Political Stories – Top stories
Jeff Jardine: ICE agents regular to Stanislaus County jail, but few undocumented criminals get deported — The Stanislaus County jail, though, has avoided the ACLU’s circumspection. Why? Because the department long ago established procedures and protocols for dealing with immigrants who come through the jail, and for working with the ICE agents on the lookout for deportable criminals. Staff is trained to understand the rules. Jardine column in Modesto Bee
Valid voter fraud complaints in California? Dozens, not millions – With President Donald Trump alleging serious voter fraud in California, and the state’s top election official calling his claim untrue, how much voter fraud is actually under investigation in the Golden State? Not much—certainly not enough to sway the election, in which California voters chose Hillary Clinton over Trump by 4.3 million votes. CALmatters article
Gov. Brown
Werdegar retirement gives Jerry Brown chance to further mold California Supreme Court — Gov. Jerry Brown will have another opportunity to shape the state’s highest court after Justice Kathryn M. Werdegar announced Tuesday her plans to retire later this year. Werdegar’s departure, set for Aug. 31, will give Brown his fourth opportunity in his second stint as governor to mold the seven-member California Supreme Court, long regarded by legal experts as among the most influential in the nation. Sacramento Bee article
Valley politics
Bakersfield Ward 5: Koman drops out of race — Larry Koman, a Bakersfield businessman who had planned to run for the open Ward 5 seat on the Bakersfield City Council, announced Wednesday he would end his campaign. He threw his support behind candidate Bruce Freeman. Bakersfield Californian article
Statewide politics/Ballot Measures
California’s next governor: Who’s running, who’s on the fence? — Welcome to your guide to the 2018 California governor’s race. The election may be a little less than two years away, but listening tours are underway, political consultants are doling out advice and pundits are handicapping favorites and wild cards. LA Times article
Mayor Eric Garcetti just romped to re-election in LA. Is a run for governor next? — Even before he trounced a field of 10 little-known challengers Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti’s political future was the subject of speculation. With the field taking shape for next year’s race for California governor and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s re-election bid still unannounced, Garcetti has navigated an understated and scandal-free run at the helm of the nation’s second-largest city. Sacramento Bee article
Immigration
San Francisco seeks to freeze executive order on cuts to sanctuary cities – President Trump’s executive order to cut funding to sanctuary cities has injected huge uncertainty in San Francisco’s budget, City Attorney Dennis Herrera alleged Wednesday as he asked a federal judge to freeze the order until a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is resolved. San Francisco Chronicle article; LA Times article
Border Patrol apprehensions plummet as Trump turns up heat — U.S. Border Patrol apprehensions have dropped 40 percent since Donald Trump was sworn into office and issued a series of executive orders that have fueled the perceptions that migrants are unwelcome in the United States. McClatchy Newspapers article
Hawaii becomes first state to sue under Trump’s new travel ban – Hawaii has become the first state to file a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, saying the order will harm its Muslim population, tourism and foreign students. AP article
Mexican breadwinners fear paying for Trump’s border wall – Fifty-year-old Teresa Gomez moved to the United States as a young woman with one goal: to support her aging mother in Mexico. For decades, Gomez has sent her mother a third of every paycheck. She organizes merchandise and attends customers at a Barrio Logan grocery store. Her mother has heart problems, and uses the money to survive in the southern Mexican state of Jalisco. KQED report
Other areas
CHP recommends charges against 106 people in melee at state Capitol – The California Highway Patrol is recommending charges against 106 people after completing an investigation into a June melee on the grounds of the state Capitol. Sacramento Bee article
A state transportation plan that would include tax increases takes another step forward – A bill that would raise gas taxes to chip away at California’s massive backlog of road and highway repairs passed its last of three Senate policy committees Tuesday as the clock ticks toward an April 6 deadline for acting on a transportation financing plan. LA Times article
Assemblyman wants to tax firms that contract with state prisons and use the funds for incarceration-prevention programs – In an attempt to increase the revenue stream for early education programs, a state assemblyman wants to impose a tax on companies that contract with prisons in California to provide goods and services. The bill authored by Assemblyman Tony Thurmond (D-Richmond) would require companies to pay 10% of the value of the contract for any agreements signed on or after Jan. 1, 2018. LA Times article
