California could ban gas furnaces and gas water heaters
ERIK ANDERSON and MIKE DAMRON, KPBS: "California regulators are poised to outlaw the sale of natural gas-powered furnaces and gas-powered water heaters in the state by 2030.
The move would make the state the first in the country to back away from these fossil-fueled household appliances.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is expected to take the step as part of a far-reaching plan to shrink the state’s carbon footprint and reduce nitrogen-oxide pollution. That greenhouse gas is a key ingredient in the creation of smog."
Bass, Caruso clash on USC ties, ethics, crime in L.A. mayor debate
JAMES RAINEY, BENJAMIN ORESKES, JULIA WICK and DAVID ZAHNISER, LA Times: "U.S. Rep Karen Bass and real estate developer Rick Caruso battered each other with charges of misbehavior and inauthenticity during an hourlong debate Wednesday, the latest rhetorical escalation in the once relatively genteel campaign for mayor of Los Angeles.
The veteran Washington lawmaker pilloried the businessman as being out of touch with overwhelmingly Democratic L.A., because of his previous Republican registration and financial contributions to anti-abortion politicians.
Caruso, in turn, depicted Bass as a hidebound member of a failed political class that has been ineffectual at curbing the city’s homelessness and crime — the two issues voters say are their top worries."
Lawsuit claims SMUD illegally gave user data to police, enabling discriminatory pot enforcement
SAWSAN MORRAR, SacBee: "An Asian American nonprofit organization and a digital privacy advocacy group are suing the city of Sacramento and Sacramento Municipal Utility District, alleging the agencies targeted Asian Americans as they enforced local marijuana cultivation rules.
The lawsuit, filed Wednesday by the Asian American Liberation Network and the Electronic Fronteir Foundation in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges that SMUD is “searching entire zip codes’ worth of peoples’ private data and disclosing it” to the Sacramento Police Department in bulk, without a court order or investigation.
Most of the names listed in the SMUD data are “discernibly Asian,” according to the lawsuit. And the targeted zip codes have high Asian populations, including the south Sacramento area."
Former Assembly Speaker John Pérez eyes top state stem cell job
DAVID JENSEN, Capitol Weekly: "Two persons with deep ties to the University of California (UC) have been nominated for the position of chair of the governing board of the $12 billion California stem cell agency.
They are John A. Pérez, former chair of the UC board of regents and former leader of the state Assembly, and Emilie Marcus, executive strategy officer at the UCLA School of Medicine. It is now up to the 35-member stem cell agency board to choose between the two.
The position has an expected salary range that tops out at $632,000."
State delays public release of English, math and science test score results to later this year
JOHN FENSTERWALD and THOMAS PEELE, EdSource: "In a significant departure, the California Department of Education is withholding the release of the results of the Smarter Balanced tests that students took last spring until an undetermined date later this year. The result will be a monthslong delay before the public can view results in English language arts, math and science for the state, districts, schools and charter schools.
The denial of EdSource’s request to release test score data comes at a time when educators are concerned about the pandemic’s impact on reading and math progress, especially in the early years. Releasing scores “later this year” means that the public will learn about spring test results for third-graders who are now well into fourth grade.
The California Department of Education told EdSource that it is withholding the scores now, so they can be simultaneously released with other data for the California School Dashboard, such as student absentee rates, suspension rates and rates of chronic absenteeism. The dashboard provides a detailed look at school and district metrics, broken down by student demographic groups. The data is used to determine which low-performing districts require state assistance."
California to create nation’s first office to combat gun violence
ANNIE VAINSHTEIN, Chronicle: "California will soon be the only state in the nation to have a governmental office committed to preventing gun violence, state officials said Wednesday.
Standing outside the violence prevention organization, United Playaz on Howard Street in San Francisco, Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the state’s Office of Gun Violence Prevention, a first-of-its-kind unit that will work with multiple agencies to deal with the mounting issue of gun violence across the state.
“This is a moment of crisis in America,” said Bonta, who stood alongside other political leaders and multiple mothers of children who had perished from gun violence."
