18Apr

TOP POLITICAL STORIES

Valley Politics:

Will Fresno ever pass this test? It’s another flunking grade for air pollution

Fresno Bee

The San Joaquin Valley has made some strides in cleaning the air but continues to rank among the most polluted areas for ozone and soot in California, according to a 2018 American Lung Association report on air quality. Eight counties — from Stanislaus to Kern — got flunking grades for both ozone and particle pollution in the association’s State of the Air 2018 report card released Wednesday.

State legislature candidates vie for open local seats

The Turlock Journal

Over a month has passed since the candidate filing deadline for both the California State Senate and Assembly elections, bringing forward hopefuls vying to replace District 8 Senator Tom Berryhill and District 12 Senator Anthony Cannella, who are terming out of office, and just one challenger to face incumbent District 12 Assemblyman Heath Flora.

In the new 4th District, Democrats face a familiar challenge

The Bakersfield Californian

So much for the fiction that the Kern County Board of Supervisors is a nonpartisan chamber. When two dozen Latino leaders met last week to nominate a candidate to challenge Fourth District Supervisor David Couch in a court-mandated November election, they abandoned all pretense and invited state Democratic officials into the deliberations. I guess we can applaud their honesty.

Report: 10 Bakersfield-Area Teachers Assaulted By Students This Year Alone

Valley Public Radio

According to a new report from The Bakersfield Californian’s Harold Pierce, 10 teachers in the Kern High School District have been assaulted by students this year alone. Some suggest the number might even be higher. It’s the latest news on a topic that has long plagued the district, which once was know for its high suspension and expulsion numbers.

Valley Children’s confirms Visalia as newest home

Visalia Times-Delta

Valley Children’s Hospital confirmed Visalia will be the home of it’s newest specialty care center after announcing it’s in escrow on a property in southwest Visalia. Visalia Times-Delta first reported the children’s hospital was looking at the south Valley area in February. The announcement was received well by Tulare County residents. On Facebook, the story had nearly 100 comments more than 500 shares praising the move.

Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks increase entrance fees by $5

Visalia Times-Delta

It’s a perfect time to head out and enjoy the great outdoors. Snow is melting, traffic is light and nearly everything is green in Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks. It’s also cheaper now than it will be in a couple months. Last week, the Department of the Interior announced an increase in fees at 17 popular parks. The $30 fee will jump by $5, which falls well below the $70 fee proposed last fall.

Homelessness:

· The ‘homeless czar’ comes aboard Stockton Record

· Supervisors learn more about fight against homelessness The Bakersfield Californian

High-speed rail project vastly underestimated cost of relocating utility lines beneath Fresno

Los Angeles Times

Buried beneath Fresno were some costly surprises for the California bullet train authority, which disclosed Tuesday that the price of utility relocations along a 29-mile section of railway has surged from a 2013 estimate of $69 million to $396 million. Although it was known that moving gas lines, sewer pipes, water mains and communications wire to make way for the route would be more expensive than originally expected, the magnitude of the increase — nearly a six-fold jump — puts into better focus why the project’s costs are rising so sharply.

California GOP Rep. Jeff Denham says he has the votes to force party leaders to consider bills to protect ‘Dreamers’

Los Angeles Times

California Republican Rep. Jeff Denham says he has the support needed to force a vote in the House on four immigration bills to protect so-called Dreamers, despite the objections of his own party’s leadership. But he’s not committing to using it yet.

State Politics:

Swapping insults with Trump, Brown says agreement all but signed on sending National Guard to border

San Francisco Chronicle

Gov. Jerry Brown sought to tamp down any conflict with the Trump administration over sending California National Guard troops to the Mexican border, even as he dismissed a taunting tweet from the president Tuesday and described heightened concerns about illegal immigration as the province of “very low-life politicians.”

Brown vows to fight Trump over mileage rules until ‘long after we have a new president

Los Angeles Times

Gov. Jerry Brown said Tuesday that California won’t accept scaled-back federal fuel-economy standards, and he vowed to keep any such attempt tied up in court until long after President Trump is out of the White House. “The idea that we’re going to roll back the auto standards is absurd. We’re not going to do that,” Brown told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

Travis Allen still thinks California legalized child prostitution. He’s still wrong.

OCRegister

Back on December 29, 2016, Assemblyman Travis Allen, R-Huntington Beach, authored a piece for the conservative Washington Examiner with the provocative headline “California Democrats legalize child prostitution.” In a sorry reflection of how easy it is for misinformation to circulate, the piece went viral.

