Colleges defend international students

Jul 10, 2020

California universities push back at Trump admin with litigation in response to new visa rules affecting 72,000 college students

 

Sac Bee's KIM BOJORQUEZ: "California is suing the Trump administration to block to a visa rule that could force tens of thousands of international college students to leave the country this fall unless their campuses resume in-class instruction during the coronavirus outbreak.

 

The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California targets modifications to the Student and Exchange Visitor Program. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Monday that it would not grant non-immigrant students with F-1 and M-1 visas enrolled in schools or programs that are fully online during the fall semester.

 

About 10,000 California State University students and 21,000 California community college students are believed to be at risk if the rule is enforced. The University of California also announced a lawsuit challenging the rule. It has about 41,000 undergraduate and graduate international students."

 

READ MORE related to Education: LA teachers union says schools must not reopen next month, citing coronavirus resurgence -- LA Times's NINA AGRAWAL/HOWARD BLUME; CSU might remain online far beyond fall semester, chancellor says -- Sac Bee's ASHLEIGH PANOO; ICE visa order doesn't surprise Sacramento-area professors. College students are worried -- Sac Bee's ASHLEY WONG; Parents stressed, divided over sending children back to school -- LA Times's HOWARD BLUME/DAVID LAUTER/NINA AGRAWAL; WHO acknowledges COVID-19's ability to linger in the air -- LA Times's RICHARD READ

 

'Qualified immunity' gets long-deserved scrutiny as police misconduct awareness surges amid rash of abuses of power against Black citizens

 

RYAN KAIKA in Capitol Weekly: "As protests mount over police misconduct in California and across the country, attention is turning to a largely obscure policy that has long shielded law enforcement officers — qualified immunity.

 

At least one member of California’s congressional delegation — a Republican — has joined with a number of House Democrats in seeking to overturn qualified immunity.

 

The doctrine has deep roots, dating back to the 19th century."

 

California is mulling over whether to cancel the bar exam for law graduates amid an increasingly ubiquitous and deadly pandemic

 

Sac Bee's DALE KASLER: "It’s a ticket to a potentially lucrative career as a lawyer — and a grueling, dreaded rite of passage that can defeat even the most promising young legal mind.

 

Now, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging, there’s a chance thousands of recent law school graduates could become lawyers in California without having to take the bar exam.

 

Hundreds of recent graduates, along with the deans of some of California’s most prestigious law schools, are asking the California Supreme Court to cancel the upcoming exam. Instead of having to pass the exam, the graduates would automatically be licensed in California under a system used in other states and known as “diploma privilege."

 

In crippling blow to Trump and his anti-media bulwark, SCOTUS upholds SDNY's demands for the president's tax returns

 

LA Times's DAVID G SAVAGE: "The Supreme Court dealt a defeat to President Trump on Thursday by rejecting his claims of presidential immunity and upholding subpoenas from New York prosecutors seeking his tax returns and financial records.

 

In one of the most anticipated rulings on presidential privilege in years, the justices by a 7-2 vote ruled the nation’s chief executive is not above the law and must comply with legitimate demands from a grand jury in New York that is investigating Trump’s alleged hush money payments to two women who claimed to have had sex with him.

 

But because the grand jury operates in secret, it is unlikely the general public will see Trump’s financial records before the November election, if ever."

 

Studies show that specific blood types are more susceptible to COVID-19 than others

 

The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE: "The roulette wheel that decides who lives and dies from the coronavirus is weighted by the type of blood coursing through the veins of victims, gifting some with innate resistance and dooming others to misery and torment.

 

Infectious disease specialists say the worldwide pandemic is especially cruel to people with type A blood, which apparently lacks certain compounds that help fight off the disease.

 

A study published June 17 in the New England Journal of Medicine found that people with type A blood have a higher risk of contracting the disease and suffering complications. The analysis, conducted by an international team of scientists, also showed that people with type O blood were at least partially protected from the virus."

 

READ MORE related to Pandemic: After lobbying to be eligible, Catholic Church won $1.4B in coronavirus-related loans -- AP; El Dorado County supervisors call emergency meeting as South Lake Tahoe cases spike -- The Chronicle's ALEJANDRO SERRANO; Death tolls rising in key states after weeks of national decline -- LA Times's NOAM N LEVEY

 

$10 million campaign to boost national Latino-bloc voter turnout announced in several battleground states

 

AP: "A national organization is announcing a $10-million campaign to turn out Latino voters in several of this year’s battleground states.

