The state's water chief is mulling over releasing the Oroville Dam's document cache in the spirit of public interest, despite Gov. Brown's attempts to keep the files confidential under federal terrorism laws.
Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER/RYAN SABALOW: "California’s top water official said Thursday he’s considering releasing redacted copies of safety and progress reports at the troubled Oroville Dam after his office had tried to keep them secret because of terrorism concerns."
"Bill Croyle, the acting director of the Department of Water Resources, told reporters that his staff met for several hours Thursday with Butte County Sheriff Kory Honea to discuss which parts of the documents should be kept secret and which to release."
"He defended the need to keep sensitive material in the documents secret, but said he’s considering releasing versions of records with portions redacted, or blacked out, to meet potential security concerns."
READ MORE related to Local: Rift opens between the Brown administration and legislators over new marijuana laws in California -- LA Times' PATRICK MCGREEVY
State pension funds spent more than $10 billion in fees trying to chase high returns on risky investments in 2014.
Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "State pension funds across the nation shelled out more than $10 billion in fees in 2014 as they chased higher returns from increasingly complex and risky investments, according to a new report from the PEW Charitable Trusts."
"The report traces 10 years of performance at the 73 largest state-sponsored pension funds. Collectively, they manage more than $2.8 trillion in assets."
"Most of them, including California’s two major public employee pension funds, did not hit their target investment returns over the decade that PEW studied, 2006-2015."
READ MORE related to Economy: Who pays the most and least income tax in California? -- Sacramento Bee's JIM MILLER; Jerry Brown calls for probe into troubled tax board, restricts its spending, hiring -- Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON; If your phone line gets hacked, guess who your service provider thinks should pay the bill -- LA Times' DAVID LAZARUS
The ATF head in Los Angeles has issued an advisory warning telling police officials to be aware of the growing trend of law enforcement officers moonlighting as illegal arms dealers.
San Gabriel Valley Tribune's BRIAN DAY: "The head of the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Los Angeles has cautioned Southland police departments to watch out for the “growing trend” of law enforcement officers engaging in unlicensed, illegal firearms dealing."
"In an advisory distributed to area police and sheriff’s departments and dated March 31, Special Agent in Charge of the ATF in Los Angeles Eric D. Harden warned that the agency has learned of an “emerging problem” with respect to law enforcement officers buying and then reselling guns, in possible violation of federal firearms law. The involved guns include many which are considered “off-roster” under California law, meaning that they can be purchased only by law enforcement officers and are not available to the general public."
"Recently, ATF has discovered that some law enforcement officers who do not have a (Federal Firearms License) are purchasing ‘off roster’ firearms and reselling those firearms to non-law enforcement entities for a profit,” Harden wrote."
READ MORE related to Public Safety: California police unions push bill on public disclosure in use-of-force cases -- Sacramento Bee's TARYN LUNA
Anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles have prompted the arrests of dozens of activists.
Daily News' RYAN CARTER: "They prayed. They marched. They sang. And they were arrested — in the name of immigrant families."
"Thirty-five people were taken into custody Thursday in downtown Los Angeles on civil disobedience charges, police said. The arrests came at the culmination of a march that drew hundreds of people in support of undocumented immigrants detained by federal authorities on the heels of the Trump administration’s hard-line immigration policies."
"The protest was made up of clergy, activists, immigrants and their supporters, with a goal of using the days of the holy week before Easter to take a stand “for immigrant and refugee families."
READ MORE related to Immigration: Federal judge hears challenge to Trump's order against 'sanctuary' cities -- LA Times' MAURA DOLAN; Mexican tourists once flocked to the US during Easter week. This year, they're elsewhere -- and they blame Trump -- LA Times' LAURA TILLMAN
A state transportation bill passed at the last minute provides the BART system with tens of millions of extra dollars, allowing it to forego extreme cuts that would adversely affect those who rely on its services the most.
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "BART officials were set Thursday to fill a looming multimillion-dollar budget gap in ways that would hurt many of its passengers."
"They would start trains an hour later in the morning, eliminate after-hours bus service and slash discounts for seniors, kids and riders with disabilities."
"But all that changed abruptly with word Wednesday night that a state transportation bill, which became law last week, will bring the rail system millions of dollars more in funding than BART officials had anticipated. Sacramento would deliver an extra $16 million this year — enough to allow BART to pare its proposed budget cuts nearly in half."
READ MORE related to Transportation: The price of safety on California's bullet train is only now becoming apparent -- LA Times' RALPH VARTABEDIAN
Type 2 diabetes is now alarmingly prevalent among younger populations despite largely having been once considered a disease that only affected adults.
LA Times' KAREN KAPLAN:"For years, health experts have bemoaned the rise of childhood obesity in the United States. About 17% of kids and teens in the U.S. are now considered obese, a figure that has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."
"A report in this week’s edition of the New England Journal of Medicine lays out one of the consequences of all this excess weight: a corresponding increase in childhood cases of type 2 diabetes."
"Type 2 diabetes occurs when extra body fat makes it hard for cells to use insulin, a hormone that turns sugar into energy. Over time, blood sugar levels rise and cause blood vessels to become stiff, increasing the risk of life-threatening conditions like heart attacks, strokes and kidney failure, among others. More than 75,000 Americans die of diabetes each year, the CDC says."
More than 1100 imperiled desert tortoises have been relocated from a Marine Corps training base in Twentynine Palms.
The Press-Enterprise's DAVID DANELSKI: "Wildlife biologist Scott Welch looked out over the Mojave Desert and readied for action when he heard a distant helicopter flying in."
"Just seconds after the aircraft landed, he and two others began loading it with plastic storage bins containing desert tortoises captured at an expansion area of the U.S. Marines Corps training base at Twentynine Palms."
"They carefully packed 26 of the imperiled reptiles — one or two per bin — onto cargo carriers on the helicopter that looked like oversized saddlebags."
READ MORE related to Environment: Why celebrate the latest rainstorm? Because Northern California has set a new record -- Sacramento Bee's DALE KASLER; Trump's land official meets with Brown: 'We want to be the friendly, yep organization' -- Sacramento Bee's CHRISTOPHER CADELAGO
For the first time in its military history, the United States dropped an MOAB, or Mother of All Bombs, on a network of tunnels being used by ISIS insurgents in Afghanistan.
The Chronicle's ROBERT BURNS: "U.S. forces in Afghanistan on Thursday struck an Islamic State tunnel complex in eastern Afghanistan with "the mother of all bombs," the largest non-nuclear weapon ever used in combat by the U.S. military, Pentagon officials said."
"The bomb, known officially as a GBU-43B, or massive ordnance air blast weapon, unleashes 11 tons of explosives. When it was developed in the early 2000s, the Pentagon did a formal review of legal justification for its combat use."
"The Pentagon said it had no early estimate of deaths or damage caused by its attack, which President Donald Trump called a "very, very successful mission."
Ever wonder why your shoelaces come undone after tying off the perfect pair of bunny ears? Scientists at UC Berkeley have finally studied the perfect way to tie a shoe -- and the answer may surprise you.
The Chronicle's STEVE RUBENSTEIN: "Scientists, who have studied most things, have now studied why shoelaces come untied."
"A two-year project at UC Berkeley also has found that a lot of people don’t know the best way to tie their shoes, including the scientist who performed the study."