Newt Gingrich hits the airwaves to back Republican John Cox for California governor

Los Angeles Times

Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, in a new radio ad by GOP gubernatorial hopeful John Cox, calls the San Diego County businessman a “conservative champion” who is gaining momentum in California’s 2018 race for governor.

Feinstein war chest tops $10 million while Kevin de León struggles to keep pace

Los Angeles Times

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has widened her massive fundraising advantage in the run-up to June’s primary, collecting twice as much in the first quarter than her strongest Senate challenger has sitting in the bank. Feinstein raised $1.3 million between January and March, bringing her war chest to just over $10 million as California’s U.S. Senate race begins in earnest, according Federal Election Commission reports.

· Billionaire Democratic activist Tom Steyer endorses Kevin de León in his insurgent bid against Sen. Dianne Feinstein Los Angeles Times

Our Next Governor Must Run – Not Crawl – to Prioritize Young Kids’ Needs

Fox and Hounds Daily

In 1998 race for governor, reporters quizzed Gray Davis about the death penalty, gun control, immigration and more. Yet as a member of Davis’ communications team, I rarely fielded questions regarding energy, an issue that would largely define and ultimately help end his tenure.

Lt. Gov. candidates spar over who’s cleaner in messy world of campaign finance

CALmatters

It turned into a lightning-round contest over who was more politically pure as five of the 11 candidates for lieutenant governor faced off today before the Sacramento Press Club. Democrat Eleni Kounalakis called on fellow candidates for lieutenant governor to back campaign finance reform—even as opponents accused her of profiting off Big Oil and getting a multimillion-dollar boost from her wealthy developer father.

California Republicans peg comeback hopes to Kevin McCarthy

CNBC

If California Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy becomes the next House speaker, the move could carry significant implications for the nation’s most populous state and several major industries, including agriculture and oil. It would also give California’s GOP, which produced the likes of Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan in decades past, a reason to hope for a comeback in a state dominated by Democratic leaders and lawmakers. The party has seen declining voter registration in recent years.

GOP super PAC showering millions on endangered California Republican

San Francisco Chronicle

Backers of the Congressional Leadership Fund, a super PAC dedicated to electing and re-electing Republicans to the House, were crowing Tuesday about their way-early commitment of $48 million to advertising for the November elections. “By reserving advertising early, investing unprecedented resources in digital and running the country’s only House-focused national field program,” Corry Bliss, the group’s executive director, said in a statement, “CLF is prepared to lead the way in defending the House Republican majority.”

Half of Californians support deportations, Muslim travel ban, survey finds

The Mercury News

About half of Californians say they support President Trump’s Muslim travel ban and more deportations of undocumented immigrants, according to a new poll that challenges the conventional belief that residents of the left-leaning Golden State are overwhelmingly allergic to the administration’s hard line on immigration.

Net neutrality bill moving ahead in California

The Mercury News

An effort to restore net neutrality protections in California moved forward Tuesday despite loud opposition by internet service providers and others. SB 822, written by State Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, is being touted as the most comprehensive state-level net neutrality bill in the nation as states scramble ahead of the repeal of federal rules taking effect next week. Not all votes are in, but the bill is expected to pass the state Senate Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee and head to the Judiciary Committee.

See also:

● California net neutrality bill passes state senate committee San Francisco Chronicle

California plan linking new housing to public transit rejected by state lawmakers

Los Angeles Times

A robust effort to attack California’s housing shortage was rejected Tuesday by a state legislative panel at the Capitol, felled in part by opponents who argued that it treated small cities and large ones like San Francisco the same way.

● The state’s most controversial housing bill in years just died. Here’s what to take away from that CALmatters

● California Lawmakers Kill Housing Bill After Fierce Debate The New York Times

Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues

Los Angeles Times

Two weeks after winning a Los Angeles special election, the newest member of the California Assembly says she hopes to focus on reforms to the state’s criminal justice system during her time in Sacramento. Assemblywoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Los Angeles) took the oath of office on Monday, filling one of three vacant seats representing Los Angeles County in the lower house. The Democrat, a former community college trustee and legislative staffer, thanked her mentors in remarks from the Assembly rostrum.

‘Job killer’ list frames annual battle

CALmatters

The Capitol’s struggles over big issues such as housing and water get a lot of public and media attention, but the building’s bread-and-butter, so to speak, are hundreds of bills that would benefit some interest group, often to the disadvantage of a rival group. That’s especially true of the legislative agendas of four such factions that are embedded with the Capitol’s dominant Democrats: labor unions, consumer activists, environmental groups and personal injury lawyers.

East Bay fault is ‘tectonic time bomb,’ more dangerous than San Andreas, new study finds

Los Angeles Times

The San Andreas long has been the fault many Californians feared most, having unleashed the great 1906 earthquake that led to San Francisco’s destruction 112 years ago Wednesday. But new research shows that a much less well-known fault, running under the heart of the East Bay, poses a greater danger.

