April 4, 2018

04Apr

TOP POLITICAL STORIES

Valley Politics:

California farmers could be slammed by new China tariffs

89.3 KPCC

President Trump’s imposition of new tariffs on steel and aluminum did not go over well with China. If you’ve wondered what trade retaliation from China might look like, here it is. Starting today, Beijing is raising tariff rates as high as 25 percent on more than 100 U.S. exports–and some of those, like almonds, pistachios and cherries, could hit California growers particularly hard.

See also:

Sinclair’s ‘fake-news’ promos on local stations

Fresno Bee

Last month, Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. was called out for mandating that its local stations take on a scripted promotional campaign. The story resurfaced last week, as people began seeing the spots and Media Matters for America published the full transcript along with links to videos from stations airing the spots, including KMPH FOX 26 in Fresno.

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Republican gubernatorial candidate urges Valley cities to reject sanctuary policies

Fresno Bee

John Cox, Republican candidate for California governor, appeared in Fresno on Tuesday to encourage San Joaquin Valley communities to join other cities around the state in rejecting its sanctuary policies.

See also:

Fong pulls valley fever bill from legislature after receiving pushback

The Bakersfield Californian

Facing pushback from the medical community, Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, withdrew a bill late last month that would have required doctors to order specific types of lab tests when they suspect valley fever, a respiratory disease found throughout the southwestern United States.

$390 million expansion to begin at Clovis Community Medical Center

Fresno Bee

Clovis Community Medical Center will add 144 private beds under a $390 million expansion project approved Tuesday by the corporate hospital board of trustees.

See also:

Clovis faces affordable housing dilemma

Clovis Roundup

The city of Clovis stands to lose millions in state housing funds if it fails to meet Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) affordable housing numbers it agreed to for a previous cycle from 2006 to 2013.

Atwater city manager’s departure a mystery. ‘Frustrated’ council confronts more chaos

Merced Sun-Star

Atwater hit the reset button again Tuesday, hiring its fifth new city manager in two years, as Art de Werk, who was hired just three months ago, abruptly quit for reasons city leaders refused to discuss. De Werk’s brief tenure – like those of his three recent predecessors – was marked with controversy and a bitterly divided City Council.

See also:

Kern County supervisors begin move into new districts

The Bakersfield Californian

Kern County supervisors are moving. At least 120,000 county residents, in effect, got a new supervisor last week when the county settled a redistricting lawsuit with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund.

 

New chief has a plan to ease overcrowding at Yosemite

Modesto Bee

Before Michael Reynolds leaves his office, he puts on his hat. As a 32-year veteran of the park service, he knows that a ranger is never caught outside without one. Reynolds is Yosemite’s new superintendent, a Mariposa County native who began his career at the park he now leads. With his background, he believes he can be mindful of not only the park, but of Yosemite’s neighbors like Fresno and the gateway communities, too.

State Politics:

California governor orders misconduct reports to be tracked

San Francisco Chronicle

California Gov. Jerry Brown’s office directed state agencies Tuesday to start uniformly tracking discrimination and misconduct complaints and update harassment training. Meanwhile, a former California Senate employee filed a lawsuit alleging that she was fired for reporting a senator’s behavior toward another young woman in the office.

Governor candidates uneasy about housing cost idea

Fresno Bee

It’s a controversial idea that advocates say could help alleviate California’s worsening housing crisis: strip cities of some of their zoning authority to unleash an enormous amount of new construction.

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‘He’s making a fortune off the taxpayer’: Gov Candidate Travis Allen bashes GOP rival

Sacramento Bee

Republican gubernatorial candidate Travis Allen is going after his Republican rival John Cox for his business dealings as owner of a residential property management company in the Midwest. Allen is criticizing Cox in public debates and interviews as a “hypocrite” for collecting taxpayer dollars as a real estate owner and investor while seeking to brand himself in the campaign as a successful businessman who believes in minimal regulation, low taxes and small government.

Renteria: Governor candidate, former Hillary Clinton campaign

KRON4

Amanda Renteria is the newest candidate for governor. The former Hillary Clinton campaign aide jumped into the gubernatorial race just a little more than a month ago. She’s never been elected to public office but has worked on the staffs of several powerful lawmakers and is said to know politics well. This week, she talked with Capitol Bureau Reporter Kody Leibowitz about the change of culture in California.

