Did California’s DMV kill its no-party voter registration buzz?
BANG*Mercury News, JOHN WOOLFOLK: "The announcement five years ago from California’s elections chief was sobering: Voters registering with no political party had edged out Republicans for the first time — relegating the GOP of Ronald Reagan, Dwight Eisenhower and Abraham Lincoln to third place in the Golden State and stirring speculation that traditional party structures were on their way to irrelevance.
The trend proved short-lived. In the years since Democratic registration has continued its long rise, and even Republican registration has edged up slightly. But no-party registration has unexpectedly plummeted."
These 10 California elections might decide partisan control of U.S. House in 2024
Sac Bee, GILLIAN BRASSIL: "Whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives in 2025 is a toss-up, election analysts say, with a handful of California incumbents’ seats on the line. The state had some of the closest House races in the nation in 2022, ultimately delivering Republicans a slim majority and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, the speaker’s gavel."
Domestic violence group spreads message about California’s red flag gun law
BANG*Mercury News, ANDRE MOUCHARD: "Homicide statistics show that for many people the single most dangerous moment of their life will come while they’re at home with, or on the run from, a potentially lethal intimate partner.
That’s probably been true since humans have been cohabitating. It’s not something that’s become true only as guns have become ubiquitous in American society."
‘It’s transformative’: Bay Area nonprofit returns 43 acres to female-led Indigenous land trust
The Chronicle, JESSICA FLORES: "A female-led trust working to return East Bay land to Indigenous stewardship one parcel at a time has received its largest property yet — 43 acres in the hills above Oakland, land trust officials said.
Movement Generation, an ecological justice nonprofit, said it raised $2.8 million for the Sogorea Te’ Land Trust to purchase the property in the East Bay hills. The nonprofit said the property “had been owned by a local family for more than a century” but it was not immediately disclosing the specific location of the property, citing privacy and safety concerns for staff, as well as a family temporarily living there. Dana Viloria, a co-director of the nonprofit, said the two groups have not decided yet when to publicly share the location."
How California is fighting meth with gift cards
CALMatters, MARISA KENDALL: "Among the most difficult addictions to witness at San Francisco general hospital’s drug clinic is methamphetamine, which leaves users tearing at their skin and unable to eat, sleep or sign up for help.
The worst part: The clinic workers largely are powerless because unlike with opioid addiction, for which doctors prescribe medications such as methadone, there is no medicine for stimulant use disorder."
Community college transfer numbers are a key benchmark of success, but they remain far below the state’s own goal
CALMatters, ADAM ECHELMAN, ERICA YEE: "The community college system is falling short of one of its most important benchmarks: the number of students who transfer to a four-year college or university. It remains well below the system’s own goal, and lawmakers have taken notice.
“Although most students intend to transfer to a four-year university, few do,” wrote a group of state legislators this year as they asked the state to audit community college performance."
These charts show which Californians go to the most selective colleges
The Chronicle, NAMI SUMIDA: "These are the 70 most attended four-year colleges among Asian American, Black, Hispanic and white undergraduates in California.
Each represents a college, ordered by undergraduate enrollment for the 2021-22 academic year and colored by type of institution."
Transferring from California community colleges? It’s a tough road, EdSource survey finds
EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH, MICHAEL BURKE: "Jacob Beeman’s transfer goals were pushed back by about a year because he was taking the wrong community college classes to transfer.
“I had been jumping through all these hoops to try and get the right classes I needed to transfer and going off the advice of people who I trusted to know what they were doing,” he said."
Southern California school board votes to accept state social studies curriculum, with a catch.
Sac Bee, GRACE SCULLION: "Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom threatened to fine a Southern California school district $1.5 million over its rejection of a state-approved social studies curriculum, the school board unanimously voted to adopt a compromise version of the curriculum on Friday.
The Temecula Valley Unified School Board held an emergency meeting to adopt the elementary curriculum, though it will pull one fourth grade unit that discusses the gay rights movement for further review, the Los Angeles Times reported."
