Is California’s assault weapons ban on target?
Capitol Weekly's BRIAN JOSEPH: "California Gov. Gavin Newsom has made national headlines touting his plan to add a 28th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that would implement what he’s called “common sense constitutional protections and gun safety measures that Democrats, Republicans, independent voters, and gun owners overwhelmingly support.”
His proposal essentially seeks to enshrine at the federal level several of California’s gun laws, including what the governor and the state call a ban on assault weapons."
We looked at how well California lawmakers are representing you. Here’s what we found
CALMatters's SAMEEA KAMAL: "It can’t be easy to be a Republican in predominantly blue California.
But Kelly Donivan, of El Cajon, said she believes she is well represented by her state senator, Brian Jones. He represents her values, she said, but also, his legislative director has “moved mountains” for her to solve problems she’s had with state agencies, such as getting an ID from the Department of Motor Vehicles."
Column: Trump could gut abortion access in California if elected. Here’s how
LAT's ANITA CHABRIA: "Good morning and welcome to Los Angeles Times Politics, our new guide to an election year fraught with controversy, misinformation and, yes, exhaustion.
With 216 days left until we find out who will be our next Grandpa President, there are so many questions that need answering. For example:"
Strong water conservation standards are essential for low-income communities (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly's KYLE JONES: "California’s State Water Board is wrestling with what terms to set for water conservation regulation for urban areas. This regulation implements state policy designed to Make Conservation a California Way of Life. But the only way to make that vision equitable is to ensure the needs of low-income communities are taken into account.
Unfortunately, the Water Board is considering making it too easy to slow-walk investments in conservation, not only in low-income communities, but also in wealthy places like Beverly Hills that use significantly more than their fair share. The proposed regulation currently under consideration means that 72% of Californians will not need to save a single additional drop until 2035. This approach continues to shift the burden of meeting California’s water needs onto communities that can least afford it."
The Micheli Minute: April 1, 2024
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "Introducing The Micheli Minute! Lobbyist and author Chris Micheli offers a quick look at what’s coming up this week in Sacramento."
What California’s ‘unusually average’ snowpack means for water resources
The Chronicle's JACK LEE: "California’s snowpack is kicking off April just above average — a welcome reversal following a dismal start.
“January 1st, we were at 28% of average, which was not fantastic,” said Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist and manager of UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory during a briefing Monday."
‘Way, way, way above normal’ rains could set all-time L.A. record as wet weather continues
LAT's GRACE TOOHEY, HAYLEY SMITH: "After a comparatively dry fall in Southern California, there was a point last December when it seemed like the fears of a strong, wet El Niño winter may have been overblown.
So much for that."California school districts have been trying to recruit and retain Black teachers for years, but the numbers don’t seem to be increasing. The cost of teacher preparation and unpaid student teaching make it difficult for Black teacher candidates to complete the work to earn a credential. Once in the classroom, a lack of support and respect sometimes makes it difficult for them to remain.
In the 2020-21 school year, the most recent year data is available, 3.8% of all teachers in California were Black, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black students made up 5.2% of the state’s student population that year."
‘Getting significantly worse’: California community colleges are losing millions to financial aid fraud
CALMatters's ADAM ECHELMAN: "They’re called “Pell runners” — after enrolling at a community college they apply for a federal Pell grant, collect as much as $7,400, then vanish.
Since fall 2021, California’s community colleges have given more than $5 million to Pell runners, according to monthly reports they sent to the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office. Colleges also report they’ve given nearly $1.5s million in state and local aid to these scammers."
Bay Area teachers make one-third of superintendents’ salaries. So why are superintendents automatically getting the same raises?
BANG*Mercury News's MOLLY GIBBS: "Hours before a walkout, administrators at the Pleasanton Unified School District coughed up a 10% pay hike earlier this month to keep teachers from hitting the picket line.
But teachers aren’t the only ones benefiting from a salary boost. Thanks to a contract clause known as “me too,” high-paid district administrators will receive identical raises as the employees whose contracts they helped negotiate."
Bias, extra work and feelings of isolation: 5 Black teachers tell their stories
EdSource's DIANA LAMBERT: "California school districts have been trying to recruit and retain Black teachers for years, but the numbers don’t seem to be increasing. The cost of teacher preparation and unpaid student teaching make it difficult for Black teacher candidates to complete the work to earn a credential. Once in the classroom, a lack of support and respect sometimes makes it difficult for them to remain.
In the 2020-21 school year, the most recent year data is available, 3.8% of all teachers in California were Black, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Black students made up 5.2% of the state’s student population that year."
Jewish, Israeli students file civil rights complaint against UC Davis. ‘Atmosphere of hostility’
ISHANI DESAI, SacBee: "An international nonprofit filed a federal civil rights complaint Monday on behalf of Jewish, Israeli and Zionist students and stakeholders at UC Davis alleging the university turned a blind eye and failed to protect them from antisemitic harassment.
StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice — a partner with nonprofit StandWithUs that describes itself as supporting Israel and combating antisemitism — said the university has “tacitly” endorsed speech by employees that allegedly violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
Foster kids miss out on sports and music. A new California plan aims to help them catch up
CALMatters's ANA B. IBARRA: "Foster kids often miss out on Little League or music lessons. That’s one of the consequences of changing homes, or living with a family on a tight budget.
Now California has a new plan to give them opportunities for the kinds of ecccccxtracurricular activities that can build character and community."