New bill aims to stop charging parents of incarcerated kids – In most California counties, if a kid gets arrested and locked up, his or her parents often get charged for some of the costs of incarceration. These fees can run up to $30 a day for juvenile hall and $17 a day for ankle-monitoring. State Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) has introduced SB 190, a bill that aims to end these juvenile fees statewide. KQED report
Ain’t no sunshine in this California resolution – Government-transparency advocates have long questioned the records policies of the California Legislature, where rules hamper attempts by the media and others to glean details about lawmakers’ calendars, internal investigations and other information. Then came last month’s introduction of Assembly Concurrent Resolution 25 to designate March 12-18 as “Sunshine Week” to coincide with the annual recognition of the state’s open-records rules and, as the measure reads, “the public’s right to know what its government is doing and why.” Sacramento Bee article
California lawmakers want to repeal HIV criminalization laws — Exposing a person to HIV is treated more seriously under California law than infecting someone with any other communicable disease, a policy some lawmakers say is a relic of the decades-old AIDS scare that unfairly punishes HIV-positive people based on outdated science. AP article
LA voter turnout likely to be lowest ever, muddying Garcetti’s historic reelection win – Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti made history in his romp to reelection on Tuesday: His 81% share of the vote was higher than any of his predecessors had won in more than a century. But Tuesday’s election — once the ballot count is complete — is likely to break another record for low voter turnout in an L.A. mayor’s race, according to Dean Logan, the Los Angeles County registrar of voters. LA Times article
Faced with a chance for radical change, LA voters chose to stay the course — Los Angeles voters offered a strong endorsement Tuesday to policies that have brought denser development and a more urbanized lifestyle to a city once famous for its tracts of tidy single-family homes. LA Times article
California House Republicans hesitant to back GOP Obamacare repeal bill – Embattled California House Republicans, representing areas dependent on Obamacare and facing angry protesters, are balking at supporting their party’s bill to repeal and replace the health care law. Congressman Tom McClintock, R-Elk Grove, who faced hundreds of protesters at raucous town halls, is among those who is not committing to back the bill pushed by Republican leadership. McClatchy Newspapers article
Most California insurance plans could be ineligible for tax credits under new GOP proposal – An antiabortion provision in the recently unveiled House GOP plan to replace Obamacare could make it impossible for most Californians to take advantage of proposed tax credits meant to offset the cost of health insurance. LA Times article
‘Death spiral’ ahead under GOP Obamacare repeal, California’s insurance chief says – California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones blasted House Republicans’ proposed bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday, saying it would deal a devastating blow to the state’s health insurance marketplace and potentially leave 5 million Californians without health coverage. Sacramento Bee article
Winners and losers in GOP’s proposed health care plan – The new system would provide less help to low-income people and those in high-cost areas. Medical device makers, insurance companies and wealthy Americans would all receive a big tax cut. LA Times article
Obamacare replacement bill stalls, but new amendments could woo conservatives – As House Republicans filed into the Energy and Commerce Committee room on Wednesday to markup the much-maligned Obamacare replacement bill, someone shouted “let the games begin.” It didn’t take long for the political theater to start. McClatchy Newspapers article
George Skelton: A state single-payer healthcare system? Nice idea, but it’s just dreaming — Bold is good. And it’s good some people are promoting universal healthcare. But whatever they call it, if there’s no funding it’s fantasy. Skelton column in LA Times
What’s at stake as the GOP moves to cut regulations? For starters, clean air — Amid the Republican backlash against federal scientists who write rules governing everything from movie theater popcorn to offshore oil drilling, stories abound of overburdened businesses, heavy-handed civil servants and crushing paperwork. But another story, one involving a deadly household material, offers a lesson in what can go wrong when government experts are shackled, as currently envisioned under a sweeping regulatory reform bill gliding toward President Trump’s desk. LA Times article
EPA head stacks agency with climate change skeptics — Mr. Pruitt, a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, has moved to stock the top offices of the agency with like-minded conservatives — many of them skeptics of climate change and all of them intent on rolling back environmental regulations that they see as overly intrusive and harmful to business. New York Times article
FBI’s Comey: ‘You’re stuck with me for another 6 ½ years’ — FBI Director James Comey said Wednesday he plans to serve his entire 10-year term, even as controversy swirls over his attempt to rebut President Donald Trump’s claim that the Obama administration tapped his phones during the election. AP article
