DMV workers' bribery scheme hits a bump: federal corruption charges
LA Times, MICHAEL FINNEGAN: "If a curb is painted white, is it OK to park?
When is it legal to pass a slow-moving vehicle?
To drive in California, these are the types of questions you need to answer when taking the state’s test to get a license."
Newsom and his wife made $1.7M in his first year as governor, tax returns show
Sac Bee, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "Gov. Gavin Newsom and his wife, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, earned about $1.7 million during Newsom’s first year as governor, according to the couple’s 2019 tax returns.
That’s about half a million dollars more than they made the previous year. Most of their money came from assets in Newsom’s blind trust, which he set up in 2019 to hold wineries and other business he founded. In total, the Newsoms made more than $1.5 million from the trust.
Newsom also made wages from his salary as governor and for a book he is working on. He has previously said he is writing a children’s book inspired by his struggles with dyslexia. Siebel Newsom made wages from her work in the film industry."
Climate change impact increasingly felt in California
CHUCK McFADDEN, Capitol Weekly: "More wildfires. Hotter days. Drought. Sea-level rise.
Those conditions are an increasing reality in California, which is steadily becoming an altered state. But if the grimmest predictions of experts about our state and climate change become true, the conditions will become far worse.
“Average summer temperatures in California have risen by approximately 3 degrees F (1.8℃) since 1896, with more than half of that increase occurring since the early 1970s,” reported the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego."
Newsom wants to test guaranteed income programs, give grants to laid-off workers
Sac Bee, JEONG PARK: "California workers laid off during the coronavirus pandemic could be eligible for grants to help them train for new jobs or to start a new business, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday as he rolled out his revised budget proposal.
“This is without precedent in California’s history, the largest workforce development investment proposal that’s ever been made,” Newsom said.
The $1 billion plan, along with money for workforce development programs, would create 50,000 training opportunities for California workers, Newsom’s office said in its proposal."
READ MORE ECONOMY NEWS --- COVID relief continues: Here's how parents can get a monthly tax payment this summer -- Sac Bee, DAVID LIGHTMAN
Califoria AG Rob Bonta sees state moving away from death penalty
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "As a legislator, Rob Bonta co-sponsored a proposed ballot measure that would have given Californians another chance to discard the death penalty, a repeal they narrowly rejected in 2012 and 2016.
As California’s attorney general, Bonta still opposes capital punishment, and he believes the state is moving in the same direction.
“I think the death penalty is inhumane. It does not deter. Studies show it’s long had a disparate impact on defendants of color, especially when the victim is white,” Bonta said in an interview. Three weeks earlier, his former legislative colleagues had confirmed the Alameda Democrat’s nomination by Gov. Gavin Newsom to succeed Attorney General Xavier Becerra, now U.S. secretary of Health and Human Services."
Newsom recall organizers say Republican businessman John Cox skimped on pledge to contribute 100k
The Chronicle, DUSTIN GARDINER: "Republican John Cox made headlines last fall when he publicly pledged to make a “six-figure donation” to the campaign to recall Gov. Gavin Newsom, becoming one of the first major donors to do so.
But recall organizers say Cox reneged on that promise and only gave half of the money, or $50,000 of the $100,000 he had vowed to give to the effort to oust the Democratic governor.
“It left us holding the bag,” said Orrin Heatlie, a retired Yolo County sheriff’s sergeant who is the primary leader of the campaign to recall Newsom. “I met with (Cox) in person and he made that pledge to me across the table.”"
Capitol Weekly podcast: Mike Gipson
Tim Foster: "Assemblyman Mike Gipson (D) represents the 64th District, which includes communities that are among some of those hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic: Carson, Compton, Gardena, South Los Angeles, Torrance and Watts. Gipson is the chair of the committee on Infectious Diseases, and introduced AB1038, a bill to create a $180 million California Health Equity Fund that would address health and social inequities that have been exacerbated by COVID-19."
Is it a HIPAA violation if businesses request proof of COVID vaccine? What experts say
Sac Bee, SIMONE JASPER: "Some businesses are lifting face mask requirements for customers who are vaccinated against COVID-19, raising questions about medical privacy.
Since 1996, part of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) has required that some patients’ health information be protected.
But many legal experts say non-health care businesses don’t violate HIPAA if they ask for proof of a COVID-19 vaccine, multiple news outlets reported. Here’s what to know about the law and what to expect at stores."