Child poverty drops in California, but is still the nation’s highest

EdSource

California’s booming economy has led to a slight drop in the child poverty rate, but the state still has the highest rate in the country when the cost of living is taken into account, according to new data released by Kidsdata and the Public Policy Institute of California. An average of 22.8 percent — or 2 million — of California’s children lived below the poverty threshold in 2013-15, which is $30,000 a year for a family of four, according to the data released this week. The number is down from 24.4 percent in 2011-13.

Tax Day: Californians Feel Overburdened

Public Policy Institute of California

A record-high number of adults (72%) say that California ranks above average or near the top in per capita state and local tax burden compared to other states. This perception is close to the fiscal facts: a Tax Foundation report ranked California’s 2014 state and local tax collections per capita as 13th-highest in the nation.

They Say That Breaking Up Is Hard To Do — Unless It’s Breaking California Into More Than Two

Forbes

Next year marks the 50th anniversary of then-California Gov. Ronald Reagan signing the nation’s first no-fault divorce law. The result? The divorce rate climbed both locally and nationally. The Golden State has bitterly proven that Neil Sedaka had it wrong: breaking up is, in fact, easy to do. How easy? Here’s a web site that promise dissolution in six easy steps.

Federal Politics:

Supreme Court split on whether online sellers must collect sales taxes across U.S.

Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court took up a huge sales tax case on Tuesday with the expectation it was ready to bring online shopping under the same rules that apply to ordinary retailers. But that outcome was less certain after Tuesday’s argument. The justices were clearly divided, but in unusual coalitions of conservatives and liberals.

Gorsuch Sides With Liberal Justices in Immigration Ruling

Wall Street Journal

The Supreme Court reduced the number of people facing mandatory deportation for committing crimes, ruling on Tuesday that the federal law requiring expulsion was written too vaguely to stand constitutional scrutiny. Justice Neil Gorsuch, whose appointment President Donald Trump often cites as a signal accomplishment, joined liberal justices to provide the tie-breaking vote. “Vague laws invite arbitrary power,” he wrote in a concurring opinion.

Opinion: America is Winning Because of Trump’s Tax Reform

Daily Signal

Tax Day is right up there with “Root Canal Day” in terms of days that no one wants to celebrate. But this year we’re turning a page: It’s the last year most people will have to suffer under the burden of our old, outdated tax code, which was greatly revised when Congress passed the landmark Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Trump: California’s sanctuary cities want to leave ‘ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept’

Politico

President Donald Trump continued to accuse California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday of not protecting the border with Mexico, writing online that there’s “a revolution going on in California.” The feud centers on deploying National Guard troops to the Mexican border. Trump insists Brown has backed out of an agreement to send troops to the border, while Brown has said the offer to send troops still stands but that he wouldn’t use those National Guard troops to implement immigration policy.

Other:

Facebook Provides a Preview of Its Privacy Makeover

Wall Street Journal

In a preview of how Facebook Inc. is changing its privacy policies, the site this week will start asking European users for permission to use their personal data to power features like facial recognition and some forms of targeted advertising. Even with the updates, opting out of those features will remain more difficult than sharing such information with the social-media giant.

Regulators Take On Silicon Valley, as They Did Earlier Innovators

Wall Street Journal

The political debate surrounding Facebook today reflects an old pattern in American economic history. Whenever a major new force—whether a product, technology, or organizational form—enters the economic arena, two things happen. First, enormous fortunes are created by entrepreneurs who successfully exploit the new, largely unregulated economic niches that have opened up. Second, the effects of the new force run up against the public interest and the rights of others.

MADDY INSTITUTE PUBLIC POLICY PROGRAMMING

Sunday, April 22, at 9 a.m. on ABC 30 – Maddy Report: “To Catch a Thief: Workers Comp Fraud” – Guest: California State Auditor, Elaine Howle. Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.

Sunday, April 22, at 10 a.m. on Newstalk 580AM/105.9FM (KMJ) – Maddy Report – Valley Views Edition: “Prosecuting Workers Comp Fraud in the Valley” – Guests: Manuel Jimenez (Fresno County District Attorney’s Office), Janelle Crandell (Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office), Spencer Johnston (Tulare County District Attorney’s Office), Dave McKillop (Kern County District Attorney’s Office). Host: Maddy Institute Executive Director, Mark Keppler.

Sunday, April 22, at 7:30 a.m. on UniMas 61 (KTTF) – El Informe Maddy: “Workers Comp Fraud” – Guest: Margarita Fernandez, PIO State Auditor’s Office. Host: Maddy Institute Program Coordinator, Maria Jeans.

