TOP POLITICAL STORIES
Local/Regional Politics:
Two California Republican members join GOP push for DACA fix this year
LA Times
California Reps. David Valadao and Jeff Denham are joining House Republican colleagues in pushing Speaker Paul D. Ryan to find a legislative fix before the end of the year for the legal status of people brought to the country illegally as children.
Kern County Supervisor Leticia Perez was sworn in Thursday night as the president of the California State Association of Counties, the lobbying and advocacy organization for California’s 58 county governments.
Hard freeze watch to hit San Joaquin Valley
The Fresno Bee
A hard freeze watch is in effect for the central San Joaquin Valley for Monday night into Tuesday morning, according to the National Weather Service.
See also:
Protesters in Porterville march for immigration reform
abc30
Dozens of Porterville residents took part in a march for immigration reform Sunday.
Loma Vista urban village finally underway
Clovis Roundup
It takes at least 10 years to see the plan you set in motion finally come to fruition. That is what an old boss of Clovis Planning Director Dwight Kroll once told him and Kroll says that certainly rings true of the city’s plan for Loma Vista.
Home prices nearly doubled in this surprising California (Valley) city
Mercury News
As home prices skyrocket across the state, there’s one California city where they’ve shot up more than anywhere else in the U.S. — nearly doubling in the past five years.
Potential Deal Emerges For New Downtown Fresno Hotel At Convention Center
Valley Public Radio
A long-vacant dirt lot next to the Fresno Convention Center Exhibit Hall could soon become a 200 room hotel, under a deal that is scheduled to go before the city council next Thursday. The agreement would involve the city selling the three-quarter acre lot at Inyo and “M” Streets to Metro Hospitality Services for $644,000.
Fresno’s Kepler charter school could close due to student achievement
The Fresno Bee
A state charter school organization is recommending that Kepler Neighborhood School, (no relation to Mark Keppler) which has been championed as part of Fresno’s downtown revitalization, close due to poor academic achievement.
Kern County pedestrian deaths reach 40, tying highest mark in past few years
Just last week, Miguel Angel Canela was walking along Highway 58 near Mojave when, just east of exit 172, on the westbound shoulder, he was struck by a vehicle. Canela, 33, died at the scene.
ANNA SMITH: Bakersfield a tech hub? Let’s all dream that dream
The “Bakersfield island” effect can be destructive to our growth potential. I’ve heard this term tossed around a lot, including on a recent occasion by Bakersfield City Councilman Bruce Freeman during a panel discussion at this year’s State of the City lunch. Truth is, we are just far enough away — geographically and mentally — from big cities and their big ideas to think that grand schemes can’t happen here. As a city, we need to cultivate a growth mindset — an awareness and belief that we are capable of more.
In California, an unexplained increase in valley fever this year
LA Times
This year is shaping up to be the worst on record in California for people infected with valley fever, a lung infection caused by a fungus found in soil.
State Politics:
Governor candidates square off over education at San Diego forum
LA Times
From charter schools to property taxes, six California gubernatorial candidates faced off on a range of topics Saturday before hundreds of school board members from throughout the state.
See also
Campaign ’18: Gov Wannabes Woo Educators Newsmakers
Willie Brown: Maria Shriver for governor?
San Francisco Chronicle
Shriver is no longer a registered Democrat. She’s among the 42 percent of California voters who are ‘decline to state.’ … I don’t want to make Gavin Newsom, Antonio Villaraigosa or the other hopefuls nervous. But Shriver’s question got me to thinking that she may be interested in running.
Myers: The major parties just aren’t cutting it for California voters
LA Times
Hardly anyone would be surprised to learn the vast majority of Californians — two in every three adults in the latest statewide poll — thinks the country is headed in the wrong direction. And they’re placing much of the blame on the nation’s two dominant parties.
