California Supreme Court rejects SCOTUS decision, keeps state labor law alive
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Workers in California can use a unique state law to join together and seek penalties against their employer for violating labor laws, the state Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday, rejecting a U.S. Supreme Court decision that would have effectively nullified the California law.
The Private Attorneys General Act of 2004, or PAGA, lets employees sue their employers, individually or collectively, in the name of the state for violating laws such as those regulating minimum wages, overtime, sick pay and meal and rest breaks. If the suits succeed, the employees collect 25% of the penalties provided by labor law, and the state collects 75%."
The End of the Annex, First Draft of the Bill of Rights and MUCH more with State Librarian Greg Lucas (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly, STAFF: "Prior to his appointment as California State Librarian in 2014, Greg Lucas was a longtime journalist, covering California politics for The Los Angeles Daily Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle and even Capitol Weekly. Much of his 20 year run at The Chron was spent in or around the Capitol, covering the legislature or the Governor, and kibitzing with other reporters. Oh, how things have changed.
If the Dome is the most iconic part of the Capitol building in Sacramento, its heart was The Annex, an unfussy and businesslike addition that was begun in 1949 and completed in 1952. The Annex housed nearly all legislators’ offices, the Governor’s Office, and Room 1190 – where every governor from Earl Warren to Gavin Newsom has held regular Press Conferences. This month marks the end of an era as wrecking crews began the demolition of the Annex in preparation for a new, expanded Capitol Annex to be built in its place."
A bill’s ‘keys’ – what are they?
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS MICHELI: "Each bill in the California Legislature contains certain, required features such as an enacting clause, a title, the author’s name, a bill number, and the Legislative Counsel’s Digest, among other provisions. At the end of the Legislative Counsel’s Digest is a line of “keys”. It looks like the following examples:
Vote: majority Appropriation: yes Fiscal Committee: yes Local Program: yes"
CalPERS CEO gives update on data hack that exposed Social Security numbers, birth dates
Sac Bee, MAYA MILLER: "The California Public Employee and Retirement System launched its three-day offsite meeting in Monterey with a long-awaited update on a June data breach that exposed Social Security numbers, birth dates and other personal information on nearly 1.2 million retirees and other beneficiaries.
The update follows a call from California State Treasurer Fiona Ma, who sits on both the CalPERS and CalSTRS boards, for the nation’s two largest public pension funds to hold special meetings and provide members with an update on the organization’s response to the breach."
Ashley Butts, daughter of Inglewood mayor, guilty of conspiracy in beating of landlord
LA Times, MATTHEW ORMSETH: "Early one morning seven years ago, a masked man entered a home in South Los Angeles armed with a metal pipe and a gun.
He beat the homeowner with the pipe and fired a shot into a wall before fleeing. A woman who was inside the house held a towel to homeowner’s head and called 911. “He’s bleeding!” she said, sounding panicked."
Alameda DA to charge Bay Area prosecutor, her biggest political critic, with interfering in fatal police shooting case
BANG*Mercury News, NATE GARTRELL, JAKOB RODGERS: "Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Monday that she intends to file a misdemeanor charge against one of her former prosecutors — and loudest political critic — for allegedly interfering in the prosecution of a San Leandro police officer who killed a man.
In an email to her staff, Price announced that she will prosecute Amilcar “Butch” Ford, a current San Francisco prosecutor and former deputy district attorney in Alameda County, with a misdemeanor. Price said Ford “breached several professional rules and codes of conduct” by providing “confidential work product information” to the attorney for Jason Fletcher, a former San Leandro officer with a pending manslaughter charge for the 2020 on-duty shooting death of Steven Taylor."
Residents raised construction concerns decades before Rolling Hills Estates landslide
LA Times, GRACE TOOHEY, NATHAN SOLIS: "Some residents at the Rolling Hills Estates development battered by a destructive landslide raised concerns during the neighborhood’s construction years ago about the potential for problems from water and heavy rainfall, city planning documents obtained by The Times show.
Authorities are trying to determine the cause of the slide, which sent multiple homes slipping down a canyon wall."
