement of the state’s cap on vacation accrual, more and more state workers are able to retire with massive payouts for unused vacation and other leave. That could become a budget breaker for California as an aging workforce heads into retirement. During the next recession, California will be obligated to continue the payouts, forcing lawmakers to cut programs to balance the state budget."
Sacramento officers who shot Stephon Clark give their side of the story
Sacramento Bee's SAM STANTON: "When Terrence Mercadal came around a corner and into that dark Meadowview backyard last March 18, he was stunned to see a suspect he’d been chasing pointing his hands at him like he was ready to shoot him."
"When I come around the corner – the corner of the house – I - I left cover and I look and I see that same subject with his hoodie and sweatshirt pulled up and his arms pointed out extended like this,” the Sacramento police officer said less than seven hours after he and his partner shot Stephon Clark to death."
"“At which time I looked and based on the light coming off of my - my tactical light –it appeared I thought that he had already shot at me because I saw what I believed to be a metallic reflection or muzzle flash – something coming at me,” he said. “So I - I was scared. I thought that he had shot at me. I think I remember yelling, ‘Gun,’ and I ducked back behind the corner of the house for cover."
READ MORE on Stephon Clark: Stephon Clark protests: More security this week for Kings games, concert at Golden 1 Center -- SacBee's DALE KASLER; Was police response to East Sacramento Stephon Clark protest an attempt to protect the rich? -- RYAN SABALOW, SAM STANTON and MICHAEL FINCH II, Sac Bee; 1872 law gives police a license to kill -- DAN WALTERS, CALmatters.
Fake agent's story unravels when he pulls over real agent, Calif. cops say
Sacramento Bee' s JARED GILMOUR: "A California man was arrested last weekend after authorities said he pretended to be a federal drug agent — and pulled over an actual federal officer while faking it."
"It was that traffic stop on Christmas Eve that triggered a broader investigation into 49-year-old Alex E. Taylor, which revealed the federal agent he stopped was far from the only victim, according to a complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California."
"Agents arrested Taylor on Saturday and raided his San Jose home, seizing an imitation DEA badge, a Volkswagen Jetta tricked out with police-style lights, handcuffs, methamphetamine and a fake concealed weapons badge, Drug Enforcement Administration agents said in a news release on Tuesday announcing Taylor’s arrest."
Is ballot harvesting legal in California? Yes, and that worries some Republicans
From JEFF HORSEMAN, OC Register: "Three years ago, a state law made it easier for Californians to have someone else collect and drop off their absentee ballot."
"Doing this on a mass scale became known as ballot harvesting. And in recent months many conservative politicians and their advisers have suggested the practice – not Democratic voter enthusiasm nor a public backlash against President Donald Trump – is the reason Republicans lost ground federally and in Sacramento in the November midterms."
"Now, Rep. Ken Calvert, R-Corona has sent Riverside County’s Registrar of Voters a letter saying ballot harvesting is “ripe for fraud,” and posing a list of 27 questions about ballot harvesting that he says remain unanswered."
In Camp Fire aftermath, Butte County assessor’s office hustling over reviews for revised bills
From the E-R's LAURA URSENY: "Butte County Assessor Diane Brown says there may be confusion over property taxes for Camp Fire victims, and she encourages property owners to call or check her website if there are questions."
"Property taxes are due on the value of property before the Camp Fire, and then on bare land after, although appraisers are still making their way through damaged areas. Appraisers through the Assessor’s Office — including Assessor Brown and her assistant — have been on the streets, visiting parcels in Paradise to make revisions and passing those on to the tax office. They’re looking into calamity claims, which is property “substantially damaged by the fire.”
"Property owners get a tax break under calamity circumstances, which is when property is damaged by “something that’s not their fault,” Brown explained."
FBI report shows fewer murders in California last year. See the trend in your city
Sacramento Bee's PHILLIP REESE: "California’s largest cities saw fewer murders and violent crimes during the first half of 2018 than during the same period a year prior, new FBI statistics show."
"California police in cities with more than 100,000 people reported 488 murders during the first half of 2018, down by 67 – or 12 percent – from the first half of 2017."
"The number of violent crimes overall in California’s largest cities fell by a more modest amount – less than 1 percent – during the first half of 2018."
HWY. 1 in Big Sur will remain closed, Caltrans says
Sacramento Bee's GABBY FERREIRA: "Highway 1 between Mud Creek and Paul’s Slide in Big Sur will remain closed until further notice due to “significant slide activity” in both areas, Caltrans said Wednesday in an emailed news release."
"Crews inspected all areas earlier today and found several potentially unstable perched boulders that have been working their way down the mountain at both locations,” the agency said in an email."
"The south approach of Mud Creek, within the section of highway closed off by locked gates, has slumped by one to two feet since the storm began on Tuesday, Caltrans said. The area has seen a “total of three to five feet vertical displacement since last Thursday, Feb. 28."
Highway upgrades promised to voters headed for chopping block with SANDAG facing $10 billion shortfall
From the U-T's JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH:"Wth sales-tax revenue sliding, top transportation officials have said the San Diego region will be short the cash needed to complete all of the highway improvements promised to voters in coming decades."
"More than $30 billion in upgrades to major highway and transit projects are still slated for completion through 2048, and officials now estimate the region will be roughly $10 billion short."
"Elected officials from Chula Vista to Oceanside, who serve on the San Diego Association of Governments, are now facing tough choices about which plans to keep and which to indefinitely shelve."
Feinstein's Green New Deal alternative is 'like shifting to Deck B on the Titanic,' progressives say
Sacramento Bee's KATE IRBY: "The schoolchildren who hammered California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on video last week over her lack of support for the Green New Deal could be forgiven for thinking they made some progress."
"The liberal-leaning Courage Campaign, based in California, told its members over the weekend that Feinstein had dropped a more moderate climate change proposal of her own after meeting with the students."
"“Her proposal would provide senators funded by the fossil fuel industry with political cover to vote no on the Green New Deal while claiming to support action,” the email by the Courage Campaign reads. “That’s why it’s so important that the Sunrise Movement kids were able to convince her to drop her weak Green New Deal alternative."
Oakland school got a $2.8-million gift of Chinese paintings. Turns out they were fake
From the LAT's SUHAUNA HUSSAIN: "A year and a half ago, a small, private, all-boys school in Oakland thought it had landed a huge windfall."
"A New York man who had sung in a boys’ choir as a child had inherited some Chinese art from his parents and was interested in donating four to support the music education-focused school, Pacific Boychoir Academy."
"Two independent appraisers estimated that one painting by Li Keran, of a waterfall, was worth about $2 million. With the three other paintings donated over the course of 2017 and 2018 by such noted 20th-century Chinese artists as Fu Baoshi and Shi Tao, school officials were looking at $2.8 million."
Conservatives diving into podcasts to find younger voters, activists
Sacramento Bee's DAVID LIGHTMAN: "Conservatives learned long ago how to use what were once new media — talk radio and cable television — to mobilize activists. Now they’re diving into podcasting, aiming to lure a younger generation that has largely eluded them."
"Liberals got to the millennial podcast audience first, thanks to Pod Save America, Rachel Maddow and others who racked up big numbers with a younger audience as they railed against President Donald Trump and a Republican policy agenda."
"But in just the last few months, conservatives have begun launching and promoting shows, seeing podcasts as an inexpensive and technologically easy way to reach new voters and political workers."
