California taxpayers told they owe the IRS money when they already paid. Here’s why
DAVID LIGHTMAN and HANH TRUONG, SacBee: "The Internal Revenue Service has sent letters to taxpayers throughout California telling them they owe money — and hefty penalties and interest — for their 2021 taxes even though they had already paid everything they were obligated to pay.
Tax preparers throughout the state have heard from anxious clients about the written notices, clients who generally have paid on time for years and view any such formal IRS correspondence with dread.
Jason Russell, a Sacramento certified public accountant, got one of the letters himself. So did many of his clients and others."
Abortion rights protesters vacate Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento
OWNE TUCKER-SMITH an d LUCH HODGMAN, SacBee: "Demonstrators have moved off of Interstate 5 in downtown Sacramento, but some highway ramps remain closed Monday afternoon following an abortion rights protest.
Dozens of demonstrators marched towards the interstate from a protest organized by the Sacramento Group Progressive Unity, which began at 10 a.m. Monday at the state Capitol.
The group was protesting the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, which eliminated the nearly 50-year-old constitutional right to an abortion. Those at the demonstration stressed that though California has some of the strongest reproductive protections in the country, protesting is still crucial in sending a message to lawmakers in Washington."
UC Merced takes admissions on the road
EdSource, ASHLEIGH PANOO: “Claudia Diaz will tell you that going to college changed her life. The Dinuba High School alum played soccer at UC Merced, traveled to Mexico and Spain to train with professional teams, and graduated in four years.
Now she’s back in her hometown, coaching the freshman soccer team and substitute teaching seventh graders at Dinuba Unified. And she knows her presence at the district is a powerful way to propel them to follow in her footsteps.
“I feel like my students are able to see themselves because we come from the same humble background,” she said. “My parents are field workers – a lot of our students, their parents are field workers. … If I can do it, they can do it.””
More mass shootings, more gun laws coming to California
CALMatters, EMILY HOEVEN: “What’s more American than a mass shooting?
That was the question posed by the Sacramento Bee editorial board following a spate of Fourth of July shootings in California and across the country: In Highland Park, Illinois, a gunman killed at least six people and injured dozens more during an Independence Day parade. In Sacramento, one person was killed and four others shot outside a nightclub early Monday, three months after a gang shootout that left six dead and 12 injured. And in South Los Angeles, a street takeover ended in a fatal shooting early Monday.
The shootings came just a few days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a pair of bills that he said would help protect Californians, especially kids, from rising rates of gun violence: One bill tightens restrictions on so-called “ghost guns” — those intentionally made untraceable — while another would hold companies liable for marketing certain firearms to minors.”
UC, CA secretary of state sign resolution to increase voter participation
Daily Californian, TIFFANY LIEU: “The UC Board of Regents and the California secretary of state partnered to sign a resolution Wednesday intended to increase student voter participation by ensuring all 10 UC campuses have ballot drop boxes or voting centers.
The resolution, signed by UC President Michael Drake, Board of Regents Chair Richard Leib and California Secretary of State Shirley Weber, aims to continue a trend of increasing voter participation on the UC campuses. According to a UC press release, eligible student voter participation increased from under 50% in the 2016 presidential election to 75% in the 2020 presidential election.
The university has previously started other initiatives to inform students about voting, such as the nonpartisan UC Votes campaign.”
California 2022 stimulus: Who’s eligible for inflation relief payments and when they’ll arrive
The Chronicle, KATHLEEN PENDER: “It’s official: Most Californians who filed their taxes in 2020 will get one-time payments totaling about $9.5 billion from the state starting in October to help offset rising inflation.
The Franchise Tax Board has set up a web page with some of the details and a calculator where people can estimate their payment.
The Legislature passed an election-year bill, AB192, authorizing the payments with zero votes against it, and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it Thursday as part of his budget package.”
California cuts cannabis taxes to heal ailing industry
CALMatters, ALEXEI KOSEFF: “California is significantly overhauling its cannabis tax structure, including entirely eliminating a tax on growers, in an effort to boost a struggling legal industry begging for relief.
The changes, which were adopted last week as part of a broader state budget agreement, will also create tax credits for some cannabis businesses, expand labor rights within the industry and switch collection of a state excise tax from distributors to retailers. That tax will pause at 15% for three years, after which regulators could raise the rate to recoup lost revenue from discontinuing the cultivation tax.
Prominent cannabis industry groups praised the plan for its potential to lower costs and help make legal sales more competitive with an illicit market that remains robust six years after California voters legalized recreational marijuana. Yet even as the measure won overwhelming approval in the Legislature, it was met with vocal discontent from retailers who say they will not benefit and several lawmakers who complained that it did not do enough to address ongoing racial disparities in the industry.”
Kamala Harris could break a record. Democrats wish she didn’t have to
LAT, NOAH BIERMAN: “Vice President Kamala Harris is on pace to set an unusual record, breaking the most tie votes in the U.S. Senate.
But many Democrats and progressives don’t see the distinction as much of an honor.
“If this is what victory is, my goodness, guys, we need to want better for ourselves,” said Tre’ Easton, deputy director of Battle Born Collection, a liberal advocacy group.”
CA’s new privacy rules should eye costs to grocers, consumers (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, RON FONG: “Over the past two years, California’s grocer community has overcome supply chain complications, unprecedented demand, and workforce challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now contending with record inflation, the last thing grocers and their customers need are unintended consequences from the state’s new online privacy regulations, which pose a threat to how consumers access savings opportunities and e-commerce shopping tools like curbside pick-up and delivery.
The newly created California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA) has the important yet difficult task of balancing the protection of privacy rights while minimizing adverse impacts to small businesses. Potential regulations could restrict access to online and other critical tools grocers use to connect to their customers, including some of California’s most vulnerable.”