New evidence may back Menendez brothers’ sexual abuse claims. But can it free them?
LA Times, SALVADOR HERNANDEZ: "It was never a question of whether they killed their parents.
Lyle and Erik Menendez bought two shotguns with cash. The next day, the brothers drove to a shooting range. And the following night, they murdered Jose and Mary Louise “Kitty” Menendez as the couple ate ice cream and watched a movie in their Beverly Hills mansion."
Surviving Death Valley at 128 degrees ‘like a blow-dryer in my face’
LA Times, HAYLEY SMITH: "An unfathomable heat descended here on Monday, the hottest place in a rapidly warming world. At the Furnace Creek Visitor Center, a digital thermometer read 123 degrees and counting — within striking distance of the hottest temperature ever recorded on planet Earth.
By midday, the canyons and gorges of the vast park near the border of Nevada shimmered beneath the white-hot sun, but the relentless, eyeball-stinging heat wasn’t enough to stop visitors from braving the danger."
Yosemite: Major damage to buildings discovered in high country from record snowfall
BANG*Mercury News, PAUL ROGERS: "Crews have finally finished clearing the massive amounts of snow that buried the Tioga Road, the famous 46-mile route through Yosemite National Park’s scenic high country that is enjoyed by tourists every summer from all over the world.
But the key roadway still can’t be opened to the public, park officials said Monday, because of major damage that workers discovered to the facilities in the area."
Legal case argues state educators let down disadvantaged children during pandemic
The Chronicle, NANETTE ASIMOV: "To hear California education officials tell it, the state did an excellent job of protecting children from backsliding academically when the pandemic shut down schools and forced nearly 6 million students to attend class remotely.
But low-income students of color in the Bay Area and beyond who sued California in 2020 — accusing education officials of failing to provide the equipment, services and support they needed to keep pace with wealthier classmates — say the state not only failed to protect them during the pandemic but also still owes them extra help. The lawsuit doesn’t ask for a dollar amount. Instead, lawyers say they’re looking for actual repairs: high-dose tutoring, literacy coaches and an accountability system to ensure the students’ needs are met."
Mental illness drove their son into the wilderness. They say police abandoned him to die
The Chronicle, MATTHIAS GAFNI: "A man walked the double yellow line of Sulphur Bank Drive on the east edge of Clear Lake, shoeless and in pajamas.
When a California Highway Patrol officer arrived, responding to a concerned driver’s call, Jesse Cavagna told him his name was Free Willy. He said he was from “Texas, California,” and on a spiritual journey to “the Ark.”"
In-N-Out Burger bans COVID masks for employees in five western states
The Chronicle, AIDIN VAZIRI: "In-N-Out Burger, the beloved California-based fast food chain, has issued new workplace guidelines that will ban its employees in several states from wearing protective masks.
The use of face coverings is currently optional for restaurant employees. But starting Aug. 14, workers in Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas and Colorado will not be allowed to mask as a preventive measure against spreading the coronavirus."
Have student loans? These employers will help you pay them off
LA Times, SAMANTHA MASUNGA, ARIEL SMITH: "After graduating from college, Augie Kennady was saddled with nearly $90,000 in student loan debt.
If he stuck to his loan servicer’s payment plan, he’d be shelling out the equivalent of a high car payment every month for 25 years. But after joining educational services company Chegg in 2015 as a customer service representative, Kennady started participating in the Santa Clara, Calif., company’s student loan repayment program."
Cal State recently was forced to deal with several sexual harassment allegations. A new report finds it repeatedly fell short
CALMatters, MIKHAIL ZINSHTEYN: "California State University must hire many more employees and overhaul huge portions of its bureaucracy to keep students and staff safe from sexual harassment and discrimination, according to a sweeping set of reports from an outside law group published today.
The reports, a month late according to Cal State’s own timeline, were produced by the law firm Cozen O’Connor, which system leaders hired in March 2022 to assess how the Cal State central office and its 23 campuses follow federal law prohibiting gender and sex discrimination in schools, known as Title IX, as well the system’s own rules."