Battle over Dianne Feinstein’s Stinson Beach home holds lessons for handing down real estate
The Chronicle, KATHLEEN PENDER: "Except for the fame and fortunes of the families involved, the fight that has erupted in court over the estate of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s late husband — the billionaire financier Richard Blum — is all too common among blended families, according to attorneys who have reviewed two lawsuits filed in June and July by Feinstein’s daughter Katherine.
“It’s not uncommon when the first spouse dies that there are differences of opinion between the surviving spouse and children,” said Jean Kohler, an estate planning attorney in Los Altos."
Santa Barbara News-Press declares bankruptcy, ceases publication after more than 150 years
LA Times, CONNOR SHEETS: "The Santa Barbara News-Press is no more. After more than 150 years of newsgathering, the Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper has posted its last online edition a month after the News-Press ceased publication of its print newspaper and went all-digital.
The death knell for the once-mighty but long-floundering News-Press came in the form of a bankruptcy filing last week by Ampersand Publishing LLC, the entity by which the newspaper does business."
These California ZIP codes are now in record real estate territory
The Chronicle, JESS MARMOR SHAW: "California home prices are still down 4% from a year ago, when the state’s real estate market was at its most overheated. Yet in many neighborhoods across the state, the housing normalization appears to have stalled — and home prices are once again reaching record highs.
In June, home prices in at least 34 California ZIP codes were at all-time highs. These ZIP codes are mostly in Central and Southern California, with six in Fresno County and 12 in Los Angeles and Orange County."
Bay Area real estate market: Will mortgage rates keep going up?
BANG*Mercury News, ETHAN VARIAN: "Thinking of jumping into the Bay Area home market? Beware: Mortgage rates have been on the rise again in recent months — and are threatening to top 7% before the end of the year.
As a result, steeper home loan payments continue squeezing out many house hunters. But growing demand from those who can still afford to buy — combined with a lack of properties coming up for sale during the traditionally busier summer months — is stoking competition, pushing the Bay Area’s typical single-family home price above $1.3 million."
Is there a market solution to L.A. homeless housing?
LA Times, DOUG SMITH: "When the pastor of the South Los Angeles church unfurled his plans to build homeless housing, the council member assumed the visit was about money.
“It’s nice, but where are we going to come up with the cash?” Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson recalled asking."
A bridge toll hike could save BART. But what about low-income workers who must drive?
The Chronicle, JOE GAROFOLI: "San Francisco and Oakland state lawmakers are pushing a bill through the Legislature that would raise tolls by $1.50 on seven Bay Area bridges starting next year and direct the revenue toward the region’s public transit systems that have been struggling to survive post-pandemic.
Without this infusion of an estimated $900 million, they say BART would enter its own death spiral and be forced to cut hours and staff — and further crush any hope that San Francisco will crawl out of its so-called doom loop. The people most hurt by public transit’s demise, they say, would mostly be low-income people of color who rely on public transit to get to work."
Police don’t have to tell drivers the real reason they’re being stopped. That’s about to change
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Police stop millions of drivers and pedestrians on California’s streets and highways each year — including disparate numbers of racial minorities — but don’t have to explain the actual reason for the stops. That’s about to change.
Regulations proposed by the state Racial and Identity Profiling Advisory Board would expand the data police are currently required to report about who they stop and why to include both the stated reason for the stop, and the actual reason — as well as why it was not disclosed to the person stopped."
‘I can’t die like this’: Video shows trans man beaten by deputy during stop
LA Times, KERI BLAKINGER: "Emmett Brock thought he was dying, and his mind raced. This isn’t supposed to happen to me. This doesn’t happen this way. I can’t die like this.
He tasted the blood inside his mouth. He felt the fists land on his head. And he heard the shouts of the sheriff’s deputy on top of him, pressing him into the pavement of the 7-Eleven parking lot.""
Livermore police chief pushes Alameda County DA for tougher penalties
BANG*Mercury News, ANDRE BYIK: "In a letter, Livermore’s police chief has knocked Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price’s office for not pursuing tougher penalties against a robbery suspect whose alleged crimes “shock the conscience of our community.”
“In one of these crimes, the victim was beaten and required sutures,” Police Chief Jeramy Young wrote in a letter to Price, which was dated July 6 and provided to this newspaper. He added, “The circumstances in this case are exactly why enhancements exist.”"