California has two choices in these dark times: lead or secede
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: “For years, many Californians have rolled their eyes at conservatives wanting the northern part of the state to secede into a State of Jefferson, or Silicon Valley moguls like Tim Draper blowing $5 million on a ballot measure proposal to divide California into six states.
It all seemed so silly. But now, the Democrats who dominate California seem to be yearning for their own version of the same dream: to be insulated from the countrymen whose views they despise.
“I’ve been getting a lot more calls recently on secession,” Darrell West, who has studied secession as director of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, told me. “Mainly from Texas and California. These are the two states where it’s percolating.””
Confidence in LAPD drops sharply, poll finds, but L.A. voters don’t want to shrink force
LAT, KEVIN RECTOR/ALEJANDRA REYES-VELARDE: “Voters in Los Angeles have serious concerns about the Los Angeles Police Department but little interest in shrinking its size amid worries over rising crime, according to a new poll by UC Berkeley and The Times.
Fewer than a third of the city’s registered voters surveyed said they approve of the LAPD’s overall performance — a startling drop from 2009, when a Times poll found 77% of people approved of the department under the leadership of William J. Bratton, an influential chief who oversaw dramatic reforms.
And a majority of respondents believe LAPD officers are tougher on Black residents than other Angelenos. Nearly half said such racial inequities are the result of systemic problems within the department, not just the behavior of individual officers.”
Police Accountability Board discusses handling investigations, complaints
Daily Californian, VICTOR CORONA: “The Berkeley Police Accountability Board, or PAB, reviewed a draft of proposed regulations for handling investigations and complaints during its special meeting Wednesday.
In addition to reviewing the draft, the board heard comments from members of the public, which included concerns related to anonymous complaints, police officer discipline and the authority of the PAB.
“As you consider the various parts of the regulations, consider hypotheticals,” said a commenter during the public portion of the meeting. “I don’t think the police department has terrible actors, but if there are bad actors, you need to be able to deal with this — for instance, in the case of anonymous complaints.””
At Alameda’s Fourth of July parade — billed as the longest in the country — pomp and politics intertwine
The Chronicle, CYNTHIA DIZIKES: “The Alameda Fourth of July parade kicked off Monday morning with pomp and protest on the heels of the Supreme Court’s decision to repeal the constitutional right to an abortion.
Rock music blasted from rolling floats and fire trucks decked out in American flags and red, white and blue streamers, balloons and whirling pinwheels. Under overcast skies, four parade grand marshals from Alameda’s Police Reform and Equity Steering Committee led the procession with one hoisting a sign that read “Vote Blue Like Your Life Depends on It.”
“We have to be careful to never take our freedom for granted,” said Alameda Mayor Marilyn Ezzy Ashcraft, who rode behind the grand marshals on an electric bike. “This is a moment to celebrate that we have come a long way, but we have a long way to go.””
Researchers use AI to predict crime, biased policing in major U.S. cities like L.A.
LAT, LIBOR JANY: “For once, algorithms that predict crime might be used to uncover bias in policing, instead of reinforcing it.
A group of social and data scientists developed a machine learning tool it hoped would better predict crime. The scientists say they succeeded, but their work also revealed inferior police protection in poorer neighborhoods in eight major U.S. cities, including Los Angeles.
Instead of justifying more aggressive policing in those areas, however, the hope is the technology will lead to “changes in policy that result in more equitable, need-based resource allocation,” including sending officials other than law enforcement to certain kinds of calls, according to a report published Thursday in the journal Nature Human Behavior.”
This Northern California city now has more unsheltered homeless people than San Francisco
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: “Images of San Francisco’s homelessness crisis often show its unsheltered residents living in tents crowding sidewalks or RVs lining residential streets, with national critics pointing to the city as the epitome of the crisis.
But the city of Sacramento actually has more unsheltered homeless people — and a higher share of them compared to its population — than San Francisco, according to just-released data. Within the city limits of Sacramento, just over 5,000 unsheltered people — those living in vehicles and tents — were counted in a new homelessness report, compared to about 4,400 people in San Francisco.
But with Sacramento’s population of 525,000 versus San Francisco’s 874,000, that works out to a rate of 952 per 100,000 in Sacramento versus 503 per 100,000 for San Francisco. The total homeless count in the city of Sacramento was not available.
San Francisco is unique in the Bay Area because it’s both a city and a county, which makes it difficult to compare to other cities and counties.”
Can a Target gift card help you stay off meth? This L.A. program is trying it
LAT, EMILY ALPERT REYES: “Mark had been wanting to quit using meth for a while when someone pointed him to the folding table propped up at the skid row site where homeless people stop for showers and laundry.
If his urine tested negative for stimulants, the man advised him, “they give you a gift card.”
Behind the table, a program assistant hastened to clarify that it was a chance at a gift card — just a chance. But a chance was enough for Mark, who began filling out paperwork to sign up for the 12-week program, hoping the incentive could help him break from his addiction.”
6 dead, ‘person of interest’ held in mass shooting at July Fourth parade in Chicago area
AP, MICHAEL TARM, KATHLEEN FOODY AND ROGER SCHNEIDER: “A gunman on a rooftop opened fire on a Fourth of July parade in suburban Chicago on Monday, killing at least six people, wounding at least 30 and sending hundreds of marchers, parents with strollers and children on bicycles fleeing in terror, police said.
Authorities said a man named as a person of interest in the shooting was taken into police custody Monday evening after an hours-long search around Highland Park, an affluent community of about 30,000 on Chicago’s north shore.
The July Fourth shooting was just the latest to shatter a ritual of American life. Schools, churches, grocery stores and now community parades have all become killing grounds in recent months. This time, the bloodshed came as the nation tried to find cause to celebrate its founding and the bonds that still hold it together.”