Unions Want a Republican to Face Newsom in November—but Not Only for the Reason You Think

Fox and Hounds Daily

A number of public unions that are backing Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom for governor want to see their man and a Republican finish one-two in the June primary. In fact, nearly all the state public unions, whether behind Newsom or for another Democrat, would prefer a Democratic candidate to square off against a Republican for governor.

As Trump Leads a ‘War’ on California, Who Will Lead California?

New York Times

At a moment of extraordinary tension between California and President Trump, this state is moving to elect a governor in a changing of the guard that will test its outsize power as a national leader for Democrats in its fight against the White House.

Feinstein calls Trump erratic and unfit. But she’ll try to work with him

SFGATE

President Trump is erratic, lacks stability and hasn’t shown himself fit to hold office, Sen. Dianne Feinstein said Tuesday, but she hasn’t given up the notion of working with him. “I do not believe he is a good president. I do not believe he is fit to be president. I do not believe that we have the stability in the executive office that we need to have,” Feinstein, D-Calif., said during an interview with The Chronicle’s editorial board.

See also:

Dianne Feinstein on negotiating with Trump: ‘It drives you up the wall’ San Jose Mercury

 

California’s path to universal health care pits pragmatists against single-payer holdouts

POLITICO

It’s the pragmatists versus the idealists in California’s latest quest for universal health care. Increasing numbers of lawmakers and advocates are pushing for policy goals that realistically can be accomplished this year. But there’s an unrelenting camp clinging to single-payer-or-bust.

 

California’s ‘sanctuary’ policy attacked in new ballot initiative

Sacramento Bee

The parents of two young people killed by immigrants are leading an effort to repeal California’s “sanctuary state” policy and criminalize officials who obstruct federal law.

See also:

Woman sues California Senate claiming she was fired in retaliation for harassment complaints

Sacramento Bee

A former employee filed a lawsuit against the state Senate and former Sen. Tony Mendoza on Tuesday alleging that she was fired in retaliation for reporting that he sexually harassed a young woman working in his office last year.

What the bullet train boondoggle can tell us about the delta tunnels

OCRegister

If you look up “boondoggle” in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, you’ll learn that it’s “a wasteful or impractical project or activity,” but if you live in California, you don’t need a dictionary. We’re ten years into the wasteful and impractical effort to build a bullet train from San Francisco to Los Angeles, and the first 119-mile segment — the “easy” segment — is already 77 percent over budget.

After Stephon Clark shooting, California lawmakers push to make it easier to prosecute police officers

Los Angeles Times

Flanked by civil rights advocates, California lawmakers announced new legislation Tuesday designed to make it easier to prosecute police officers who kill civilians. “We have been deeply saddened and frustrated by the killing of black and brown men by law enforcement,” said Assemblywoman Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), the bill’s author. “It seems that the worst possible outcome is increasingly the only outcome that we experience.”

California Chief Justice Calls for Bail Reform

PublicCEO

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, in her annual State of the Judiciary address on March 19, renewed calls for bail reform and making the legal system more attuned to the needs of Californians. She also doubled down on oblique criticisms of the White House. The chief justice called then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy’s assertion in 1964 that the bail system is “a vehicle for systemic injustice” a “clarion for justice” in 2018.

Why an election tradition in California is banned in other states

Sacramento Bee

It’s hard to think of three words subject to more intense election-year scrutiny than the ones California candidates can include beneath their names on the ballot. Every two years, campaigns do battle with the California secretary of state – and one another – over whether or not the professional descriptions they pick are within the bounds of state law.

Federal Politics:

Trump says he will send troops to southern border until his promised wall is built

Los Angeles Times

President Trump called on Tuesday for using the military to guard the border with Mexico until his promised wall is built, highlighting his growing frustration as nationalist allies criticize him for failing to get Congress to fully fund construction. “Until we can have a wall and proper security, we are going to be guarding our border with our military. That’s a big step,” Trump said during a lunchtime meeting with leaders of three Baltic nations.

