Newsom threatens DeSantis with kidnapping charges after migrants flown to Sacramento
LA Times, MACKENZIE MAYS, MELANIE MASON: "Gov. Gavin Newsom took his feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis to new heights on Monday, seemingly threatening him with kidnapping charges after California officials say South American migrants were sent to Sacramento by the state of Florida as a political stunt.
Newsom, a Democrat, cited state kidnapping laws in a tweet to the Florida governor and Republican presidential hopeful, whom he called a “small, pathetic man.”
“This isn’t Martha’s Vineyard. Kidnapping charges?” Newsom said in the tweet, referencing DeSantis’ action last year to send a group of Venezuelan migrants to the wealthy liberal vacation spot in Massachusetts."
Newsom slams DeSantis as 'small, pathetic man' as second migrant flight arrives in Sacramento
The Chronicle, SOPHIA BOLLAG: "A group of about 20 migrants arrived on Monday in Sacramento, the second time in just a few days migrants have been flown to the California capital in what officials say appears to be a political maneuver orchestrated by officials in Florida, according to the California Attorney General’s Office.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Rob Bonta said the company that transported them appears to be the same one that transported another group of 16 migrants from Texas to Sacramento late last week.
Bonta’s office has made contact with the migrants in the second group, spokesperson Tara Gallegos said."
California Legislature’s honor for drag activist angers state Republicans
LA Times, HANNAH WILEY: "Known as much for her dramatic face makeup and colored boa headdresses as for her work caring for AIDS patients, promoting safe-sex education and cleaning up trash throughout San Francisco, drag activist Sister Roma was honored Monday during an annual LGBTQ+ Pride Month ceremony in the state Capitol.
But what’s normally a routine event in the statehouse dominated by Democrats, where more LGBTQ+ lawmakers now serve than at any time in state history, has become a flashpoint in the culture wars as Republicans push back against acceptance of transgender identities and honors for a group of service-oriented drag queens who they see as mocking the Catholic religion.
“The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, through their public disparagement of the Catholic Faith, have displayed a disregard for the principles of tolerance and understanding that should guide our society. Honoring them in the Senate Chambers would be inappropriate and contrary to the values we hold dear,” GOP state senators wrote in a letter last week asking Senate leader Toni Atkins to withdraw Roma’s invitation to be honored in the chamber."
Republicans protest as California lawmakers celebrating Pride Month honor a drag nun
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "Protest took a back seat to celebration at the California Capitol Monday as lawmakers honored drag nun Sister Roma and proclaimed June LGBT Pride Month.
Roma, who belongs to the San Francisco-based Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, was one of 15 guests invited by the legislature’s LGBTQ Caucus as the Assembly and Senate passed resolutions proclaiming June as LGBTQ pride month. Other honorees included tennis legend Billie Jean King and filmmaker Eugene Lee Yang.
Republicans in the Senate called on Senate President pro Tem Toni Atkins, D-San Diego, to revoke Roma’s invitation last Thursday. A group of Catholic and evangelical Christian demonstrators gathered on the Capitol’s west steps Monday afternoon to protest Roma’s recognition."
Adam Schiff secures another Sacramento-area endorsement in bid to succeed Dianne Feinstein
Sac Bee, ANDREW SHEELER: "Burbank Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff announced another Sacramento-area endorsement Friday: Rep. Ami Bera.
Bera joins Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, and more than half the California Democratic congressional delegation (including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) in backing Schiff’s bid to replace retiring Sen. Dianne Feinstein.
“I’ve known Adam since I’ve been in Congress and had a chance to watch Adam’s leadership,” Bera told The Bee."
ROADMAP 2035: A conversation with CPUC Commissioner John Reynolds (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "This Special Episode of the Capitol Weekly Podcast was recorded live at Capitol Weekly’s conference examining California’s climate goals: ROADMAP 2035: Cars, Carbon and Climate Change – How Do We Meet California’s Zero Emissions Goals? which was held in Sacramento at the California Endowment Conference Center on Thursday, May 25, 2023
This is This is the Keynote, a conversation between California Public Utilities Commissioner John Reynolds and Capitol Weekly editor Rich Ehisen."
New federal charge in S.F. corruption scandal alleges $20K bribe to hire a city worker
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Another bribery charge involving former San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru was filed Monday by federal prosecutors accusing a man of trying to buy an engineering job with a $20,000 payoff to Nuru.
