A state legislator wants to say goodbye to gas cars by the year 2040, restricting their sale in an effort to curb emissions and shift towards renewable energy.
Sacramento Bee's ALEXEI KOSEFF: "France and the United Kingdom are doing it. So is India. And now one lawmaker would like California to follow their lead in phasing out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles."
"When the Legislature returns in January, Assemblyman Phil Ting plans to introduce a bill that would ban the sale of new cars fueled by internal-combustion engines after 2040. The San Francisco Democrat said it’s essential to get California drivers into an electric fleet if the state is going to meet its greenhouse gas reduction targets, since the transportation sector accounts for more than a third of all emissions."
"The market is moving this way. The entire world is moving this way,” Ting said. “At some point you need to set a goal and put a line in the sand."
Those who are old enough to remember earlier attempts at pushing up the California primary, remember that the attempts 'often flopped'
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "If Gov. Jerry Brown had made a signing statement when he approved California’s latest effort to move the state’s presidential primary near the front of the list, it likely would have been something like, “What the heck?”
"After all, it was just six years ago that Brown signed a bill, with just three “no” votes in the entire Legislature, that moved the presidential primary election back to June after three different and largely unsuccessful attempts to jump the line and give California voters more clout when it comes to picking presidential nominees."
"But this time for sure it’s going to work, the bill’s supporters promise."
Retired federal judgeThelton Henderson, a venerable activist jurist at the heart of some of California's most important public policy issues, is the subject of Capitol Weekly's first oral history project.
CW STAFF: "For 37 years, Thelton Henderson was a federal judge in the U.S. District Court for Northern California. He presided over numerous high-profile cases, including his role as a receiver to oversee the quality of health care services in California’s prison system and his work to reform the Oakland Police Department through a consent decree."
"Before his appointment to the bench by President Jimmy Carter, Henderson was the first African American staff attorney for the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. At Stanford University Law School, he designed and ran a successful minority recruitment program."
"About six weeks before Henderson retired from the bench, he was interviewed by Lowell Bergman, the nationally known investigative reporter who has known the judge for many years. Bergman teaches at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley."
Immigration raids in the Bay Area targeted nearly 30 people with past criminal convictions.
The Chronicle's NANETTE ASIMOV: "Federal immigration officials in the Bay Area arrested 27 people this week, most with past criminal convictions, as part of a national sweep targeting cities that prohibit cooperation between local law enforcement and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency said Thursday."
"The arrests in San Francisco, San Jose, Sunnyvale and Morgan Hill — and more than 100 in Los Angeles — were part of a four-day sweep that began Sunday. Overall, ICE officials acting in eight states and Washington, D.C., arrested 498 people from 42 countries who were in the United States illegally."
"Of those, 181 had no previous criminal conviction, according to ICE. The remaining 317 had been convicted of crimes ranging from trespassing to rape, with the largest single offense driving under the influence."
A Sacramento-based anti-homelessness Facebook group is catching serious flack from local residents, who say the group is a cadre of 'bourgeois snitches' who are displacing some of the city's most vulnerable people.
Sacramento Bee's RYAN LILLIS: "The blocks around Broadway and the elevated freeway south of downtown Sacramento have increasingly become the refuge of homeless campers. And that’s led some residents of the nearby Land Park neighborhood to organize – armed with their cellphone cameras and a direct line to City Hall."
"More than 550 residents have joined a private Facebook group called Land Park Society since the page launched earlier this month. Members post daily photos of trash piles and homeless camps along the Broadway corridor, sometimes tagging city officials. Those who document what they see are urged to call the city’s 311 nonemergency line or contact business owners so the issues are addressed."
"I do not expect the city and law enforcement to have eyes everywhere,” said Ramona Russell, a Land Park resident who founded the group. “That’s impossible. Residents also have a job to do. But at the same time, it’s not up to us to come up with solutions and take care of this ourselves. We should be angry that we’re being failed by the people whose jobs we pay for with our tax dollars."
A trio of ex-soldiers are now under investigation for allegedly exploiting the state's 'so-called disabled veteran business enterprise program.'
Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON: "Three business partners struck a deal to pursue a state contracting incentive for veterans that they thought would win them more work – and money – from Cal Fire."
"Two years later, former soldier Jason Alexander is out of the company he bought into with a $10,000 down payment from his Veterans Affairs disability pension."