Support the Maddy Daily HERE.

Thank you!

Topics in More Detail…

AGRICULTURE/FOOD

Ag thieves dig to new depths in Salida heist — steal 40 trees

The Modesto Bee

Thieves made off with about 40 newly planted cherry trees in the Salida area Monday night, according to a post on the Stanislaus Rural Crime Alert page on Facebook. The theft occurred in an orchard at the north end of Sisk Road along the Modesto Irrigation District canal there. “If you see anyone shady trying to sell cherry trees today, please contact local law enforcement or private message this page,” the Facebook post reads.

Sam’s Club warns customers to discard select packages of lettuce over E. coli worries

Fresno Bee

Several retailers are pulling romaine lettuce products off their shelves as federal and state health officials continue their investigation into an outbreak of E. coli that has made 35 people sick in 11 states. The outbreak has been linked by the U.S. Food and Drug administration to romaine lettuce from Yuma, Arizona, the primary supplier of lettuce this time of the year.

California warns legal pot sellers not to participate in unlicensed 4/20 events

Los Angeles Times

The state issued a warning Tuesday that businesses holding licenses to sell marijuana could face penalties if they participate in unlicensed temporary events away from their stores, including on Friday, April 20, which has become an annual celebration for counterculture groups. The warning was issued ahead of 4/20 by the state Bureau of Cannabis Control. Since Jan. 1, the bureau has issued more than 700 state licenses to sell marijuana for medical or recreational use.

CRIMINAL JUSTICE / FIRE / PUBLIC SAFETY

Crime:

California death row inmate to be freed; no retrial planned

Merced Sun-Star

A man who spent nearly 25 years on California’s death row for raping and killing a toddler before his conviction was overturned won’t be retried and could be freed within days, authorities said Tuesday. Vicente Benavides Figueroa, 68, has remained in prison even though the state Supreme Court last month overturned his 1993 conviction on grounds that medical testimony at his trial was false. Many doctors who testified to the cause of the girl’s injuries recanted.

Newest member of the California Assembly arrives ready to work on criminal justice issues

Los Angeles Times

OC District Attorney files lawsuit accusing California Board of Parole Hearings of violating victim’s rights

OCRegister

The Orange County District Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit against the state parole board, alleging that a parole hearing for a man convicted of killing his friend by beating him and tossing him out of a Cessna was improperly advanced by a year.

Public Safety:

State must make cash bail system just and protect the public safety

San Francisco Chronicle

California’s money bail system is broken, unjust and unsafe. Reform is long overdue. It needlessly keeps too many people behind bars, weakening their connection to positive facets of their lives — jobs, housing, treatment and family.

Bills target police conduct, use of force

Capitol Weekly

The recent police killing of an unarmed black Sacramento man has left protesters and local politicians demanding revisions to California’s Peace Officer’s Bill of Rights — the decades-old protocol for officers facing disciplinary investigation.

Fire:

Changes promised for wildfire bill that sparked utility spending fears

San Francisco Chronicle

Two state bills to prevent wildfires triggered by power lines advanced in the California Senate on Tuesday, although only after their author promised significant changes to one of them that had alarmed consumer groups and solar power advocates. One of the bills, SB901, would require California utility companies to come up with plans for preemptively shutting down electrical lines in advance of a major windstorm like the one that fueled the Wine Country wildfires in October.

ECONOMY / JOBS

Economy:

How the Tax Cut President Trump Loves Will Deepen Trade Deficits He Hates

Wall Street Journal

Among President Donald Trump’s most deeply held economic convictions is that trade deficits are bad, yet his signature economic policy—a major tax cut—likely will deepen the trade deficits he abhors for years to come. For now, that’s more a problem of optics than economics, albeit one that may prompt Mr. Trump to dial up trade tensions with other countries.

The Hutchins Center Explains: The yield curve – what it is, and why it matters

Brookings

Financial markets sometimes offer clues to the future direction of the economy because they reflect the views of so many investors who are putting money behind their forecasts. One gauge that often gets attention is the yield curve. Here’s a primer on what the yield curve tells us – and what it doesn’t.

Jobs:

Know a nurse looking for a job? Modesto-area hospitals offering bonuses up to $15000

Modesto Bee

The company that owns Doctors Medical Center and two other hospitals in the Northern San Joaquin Valley will hold events this week to recruit nurses and other allied health professionals. Events like this are common in a nation with a growing shortage of nurses needed for patient care in hospitals and health facilities.

