Senate Dems tee up a second IVF showdown following Trump comments
The Chronicle's SHIRA STEIN: "As Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both campaign on protecting access to in vitro fertilization, the Senate will once again vote on legislation that would enshrine the right to fertility care.
The Senate will vote Tuesday to end debate about the Right to IVF Act, a bill to codify protections for IVF and other fertility treatments. Republicans blocked a similar motion in June."
CA120: Lawmakers skeptical, but voters support Newsom’s aggressive action on homelessness
Capitol Weekly's PAUL MITCHELL: ":During our recent polling on the presidential contest we also included some questions regarding the state’s homelessness crisis, who voters blame for where we are, what policy approaches they support, and how they gauge the recent more aggressive actions by the U.S. Supreme Court and Governor Gavin Newsom.
While state lawmakers and local government electeds have been complaining about the Governor’s more aggressive actions, the fact is that he has the voters on his side. In this polling we found voters are favoring action over inaction, less concerned with long term solutions, more focused on immediate progress, and Democrats, in particular, are willing to buck their own party to seek changes."
Special Episode: Proposition 32 – Minimum Wage Increase (PODCAST)
Capitol Weekly's STAFF: "On Wednesday, September 11, 2024, Capitol Weekly hosted the California Ballot Forum: 2024 Election Preview. Through spirited discussion and reasoned debate, proponents for each side explored the strengths and weaknesses of the proposals in a conversation moderated by a journalist."
In ‘liberal’ San Francisco, the sole progressive vying for mayor is an underdog
LAT's HANNAH WILEY: "After 17 years wielding power and influence on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Aaron Peskin is facing a rather existential moment:
Has this famously liberal city moved too far right to embrace an old-school progressive like him for mayor?"
Mayor Breed says downtown S.F. is coming back to life. Her opponents say it’s still on life support
The Chronicle's J.D. MORRIS: "Mayor London Breed argues that downtown San Francisco is finally starting to bounce back, thanks to her leadership and just in time for her to face off against four major reelection opponents who doubt her ability to revive the city’s urban core.
The question is whether voters will agree with Breed’s assessment of downtown, and if they do, whether they will reward her with another four-year term in November."
A real-life RoboCop? ACLU urges California Governor Gavin Newsom to sign killer drone ban
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "It sounds like something out of a movie, but ACLU California Action is warning Californians that a real life RoboCop could soon no longer be the stuff of science fiction.
The civil rights advocacy organization, which represents California’s three ACLU chapters, sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom urging his signature on AB 2681, a bill by Assemblywoman Akilah Weber, D-San Diego, that would ban law enforcement from deploying killer drones against the public. “ACLU joins Californians in strongly opposing the acquisition and use of weaponized robots, especially killer robot cops, for several reasons,” the letter reads in part.
Column: Trump’s proposal to make overtime pay tax-exempt obscures how awful he was for all workers
LAT's MICHAEL HILTZIK: "Donald Trump, in his determined effort to claim the mantle of friend of the working man and woman, unveiled a proposal the other day to make overtime pay tax-exempt.
“People who work overtime are among the hardest-working citizens of our country, and for too long, no one in Washington has been looking out for them,” he told a rally in Tucson."
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs charged with sex traffic Eking, racketeering
LAT's RICHARD WINTON, NARDINE SAAD, AUGUST BROWN, HANNAH FRY: "Sean “Diddy” Combs has been indicted on three counts of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution as part of a sweeping federal probe.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday alleges that the music mogul for years ran a “criminal enterprise” that threatened and abused women and utilized members of the Combs enterprise to engage in sex trafficking, forced labor, interstate transportation for purposes of prostitution, coercion and enticement to engage in prostitution, narcotics offenses, kidnapping, arson, bribery and obstruction of justice."
‘Unlawful regulation’: State suffers big setback in water lawsuit filed by growers
RACHEL BECKER, CalMetters: "In a scathing ruling, a Superior Court judge has lambasted state water officials for going too far and invoking “underground regulations” when they penalized Kings County water managers for failing to protect overpumped groundwater in the San Joaquin Valley.
Kings County Superior Court Judge Kathy Ciuffini last week granted a preliminary injunction that bars the State Water Resources Control Board from requiring growers to pay fees and report how much water they pump from the county’s severely overdrawn aquifers. The injunction could last through a trial, which has not yet been scheduled."