Cal State needs to fix a broken system of addressing sexual harassment and discrimination complaints, report says
EdSource, ASHLEY A. SMITH: "Sexual harassment and discrimination complaints across California State University are largely ignored, according to a long-awaited report.
The nation’s largest public university system fails to respond adequately to sexual harassment and discrimination complaints from employees and students because of few resources and little staffing. The lack of infrastructure to address these problems have led to virtually no accountability measures and a culture of distrust across the 23-campus system."
First Republic defrauded S.F. couple funding UC Berkeley scholarships, lawsuit claims
The Chronicle, BOB EGELKO: "Among the victims of the collapse of First Republic Bank, according to a newly filed lawsuit, are about 700 low-income students who may not be able to afford enrolling at UC Berkeley because their benefactors were defrauded by the bank’s financial adviser.
George Miller, 87, and his wife, Patricia McKinley, 68, are philanthropists who devote much of their savings to a scholarship fund for first-generation students applying to Berkeley, they said in a suit in San Francisco Superior Court."
Mayor Breed’s pick for S.F. homeless commission opposed site for unhoused last year
The Chronicle, MALLORY MOENCH: "Mayor London Breed has tapped a neighborhood leader and real estate agent to serve on San Francisco’s new homeless commission after her first choice withdrew in the wake of controversy over him improperly billing taxpayers for personal expenses.
While three city supervisors and multiple community members supported the new pick Monday, the nominee is also meeting some pushback over a position she took on a homeless services site last year, although she apologized for the tone of those comments on Monday."
As S.F. aims for more housing on city’s west side, an embattled project hits another roadblock
The Chronicle, JK DINEEN: "Sunset District neighbors who have spent 30 months battling a 90-unit affordable housing project on Irving Street have filed another appeal. This one may be their last chance to slow down the development on San Francisco’s west side.
After unsuccessfully seeking a temporary injunction against the development in San Francisco Superior Court, and losing an appeal of the project’s demolition permit, the Mid-Sunset Neighborhood Association has appealed the construction site permit."
California should honor Mandela by limiting solitary confinement (OP-ED)
Capitol Weekly, CHRIS HOLDEN, DANIEL TSE: "July 18 marks Nelson Mandela Day, an occasion to commemorate the life of the revered South African leader. Mandela was not only a champion of justice, and an advocate for equality and freedom, he was also an activist who survived incarceration and torture in his fight for change.
In his fight, Mandela overcame countless hardships, perhaps none more than his time in solitary confinement."
Residents displaced by fireworks explosion demand that LAPD officers be fired
LA Times, BRITTNY MEJIA, LIBOR JANY: "About 30 people marched in South L.A. on Monday afternoon to demand harsher punishment for the Los Angeles police officers who blew up their neighborhood two years ago.
The march followed a recent Times investigation that, for the first time, named the six bomb squad officers who were involved in the botched detonation of illegal fireworks in June 2021. They were Det. Damien Levesque, Mell Hogg, Mark Richardson, Brendan McCarty, Thomas Deluccia and Stefanie Alcocer."
Dream interrupted: As gang violence soars in Mexico, migrants in U.S. rethink plans to go home
LA Times, KATE LINTHICUM: "Like many Mexicans in the United States, María Avila worked for decades north of the border with a simple dream: to one day return home.
She toiled at a Palm Springs country club by day, served meals to wealthy clients at night and cleaned houses and mended clothes on the weekend, slowly saving to build a home of her own back in Juanchorrey, the wind-swept pueblo high in the mountains in Zacatecas state where she grew up."
Blinken condemns GOP senators blocking diplomatic nominations over abortion, transgender healthcare
LA Times, TRACY WILKINSON: "A handful of senators is blocking the confirmation of dozens of highly regarded Biden administration ambassadorial appointments over largely partisan issues having nothing to do with the nominees’ qualifications, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Monday.
In an unusual head-on confrontation with Congress, Blinken complained that action by some senators is crippling the ability of the United States to project its influence on the global stage, stifling the U.S. voice in critical countries in the Middle East and Europe during the raging war in Ukraine and undermining national security."