 

Mi Familia Vota, based in Phoenix, said it will spend $7 million on get-out-the-vote measures and an additional $3 million on digital and television ads, starting in Arizona and Florida.

 

Arizona in particular is seen as a battleground because of shifting demographics in the traditionally Republican state. Latinos are a growing proportion of the electorate."

 

As fire camp prison inmates are increasingly ravaged by COVID-19, California finds itself flipping over couch cushions in hopes of funding a firefighter hiring spree

 

The Chronicle's PETER FIMRITE/ALEXEI KOSEFF/CYNTHIA DIZIKES: "The seemingly impossible task of gearing up for fire season in the midst of a surging pandemic fell with full force on California Thursday, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to lay out the state’s battle plan.

 

He announced the hiring of 858 seasonal firefighters to replace prison crews whose ranks were cut in half after several of those inmates tested positive for the coronavirus, prompting a quarantine at 12 Northern California conservation camps.

 

Newsom said state emergency officials are working with the hotel industry to make rooms available for people displaced by fires so that fewer evacuees would be sent to shelters. Features will include socially distanced beds, temperature checks, mandatory face coverings and individually boxed meals to prevent mixing between families."

 

State audit: Mobile home parks rife with poor oversight, non-existent inspections

 

LA Times's PATRICK MCGREEVY: "California’s state housing agency did not conduct full inspections at more than half of the state’s mobile home parks between 2010 and 2019 and should improve oversight to protect residents, a state audit said Thursday.

 

Although the state Department of Housing and Community Development met its statutory goal of conducting park inspections at 5% of parks annually, 55% of the 3,640 active parks did not receive a full park inspection in the 10-year period reviewed, according to state Auditor Elaine Howle.

 

“Long gaps between inspectors’ visits to a park increase the risk that health and safety violations remain undetected and unreported,” Howle said in a letter to the governor and Legislature. “By improving its selection process for annual park inspections to include some parks that it has not visited in recent years and implementing guidance for informal visits, HCD could reduce the risksposed by health and safety violations at parks."

 

Planned Bay Area-segment of statewide high-speed rail system begins roll out despite derth in funding

 

The Chronicle's KURTIS ALEXANDER: "California rolled out its vision for high-speed trains between San Jose and San Francisco on Thursday, plotting a 30-or-so-minute ride on what would be one of the busiest stretches of the state’s proposed 520-mile rail system — even as the project is mired in financial uncertainty.

 

The California High Speed Rail Authority is calling for 220-mph trains, coming from the Central Valley, to merge onto the Caltrain commuter line for a 49-mile jaunt up the Peninsula. Stops would be made at San Jose’s Diridon Station, a new hub in Millbrae and at the Caltrain depot in San Francisco. The San Francisco stop would eventually move to Transbay transit center.

 

Service between the Bay Area’s largest cities, scheduled to begin in 2031, is expected to take less than 45 minutes, including the stop in Millbrae near San Francisco International Airport. The ticket price is yet to be determined."

 

READ MORE related to High-Speed Rail & Transportation: Bullet-train project faces unprecedented woes (article updated July 9th) -- The Chronicle's DUSTIN GARDINER

 

Scorching temps expected this weekend

 

LA Times's PAUL DUGINSKI: "A large upper-level high-pressure system building over the Four Corners region will bring heat to Southern California this weekend, the National Weather Service said.

 

Daytime temperatures are expected to be well above normal on Saturday and Sunday, and overnight lows will remain warm.

 

The weather service issued heat advisories for L.A. County valleys and mountains from Saturday morning through Sunday evening, with temperatures ranging from the 90s to 104."

 

READ MORE related to Climate/Environment: Temperature checks and hotels: Newsom details new precautions for wildfire evacuations -- LA Times's TARYN LUNA

 

Former Nevada City mayor, once briefly infamous for lobbing anti-Newsom/anti-mask molotovs on social media, resigns from her City Council seat amid pandemic backlash

 

Sac Bee's MICHAEL MCGOUGH: "A former Northern California mayor who stoked controversy last month with social media posts decrying Gov. Gavin Newsom’s mask mandate as illegitimate and unenforceable has stepped down from her City Council position.

 

Reinette Senum’s term as mayor of Nevada City expired at the end of June, but she had been elected in March to continue as a City Council member for the next four years.

