The country's eighth largest city elected a new mayor last night.
UT-San Diego's Craig Gustafson reports: "Republican City Councilman Kevin Faulconer won a decisive victory over Democratic Councilman David Alvarez in the San Diego mayor’s race Tuesday, signaling a new chapter for the city after the scandal-plagued tenure of former Mayor Bob Filner."
"Faulconer had 54.5 percent compared to Alvarez’s 45.5 percent of the vote with all precincts reporting."
The summer fuel blend of gasoline will soon prompt a familiar jump in the state's gas prices.
From Mercury News' Gary Richards: "Spring is not too far away, and neither is $4-a-gallon gasoline in California."
"Energy experts predict a 50-cent rise in prices over the next few weeks as supplies tighten -- an annual event as refineries scale back production for maintenance, California converts to the more expensive summer blend of gasoline, more drivers hit the road and oil-exporting countries boost crude prices to around $100 a barrel."
California's attorney general will launch her reelection campaign this morning.
Chris Megerian writes for the L.A. Times: "Kamala Harris will formally announce her plans to seek a second term as state attorney general on Wednesday morning in San Francisco."
"Her announcement will come at a news conference scheduled for 11 a.m. at City Hall, where she'll be handling paperwork for her reelection campaign."
A justice on California's State Supreme Court announced her retirement from the bench yesterday.
Howard Mintz reports in the Mercury News: "The 72-year-old Kennard notified Brown on Tuesday afternoon of her intent to step down in two months, when she will hit 25 years on the job as an influential -- and sometimes quirky -- member of a Supreme Court who is well known for her independent streak, willingness to pen dissents and her lengthy grilling of lawyers during oral arguments in California's highest profile cases."
The courts will soon be hearing a challenge to San Francisco's gun ban.
From SF Gates' Bob Egelko: "The National Rifle Association challenged San Francisco's ban on high-capacity gun magazines in federal court Tuesday, arguing that it violates a constitutional right of armed self-defense in the home - but had little apparent success in persuading the judge."
"In 15 years on the bench, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said at the outset of the hearing in San Francisco, "I see precious few cases where a homeowner has warded off an intruder with 10 or more bullets," but many cases in which criminals wielded large-capacity guns."
San Francisco fire officials are facing several subpoenas related to a drunk driving accident.
Jaxon Van Derbeken reports in SF Gate: "Two top officials in the San Francisco Fire Department are among at least two dozen firefighters who have been subpoenaed to testify before a criminal grand jury investigating a crash last year in which an allegedly drunken firefighter rammed a motorcyclist with his truck and left the scene, The Chronicle has learned."
An investigation into former State Senator Mark Ridley-Thomas thickens.
L.A. Times' Paul Pringle and Jack Leonard report: "Newly released records show that a contractor charged the county $6,239 to perform work during a project to install a security system that included replacing interior walls in Ridley-Thomas' converted garage and trenching the property for an electrical upgrade."
Yesterday an initiative cleared for circulation that would increase transparency in elections.
From Capitol Weekly's John Howard: "Millions of dollars of so-called “dark money” that poured into California’s November 2012 elections has prompted a ballot initiative that would require nonprofits to disclose donations for political activities."
"The state’s elections officer on Tuesday cleared the way for the measure’s backers, led by organized labor, to circulate petitions for signatures of registered voters. The proposal needs the signatures of 504,760 voters to qualify for the November ballot. The deadline to submit the signatures to election officials is July 10."
Party politics on Capitol Hill are becomming a dominant presence in our state's water debate.
Jim Carlton and Siobhan Hughes write for the Wall Street Journal: "A bill introduced Tuesday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.) would aid farmers, businesses and communities in drought-ravaged parts of California and Oregon by providing $300 million for such things as new water projects and by making it easier to buy water from neighboring jurisdictions."
"The legislation also would abide by federal restrictions that protect endangered smelt and other fish that get caught up in pumps that move water from the wetter northern part of California to the semiarid south—protections the House bill, introduced last week, would weaken."
A hearing on the use of solitary confinement left in state prisons left legislators doubtful of progress.
Jeremy B. White notes in the Sac Bee: "Corrections officials have touted a new pilot program allowing inmates to ease their way out of solitary confinement, and regulations recently submitted to the Office of Administrative Law would allow the pilot to be applied throughout the prison system."
"But legislators seemed skeptical that the changes would substantially reduce the practice of walling off inmates in the "Security Housing Units," or SHU, that exist in four state prisons."
The cost to set roots in California is on the rise.
Andrew Khouri writes in the L.A. Times: "A combination of rising rents and falling government aid for affordable housing has dealt a blow to California's lower-income residents, according to a new study."
"Nearly 1 million extremely-low-income California households lack affordable, habitable homes, a need most pronounced in Southern California, a report released Tuesday found."
A "rentership society" is emerging in the Bay Area.
From Darwin BondGraham in the East Bay Express: "There are landlords, and then there are land lords. The obscure company that bought Cheri King's house and evicted her, Colfin AI CA 5 LLC, is a tiny part of a global real estate empire called Colony Capital. Colony is headquartered in Santa Monica, but has offices in China, France, Italy, Lebanon, South Korea, Spain, and elsewhere. Colony Capital's holdings include $50 billion in property scattered around the world."
"The company's newest colony is Oakland, where, through several shadowy limited liability companies, it has bought up at least 26 single-family homes, mostly in 2012 and 2013, including Cheri King's, according to records in the Alameda County Assessor's Office. In addition to investing in foreclosed homes, Colony Capital is one of the primary investors behind Coliseum City, the giant 800-acre waterfront redevelopment project proposed for the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum property and the area immediately surrounding it. Mayor Jean Quan has described Colony Capital as having "very deep pockets." The company is also one of the major investors in FRHI Hotels & Resorts, which owns the Fairmont hotels chain and is in the process of buying one of Oakland's most iconic landmarks, the Claremont Hotel."
Finally, from our "Watch Your Step" file: a 40ft sink hole engulfed luxury cars at a Kentucky museum yesterday.
The Courier-Journal's Mark Boxley reports: "A 40-foot sink hole at the National Corvette Museum in Bowling Green swallowed eight of the sports cars on display inside the the facility’s iconic Sky Dome Wednesday morning, said executive director Wendell Strode."