Sacramento Bee: Make sure CIA isn’t using hacking tools in U.S. — This is not the outrageous domestic mass surveillance by the National Security Agency revealed by Edward Snowden in 2013 and rightly curtailed by President Barack Obama and Congress in 2015. But WikiLeaks asserts that the CIA purposely didn’t warn Apple, Google, Microsoft and others about the vulnerabilities in their products. Sacramento Bee editorial
House panel’s accord will keep secret evidence of Russia election meddling secret — The House Intelligence Committee is nearing an agreement with the nation’s intelligence agencies for full access to the information that underlay the recent classified report on Russian efforts to interfere in last year’s presidential election. McClatchy Newspapers article
How gridlock beat the Californian who tried to fix Washington – Four years ago, when President Barack Obama asked Ann Ravel to serve on the Federal Election Commission, she was seen as one of the last great hopes to save the agency that is supposed to root out the secretive “dark money” political contributions that can poison our politics. Instead, Ravel returned home to Los Gatos last week after quitting two months before her term was to end, exhausted by the worst of Washington’s partisanship, beaten by its gridlock. San Francisco Chronicle article
Presidential Politics
White House says Trump isn’t being investigated – The statement reinforced a conundrum: Either the president’s assertions that President Barack Obama wiretapped him are baseless, or he may have implicated himself in a government investigation. New York Times article
Fans, foes of Trump came armed for battle in Berkeley — Berkeley authorities have a long history of dealing with demonstrators confronting police — but Saturday’s rumble between pro- and anti-President Trump demonstrators was a bit different, in part because the two sides were more interested in fighting each other than the cops. San Francisco Chronicle article
Trump administration considers $6 billion cut to HUD budget – The Trump administration has considered more than $6 billion in cuts at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to preliminary budget documents obtained by The Washington Post. The plan would squeeze public housing support and end most federally funded community development grants, which provide services such as meal assistance and cleaning up abandoned properties in low-income neighborhoods. Washington Post article
California Government Today:
News Stories – Top Stories
Brand will ‘probably support’ Fresno recreational marijuana ban — Fresno Mayor Lee Brand will likely support a proposal to ban recreational marijuana sales in the city, he said in an interview Wednesday, citing “inconclusive results” from city research and personal reservations. Fresno Bee article
Protestors tell Stockton council they ‘come peacefully’; what happens afterward results in dozens of arrests — The fourth speaker at Tuesday night’s City Council meeting was Lareesha Brown, a relative of the late Colby Friday, who was shot to death last summer by a Stockton police officer. “We’re trying to come peacefully,” Brown told the council. Stockton Record article; Sacramento Bee article
In reluctant decision, Bakersfield council ends trash rebate for seniors – Seniors vote. And members of the Bakersfield City Council know it. But that knowledge didn’t stop the council from deciding Wednesday to end a popular subsidy that has cut the cost of refuse collection in half for local seniors over the past 20 years. Bakersfield Californian article
Jobs and the Economy
How should we develop downtown Bakersfield? They’re talking about it – Work continues on development plans for a high-speed rail station downtown and for the surrounding area in general, with drafts due this summer and final versions expected in the fall, the Bakersfield City Council heard Wednesday. Bakersfield Californian article
Strong dollar, travel ban threaten California tourism, UCLA forecast says – Fewer people will visit California this year and next, depriving the state of $1.7 billion in spending, a new UCLA analysis finds. A strong U.S. dollar, which makes U.S. products and services more expensive for foreign visitors, will lead to 5% fewer foreign visitors in 2017 and 1.1% fewer in 2018, according to the report, released Wednesday by the UCLA Anderson Forecast. LA Times article
Financial woes, lawsuits and leadership changes split Modesto, Fresno opera partners – Modesto’s Townsend Opera has ended its more than two-year partnership with Fresno Grand Opera after a tumultuous series of events fit for the arias the groups usually produce. Modesto Bee article
State exports start 2017 on high note – California’s merchandise export trade started 2017 with an exceptionally strong showing, according to Beacon Economics. Beacon said California businesses shipped merchandise valued at $13.27 billion in January, up nearly 11 percent over $11.96 billion reported in January 2016. Sacramento Bee article
Assemi family wants to buy Fig Garden landmark from troubled Gunner-Andros partnership – The Assemi family has made a nearly $55 million offer to buy the Fig Garden Financial Center in northwest Fresno and its adjacent property from the troubled partnership of longtime mega-developers Richard Gunner and George Andros. Fresno Bee article