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Judge rejects venue change in federal government’s immigration suit against California

Sacramento Bee

A federal district court judge ruled last week that a lawsuit between California and the United States over immigration laws cannot be moved from Sacramento to San Francisco, where legal experts said the state might have a better chance of winning. The lawsuit involves the U.S. Department of Justice suing California over three state “sanctuary” laws.

 

U.S. Announces Tariffs on $50 Billion of China Imports

WSJ

The Trump administration on Tuesday threatened to slap stiff tariffs on some $50 billion in Chinese imports across 1,300 categories of products, unveiling the most aggressive challenge in decades to Beijing’s trade practices. The imports targeted for 25% levies range from high value-added goods such as medicines and medical equipment to intermediate goods like machine tools and chemicals, according to a release by the U.S. Trade Representative.

See also:

What you need to know about the Census’ citizenship question

PolitiFact

The Trump administration’s plans to include a citizenship question on the 2020 Census got immediate pushback from Democratic lawmakers and immigrant rights advocates, who said the question instills fear in immigrant communities and will lead to an undercount of the national population. U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross announced on March 26 that the 2020 Census will inquire about citizenship, based on a request from the U.S. Justice Department.

See also:

Rubin: Five Democratic arguments that might resonate in the suburbs

Washington Post

Freed from their obsessive interest in President Trump’s core base (Should we have said “Merry Christmas” more often? Maybe we should have pretended that NAFTA cost jobs?) and the temptation to shun reality in search of the secret sauce for attracting fact-free Fox News viewers, Democrats seem to be coming to the realization that their traditional base — single women, minorities, young voters, college-educated voters, urban dwellers — is perfectly compatible with other demographic cross-sections of America (e.g. married women, suburbanites, #NeverTrump Republicans).

Interior backs away from steep park fee increases

Fresno Bee

The Interior Department is backing down from a plan to impose steep fee increases at popular national parks in the face of widespread opposition from elected officials and the public. The plan would nearly triple entrance fees at 17 of the nation’s most popular parks, including the Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Zion, forcing visitors to pay $70 per vehicle during the peak summer season.

Other:

Researchers say fake news had ‘substantial impact’ on 2016 election

TheHill

A team of researchers at Ohio State University conclude in a new study that “fake news” stories had a significant impact on voters in the 2016 presidential election that may have impacted the final result. The study, first reported by The Washington Post on Tuesday, sought to measure the degree to which false news stories dissuaded voters who cast ballots for President Obama in 2012 from voting for Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016.

See also:

Parkland highlights political potential of millennials. The question now is if they’ll vote

Los Angeles Times

Kobey Lofton is 15 — too young to vote, but not too young to get political. Over spring break, he plotted with other young activists on the west side of Chicago to set up voter registration booths at school and make regular announcements over the intercom urging his slightly older classmates to vote.

Is Constitutional Localism the answer to what ails American democracy?

Brookings

In the last presidential election two of the major candidates, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump, told their supporters that the American political system was rigged—and one of them won. Many Americans agreed with their assessment. Since then the situation has only gotten worse and fear for the future of democracy has grown. The simple solution, promoted by pundits and politicians alike, has been for leadership that “brings us together.”

Brookings experts reflect on the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 50 years after his assassination

Brookings

To mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Brookings experts weighed in on his contributions to the civil rights movement, his legacy, and the state of race relations in America today. Their thoughts and related research are highlighted below.

MADDY INSTITUTE PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAMMING 

 

Sunday, April 8, at 10 a.m. on ABC 30 – Maddy Report: California’s Concealed Carry Permits: The Wild West of Permitting?​ – Guest: Elaine Howle, California State Auditor. Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.

Sunday, April 8, at 10 a.m. on Newstalk 580AM/105.9FM (KMJ) – Maddy Report ​ – Valley Views Edition​: TBD

 

Sunday, April 8, at 7:30 a.m. on UniMas 61 (KTTF) – El Informe Maddy: Concealed Weapons Permits  Guests: Margarita Fernández, Jefe de Relaciones Públicas de la oficina de la Auditora de California. Host: Maddy Institute Program Coordinator, Maria Jeans.

Support the Maddy Daily HERE.

Thank you!


