California's tax checkoffs favor a minority group of charities; Californians want to change this and incorporate more worthwhile causes into the system.
Alexi Koseff reporting in Sacramento Bee: "The seed for one California tax checkoff benefiting a well-connected charity was planted at a warehouse in Martinez."
"In March 2010, then-state Sen. Mark DeSaulnier was invited by a constituent to help assemble bags of school supplies and dental kits for low-income students. It was at this early volunteer event for the nonprofit K to College that the Concord Democrat met its founder and executive director, Benito Delgado-Olson, a recent graduate of UC Berkeley working to turn his university group into a full-time charity."
"Within two years, DeSaulnier was carrying a bill for Delgado-Olson to create the School Supplies for Homeless Children Fund, elevating K to College’s mission to one of a precious few voluntary contribution slots on the state tax form."
BART sees a partial restoration of service, but it is highly limited as the system's future remains uncertain.
Michael Cabanataun in The Chronicle reports: "The limited service will run every 15 minutes during the morning and evening commutes — from 4 to 9 a.m. and 3 to 8 p.m. — with passengers the rest of the day still relegated to special buses connecting the stations."
"But even as BART announced the shuttle train, officials couldn’t say how long customers would have to rely on it. Engineers and outside experts continued Monday to search for the elusive gremlin that’s causing train-damaging power spikes on the rails between the stations, but came up empty."
"The mysterious power surges, which knocked 50 BART railcars out of service Wednesday north of the North Concord Station, prompted the transit agency to shut down service to the end-of-the-line Pittsburg/Bay Point Station. It couldn’t risk continuing to run trains over the offending tracks."
The FBI may no longer need Apple's help to access the San Bernardino shooter's phones.
From the AP's Brandon Bailey and Amanda Lee Myers: "The government has been adamant for weeks: FBI investigators need to unlock an encrypted iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers, and Apple Inc. was the only one that could do it."
"In a stunning reversal on Monday, federal prosecutors asked a judge to halt a much-anticipated hearing on their efforts to force Apple to unlock the phone. The FBI may have found another way, and Apple's cooperation may no longer be needed, according to court papers filed late Monday, less than 24 hours before Tuesday's hearing."
"An outside party" came forward over the weekend and showed the FBI a possible method to access the data on Syed Rizwan Farook's encrypted phone, according to the filing."
In other news, Gov. Brown's detractors think his prison plan has no hope of making this year's ballot.
The AP reports: "Opponents say Gov. Jerry Brown is unlikely to gather enough signatures to put his plan to reduce the state's prison population before voters in November."
"The California District Attorneys Association said in a court filing Monday that Brown is falling far short of the roughly 1 million signatures he'll need by late April to make sure his plan qualifies for the ballot."
"The group says his chances are so poor that the California Supreme Court should reject the governor's appeal of a lower court ruling about the measure."
The 11th Capitol Weekly podcast has been released and is available for listening here.
"Animal advocate and communications specialist Jennifer Fearing stops by the Capitol Weekly office to talk about last week's announcement that Marine World will phase out Orca shows at their parks; plus, find out which recent Sacramento Bee political story quoted 14 men and zero women -- and the phenomenon that is Sutter Brown."
BREAKING: Terrorist suicide attack at Brussels transportation hubs early Tuesday morning claims 31 lives, injures 150.
"Explosions at the airport and a downtown metro stop rocked the city Tuesday, killing at least 26 people, wounding more than 100 and shutting down all public transportation."
"Terror alerts rose across Europe, in the U.S. and around the world."
"Belgium's federal prosecutor confirmed the blasts at the airport were caused by a suicide attack. The explosion at the metro station was near buildings that house European Union institutions in central Brussels."