The Most Influential People of 2017
Bloomberg
Gov. Jerry Brown made the list. If any doubt lingered about who would lead states’ opposition against President Trump, Brown quashed it within hours of the White House’s June announcement that the U.S. will be withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement. “This is an insane move,” the 79-year-old Democrat said.
POLITICO Power List: 18 people to watch in 2018
Politico
This list includes California Sen Pro Tem Kevin de Leon as one to watch
Lopez: They’re leaving California for Las Vegas to find the middle-class life that eluded them
LA Times
The rent steals so much of your paycheck, you might have to move back in with your parents, and half your life is spent staring at the rear end of the car in front of you.
California Senate to begin interviewing law firms to probe sexual harassment
Sacramento Bee
A California Senate panel charged with hiring a legal firm to investigate sexual harassment allegations will interview lawyers for the job in closed door meetings beginning Monday. “The panel will have broad discretion, and we anticipate this process will produce a highly-qualified firm of statewide stature that is among the best in its profession, expert in the field of workplace harassment, and completely independent from this Senate,” said Senate President Kevin de León’s office in a statement on Friday.
De León pressured as sexual misconduct scandal creeps into US Senate race
San Francisco Chronicle
Two days after state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León announced he would challenge fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in next year’s election, a sexual harassment scandal broke under his roof. More than 140 women in and around the state Capitol signed an open letter on Oct. 17 and launched the We Said Enough campaign decrying the pervasive sexual harassment and abuse they have faced in their jobs in politics. But it didn’t take long for the women to hear the theory that their efforts were part of a well-oiled Feinstein machine kicking back an insurgent de León campaign.
Governor candidates square off over education at San Diego forum
The San Diego Union-Tribune
From charter schools to property taxes, six of California’s gubernatorial candidates faced off on a range of topics Saturday before hundreds of school board members from all over the state. The half-dozen candidates, currently topping public polls on who will replace termed-out Gov. Jerry Brown in 2018, closed out the annual conference of the California School Board Association, held this year at the San Diego Convention Center.
California Resolute in Sanctuary Status as a Heated Case Ends
New York Times
When Kathryn Steinle was killed in July 2015 while strolling with her father on a San Francisco pier, Donald J. Trump’s campaign was just two weeks old. For the next 16 months, he seized on the killing as an example of the problems with illegal immigration and sanctuary cities. The man who fired the gun, Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, was an undocumented immigrant who had been deported several times and had recently been freed by the San Francisco County sheriff.
Walters: How far can Democrats go to help unions?
CALmatters
Undeniably, California’s dominant Democratic Party is joined at the hip with labor unions, even though scarcely a sixth of the state’s workers belong to unions.
Walters: Could California be seeing onset of recession?
CALmatters
Twice each year, once in January and again in May, Gov. Jerry Brown warns Californians that the economic prosperity their state has enjoyed in recent years won’t last forever.
Stem cell agency: $16 million-plus in grants
Capitol Weekly
The California stem cell agency today handed out $16.4 million in research grants seeking therapies for afflictions ranging from gum disease and cancer to vision loss and Parkinson’s Disease.
Federal Politics:
Senate Republicans pass GOP tax plan, handing Trump legislative victory
POLITICO
The Senate narrowly passed a massive tax overhaul early Saturday morning, putting Republicans on the cusp of revamping the U.S. tax system for the first time in more than three decades
See also:
- Cost of Republican Tax Plan: Cost = $1.5 Trillion, Adding $1 Trillion to Debt Joint Committee on Taxation
- The G.O.P. Tax Plan Can Be Confusing. Here’s Help Deciphering It. The New York Times
- As Tax Overhaul Looms, Senate Has Upper Hand Roll Call
- Wall Street cheers Senate’s approval of tax bill Reuters
- Republicans’ Tax Bill & Congress’s Downward Spiral National Review
- Republicans Near a Big Win — but Will It Lift Them Politically?The New York Times
- CHART: How The Republican Tax Overhaul Would Affect You NPR
- Tax Reform and the 2018 CA Elections Fox and Hounds Daily
- Five Reasons That GOP Plans to Reduce or Eliminate the State and Local Tax (SALT) Deduction Are a Bad Deal for Californians California Budget & Policy Center
- These maps show why some California Republicans are nervous about changes to the tax code Los Angeles Times
- Next step in GOP tax bill unlikely to deliver help to California San Francisco Chronicle
- Berkeley students create tool to estimate cost of GOP tax bill SFGate
Poll: Majority of Trump supporters say media is ‘enemy of American people’
TheHill
A majority of President Trump’s supporters in a new poll agree with the president’s claim that the media is “the enemy of the American people,” according to new research from YouGov.