Topics in More Detail…

 

 AGRICULTURE/FOOD

 

For stories on ”Ag & trade war,” See: “Top Stories – Local Politics,” above

 

ALDI bringing its low-cost grocery stories to two Valley locations

Fresno Bee

Low-cost grocery store chain ALDI is planning to open two new stores in the central San Joaquin Valley – and probably more in the rest of the Valley. The Bee reported the German grocery store giant’s interest in Hanford and Porterville last summer.

 

Cannabis may bring in millions to Tulare County

Visalia Times-Delta

The legalization of cannabis, known as the modern-day gold rush, is growing into a multi-billion dollar industry. In less than 10 years, the market for marijuana is expected to grow to $24 billion, according to a study from BusinessStudent.com, which provides opportunities for young adults in business-related fields.

 

California’s underground pot market continues to thrive. Is the tax man to blame?

Sacramento Bee

Lanette Davies is a devout Christian, and every month when she pays her state taxes, she prays she won’t be robbed. Davies owns Canna Care, a medical marijuana dispensary in Sacramento.

 

CRIMINAL JUSTICE / FIRE / PUBLIC SAFETY

 

 Crime:

 

Here’s where and how California youths are most often murdered

Sacramento Bee

The recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., left 14 youths dead and reignited a debate about gun control. In California, about that many youths have been murdered by other people every three weeks, on average, during the past 30 years. Most of the deaths involve firearms. Because such killings are common, they receive much less attention than a mass school shooting.

 

Stephon Clark killing prompts call to toughen rules for police shootings

San Francisco Chronicle

Police would be allowed to use lethal force only when it’s necessary to prevent imminent death or injury and when there is no reasonable alternative, under a bill proposed Tuesday by Assembly members Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, and Kevin McCarty, D-Sacramento.

See also: 

 

Price: No prison for Giumarra and no one is surprised

Bakersfield Californian

I knew it. If you heard those words mumbled somewhere in your office, in a grocery store line, perhaps even from your own lips, after news broke Tuesday of John Giumarra III’s sweetheart sentence, you’re not alone.

 

 

California Chief Justice Calls for Bail Reform

PublicCEO

California Supreme Court Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye, in her annual State of the Judiciary address on March 19, renewed calls for bail reform and making the legal system more attuned to the needs of Californians.

 

Public Safety:

 

Tulare County free Active Shooter Training sessions are open to the public

ABC30

The Tulare County Sheriff’s Office is offering RUN-HIDE-FIGHT active shooter training in six community-wide events. The events are open to the public and designed to help prepare you and your family in case of a life-threatening situation.

 

Gunfire in Fresno: Here’s where ShotSpotter pinpointed it overnight

The Fresno Bee

The Fresno police gunfire detection system recorded five locations throughout the city where guns were fired from Monday evening to Tuesday morning, according to police records. Police have been using the high-tech acoustic system for the past several years to triangulate just where guns are fired, and it helps them locate the source of the reports to within several feet of where the trigger was pulled.

 

ECONOMY / JOBS

 

Economy:

 

U.S. Announces Tariffs on $50 Billion of China Imports

WSJ

The Trump administration on Tuesday threatened to slap stiff tariffs on some $50 billion in Chinese imports across 1,300 categories of products, unveiling the most aggressive challenge in decades to Beijing’s trade practices. The imports targeted for 25% levies range from high value-added goods such as medicines and medical equipment to intermediate goods like machine tools and chemicals, according to a release by the U.S. Trade Representative.

See also:

 

U.S. Stocks Tumble as Trade Concerns Grow

WSJ

China’s retaliatory tariffs on American goods pummeled stocks around the world, pressuring shares of chip makers, manufacturers and machinery companies, along with a wide range of other risk assets. Some investors worry that protectionist trade policies will result in higher costs for manufacturers of everything from computer chips to smartphones, leading to a slowdown in corporate activity

See also:

 

 

How Southern California Became Home to Bond Kings

Bloomberg

The drive into Newport Beach can feel like getting lost inside an endless summer of money—especially along the Pacific Coast Highway, winding past billion-dollar hills that plunge to white sand beaches and the sparkling blue ocean. It’s easy to forget this was once the California of John Wayne, who moved here in the 1960s (when he could still afford it, as he later joked). Back then oranges actually grew in Orange County.