"And his partners, Jennifer Larson and Richard Carvalho, are suddenly on a short list of companies that are banned from doing any work with the state. Their decision to remove Alexander from Golden State Fire Support triggered an investigation that concluded they’d exploited the state’s so-called disabled veteran business enterprise program to enrich themselves at the former soldier’s expense."
Lindsey Graham and President Trump have put water under the bridge and are still moving forward with a plan to repeal Obamacare, despite a slew of earlier failures related to bad health care policy.
Sacramento Bee's EMMA DUMAIN: "After his nonstop effort of the last several weeks to repeal and replace Obamacare – and after he conceded defeat – Sen. Lindsey Graham settled in Tuesday night for a long, restful sleep."
"But guess who called and woke me up in the morning?” the South Carolina Republican asked."
"It was President Donald Trump, Graham’s one-time nemesis on the 2016 campaign trail who has become an unlikely ally and frequent caller to the senator’s cell phone."
READ MORE related to Beltway/POTUS45: SCOTUS takes case that could hit California public employee unions -- Sacramento Bee's ADAM ASHTON; Obamacare: Five things left hanging, plus effect on California -- KHN's JULIE ROVNER
A recent poll by the Factual Democracy Project reports that a majority of Facebook users have drawn ire towards Zuckerberg's platform for the way social media propagated Russian fake news during the 2016 election.
Sacramento Bee's ALEX ROARTY: "The public has a tough message for Facebook: The social-media giant needs to stop fake news — especially when it’s funded by Russia."
"According to a new poll commissioned by the Factual Democracy Project, a group trying to fight the spread of intentionally fabricated news stories on social media, 73 percent of voters says Facebook should not allow foreign powers to run ads targeting Americans during an election."
"It’s not just Russian-linked fake news the public is concerned about either: 78 percent of people said they want Facebook to prevent inaccurate stories from being widely shared on its platform."
Commetnary: The best response when disaster strikes is preemptive preparation.
CHERI HUMMEL in Capitol Weekly: "The destruction in Florida, the cataclysmic floods in Houston, the massive erosion of the Oroville Dam and the ravaging wildfires up and down the Golden State are all real-time reminders of how vulnerable each one of us is to disaster, no matter who we are or where we live."
"It’s too easy to embrace the fallacy that these terrible things only happen to others. Instead of hoping for the best, we should plan and prepare for the worst. The safety of our families depends on it."
"With the images of horrendous devastation from Hurricanes Harvey and Irma still fresh in our minds, it’s appropriate to note that September is National Preparedness Month. Across the country, government officials, first responders, health care providers, community leaders, volunteers and individuals alike are working collaboratively year-round to ensure that local communities are ready when the next disaster strikes."
Elon Musk's vision for mankind's future in the universe seems to be a neverending well of sci-fi based inspiration. Here are 6 things you need to know about the entrepreneur's latest announcement.
Daily News' SANDY MAZZA: "SpaceX CEO Elon Musk announced Thursday that the 15-year-old rocket maker will soon switch gears to focus entirely on a new deep-space rocket and will no longer produce its current repertoire of space-going systems."
"The announcement comes as the Hawthorne-based company prepares for the first launch later this year of its newest model, the 5-million-pound thrust Falcon Heavy, and crewed launches with NASA next year."
"I can’t think of anything more exciting than going out there and being among the stars,” Musk said, during a presentation at the International Astronautical Congress in Adelaide, Australia. “We want to have one booster and ship that replace Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon. If we can do that, then all the resources used for Falcon 9, Falcon Heavy, and Dragon can be applied to this system. That’s really fundamental."
Iconic Associated Press war reporter Richard Pyle has passed away at the age of 83 after a storied journalism career spanning 5 decades, covering some of history's most powerful moments.
AP: "Journalist Richard Pyle, whose long and accomplished Associated Press career spanned the globe and a half-century of crisis, war, catastrophe and indelible moments in news reporting, died at age 83."
"He died Thursday at a hospital of respiratory failure due to lung fibrosis and obstructive lung disease, said his wife, actress-writer Brenda Smiley."
"Pyle was there when President John F. Kennedy learned of the Cuban missile challenge and when President Richard Nixon waved goodbye to the White House, when the World Trade Center's twin towers came down and when a Pennsylvania nuclear plant almost blew up, when the last Americans walked out of Hanoi's war prisons and when Desert Storm drove the last Iraqis from Kuwait."