Sacramento City Council finalizes local licensing fees for commercial marijuana growers – The Sacramento City Council has advanced an ambitious commercial marijuana cultivation program by finalizing local licensing fees for an anticipated 200 cannabis grow rooms expected to flourish in mostly light industrial zones in the capital city. Sacramento Bee article
Company must pay $250,000 for not accommodating employees with disabilities – Magnolia Health Corp., a Tulare-based operator of health care and assisted living facilities, will pay $325,000 to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fresno Bee article; Visalia Times-Delta article
Water tower to promote Sacramento as ‘America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital’ – Signage on a water tower that has heralded Sacramento as the “City of Trees” is being supplanted by a new message declaring the city “America’s Farm-to-Fork Capital.” The new signage on the water tower off Interstate 5, south of the Pocket area, is the result of a collaboration between Sacramento Vice Mayor Rick Jennings and Visit Sacramento, according to a Visit Sacramento news release. Sacramento Bee article
Foon Rhee: Why bragging on the booming stock market hides reality – I don’t begrudge Trump bragging about job announcements though he has little do with them. But he’s also boasting a lot about the booming stock market – the Dow Jones industrial average topped a record 21,000 last week. That bounty for investors, however, hides two key facts, six-plus years into the economic recovery: Way too many Americans are still looking for work in some places, and poverty is far too rampant in some pockets. Rhee in Sacramento Bee
Valley locations avoid list of endangered J.C. Penney stores – Central Valley J.C. Penney locations managed to avoid inclusion on a list of some of the stores most in danger of closing. The Business Journal article
Women go on strike in U.S. to show their economic clout – Many American women stayed home from work, joined rallies or wore red Wednesday to demonstrate how vital they are to the U.S. economy, as International Women’s Day was observed with a multitude of events around the world. AP article; Fresno Bee article; Bakersfield Californian article
Google woos businesses with cloud services – Google executives on Wednesday made their pitch to businesses to buy the company’s data-management and machine-learning services, as they unveiled features that will shorten the time it takes for companies to search for information in video clips and an acquisition that will build a larger network of artificial intelligence experts for Google and its partners. San Francisco Chronicle article
Why LA City Hall is such a hot spot for film shoots — While studio productions like “Ocean’s Eight” keep City Hall buzzing with filming activity, the landmark building is also drawing more productions from streaming services, including two series from Amazon and a Netflix feature movie. LA Times article
BART looks at raising fares, charging more for paper tickets – Faced with a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall and flat ridership, BART is taking the first step toward a possible fare hike. San Francisco Chronicle article
Joe Mathews: Here’s hoping the Olympics are awarded to Paris, not LA — Los Angeles should drop its bid for the 2024 Olympics – before it gets chosen. Paris has long been the heavy favorite to be awarded the 2024 games during a vote in September. But the contest has changed, with all other contenders for 2024 having dropped out (Budapest bailed out last month), leaving L.A. as the only challenger. Mathews in Sacramento Bee
Agriculture/Water/Drought
New report offers solutions to Valley’s water woes – Despite a rain and snowfall year that is among the wettest in memory, Central California’s water supply and quality problems are not going away anytime soon. A new report from the non-profit Public Policy Institute of California looks at those issues and offers a variety of management solutions. Valley Public Radio report
EPA says Fresno water complies with federal lead rules – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has notified the city of Fresno that its water system continues to comply with state and federal rules over lead in the drinking water supply. Fresno Bee article
Jacob Katz and Brian Stranko: Overhaul California’s water system with 21st century flood solutions – Katz, a senior scientist with California Trout, and Stranko, director of The Nature Conservancy’s California Water Program, write, “Carefully designed floodplain projects represent the smart way forward. This year should be the turning point toward safer and greener water infrastructure to prepare us for a warmer and less-predictable future.” Katz/Stranko op-ed in Sacramento Bee
Disaster declaration for San Joaquin County – Gov. Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency in San Joaquin County and most of California, hours after county leaders publicly questioned why notoriously flood-prone San Joaquin had not been included in other declarations. Stockton Record article