GOP Gets Ready to Own a One-Sided Shutdown Argument
Roll Call
Past showdowns happened in divided governments, and still Republicans got blamed. So what’s different now?
De León pressured as sexual misconduct scandal creeps into U.S. Senate race
San Francisco Chronicle
Two days after state Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de León announced he would challenge fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein in next year’s election, a sexual harassment scandal broke under his roof.
Kamala Harris Navigates the 2020 Presidential Landscape
US News
The freshman Democratic senator from California carefully navigates expectations she’ll morph into a 2020 contender.
Other:
Using performance analytics in local government
Brookings
A small but growing number of public sector organizations, particularly at the local government level, are adopting performance analytics as part of their management plans. Specifically, these local governments use evidence-driven analysis in their decisionmaking approaches to innovation throughout their organizations.
Skelton: Where’s your money really going when you donate to charity? Do your research
LA Times
It’s the season for charitable giving. And the trick is to make sure your money actually goes to a charity, not some fundraising outfit.
Think race isn’t a problem in California? New report shows otherwise
San Jose Mercury News
Don’t be fooled by California’s increasing diversity. Racial and ethnic inequity remains a key problem and a potential barrier to future growth, according to Race Counts, a new Web tool that measures racial and ethnic disparities in the state’s 58 counties.
See also:
LA Times
he family of Kate Steinle chose not to be in court on the day jurors rendered their verdict in the case of the undocumented Mexican immigrant who was accused in her death.
See also:
- SF removes white nationalist memorial to Kate Steinle over family’s concerns The San Francisco Examiner
MADDY INSTITUTE PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAMMING
Sunday, December 10th, at 10 a.m. on ABC 30 – Maddy Report: State Auditor To UC: UCPath on the Wrong Path. Guest: State Auditor Elaine Howle. Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.
Sunday, December 10th, at 10 a.m. on Newstalk 580AM/105.9FM (KMJ) –Maddy Report – Valley Views Edition: TBD
Sunday, December 10th, at 7:30 a.m. on UniMas 61 (KTTF) – Informe Maddy – California Supreme Court: Special Taxes Are Special. Guests: LiamDillon with Los Angeles Times, Jesse Rojas with Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, and Alexei Koseff with Sacramento Bee. Host: Maddy Institute Program Coordinator, Maria Jeans.
Support the Maddy Daily HERE. Thank you!
Topics in More Detail…
EDITORIALS
We Californians faced disaster in 2017. What’s in store could be worse
Fresno Bee
Californians know earthquakes can strike any time. The Oroville Dam scare and the deadly wine country fires make clear we must now prepare for climate change.
How bad is the GOP tax plan for California? Republicans don’t even like it
Sacramento Bee
Republicans say the bill is meant for the middle class, but many would see higher taxes. Even the almond industry is at risk.
Thumbs up, thumbs down: Jalen, 9, cooks up a coat drive for kids
Fresno Bee
Boy baker raises dough for coats; K-9 officers heal from gunshots; ‘Weinstein effect’ cuts office parties; Villines sets ultra-marathon record.
Kate Steinle has been a martyr. It’s time to let her be a daughter
Fresno Bee
A jury acquitted undocumented immigrant Jose Ines Garcia Zarate of murder charges in the 2015 shooting on a San Francisco pier.