California enacts law reviving a Jewish family’s claim to Nazi-looted art, bucking 9th Circuit
LAT's KEVIN RECTOR: "California lawmakers have bucked one of the nation’s most powerful federal courts by enacting a new state law designed to reunite a Jewish family with an exquisite Impressionist painting that was looted by the Nazis at the dawn of World War II.
The law, which Gov. Gavin Newsom put into immediate effect with his signature Monday, was crafted in response to a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in January. That ruling found that the painting — “Rue Saint-Honoré in the Afternoon. Effect of Rain” by Camille Pissarro — was lawfully owned by a Spanish museum and need not be returned to the American descendants of Lilly Cassirer Neubauer, who surrendered the masterpiece to the Nazis for a visa to flee Germany in 1939."
Cooler temperatures, storms in California forecast thanks to jet stream block
The Chronicle's GREG PORTERL "A large atmospheric traffic jam across the Northern Hemisphere is having an impact on California weather this week.
Several significant rises and dips in the jet stream are stuck in place, stretching from the North Pacific across Europe and Russia. This has resulted in what’s known as a block in upper-level atmospheric circulation, leading to the unusual early September storm systems that impacted California this week."
Tooth decay still plagues California kids nearly a decade after Medi-Cal promised change
The Chronicle's JENNY GOLD: "Eight years after an independent state watchdog agency harshly criticized the state for failing to provide dental care to low-income children, California has failed to remedy the problem or fully implement the commission’s recommendations, according to a follow-up review published last week.
The Little Hoover Commission found that less than half of the children in Medi-Cal received an annual dental visit in 2022 — 3% higher than when the initial report was released in 2016, which implored the state to do more to ensure that children have access to needed care."
XEC emerges as COVID variant to ‘keep an eye on.’ What that means for new vaccines
The Chronicle's AIDIN VAZIRI: "A new coronavirus variant is rapidly gaining in Europe and could soon spread across the United States.
Following a sustained summer swell of COVID-19, driven by the omicron KP family, health officials anticipate that a more contagious offshoot, named XEC, may become the predominant strain stateside during the expected winter surge."
Pandemic recovery in schools will be a ‘long slog,’ says sobering national report
EdSource's EMMA GALLEGOS: "Nearly five years after Covid-19 began, a national report released Tuesday shows that recovery from the pandemic for students will be a “long slog.”
“The State of the American Student,” a report by the Center for Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) states that the findings are “sobering, daunting, and discouraging,” and that the slow pace of recovery from the pandemic has left an indelible mark on education, with long-term implications for students’ income, racial inequity and social mobility in the United States.
This is the secret system that covers up police misconduct — and ensures problem officers can get hired again
The Chronicle's KATEY RUSCH, CASEY SMITH: "The police officer’s career was in peril. Twenty-five years ago, Hossep “Joe” Ourjanian’s supervisors at the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety accused him of “flagrant” misconduct. They said he had pretended to attend military training to skip work. They had already decided he should be fired when they learned of another allegation: Ourjanian’s girlfriend said he had grabbed her and pulled her hair while she held their infant son.
But then Los Angeles County did something remarkable: The county agreed to hide evidence that Ourjanian allegedly lied to dodge work in exchange for his promise to go without a fight. Records documenting the county’s finding of misconduct would be removed from his personnel file and their very existence would be kept secret. His firing would be rescinded. If any future employer asked, the county agreed to say only that he had resigned “indicating personal reasons.”"
Thousands in California’s jails have the right to vote — but here’s why many won’t
SAMEEA KAMAL, CalMatters: "Ronald Latney used to believe his vote didn’t matter. But after returning to jail this year, he realized the difference it can make — especially locally.
“I try to tell everybody … like, man, we need to vote, because our lives depend on this,” he said, mentioning district attorney races and bail policies. “That’s very impactful on me and what I’m going through now.”
Sacramento may declare a state of emergency over dangerous roads. Could it save lives?
ARIANE LANGE, SacBee: "As the Sacramento City Council prepared to consider a state of emergency over road safety, advocates pleaded for the city to prioritize infrastructure improvements over a police response.
Whether the declaration would lead to more money to address the crisis is uncertain. Vice Mayor Caity Maple planned to submit the proposal and comment on it at Tuesday’s council meeting. The draft emergency declaration resolution, put forth by Maple alongside Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Councilwoman Karina Talamantes, would direct the Sacramento Police Department to ramp up enforcement of driver violations that endanger pedestrians, including but not limited to speeding and failing to yield. Advocates said they were leery of that part of the strategy."