Cal Water picks option ahead of regulation — California Water Service announced how it will meet a new state-mandated quality standard. Cal Water, which owns and operates the Visalia municipal system, said it will use granular-activated carbon technology to remove 1,2,3-Trichloroproprane of five parts per trillion –– a fancy way of saying the company will adhere to cleaner water standards. Visalia Times-Delta article
Tulare County growers go nuts for new ordinance — There are five different nut crops grown in Tulare County, combined they generate more than $750 million, annually. “Roughly 40,000 acres are producing walnuts,” said Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County Agriculture Commissioner. “Because of the way they are harvested, [walnuts] are particularly prone to theft.” Visalia Times-Delta article
Damaged main spillway of Oroville Dam to reopen next week – Oroville Dam’s heavily damaged main spillway is expected to resume releasing water a little more than a week from now as levels continue to rise in the reservoir. Sacramento Bee article
Health message helps sell local walnuts — Growers and processors gathered near Modesto last week to talk about growing demand even more. They are using magazines, TV and social media to share the health findings with shoppers – along with dozens of recipes. Modesto Bee article
Criminal Justice/Prisons
In Visalia, some crime is up — While nearly all serious and violent crime was down in Visalia, thieves and killers kept detectives busy last year. Police responded to 167,573 calls for service in 2016, a drop of 1 percent from 2015. Detectives closed a 26-year homicide investigation, gang violence was down and more than 7,000 suspects were arrested. Visalia Times-Delta article
Blacks more likely to be falsely convicted of murder, especially if victim is white – Black people convicted of murder or sexual assault are significantly more likely than their white counterparts to be later found innocent of the crimes, according to a review of nearly 2,000 exonerations nationwide over almost three decades. New York Times article
10 arrested in San Joaquin County sex-trafficking operation — Ten people were arrested in a human trafficking operation in San Joaquin County with the help of a Stockton business owner, according to the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office. Sacramento Bee article
Upgraded jail cells – for a price – In what is commonly called “pay-to-stay” or “private jail,” a constellation of small city jails — at least 26 of them in Los Angeles and Orange counties — open their doors to defendants who can afford the option. But what started out as an antidote to overcrowding has evolved into a two-tiered justice system that allows people convicted of serious crimes to buy their way into safer and more comfortable jail stays. LA Times article
Two riots break out in Corcoran prison; 6 injured, 2 hospitalized – A fight between two inmates Tuesday sparked two separate violent riots at the California State Prison in Corcoran, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said. Fresno Bee article
Police fighting crime at the pump — In an effort to protect citizens, the Lemoore Police Department is helping local gas stations fend against card skimming devices. Hanford Sentinel article
Education
Fresno Unified approves schools as ‘safe places’ for undocumented students – Fresno Unified board members unanimously passed a resolution at Wednesday night’s board meeting declaring district schools a “safe place” for undocumented students. Students, parents and community members crowded into the building downtown to voice their opinions on whether schools should work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The resolution forbids school staff to ask the immigration status of any student unless required by law. Fresno Bee article
Survey: Many college students need a lot more than academic support to succeed – Graduates of one of the best known charter school networks in the nation experience significant financial and other hurdles while in college, including difficulties getting work-study jobs and internships related to their career aspirations, according to a recent survey. EdSource article
The importance of STEM – You may have heard of STEM, but have no idea what it means. STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and some consider it the future of education. STEM is a curriculum that revolves around these four educational disciplines and integrates them into real-world applications and hands-on projects for students. Hanford Sentinel article
What will the future of LA Unified look like? Two very different versions are battling it out — Beneath the mudslinging and big money that dominated this week’s school board elections, a serious battle is being waged over competing visions of local education: one sees progress and the need for stability; another sees failure and prescribes radical change. LA Times article
Atwater students become ‘wizards’ during UC Berkeley science program — Students in Atwater Elementary School District’s Gifted and Talented Education program experimented with electricity and physics last week during a Wizards Festival hosted by University of California, Berkeley’s Lawrence Hall of Science. Merced Sun-Star article
Energy/Environment