Ken Hong Wong was charged with felony counts of bribery and conspiracy for allegedly making four $5,000 cash payments to Nuru between December 2018 and July 2019 to hire “Individual #1,” not identified in the charges, as an engineer at the Department of Public Works.
Federal prosecutors provided no details of the alleged payoff. But in Nuru’s plea agreement in December 2021, according to prosecutors, he admitted accepting $20,000 from a former government employee to help someone get an engineering job, but that the unnamed person “failed to maintain employment.”"
Rights to California’s most important resource are built on injustice. New legislation seeks to change that
The Chronicle, KURTIS ALEXANDER: "Who gets California’s water, and how much, is a high-stakes affair, and it’s based on a system of water rights born long ago, when the West was wild — and often unfair.
The first-come, first-served pecking order established during European settlement gave the new and dominant landowners first dibs on pumping rivers and creeks. The beneficiaries, which include the likes of San Francisco and its pristine supplies in Yosemite, continue to enjoy tremendous advantage, consuming water with little constraint while others sometimes go without.
Amid growing water shortages and focus on equity, the system has begun drawing increased scrutiny. Last week the state Legislature weighed in with the unusual step of advancing measures that would help regulators rein in the most privileged and profligate water users."
‘Improvised, spotty and belated’: Will California reform its oversight of water rights?
LA Times, IAN JAMES: "California’s complex system of water rights took shape starting in the mid-1800s, when settlers saw the state’s water as abundant and free for the taking — a time when a Gold Rush prospector could stake claim to river flows simply by nailing a notice to a tree.
Today, California’s oldest and most senior water rights — called riparian and pre-1914 rights — have been passed along to thousands of agricultural landowners, irrigation districts and urban water suppliers that claim control of roughly one-third of the water that is diverted from the state’s rivers and streams.
But increasingly, California water regulators are struggling to manage supplies for 39 million residents, agriculture and the environment as climate change warps the hydrologic cycle and brings longer-lasting and more severe droughts. Legal experts say the way the state manages this antiquated system is in dire need of reform. Among other problems, they say, current law prevents officials from verifying whether claims of senior water rights are valid, ordering those water users to reduce usage, or imposing fines that are large enough to penalize those who flout the rules."
More recreation, fewer wetlands: Backlash prompts San Diego to compromise on plans to transform northeastern Mission Bay
LA Times, DAVID GARRICK: "Backlash against San Diego’s plan to transform much of northeast Mission Bay into marshland has prompted significant revisions, including a 10% boost in land devoted to golf, tennis, youth sports and other recreation.
City officials have also added language to the plan promising to minimize disruptions if fields are relocated. It also requires replacement recreation sites to be created before existing recreation sites are turned into marshland.
Although the revised plan stops short of giving recreation supporters long-sought assurances they won’t lose their sites to new marshland, it is generally being embraced by community leaders as an encouraging step toward compromise."
Thunderstorms and heavy rain are returning to California. Here’s a timeline of what to expect
The Chronicle, ANTHONY EDWARDS: "Just when you thought it was safe to go out without a raincoat — a big weather shift is coming to the Bay Area this week. Cooler temperatures, rain showers and even some thunderstorms and small hail are in the forecast. The most likely period for storms is Monday evening through Tuesday afternoon.
Rainfall totals this week will generally stay under a tenth of an inch, reaching up to a half an inch in areas with heavy showers. Normal June rainfall amounts are generally less than a quarter inch for most of the Bay Area, making this an atypical drenching heading into early summer.
An old meteorologists’ saying is, “cut-off low, weatherman’s woe.” That will be the case this week as an area of low pressure, cut off from the jet stream, meanders toward California and spins turbulent weather across the state."
New wildfire ‘smelling sensors’ could help protect this vulnerable part of Bay Area
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "While wildfire season is just beginning to ramp up in California this year after historic winter storms drenched the state and erased Bay Area drought conditions, the Oakland hills remain particularly vulnerable to catastrophic wildfires — which is why the city is testing out a new network of sensors that may help the Fire Department corral blazes before they get out of control, officials announced.