Thousands of California IT workers getting raises, after all

Sacramento Bee

Several thousand state government information technology workers should be noticing a bump in their paychecks as a result of abroad reorganization of their job classifications California carried out earlier this year. The raises are different for each worker, and many of the state’s 10,000 IT employees will not see a pay increase at all. A January letter from the state human resources department shows that new IT salary ranges could adjust pay for IT workers from 0 percent to 9 percent.

Walters: ‘Job killer’ list frames annual battle

CALmatters

EDUCATION

K-12:

Eight YUSD classified positions cut

Sierra Star

The Yosemite Unified School District continued its belt tightening April 9 as they ratified an agreement with the California School Employees Association’s (CSEA) classified employee bargaining unit. The classified employee bargaining unit represents custodians, bus drivers, office workers and other non-teacher positions. In an effort to preserve positions and integrity of programs, CSEA and the district agreed to reductions and concessions that will save the district $189,300 annually in general fund spending.

Quantity over quality in growth of pre-K programs in California (and the US)

89.3 KPCC

More state leaders are taking note of the benefits of early childhood education and putting more funding into preschool programs, but the quality of those programs isn’t keeping pace with the quantity. That’s the story in California and across the United States, according to the latest State of Preschool report released Wednesday. Each year, the National Institute for Early Education Research (NIEER) evaluates funding, access and policies for state-funded preschool programs across the country.

African-American students would get extra aid under California’s K-12 funding formula in proposal before Legislature

EdSource

California districts with African-American students, currently the lowest-performing ethnic or racial student group, would receive additional funding under a bill that passed its first legislative hurdle last week with the support of organizations representing both school districts and charter schools.

Discovering gold in California’s schools

EdSource

At the end of this summer, I plan to retire from the best job that I’ve ever had in education. What makes leading the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, or CCEE, so special is the fact that we now have a new state agency that isn’t saddled with the usual bureaucratic, compliance and regulatory functions that often come with new state initiatives. We’ve been asked by the state, simply, to get “the right kind of help” to districts, charters and county offices of education.

Report: 10 Bakersfield-Area Teachers Assaulted By Students This Year Alone

Valley Public Radio

Higher Ed:

Fresno State professor stirs outrage, calls Barbara Bush an ‘amazing racist’

Fresno Bee

A Fresno State professor called former first lady Barbara Bush an “amazing racist” who raised a “war criminal,” and expressed no concern that she could be fired or reprimanded for her outspokenness on social media. Randa Jarrar, a professor in Fresno State’s Department of English, expressed her displeasure with the Bush family within an hour after the official announcement that Mrs. Bush died Tuesday at the age of 92.

ENVIRONMENT/ ENERGY

Environment:

Will Fresno ever pass this test? It’s another flunking grade for air pollution

Fresno Bee

Brown vows to fight Trump over mileage rules until ‘long after we have a new president

Los Angeles Times

Destructive swamp rodents are knocking on the Delta’s door. Is it time to panic?

Sacramento Bee

The destructive invasive swamp rodents known as nutria are officially on the doorstep of one of the state’s most critically important waterways. State wildlife officials announced Tuesday that a nutria was killed on agricultural land west of Stockton in San Joaquin County. It’s the farthest north the species has been confirmed of the 32 nutria killed so far in California since their discovery in March 2017. The confirmed kill puts the South American rodents on the edge of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Environmentalists plan logging to restore redwood forests

San Jose Mercury

Environmentalists who have fought loggers for generations have a surprising new strategy to save California’s storied old-growth redwood forests: Logging.

Can Dirt Save the Earth?

New York Times

When John Wick and his wife, Peggy Rathmann, bought their ranch in Marin County, Calif., in 1998, it was mostly because they needed more space. Rathmann is an acclaimed children’s book author — “Officer Buckle and Gloria” won a Caldecott Medal in 1996 — and their apartment in San Francisco had become cluttered with her illustrations. They picked out the 540-acre ranch in Nicasio mostly for its large barn, which they planned to remake into a spacious studio. Wick, a former construction foreman — they met when he oversaw a renovation of her bathroom — was eager to tackle the project. He knew the area well, having grown up one town away, in Woodacre, where he had what he describes as a “free-range” childhood: little supervision and lots of biking, rope-swinging and playing in the area’s fields and glens.

Study: East Bay fault is ‘tectonic time bomb,’ more dangerous than San Andreas

Fresno Bee

The San Andreas long has been the fault many Californians feared the most, having unleashed the great 1906 earthquake that led to San Francisco’s destruction 112 years ago Wednesday. But new research shows that a much less well-known fault, running under the heart of the East Bay, poses a greater danger. A landmark report by the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that at least 800 people could be killed and 18,000 more injured in a hypothetical magnitude 7 earthquake on the Hayward fault centered below Oakland.

