Human smuggling sweep at Camp Pendleton leads to arrest of 16 Marines
Sacramento Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "More than a dozen Marines allegedly tied to human smuggling were arrested at Camp Pendleton in an early morning sweep Thursday, officials announced. Others were rounded up for questioning on drug offenses."
"Naval criminal investigators and officials from the Marine Corps’ 1st Marine Division swooped in early Thursday, netting 16 people during the morning’s battalion formation, officials said in a statement. The Marines were arrested on the unit’s parade deck, a division spokesman told the San Diego Union-Tribune."
"It was a public display for the entire unit to see,” 1st Lt. Cameron Edinburgh, a 1st Marine Division spokesman, told the Union-Tribune."
State insurance office again overturns a judge's ruling to a political donor's benefit
From the U-T's JEFF McDONALD: "For the second time in two weeks, a senior California Department of Insurance official has overruled an administrative law judge and reversed a decision that could have cost an insurance company hundreds of thousands of dollars."
"Records show Special Counsel Bryant Henley intervened Monday in a case against Applied Underwriters, a workers' compensation insurer whose executive and spouse donated tens of thousands of dollars to Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara's reelection campaign."
"Henley signed a 47-page amended order just below Lara's name in the case filed by RDR Builders of Lodi. The action came days after Lara, elected in November, pledged to no longer participate in proceedings involving Applied Underwriters due the campaign donations."
Gun advocates sue to block California's new ammo law requiring background checks
Sacramento Bee's DARRELL SMITH: "Gun rights advocates are suing to block California’s new ammunition purchasing law, calling it an unconstitutional scheme that violates the Second Amendment."
"The preliminary injunction motion filed by the California Rifle & Pistol Association Monday in San Diego federal court names Kim Rhode, the seven-time trap and skeet shooting Olympian and National Rifle Association board member, as lead plaintiff."
“Plaintiffs seek to vindicate their fundamental Second Amendment rights,” plaintiffs’ attorney Sean Brady argued in his 34-page motion. “Not only plaintiffs’ rights are at stake, but so are the rights of any law-abiding Californian who is unduly burdened by the state’s ammunition scheme.”
Overcharged DWP customers could get an additional $50 million in refunds, new lawyers say
From the LAT's EMILY ALPERT REYES and DAKOTA SMITH: "The deal had been touted as a win for aggrieved L.A. ratepayers who had been hit with grossly inflated bills from the Department of Water and Power: A settlement of a class-action lawsuit that would provide refunds or credit or 100% of what they were wrongly charged, according to the utility."
"One of the attorneys who represented customers who sued the utility called the agreement a “home run.” It was eventually expected to return more than $67 million to ratepayers."
"Now a new set of attorneys have taken over the case after accusations that lawyers engineered the lawsuit and 2017 settlement to help the city. They say the whole agreement needs to be re-examined and possibly reworked."
Trump officials dismiss California deal with automakers, vow to move forward on rule
McClatchy's MICHAEL WILNER/EMILY CADEI: "Trump administration officials vowed on Thursday to proceed with a sweeping rule that will lower national standards on vehicle tailpipe emissions, dismissing a deal brokered by California with four of the world’s largest automakers meant to reduce air pollution."
"The deal between California and Ford, Honda, BMW of North America and Volkswagen Group of America fuels a growing feud between the Trump administration and the automotive industry."
"It also escalates a yearlong struggle between California and President Donald Trump over how much to raise standards on vehicular greenhouse gas emissions, a critical battlefront in the fight over climate change."
California Democrats decry return of federal death penalty
Sacramento Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "California’s top Democrats took to social media Thursday to condemn the Attorney General William Barr’s decision to lift a 20-year moratorium on the federal death penalty."
"Among the critics to decry the move were both of California’s senators, Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Kamala Harris, U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, and California Gov. Gavin Newsom."
"Newsom, who earlier this year ordered a moratorium on in-state executions, tweeted that “We need an end to this system — not a resurrection."
San Andreas fault is a 730-mile monster. Ridgecrest earthquake was a tiny taste of the possible destruction
LA Times's RONG-GONG LIN II: "Faults crisscross California, producing deadly earthquakes."
"But whenever the ground shakes, the first thought always turns to the mightiest and most dangerous fault: the San Andreas."
"This is the 730-mile monster capable of producing the Big One, the fault famous enough to be the main character in a hit disaster movie.
The rarest fish on Earth rode out 10-foot waves when Ridgecrest earthquake hit
LA Times's COLLEEN SHALBY: "The rarest fish on Earth swam for their lives when a powerful earthquake rattled Ridgecrest earlier this month."
"The magnitude 7.1 quake that split open the floor of the Mojave Desert on July 5 shook up life far beyond its epicenter. In Death Valley National Park — some 70 miles away from where the earthquake was centered — 10-foot waves erupted inside Devils Hole, a 10-foot-wide and 25-foot-long pool that is the sole home to the endangered Devils Hole pupfish."