 

ALDI coming to two Valley locations

Fresno Bee

Low-cost grocery store chain ALDI is planning to open two new stores in the central San Joaquin Valley – and probably more in the rest of the Valley. The Bee reported the German grocery store giant’s interest in Hanford and Porterville last summer.

 

EDUCATION

 

K-12:

 

Student activist appointed to California’s Board of Education

EdSource

Gema Quetzal Cardenas, an Oakland student leader, will represent California’s 6.2 million students as the student representative on the state Board of Education. Cardenas, a junior at Life Academy of Health and Bioscience in the Oakland Unified School District, said she is most concerned about the threat of mass deportation of undocumented students.

 

California districts to take part in groundbreaking school safety study

EdSource

What are all the things that make a school safe and the people inside it feel connected with each other and the surrounding community? This question is most often answered with some variation on the following: a school is safe if it is a secure facility in good physical condition. Students, teachers and parents feel connected if class sizes are reasonable and it has a full menu of extra-curricular activities.

 

Higher Ed:

 

California campuses confront a growing challenge: homeless students

CALmatters

The dream was always the same, Arthur Chavez says. He was following a bumblebee through a forest, stumbling over puddles and branches. When he caught the bee, he’d find himself onstage, wearing a suit, in front of an applauding crowd. After the third time, Chavez decided the dream was a sign. He quit his job at a Fullerton gas station and enrolled in community college, on his way to a bachelor’s degree.

Governor wants millions of working-class Californians to go to college online. Not everyone is sold

KPCC

Governor Jerry Brown is ramping up his campaign to convince legislators to fund a new, wholly online community college, arguing that millions of working-class Californians will then be able to take skills-building classes. But not everyone is sold on the idea that more virtual-only classes will solve problems for Californians struggling to access the job training they need to obtain higher-paying work.

 

Gubernatorial candidate Chiang wants drastic tuition roll back at California’s public universities

EdSource

Gubernatorial candidate and State Treasurer John Chiang wants to roll back a decade of tuition increases at the University of California and the Cal State systems, reducing those costs by more than 40 percent, while also providing two years of free community college.

 

Testimony: Reforming Key Policies at the Community Colleges

Public Policy Institute of California

Thank you for the opportunity to testify this afternoon. My name is Olga Rodriguez and I am a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. PPIC is a nonpartisan policy research organization and does not take positions on legislation. My comments are based on research we have conducted at PPIC on California’s community colleges.

 

ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY

 

Environment:

 

Group pursuing floating wind farm off California coast

Reuters

EDP Renewables and four other companies have joined with a Northern California power provider to develop the first U.S. offshore wind farm to boast advanced floating turbines, the group said in a statement on Tuesday.

 

A fierce opponent of the Endangered Species Act is picked to oversee Interior’s wildlife policy

Washington Post

Susan Combs, a former Texas state official who compared proposed endangered species listings to “incoming Scud missiles” and continued to fight the Endangered Species Act after she left government, now has a role in overseeing federal wildlife policy.

 

Energy:

 

This is a ‘test case’ for whether Trump is really serious about saving coal and nuclear plants

Washington Post

A broad array of critics are urging the Trump administration to ignore pleas to use its emergency powers for a bailout of nuclear and coal plants owned by a unit of the politically well-connected FirstEnergy.

 

Why Trump and California May Face Off Over Fuel Rules: QuickTake

Washington Post

In ordering a review of fuel-efficiency regulations for cars and light trucks, President Donald Trump’s administration is taking direct aim at his predecessor’s most concrete environmental achievement.

 

HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES

 

Health:

$390 million expansion to begin at Clovis Community Medical Center

Fresno Bee

Clovis Community Medical Center will add 144 private beds under a $390 million expansion project approved Tuesday by the corporate hospital board of trustees.

 

Fong pulls valley fever bill from legislature after receiving pushback

Bakersfield Californian

Facing pushback from the medical community, Assemblyman Vince Fong, R-Bakersfield, withdrew a bill late last month that would have required doctors to order specific types of lab tests when they suspect valley fever, a respiratory disease found throughout the southwestern United States. Assembly Bill 1881 would have encouraged medical providers, including city and county public health laboratories, to use two specific blood tests when determining whether a patient has valley fever.