Dolores Huerta , a civil rights legend, continues the fight
LISA RENNER, Capitol Weekly: "At age 92, civil rights icon Dolores Huerta maintains a busy schedule supporting the causes she has worked for her whole life.
She speaks regularly all over the state, recently participated in a re-creation of the famed 1966 farm workers march from Delano to Sacramento, and is campaigning for Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke.
Diana Victa, director of the San Jose State University Student Union, said she had to book the farm workers advocate for her coming October speech at the school a year in advance. “The fact that she is still touring and speaking at 92 is amazing,” Victa said."
Trump backer who plotted bombing Democratic HQ in Sacramento blames beer for ‘huge mistake’
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "When two Bay Area supporters of former President Donald Trump were indicted last year on charges of plotting to blow up the Democratic headquarters building in Sacramento, federal officials described the plans as “despicable conduct” with no place in American society.
“Firebombing your perceived political opponents is illegal and does not nurture the sort of open and vigorous debate that created and supports our constitutional democracy,” U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds said in a statement in July 2021, after the indictment of Ian Rogers and Jarrod Copeland was unsealed in San Francisco federal court.
Wednesday morning, in advance of Rogers’ sentencing next week following a plea deal in May, the former Napa mechanic’s lawyer sought to explain Rogers’ behavior.
Luna, Villanueva trade charges in antagonistic L.A. sheriff debate
ALENE TCHEKMEDYIAN, LA Times: "Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva and retired Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna squared off Wednesday night during a heated, often antagonistic, debate in which they traded barbs over their records in law enforcement and their ability to lead the nation’s largest sheriff’s department.
Villanueva painted his opponent as someone who would be a “puppet” for the county Board of Supervisors, which controls the Sheriff’s Department’s budget, while Luna accused the sheriff of spewing falsehoods about his tenure in Long Beach and blamed him for causing the bitter relationships Villanueva has with other county leaders.
When asked about the controversial raids by sheriff’s deputies last week at the home and office of county Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, who is a vocal critic of Villanueva, and others in connection with a corruption probe, Luna said he would have referred such a case to an outside agency."
The first renderings for BART’s second Transbay Tube have emerged. Here’s where it could go
RICARDO CANO, Chronicle: "It’s still decades away from becoming reality, but the first conceptual renderings for a second Transbay Tube have emerged, and hint at a significant expansion by BART and regional rail to reach new corners of San Francisco and the urban East Bay.
The latest planning effort for a second Transbay Tube — led by BART and Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor and rebranded as Link21 — is still in its early, and pivotal, stages. No firm decisions have been made. But planners are currently studying and deciding the alignment for the second Tube, which has a placeholder completion date of 2040 and an estimated cost of $29 billion.
The initial renderings seem to envision a BART system that not only potentially expands to San Francisco’s westside with the help of a second Transbay Tube, but also develops new stations in the surrounding Downtown Oakland area."
Here’s when the first batch of California inflation relief checks will go out
JESSICA FLORES, Chronicle: "The first batch of one-time payments to help millions of Californians offset rising inflation are scheduled to go out the first week of October, according to state officials.
The budget deal reached by Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature in June will provide payments ranging from $200 to $1,050 — depending on income, tax filing status and number of dependents — to eligible individuals making up to $250,000 and couples making up to $500,000 in 2020 adjusted gross income.
The payments will come out of California’s $97.5 billion surplus — the largest in state history, bringing this year’s budget to a record $300 billion."
Roseville wrestling coach arrested, accused of sexual misconduct with minors he was training
ROSALIO AHUMADA, SacBee: "Investigators earlier this week arrested a Roseville wrestling coach and former Olympian who is accused of sexual misconduct with teen athletes he was training as part of a sports business he ran out of his home.
Quincey Lee Clark, 50, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child, the Roseville Police Department announced Wednesday in a news release. Clark remained in custody Wednesday afternoon at the Placer County Jail, where he was being held in lieu of $250,000 bail.
Placer Superior Court records indicated he was scheduled to appear in court Thursday for his arraignment hearing."