PG&E to fix potentially toxic towers — Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced this week that it will repaint thousands of transmission lines towers, including nearly 400 in San Joaquin County, to cover up old layers of potentially toxic lead-based paint. Stockton Record article
Health/Human Services
As valley fever cases spike, experts say awareness is vital – Most commonly found in California’s Central Valley and Arizona, Valley fever cases, which had been decreasing in recent years, are on the rise again. In 2014, California reported 2,243 infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By 2015, that number jumped to 3,053. Sacramento Bee article
Twice as many Valley stores sell tobacco and alcohol as fresh fruit, vegetables – Twice as many stores in the Central Valley sell flavored cigarettes and alcohol than sell fresh fruits and vegetables. That’s the finding of a new state health survey. Valley Public Radio report
Dogs sniffing out cancer warning signs in Modesto firefighters — Dalmatians are the iconic firehouse dogs, but it’s beagle-hound mixes that might end up saving some lives. The Modesto Fire Department is among more than 50 across the nation working with Canada-based CancerDogs to sniff out the disease through firefighter breath tests. Modesto Bee article
Kids Day donations total climbs to $377,000, and more yet to count – Valley Children’s Hospital is more than halfway to its goal of $625,000 of money raised Tuesday in Kids Day newspaper sales and donations, hospital spokeswoman Zara Arboleda said. The total as of Wednesday afternoon was $377,000, she said. Counting will resume Thursday morning. Fresno Bee article
Young cancer patient will be waiting when Tracy firefighter finish grueling fundraiser — Walking up 69 flights of stairs is going to be tough. Doing it while carrying 60 pounds of gear will make the climb that much harder. But for the three Tracy Fire Department members participating in the annual Scott Firefighter Stairclimb in Seattle on Sunday, each of the 1,311 steps they will take during the grueling exercise will be with a purpose. Stockton Record article
Land Use/Housing
The state’s housing crisis won’t be solved unless Californians embrace new home building, report says — The largest barrier to California resolving the state’s housing affordability crisis is Californians themselves, according to a new report from the state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst Office. LA Times article
Transportation
Survey: Most Americans afraid to ride in self-driving cars — While few Americans feel comfortable taking a backseat in a fully self-driving vehicle, many would like some of the less-automated bells and whistles in their next car, a survey found. San Francisco Chronicle article
Uber self-driving cars are coming back to California — Uber’s self-driving cars will return to California’s streets. But the company doesn’t plan to pick up passengers in them, at least for now. The California Department of Motor Vehicles said Wednesday that it has granted Uber permission to run two Volvo SUVs on public roads. LA Times article;
Other areas
Kevin Valine: Modesto responds to court’s email decision – Modesto will be reviewing and updating its public records policies now that the California Supreme Court has ruled government officials’ emails from their personal accounts are public records if they are about official business. The ruling from last week applies to text messages on private devices. Valine in Modesto Bee
Visalia ranked among happiest places in USA – Why live in San Francisco or Los Angeles when you could live in the Central Valley. After all, of all the places to live, the Visalia-Porterville area is ranked one of the happiest. Visalia Times-Delta article
Seeking racial equity, Oakland overhauls its cannabis laws — After nearly a year of disputes and delays in City Hall over a controversial set of cannabis ordinances, greener pastures may finally be ahead for Oakland. The City Council voted at midnight Tuesday to overhaul its first-in-the-nation laws passed in May that were meant to help the people hurt by the war on drugs get into the burgeoning cannabis industry — a form of reparations to groups whose marijuana use was heavily policed in recent decades. San Francisco Chronicle article
Valley Editorial Roundup
Fresno Bee – Trumpcare would fleece middle-aged people, punish women, strand the poor and lavish tax cuts on the rich if passed in its current form. The plan to gut the requirement that individuals carry insurance will almost certainly cause the health insurance market to collapse; Latest WikiLeaks dump raises questions about CIA and your privacy.
Merced Sun-Star – Republicans offer a health care insurance plan that only the wealthy will find a way to embrace.
Modesto Bee – – Republicans offer a health care insurance plan that only the wealthy will find a way to embrace.
Sacramento Bee – The WikiLeaks document dump on the CIA’s hacking division appears to be far more damaging to U.S. spying abroad than threatening to average Americans at home.
Stockton Record – This will sound hypocritical given the way his name has been screaming at readers from front-page headlines the past week. But here’s what Stockton needs to do: Move on from the turmoil that is the life of former Mayor Anthony Silva and lessen its impact on the community’s reputation and psyche. And do it pronto. Stat.