Energy:

Diesel Fuel May Be On The Way Out At California Ports

KPBS

An Escondido-based startup is betting that electric engines will become the power plant of choice at ports and other cargo facilities and they are bringing a product to market at what may be the best possible time. From the outside, this school bus sitting in the north San Diego County TransPower facility looks like any other. But lift the hood and the difference is obvious. Several gray boxes sit where a diesel-powered engine used to be.

The dark side of solar

Brookings

In recent years, solar power has surged to become the cheapest and fastest-growing source of electricity on the planet. Yet such a revolution is in fact a long way off. Fossil fuels still supply most of the world’s energy needs. The danger is that a broad constellation of increasingly powerful political interests—buoyed by the rise of the global solar industry—might not support the farsighted public policies needed for the world to achieve deep decarbonization.

HEALTH/HUMAN SERVICES

Health:

Valley Children’s confirms Visalia as newest home

Visalia Times-Delta

Universal Coverage Bills Move Forward, With Questions

Capital Public Radio News

A bill that would expand health care coverage to undocumented adults has moved forward in the California state Assembly, part of a push by Democratic lawmakers to create universal coverage, after a single-payer bill stalled last year. Allowing undocumented adults onto Medi-Cal could get California a third of the way there. The UC Berkeley Labor Center says it would expand access to coverage to more than a million people. But the bill and the universal coverage effort generally still face a major hurdle—how to pay for them. “This is an incredible cost,” said Assemblyman Chad Mayes (R-Yucca Valley).

Air quality linked to cardiac ‘events,’ heart disease patients unaware

Reuters

Poor air quality with high levels of tiny pollution particles known as PM 2.5 are tied to a spike in emergency department visits for heart- and lung-related illnesses and stroke, a California study suggests, but a nationwide U.S. survey finds that few heart patients are aware of air quality risks.

Human Services:

Should California expand what it means to be ‘gravely disabled’?

Los Angeles Times

When Gov. Ronald Reagan signed the Mental Health Act of 1967, the legislation signaled a new era in the treatment of mentally ill Californians. Also known as the Lanterman-Petris-Short Act, the law recognized that not everyone with a mental illness needed to be confined to a state-run psychiatric hospital. Section 5150 established guidelines for the detention of “mentally disordered persons” up to 72 hours for assessment and treatment.

IMMIGRATION

Gorsuch casts key Supreme Court vote to spare California immigrant from deportation

Los Angeles Times

With Justice Neil M. Gorsuch casting the deciding vote, the Supreme Court on Tuesday spared a California immigrant from deportation because his conviction for home burglary was not the kind of “aggravated felony” that would require removing him from the country.

Trump calls California’s sanctuary laws a ‘ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept’

Washington Post

President Trump on Wednesday took fresh aim at California and its “sanctuary” laws affecting undocumented immigrants, claiming that many areas of the state want out of what he characterized as “this ridiculous, crime infested & breeding concept.” Trump’s morning tweet was his latest salvo at the nation’s most populous state, whose laws the president and his administration contend are too friendly to undocumented immigrants.

● San Diego County backs Trump challenge to California ‘sanctuary’ lawReuters

● Another California county backs Trump’s ‘sanctuary’ lawsuit Washington Post

LAND USE/HOUSING

Land Use:

Crews wrap up third phase of Kaiser Permanente Sports Village

The Bakersfield Californian

The Kaiser Permanente Sports Village off of Taft Highway has gotten one step closer to being complete. Crews are finishing up work on Phase III of the sports complex, which includes a playground, picnic areas, restrooms and walking trails. The city’s Recreation and Parks department is holding a grand opening ceremony Wednesday.

Here’s the new retail store that will be coming to Los Banos

Merced Sun-Star

A Ross Dress for Less store is set to come to Los Banos by the summer, according to city staffers, and more development in local shopping centers is expected in the future. The 1400 South Mercy Springs Road discount retail store, which is part of a national chain, will be moving into the same shopping center as an existing Savemart, where Kmart used to be, said Stacy Souza Elms, Los Banos community and economic development director.

Housing:

Supervisors learn more about fight against homelessness

The Bakersfield Californian

Homelessness is a growing problem across California and here in Kern County, the problem is growing, too, Kern County Supervisors were told Tuesday. The Kern County Homeless Collaborative — which has been the main organization fighting homelessness for years —prepared a video report for supervisors that talked about the causes of homelessness, the efforts to combat it and the challenges facing the group in the future.