 

Instead, she announced during Wednesday’s council meeting that she will not serve her 2020-24 term, as first reported by The Union, the local newspaper for Nevada City and Grass Valley."

 

New insurance bill headed for a Senate vote could be devastating to residents in wildfire-prone areas

 

OPINION, RICARDO LARA and RICHARD HOLOBER in SacBee: "As Californians continue to navigate the many challenges 2020 has thrown their way, residents in wildfire-prone areas have one more threat to be concerned about: Assembly Bill 2167.

 

The state Senate will soon take up this bill, which increases the cost of insurance for homeowners and weakens consumer protections. AB 2167 is an insurance industry wish list, opposed by the California Department of Insurance and consumer groups.

 

This bill couldn’t come at a worse time. The cost of home insurance in suburban and rural areas had already been increasing dramatically even before the pandemic threw household budgets into chaos due to record high unemployment."

 

State Report: Sacramento PD employed now-banned guillotine hold (carotid choke) up to nine times more frequently than any other state law enforcement agency

 

Sac Bee's THERESA CLIFT: "Sacramento Police Department officers have used the now-banned carotid neck restraint more often than other departments in California, according to a state report released Wednesday.

 

Sacramento police officers used carotid holds, designed to cut blood flow to the brain, an average of nine times per year between 2016 and 2018, according to a new report from Attorney General Xavier Becerra’s office. By comparison, between 2008 and 2011, the Los Angeles Police Department used the hold an average of once per year, the report said.

 

“DOJ reviewers observed more than 12 instances in which an officer appeared to have other force options or de-escalation tactics available, but chose instead to use the risky carotid restraint hold,” the report said. “SPD’s aggregate use-of-force data indicate that SPD officers have resorted to using the carotid restraint hold more frequently than peer agencies of similar size, and likely more than they ultimately should have given the circumstances."

 

READ MORE related to Police, Protests, & The Defund Movement: State cuts pay for CHP officers despite contract protections -- Sac Bee's WES VENTEICHER; At many unversities across the nation, a time for reevaluating police presence on campus -- LA Times's JULIA BARAJAS

 

Oakland tenants protest apartment tours during coronavirus, landlord cancels inspections

 

The Chronicle's ROLAND LI: "The coronavirus pandemic is adding tension to the already combative relationship between some Bay Area tenants and landlords.

 

About two dozen protesters gathered in Oakland Thursday morning to protest landlord Mosser Capital’s planned apartment showings for investors at 444 28th St.

 

The tenants said the showings would violate Alameda County’s public health orders that restrict real estate tours and endanger residents by potentially exposing them to the coronavirus, particularly elderly tenants and those with medical conditions."

 

READ MORE related to Homelessness & Housing: Homelessness has spread beyond major Bay Area cities. COVID-19 is making it even more visible -- The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER/JESSICA CHRISTIAN/TODD TRUMBULL

 

Old Hollywood hotel up for grabs; former proprietor on the lam for allegedly embezzling billions from Malaysian government

 

LA Times's ROGER VINCENT: "Bidding has commenced in an auction of the Viceroy L’Ermitage Beverly Hills, a legendary hotel last owned by a highflying Malaysian investor now on the lam after being accused of embezzling billions of dollars from his country’s government.

 

The low-key boutique hotel has been known as a celebrity haunt for decades, where the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier have bunked for the night and dined in its fancy French restaurant.

 

It will sell for at least $100 million, federal representatives said Thursday, or perhaps more at an auction set for Aug. 19."

 

Ex-Trump lawyer Michael Cohen is back in club fed

 

AP: "President Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, was returned to federal prison, weeks after his early release to serve the remainder of his sentence at home because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the federal Bureau of Prisons said Thursday.

 

In a statement to the Associated Press, the Bureau of Prisons said Cohen had “refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility.” His return to prison comes days after the New York Post published photos of him and his wife enjoying an outdoor meal with friends at a restaurant near his Manhattan home.

 

Cohen, who pleaded guilty to tax evasion, campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress, had been released May 21 on furlough as part of an attempt to slow the spread of the virus in federal prisons. Cohen, 53, began serving his sentence in May 2019 and had been scheduled to remain in prison until November 2021."

 

And now, from our Catch of the Day file, comes the story of a man who took a swim in a fish tank.