For people like Steinle and Steiner, we demand justice … not revenge
Modesto Bee
It’s easy to understand the rage directed at Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, the man responsible for the shot that killed Kate Steinle. It’s just as easy to understand the anger seething toward Karen Mathews Davis, the former Stanislaus County clerk-recorder who told federal investigators a made-up story of being attacked in 2013. Despite our anger and revulsion, we learned Thursday that neither will face jail time. What does it say about the quality of justice when two people who have engendered so much anger essentially walk away from their crimes?
Shocking verdict in Steinle killing only deepens the tragedy and inflames politics
San Jose Mercury News
The jury seems to have been diligent; still, it’s hard to accept that the person holding the gun was not responsible
Living in an RV isn’t ideal, but a crackdown is cruel
Los Angeles Times
Here in the nation’s least affordable rental market, the poor often have to come up with creative ways to keep a roof over their heads. One of those ways is to live in a motor home or RV.
State legislators’ sexual harassment cases have cost
San Francisco Chronicle
With a new report showing that the Legislature has paid nearly $2 million worth of taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment claims over the past 25 years, there’s truly no excuse for Sacramento.
The political world trails on sex harassment
San Francisco Chronicle
After waffling on harassment charges against a longtime colleague, Rep. Nancy Pelosi now wants Rep. John Conyers to resign after a first-person account of his pressuring a woman for sex.
AGRICULTURE/FOOD
California’s skilled farm workers: There is no app for that
Fresno Bee
Every day thousands of people wake up before the sun rises, pack their lunches, and drive or carpool their way to work. Some toil underneath the hot sun, while others are inside feverishly packing perishable items to make sure they make their cross country or ocean voyage in time. Six days a week, they repeat this routine. And how are they rewarded? With the fear that they will not be able to continue this routine.
San Francisco advances toward launching a public bank
The San Francisco Examiner
San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to launch a public bank.
Modesto Bee
Stanislaus County leaders could impose a 600-foot buffer between marijuana businesses and parks. But officials are still debating the proper setbacks so that commercial marijuana activities are not an annoyance to homeowners. County supervisors could approve local regulations for the cannabis industry following a 9 a.m. hearing Tuesday. The detailed set of rules, including odor controls, property setbacks, security measures, sign restrictions, zoning regulations and record-keeping requirements, would apply in the county unincorporated areas.
Lawyers Walk Fine Line to Navigate State, Federal Pot Laws
AP
Lawyers in the burgeoning business are entering a legal gray zone where the drug is permitted for some purpose in most states but illegal under federal law — in the same controlled substances category as heroin. Missteps could lead to prosecution for conspiracy, money laundering or aiding and abetting drug dealers.
CRIMINAL JUSTICE / FIRE / PUBLIC SAFETY
Crime:
For people like Steinle and Steiner, we demand justice … not revenge
Modesto Bee
It’s easy to understand the rage directed at Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, the man responsible for the shot that killed Kate Steinle. It’s just as easy to understand the anger seething toward Karen Mathews Davis, the former Stanislaus County clerk-recorder who told federal investigators a made-up story of being attacked in 2013. Despite our anger and revulsion, we learned Thursday that neither will face jail time. What does it say about the quality of justice when two people who have engendered so much anger essentially walk away from their crimes?
See also:
- Justice Department issues arrest warrant after jury acquits Mexican immigrant in ‘sanctuary city’ killing Washington Post
Fire:
California lawmakers push back on White House with new wildfire request
Sacramento Bee
California’s House members are joining across party lines to call for $4.4 billion for wildfire recovery from Congress, a unified statement that boosts the state’s chances of securing much-needed funds to help rebuild after this fall’s devastating fires. The request is also a rebuke of the White House, which sent a $44 billion disaster aid request to Congress last month that made little mention of the state’s fire victims. The Trump administration later clarified that its requests for money for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Small Business Administration would all apply to California’s fire recovery, as well as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.