 

Single-payer plan is within reach of California

San Francisco Chronicle

There is great desire and public support for health care coverage for every person in California. In our study, “Financing Universal Coverage In California: A Berkeley Forum Roadmap,” we identify three changes in the California health care system that can generate enough reductions in health spending to finance universal health coverage in the next few years. We have compiled our findings in a proposal to the Legislature.

See also:

 

Nearly 12 Million People Enrolled in Health Coverage Under the Affordable Care Act

WSJ

Almost 12 million people signed up for 2018 health coverage under the Affordable Care Act, roughly the same number as last year despite a shortened enrollment period and a decision by the Trump administration to significantly reduce spending on outreach and advertising. A total of 11.8 million people selected a plan or were automatically re-enrolled for 2018 coverage through the ACA’s federal and state exchanges, or marketplaces, according to a report Tuesday from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. About 12 million…

 

Dialysis patients, health care workers join to change industry

Fresno Bee

Three days a week I go to a dialysis clinic to stay alive. I’m grateful to still be here, but every time I set foot in the clinic, I’m also worried: will today be the day I get an infection or bleed all over the floor? It’s a concern because my clinic is unsanitary. The clinic is like an assembly line, except instead of building cars they are treating people with life-threatening illnesses, and it feels like my safety comes second to the company’s profits.

 

Seven years later, county jail still trying to fix problems with inmate health care

Fresno Bee

Fresno County supervisors approved contracts Tuesday with a Monterey-based health company to take over medical and psychiatric care of inmates at the county jail and the juvenile justice campus. California Forensic Medical Group, Inc., will begin providing care July 1.

 

IMMIGRATION

 

Justice Department Rolls Out Quotas for Immigration Judges

KQED

The Department of Justice is setting quotas for immigration judges — part of a broader effort to speed up deportations and reduce a massive backlog of immigration cases. The new quotas are laid out in a memo that was sent to immigration judges across the country on Friday

 

LAND USE/HOUSING

Land Use:

 

Commentary: Revive Redevelopment Agencies

PublicCEO

As I was driving home the other day through Van Nuys, I passed an abandoned vacant lot. You see these around the San Fernando Valley pretty often, and every time I see one, I think through the possibilities for this unused land. The Valley could benefit from the revitalization of these abandoned lots – new businesses, new community hubs of retail and restaurants, and perhaps most urgently, new housing and jobs.

 

Housing:

 

Governor candidates uneasy about housing cost idea

Fresno Bee

It’s a controversial idea that advocates say could help alleviate California’s worsening housing crisis: strip cities of some of their zoning authority to unleash an enormous amount of new construction. State Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco wants to give the state more power over land use within a half-mile of major transit stops or a quarter-mile of bus lines to create a more developer-friendly environment for new housing.

 

Clovis faces affordable housing dilemma

Clovis Roundup

The city of Clovis stands to lose millions in state housing funds if it fails to meet Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) affordable housing numbers it agreed to for a previous cycle from 2006 to 2013.

 

Uptick in local home sales breeds optimism, but caution too

Bakersfield Californian

Louise Juracek, a broker associate at Coldwell Banker Preferred Realtors, sells 130 to 150 houses a year. And when a veteran broker like Juracek says she’s optimistic about Bakersfield’s residential real estate market, it’s probably worth a listen. “There’s a lot of cash out there,” she said. “A lot of cash.” But there are caveats.

 

PUBLIC FINANCES

 

City looking to raise refuse and recycling rates

Bakersfield Californian

Bakersfield residents could see their refuse and recycling rates go up later this year. The City of Bakersfield is proposing to increase the rates by 3.5 percent for the 2018-19 fiscal year, which starts July 1, to combat increasing costs and revenue losses. The annual cost for single-family homes would jump from $200 to $207 annually.

 

These 13 California legislators are getting two government checks a month

Los Angeles Times

Amid ongoing warnings about underfunded public employee pension funds, more than a dozen California state lawmakers are augmenting their $107,242 salaries by collecting retirement payments from previous government jobs, a practice that taxpayer activists condemn as “double dipping.”