"About 136 pupfish live on a shallow underwater shelf in the geothermal pool, a drastic increase over their small population of 35 in 2013."
Heat wave to raise Bay Area temps into triple digits
The Chronicle's ASHLEY MCBRIDE: "A heat wave this weekend is expected to push Bay Area temperatures into triple digits in some parts of the region."
"Inland areas will see the highest temperatures, while cool marine air will keep San Francisco more temperate, according to the National Weather Service."
"San Francisco should reach the mid-70s on Saturday, but San Jose and Redwood City could have temperatures in the low 90s, while cities in the East Bay, such as Livermore and Concord, are expected to surpass 100 degrees."
Fake accounts flooded a Sacramento County official's Facebook poll. Here's how it happened
Sacramento Bee's ALEXANDRA YOON-HENDRICKS: "A Facebook poll on a possible sales tax increase posted by Sacramento County Supervisor Sue Frost quickly became a cautionary tale of online manipulation, after hundreds of fake and suspicious profiles attempted to skew the results."
"Frost, who regularly uses Facebook to informally poll residents about local issues, posted a poll Tuesday asking whether people would be in favor of a local sales tax increase, if the money were guaranteed to fund exclusively road improvements. For much of the day, as thousands of votes poured in, about 85 percent of poll-takers voted against a tax increase."
"But overnight, the poll became overrun by votes supporting a tax increase coming from suspicious accounts: Profiles with zero Facebook activity besides a name and photo, or of people based in Bangladesh or otherwise outside California. Some of these fraudulent accounts even posted on their own pages about providing services to artificially inflate Facebook numbers such as likes or event attendance."
Long-delayed Central Subway project in SF gets new manager
The Chronicle's GWENDOLYN WU: "Muni’s long-awaited $1.6 billion Central Subway project has a new manager just six months before the oft-delayed project is scheduled to be completed — and there’s a chance the grand opening could get pushed back again."
"Nadeem Tahir took over as project manager last week after previous stints with the D.C. Metro subway, Honolulu Rail Transit and the Federal Transit Administration. On a media tour Thursday, while more than 100 workers were laying down sections of track and building elevators, San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency officials introduced Tahir and showed off the still-under-construction Union Square Station, an echoing concrete concourse filled with half-finished elevators and escalators."
"The completion of the Central Subway, which broke ground in 2010 and will reroute Muni’s T-Third light rail line from the Bayview up to Chinatown, has been plagued with delays due to problems with general contractor Tutor Perini and existing infrastructure issues."
'High risk of insolvency' for troubled Peralta Community College District
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "The Peralta Community College District of 50,000 students at four East Bay campuses is at high risk of insolvency after years of mismanagement that had administrators regularly breaking their own rules, says a dire new fiscal review."
"The dereliction leaves the district ripe for fraud thanks to poor internal controls, says the report from the state’s Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, which helps guide public schools and colleges out of financial calamity."
"It’s been no secret that the Peralta district — with Laney and Merritt colleges in Oakland, Berkeley City College and the College of Alameda — has been on the rocks. But until this year, Peralta’s leaders appeared to look the other way. The Board of Trustees came close to censuring a trustee in November who spoke out about the problems, claiming he had no legal right to do so. Last summer, a law firm the administration hired to investigate a whistle-blower’s allegations of mismanagement found no hint of wrongdoing, and district officials took no further action."
SFV shooting rampage leaves 4 dead; suspect in custody
LA Times's HANNAH FRY/RICHARD WINTON/MATTHEW ORMSETH: "A 26-year-old who embarked on a shooting rampage that left four dead — beginning with his own family and ending with a stranger on a bus — was arrested Thursday afternoon after an hours-long manhunt that cast a shadow of fear across the sweltering San Fernando Valley, police said."
"Still armed with the gun authorities allege he used in the crime, Gerry Dean Zaragoza was taken into custody about 2:30 p.m. when two law enforcement officers with the LAPD and FBI joint fugitive task force spotted him walking on Canoga Avenue near Gault Street."
"The officers yelled for him to get his hands up. He refused, and they used a Taser to subdue him outside a glass shop, a law enforcement source said."
California unions say state law will protect workers, despite Trump's 'anti-union' pick
Sacramento Bee's WES VENTEICHER: "California unions don’t expect President Donald Trump’s administration to get any friendlier toward labor with the president’s pick of corporate attorney Eugene Scalia for Labor secretary."
"Trump nominated the son of late conservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia to succeed Alexander Acosta, who resigned last week amid questions over his role in a lax 2008 plea deal in a sex trafficking case against Jeffrey Epstein."
"We’re ready for the worst, but on the other hand this administration from Day One has been vigorously anti-union, so I don’t know how much different it will be under Scalia than it was under Acosta,” said California Labor Federation spokesman Steve Smith."