California plan linking new housing to public transit rejected by state lawmakers

Los Angeles Times

· The state’s most controversial housing bill in years just died. Here’s what to take away from that. CALmatters

Southern California house prices hit 10 1/2-year high, Realtors report

OCRegister

Fierce competition for a limited number of homes pushed house prices higher in March, with Southern California homebuyers paying the highest median prices in more than a decade, new Realtor figures show. Orange County house prices hit an all-time high in March, while prices in the Inland Empire hit their highest level since August 2007, the California Association of Realtors reported Tuesday, April 17.

Housing Starts Edge Higher as Apartment Construction Surges

Wall Street Journal

U.S. housing starts increased in March but single-family home construction pulled back, which could spell continued inventory shortages and rapid price increases for buyers in the coming months. Total housing starts increased 1.9% in March from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.319 million, the Commerce Department said Tuesday.

PUBLIC FINANCES

California’s largest pension fund sends next year’s invoice to state government: $6.3 billion

Los Angeles Times

As part of a shift toward less optimistic expectations for investment returns to pay for government worker pensions, board members of the California Public Employees Retirement System voted Tuesday to require an almost $6.3-billion payment from the state budget in the fiscal year that begins on July 1. The action, which could receive final approval on Wednesday, reflects a gradually higher annual contribution to public employee pensions by the state and from local governments across California.

California’s Tax System Overhaul Creates More Questions Than Answers For Businesses

Forbes

In a little over 72 hours in June 2017, Governor Jerry Brown and legislative leaders used the state budget process to radically transform California’s tax system, which had been in place for roughly the past 87 years. To me, that seems a bit like a physician performing open heart surgery during a coffee break.

The IRS is giving you one extra day to file after its website crashed on tax day

Los Angeles Times

A computer glitch hit the Internal Revenue Service’s tax-filing system Tuesday, the official deadline to file federal and California personal income tax returns. But procrastinators need not fret: The IRS has announced a penalty-free one-day extension due to the filing issues that many taxpayers encountered. The agency said Tuesday afternoon that its systems were back up. Individuals and businesses that were originally due to file Tuesday will now have until Wednesday night.

Supreme Court split on whether online sellers must collect sales taxes across U.S.

Los Angeles Times

Opinion: The National Debt Is Worse Than You Think

Wall Street Journal

I know that worrying about the deficit and debt is hopelessly retro, but please indulge me for a few minutes. Last week the Congressional Budget Office issued its outlook for the next 10 years. The news was not good. Over the next decade, the annual federal deficit averages $1.2 trillion. It rises from 3.5% of gross domestic product in 2017 to 5.1% in 2027. The national debt, which is driven by annual deficits, rises from $15.7 trillion to $28.7 trillion over the same period, and surges from 78.0% to 96.2% as a share of GDP.

TRANSPORTATION

California risks losing $1.4 billion in federal train funds. Safety is the issue

Sacramento Bee

California is at risk of losing at least $1.4 billion in federal train funds next year because it has failed so far to meet safety requirements. The Federal Transit Administration took the unusual step Monday of issuing a public warning to California and several dozen other states of a looming deadline for those states to prove they have complete programs to oversee and promote rail safety. If the state fails to meet the deadline, it puts state rail and bus systems, including Sacramento and its local Regional Transit district, at risk of losing 2019 FTA funding.

WATER

Skelton: Governor’s potential successors don’t share his Delta tunnel vision

The Mercury News

Gov. Jerry Brown scored big last week in his tenacious effort to build monstrous twin water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. But his legacy project could still collapse. No potential successor supports it. Brown will be termed out in January. Nothing’s going to be built before then, and the needed permits probably won’t even be awarded. The next governor could pull the plug. And all the wannabes are talking like they just might. At the least they’d hit the pause button.

Don’t be rushed in awarding water storage billions, California. Let’s take our time

Sacramento Bee

In 2014, California voters overwhelmingly approved a $7.5 billion bond measure for water supply infrastructure and critical watershed protection and restoration. Since its passage, Proposition 1 – officially known as the Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure Improvement Act – has benefited tens of millions of Californians. It has enhanced safe drinking water supplies and provided for water recycling and groundwater clean-up. It also has brought urgent aid to communities with inadequate water supplies during the historic drought that ended last year.

Protecting fish will ultimately restore our rivers, improving water quality for us all

Los Angeles Times

Locals who like to fish off the coast might be surprised to learn that Southern California steelhead were once prized catches along the coast. With dwindling population numbers, these fish are now federally endangered. Their struggle is symbolic of a larger challenge: maintaining healthy waterways for people and wildlife in urbanized coastal California. But real progress is being made toward recovering this iconic species. Recent efforts provide hope that these native fish can coexist with people, even in this highly altered landscape.