Over the last month, the city installed 10 sensors that will monitor air quality across Oakland’s wildfire-prone terrain, alerting fire crews if early signs of wildfires are detected, according to a recent news release.With high food prices, grocery shopping has become a strategy game. Angelenos share how they get byWith high food prices, grocery shopping has become a strategy game. Angelenos share how they get by
The pilot program, which will be in place for two years, is a partnership between the Oakland Fire Department, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Science and Technology Directorate, N5 Sensors Inc., and TechNexus Venture Collaborative."
‘Cryptic’ mountain creature — with 9 babies on its back — discovered as new species
Sac Bee, ASPEN PFLUGHOEFT: "Perched on a leaf in the cool night air, a creature stops to rest. The nine babies on her back stay balanced despite the slope.
A bright beam of light pierces through the darkness.
Scientists spot the mother and approach her perch. They peer closer at the creatures and realize they’re looking at a new species."
In California's youth justice system, many high schoolers graduate with grade-school reading skills
EdSource, BETTY MARQUEZ ROSALES, DANIEL J. WILLIS: "Many teenagers who’ve spent time in California’s juvenile detention facilities get high school diplomas with grade-school reading skills.
During a five-year span beginning in 2018, 85% of these students who graduated from high school and took a 12th-grade reading assessment did not pass it, according to data from the Division of Juvenile Justice, the agency operating state youth facilities.
What’s more, over a fifth of all students tested at lower grade levels, signaling how far behind these students are. And not a single student during those five years was below eighth grade, yet nearly a third of all assessments were for grades K-6, data show."
With high food prices, grocery shopping has become a strategy game. Angelenos share how they get by
LA Times, CARLY OLSON, HELEN LI: "The U.S. is not in a recession, but the psychological weight of that possibility — combined with the effects of still-high inflation — have consumers bracing for the fallout and strategizing to save money.
Their first move? For many shoppers, it’s rethinking how they buy groceries.
Betty Luckett, a preschool owner who lives in downtown Los Angeles, has started pinching pennies at the grocery store to keep the operating costs for her business in check."
SAG-AFTRA members approve strike authorization by overwhelming margin
LA Times, ANOUSHA SAKOUI: "Members of SAG-AFTRA have voted to strike if they can’t reach a deal with studios over a new contract by June 30, underscoring widening labor tensions across Hollywood.
The vote was approved by a 98% margin, the union said Monday night.
The endorsement gives the union more leverage in negotiations with studios that begin Wednesday on behalf of its 160,000 performers and broadcasters."
California DMV is cracking down on disabled parking fraud. How a new rule is meant to help
Sac Bee, BRIANNA TAYLOR: "Starting June 30, the process of renewing permanent disabled parking placards in California will change in an effort to crack down on fraudulent usage across the state.
Holders will be required to sign a form, issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, to verify they’re still alive and in need of a tag once every six years. Folks who received their original permanent disabled person parking placard before January 2019 are part of the first renewal cycle, according to the California DMV.
Disabled license plates and placards give certain parking privileges to disabled people and veterans as well as transportation organizations that serve those individuals."
L.A. asked Congress for millions to address homelessness. But getting the cash isn’t certain
LA Times, BENJAMIN ORESKES: "With a broken elevator and a spotty HVAC system, the Gower Street Apartments badly needed some updates when the building’s owner received a surprising call earlier this year. A city housing official suggested that perhaps Congress could fund repairs to the supportive housing development for formerly homeless people.
After years of being scorned in Washington, the rebirth of congressional earmarks could help address a common conundrum confronting that building and other affordable housing developments: Lenders and governments make lots of money available to construct new housing but not to refurbish residences that already exist.
And yet that February call was the first time anyone had suggested turning to Congress for help. Community of Friends, the nonprofit owner of the Hollywood apartment building that houses 50 low-income people, many of whom are elderly or disabled, has “never received an earmark that I’m aware of in our history,” CEO Dora Gallo said."
Lawyer: GOP Rep. Santos will go to jail rather than reveal donors
AP, MICHAEL R. SISAK: "Rep. George Santos’ lawyer said Monday the indicted New York Republican would risk going to jail to protect the identities of the people who cosigned the $500,000 bond enabling his pretrial release.
The lawyer, Joseph Murray, urged a judge to deny a request by news outlets to unseal the names of Santos’ bond suretors, suggesting they could “suffer great distress,” including possible job losses and physical harm, if they’re identified publicly.
“My client would rather surrender to pretrial detainment than subject these suretors to what will inevitably come,” Murray wrote in a letter to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anne Shields."