California could be first state to give workers right to ignore boss’s after-hours calls, texts, emails
BANG*Mercury News's JOHN WOOLFOLK, JULIA PRODIS SULEK: "Victoria Ortiz was enjoying a turkey leg at a Disneyland France cafe with her husband and son two summers ago when her phone pinged. It was a text message from her boss: “Check your email.” So back at the hotel later that day, she dutifully interrupted her European vacation and fired up her computer.
“It’s the rat race for sure — 100 percent the rat race,” Ortiz, 46, an accountant at a San Jose medical devices company, said Monday."
Silicon Valley billionaires planning Solano County ‘California Forever’ utopia score big win in $510 million fight against farmers
BANG*Mercury News's ETHAN BARON: "The Silicon Valley billionaires trying to build a utopian city in Solano County scored a major win in court against landowners they accused of conspiring to inflate the prices of their properties.
In May last year, the project’s real estate arm Flannery Associates sued dozens of landowners for $510 million in damages, claiming that through “endless greed” they worked together to jack up sale prices for their property in violation of federal antitrust law. A number of the ranchers have reached settlements with Flannery, which has already spent more than $800 million on land."
Disney’s biggest shareholder fight in 20 years will shape the company’s future
LAT's MEG JAMES: "Walt Disney Co.’s biggest boardroom showdown in 20 years culminates this week with an election that has already reverberated throughout the Burbank entertainment giant.
Billionaire Nelson Peltz has waged a nearly six-month battle for a seat on Disney’s board of directors. A smaller activist group, Blackwells Capital, joined the fray with three other candidates. Disney has offered its own slate of 12 nominees, including two new board members."
Tension over control of CapRadio mounts with donation of transmission tower to KVIE-TV
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "The group pushing for KVIE public television to take over control of Capital Public Radio has donated a tower it owns — and that CapRadio uses to transmit its signals — to the PBS affiliate, officials said Monday night.
The donation by the board of directors for the Capital Public Radio Endowment’s tower transfer to KVIE was made Friday, according to a gift deed signed by board President Dan Brunner.
California is building fewer homes. The state could get even more expensive
LAT's ANDREW KHOURI: "Ken Kahan makes a living building homes.
A specialty? Luxury apartment complexes in Los Angeles neighborhoods such as Palms and Silver Lake filled with mostly market rate units, but with a handful of income-restricted affordable ones as well."
Teen, reported kidnapped, was killed by deputies as she followed their instructions, video shows
LAT's NATHAN SOLIS: "Savannah Graziano, a 15-year-old who was abducted by her father in September 2022, was shot and killed by sheriff’s deputies as she followed their instructions and ran toward them on the side of a California highway, according to newly released video and audio.
Savannah was killed on Highway 15 in the San Bernardino County city of Hesperia nearly 24 hours after the California Highway Patrol had issued an Amber Alert about her abduction. Authorities found her mother, Tracy Martinez, shot to death in the street near her Fontana home, and the girl was missing. Her father, Anthony Graziano, was described as the main suspect behind the killing and the girl’s abduction. Authorities said he also fired at another person and a child at a nearby school around the same time."
BART expected to operate under a $26 million deficit next year
The Chronicle's RICARDO CANO: "For the past five years, BART has relied on federal and state assistance to keep its trains running as steep ridership declines sapped its fare revenues.
But the regional rail agency will soon run out of the $1.9 billion in subsidies as it forecasts a $26 million operating deficit in the 2026 fiscal year, which begins in July 2025, according to BART’s latest budget projections."
Why some vehicles are set to lose access to carpool lanes in California
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "For the first time since 1999, carpool lanes in California will likely soon be reserved for carpools only.
Barring congressional action, come Sept. 30, 2025, the maroon, green and yellow stickers allowing electric, plug-in hybrid and compressed natural gas vehicles to use the carpool lanes — regardless of the number of occupants — will expire, along with federal authorization to let them into the diamond lanes."
S.F. officials slam plan to change Oakland International Airport’s name
The Chronicle's DAVID HERNANDEZ, MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "San Francisco International Airport leaders and elected officials are pushing back on a plan to change the name of Oakland International Airport.
The name under consideration? The San Francisco Bay Oakland International Airport. The airport’s code — OAK — and visual brand would not change, according to officials with the Port of Oakland, which runs the East Bay airport."
Victims in fatal plane crash near Northern California airport were longtime tech investors
ARIANE LANGE, SacBee: "An Israeli soccer-player-turned-venture capitalist and his wife, a fellow tech investor, died Saturday in lightly falling snow after the the couple’s single-engine plane crash near Truckee Tahoe Airport.
Liron Petrushka, 57, was trying to land his single-engine Daher-Socata TBM700N turboprop Saturday evening when, according to airport officials, he crashed after a missed approach. He and Naomi Petrushka, 58, had three sons: David, Scott and Jordan.
Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Denny Walsh, a longtime Sacramento Bee writer, dies
SAM STANTON, SacBee: "Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Denny J. Walsh, who spent more than 25 years covering federal courts for The Sacramento Bee after a career that included stops at Life magazine and The New York Times, died Friday. He was 88.
Walsh, a giant in American journalism who relished complex investigative stories exposing corruption among public officials and wrongdoing by mob figures, died in his sleep at his Antelope home, five months after the death of Peggy, his wife of 57 years. He retired from The Bee in November 2016, but maintained close contact with a legion of judges, lawyers and former colleagues who said he frequently knew more about the inner workings of the federal courts in downtown Sacramento than the participants themselves.