 

TRANSPORTATION

 

FlixBus to start California routes this summer

The Mercury News

European bus service startup FlixBus will expand to the United States in the coming months, initially focusing on the West Coast and nearby destinations such as Las Vegas, the company’s chief executive said Wednesday. The Munich-based company has become a dominant player in Europe over the past five years without owning any buses of its own, but will face stiff competition across the Atlantic from established operators such as Greyhound Lines and Megabus.

 

Poll: Majority of Californians fear self-driving cars

San Diego Union-Tribune

Weeks after an autonomous Uber fatally hit a pedestrian in Arizona, an opinion poll released Tuesday found that a majority of Californians don’t want the technology operating where they live and play.

 

WATER

 

California may use partially rebuilt Oroville spillway

The Bakersfield Californian

Oroville Dam operators said Tuesday they may have to release water over a partially rebuilt spillway for the first time since repairs began on the badly damaged structure last summer. Department of Water Resources officials said anticipated storms could trigger releases this week or next. They’ve stepped up releases through other outlets in hopes of avoiding the need to use the spillway.

See also:

 

stronger together: The Bay Area’s newly linked water lifelines

The Mercury News

The Bay Area’s deeply unequal cities, home to mansions and shacks alike, are linked by one thing: thirst. Banding together, the region’s water agencies on Tuesday unveiled the latest upgrades to a vast network that connects six million people and provides mutual aid in a crisis, such as an earthquake or severe drought.

 

Metropolitan Water District backs away from plan to finance both delta tunnels

Los Angeles Times

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is dropping plans to push ahead with a two-tunnel proposal to revamp the state’s water delivery system, opting to pursue a scaled-back version instead. In a memo to the agency’s board on Monday, MWD officials said the decision followed discussions with major agricultural districts that remain unwilling to make any financing commitments for the project, known as California WaterFix.

See also:

 

“Xtra”

 

Bonnie Reiss, early and key advisor to former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, dies at 62

Los Angeles Times

Bonnie Reiss, who played a key role in crafting education and environmental policy for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, died Monday at her home in Malibu. Reiss made her way from national politics to entertainment law to government service, serving as a senior advisor to Schwarzenegger and later as the California’s Education secretary.

 

Worth Noting: Country & Craft Beer Festival set for Saturday

Bakersfield Californian

The Active 20-30 club will be holding its Country & Craft Beer Festival on Saturday. The festival runs from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Central Park at Mill Creek, 600 21st St. More than 50 breweries and 20-plus restaurants will be at the festival, which will also include live music from several bands. Tickets are $60 per person or $120 for a VIP ticket. Money raised from the festival goes to charities helping children in Kern County.

 

Big Hat Days celebrating 80 years of fun this weekend

Clovis Roundup

Big Hat Days, Clovis’ annual springtime festival, is celebrating the big 8-0 this weekend. Started in 1938 as a celebration to honor hardworking Clovis cowboys and farmers, the hat-inspired event got its name from the hats that block the dirt and sun from their faces. To salute the blue collar workers, townspeople were invited to don their favorite hats.

 

Trail Fest to introduce STEM activities, food trucks

Clovis Roundup

The city’s third annual Trail Fest is coming up May 5 and this year’s Guadalajara street fair inspired festival will feature a host of new vendors. Thanks to a generous $1,500 grant from new sponsor Kaiser Permanente, which will have a booth along the trail offering free blood pressure checks, the city was able to hype up this year’s event to attract a few food vendors, including the Sno Café snow cone truck and Pop’s Emporium gourmet ice pops.

 

EDITORIALS

 

Why rollback progress toward cleaner cars?

Fresno Bee

For decades California has used its market power and its policy innovation to push America toward a cleaner energy future. But the Trump administration seems just as determined to drag America backward to more dependence on dirty fossil fuels.

 

For sake of Valley’s kids, California can’t back down on mpg rules

Modesto Bee

Ever see a child suffering from asthma? In some, it’s coughing, wheezing or slowing to catch a deep breath. In others, it’s a desperate struggle to suck in air without getting any. They can turn blue, lose consciousness. For parents it means carrying inhalers, making certain that school staff knows what to do in case of an attack and trips to the ER. Some children recover; in others, asthma continues into adulthood. A few never recover.