See also:
ECONOMY / JOBS
Economy:
WSJ
The U.S. economy is headed into the final stretch of 2017 powered by one of sturdiest periods of growth in its nine-year expansion, a vigor that is helping drive stock-market indexes to new highs.
See also:
Jobs:
How to create middle-class jobs
Chicago Booth Review
You wouldn’t know it from current politics, but the US manufacturing sector is doing great. Average hourly earnings have risen 25 percent in the past decade. Manufacturing’s contribution to GDP grew from $1.8 trillion in 2008 to $2.2 trillion last year. Productivity, measured as output by hour, is up 10 percent in the past decade. Workers are making more things than they were a decade ago, and they’re making more money doing it.
EDUCATION
K-12:
Downtown Fresno charter school in danger of closing for poor academics
Fresno Bee
A state charter school organization is recommending that Kepler Neighborhood School, which has been championed as part of Fresno’s downtown revitalization, close due to poor academic achievement. But school leadership is hopeful that Fresno Unified, which authorized the school to open in 2013, will vote to keep it open. “Are parents concerned? Yes.
Fresno Unified works to make teacher workforce more diverse
The Fresno Bee
Jeff Copeland is one of two black teachers at Sequoia Middle School in Fresno. For a while, he was the only one.
Taking a second look at the learn-to-code craze
San Francisco Chronicle
Over the past five years, the idea that computer programming – or “coding” – is the key to the future for both children and adults alike has become received wisdom in the United States.
Jerry Brown’s dilemma: fix school funding formula now or watch others do it later
EdSource
If he chooses, Gov. Jerry Brown can leave office a year from now with the satisfaction of seeing the Local Control Funding Formula, the sweeping school funding and improvement reform he championed, intact and fully funded — at least as the 2013 law defines full funding. The question he should ask himself is whether it would be wiser to negotiate needed fixes to the law or watch the Legislature, the next governor and a new State Board of Education the new governor will appoint, start chipping away at the funding formula in ways Brown might regret.
24 ideas for improving the Local Control Funding Formula
EdSource
With Gov. Jerry Brown retiring a year from now, EdSource asked two dozen school leaders, student advocates, legislators and other astute observers to suggest the most important improvements needed to make his landmark education law, the Local Control Funding Formula, more effective, equitable and truer to its promise.
Teaching common core with a chard quinoa salad
Cabinet Report
Every parent who knows the frustration of trying to get a child at mealtime to eat their vegetables should consider the challenge Paul Escala faces—he’s got about twelve hundred kids to win over every day.
Now on Oracle’s Campus, a $43 Million Public High School
The New York Times
Tech companies ship all kinds of products to public schools: laptops, online writing programs, learn-to-code lessons and more.
Now Oracle, the business software services giant, is trying the opposite tack: bringing a public charter school to the company.
Higher Ed:
Closing the book on the UC audit
Los Angeles Times
After an audit of the University of California system in April suggested that UC President Janet Napolitano maintained a $175 million slush fund, a whistleblower accused the president’s office of meddling in the audit. Separate investigations by the state Auditor’s office and the UC Board of Regents ensued, and the results are now in.
Joseph White, pioneering black psychologist who mentored students at UC Irvine, dies at 84
Los Angeles Times
A pioneer in the field of black psychology and an influential figure to countless students at UC Irvine, Joseph L. White was 84 and planning for the future. The psychologist and retired professor, friends said, had books he wanted to write. He was thinking of compiling recordings of his past lectures. But on Nov. 21, while on a connecting flight to visit family in St. Louis for Thanksgiving, he died of a heart attack.
ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY
Environment:
Will the 21500-home Newhall Ranch project be California’s greenest development?