READ MORE VACCINE/CDC GUIDELINES NEWS --- California will wait until June 15 to adopt new CDC mask guidelines -- LA Times, LUKE MONEY/RONG-GONG LIN II; Confused about mask rules in the Bay Area? Here's what you need to know -- The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES
Outgoing SF immigration judge blasts courts as 'soul-crushing,' too close to ICE
The Chronicle, TAL KOPAN: "When William Hanrahan decided to take a job managing the San Francisco immigration court last year, he hoped he could “do some good” by bringing his expertise to resolving the legal morass many U.S. migrants must navigate to stay in the country.
He knew the justice system well. He had spent 20 years as a prosecutor and more than a decade as a state judge, including two years as a chief judge, and taught law on the side for 13 of those years. He’d worked in both criminal and civil law.
But Hanrahan said he encountered a “soul-crushing bureaucracy” that he found shockingly unlike the regular American legal system. After little more than a year in the job, he called it quits this month, frustrated, he said, with a system run by the U.S. Department of Justice and subject to its political whims, a top-down management style that throttled innovation and slow-walked modernizing reforms, and a disconcerting proximity to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement attorneys who act as the court’s prosecutors."
Evacuations in Topanga lifted as Palisades fire reaches 23% containment
LA Times, ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN/FAITH E. PINHO: "Evacuation orders in Topanga were lifted Monday evening as firefighters gained the upper hand on the fire in Pacific Palisades that has torn through 1,325 acres.
As of 6 p.m., residents were allowed to access Topanga Canyon Boulevard with an ID or Topanga access card, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department. The evacuation warning for nearby residents in the city of Los Angeles was still in place.
Officials said the blaze was 23% contained."
Biden's border closure cracks under pressure from lawsuits, advocates and the easing pandemic
LA Times, MOLLY O'TOOLE: "When Maria stepped off the bus in late March, her 3-year-old daughter in her arms, her stomach dropped: The men waiting wore Mexican uniforms. U.S. officials had sent the Honduran mother to Tijuana.
Days earlier, Maria had crossed the U.S. southern border some 1,500 miles away, near Hidalgo, Texas, to seek out the Border Patrol and ask for asylum. The agents told her she was being sent to another state to make her claim, she told the Los Angeles Times.
Instead, they put her on a plane to California and expelled her and her daughter to Mexico under a Trump-era pandemic policy known as Title 42. President Biden chose to continue the policy, which indefinitely closes U.S. borders to “nonessential” travel."
CSUs 'won't return' to normal next year, chancellor saya
Sac Bee, MONICA VELEZ: "California State Universities will offer more in-person classes in the fall but it still won’t be like a traditional college before the pandemic.
“I think fall will certainly be a transitional semester for us,” Chancellor Joseph I. Castro told The Bee’s Education Lab. “I anticipate more in-person instruction and yet we won’t return to how it was prior to the pandemic.”
More virtual courses will be offered than there were a year and a half ago to meet student needs, Castro said, and each campus will find its balance, including Fresno State."
SCOTUS won't extend warrantless searches to people's homes
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Police can’t enter someone’s home without a warrant except in an emergency, the Supreme Court ruled Monday, refusing to extend search authority that the justices have applied to motor vehicles.
In a 5-4 ruling in 1973, the court had allowed prosecutors to use evidence police found in the warrantless search of a car they had towed after a drunken-driving crash. The majority said officers believed they would find a gun in the car and were entitled to make a “community caretaking” search without taking the time needed to obtain a warrant.
But to the relief of advocates ranging from the American Civil Liberties Union to gun groups, the court unanimously refused Monday to extend the same rule to home searches."
Homeless camp backlash has reached a turning point in California
The Chronicle, LAUREN HEPLER: "Each home has its own character in this coastal town’s Friendship Garden neighborhood.
Mark Beckner built a carpentry shop next to the fence he forged out of reclaimed wood. Michelle Ekwall’s “Wipe your paws!” doormat is a nod to her rescue dog, Optimus Prime. John Palacios and Jami Mims installed solar panels on their roof and a retro lantern in their living room.
Another thing that makes the community unique: It’s a tent city, which formed six months ago in a shady, redwood-lined corner of Harvey West Park. As of last week, when Beckner was among those summoned to a city meeting, they’re all facing eviction to make way for post-pandemic public outings."