 

Car buyers should fight Trump fuel-efficiency rollback

Mercury News

With the Trump administration’s announcement Monday that it will roll back the nation’s fuel-efficiency targets and might try to force California to do the same, car consumers who care about slowing global warming should prepare to vote with their pocketbooks.

 

Only the Legislature can save Californians from bad cops

Sacramento Bee

Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones might not have answered every question this week about the deputy whose SUV struck a woman protesting the police shooting of Stephon Clark. But without Sacramento’s strict requirements for police transparency, beefed up two years ago in response to community outrage, Jones arguably might not have answered any questions at all.

 

Our View: 50 years later, MLK’s dream lives on

Stockton Record

It was on this day 50 years ago that tragedy struck Memphis, Tennessee, when an assassin’s bullet ended the life of Martin Luther King Jr. It was the first of two horrific events that would occur in 1968. Slightly more than two months after King’s death, presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy was fatally shot at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. But today, we reflect on King.

 

Sixty years after partnering with MLK, James Lawson still sees racism everywhere. Yet his optimism remains

Los Angeles Times

James Lawson and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. met across a dinner table at Oberlin College in Ohio in 1957. Lawson, a theology graduate student, and King, a rising figure in the civil rights movement though still in his 20s, recognized quickly that they were kindred disciples of nonviolence. Lawson planned to join the civil rights movement when he finished graduate school. In a single evening, King upended his timeline.

 

It’s going to take more than Trump’s ranting (and wrong) tweet attack to fix immigration

Los Angeles Times

President Trump has spent part of the last three days issuing blustery tweets over an annual caravan of mostly Central American migrants moving northward through Mexico, many of them heading for the U.S. border.

 

A consumer watchdog agency is about to be defanged

San Francisco Chronicle

There’s no better way to hobble a key federal agency than by putting someone in charge who wants to incinerate it. That’s the game plan for Mick Mulvaney, the acting head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an entity he wants obliterated as an independent watchdog.

 

Congress should stop ‘policing for profit’

OCRegister

For decades, federal, state and local law enforcement agencies have been free to seize the property of Americans without so much as bringing criminal charges. Three years ago, then-Attorney General Eric Holder heavily restricted the practice known as “adoptive forfeitures” whereby state and local law enforcement agencies work with federal agencies to seize property under federal laws that enable local law enforcement agencies to receive up to 80 percent of revenues from seizures.

 

Stop the feds’ latest push to undermine encryption, security

OCRegister

Federal law enforcement agencies are reportedly stepping up efforts to force tech companies to facilitate easier access to encrypted data, an effort that should be resisted. According to the New York Times, FBI and Justice Department officials have convened talks with security researchers about ways of getting access to protected data.

 

Trump is right, our wars only bring ‘death and destruction.’ End them.

OCRegister

President Trump confirmed Tuesday that his administration is “very seriously” considering pulling troops out of Syria. Noting that the primary mission of the intervention in Syria was to defeat ISIS, Trump argued “we’ve almost completed that task” and that a decision will be made “very quickly” about the future of American involvement.

 

Why tech giants’ privacy problem could get bigger — and haunt them

San Diego Union-Tribune

Public anger over how tech giants stockpile and cash in on users’ information exploded last month with the revelation that the data firm hired by Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — Cambridge Analytica — was able to access and evaluate the Facebook user data of an estimated 50 million people without their permission. Criticized over the fact that this improperly accessed information was mined to get votes for Donald Trump and to undermine Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Facebook’s initial response was tone-deaf.

 

 

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Maddy Institute Updated List of San Joaquin Valley Elected Officials HERE.

 

The Kenneth L. Maddy Institute at California State University, Fresno was established to honor the legacy of one of California’s most principled and effective legislative leaders of the last half of the 20th Century by engaging, preparing and inspiring a new generation of governmental leaders for the 21st Century. Its mission is to inspire citizen participation, elevate government performance, provide non-partisan analysis and assist in providing solutions for public policy issues important to the region, state and nation.

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