“Xtra”

Remembering a plainspoken political icon, Barbara Bush

Los Angeles Times

Barbara Pierce Bush, who helped propel her husband and their son to the presidency and became by virtue of her wit, self-deprecation and work on literacy one of the most popular first ladies in U.S. history, died Tuesday, according to a family spokesman. Bush, who suffered from heart and respiratory problems, was 92. On Sunday, the office of her husband of 73 years, President George H.W. Bush, said that following a series of hospitalizations, she had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.”

EDITORIALS

The EPA has forgotten its one job: protecting the environment

Hanford Sentinel

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s job is so straightforward, it is embedded in its name. “Our mission is to protect human health and the environment,” the agency’s website confirms, just in case there was any doubt. Yet in recent months, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has set the agency on a path that strays far from this fundamental ethos. Through his actions, Pruitt has made it clear he is prioritizing the industries he is supposed to regulate above the environment he is entrusted to defend.

Bonnie Gore’s unusual run for Placer County supervisor makes a lot of sense

Sacramento Bee

The one contested race for Placer County supervisor is unexpectedly between two experienced elected officials – two-term incumbent Jack Duran and Bonnie Gore, now Roseville’s vice mayor. It’s a close call, but Gore offers voters an unusual opportunity to encourage more collaboration between the county and its largest city, to the benefit of all Placer residents. From the outside, Gore’s decision to run for supervisor may seem curious since she is in line to become Roseville’s next mayor in December – her prize as the top vote-getter when she won a second term in November 2016.

Proposition 69 would put California’s transportation funds in a lockbox. Vote yes

Los Angeles Times

Last year, legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown agreed to increase taxes on gasoline and diesel fuel, and to impose new and bigger fees on vehicles, to help build and maintain the state’s transportation infrastructure. To win support from tax-wary Republicans, proponents of the legislation (Senate Bill 1) promised that the new money would be used only for transportation. Proposition 69 would fulfill that promise. Voters should hold lawmakers to their word and pass it.

The Supreme Court delivers a victory for due process for deportees

Los Angeles Times

The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled in a case from California that if a law is deemed to be so vague that it is impossible for the government to use it to impose a prison sentence, then it is also too vague to be used to deport a lawful permanent resident. It was another welcome recognition by the court that being expelled from this country can be as devastating a consequence as confinement to a prison cell.

Gorsuch’s Good Opinion

Wall Street Journal

President Trump said he wanted Supreme Court Justices in the mold of Antonin Scalia, and on Tuesday he got his wish. Though Justice Neil Gorsuch joined the four liberals on an immigration case, his logic would have made the late Justice proud. In Sessions v. Dimaya, the government sought to deport a legal resident twice convicted of first-degree burglary. The Immigration and Nationality Act lets the government deport any immigrant convicted of a “crime of violence.” The question is whether first-degree burglary is a violent crime.

The Department of Justice should support San Francisco in police reform

San Francisco Chronicle

The Trump administration has largely abandoned providing assistance to reform-seeking, local law enforcement agencies across the country, and the change has hurt cities like San Francisco. That was the crucial message coming out of a three-day conference last week hosted by the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives. Northern California police chiefs, commanders, prosecutors and community activists gathered in Oakland last week to discuss police shootings, racial bias and other crucial and contentious issues in law enforcement.

Congress needs to spend within its means

OCRegister

Absent an abrupt display of fiscal discipline, trillion-dollar federal budget deficits are here to stay, as a new report from theCongressional Budget Office makes clear. “If current laws governing taxes and spending generally remained unchanged, the federal budget deficit would grow substantially over the next few years,” the report projects, “with accumulating deficits driving debt held by the public to nearly 100 percent of GDP by 2028.”

Are you getting your tax bill’s money’s worth?

OCRegister

Tax day might be just behind us, but for Californians, Tax Freedom Day won’t come until April 23. Tax Freedom Day is the day on which Americans have collectively earned enough to pay off the nation’s total tax bill for the year, as calculated by the Tax Foundation, which takes the nation’s combined federal, state and local taxes and divides them by the nation’s combined income.

Wells Fargo: California bank the poster child for corporate greed

San Diego Union-Tribune

The reports last week that Wells Fargo is likely to face an additional $1 billion in civil penalties from federal regulators because of its abusive behavior toward so many of its customers were no surprise. In recent years, the San Francisco-based banking giant has faced harsh fire because its sales agents opened as many as 3.5 million unauthorized checking, savings and credit-card accounts and required more than 800,000 auto-loan customers to pay for insurance they didn’t want or need. This led to fines of $185 million and the settlement of class-action lawsuits for $142 million, among other sanctions.

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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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