OCRegister
On sprawling farmland and chaparral-covered foothills cradling Magic Mountain, earthmovers are carving out what some developers and environmentalists see as a new benchmark in the fight against climate change. After 20 years of battles over traffic, water and endangered wildlife, brush clearing and construction of roads and infrastructure is underway on 21,500-home Newhall Ranch, which is being marketed as one of the world’s first large-scale planned communities that will add no new greenhouse gases to the environment.
Energy:
San Bruno blast aftermath: Officials allege state PUC corruption, seek charges
San Jose Mercury News
Three Bay Area officials Friday urged the state attorney general to file charges against the state Public Utilities Commission, alleging corruption, obstruction and cozy ties between the powerful agency and big power utilities such as PG&E.
HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES
HIV/AIDS ‘not a death sentence anymore’, but rising cases among youth cause for concern
Martha Warriner-Jarrett, a 72-year-old, white, heterosexual woman, is in the demographic group least at-risk for Human Immunodeficiency Virus.
Here’s a look at the stats around flu season, plus tips to avoid getting sick
OCRegister
Influenza activity is rising across the U.S. with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting recent widespread activity in several states. Serious outcomes of flu infection can result in hospitalization or death. The CDC and the California Department of Public Health are recommending everyone over six months old get vaccinated.
IMMIGRATION
Essential California: For a deported man and his family, an uneasy ‘homecoming’ in Mexico
Los Angeles Times
The second installment of yet another great Times series about Mexico concerns those who’ve returned to the country from the United States. Meet Jose Roberto Tetatzin, who knew he was going to be deported to his native Mexico. Now he and his partner, Judith Cristal Gudino, would have to decide what to do next. Should the girls stay in the U.S. with Gudino, or should the whole family relocate to Mexico?
LAND USE/HOUSING
Land Use:
Restraint and hope the watchwords for Bakersfield’s commercial real estate market
Bakersfield’s commercial real estate world is in a bit of a quirky place, say the local leaders who market and develop space here.
Housing:
Lopez: They’re leaving California for Las Vegas to find the middle-class life that eluded them
LA Times
The rent steals so much of your paycheck, you might have to move back in with your parents, and half your life is spent staring at the rear end of the car in front of you.
Will the 21500-home Newhall Ranch project be California’s greenest development?
OCRegister
On sprawling farmland and chaparral-covered foothills cradling Magic Mountain, earthmovers are carving out what some developers and environmentalists see as a new benchmark in the fight against climate change. After 20 years of battles over traffic, water and endangered wildlife, brush clearing and construction of roads and infrastructure is underway on 21,500-home Newhall Ranch, which is being marketed as one of the world’s first large-scale planned communities that will add no new greenhouse gases to the environment.
California Today: Neighborhoods That Grow Up, Not Out
New York Times
If California is going to solve its affordable housing problem, cities have to build up in single-family home neighborhoods. That was the conclusion of the economists I interviewed for my recent story on Berkeley. The story raises a big, difficult question that sits at the heart of California’s efforts to simultaneously combat poverty and climate change: Is it possible to build a dense city that is also affordable?
PUBLIC FINANCES
Will Brown pension reform lead to more reform?
Calpensions
Gov. Brown’s pension reform legislation five years ago, sold in part as a way to assure voters a proposed tax increase would not be eaten up by rising pension costs, got little love from pension critics.
TRANSPORTATION
How much do you save with an electric car?
San Jose Mercury News
Bay Area drivers who switch from gasoline to electric cars save upwards of $800 each year on fuel costs alone, according to a new study released this week by the Union of the Concerned Scientists.
WATER
Costs soar and cracks revealed in Oroville Dam spillway, but officials say it’s ready for winter
Los Angeles Times
In the coming months, the Oroville Dam will face its first big test since a crisis earlier this year forced the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents below its mangled spillway. Officials have been planning for the coming of the winter rains at the nation’s tallest dam and are confident it can handle heavy rain and snow runoff from the Sierra without interrupting the extensive reconstruction of its main spillway, which was damaged.